I have started over on Mass Effect 2 since I still feel the urge to play a game that will give me satisfaction. The ending for ME2 is excellent provided you do everything right while you play the missions. I made a decent Cope in this. The hair they had wasn't too bad.



From the Front. Notice this background is a Colonist that lost his family. Sound familiar? And a Sole Survivor on a mission that went terribly wrong. Also sounds like Cope's true background. The poor kid has suffered a lot but it made him tougher. His training is as an engineer so his powers are for tech like hacking, combat drone, pistols and sub machine guns. All of which fits Cope rather nicely.



No scraggly hair allowed in the millitary so this is the closest I had to work with. I wish he had glasses too but his eyes are kind of right to how he looks without glasses. Owen looked better of course. More like himself and since his glasses were very small anyway it wasn't too hard to get used to him without them. But Cope's glasses are basically part of his face. Too bad. I'm guessing eye problems are all cured in the future. Because I'm starting over with 2 some choices were made for me that I wouldn't have made myself. Hopfully Wrex is still alive in this. I REALLY REALLY don't want to play ME1 again just to make those choices. Some of the missions in ME1 were down right frustrating and too hard. But it's nice to be playing this again.

I had a great idea about the highland house today to make it even easier! Why not instead of building a frame inside the patio (having a greenhouse in the house) just put the paneling outside? Take down the screens and replace with corugated panels? At first I was worried this would block visibility. I like looking out at the chickens and bird feeders. But I have now seen greenhouses made with this stuff and dispite it being wavy you can still see through it! So that will save tons of money. So the next order of business is to get an AC window unit. I'm very excited. And as for the PVC pipes and connectors I have been buying I can still use them. I still want to build an outdoor structure with screen just for tomatoes. So it wasn't money wasted. I'm hoping I can get a good deal on Craig's List for a fairly new well working AC. Wish me luck on that.

As for the art, I've made progress on it but for some reason I just haven't been able to concentrate on it. I hope I can work on it some today but I don't really feel like it. It's raining and it's a bit of a lazy day. Although I've done a quite a bit. I got most of the mess cleaned up in the kitchen from the leak we had and I got the master bathroom cleaned up. I need to put up window clings for the 4th of July.
.

It's amazing how many fans are pissed about the ending of Mass Effect 3. I heard a rumor that they are trying to raise seventy thousand dollars to give to the company to redo the ending. That's insane. I didn't like it but that's just rediculous. Ha, they don't have to do anything. They could go, "Thanks for the money kid. Oh and the answer is No." But who knows how true that is. Still I thought it was rather funny. It sucks that the games I was most looking forward to this year have completely let me down and the game that wasn't even going to be for me (Skyrim) ended up being my favorite. I do keep comparing ME3 to Skyrim and as far as structure Skyrim had better stuff. For one I loved how in Skyrim you could select a mission in your journal and then you knew where to go because a cursor would appear on your map. If you found a quest item your journal would update and you knew you had this item. It was in your inventory. In ME3 it's vauge. You don't know that what you found is for someone, you journal doesn't update and everything is vuage. You might have found something and then you don't know who to give it too and if you know who you don't know where. I HATED that. So annoying. Chris is playing now and it's nice to watch though because he makes very different choices than I do. It's too bad I still can't talk to him about some of the stuff that happened. Not yet anyway.

Yesterday I started work on the next dino frame of my story board. This is the last red sky piece. Woo hoo! It's really coming along nicely. I'm hoping this one will rival my Centrosaurus one which I think is my best one and I kinda lost some steam on the others. So the next scene is a pond one and I'm not sure how to make some of the plants yet. I do have some palm tree brushes that will help but I need to figure out the effects still. Should be fun. The water fall scene after that I'm more worried about. So perhaps I'll finish that today.

Yesterday I repoted the mini orchids I rescued from Lowe's. I made my own orchid mix and like this for phals.
* 2 parts orchid bark, 1 part perlite and 1 part long fiber sphagnum moss

I also like this nepenthes formula for highland nepenthes that like an airy mix. This is good for things like truncata.
* 1 part long fiber sphagnum, 1 part perlite, 1 part orchid bark or coconut chunks and 1/2 peat

And today I'm going to try this one as a mix for lowlanders like my bicalcarata. Lowland mix
* 1 part sphagnum, 1 part perlite and 2 parts peat
.

Real quick (hopefully) I want to talk about an idiot on the dino toy forum. I hate the unrealistic mentality of equality. A girl (at least I think it is. Not that it matters) named grptopceratops or something like that made the dumb comment on my dino art thread that everyone has their own unique style. No, they do not. Most art looks the same actually and to say that everyone is unique means that no one is which is plain stupid. Guess what? There are expectional people out there. Deal with it. People that are exceptional and stand out from the rest are the unique ones and they are the ones that get jobs and go on to get noticed by the public. Everyone else falls by the way side and is forgotten. That's life. That's natural selection even. Don't cuddle the losers to make them feel better. They need to do something else if they have any talents at all. This all started when I told her my art is unique and I stand out from others because yeah I know my art doesn't look like anything out there. I know this because total strangers have told me this several times. You can't always trust what friends and family say because many of them aren't objective and will say you're good even when you're not. But I for one know because I know and two not only do those close to say this but again total strangers I have never met. Confirmation in you're face. So I told her to get off my thread. I don't need her there anyway, not for her compliments and even less for any criticism. Everything she says now is questionable anyway. Besides her art is not exceptional.

Now that that's out of the way. About Mass Effect 3. I used to do this one the square board. It's a spoiler box. So highlight the text to read this. Unfortuantely none of you will know what I'm talking about so bear with me while I rant why I'm disapointed with this game.

