I agree, a corn snake would be your best choice. The North American ratsnakes are also great beginners if you have looked into them at all.

By the way, I LOVE your prospective snakes' names! I have a pure black cat that I named Shade, so I'm partial to that name. And the name Nuke is just plain cool - that snake DOES kinda look like a radioactive/biohazard sign
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::i believe in joy > http://www.winds.org/nekomi/hope.html

::my homepage > http://www.winds.org/nekomi

My Growing Zoo:

1.0 Husband (Byron) ^_^
0.1 black cat (Shade)
0.1 rescued stray grey cat (Ghost)
0.1 Brazilian Rainbow Boa (Zia)
1.0 Leucistic Black Ratsnake (Houdini)
1.0 White-Lipped Python (Midas)
1.2 Panduro cichlids (A. panduro)