James Duke

Thanks Garrett! For a little guy, he's a real handful! lol We got him a friend today (a 2 week old chicken chick) so he's calmed down a little (he was really wound up and always trying to escape before). Thanks Roger! As of right now, we have 3. Two hens and the little one. The peahens are pretty quiet, though they'll honk once in awhile. The males are the loud ones lol. Not as bad as my two little bantam roo's though xD The only time they're quiet is when they're sleeping.

^^ Thanks a bunch. To be honest, when I first saw the cracks in the egg, I almost started crying cause I was so happy. Lucky just took his first steps a little bit ago too. It was sooo cute to watch.

I've been pretty busy this past month, what with taking care of my chickens and peacocks and all. One of the peacocks started laying eggs last month, so I've been incubating them. Well, I had one due to hatch at anytime, so I was busy getting things ready for the little one. Well, yesterday I was at an appointment and when I checked the eggs before I left, they were the same as usual. When I got home, roughly 2 1/2 hours later, I go to check them again, and to my surprise one of the eggs was cracked. Knowing a chick was due, I immediately announced it to everyone else. That was around 4-4:30 pm. And for the rest of the day and all night, we were up checking on the egg. Finally, after almost 13 hours, my first peachick was born at 12:47 am on 6-16-11. We named the little one Lucky. So now he's comfy living in a 20 gal aquarium with a stuffed monkey to sleep with and a washcloth to sleep under. And here he is, baby Lucky.

I'm positive now it was a satellite I saw the other night. It was a constant light that faded as it got further away. And it moved in a straight line. But I'll never forget the first time I thought I saw a satellite passing by, but it turned into a mystery object. It was winter of 2000. I was only 10 when I saw it. It was the weekend and I was staying the night at my grandma's house. My mom, dad, brother, sister, cousins and aunt were there too because we had all eaten dinner there and my oldest cousin was staying the night with me. My dad went outside to his car for something, so I went with him. It was a clear night with a full moon and being in the middle of winter, I decided to get a look at the sky while it was still clear. My grandma lived out in the country, so the stars and all were really visible. As I watched the moon, I noticed something off to the left side, moving slowly. I started watching it and the next thing I know, it started to zig-zag and speed off and stop instantly, then go the other direction and do it over. After about 5 minutes, it went towards the moon and disappeared. The next night, after I'd gotten back home (we used to live out in the country as well), I went outside and looked at the stars again since we had gotten lucky and had two nights of no clouds. And that's when I saw it again. It was in the same area as the night before and did exactly the same thing as before. After that night, I never saw it again. But a person we knew at the time, said he'd seen the exact same thing in Croton (it's a small village roughly 10-15 minutes from the tiny town of Appleton, where I lived) the same night I saw it the second time. Then there was a more recent one that occurred last winter, but that one I think might've been an optical illusion. There were a lot of clouds that night and it made it seem like stars were moving when they weren't. I love watching meteor showers. But seems like everytime I want to see one, it's cloudy that night. Or it's too cold to stay outside more than a few minutes. As for the software I use, I use Photoshop. With the space pics, I used a trial version of Photoshop CS3. Normally though, I use Photoshop Elements 2. I like CS3 a lot better though. More tools and options to do more stuff. When my trial ends, I plan to try out the newest one, CS5. If I had the money *cough$680cough*, I'd buy it. I highly recommend it anyone wanting to do digital art ^^ Tablets come in very handy too, but I'm now short of one. *mumbles something about irritating little brothers*

Sounds sweet, I'll go check it out and see if I can find it =3 I was outside earlier and saw a satellite go by. I was watching this jet fly over head when I saw something else moving, so I started watching it. It didn't zigzag, stop suddenly or change direction, so I concluded it was a satellite lol.

Astronomy is my favorite hobby, ranking right up there with raising birds. I like to watch the stars and imagine if one of them has any planets like Earth. I honestly don't think we're the only life in the universe, intelligent or not. What are the odds of there only being one planet in the entire universe with life? xD My telescope was a really good one. I forget the brand name it was, but it had a small motor to rotate and adjust the angle. My brother used it once and broke the lens. But I still go out when I can and watch the sky, just to see if I can see a passing satellite or the ISS or even something I can't explain (happened a few times already). But to make up for the lack of a telescope, I like to watch this show called The Universe.

Astronomy is my favorite hobby, ranking right up there with raising birds. My telescope was a really good one. I forget the brand name it was, but it had a small motor to rotate and adjust the angle. My brother used it once and broke the lens. But I still go out when I can and watch the sky, just to see if I can see a passing satellite or the ISS or even something I can't explain (happened a few times already). But to make up for the lack of a telescope, I like to watch this show called The Universe.