The game went bad when I lost one of my favorite characters Mordin the Salarian. This was because in part 2 I made the decision to destroy the research of his student to cure the genophage disease. Now we need a cure to help unify all the races of the galaxy and he was the only one that could do this. So to get the lost info he had to go into a tower that would be destroyed. No return. I couldn't stop him or talk him out of it. I wonder if he would have survived had I chosen differently in part 2. But because it was a cinema it was scripted and I couldn't stop him. I had the feeling that more stuff like this would happen. I don't like that as it wasn't like this before. Mordin was cute, brilliant and kind of like Cope. Very fast talker too. So that REALLY sucked and that was half way through the game. I wanted to romance all the girls this time like I did last time. But I went too far with Liara and it got serious. When Tali finally returned we had a chat and my two dialog options were to say, "Sorry" or "We had a good time." WHAT? No, I actually wanted Tali to be my girlfriend. Why wasn't there an "I'll dump Liara" option? So I missed out on the girl I really wanted. And what's funny is that in a way I've been faithful to Liara since part 1. There were only two girls to chose from in part one and it was not contest. Liara was better than the other one whom I sent to her death anyway because I couldn't stand her. Shepherd (the main guy. Owen basically. I'll just call him Owen from now on since that is the name I gave him) kept having these stupid dreams about chasing a kid through the woods but going so slow you could never catch up and hearing the voices of those that had died. Sounds like he was starting to lose his mind about those he'd lost. Sigh. Stupid dreams. The only thing I liked was that yes this would mess up an extrovert a lot more than an introvert. Well in part it was good that Tali didn't end up being my girlfriend because what happened next was both funny and bad and I wonder if Owen would have lost it. Tali's species are called Quarians. They created robots named Geth that became bad guys and an enemy to the other races. In part 2 Owen met a friendly Geth named Legion that I really liked. Favorite character actually. They helped the Geth stop working with the Reapers which are the true enemies that were destroying everything. So Geth aren't bad anymore, but Quarians still hate them and fear them because they are bigotted that way and jerks. I had to chose to make them into a species so they'd be individuals to make their own choices or kill them all off. Letting them become individuals would mean they'd destroy the Quarians because they were attacked after having lived quietly on their planet. Or have the Quariams kill them instead. So I chose to let the Geth become individuals because I like Geth better than Quarians anyway and Legion's awesome. So the whole quarian species is destroyed. Genocide. I found this rather amusing. But I knew Tali would take it bad. She jumped off a cliff. NO!! What's worse is I got the option to save here. I got a little parago icon come up on the left and you're supposed to hit the left button in time. Well I did, but it didn't work. Owen leaped after her but missed and she died. WTF? They why give me the option to save her? And to make it worse Legion died because the code to save the Geth was in him and there was no other way. So I lost both Tali and Legion. No no no!!!! My next thought was, "Well at least I still have Liara. Damn it!" Then at the very end it was very grim. Now you guys know I like that. And Owen got REALLY REALLY hurt which I also like. But I was given two choices. I could control the reapers and save artificial life and organic life or destroy all artifical life even my Geth friends and other robot buddies I had made and only save the organic life forms. Oh and the catch is no matter what you chose you die. WHAT? No!!! I did both endings just to see what they were like. Sucked sucked sucked. Owen came back from the dead, why kill him. I should have killed just the repears forever. The end. They said that artificial life always turns on organic so they destroy the most advanced races. But the fact we made friends with the Geth disproved that. And after sitting through the long credits no matter what you picked you see the shadow of a grandpa telling his grandson the story of Shepherd and how he saved everyone. Lame! I also didn't like the cameos. Like I said before it was about recruiting and I had a HUGE team for the final battle. Where the Racni giant insects that were supposed to help us? Why didn't the Krogen have ships? Zaheed and Kazumi were supposed to bring help. Where were they? And Jacob and a bunch of others that I talked to on the hologram com that didn't show up to help. They should have been on my ship as my team. Hell there were even empty rooms on my ship from the rooms they occupied in the last game. Oh and despite which of the two endings you pick, all the mass relays get destroyed so no more traveling across the galaxy for anyone. Well doesn't that suck? Destroy the name sake of the game and almost put everyone back into the stone age, relatively speaking. You know what sucks about that? No more mass relays means all the species in the Galaxy are stuck in the Sol system. There's no more food left on Earth they're all going to kill each other to survive. So even if you choose to save the organics they're all doomed anyway. Great way to be a hero. Perhaps this is what the reapers wanted all along. We do the job for them through canibalism. So there it is. I'm pissed they went and ruined a great story.

The fridge started leaking after I finished gaming and made that previous post. I walked in the kitchen and heard hissing. I was hoping it was the fish tank but knew better than that. The water line to the ice machine had sprunt a hole and water was pouring out. This reminded me of the leak we had on Thanksgiving. It seemed too soon like I'd already gone through this. I managed to pull the fridge out, because I wasn't strong enough to turn the little valve under the sink to turn off the water to the fridge, and taped up the hose with duct tape and put a buckt under it and empty the bucket every so often. I called Chris and he got here before the plumber. Luckily we didn't need the plumber because he was strong enough to turn off the valve. Then we had to clean up the mess.

Funny enough I told him I was more upset about the game than the flood in the kitchen. The leak was just an annoyance really.
.

I'm doing better today. My back still hurts but I'm up and doing some things again at least. I have been playing Mass Effect 3 a lot and I think I may beat it today. I'd love to talk about what's happened and how my game hasn't gone exactly as I would have liked (lost some of my favorite poeple) but I can't say anything yet because Chris doesn't want any spoilers and once I'm done it's his turn to play. Although I'm already thinking of second play through. It's very rare that I play a game through twice let alone beat it twice. In fact I can't remember a game where I've completed the second play through despite knowing exactly what to do or not to do. Second play throughs are great too because you've earned the right to cheat and I allow myself to look at the books to see what are the best choices to make. There have been some great cinemas of Owen as well. I want to record them so I can take pics. But I have to set up the DVD recorder for that. Also I'm wondering if I could create Cope in this and play through as a good guy with Paragon points instead of renegade. Hehe, I know it will be harder for me to make those paragon choices in conversations because I like being a jerk and not taking stuff from anyone.

If I did play as Cope I'd start a new game on Mass Effect 2 provided I could create him. Mass Effect 1 had a great story and introduced you to important characters but gosh it also had some really annoying missions I just don't have the patience for. So if I even go that far I think ME2 is the way to go. I'm amazed how the character of Commander Shepherd if you choose the renegade options is so spot on for Owen. I even like his voice. If I made a movie and couldn't get that ideal high pitched snotty voice for him I'd like to have the voice actor for Mass Effect play Owen. So provided I could even make Cope it would be odd hearing him with Owen's voice. OH! Plus I'd probably have him be a biotic instead of an infiltrator. Cope wouldn't have fire powers after all, but he'd have more sci-fi water like or magic like powers if he had to have powers. Other wise I'll just play him as a guns character because that's what he is. He's all about fancy ray guns.

