Random Thoughts. How Original, eh?

One of my cousins has noticed the remodeled web site.

"I see it just enough to see you complain about Wal-Mart," he said.

Well, it wasn't a complaint about Wal-Mart as much as it was about the traffic light, but I digress.

You've no doubt noticed several blogs about Wal-Mart on here. That certainly is testament to the impact the store has in our lives.

Page Two (Paul Harvey salute/rip-off)

Blogs aren't supposed to be newsy; at least I don't think so. So at first, I was curious as to why the company wanted us to have blogs.

Not that you're reading this one, anyway. The stats show Kenny Felt's is overwhelmingly the most-read of the blogs. And as he said Wednesday, "When I get an idea in my head, I roll with it."

When I get an idea in my head, one of two things happen:

1) I can't develop the idea well enough. I've tried to blog about a couple of other things in the past 36 hours but they were just too weak to get anything more than a couple of paragraphs.

2) The thing that I'm afraid will happen is that I'll beat the idea to death, which is what happens a lot of time in my casual conversations. My mom will kick me or go "Ahhhemmmm" when she senses I'm about to do it. And going on and on about a thought is just as bad, if not worse, than not being able to make one work.

Page Three

The Australian Postal Service has outwitted me.

A couple of weeks ago, I won a book about Australian Rules Football (sorry, but I like football in pretty much any form, including Canadian football, Arena football, rugby and, yes, Aussie Rules.) on eBay from a lady in Geelong, which is a middle-sized city just outside of Melbourne.

No one was bidding on this book, which is a history of the game's first 100 years and it looks as if it's pretty thick with a lot of pictures from the game's early years. This piqued my curiosity so I bid on the book.

I was the only bidder and I won it for the equivalent of about $8 US. That included the shipping charge she had said would have to be included. Basically, I bought a book that would probably cost between $50-60 here for dirt-cheap.

Apparently, this nice lady had never shipped anything overseas before. But she didn't want to just say, "You bid, you bought, too bad," and offered to let me out of the purchase when she found out that shipping was going to cost $45 AU -- more because of the book's weight than the distance it was being shipped.

That turned about to be about $38.50 US. So I figured even after that, I've still got a bargain. I went ahead and paid the shipping. It arrived today, which seems pretty quick for an overseas shipment, but why quibble?

Bit it just goes to show you that you can get jobbed by the guvamint, even if it's not your own guvamint.

Page Four

I have a cat now. Maybe. Kinda. Sorta.

There's been a cat coming up to my apartment door on and off for about a week. He hung out at my front door for about three straight days a while back. I figured he must not have eaten during that time, so one of the nights I gave him a can of tuna. It was all I had. (Water packed; I didn't think tuna in oil would have been safe).

After that he disappeared for a couple of days. I don't think he's a stray because he has a collar, although I haven't taken the time to see if he has tags.

He came back this afternoon. I think he knows there are some birds nesting in the cranny and he really wants to get after them. I know this because he's been howling (screaming?) at them when sees one.

I imagine the confrontation, if one could translate it out of the native languages of "Bird" and "Cat," sounds something like this:

Birds: Hey, cat! You're not so tough! You have a collar! Go home and get some Tender Vittles!

Cat: I'll get you, Eh Steve! if it's the last thing I dooooooo!

Wow, who knew cats could surf the Internet?

(In order to get that reference, check out: http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail.html, scroll down to the one that says "crazy cartoon," and watch.)

Good day!