32yo Xavier Blaze apparently used his baby Ball Python to threaten Police as they tried question him about noise at his home. They report that he had it around his neck and waved it in their faces. Base, a former solder has a history of mental illness for which he is seeking help for. Sentencing has been delayed until next month. I wander if the Python will get probation, what do you think?
Today would have to be one of the best day in recent memory. I got a few projects wrapped up that will be released to the public this next week. I did a lot of thinking today and it amazed me at what it takes to do this kind of thing. You have to be an expert in reptiles, computers, networking, filming, editing, weather, media, public relations, education. You have to be quick witted yet slow and concise at the same time. Its just amazing what it takes when you sit down and think about it.
Dealing with animals in a filming environment is a whole other story. Over the past few weeks I have been doing it quit a bit. Not like I use to but this time for professional quality productions. I cant believe how long it takes to get one shot. Snakes don’t do what they are told, they don’t hold a position so you can get a shot. Filming animals is probably one of the hardest things I have ever done but super rewarding and I look forward to doing is as much more as I can. You guys are going to love some of this stuff coming out over the next week.
At about 6.30pm (AEST) yesterday it was reported that a man swimming in Beening Creek when he was attacked by a Crocodile and fending off the Croc by punching it in the head. He sustained wounds to his hand and wrist that were not life threatening according to police. The Department of Environment and Resource Management is currently investigating.
Animal Control Officer Rich DuBarton was fired Friday for releasing pictures and the video you see above to the media. “I guess he didn’t like someone stealing his thunder,” Said DuBarton about the incident. He was yelled at over the phone for releasing the picture and then on Friday received a termination letter listing no reason for the termination. He also claims that Carol Wagner director of the Health dept told officers last year not to warn resident about 5 cases of rabies. DuBarton also said “I’m an animal control officer,” DuBarton said. “I’m supposed to educate the public. No one ever told me I wasn’t allowed to.” He is also a certified police K9 instructor and Animal Control Officer for Bergen County.
Ok so here is the blog post some have been waiting for. It all started last night. I was up half the night editing, I wanted to make today’s show perfect because to me it was a big deal. After editing and doing some more work I decided to write my semi-nightly blog. The blog was to talk about the mission of DRN, the success It has had and what the future holds. I got through the first part and just passed out,
I got up at 4AM and uploaded it, as soon as the show was uploaded I got a notification from youtube for a WGM copy write. This kinda annoyed me but was no problem. I have all the rights to the music so I filed a dispute on the claim. The video was ready to go. I started having a talk with a friend of mine, He has been helping me a lot with this project. I must admit something caught my attention and that was “When YouTube watches the video to determine the dispute, will they have a problem of the suggestive photos in it?” Not only that but in talking to my friend we determined that doing a video like this went completely agenst the DRN mission statement. Its no different than putting a cigarette commercial in a cartoon.
Because of that I just removed the video. I risked having my account suspended if YouTube had a problem with it and I am glad I realized how I was straying from the plan. I know this decision is going to hurt DRN, I know I will lose viewers but effective immediately the Herps and Chicks segment is canceled. I thank all the beautiful women that submitted photos, you are all awesome but I am sure you can see where the conflict of interest is here. One of the #1 goals of what I am doing is for hobby and community promotion, I am huge on showing kids the right way to do what so many of us are doing wrong today and I can only imagine a child’s parents walking into the room during today’s show. To be honest I would have flipped if I saw my kid watching today’s show. I still want to do something along the lines of the H&C segment but first need to plan it in a more PG fashion. OMG I also need to change the name.
Dont stop reading yet, there is more to say. One other thing came to light and that is what I am doing and am not doing. I am working to promote the hobby, community and industry. This is not done by ONLY focusing on current events so from here on out you will not only see your DRN on its new 3 day per week schedule but as I said in another blog you will start seeing a lot of other herp related videos as well show up on the channel. Again, I know this will be met with anger from some but when it comes down to it I am working for one goal and anyone who dose not like it can stop watching it. I love every viewer that has ever watched but the last thing I want to do is annoy someone for any reason.
Last but not least lets talk about quality and scheduling. As far as the daily schedule I am tossing it out the window. The show will be posted as reasonable sometime during the day. I am doing this to counter problems like I had today where the video was flagged 3 hours before it went public. I will try to get them out ASAP but if for some reason I cant then I will NO longer sweat it and simply will get it out as soon as the force that stops me will allow it. Lastly is quality, there have been some quality issues, if you remember, yesterdays video was out of focus fairly bad. I noticed this in editing but did not have time to redo it so I went ahead and put it out there. This will never happen again. If there is a quality problem I will always from here on out redo it until the quality is up and above industry expectations to the best of my ability. This means that every now and then there may be a delay is getting it up if I have to reedit and re film it all.
I greatly hope that everyone understand the gravity of the situation and realizes why I made each of these decisions. The bottom line is I was greatly swaying of course of my mission plan, I am simply putting DRN back on course of what it was designed to do. As you all know I am available via FaceBook or Twitter nearly all the time or via email. If you want to discuss these decisions further please dont hesitate to drop me a line.
The state of Florida is set to cut funding for there Alligator meat marketing program in an effort to close a rather large budget gap. The Alligator programs main goal was “determining distribution channels for sales of alligator products,” and helping Florida alligator farmers compete on the international market.
At 0620GMT a fire alarm alerted a family to a small fire in there home. Their pet snake had knocked a heat light down lighting the enclosure as well as the table it was sitting on fire. Fire fighters got the fire out using buckets of water. In the chaos the snake got out and was uninjured.
