DorkbotPDX people doing strange things with electricity

For dorkbotpdx last night, I made this little toy:

It's an 8x8 red+green LED Matrix, driven by two shift registers and a Bare Bones Board Freeduino by Modern Device Company.

I recently acquired a tri-color LED Matrix display from SparkFun.

I bought it "bare" (with no controller), for the challenge of setting it up, and I'm finally getting around to doing it.

In order to encourage us to play with electronics more, JWA and I have begun doing monthly challenges. For our inaugural challenge, we decided upon an LED Birthday Candle. This is my entry to that challenge.