Alex Jones is making me crazy.

Alex Jones is making me crazy. Why is it that every time I listen to his show or go onto his website, I'm punched in the face with commercials and banners for survival and apocalyptic riot gear. Talk about advertisers targeting their demographic. Did you know that there's such a thing as an Atmospheric Water Generator?

All of that aside, he makes a lot of really good points, but his presentation is so harsh that I think many people just shut out the message. People don't like to be yelled at, and the messenger doesn't always need a blow horn.

Life, it is a changing. . .

I'm in week six since starting at Sherlock's, and my life has completely changed. No longer am I fielding calls from angry, frustrated customers, half of which can't tell a power button from a hole in their head. Now, I am the day manager for one of the highest grossing pub/restaurants in the city.

My job is pretty cut and dry. I set up the show, I'm like the back stage crew. I enter all of the numbers, code invoices, choose trivia questions, and see who's winning the fantasy football league. I make sure that the ship is running well, and everything that needs to be, is in line. We open at 11am and start serving lunch, which is generally pretty slow. I walk around, greet people at their tables, and make sure the beer is nice and cold. The major difference is the customers. Instead of dealing with people who are already pissed off when they called me, I'm dealing with people who generally, are just looking for a good time, something good to eat and cold to drink.

Gone are the mundane hours of variances and two and a half hour long calls, logging every few words into the big database. Now, I have about five to ten different things to do on any given day, which are rarely the same on any two days, and one of my very best friends is also my boss. There are about five people that I met right off the bat right after moving back to Austin in 1999, Ron being one of them.

It was about nine weeks ago that my manager at Apple pulled me aside to let me know that my customer satisfaction scores had been slipping. He asked what else I would like to be doing within the company, so I told him, the same position I had been applying for the last 3 years, management. He asked me to give him another six months to try and work something out for me. The very next day, Ron called and asked me if I would like to be his new day manager. I interviewed with the outgoing general manager, with the area director, and finally the vice president of the company, and got the job.

On my last day at Apple, my manager made the comment that he had walked many people out of the building on their last day, most of them kicking and screaming. He had never walked anyone out with the huge shit eating grin that I had on my face. Never had he seen anyone so happy to be walked out of the building.

Anyway, in other news, due to the fact that I'm not staring at a computer screen for nine hours a day, my bulletin, blog and Youtube video sharing is WAY down, and will likely remain so. I have found that it's been a lot better for my mental health as well, to be relatively cut off from all of the conspiracy that's found here on the inter-tubes. I still get to browse the titles of many other videos that my friends here on Myspace and Youtube post, but I rarely watch more than one every few days. It's all begun to repeat itself anyway, it's like it's all on a loop, and every few months the same videos resurface as "breaking news" and "must see". I've seen them all, I've taken in as much as I can handle.

So, outside of work and personal computing, there is the rest of life. I went camping in Tanglewood again this last weekend with James, Katy, and the rest of the Tanglewood crew. Here were the entries for this year's pumpkin carving contest:



And the the winner, with bragging rights until next year: James!


The weekend before that I went fishing in Canyon lake with Rick and his Dad:


And the rest of the time, Rachel and I have been working on our new, and very first, vegetable garden. I've got pretty much everything you can imagine in there: tomatoes, greens, squash, broccoli, cabbage, onions, you name it.


It's been pretty fulfilling, and extremely relaxing. We're even starting from seedlings and transplanting into the main garden box. The only real problem has been these little guys:


I've built one screened box to keep them out, but it's taking longer that I expected to build these things, so every afternoon when I get home, I curse them and get back to work. They even crawl under the one I have to get at the roots.

