I forgot to mention that Monday was my birthday. I don't focus too much on birthdays, never really have. It seems a bit egotistical to have a day to celebrate when someone was born. Anyway, my best gal bought me 4 new MetallicA shirts. So good times for me. Now I have 22 total. Also, I got my computer chair as an early gift, which we have already covered. The chair is still working out perfectly. I got a few other things as well, which I won't detail.

I have always hated Adobe products. Photoshop, Premier, Audition, Illustrator, After Effects, etc.. I have tried to get into them several times over the years and they just all seem to suck really bad. They are all "Mac-y" if you don't mind my making up a word. They also all seem to take a degree in fucking brain surgery to be able to use them effectively. And don't even get me started on Flash, ColdFusion, Acrobat, and all their other shit I have to put up with at work. Additionally, they are ungodly expensive for some reason. The average end user is not going to give anyone 650 bucks for software. Plenty of reasons to hate and avoid them at all costs.

I have always used Paint Shop Pro (PSP) for editing pictures. Paint Shop Pro will easily do everything Adobe Photoshop will do, and at around 75 dollars, it is nearly 1/10th the price. It was a fantastic product until Jasc got greedy and sold out to Corel. Now the thing sucks ass. At the heart of it, it is still the old school really good Jasc version, but its coated with a bunch of overhead crap that people just don't need, thus clouding the product and taxing your system resources. I can understand them wanting to appeal to the lowest common denominator, thus making their program geared toward stupid people, but it has gotten ridiculous lately to the point that I decided to go looking for an alternative.

I inadvertently came across a product called Paint.Net. It seems to be pretty wicked so far. It appears to be a really pumped up version of Paint that has been packaged into Windows operating systems for some time now. the best part about it is that it is FREE!

So far, I seem to be able to do the same things I could in PSP, and I have not run into any issues at all. In a lot of respects, it appears to be better than PSP. Granted, I have not spent a lot of time with it, or attempted to do anything really extravagant, but I am going to try really hard to not use PSP anymore and I am going to avoid the temptation to try Adobe's latest Photoshop offering.

You can get it from http://www.getpaint.net/index2.html.

Well, I was able to score 12 pounds of live crawfish on a Sunday afternoon with no trouble at all. The whole process was a blast, and the food was terrific. It was not as spicy as I would have liked, but by the time I realized that fact, it was not worth the time to make them spicier.

I started the process at 4:00 PM, and was eating around 7:30 PM. I ended up eating all the corn, mushrooms, and potatoes I put in, and threw away a couple of chunks of sausage. They tasted OK, but I am not a huge fan of that particular style of sausage (the kind that's pre-cooked and made of beef, pork, and chicken, like Eckridge). Also, we ate every single crawfish. I kind of estimated, and I think my special lady friend ended up eating maybe 4 pounds, which means I ate the other 8 pounds. It sounds like a lot, but it really isn't, whereas you throw most of the weight away in the shells.

Short of breaking one half full beer, everything went off without a hitch. I was holding something with one hand, and trying to grab my camera with the other, and the camera strap dragged across the bottle and raked it off onto the concrete. A shop-vac and a few minutes later, and everything was back on track.

I did not detail the steps to the cooking process, but I can do so if I have enough people ask about it.

I put up the pictures over at http://www.snotpocket.com/crawfish.htm.

I transferred the new picnic table outside the other day. You can check out some pictures over at http://www.snotpocket.com/pictab.htm.

I think tomorrow I am going to try and boil some crawfish. More to the point, I am going to try and get some crawfish to boil... I already know how to boil them. If you have never been to or held your own crawfish boil, you are really missing out. It is one of those things in life where the process of it all is just as rewarding as the final product, if not more.

Usually once a year we have a crawfish boil at my friends house, I think this will be the 7th annual crawfish boil. We have not set a date yet, and I am getting a little worried that we may run out of time, or have to have it on such short notice that people won't be able to make it. Crawfish season doesn't end until around the middle of May, so I suppose we still have ample time, but we usually try to have it in April.

The annual crawfish boil is one of the few times a year that we all get severely polluted. We start drinking off the keg a little after lunch time. Usually by the time it gets dark, the keg is empty. Once we have to send someone to the beer store for more beer, things have usually gotten pretty interesting. Its always a blast.

