FLOG

Prosiga as fotos scary, FLOG™!

Unfortunately, your photos are inadequate for my German Techno Band needs. I'm going to call the band Zauberflote!

Aw, too bad. My emo band just released our first EP, "The Unbearable Bears." We went a picture of an old man waiting for a bus in the rain. The sad little frost bug would have been better.

Re: photo blog. There ain't nuthin' wrong with that but isn't this thing supposed to have a law school theme? Where's the wacky anecdotes about stinky trustbunnies studying to "fight the system on its own terms"? Or a run through on the incoming crop of Knight freshman? Don't you guys have an elborate initiation ceremony for these greens or is it a big secret you can't talk about?

Regular readers like you should know that FLOG isn't very good at having any sort of theme. It's not even good at doing what I say it's going to do. If I promise to post on something, it never happens. If I try to have a regular feature, it evaporates. I've given up planning posts, and just let them materialize out of the ether.

Sure, FLOG may have started as some sort of law school blog, but it's gone a whole lot of other places, and I don't feel like training it back. The minute I decide on a theme, my brain goes elsewhere. Indeed, if I declare this to be a photo blog, it will cease to be one. Best not to jinx it.

This is, without question, my least favorite Flog-topic ever. (Shudder.) Keep 'em coming!

Perhaps this is the time to bring up the praying mantis (at least I think that's what it was) that found its way into my apartment two weeks ago. It would take at least two dollars worth of those dimes you used before to measure from end-to-end (uh, proboscis? thorax? back to Outdoor School for me!).

It took two swings with different shoes to kill, then a paper towel-reinforced plastic bag to remove. I hate, hate, hate bugs.

These five minutes of horror were matched only by the month of horror brought upon by "Brood X" earlier this summer.

Praying mantissss, (how the hell do you make that plural?) anyway they are very scary. I see them off and on and I'm alway horrified and fascinated. I think I would probably have run screaming from the room and left it to the dogs and cats to dispose of if I were you.

Side note: Did you know that you can buy bags of Praying Mantises from garden supply places. They are apparently very beneficial for eating bad garden bugs. I can't decide if it is creepier to buy a bag of lady bugs or a bag of praying mantii. I too hate bugs.

Mantises? I like mantii, though I think it would have to end in a "us" for the Latin plural-i to kick in.

Anyway, that was my first mantis, unless you count Zorak from Space Ghost.

Thing is, I never even got a straight on view of it -- I only saw it from above/the back. The thing had attached itself to my air conditioner, and I didn't notice it until I went to go turn it down. My hand was barely six inches from it by the time I registered its presence, and barely 5.9999 inches away when I leapt back in terror.

Speaking of lady bugs, I had an inexplicable lady bug problem back in my old apartment. Once or twice a week, one would mysteriously appear in the window sill right above my bed, or worse, on my bed. I could never explain it. No other bugs got in. Usually they were dead, but occasionally they would fly around. I didn't like either very much.

This new place also has daddy long legses (?). I don't like them much either, but they're so wispy I can pretty much blow them out the door like a dust bunny -- which I am pleased is not a living creature. Although the microscopic mites that live in them certainly are.

Ah, they're not so bad. The fact the they mantis was hanging around on your air conditioner is, if anything, adorable. All he/she wanted to do was cool down.

Ants are one thing, spiders another. They're creepy and annoying. Lady bugs are cute and praying manti are cool. Enough with the bug bashing!