Friday, December 22, 2006

Miss Nevada Nude Photos

Well I heard this morning on HNN from my favorite newswoman Robin Meade that Miss Nevada has been stripped of her title for letting herself be photographed in the nude or near nude. She is one beautiful woman and I see no problem with her showing off her assets. The pictures were taken 5 years ago so give her a break! If you want to view the photos of Katie Rees go to:
http://splashnewsonline.blogspot.com/2003/12/photos-that-stripped-ms-nevada-of-her.html

Honey and honeystix for Sale

In my quest to earn extra income to put towards my anticipated early retirement I am helping out a friend who is a beekeeper. He is the sole proprietor of Golden Delight Honey Farms. He sells Louisiana Wildflower Honey, Honeystix, Chunk Honey, Cut Honeycomb, Bee Pollen, Propolis, Beeswax soaps and candles.

Bee products can be used as a natural remedy for several ailments:Bee Pollen- Bee pollen is very rich in vitamins, and contains almost all known minerals, enzymes, trace elements, and amino acids. These compounds provide the human body with everything it needs. As a nutritional supplement, bee pollen helps to build the human immune system and aids in providing energy for the entire human body. Bee pollen contains B-complex vitamins along with vitamins A, C, D, and E. In addition, it contains beta carotene, selenium, and lecithin, all minerals helpful to the body. This combination of elements results in bee pollen’s use as a great anti-oxidant. Research has demonstrated that bee pollen has an immunizing effect, while simultaneously enhancing vitality and helping to expel toxins from the body.Propolis- Propolis is usually sold in health food stores as a natural organic medicine for its powerful local antibiotic and antifungal properties. It is also used to treat skin burns, allergies, canker sores, and as a remedy for sore throat. It may stimulate the immune system, but it should not be taken if the user is likely to have severe allergic reaction to bees.I will post product prices soon but for now if you want to know more about the products or order you can email me at somadude1@yahoo.com

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Nicole Richie busted for DUI, Admits Vicodin Use

Nicole Richie was arrested for DUI, but was under the legal limit for alcohol. She admitted to taking Vicodin and smoking pot. She only weighs 85 pounds, probably a half a vicodin would get her loopy. She was previously busted for heroine possession so maybe she has a greater tolerance than I think. Anyhow you can read the account for yourself at Nicole Richie Got Busted

Thursday, November 30, 2006

Britney Upskirt Photos - ugh!

This is a bit off topic but what the heck. Be careful of what you ask for because you might get it. Here it is in all is glory? Egotasitc an entertainment blog has been running a bit on the slow side for the past few days and blames all those Britney Spears upskirt pictures. The site has been dealing with traffic levels over 200,000 pageviews per hour.

Thursday, November 16, 2006

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Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Easy Order Medications

I placed my second order for medication with http://medstation.blogspot.hsnsecure.com. It came with free overnight delivery in discrete packaging just as before. These guys are hard to beat. You save on a doctors visit and free delivery! They have a liscensed MD look over your questionaire and a registered pharmacist dispense the medication in a regular medication bottle with a label just like you would get at any other pharmacy. Check them out they have many many medications for sale.

Thursday, November 09, 2006

My new corn snake

Saturday I went to a reptile show with my this years offspring to see if I could trade for some new bloodlines. My adult corn snakes are getting old and I am afraid that they may not be able to breed soon. I don't raise snakes just to sell but I give some away, trade some and sell some sometimes. All of the amelanistic hatchlings turned out to be male and the normal is female. I wanted to keep the normal and get it a mate from a different bloodline. I ended up trading one of the amelanistics for a anerythristic female corns. So now I have 2 male amelanistic and 2 females one normal and one enrythristic. Some new blood in the collection will be good and if the new snakes are hetero for anything maybe after a few generations maybe I will have different morphs. I make little money if any, and probably spend more feeding them but hobbies are good and when I retire I may get more other species and make a little money off of the offspring.

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Dealing with pain

I do not deal with pain well. Today when I was working in the field, I was bitten by a harvester ant on my wrist. I have been bitten by them before and although those bites were painful, My wrist got swollen and it hurt everytime I moved my fingers. Well I have a prescription for ultram from an online pharmacy. bestmedicationstation.com is a great online pharmacy. It helped me a lot.

Friday, October 27, 2006

Cheap Soma, Ultram, and Fioricet

Order Soma (Carisoprodol), Ultram (Tramadol), Fioricet, and many other prescription medications online. Just go to bestmedicationstation.com and order meds online. It is the best online pharmacy I have ever used. They also have viagra, cialis, and many many other drugs.