Anyway, I am having a hard time waiting until them to eat some crawfish, so I think, if I can get some, I will do a small batch at home to tide me over. I will photo-document the process if it all plays out, otherwise, I probably just wait until the big day.

I go my book in the mail today. 8 Minute Meditation. I will start reading it the next time I 'download some brownware'. I might spend some time reading this one off the crapper though if its any good.

My picnic table is completed. I bought a 1/4" round-over router bit to round off the edges, and it turned out pretty good. I think I am going to apply some Thompson's Water Seal Advanced even tho I used pressure treated lumber to build it, just to give it a little edge on the weather.

My fish taco experience turned out fairly bad. I could tell early on that it was going to be a bad time, but I rolled with it anyway. During the cooking process, I crammed a whole bunch of cilantro stems down the garbage disposal and they got jammed in the pipe, and at some point, I had put some liquid dish soap down the hole as well. So I started plunging the drain, and it started shooting out soapy foam and water with green particles in it out the little dishwasher vent thingy, and all over the kitchen floor, walls, etc. I soon realized this was not going to help, so I ended up taking apart the pipes that connect the garbage disposal to the normal sink and drain pipe. At that point, I could pretty much tell it was all clogged up in there.

I decided to leave it as it was and finish cooking, then deal with it after dinner. At some point, I suppose to was too focused on cooking, and turned on the water. For a little while, I kinda figured that since the water was going down, the problem was resolved, so I turned on the garbage disposal. It wasn't until I felt water on my feet that I realized the pipes were still unhooked! I had just flooded my kitchen with soapy water containing tiny bits of cilantro. Needless to say, I was unhappy. I had to remove everything from the cabinet under the sink, and use towels to soak up the water. I had to use about 10 towels. Bad times. The whole evening was pretty much ruined, and on top of it all, the tacos were not that good.

With the benefit of hindsight, I will not use swordfish for tacos. Swordfish tastes like really good seafood, but has the texture of chicken. fish tacos are supposed to be made with flaky type fish such as tilapia, or even catfish or bass. Also, these were baja style, so I didn't use the traditional cabbage and vinegar, which was also a mistake, because the corn and jicama pico de gallo was bland.

Oh well, gotta move on. I think in the near future, I will try another fish cooking experiment, but this time I will get a few tilapia fillets, and just grill or bake them, and have them with some vegetables and perhaps some rice.

A few real quick thoughts here.

1. I found a meditation book: http://www.amazon.com/Minute-Meditation-Quiet-Mind-Change/dp/0399529950/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-6831808-8427138?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1174257528&sr=8-1

"8 Minute Meditation". It got a lot of good reviews, and sounded like exactly what I was looking for. A quick way to relax and clear your mind. I physically went to Barnes and Nobles to buy it, but that experience sucked majorly. I cannot comprehend why anyone would ever go to a bookstore anymore. Maybe more on why it sucked later... maybe not.

2. I am building a heavy duty picnic table. So far it has turned out well. I will post pictures when it is completed, because it is too late in the game to try and photo-document the building process now.

3. I am making some fish tacos tonight out of swordfish and tilapia fillets. I have never made fish tacos before, and I am making them baja style, rather than "traditional". If I can remember, I will post more on this experience later.

4. I have been thinking about a dream I had several years ago. In a nutshell, I dreamed a had a little pet pig about the size of a small dog. He was white with black spots. I loved him, he was my buddy. The interesting thing about him was that he pissed fresh motor oil. So I took him around to all the Jiffy Lube type places around town, and filled up their tanks, and they paid me/him, for the service. Perhaps I should write a short story based on this premise.

That's all for now.

I have noticed that I seem to have high amounts of stress and anxiety. Maybe I don't, but I feel like maybe I do. The problem here is that I really don't have anything to be stressed about in my opinion, so I guess its more just feelings of anxiety more so than stress. When I sit around and think about why I am feeling anxious, I never can come up with anything. I am a bit of an oddball I suppose, and my mind works in really strange ways. I have the strangest thoughts and ideas and at really strange times, and I am always a thinking into the future, at least one hour. Being ahead of myself is, I think, a good personality trait because I always been able to sort of "see" into the future metaphorically speaking, not literally of course. I have always been able to think this way, and at the same time, manage the present. I think that as get older, I am starting to think a little bit farther into the future, while still thinking about the near future, and the present, which perhaps is overloading my brain a little bit, thus causing undue anxiety.