Another thing that's very different in this game from the last that I had to get used to is this is not about recruitment. The other game you had to find all your team members and then do missions for them to gain their loyalty. I loved that actually and was expecting more of the same. When I ran into old friends I would ask them to join me again and was shocked when several said no. WTF? So it's more of they have cameos in this game and I suspect they won't come around until the final battle. I actually don't like that and I LOVED having my giant team in ME2. When I went to pick my two partners for each mission I loved mixing it up and having so many people to chose from, then after the mission going through the whole ship and talking to everyone about what just happened and hearing their take on it. This is what I mean that when I play games I'm actually very extroverted. I love the social aspect of games and so does Owen. Though I think I become more ENTP when I play, just like when I've had too much caffeine. I wish there was a place to upload your Commander Shepherd and they would make a custom figure of him for you. I'd buy one for sure. That would be so cool.

So changing gears. I'm on the look out for the Papo Zorro figures that were based on the Disney black and white show. I think it came out in the 50's. Chris and I have been watching it again. There are four figures I really want. There's Zorro with a sword, Zorro with a whip, Zorro's horse Tornado and Sargent Garcia. Garcia is the comic relife on the show. But they're near impossible to find in the US. It's too bad an American show is more popular in Europe. So I started to search European stores. I found some and the figures were decently priced but the shipping is rediculous. But I've been asking around and there's hope. Remember the baby T-rexes I got from Germany? The person there is very nice. I asked them if they could get since they seem to order from Papo directly. Also Papo still has those figures listed. They said they could and I've been amazed that no matter how many figures you order from them on Ebay shipping is only $5!! No matter how big the figure. Now that rocks. So I can't wait for their next order to come in. She ordered more T-rexes too because I do want to get more as well. This is very exciting.

So hopefully today will be my last day in bed.
Eh, ok too many of these positive emotions look the same. I'm going to have to do something about that. All the ones for Happy, Chipper, Pleased etc are this raven with his wing going up. It's like I always use the same one. I'd like to see something different.

Edit: I just beat the game and saw both endings. I didn't like either. I'm actually disapointed with the endings and it's turned me off of the game. No I will not be replaying as Cope starting on ME2. Forget what I said. I don't think having made different choices would change the endings all that much anyway. What a disapointment. It's not the journey bu the destination and the destinations sucked.
Edit:Edit: Ok I have to admit, I'm rather grumpy now. Grrr. See? This is one of those rare things where NT's get emotionally involved.
.

I'm behind on posting pics of my pigeons. They are basically grown up now and it's so awesome that the budgie that was in with them adopted them right away and sits on them though they are so much bigger than her. I never expected that to happen. Here are pics from a few weeks ago.



Youngest pigeon.



Older pigeon.

( More pigeon pics )
.

Dear Ebay,
Stop showing me wonderful suggestions for ceramic vintage budgie figures on your front page. I keep adding them to my Watch List and can't aford to buy them all and just end up stressing over them and wanting them really badly. So please stop. It's pleasure and pain at the same time. Thanks.

Des

I want to be rich.
I had a good day yesterday. Trying to get the gumption up to tackle the next scene for my dino storyboard. My mind is coming up with new ideas to add. Hehe I'm nuts. I have more than enough work as it is with what I have going right now that to make this movie any longer than it already is. But it's a cool action packed scene. May-be when I'm done with it. If I stay dedicated to this and keep up the speed that I have now on it I think I may be completely done with it in a year or a year and a half. It is a lot of work and over whelming when I think about it. I wish I had some help like a small staff. But I see the finished product so clearly. I need to remember to not ignore my other projects though. I need to work on my Thagirion Realm art as well. The Work Fight pic is almost done in the inking process. And there's a nepenthes I was making that needs to get done too. Not to mention I want to do a scene with Wing Claw as his first official appearance and I'd like to try a new art style of digital painting to make him look kind of realistic. I suck at real painting so I probably won't be able to do it.

There are five baby bluebirds in my nest box. I took pics and will put them up...eventually. We went to Wal-mart yesterday and had fun. Chris got me two pairs of cheap flip flops. One was a men's pair to use outside as garden shoes. The reason it because I always steal his pair. He's a size 12 mens. I'm a size 8 women's which is the same as a size 6 mens. So I'm running around the garden with these giant shoes that are so comfy. And he can't find his to join me hehe. So now I have my own. We couldn't find a men's 6 though so we got me a 7. My toes stick out the front though which I don't like. With this because they're so long I hadn't realized that's why they fit well even though they were long and wide. Perhaps I should have gotten an 8 or a 9. I didn't think about that. He also got me these cool black and pink 80's style flip flops because they were so bright. It's funny because he found them and called me over. "Look how cool these are!" They're the same shape as the ones he got me four years ago. See them HERE. But they changed the design on the inside. So here are my new ones.



Mine still work so I put these in storage and will wear them once my current ones are destroyed. They're not there yet and these are so bright and pretty I didn't want them getting dirty already. I also put them on photobucket and not fickr becasue I don't want them getting tons of views and becoming my most scene pic of all time. I like having some control over what people see. I'd rather they look at more what I want them to see. I once put in a description that I was wearing flip flops on a pic and it started getting hits because of that key word "flip flops" and not what it was really about. So I removed it from the search. I can imagine what it would be like if I actually put up pics of real flip flops.

So today is a day off. I don't know what we will do yet. My back on the left side has been acting up. But hopfully some much needed cleaning and perhaps going out somewhere fun. I'm very much looking forward to spending time with Chris. Oh and every night we've been watching Disney's Zorro again. I love that show. Was a big park of my childhood.
.

Happy Birthday silvolf. As always I'm late and will mail off your gift. It's something small and simple, but I'll also send you something else later on.

Yesterday when I started my daily bird and plant chores I noticed how neat my new ventricosa looked in the window light as well as some of my other neps. Morning sun I think is the best for photos because it is the brightest.



Copelandii glows.



Ventricosa in the morning. Beautifully back lit. I don't like back light but this is one of the few times it works.

( More lit up pitchers )

Hopefully today I can finish the plant chores from yesterday I didn't do.
.

Chris and I are still on our big nostalgic kick and revisiting some of our favorite stuff from the 80's and 90's. He found his favorite old VCR on Ebay and it came in today. I have been searching for mine too. I had two. They looked exactly the same but the second one I bought was different and had the copy protection on it. Boo. I found out what the model numbers were today. They were by GE and they were VG4216 and VG016. These looked exactly alike except the 216 was the later model tht had copy gaurd and an extra 100 button the controler. So needless to say if I can ever find a working VG016 I'd love to get it again. I found just the remote on Ebay. I'm tempted to get it just to have something of it. For just $6 I may do that.