Thursday, October 19, 2006

More Money from Interest

People always are aware of what their CD and money market accounts pay in interest. It is also a good idea to periodically check what interest you are getting on savings and checking. I recently opened a checking account that pays 4.0% and a savings account that pays 5.25%. Before I was getting no interest on checking and about 3% on savings. These new rates do add up to serious money because every penny counts. Those extra percentage points just put me that much closer to being able to retire.

Monday, October 16, 2006

Save Money on Prescriptions

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Friday, September 29, 2006

A New Corn Snake Morph?














The more I look at one of my hatchlings I wonder if I have a new corn snake morph or just a a natural variant normal corn snake. Usually the parents of this hatchling produce amelanistic, anerythristic, snow, and normal phase offspring. This time I got four amelanistic and one that I thought at first was normal. The more I looked at the "normal " corn I noticed things like it had very little red on its body. There is no red in the saddles and only a little splotch of red between each saddle. There is no red coloration on its sides, and the on neck the saddles break in the middle and creates a red line down the top of the neck. I have looked on websites that show the different morphs of corn snakes and I have not seen anything that really looks like this snake. The closest morph to it I think is the "black albino" but with the little red splotches, striped neck, and red on its face. Maybe if someone out there reads this and had seen this variation of corn snake before, they could please leave a comment.

Monday, September 25, 2006

Snakes on a Planet

Not just a plane but the whole MFing Planet. We have to share this planet with snakes, lizards, bugs, sharks and every other kind of creepy crawly thing imaginable. I happen to like snakes ans no I have not seen the movie yet. I am sure it will purpetuate the ignorance of many people. I have two people in my family who will kill any snake they see, their motto being "the only good snake is a dead snake". How we share many of the same genes is a mystery to me. Snakes are beneficial, they eat rodents and keep their populations down. If rodent populations go unchecked they spread diseases like hantavirus. I would rather be bitten by a snake than get hantavirus. Most snake are harmless to humans. You could count the venomous ones in the US without even having to take off your shoes. Learn the what the few venomous ones look like, stay away from those, and you need never be afraid of snakes again.

Sunday, September 24, 2006

My Snake Babies

As I reported in an earlier post www.oneyearcloser.blogspot.com/2006/09/i-have-snake-eggs.html that my corn snake eggs were hatching. Unfortunately egg hatching success was not very good, only 5 eggs hatched. This could have been for several reasons:
  1. The parents are getting old
  2. Her laying took me by surprise and I was not prepared
  3. The eggs were not prepared for incubation right away
  4. I do not have an incubator so I incubated them at room temperature

What I did once I noticed that she had laid eggs, was to use moistened vermiculite in a plastic whipped topping box. I put a few airholes in the lid and put a probe thermometer through the lid. I placed the eggs in the vermiculte as best I could, trying to keep the eggs in the same orientation as they were laid. Then I put the container in the top of a closet in a room that stays fairly warm. According to the thermometer, the tempeture remained pretty stable around 80F.

Even though I only had five eggs hatch, the hatchlings are beauties. I had 4 amelanistic, like the father and one that is close to the "normal phase" of corn snakes. To me the dark one is the most beautiful, it only has a small amount of red in btween the dark splotches and instead of splotches it has lengthwise stripes on its neck. I have not been keeping up with all the designer corns that have come out in the last few years, but if anyone knows if this is a known variant, please let me know.

I plan to keep the dark one but I will probably sell the others. Anyone interested in an amelenistic corn snake? They are hearty eaters, I have fed them twice and all of them quickly devoured their pinks both times. Wel, talk is cheap so I am going to post some photos of them. Also in the previous post http://www.oneyearcloser.blogspot.com/2006/09/i-have-snake-eggs.html the photos of the parents and the eggs are finally up, so make sure you go back and check them out.

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Saturday, September 23, 2006

Save Money Cutting Your Own Hair

Since one of my goals is to retire early, and to retire early one needs to save money now, I have posted an artcle about how I save money cutting mine and my wife's hair. The article can be read at my other blog http://retireearly767.blogspot.com/. I give credit where credit is due. I came up with the article from a series of comments I made to an article called DIY haircuts- Bring out your bowls! It was more about the bowl cut or the Moe Howard look than my trimmer method but informative non the less. I guess the next writer to jump on the bandwagon will expound on the benefits of the flobee (I am not sure if thats the correct spelling) or the vacuum hair trimmer. Anyway give it a read, comment if you like.

