Steve Irwen died over the weekend, as many already know. Strangely enough, he didn't die from a crocodile or shark attack as many would have guessed he'd go down with, but rather from a seemingly harmless stingray. For those of you who don't know, stingrays are rather non-aggressive creatures that many everyday tourists will go to places like the Caymen Islands to swim with (myself included). Unfortunately, Steve was swimming over a bull stingray while filming a documentary on the Great Barrier Reef when the stingray's tail moved upwards, catching him in the chest. Reports say he did nothing to provoke the creature, but unfortunately he is now about the 17th person ever recorded as being killed by a stingray.

While he got allot of flack for stuff that he did, he never ceased to make me smile with his qwerkiness. Yes, he did lots of things that made me roll my eyes (and in some cases, made me want to yell, "STEVE! WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?!?!"), but I also tended to smile in the process

I never did get a chance to see the man in real life. I had hoped to do so when I went to his zoo back in 2003 (more of just the chance to brag that I had met a celebrity, I suppose). It was a very lovely zoo, and while it was smaller than I expected it was perhaps the cleanest and most well-kept zoo I had ever seen before.

I snapped this photo at his zoo of some guy wearing a croc suit holding hands with one of the zoo keepers. It made me smile back then and even in the midst of what happened it still makes me smile. I wasn't going to put it up originally, but now I kind of feel the need just as an attempt to make myself smile if anything else.

I pray that his family is able to make it through this ordeal. At least he died doing something he truly loved.