Looking forward to the future now. There's a kid's dinosaur book coming out June 2012 I really want called Hatchlings Life Sized Baby Dinosaurs by Kelly Millner Halls. The cover has a baby Oviraptor on it that's just adorable. I like that type of art so I really want this book. I also found out there's a children's book series done in comic book style called Captain Raptor. I've seen the cover art and it looks cool and funny. It's about space dinosaurs done up with all the cheesey fun of 60's sci-fi space shows. They live on a planet called Jurassica and fly in a spaceship called The Megatooth. How cool is that? I want these books. Here's a page I found for the book Captian Raptor and the Space Pirates. Haha, love that 60's retro space font.

And speaking of dinos, I've started the next frame with the compies. Perhaps I can actually finish it tomorrow. After that I only have one more red sky background then I can start showing some different scenary.
.

I get behind on journal posts and the photos really start to pile up. So I have a lot to share. Yesterday I went on a job with Chris and I got a chance to draw. The next scene from my dinosaur storyboard will be of a group of compies looking up. I've drawn one. I'm done. Hehe, now I can start to ink. He turned out really nice, I just haven't felt well enough to work on art today though I really want to.

I put two plastic bins in the coop yesterday so the chickens can use them as nests instead of hiding eggs in the bushes. I caught raptor while she was in the bushes and put her in one of the nests so she'd learn to use it. I got her in that trance state when they can't walk because the egg is coming. It would be nice to have blue eggs again that are clean. So 5 out of 7 hens have learned to use the new nest. Henrietta doesn't count because she has her special indoor nest. She made her egg today already.

The mail came early today and I was thrilled to see my package from Germany arrived. I could be the first person in the US to have these Papo baby T-rexes so let the record stand here. Check out how adorable these are. Green and brown baby T-rexes.



These are my favorite Papo figures now. I actually want to play with them and get all the adults out too. These will be great references for my art too. So a bunch more T-rexes behind the cut as well as a bunch of nepenthes pics of ones I got yesterday and today.

( Dinos and pitcher plants )

So that's it for now. Chris took the rest of the day off to help me around the house since I'm not feeling too well. There's so much I want to do still.
EDIT: Oh and an official welcome to calzephyr77. I think you'll enjoy the budgieness of my journal.
.

We had the day off yesterday and it was nice to go out and spend time with Chris. I got a small gift for silvolf's birthday. We checked out our local Harbor Frieght. There were too many people for me to really enjoy myself though. The prices were good but I didn't like the look of the store how it was kind of run down. I should give them a second chance when they're not as busy. The reason was I was looking for a greenhouse there. I've been trying to figure out if it's cheaper for me to build one out of PVC or to just buy one. The bad thing about buying one is if you cut the panels and you mess up you've screwed up because the panels are very expensive. Where as I can just get some cheap ones at Lowe's. I got two nice creamic pots from Lowe's that drain out at the bottom despite having attached trays. I may use them for orchids or a nepenthes. I don't know yet. I do need to repot some of the mini orchids I rescued.

Anyway I'm very excited about a big project I want to work on that seems very possible to actually get finished. You guys know I've been trying to figure out a way to make an indoor greenhouse but the biggest problem has been how to cool it at night to at least 55F and being able to vent the gas. I wanted to build one in the livingroom but that was the problem and we'd have to run a hose outside somehow. Chris suggested cutting a hole in the ceiling. I would have done it but wasn't too keen on it. The other option was to convert my computer room into a greenhouse with its own window AC. But then I'd lose some of the visibility in the window and would have to move out my computer and I was trying to figure out where I would put it as I'd feel over exposed in the living room and something just doesn't seem right about having my desk in the bedroom. I still want to put down tiles in my computer room and paint the walls with some budgie art. None of my plans were quite working out. They all had very aggravating problems. One of those, "If only it weren't for that." type things.

Then Chris said, "I don't understand why you're so opposed to putting it on the patio." Huh? This confused me. The patio is where I want it to go more than anything but then I explained that I can't aford that because we have to replace all the screen and door with glass and leave a space for the AC. He goes, "No just put a greenhouse IN the patio." I gave it some thought trying to see if there were any cons. After a few seconds I go, "WOW!!" Haha, much better than my dumb ideas! To quote Patrick. It's brilliant. I couldn't believe it. The AC would be venting outside so no need to worry about gases. I'd have power right there and it doesn't matter if the floor gets wet. Once the plants start to make me money I can then turn the whole patio into a greenhouse and replace the screen with glass like I want.

I considered two designs. One to make a box that went almost to the cieling and then I could place the lights on top of that. Or the other which is make the frame but only have two walls. The side and the entrance and use the walls and sliding glass door of the patio as the other part. That means I'd have direct access to the ceiling but it would still be a box frame for support. I've opted for this second choice because only buying panels for two walls is financially better. I'm very excited. This seems very doable compared to my other big projects I've come up with for the year. I've never worked with PVC this much tough and I don't know how much to take into account for the connectors when making cuttings. How far in do the pieces go for me to do the math. In that regard I think it's easier than wood. But it's more durable than wood and cheaper. I'm a bit nervous because it is new unexplored ground for me, but I really see this coming to pass. I can probably get a good AC for cheap on craigs list too. Since it's going to be a fairly big area too I want it to be nice for us to sit down and watch all the plants. I already have two 1" pipes and a few connectors. Need a lot more still but this is so exciting. Annoyingly some of the connectors are more expensive than the pipes. Some pieces are almost $3, but that's because I'm using 1" pipe instead of 3/4". I don't think I'll cement too many of the pieces either because I think it should be something I can take apart and be portable. But first I need to really clean the patio well and find a way to get the old paint off as I'd like it to be a nice green like the front patio. The birds will have to be moved to the opposite side.

And today I should be getting some stuff in the mail I'm excited about. Some more Papo figures will finally be arriving as well as the over seas order I placed a few months ago. All but one of my plants came in.
.