Jambalaya Recipee

I make my Jambalaya partly on the stove, then finish it in the oven. Since I'm using Chicken and Shrimp I want my stock to have those flavors, real simple. I heat up the right amount of Chicken Stock and add some raw Shrimp shells to it and simmer for about 15-20 minutes! It gives it a quick little infusion. I do the same thing when making a Cassoulet, except with Lamb bones, if I'm using Lamb. The Jambalaya Recipe:

New Orleans Cuisine Recipe - Shrimp and Chicken Jambalaya

Seasoning Mix (1/4 tsp Cayenne, 3/4 tsp White Pepper, 1 tsp Kosher Salt, 1/4 tsp Thyme, 1/2 tsp Rubbed Sage, 1/4 tsp Dried Basil, 1/2 tsp Black Pepper)

1 Tbsp Unsalted Butter

1/2 Cup Diced Andouille

1/2 Cup Diced Onion

1/2 Cup Diced Bell Pepper

1/2 Cup Diced Celery

1/2 Cup Diced Fresh Tomatoes

1/2 Cup Tomato Sauce

3/4 Cup Enriched Long Grain Rice

1 1/4 Cup Chicken Stock with a Shrimp shell infusion (see above)

1 Tbsp Homemade Worcestershire Sauce

2 Tbsp Minced Fresh Garlic

1/2 Cup Diced Chicken (Cooked or raw)

1 1/2 Cup Medium Shrimp (I use Louisiana)

1 Tbsp Finely Chopped Italian Parsley

3 Tbsp Finely Sliced Green Onions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix together the Holy Trinity (Onion, Celery, Bell Pepper).

In a Cast Iron Dutch Oven, melt the butter over medium heat, add the Andouille and cook until it just starts to brown. Add 1/2 of the Holy Trinity, cook until the vegetables are tender (nothing smells better than rendering Andouille with the Holy Trinity). Add the diced Tomatoes and cook for 1 minute. Add the Tomato Sauce and cook for another minute. Add the Rice and cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the Stock, the remaining Holy Trinity, Seasoning Mix, Worcestershire, and the Garlic. Taste the broth for seasoning, particularly salt. Add the Chicken, stir well and put the pot in the preheated oven. Bake uncovered for 25 minutes. After the twenty-five minutes stir in the raw Shrimp, Parsley, and Green Onions, place back in the oven for an additional 10 minutes, or until the Shrimp are cooked through. Serve with French Bread and your favorite Beer.

So, last week was a good one. I was picked by my manager at Apple to go to San Francisco for the World Wide Developers Conference to represent the iPhone Beta support team. Unless you’ve been living in a cave or just don’t care about such things, Steve Jobs announced last Monday that we will be releasing a new iPhone, the iPhone 3G, which is faster over cellular networks has yadda, more yadda, and better yadda yadda.

Anyway, I spent my time at the conference, then had plenty of extra time to spend with Camille, Jon, and Alycee. We had dinner almost every night, Jon cooked some homemade ravioli and halibut one night which was delicious!

We spent a few hours hiking in the mountains one day, and an afternoon at the beach another. While we were at the beach, a seal waddled right up to where we were!

Overall, the trip was great, and I really needed a trip out of town since Dad died. It’s really strange what’s been happening to me lately. Everyone knows that I’ve always been into UFO’s and aliens and things like that, especially in the last few years. What has happened though, is that my research into the topic has lead me to modern day theoretical speakers like Michael Tsarion, David Wilcock, and Davis Icke. Many of the ideas and theories that they talk about are far beyond modern day Christian beliefs, but like all religions mirror each other, so do these modern prophets. I have delved deep into these theories, and have found myself more awake, more alive, and more knowledgeable than ever before in my life. Meditation and love have helped me to deal with the repercussions of my father’s death in a way that I never could have been prepared for.

Dad taught me to meditate for the first time when I was just a young boy, no more than 10 or so, and I remember thinking that my Dad was like Yoda, and I was Luke, learning the ways of the force. I meditated only a handful of time since then, but started learning more about different meditation techniques, Chakras, and psi powers about 2 months before he was killed. I started to realize the powers of thought, learned “The Secret”, and the nature of matter as energy. Then suddenly, Dad was killed, and I knew what had happened before my mother even told me that it had. Of all the souls I have ever come across in my life, Dad had the strongest, and I have no doubt that he lives on and continues to teach me even now. I haven’t seen his ghost, but I have felt his influence.

I definitely feel wiser today than I ever have, but at the same time, recognize that I know nothing. I feel connected to the energy of the universe, to life, in a way that I never have before, and words like Lightworker, and Starseed invoke strong feelings in my core. While in some respects I feel withdrawn, and now separated from the rest of the world, I now feel more than ever that it will soon be my responsibility to lead people into a better way of living. In that, I feel connected in a totally different way to many people I’ve never even met. I have spoken of great changes to come in the past, and now is the time. The next month will reveal a great many things to you, so keep your hearts and minds open to the miracles that will be in front of you.