To combat this, I am going to explore some sort of meditation. I am not converting into one of those new age holistic healing hippy type people or anything, I just realize that I am truly happy and stress and anxiety free when I am sleeping or on vacation. I think that through some light meditation techniques, I should be able to clear my mind and perhaps chill out a little bit. I can definitively say that there is nothing mentally wrong with me, I just kinda feel like I need a vacation, or I need to take a day off from work and sleep for 24 hours to "reset". The only issue becomes if I feel that way for a long period of time. Anyhoo, I don't even really know that "meditation" is the correct word for what I need to explore, I just need to come up with a way to "escape" a bit and clear my thoughts more often, preferably without having to spend much money or travel too far.

I will post more about this after I find a book or two on the subject and have done some research, and maybe tried out some stuff.

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On a completely different subject, I bought my special lady friend a new vacuum cleaner. After doing the endless hours of research I tend to do before buying something, I went with the Dyson DC15 All-Floors. Check it out:

http://www.dyson.com/range/feature_frame.asp?model=DC15-SY-STD

I wanted to get the "Animal" version, but it was 150 dollars more, and the only thing it would get me on top of the all floors model was the mini turbine head. I found the mini turbine head on ebay for around 25 bucks, so it was a no brainer. Also, the Dysons now all come with a FREE 5 year parts and labor warranty, and you can get the work done locally at just about any vacuum cleaner shop. So my total expense out of pocket after the mini turbine head and taxes and all that came out to right around $500. The high end consumer Hoover model I looked at was around 350-400$ after tax, so this was really not that much more, and in my opinion, a far superior product.

It is a wicked, and I would highly recommend it to anyone in the market for new vacuum cleaner.

Spring time is here. The trees are blooming and sprouting new leaves, and my Bermuda grass is changing from its dormant yellow dead looking color back to green. This means its time for lawn care again. You have to care for your lawn all year round, but with Bermuda grass, it pretty much just hibernates until spring.

Tons of people pay Mexicans to mow their yard. I get little flyers and shit on my door all the time advertising their services. The average cost is 25-30 dollars per week, when comes out to about 120 bucks a month. That is a lot of money. Screw that.

I enjoy mowing my yard. Thinking about mowing the yard is the bummer. Once you get out there and get going, its fun, believe it or not challenging, and a good way to relax and relieve tension by collecting your thoughts. Kind of reminds me of a line from a Steven Segal movie, "Anticipation of death, is worse than death itself". People tend to not like anticipating stuff. If we could learn to enjoy anticipation, that would be fantastic.

A nice well groomed green yard is something to be proud of, particularly if you are responsible for it.

...I'm going to mow the yard.

Every year I go to the Thanksgiving day Dallas Cowboys game at Texas Stadium. Every year I buy tickets from eBay or from Stubhub or RazorGator, or some other on line vendor. Every year I feel ripped off because I pay at least 3X the face value of the tickets.

Now don't get me wrong, I am not pissed because I am paying way more than their face value, I buy and sell tickets regularly for profit. This is legal in my state, as it should be, and the concept of supply and demand forces the market to determine the value. Everyone has the exact same chances as I do to get the exact same tickets for the exact same price. It requires a little effort, but pays off well. So I am not pissed because of the price, I am pissed because this is seemingly the ONLY way to get the tickets. I have contacted the Cowboys regarding the matter and they basically told me to wait until they officially go on sale and hope for the best. Well, I tried that last year, and every single ticket for every single game was completely sold out, as is the case every year. Additionally, I suspect the Cowboys are in bed with online ticket vendors anyway, because you can go to multiple unrelated ticket sites and get quotes on the exact same seats, at different prices. I find this a little odd.

So what is the answer? It seems to be becoming a Dallas Cowboys season ticket holder. This way, you deal directly with the Cowboys, and should not pay any premiums. I am not sure if you are familiar with the way season tickets work, at least for the Cowboys. Basically you get "in the system" as a season ticket holder, then each year when you renew you get first dibs on former season tickets holders seats as "upgrades". Also, there are VERY few open season ticket seats available. This creates a scenario where people auction off their tickets "rights". For example, there is currently an auction on eBay where you pay $2,000.00, just for someone to sign over their rights to you, then you still have to buy the tickets themselves. Another guy on eBay was asking nearly $13,000.00 for his "rights" for fairly decent seats.