Like the subject says, so much happened today. The day started off slow. I didn't have much energy hence the Mr. Burns icon, but I'd been thinking about finally putting out my Sarracenia Pool. Half way through the day I forced myself to go out and pull up the weeds that were growing on the pavers where the pool would go. The ants had brought in a ton of sand since last year so when Chris got home I had him sweep that up. But before I get to that I'm very happy that all the my basals and cuttings from my first batch has taken root and are hardened off now. Woo hoo!! I can now use them for trades. I have a buddy that wants my ventricosa madja-as and I should be getting some cool seedlings like jamban and tentaculata. I'm very excited about tentaculata. Worried that I'll have more highlanders now. My poor fridge will get over stuffed. It's been a great little fridge though.

Ok so my pool. Here it is.



So pretty. What a shame I have to cover it though. But if I don't the sun will destroy it by breaking down the plastic and not being able to see it better than losing it.



All covered up. I didn't have any real pond liner but I had this weed mat instead. I figured it would work except for an unforeseen problem that came up.
More behind the cut.

( Sarracenia Pool, chickens, birds and succulents )

I'm thrilled with the Sarracenia Pool. On the pavers was not the original plan but for now it's what I have to work with. I also hadn't planned on my desert garden to be in the front, so plans change. One reason I decided against putting the Sarrs in the front though there's excellent sun, is because they'd be visible from the road and I don't want them to get stolen. I do have some rare ones in there though my collection is small.

And because other than this I had no energy today I didn't work on any art. I hope I can start on my next dinosaur frame. And Monday should be a nice day since I think some neat stuff will be coming in the mail. More Papo figures!
.

I got my money back for the damaged allosaurus. Person was still rude but they did the right thing so that's all that matters. So I placed an order with Par O Bek with the balance I had on my paypal. Gosh he's got so many new neat plants I wish I could get.

earthmother45, you wanted to know what the baby budgies look like now. Here they are.



And you guys remember that Near death orchid? I wasn't sure if I could fix it? Well here it is now.



It's got a new leaf coming in so it will eventually look even better. But still it's a vast improvement to how I got it that day. So perhaps next year I'll have some yellow flowers.

I didn't get a chance to work on my art yesterday like I would have liked. By the time I got home I was too tired to think about it. But I'm hoping after this post to finish inking the hadrosaurs for the next frame and perhaps even get them colored up. That will be neat.
.
.

My budgie girl Protist died today. We have been expecting this for a while now. I knew she was getting old. I don't know how old she was. I need to find the photos I took of her playing with the Fairy Tail toys since she was less than a year in those and they may have the year stamped on the back. That would narrow things down. I just don't know where those pics are. I'm guessing she was 7 or 8. I noticed that only Peep was out on the perch then I saw her tail sticking out from behind the water bowl. She had wedged herself in there. I notice that when budgies are ready to die they like to find a quiet dark alone place to expire on.
EDIT: Just from going through my old posts looks like she was a 2005 baby. That means she was 7 years old. I didn't have LJ until late 2004, but I don't think she goes back that far. Seven is good but would have been nice to have been 8.



Took this one on April 28. These are the last pics I took of her. Like with Gaus you can tell she's tired of life. He got this way when he was real old too. I'm glad I took these pics. Wish I had taken more videos. I don't have any real budgie pets anymore. Peep isn't very tame because he's flighted. I'd like to have another budgie but I don't know if I will. As far as a pet goes. I don't have the room or the time at the moment. I'll still keep budgies as aviary birds and I definitely need to keep the Phage line going. Protist was Phage's first born so she was the princess. I kept her because of that. She was special and sold her siblings. Sad to think all those babies are most likely gone by now too. I'm worried because I need Tesla and Blu to breed but because they are first time birds they have no idea what to do and this time shoving them into the box has not worked.

As for what I feel I don't know. I felt some sadness and disapointment holding her little body. But I knew it was coming and have been expecting this. I haven't cried yet if I'm even capable. I do feel my throat's a little hard like it gets when I'm upset. But she led a long happy healthy life. That's probably helping me a lot. Sadly budgies don't live forever. It just bothers me that for the last few deaths of birds I've been close to I haven't cried. I don't think I've cried since my pigeon girl Punkin. I definitely cried a lot in 2007 for Phage but that wonderful little budgie had really rooted himself into my heart and I still mention his name for no reason and am trying to keep his legacy going. Last week I think I got my closure. I took Protist out of the cage and brought her into the bathroom with no distractions. I had a chat with here. I had one with Phage too. I told her how she was special and wanted her to know I loved her, that she was the princess and my favorite female budgie and she's been awesome. Because there wasn't a strong bond with us like with Phage I don't think she understood everything but I told her. When I had this conversation with Phage I KNEW he understood every word.

Two older videos to show her. I like this one because she bit me. I didn't lead on, but she got me good. She bit me really hard and it hurt a lot. It's funny. I've always liked fisty birds.



In this next one I get bit again. But it's nice to see her because she still used to fly and would come out and be active. I mentioned somewhere when she stopped doing that and in the last month because of the constant molt she was in she couldn't even fly at all.



I already miss my budgie girl.
Ok I need to get back to work.
.

I got some good news today. I got my refund for the humidifer. Got almost all my money back. They kept the $8 of the "free shipping". That's ok, I knew about it in the return policy but that's too bad. But I got something at least. I mailed off the broken Allosaurus today too and learned my lesson. This time I got shipping confirmation on it. I've been watching its progress so I'll know more or less when it arrives. From now on I'll be getting delivery confirmation on almost everything since it's free. I'm such a control freak I love seeing where my packages are be they coming or going.

No art today. I had no energy to do anything though I REALLY wanted to. I did start working on the next scene which will be of three hadrosaurs. Remember that tube of animal pets I bought just to get the budgie? I did a search for that budgie on Ebay and found a blue on and a few that are being sold loose. I'd like to buy a few so I can paint them into whatever color mutations I choose. Ebay has a thing that's both good and bad. They give you related searches on the main page based on what you've searched before. They showed me a ceramic budgie I have to have. Sigh, I'm trying to not buy too much but I can't resist a well done budgie for a cheap price. I was very tempted to do a search for budgie figures but best I don't.

And speaking of not spending and temptation making it worse. My favorite nepenthes shop just got a new shipment in or a bunch of stuff I want, some at good prices but too much stuff that I can't get...yet. How annoying. My birthday's still a long ways off too.

I'll leave you with two of my most prized budgie posessions.



I've had these two budgies since I can remember. I remember being young like 6 and being amazed how realistic they looked. Now I see their flaws but they are still well made figures. This is the kind of stuff I like to collect. I like budgie statues that are realistic and nice to look at too.
.