Time Travel

The dream started out hearing of my Aunt's death, who is very much alive. My immediate family and I went to my Uncle's house for the funeral, but it was a huge complex. They live in Alabama, and I've never actually been there, but in my dream it was a huge place with it's own parking garage built into the side of a gigantic river valley. If you stood at the top of the valley it was probably 2 miles to the other side, with a wide river running through at the bottom a good mile down.

I remember walking through the interior of the complex, through parking garages, up and down stairs, and visiting with family members. It was a lot like my Dad's wake, uncomfortable, and a lot of milling around. At one point one of my Uncle's encouraged my brother, my mom, and I to go outside to watch an air show. We climbed a few levels of the parking garage, up two flights of stairs and out a stadium style entrance near the top of the valley. There were hundreds of people scattered about, and I emerged just in time to see a wake boarder dropped out of an airplane into the river below.

My mom gasped, thinking that he was surely dead, but I assured her that he probably did that sort of thing all the time. We made out way over to cement stairs and the grade of the hill was incredibly steep, almost vertical. I struggled to keep my footing, holding on to the handrail coming from the stairs. I told my brother to go ahead in front of me and as he did, he feet slipped out from underneath and he hit his head on one of the steps. The grade was so steep that his foot caught a crevasse and flipped him head over feet. He landed limp on his face and slid hundreds of feet down the hill. I tried chasing him, yelling the whole time, "Please someone catch him!" but no one saw and no one stopped him.

I woke up at 5am this morning to a strobe light in my window. Lightning flashing over and over again. I closed by eyes and saw my brother falling, I opened them and was blinded by continuous lightning. It was almost 2 hours before I was able to fall asleep again.

Then I was back at my parent's house and we had just finished installing a hot tub in the back of their property. My dad and my brothers were all there, and I got really excited that I would be able to ask my Dad some of the questions I never got to ask. I went up to him, but before I opened my mouth he said, "It doesn't matter." I knew it was 2005 and I asked him why we were here. He said this is when it happened, that reality split on this day, and since then, there was nothing we could do to change it. Things were as they should be. He told me that I should always go first so that I will be there to catch my brothers when they fall. You can't support someone if you're above them, you have to be beneath them.

And then I woke up for the second time. The lightning had been outshone by the sun, but it was still raining.

SUV/18-wheeler wreck kills Bastrop County man

Last Update: 4/23/2008 9:46 am


Northbound lanes of SH-130 are open after a Wednesday morning fatal collision between a SUV and tractor-trailer rig.

A DPS dispatcher says it happened about a mile north of the Chandler Road overpass moments before 5 a.m. Investigators say a SUV struck the rear of a slower moving tractor-trailer rig.

DPS troopers say the semi-truck was traveling below the posted speed limit at the time it was hit. The force of the impact shoved the front of the Chevrolet Suburban's front into the passengers' compartment, practically telescoping the vehicle.

The driver of the SUV, identified as 59-year-old Alcee Gonzague Mouton of Cedar Creek, was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the 18-wheeler, Joe Sandoval, 39, of Kingwood, was taken to Seton Medical Center in Georgetown for observation.

Traffic investigators are trying to determine why the big truck was moving slowly in the travel lanes of SH-130.

The northbound lanes of SH-130 were closed for several hours Wednesday morning as traffic investigators sorted through the scattered debris.

A short autobiography

I was raised as a Texan, Cajun, Catholic, Eagle Scout, I love my wife, and my huge family. I’m loyal to the end to my friends and believe in working hard. I’m into Sci-Fi, Saturday morning cartoons, action movies, and computers, and I have been collecting comic books for 20 years.

I worked in the restaurant business for 15 years, love to cook, and love to be in the kitchen. For most of that time I dreamt of being and actor, but it was not meant to be. For the last 5 years I’ve worked in computers for Apple, restaurants, and have a DBA for my own consulting business, Mouton Solutions.

I like to write, take pictures, camp, tube the Comal, and once in a while, I’ll even play a video game. I’m not really into music, but I listen to podcasts all the time. That’s me in a nutshell.

Pretty much my whole life is in these pages, so enjoy the show.