^^ Glad you like them. I'm gonna attempt my first 'on the ground' view from the double ringed planet here soon. Just gotta find a tutorial on creating realistic landscapes first xD

My very first nebula. I like this one, yet I don't. The colors are great, but I think there aren't quite enough stars. I may fix it later. My very first attempt at a ringed planet. There's definitely a lot of improvement between this one and my most recent one.

Here are some new pictures I've been working on. I've been doing mostly space pics lately, mostly planets. They're not as easy to make as they look lol. This was my second attempt at doing rings. I like how it came out, but the rings bug me. It's also the first attempt at multiple moons. This is my most recent planet. It's my favorite so far. It's got only 2 moons, it's very similar to Earth, and its rings "glow", when really it's just light being reflected off the tiny dust and ice particles and water orbiting the planet. There are also larger chunks of rock and debris, most of which are small, but some can be as large as a small car. The atmosphere of the planet helps to reflect the light, which also gives the rings their blue color. It's similar to how the atmosphere here on Earth makes the sky look blue during the day. This one will likely have a bunch of facts to go with it later. This is my third attempt at a nebula. They're a lot of fun to make. There's no end to what they can look like and what colors they can be ^^ Even if they're not realistic colors, it's still fun to do. My second attempt at a nebula.

Thanks Hoss Yeah, a tablet is very handy. But my brat brother broke the pen, so until I get the money, I'm back to using pencil and paper XP At first I was really bad with using the tablet, so nothing I drew came out even half way decent. But after awhile, I started to get better and tada! Some of what you saw came out lol. The program I use is ancient. It's Photoshop Elements 2. It's not as good as the CS versions, but it's good enough to get the job done.

My blue budgie is male and roughly 6 months old. The green one is female and she's about 4 months old. Only ones laying any eggs as of right now, are the hens. Fresh eggs without all the drugs egg farmers give the hens. Imo, eggs from home taste better than store bought eggs.

Awww I'm sorry to hear about your loss I almost lost Kiwi last month due to an unsafe toy. He's back to normal now though, which I'm very glad about. Your budgie was very pretty. One of my iguanas I had, died from cancer. Iggy was 3 when he died. I was devastated when I lost him. As of right now, I no longer have any lizards, though when I get some extra spending money, I might get another iguana. If I can find a healthy young one. I have two budgies, a blue and green, two cockatiels, grey and pearl, an orange winged amazon (she's a feather chewer and I'm working on trying to get her to stop), 10 chickens, a peacock and a chinese pheasent and of course Kiwi. I love them all like they were my kids ^^ Even the chickens lol.

Here's a few more I've done. Johnny 5 from Short Circuit and Short Circuit 2 ^^ A photo manipulation I did. It's my first one actually lol. It's supposed to be a floating island above the clouds. The black dots are birds in the background. Kiwi again ^^ He's rubbing his beak on his perch here. A pic of Kiwi I drew. He wouldn't hold still, so he didn't make a great model for it XD

Here's some pics I've made and taken. All but one were done last year. This is my buddy, Kiwi. He's a 2 year old Nanday Conure. I swear this little guy can hold a conversation lol. His favorite things to say are "Hello", "Yo", "Yeah", "Okay", "Why?" and "Lexas" (that's one of our dogs). I love him to death and wouldn't trade him for the world ^.^ This is a pic of my character, Gabriel (Gabry for short). Back when I had my drawing tablet (up until last month XP), I did pics like this. This is another pic of my character, Gabry. I really like this one. This is a pic of a wasp I took last spring in my backyard. It's sitting on a closed peony.

Here's my tombstone

Coy looked up at Daisy with a big grin, then jumped up and hugged her.

James frowned at Luke. "I'm not a dork!"

James looked up at Daisy, watching her curiously. "How come she looks sad Unca Jesse?"

James laughed at that and got up. "You got that right, Uncle Jesse!"

James snickered. "You always get caught doing things your not supposed too."

Bo was watching the doorway, waiting for them to come back in. When Jesse walked in, he smiled.

Bo smiled back and nodded. "Sounds like a plan to me. And $5 says I'll catch the biggest fish and $10 says I'll catch the most."

"Sorry Uncle Jesse. Bo was yakking away, so I didn't get a chance to say anything." James said with a chuckle.

"Well cousin, its a little thing called love. From the looks of things, the love bug found ya and bit ya." Bo chuckled. "And here I always thought you were the smart one."