Want to welcome schwarzdrache to my LJ. Hope to see you around here. Glad to have another artist watching me. I post art questions from time to time when I get stuck. But not right now.

I didn't get to work on any of my own art today which was disapointing. But I got my T-rex in the mail today. That was fast. I really was not expecting it especially since it was coming from England I thought it would take much longer. Box got squished but there was no damage thank goodness. I'll share pics in a second.

Chris and I went out on a date. It was so nice. I treated him to Red Lobster because I really wanted to eat a fish. I had my usual broiled rainbow trout. Then we went to Toys R Us, Michael's and Target looking for Papo figures. No luck. Micheal's quit carrying them so that REALLY sucks. I don't think I can get them locally anymore and I'm not happy about that. I really like going to a store and getting my hands on figures and looking at them and paying without shipping. Now if I want any I need to buy them on Ebay or over seas. There are three companies that make educational toys, Papo, Safari and Schleich. Unforunately Schleich is the worst with detail and they are available almost everywhere here. I did pick up a tube of "pet" animal minis by Safari. Only one reason I got it. Just like with the old bird set it comes with a budgie and this was a green with a yellow head I didn't have. So now I have two budgies. If I had money to throw around I'd buy more of those and repaint the budgies to my favorite mutations. The reason I want some of the Papos is I want a custom Destina figure. I'll have to merge their pirate girl with a knight figure and repaint her hair to brown and if possible her eyes to green. I feel pretty confident I can do this. I just need to get extras because I'm not going to mutilate the ones I'm keeping.

Ok so here's my new dinosaur.



This is an excellent figure that I have very few complaints about. After having owned the smooth JP version for several years this figure is very different. The first thing I notice is that he looks old. You can see his ribs and he's got lots of growths on his head unlike the younger adult rex. The pose is accurate to how the moved in life which is great. My only complaint is the teeth are not realistic to what you find in T-rex skulls. They made his teeth more like those of a monster, though it also goes along rather well with the old decrepit look of this guy.



Close up of the detail on his face and teeth. Closed mouth. The fact that Papo makes articulated jaws for many of their theropods is nice and well done with the hinges on the inside where you can't see them.

( Lots more behind cut )
.

I got these awesome nepenthes the other day. I've been so busy with other stuff I haven't had a chance to share.



So cute. This is how they came packaged. These are the ones I got in return for the commission.

( N. albomarginat rubras )

So I'm still working on the Dinosaur comic. I have found a name for my main character. His name is Cyrex. I like that. It works very well. Now I just need a name for the female rex that will be his made, the compy and a Troodon. I drew Cyrex as an adult yesterday but only pleased with one of the pics. Part of the problem is I've mostly drawn baby T-rexes and he's still coming out with too short of a snout and looking young. I need to fix that. So I need to practice more.

I can't wait to get my T-rex from England! And the baby rexes are finally out but only in Germany. I saw them on this German website and I really want them but can't read anything or even know if they'd take paypal and do an over seas shipping.
.

You guys know that cooking isn't my thing and that I don't usually talk about new projects that I try until I get the end result be it what it may. Well for about two weeks now I've been on a quest to cook beans El Salvador style because I miss them from my child hood. They are red or black beans that are pureed. Well my first time around I almost followed the directions and they came out ok. After much thought I figured my second attempt would be better and I had learned from my mistakes. I was optimistic. It came out worse. I nearly destroyed the skillet and they came out hard with bean chunks. Chris bought me another bag for me to try again but I didn't want to really. They have to soak for at least 6 hour or over night so making these stupid things can be a two day endevor and that's too much wasted time for too little pay off. But we were at Flaco's today and Chris had a brilliant idea. When I mentioned they have black beans here he goes, "Hey why don't we buy some and..." My eye brow went up. Yes I knew where he was going with this. Buy them and blend them at home. The cook's already done the hard part. I can add my own spices to them. So we bought a bowl full. Chris blended them for my dinner then cooked them on the skillet and they were very good. Almost how I remember them and LOADS better than the garbage I made. So I don't have to bother trying to cook them myself anymore. It was a total failure anyway, but I can still hae them.

I fixed my stuffed raptor today. I'm not much for sewing either but I can sew better than I can cook.



My poor Raptor!! I knew about this tear. He had one over his eye too. That blue thread was already in him so I didn't want to mess with it. I started stiching him with brown thread. I called this "Micro surgery on a raptor">



There fixed. I'd almost forgotten how to tie a knot, but I made something up. I think it will hold and this will keep it from getting worse. His legs are soft and I'd like to restuff him with cotton but because I have to rip good seams I'd rather take him to a professional tailor and have them do it.

Protist is getting old. I took some pics of her today. I don't she'll be around much longer. I think I said this last year and I'm gald I was wrong but she's looking really bad now. I don't remember how old she is. I lost my records. I think she's 7 or 8. Pics behind the cut.

( Protist )

I drew today. Only one drawing but it had a lot of detail. I drew a Euplochephalus (a type of ankylosaur) and a Compy for my story. I need to fill in the rest of the page still with their facial expressions. I've never drawn an ankylosur so it was a learning experience. The lines are so different from theropods. Silly me forgot to start with the Deinonychus which would be rather easy. If I have time I need to remember to work on them tomorrow. Chris has the day off tomorrow. I'm looking forward to doing something nice.
.

My icon should say "It's BACK!" Hehe. I'm rather sure I'm officially obsessed with Jurassic Park and dinosaurs in general again. I'm loving it. I found out there are some new Papo figures I REALLY want to get. I need to save and put the nepenthes on a back burner for a while. I'm still obsessed with them and care for them daily. I just need to save for that one final big order then concentrate on dino figures and finding missing parts of my collection. Papo makes very nice figures of all kinds of historical stuff. They make dinos based on Jurassic Park and they look like the ones from the movie than any of the official toys did. That's sad. It's too bad they aren't in scale with the toys.