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Military Coup in Thailand

While I was home for lunch, I watched CNN and they were talking about this military coup against the prime Minister of Thailand. When I was there about 2 years ago about half the Thais loved him and about half seemed to hate him. I was told he was a very rich man owning large corporations and that he was corrupt. Others said he was too strict on drinking hours, bar girls ands such. Disclaimer: this is just what I heard. Here is todays story: BANGKOK, Thailand - The Thai military launched a coup against Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on Tuesday night, circling his offices with tanks, seizing control of TV stations and declaring a provisional authority pledging loyalty to the king. The army commander took over the government and declared martial law.

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Saturday, September 16, 2006

Free Stuff

Who does not like free stuff? One of my favorite ways of getting free stuff is going to radio station promos. They are usually at car dealerships, and I like looking at new cars even if I really have no plans to buy one. If I am riding round town and hear about a radio station promo in town, I go there. I almost always get a free t-shirt, sometimes they have cool door prizes, and usually there is free pizza and soda (saves me money on lunch). The more money I save the closer I come to my goal and thats what counts. Do you think I am right?

Thursday, September 14, 2006

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Wednesday, September 13, 2006

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Photos of Snakes


I have not yet been able to post the photos of my hatchling snakes and their parents. The photos are on my other computer and it is having problems. So I decided should post some other photos. Here is a photo of a black masked racer I caught and released in the Delta National Forest in MS.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Faking Sick to get out of Work

I sure did not want to getout of bed and come to work this morning. I briefly thought about calling in sick. I have plenty of sick days and I havent taken a vacation in a year and a half. I need to schedule a vacation but I have so much work to do that I am afraid all that mess will back up on me and I will come back the even more work and along with it more stress. I could live on less pay if I had a job with less responsibility but I worry that if I do not make as much money as possible now I will not be able to retire (early I hope). I saw yesterday that some woman won a million dollars on the lottery twice. The most I have ever won is $5, I am happy for her but where is my luck. I must not be rubbing Buddahs belly enough or something.

Friday, September 08, 2006

Borrow Money or Loan Money

I stumbled across a website: www.prosper.com. You can request loans or you can bid on loans at higher interest rate than you would normally get. I got a bonus check of $400 that i did not expect, so I decided to invest in financing borrowers. It has not yet been a month yet so I have not recieved a payment yet but my loans verage about 16% interest. It is an experiment that I hope works out, and if it does I will loan out more. Check it out and see if you think it is a scam or a worthy investment.

Thursday, September 07, 2006

I Have Snake Eggs

I have raised snakes for about 16 years. I have raised only colubrids and boids (non-venomous) such as corn snakes, various species of Kingsnakes and Milkesnakes as well as gopher, bull and pine snakes. I have also raised sand boas. When I graduated college finally, my work kept me busy and I began to neglect my snakes. I decided to donate all of them to a fellow who does educational outreach to children, but I also decided to keep one pair of snakes. This pair though not especially exotic or rare was special to me. I kept the first pair of captive bred corn snakes I ever bought at the first reptile show I had ever been to. I bought them at the yearly reptile expo they have in Orlando, Fl. in 1992 0r 1993. I bought a amelanistic male and a normal phase female. what I did not know was that they are both heterozygous (recessive gene) for anerythrism (big word mean no red). So when they mated I got 4 different colored offspring. I got some amelanistic, anerythristic, normals, and snow corns (kind of all white, but you can see kind of greenish out lines of the pattern). Anyhow, used to breed them every year and sell or trade the offspring for what ever reptiles I fancied at the time. I have not bred them in maybe 5 years or more. Well, this year i though, what the hell, lets see if they will actually breed again. The female laid eggs on June 25, and here are pictures of the parents and the eggs.

The amelanistic male

The normal female

The eggs

Monday, September 04, 2006

The Crocodile Hunter Dead

Steve Irwin "the crocodile hunter" died while diving in the Great Barrier Reef. A stingray barb peirced his heart. You can read his obituary here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060904/ap_on_en_tv/obit_irwin_27

I was not particularly fond of his shows, not that I do not like programs on snakes and crocodiles, but I always felt he was a bit reckless. It would not matter to me that he was reckless with venomous animals except that so many people watched his shows and I am sure many tried to emulate him. I am not afraid of venomous snakes but I do respect them. I have never been bit by one but as I do handle them from time to time it could happen. I am sure he raise awareness for the natural world as well as educated people and that is a good thing.

Monday, August 28, 2006

Slow Night for Tuk Tuks


A fleet of tuk tuks waiting outside of the night bazaar in Chiang Rai, Thailand. Not a busy night as I recall.

A Little on the Sexist Side

You will have to click on the photograph to enlarge it enough to see the sign. I took this at a temple in Chiang Mai, Thailand. I am not sure why "lady cannot enter" and my wife did not do a very good job of explaning it to me. It did not seem to bother her though so I guess in her culture it is normal.

