The Daily Render

A Digital Scrapbook for the Past, Present, and Future

Freeing a Mourning Dove from a glass vase
|| 5/18/2011 || 9:10 pm || + Render A Comment || ||

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This morning when I went to my backyard I noticed the glass vase moving around on the ground. Upon seeing that it was actually a Mourning Dove stuck in a glass vase, I quickly ran upstairs and got my camera so I could film my attempt at freeing the stuck bird….

The Empty Trashcan Rat Trap
|| 5/1/2011 || 2:21 pm || + Render A Comment || ||

Photograph of a gnawed hole in my trashcan

One night I was in my backyard and I heard the sound of a rat stuck inside one of the empty trashcans. Every few moments the poor rat would try to jump out of the trashcan, but it couldn’t grasp the small hole at the top of the trashcan, and would land back at the bottom of the trashcan. By morning it would die of exhaustion and/or starvation.

For a moment I thought this was the ultimate rat trap, but a week later I was saddened to see a different rat jump out of the can after some trash had been placed inside of it. The trap only worked if the trashcan was empty. To my dismay, a few nights later I a saw an even larger rat jump out of the empty trashcan and I realized that some type of cage would be needed to hold the rat within the trap.

Photograph of a gnawed hole in my trashcan with the chicken wire cage

Using some extra chicken wire and a little bit of string, I’ve caught 3 rats using this trap. The trick is to keep the trash can empty of waste (decoy!) and leave the caging on top of the trashcan near the hole. If I hear a rat inside the bin, I quickly put the cage on and tie it down. Oh, rats!

Photographs of a Ladybug in the garden
|| 4/25/2011 || 12:05 pm || + Render A Comment || ||

Photograph of a Lady Bug in the garden

I spotted this little ladybug crawling through the Rose of Sharon bush the other day. I wish there were more ladybugs so they’d eat all the aphids I know will be coming to the garden later this year.

Bringing your baby hedgehog to the neighborhood dive bar?
|| 3/6/2011 || 3:58 pm || + Render A Comment || ||

Photograph of a baby hedgehog at a bar in Washington, DC

I was at a bar in Mount Pleasant with my friend and a lady brought her baby hedgehog to the bar. I’m not sure if that was a wise move…

Advertisement for the Barnum and London Circus in Athletic Park, Washington, DC – The National Republican, May 3rd, 1884
|| 3/19/2010 || 10:55 am || 2 Comments Rendered || ||

Over the years I’ve attempted to document bits and pieces of my neighborhood’s 100+ year history on this digital scrapbook. From a bird’s eye view of my neighborhood in 1885 to a map of my neighborhood in 1921, I’ve tried to learn as much about where I’ve been living as possible. Its hard not to when you realize that long after we are gone, the houses in this neighborhood will probably still remain.

The educational starting point was this article about my neighborhood history, which I pretty much copied in my first entry, and now that I have access to the thousands upon thousands of newspaper articles that were published around the time of the neighborhood’s development, I’m able to find some rather new and unique facets of my neighborhood’s history.

In time, I hope more old newspapers come on-line that show what happened on the land prior to 1884, but in the meantime, I’ll post more unique items that I find.

YouTube Video: Last Weekend in 25 Video Clips
|| 8/5/2009 || 12:39 pm || 1 Comment Rendered || ||

I made this YouTube video yesterday evening after I downloaded all the photos and video I took from last weekend’s excursion to the to the Shenandoah mountains. The 25 video clips are played in sequential order, starting with me getting into my friend’s vegetable oil-powered Mercedes Benz, driving out of Washington, DC, driving through the country, seeing a spider eat a moth, lights projected on trees, a spider with eggs crawling through the grass, chasing a butterfly among lilies (probably my favorite scene), insects devouring a large dragonfly, a few clips of the band Stripmall Ballads performing, caterpillar at night, lightrope on a rock, an American Goldfinch bathing in a creek in the middle of the road, and driving back home.

All in all, I had a great time. I just wish I still wasn’t tired from hiking up and down the length of the property!

World Wildlife Fund’s Zoomorphic Fantasy Maps
|| 3/27/2009 || 1:25 pm || 1 Comment Rendered || ||

Click to view full-size image

I came across these zoomorphic fantasy maps a few weeks ago and smiled. They brought back fond memories of when I was in second grade and used to draw large futuristic cities during my free time in school. I prefer to think that those sketches were the visual result of the influence that Sim City had on me back then.

These black & white bird’s eye view sketches show an elephant (above), rhinoceros (below), and sea turtle (below) all include the text of the campaign: “Our life at the cost of theirs?” The aim of this campaign is to frame the encroachment of urban life within the scope of contemporary degradation of the natural ecosystems these animals live in. By drawing these imaginative urban areas within the outlines of the endangered animals, the artists present a poignant perspective of whether our urban societies can sustain their current growth without damaging the animal’s fragile habitat.

Since the original images are larger than the formatting I use here, I have shrunk them down for layout purposes. By clicking on the images, you can see them in full-size.

CITATION
Advertising Agency: Ogilvy & Mather, Mumbai, India
Executive Creative Director: Piyush Pandey
Creative Director: Sumanto Chattopadhyay
Art Directors: Mayur varma, Mandar Wairkar
Illustrators: Swapnil Nilkanth, Nishikant Palande
Copywriters: Sumanto Chattopadhyay, Karn Singh, Mandar Wairkar
[VIA Ads of the World]

View the other fantasy maps:

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Birds of Colorado: The Stellar’s Jay
|| 12/30/2008 || 3:48 pm || Comments Off on Birds of Colorado: The Stellar’s Jay || ||

Today I am flying back to Washington, DC, so I am going to post some pictures of the birds I saw when I was in Colorado. This third and final photographic installment is the Stellar’s Jay. I saw this guy eating tourist’s food at the edge of Bear Lake. They are named after naturalist Georg Wilhelm Steller and are probably one of my favorite alpine birds because of their beautiful blue feathers.

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Birds of Colorado: The Hairy Woodpecker
|| || 12:43 pm || Comments Off on Birds of Colorado: The Hairy Woodpecker || ||

Today I am flying back to Washington, DC, so I am going to post some pictures of the birds I saw when I was in Colorado. This second photographic installment is the Hairy Woodpecker. I saw this guy from the deck of the cabin. I believe I saw this same specie about three weeks ago in Washington, DC. It was tapping on the dead tree in the backyard of the house three doors down from where I live.

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Birds of Colorado: The Pine Siskin
|| || 11:34 am || Comments Off on Birds of Colorado: The Pine Siskin || ||

Today I am flying back to Washington, DC, so I am going to post some pictures of the birds I saw when I was in Colorado. This first photographic installment is the small finch known as the Pine Siskin. I saw these tiny finches constantly feeding on the deck of the cabin. They remind me of the common sparrow, except they have little yellow fellows and a brown & white spotted breast.

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Nikolas Schiller is a second-class American citizen living in America's last colony, Washington, DC. This blog is my on-line repository of what I have created or found on-line since May of 2004. If you have any questions or comments, please contact: