So it pays to put your pieces on the squares badly in the hope of having an opponent this annoys.

Lol..And pretend to adjust your hearing aid...now that's just not cricket is it Scott.

So I started hitting the tactics trainer hard.I've probably solved over 100 puzzles at the 13-1400 level so far. Ones under 1300 I get right most of the time.... They take me like 2-5 minutes though, but I figure that's OK since the games are 120/d5. Some I am struggling with.... I'm hoping that I may actually have a chance of beating someone at my tournament lol...or at least tying. I'd really like to see haw I would do with people who have been playing for a couple months like I have, but this won't happen....

Do you think I should continue hitting up the tactics, or should I spend more time playing live games? I am still struggling with the clock. Its really distracting for me and leads me towards blundering at times.

I am still not prepared for openings. I need to look at that some more I think. Thanks for the advice guys...

If I could make an accurate metaphor I'd try for this...Tactics Trainer allows you to learn how to manuever around tight corners and pass people in traffic at high speeds.

Chess Mentor, studying games, practicing against machines, etc...help you learn how to back the car out of the drive way and master driving a stick.

I think this because I do a lot of Tactics Trainer and hover around 12-1400 while not doing enough to learn positional play and developing my pieces correctly. 

Yes, I remember my first "official" OTB tournament. I played it some weeks ago. For more information check my blog about it. ;)
However, it is very recommended to know most of your opponent. It will give you self-confidence. Some opening lines that you know are always a nice way of starting the tourney. I have never played longer game than 60 min & it was against my friend. I'm not rated, so I don't know much about it. I played just 11 blitz games. :)

I vividly remember my first tournament game, particularly how nervous I was. In the first round, I blundered into a simple pawn fork in the opening and lost in a bout 25 moves. Based on that glorious record, here is some advice:

Relax! Take a few deep breaths, so your pulse can slow down, Move slowly in the opening, don't worry about falling slightly behind on the clock--it won't matter. The important thing is not to rush into a blunder while your nerves are still acting up. 

If you've never played with a clock before, or kept a written score, you might want to practice a little first, so that you won't be distracted. After a few minutes, you will be immersed in the position and your nerves will have calmed down, so the important thing is to get through the first few moves without making any mistakes. 

If you've never played a slow tournament game before, you may find the lengthy concentration tiring, so get plenty of sleep! And don't forget to hit your clock.

I can't remember who said it, possibly NM Dan Heisman, but it goes something like this: the brain can only absorb a few new patterns in one go, so more than say 30 minutes of tactics training at a time won't be of much use.

If that's true then it sounds like you're doing too much tactics and should find more of a balance. If it isn't true then 8 hours still sounds like too much to me.

The move h3-and-a-half can be quite useful... it can be adjusted either forward or backward, as the case requires.

I think you may be right. I'm really improving my board sight with the tactics, and pattern recognition is becoming a bit easier as well. I think I should look at openings a bit at this point and maybe a few games.