Legerdemain

No more omelets. They've all grown up. *sniffs* We're givin' 2 of the 5 away.

*finally comprehends that there's a second page* D'oh! There's not much meat on his tiny little bones; he's like... palm-sized.

Actually, Capt. RAZOR!, Skeety would probably think you're tastier. He does have a tendency to nip.

Cool, can't wait to see it Alright. If I ever finish it, you'll be the first to know. :) What messenger do you use most often? I noticed you have the same ones I do. ...Unless you'd rather not say. :\

*laughs* No, seriously, I was thanking you for it! And I did try to make his head move. (Could that sound more perverted? Heh.) It looks small for his body now. Also, the edges of his body are a bit ragged-looking. I think I'll start over. Ack, not more compliments! :) What talent I have shows itself rarely. Since I already have the project saved, I think I go finish working on my two-headed parrotlet. 'Tis a beast so horrifying that it's sure to scare any rival pirate out of his or her boots or other choice footwear.

It's been so long since I stumbled upon it, but I think I was looking in Yahoo!'s directory. Heh, I made static transparent parrotlet's also. One for each of the pictures I have of Skeeter. As I type this, my shoulders are crowded with birdy-types. Skeeter, my parakeet (Pirate), and this other parakeet (Parakeet or You With the Tail and Feather). Oh, okay, thanks for the advice. P) Hm... I think I might be able to make his head move.

I think that's the closest I've ever come to a vector-like image. I tried following someone's tutorial once, but it just drove me crazy. *grins at the praise* Thank you! Oh yes, I'm quite fond of Pixia. And UFX I like for it's preview features that way I don't have to keep going back and fixing things.

Ohh. Good to know. Thanks. P)

Yer welcome, mate. Though, I don't think this was exactly the place to post this as the subject of "Captain Twill" mentions something about academic talk. I don't know enough about ships, or seafaring life, to talk knowledgeably about them.

Ah, well... you're welcome. My grandmother's the one who actually has the letter. She let me borrow it and the translation for a family history project we had to do for school. Er, nae, to the copies, but my grandmother's sister's side of the family is working on the history.

Thanks! I took a picture of my mom's parrotlet (Skeeter) with my $20 digital camera. Uploaded it. Probably tried to get it clearer-looking with Ultimate FX. Then I opened it in Pixia and started making layers. I made about three layers I think. The green of his body was one. The second were the things that go over the green, like the beak. The third layer was a black outline. After I got it the way I wanted it, I sent it back to Ultimate FX for a rescaling. That probably was a big mistake. After I rescaled it, I turned it into a GIF with a transparent background. There was white around the edges when I put it to the test on a webpage with a black background. After many groans and curses, I sent the rescaled PNG image back to Pixia where I thereby proceeded to clean up the edges. I realize you just probably needed the program names, but this has become a rant of sorts. After I got a decent image, I opened it in Ultimate FX and added a little more white space to the top and left of the bird. Still using Ultimate FX, I added the text. I'm not even going to mention how long it took for me to get the text adjusted to my liking. To get the text to shimmer, I had to use a lighter yellow. I colored in a letter or two, then saved the image (each time I saved it as a different number though, for example: 1.png, 2.png, etc). I repeated that till I had the whole word recolored. I opened those images in Ultimate FX and converted each one to GIF format. Pixia doesn't allow GIFs, so everything must be converted using UFX. When I had all the little GIFs, I went to another program I have, Microsoft GIF Animator. That's how it became animated. Yep, now that that's over, here are some URLs ya might find useful: Pixia (It's ugly, but it performs as well as that stupid Photoshop thing, in my opinion. And it's FREEware.) - http://www.ab.wakwak.com/~knight/index.html Ultimate FX (This has a lot of nice effects in it. I think it's ADware, but you can move the ad to the lower left of your screen so it's out of the way.) - http://ultimatepaint.com/ufx/index.html

Sorry about starting another new topic. This is a letter my great great grandfather wrote about his life. As far as I know, Great Great Grandfather Brumshagen had three ships, all of which he "lost". Pretty awful, I think, to go from Captain to night watchman. I don't think I'd survive it. Someone should have told him about paragraphs. The letter was originally written in German. The translator should have just typed it up. She had bad cursive. Hope you enjoy. ***** My life as I remember it. In the year of 1839, April 14, I was born in Bodstedl, a small town in Vorpommern County seat Stralsund (this is the name of the city) Province, Germany. My father was a mill owner. Up to my 6th year my parents took care of me. Starting with my 6th year I went to school in town until my 14th year, when I was confirmed. School was a pleasure for me. During my 8 years in public school I also received private lessons in Arithmetic, Mathematics, and Geography. At this time I decided to become a seaman with the permission of my parents. I went to sea in sailships(?), After I spent the necessary time with different ships under the Prussian flag in all of the oceans I entered a navigation school to gain more knowledge in order to enter an advanced school. After passing the examination there, I entered the advanced navigation school in 1861 in Stralsund. After eleven months of hard work I passed the examination there for first mate. Which also permitted to steer the ship. From my 21st year to my 27th year I was at see in all kinds of German ships and in all oceans. I then went to skipper school in Barth near where I was born. After eight months there I passed my examination as skipper 1st class (Captain). Made several more trips with different ships as 1st class mate or skipper. In my 31st year I married Friedchen Weise. In 1873-74 I built my own ship, "Sophie", a three master. Took my ship mostly to the Indian Ocean, between Australia, Africa, and India. During this time I lost my wife who left me with two children, my son Leopold and daughter Elfriede. I got married the second time with Anna Görs in South Australia. In June 1880 I arrived again in European waters. Took a few more trips between England and the West Indies. Here I lost my ship near the Grand Cayman Islands. Then I came to New York and quit the sea for good. I decided to stay in America and looked for a job. I became a night watchman for the Brighton Pier and Navigation Company. This job I still hold today after almost 21 years. Four years ago I lost my second wife, Anna Görs, on January 20th. Last November I lost my oldest daughter Elfriede - children from the first marriage were Leopold, Elfriede from the second marriage Johny, Nelly, Charly, Pauly, Lillie, Adelaide, and Richard. Johann Joachim Friedrich Brumshagen January 16, 1905 Coney Island

Why thank you! Oh, oh! Look at my signature's bird! Isn't he handsome? I made him from a picture of my mom's parrotlet. And look how "treasure" shimmers! I'd say it's a job well done. >P) Capt. Will? Has anyone ever told you that you look like James Gandolfini? B'cause... you do.

Hm, I hope it's alright that I started a new topic. This is sort of off-topic compared to the other posts. I'd definitely call it Plunder though. I got bored last night and sketched the Jolly Roger on a piece of aluminum. Today I bought some black paint and filled the background in. I left a one inch border on the sides. The border and Roger himself are unpainted. It will take the pictures a while to load. Even after extreme editing, they're still near 100kbs. ~_~ http://pyrell.port5.com/sign1.png - shows more detail http://pyrell.port5.com/sign2.png - shows more of the border