So I called them today and inquired about season tickets. The guy basically said he has a few available, both are in the upper sections. one is at the 50 yard line, 6 rows back(UPPER SECTION), for $3540.00 a pair. This does not include parking, which is another $240.00. So right around $3,800.00 bucks total for a pair of season tickets. HOLY SHIT! The other pair are in the corner, about at the goal line, in row 16 (UPPER SECTION) for $1620.00 plus parking which is still another $240.00. So about $1700.00 total for those. These prices are for the 8 regular season home games, and 2 pre-season games. Additionally, you are guaranteed the ability to get playoffs tickets if the Cowboys make the playoffs and have any home games.

I just want to go to the one game on Thanksgiving, so basically my plan is to buy season tickets, and sell all of them except the ones I need. Based on the business model I have experienced in the past, I should be able to do this without a problem. I think I can make enough by selling them to essentially get my one game for free, and still perhaps even have a small profit at the end.

I will add an update on this later...

I finally scored a new chair. I went to 4 different stores on Saturday and I was determined to not come home without one. I ended up going with this one:

http://www.officedepot.com/ddSKU.do?level=SK&id=510830

So far so good. The mesh makes the chair feel room temperature all the time, rather than a cushion that traps ass heat.

My special lady friend likes the chair as well, and so she said if for some reason, this one didn't work out for me, she would trade with me. I will make another post later in the year to see if my opinions are the same as they are now, when the chair is new.

I inspected and sat on over 100 chairs on Saturday and I noticed a disturbing trend. I would say 90-95% of the chairs in stores now do NOT have adjustable arms! How the hell can you have a computer chair that does not allow you to adjust the arms? Most chairs without adjustable arms will not fit under most regulation computer desks. I am not sure who research wizard was that decided to make this change, but static arms on computer chairs is bogus. I assume there will be market backlash, and this will began to transition back over time.

Anyway, now I can compute without pain once again. Yaaay.

Also, I got my new customized Oakley Monster Dog sunglasses today from the dude on eBay. (example - http://oakley.com/o/o1137d). They are in PERFECT condition. He even included the invoice from when he bought them directly from Oakley, and all the warranty information as well. They are flat black with black iridium polarized lenses. So far they appear to be exactly what I was looking for, and I got them for about 60% of the price they would have been brand new. Good times!

Sunglasses are always an interesting topic. Most people own a pair, yet everyone has their own opinion of what's good and what's not, and the approach to buying them. Some people always go with the 5$ WalMart specials, some people buy REALLY expensive Cardier or Gucci. I have a friend who always told me I should invest in a good pair of Oakleys. The problem is, the ones I wanted were 200 bucks. I could buy 40 pairs of 5$ WalMart specials for that amount of money! At the time, I was riding my motorcycle a lot, and the cheap ones did not work well in that rugged environment, and I would break a pair almost every time I rode.

Anyway, long story short, I ended up buying a couple of pairs of fake Okaleys to make sure the style I picked would work. They, of course, broke during my first ride with them. I really liked the style, so I bit the bullet and bought the real deal.

The genuine Oakleys were by far the best sunglasses I have ever owned. They fit like a glove, and were very durable. I abused the crap out of them, and they always came through without incident. Eventually, I wore them out by leaving them in my truck during the scorching Texas summer for a few years. They did not respond to well to that. In Texas, in the summer, inside a car, the temperature can easily get up above 150 degrees. The frame and the lenses are still fine, but the coating they put on the exterior of the frame to make them fancy, pretty much seemed to melt down some, and began to flake up and off. Also, the "Iridium" coating on the lenses themselves began to flake off, even though the lenses were not scratched.

What is the point of all this? None really. I am about to invest in another pair. They are 170 + shipping at the Oakley store. They are completely customized, so its not like you can just grab some off the shelf. I keep a close eye on eBay to see if anyone is ever selling a a pair that I like. I found a guy who just happen to have a pair that are exactly like the ones I customized on Oakleys web page. I wheeled and dealed with him a little bit and talked him into 130 bucks (including shipping).

Oakleys are well worth the money. If you have the means, I recommend picking up a pair, they are so choice. This time I will not leave them to bake in my truck.