Saturday, August 26, 2006

My New House


Now the one downside to selling your home, even at a pretty good profit is that you are going to have to buy another. When I sold my house, it was a sellers market and I took advantage of it, but I moved to Baton Rouge to take a better job and needed to buy a house there. As luck would have it the week I sold my house in New Mexico, Hurricane Katrina hit MS and LA. Baton Rouge was spared most of the destruction, but the population of Baton Rouge doubled overnight and housing prices hit the roof. Houses that weren't selling at 130K the week before sold for 180K after the hurricane. I ended up waiting about 6 months for the housing market to adjust and finally bought a nice 3 bedroom house with about 1500 square feet in a nice neighborhood about 10 minutes away from both me and my wifes places of work. We paid 150k for it, but it is in immaculate shape with tiled kitchen and baths, hardwood floors in the living areas and hall, and Berber carpet in the bedrooms. So far, I am pleased with it.

My Best Investment


My best investment, by far, was to buy my first house. I was in graduate school and was only making about 12K a year. My wife was working in a large retail store as a Department Manager and was making nearly the same as me. I had some money saved up and impeccable credit so somehow we managed to buy a house. Now mind you, I was living the life of a grad student, so the house was not luxurious by any means, but it wasn't a dump either. We paid 57K for three bedrooms, two baths, and 1500 square feet of living space. The best thing about the house was the kitchen, it was huge. If I had not gotten a job out of state I would have liked to keep it. However, after living in it for 4 years and putting very little money into it (only minor repairs), we sold it for twice what we paid for it.

Friday, August 18, 2006

My Brother in Laws House in Thailand


This is a photo of my wifes brothers house in Chaing Mai, Thailand. He owns a small farm that produces papaya, lum yai (longan), and other fruits.

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Traveling Overseas

One of my favorite things to do when I have the time and money is to travel overseas. I have been to Mexico, The Bahamas, England, France, Italy, Spain, Algeria, Thailand, and Burma. Of these destinations my favorite by far is Thailand. One reason is that I have in-laws in Bangkok and Chaing Mai. I get along well with my in-laws and they like to travel within Thailand with me, showing us sites from a Thai perspective. The know I hate the tourist traps and take me to the more interesting places. Like I mentioned before, they want me to buy some land and a house there (In my wife's name of course) so I have a place to stay when I visit or retire. At this time they do not mind if I stay with them when I am there but they know that after a while I need some privacy. They are still the greatest in laws a farang (foreigner) could have.

Snakes on a Plane

In the Herpetological circles there is a lot of concern about the movie "Snakes on a Plane". Most herpetologist and biologist are concerned that this will add to the irrational fears of snakes that many people have. I have not seen the film and I am not sure it is even released yet, but I think that the at the very least the title is funny. There have been snake films in the past with titles such as hiss, slither, rattler, anaconda. Snakes on a plane is such a ultra simple title that I can't help but be amused by it. I am sure there are some people out there who will believe the things that happen in this film to be true snake behavior. They need to realize it is fantasy and just enjoy it (if it is any good). I will probably rent the CD when it is released and I will post a review at that time.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Today I was given another big project to manage. That is the third new project in less than a week and now I am juggling seven projects simultaneously. At least I am keeping busy at work. Last night my wife told me that her brother told her about a house in Chiang Mai, Thailand for $7000. We have talked about buying a place in Thailand to stay at when we visit her family and to use when we retire. I already own a piece of land (less than an acre) and a small cabin in the mountains in NM. Unfortunately she did not get any details on the property or the house. I would not buy anything unless I saw it myself anyway. However, it is a good excuse to go to Thailand when I can take some time off.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Snake Photography

Sometimes when I am working in the field I come across interesting animals. I have a lot of photos of snakes. I will post one or two of them from time to time.

Get rich slow or quick?

Since most of the get rich quick strategies are scams and I am probably too old to get rich slow, I would like to get rich at a slightly accelerated rate. Are there any books, tapes, or websites that offer advise on how to get rich at a slightly accelerated pace? Iwould like to retire in the next 15 years and have enough money to buy a house on the beach or in the mountains.

Things I am one year closer to:

  1. Paying off my mortagage
    Only 29 years to go! Actually I plan to pay at least two extra payments a year to pay it off early.
  2. Retiring
    I would like to retire at 60, but that is only 15 years away. Even though I max out my 401k and put 50% of the remainder in savings, I am not sure if I will be able to swing it.
  3. Collecting Social Security
    Provided there will still be money in the fund when I reach 67 1/2.
  4. Death
    Although inevitable, I would like to hold off on this as long as possible.