Random things

If you are looking for a cheap pet, get a praying mantis egg sac. They make great pets and while they aren’t dog, cat or kid safe, they are cheap ($10 for 200 babies), exotic and fun. You can keep them in a terrarium or for the more adventurous leash them with a thin cotton or silk thread and let them go free range. Ants are bad for them so feed them little pieces of ground meat or crickets. They can live 6 months, and if you have a bug problem you won’t anymore. Feed them well enough so they get nice and big and they can off small mice.

Speaking of pets,sure people breed dogs to be big, but no one is breeding big house cats. I think that would be cool but for safety reasons the lynx is about the safest size (say 30 lbs). (Cats are carnivores and only marginally social, so while a 150 lbs dog is safe, a cat of similar size might not be.) Imagine how cute they would be. If you think it is adorable when they bring you a bird or a mouse, imagine how adorable they would be if they could hunt deer or nutria. Speaking of hunting think of it, you could train them to stalk wild turkey or other hard to hunt game birds. Also consider the security applications, dogs aren’t subtle since they are pack hunters, a guard cat would sneak up on the intruder and pounce. The breeding would take 10 to 15 years unless a larger cat could be used as breeding stock, then a first generation could be ready in a few years, but it would probably take 5 or 6 years to ensure they are docile like normal house cats.

If you want to know who did it on one of those TV detective shows with in the first few minutes here is the key. For Law and Order type shows, it is always the semi-famous person; you know the one, the actor who has been on lots other shows, but isn’t famous enough to have a name ( be warned this doesn’t work if they are the victim.) For CSI and Crossing Jordan type shows, just pay close attention, the person who gets those weird little details that seem to have no reason, did it. If someone mentions in passing they have a weird hobby that will leave the key piece of evidence that spoils the otherwise prefect crime, they did it.

Ok sometimes I am wrong but I am right often enough there is no suspense. That is why I watch foreign TV shows and educational programming. Why? Asian programs don’t have a base in Victoria theater so they aren't predicable at all, and with UK and Canadian programs I don’t know their bit part actor well enough to guess.

Last but certainly not least if you want to save money, buy gas tomorrow. Gas has gone down quite abit since Katrina but is unlikely to go down anymore for awhile. With hurricane Rita on its way to Louisiana or Texas in the next few days, it is much more likely it will go up once all the Gulf Coast production is shuttered for the storm. If the refineries and/or platforms are damaged in the storm, then it will stay up for weeks. Why tomorrow? Because once people start to worry gas prices will rise from fear alone, even if the storm falls apart before it hits, so $2.639 will be $3 or more again soon. I am not suggesting hording or that there won’t be enough gas after the storm hits, but that saving 40 cents a gallon is never a bad thing.