Before I get too far into that, I got my nepenthes from Crystal today. Those were the ones I got for doing the commission for her. They're awesome red albos that are just like the one I got last year that I lost. I'm thrilled because I have now nearly replaced most of the nepenths I lost last year. I just need an N. neoguinensis (or two. I want a pair of all my faves for breeding), N. lowii and N. "Lowesiensis". Lowesiensis was a rather common nepnethes in the US and could only be found in Lowe's and sometimes Home Depots though the splitters would call the latter N. "HomeDepotensis". Haha. Yeah my unknown hybrid from Lowe's my very first nep from a cube died. I hate that I don't have the one that started it all for me and most Lowe's quit carrying them. I don't know why so I can't replace it. They quit carrying them after I bought that one. It really sucked. I want another Lowe's nep. And Home Depot doesn't carry any CP's. Anyway, I'll post pics of that tomorrow. Right now I've got more JP photos. I hope you'll like them.



This is the Bush Devil Tracker. It's a cool jeep from the movie that shot missles and had a snare for roping dinos. More vehicles behind the cut.

( JP cars, figures and dinos here )
.

Finally the 19 year hunt for this raptor is finally over for me. I saw the mailman come up and he was putting mail in the box. Oh before that, this new guy has been coming out more. I think he's going to do our round from now on. I'm hoping I complained enough and they finally fired the last jackass. My mail has been so much better. No bent magazines. Packages in the patio in the shade. And since I knew he's have a big package I walked out there so he wouldn't have to get out of his car. See? Be nice to me and I'll be nice back. Be a jerk to me and I'll be an even bigger jerk to make you sorry. Don't deliver my package? I'll wait an hour before calling the post office and have them make you drive out. Be good about where you place my packages? I'll try to be there so you don't have to park your truck. Get the idea? I've even made small talk with him that was pleasant. So he hands me a huge box today and pulls out my mail from my box and puts it on top. YEAY!!

One of my boxes was a plant I won one the forums. Yes again. My luck is good the last few weeks for some reason. So I opened those up first. They were baby Sarracenia oreophylla. Had to take care of the live stuff first. Then I opened my raptor. Here he is.



He's huge and awesome! I love the detailed pained on the cloth. He's not a smooth cloth but kind of velvety. This guy was extremely rare even when it was new. You could always get the triceratops and brachiosaurus but the raptor was rare. More pics behind the cut of my raptor and of some Sarracenias.

( Raptor and Sarracenias )

The pigeons are doing good. Voracious. It's too bad because I'm not supposed to have any babies right now and it does bother me I can't leave the house now. They were an accident. I didn't remove all the eggs and they hatched. They don't have a proper nest so babies don't survive especially when they wander away. But I didn't want them to get killed so I had to pull them for handfeeding. Plus I've had two deaths so these babies will replace those losses.

I'm working on that commission still for a friend. I'm almost done with the drawing portion of it. It's been different and I think it's turning out nice. Hopefully I can finish it soon.

EDIT: HEY! They got rid of those aweful scissors for the cut. Thank goodness. The parenthasis are back!
.

My logo is already up on the site. Here is the link to Crystal's Carnivores. You can see my drawing in her header. I was very impressed with how nice it looks. She was very happy too. She said she'll give me credit in her links section too so that will be nice. My plants will ship out tomorrow. I can't wait. Very exciting. So technically this is my first order with her, but I'm sure it will be good since she's very nice and I've heard good things.

My fingers are on fire. I played my bass for the first time in a long time. I can play Chris's song very well now but I have basically forgotten everything else. This is bad so I need to practice my older stuff and find my sheet music for it. I need to figure out a better way to write stuff I figure out by ear without using complex notation but also without using simplistic tabs. Sigh. Doesn't seem to be any middle ground. Also I'm not used to reading bass clef and I just need to get used to it. But I'm a good playe so I'm sure it won't take me long to get it all back.

I uploaded a whole bunch of Jurassic Park pics to my Flickr today. I think I've gotten the main parts of my collection up now. I need to find the two jeeps next and get pics of them.

Welcome to my LJ logicalhedonist. Thanks for adding me. Added you back. Look forward to talking about CP's with you.

Since so many people wanted to see them I got some pics of the pigeons being hand fed.



Two pigeons in a box. I know they're hard to see because the older one is covering the younger one. I've got the formula there all mixed and ready to go.

( Three more HERE )

I have been handfeeding baby birds for over 20 years. I make it look easy but it's not. It's all to easy to asphyxiate a baby if you don't know what you're doing. I also learned on the hardest birds first. My first hand fed baby bird was a 3 month old baby blue and gold macaw. That was my beloved Joel. After hand feeding macaws most other birds area breeze. I know all three methods too. I know spoon feeding, syring feeding (my favorite and medium difficulty) and tube feeding.
.

Today has been great. Chris was home most of the day. He helped me feed birds and was working mostly on stuff in his room. I just enjoyed having him around. I took more pics of my Jurssic Park stuff today and uploaded a lot of new photos to Flickr. Got a bunch more for tomorrow as well.

On the plant forum things are going great. Got some more stuff coming in a trade and one thing I'm thrilled about. I'll finally be getting some red N. albomarginatas. I'm getting them for a commission I did. I made this logo for the online store Crystal's Carnivores.



She's paying me in plants. I'm thrilled. So I've gotten two commission. You may have seen I posted my list just a moment ago. I'm still open for commissions. I could really use the money if anyone wants to help me out. Or tell your friends about me. Phspopular2000, I'm still working on your piece. It's got more detail so it might take me a bit. You're definitely next in line and I will concentrate on your piece next.

I'm really looking forward to getting back to my own drawings actually. I want to finish the nepenthes thermus I'm working on. And like I was telling Silvolf I want to practice making animated icons. I've only ever made one, my deathclaw one. I feel it's cheating though because blinking eyes are easy. I want to make some nepenthes opening so perhaps I can sell some to the forum members and see them in use. That would be cool.

And I'm handfeeding those two pigeons still. I should take pics so you can see their progress and how they're growing.
.

This will be my permanent public list for my commissions prices. I can draw, people and animals. I'm not so good at drawing vehicles. If you want me to draw your favorite cartoon character or personal character I will be happy to do so. I am a slow artist so expect me to take a few days to several weeks depending on the complexity of your piece. Be sure to give me a detailed description of what you want. The more the better. If you have references or photos that would help even more.


Pencil Drawings $5

One character. +$3 for each additional character



Digital Inked Drawings $10

Single character. +$5 for each additional character



Colored drawing. Flat colors black lines solid background. $17

Single Character. +$8 for each additional character



Colored & shaded character with a white or solid color background. Colored lines. $25

One character. +$10 each additional character



Full color character with background $50

One character. +$20 each additional character



I take paypal. For those of you in the United States I can also take check or money order if you have my address and you know me. These are digital commissions. I will send you the full size large file and a smaller file both print quality to your email. For pencil drawings I shall send you a scanned high quality copy of your drawing. Contact me: budgie_butts at yahoo dot com

.

