Fast food restaurants should begin serving happy meals for pets.

People seem to be having less human children and more pets. Some call themselves their pet's parent. (I have never called myself the parent of an animal). People seem to need to keep their pets with them and bring them in the car. So, why don't fast food restaurants have a happy meal for cats, another for dogs, one for assorted other pets like snakes, gerbils, rats, etc.

Likely the pet people would love this. Pets get thirsty and hungry too. Shopping trips, road trips, or just feeling like some hot French fries... why not also treat your pet?

On the plus side for restaurants (and people like myself who don't want pets in stores), the pet stays in the vehicle. No one gets bitten, has asthma or allergies and there is no poo to scoop - but pet mommies and daddies can give their animal a pet fast food treat while they have their own people fast food.

Start planning the packaging.

Why don't stores, with online shopping, use more gamification?

Games online use it, but they don't have the merchandise to take it farther. I think an online shopping retail outlet, like Amazon, Walmart, Shopify, Etsy, etc. should combine with an existing game site. Or go on their own with a game developer of their choosing. But, it would be simpler, cost effective, to work with an existing game and merge together.

Set up an account and create a character (your personal avatar won't start with much, features can be earned) - you get a permanent 5% discount on anything you buy, as long as you keep that account. This could be limited to early adopters, which of course, could last an entire year. After that they would have to spend X amount of money to get the permanent 5% discount.

Use your character to battle the mighty monster and get 10% off your purchase. This carries on with different discounts as they level up. If they want to buy books have them fight a library related monster - get a discount and a badge (level one). If they buy electronics they battle something related, with levelling up, discounts for successfully defeating the monster. When they get to level ten in defeating that particular monster they get another reward, a feature.

Features can be unlocked. People can spend X amount, level up, post to social media, to earn a garden, a farm, a house, different outfits for their character, more and better weapons, seasonal and holiday stuff to decorate their house and character. It can go on forever. Once someone has everything there are better everything, deluxe this and premium that, for them to work towards.

People won't want to shop somewhere else and miss out on points and rewards for their character.

Of course, characters can be posted to social media, with branding for the store. A mobile application which they can take with them anywhere and show off to friends. Bragging rights for who has the most, gets the best, etc.

Rewards can include branded merchandise too. Send them a 'store name' Christmas t-shirt as a reward they can wear outside of the game. Also merchandise which proclaims their status as a big winner, a home owner, etc. at the 'store name' online shop.

Bring in guilds so people can meet at the online shop and get together to buy more. Let them pool their resources to make big purchases together. Sell them credit cards to build up more online shopping points with the store.

People who level up and have lots of rewards can be featured on the site. A reward for being such a loyal shopper and an example/ showcase of what others can achieve with store loyalty and frequent shopping.

How nice does it sound to spend a lot of time shopping, bargain hunting, day tripping around town and not spending any of your own money? In fact, you get paid to do it!

I doubt the actual job is as deluxe as it sounds. Working for someone else is still working for someone else, following rules, having a schedule, meeting a budget and so on. But, it does sound like an ideal job for a shopaholic or a hoarder. Lots of window shopping without stacking up your credit card debt or having a home full of clutter.

Your clients would range from business people too busy to get all their errands run, senior citizens or others who can't get around easily, and others who don't want to do the research to decide what the best buy would be. It would be a busy around holidays like Christmas. Still, a career you could keep up all year, taking advantage wedding season and other times when people traditionally buy more.

Would it be a creative job? Possibly. The research (looking for the item at the best price or something harder to find) could be interesting and creative. Helping clients come up with colours and designs that would would give you a creative outlet too. You might get some travel in it, if you need to drive into an urban area to stock up for someone or buy more exclusive items.

I’m going to buy a new computer. Ding dang the bells are going to shine…! Consider that musically inclined and it will make more (some) sense.

I just received part of my income tax return and I am going to spend it on a new PC. My current PC is an IBM NetVista, about fix (five or six, at this point it doesn’t matter it’s just OLD) years old. I have my beady little eye on the HP Pavilion I’ve been drooling over at a few computer shops. But, I am limited to spending about $700 including taxes and that’s Canadian bucks. I actually think I can do it. I’ve been looking at the flyers and there is hope.

But, it has been awhile since I’ve been computer shopping. I used to think the most essential thing was to get double whatever they offered in RAM. Now I think I also want to get the dual core processor puppy. It sounds good. Does anyone have advice?

I know I want to go with a PC, Macs are more expensive (must be that ad campaign costing them a bundle and I’m not helping them pay for their PC bashing). I would like to partition the hard drive and add Ubuntu as my main OS and yet keep Windows for other programs I have gotten used to having around. So whatever PC I buy will have to be adaptable to my mad science experiments. Also, a yearly reformatting of the hard drive, much like the geese flying south, it’s just something I have to do.