I won the acution last night. My gosh I was so sleepy. Chris was sweet and stayed up with me. I told him he didn't have to but he said he wanted to be with me to celebrate. They changed the bid style. I wasn't happy but at least I still won. The raptor started at $6 and had one bid. I think the original bidder was up defending his bid against people like me. But I put down just over $50 as my max with 30 seconds to go. Well 30 seconds is a lot actually. Originally what happens is yout type your amount and you hit bid. Then a pop up window appears with your amount and you can still see the countdown. Well this time it took me to a new page and no countdown. WTF? That's like the old style. I'd forgotten that for that method I had two windows open. One with the auction and one for the bidding page so I can keep refreshing. That's the old way. I haven't seen that in forever so I paniced and bid with 30 seconds to spare. It went up to $9. I refreshedn and it went up again. And every time I refreshed it kept going up. I knew the original guy was trying to get his spot back. But luckily there just wasn't time to type anymore. It ended at $37. I would have rather it end at $9 and it would have if they hadn't changed the styel of bidding. I'd have been ready. But still $37 is still worth it to finally put that 19 years of searching behind me. Oh and it also comes with a triceratops plush so that's for two figures. Not so horrible when you think of it that way. I just forget about the triceratops. I'll post pics when I get it. This is a very rare toy that even in the day it was hard to find. But this still set me back on my nepenthes funds possibly for two more weeks.

Chris planted five Agaves out front for me today. I'm so happy because I've been wanting to do that for a while. Three blues and two green with yellow stripes. The striped ones are little pups but they'll eventually be bigger than the blue ones. I love the striped ones because they get huge and look like octopuses.

I've put Tesla into the nestbox twice now. So he should know how to get in there. I've only put Blu in there once because she bites. I need to shove her in again so she learns what it's for. Not looking forward to that. I think Blue makes this cute little noise. I'm not sure who's doing it. Kinda sounds like Boop Boop Boop Boop Boop.

phspopular2002, I've started on your drawing. Just need to add the detail now and I'll send you the first draft for you to look at. I'll probably start working again on it on Monday.

Because I'm doing art again I'm thinking a lot about some idea I have I really want to work on. I'll be glad when I have time to get back and finish up Work Fight. I just want to put that piece behind me because it's taken so darn long. I really want to start a drawing of Owen sitting at an outdoor restaurant under an umbrella. He's got his tanks beside him, his leg crossed and he's enjoying a Key Lime pie. Owen loves sour foods. He likes lemons and limes. So sour deserts are a favorite of his. Key Lime and Lemon Merangues are something he'd really enjoy. This would probably be my first time drawing him while he's in pleasure.
And I'm also thinking about writing. I want to get back to work on The Sun and the Water. I've been thinking a lot about Solan as well lately. It's funny because I think this short story is so hard when it should have been easy. But the next one I want to write will probably be even harder. I'd love to show the relationship between Solan and Davon more. But I have hardly an ideas for that. I think I have two scenes and that's about it. No goal to work towards is always a hard thing to start with.

I think I'll go to bed early to make up for the lack of sleep from last night.
.

My buddy Heli on the plant forums helped me come up with a name for the budgie girl. He suggested Blue and then I thought why not make it Blu like the macaw from Rio. So I shouldn't call her Blue Budgie Girl anymore. Her name is Blu. She used to be a wild budgie. I set her and Tesla up today for breeding because I want to find out some of Tesla's genetics and Peep's genetics. Peep is Tesla's dad. So first up is a budgie karate kick.



More behind the cut.

( Budgies Ahoy! )

I'm so sleepy, but I'm waiting on a stupid auction for a stuffed JP velociraptor I've been searching for for the last 19 years. Have to make it til 1am. So that's why the post is so short. I can't really think right now, but wanted to share all the budgieness.
.

I got a bunch of plants in the mail today totally unexpected. One package was some Sarracenias I'd bought from a forum member but she'd been having stuff going on and was busy. She finally got around to sending them to me and they came a day early. Good thing I was home. The other was a gift from a forum member. It's funny because he kept apologizing for not sending it. Well it's a gift I wasn't going to be pushy. He didn't have to send anything. I just told him to give me a heads up when he did so I could be home. He didn't. Again luckily I was home. And good news. I think there's a new guy doing our mail. I like him loads better. I hope he's permanent and not covering while the jerk's on vacation or something. He actually left the packages in the shade on the patio instead of in the sun. Since I wasn't looking out the window and knew they were there this is a good thing.

The male bluebird has returned and has been standing on the box. I think he's trying to entice the female to go for another clutch. That would be great! I'd love to get pics if they have babies again and not miss the fledging this time. It will also be neat to see if any of the first clutch of babies survived and will be helping to raise the younger siblings. And perhaps I can finally get live mealworms to feed them with.

There's only one thing I'm worried about. The water I used to make the media for the tissue culture was drinking water not distilled water. That means there's minerals in it. I hope that won't contaminate or mess up the cultures. I just saw the D and this bottle was right next to the Distilled water so I grabbed it. I cooked up the formula and then I looked and noticed the bottle today. I had the ingredients from last year. I can't aford to buy more for a while so if I've messed this up it's a big waste of time, seeds and media. I'm mad at myself. I'm all out of distilled water too. I really need to get some. The price of culture supplies really went up this year. Like twice as much. I have to become a member of the site just to bring the prices back to reasonable which sucks. Last year I bought everything as a guest. So not good on the tissue front. I just suck at chemistry.

I'm handfeeding two baby pigeons right now. Not thrilled about it but they hatched on accident because I missed two eggs. Babies that hatch always die because I don't have proper nests set up, so I took them for handfeeding. I don't want to breed pigeons. But since two died a while ago I decided to take these babies to have replacements.

As far as birds I DO want I have decided to breed Tesla and his blue budgie girl. This will be the year. I need to keep the Phage line going and this will answer some genetics questions I have as well. I don't remember what those questions were but I'll know when I see the babies. Budgie handfeeding is something I do look forward to though baby budgies hurt a lot. So tomorrow I need to look for a breeding cage with box and do some budgie rearranging.

But things are going well otherwise.
.