Syllabub.net

Accepting that this is rather ambitious I am trying to provide some examples of useful sites on the internet and some of the cool stuff you can use it for - this is clearly not going to be in any way comprehensive and is absolutely going to be subjective but my hope is that it will inspire new users to use the internet effectively to achieve some common tasks.

Finding Stuff

The most important starting point is figuring out how to find what you’re looking for - 99% of the time it will be there and most often they’ll be 10 or 1,000 sites offering what you’re looking for so this is where we need to start.

Search engines / Buying Stuff

There are several search engines (internet websites which will help you find stuff) such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask and many others. To keep it simple I suggest you use Google, and specifically use Google Toolbar. Use the auto-complete suggestions as these are most likely to provide the results you’re looking for.

How to search - the key here is to be explicit and direct. Think about what you want to find and be specific - there are a ton of sites and you want to narrow yourself to those which are actually about the subject you want. More is better.

For example “digital camera” is probably not going to help you if you want to buy a new camera. You need to decide what you’re looking for (maybe find a buyers guide) - so “digital camera buyers guide” is much better.

PS Amazon does this really well for most stuff and is where I’d start. Once you’ve decided which one you want then use this as your search “canon ixus 65″ will take you to the shopping comparison sites:

• Froogle
• PriceRunner
• Amazon
• eBay

I know that Amazon and eBay aren’t really comparison sites but for an awful lot of stuff they’re the cheapest place to go (and often won’t be listed by the actual comparison sites). Also for product reviews Amazon is second to none - though don’t be put off by the odd bad review - there’s a lot of funny people out there!

Really useful reference site

Wikipedia - the world’s largest resource for knowledge - this is an amazing social experiment - anyone can create and edit an entry - this is the sum of all human knowledge - if you want to find out about anything then this is a great place to start.

Travel

• Train times - you can tailor this to your requirements - so for me I have Epsom to Waterloo to see when my next train is.
• London - tubes, trains, buses

Flights
All the major airlines have their own site - I won’t list them all, but there are a couple of nice comparison sites

• Which Budget - lists routes for all the budget airlines - so if you’re planning a mini-break to Budapest you can see who flies there
• TravelJungle - finds the cheapest flights for a given route
• CheapFlights - ditto
• EasyJet - really well laid out site - easy to find a cheap weekend - it will suggest other dates so if you’re not bothered about when you travel you can easily find out when is best to go.

We have continued the training and there is some real improvement - Toby is walking nicely to heel now, which isn’t to say that he doesn’t occasionally pull, nor that he isn’t slightly distracted by other dogs, or people, or anything which could be reasonably thought of as potentially distracting - but it’s definitely better. Let’s just leave it there… Until last Monday he was doing brilliantly and I was starting to think he would soon be ready for the bronze exam but unfortunately my friend Jacqui let him bite her all weekend so he’s regressed back to unruly puppy stage - it didn’t help that I was quite busy on Monday and it was wet so he didn’t go outside and I sort of forgot to take him for a walk. Generally he’s pretty good and can do most of what is required. It’s just that he gets distracted by the naughty dogs (cockers) and, like me, thinks that a minute is far too long a time to stay still when there’s so many more interesting things to do.

Current Rating

1. Sitting still by my side - v good
2. Recall - excellent, unless small children or dogs around outside, pretty good in class
3. Heel - generally good
4. Sit - good
5. Down - not really unless there’s a treat involved
6. Wait - excellent
7. Ignoring other dogs - fantastic if I dangle a treat in front of his nose, less so if I don’t

As a group we have decided to do another six week session and go for bronze at the end of this. As long as I can keep Jacqui away and remember to walk him I think we should be okay…

As with most things I have started in my life, my initial enthusiasm for writing about my experiences with Toby has waned somewhat, so the next couple of posts are summaries to get me back to the current day.

After six weeks of training Toby successfully passed the Kennel Club Good Citizen Dog Scheme Puppy Foundation - it’s not a formal test (and yes, everyone passed). It’s a basic test of making sure the owner knows what a dog needs (water, regular grooming and a name badge) and making sure your dog obeys some basic commands - walking on a lead, recall and giving a toy back without biting you too hard.

Things I learnt:

1. Cocker spaniels are very naughty dogs - they are grumpy like teenage girls
2. Toby likes to walk just slightly faster than I do (regardless of how fast I go)
3. Toby thinks the right amount of time to play with another dog is about a day
4. Just because Toby learned something last week doesn’t mean you don’t have to start all over again the following week
5. Toby is much better at ‘down’ and ’stay’ than all the other dogs

So, now I have a little rosette and certificate - I am immensely proud and looking forward to the next stage of learning - Bronze! Regular readers will be aware that I already have one eye on Gold, and naturally I do - after all, who wouldn’t want a well behaved and obedient dog (and lots more certificates!).

Now that Toby is out and about I think he’s ready for the next stage of his learning - puppy classes. As ever it’s as much for me and who knows there might be some cute dog owners out there… I arrived good and early having forgotten all the bits of paper I’d diligently printed out and signed I decided that it wouldn’t matter. I also didn’t have my vaccination certificate so was thoroughly unprepared, which was slightly annoying. Anyway I turned up to Waggypups at the Wells Centre and then couldn’t see anyone else there so wondered if I was at the right place. I loitered for a few minutes and another car pulled in so I waited to see if a dog would come out. It did. And I was at the right place. Met the other owners who had some very, very small dog, also called Tobie (sic) which was chihuahua with Jack Russell fur and would surely fly quite well given a good enough throw… Swapped pleasantries with his owner and a few minutes later some others turned up and puppy fighting ensued. After a few minutes an older gentleman asked if we were there for the dog training, which made me smile and caused sarcasm to flow. And the room was downstairs - now Toby hasn’t been down stairs before, so we worked as a team - he dug his heels in and I carried him down - this can’t continue as he grows to 40-50 kilos.

Puppy training is mayhem, and lots of fun - it’s going to be a long journey, but one day I will achieve my dream - Toby will do what I want, will always come when I call him and won’t need a lead - this is probably going to take a few weeks, we’ve a little way to go yet.

There’s been a lot of talk recently about culture, and british-ness, and mulit-culturalism… It sometimes feels like the only things us Brits have in common is a desire to get drunk and to career from one fake holiday to the next. Whenever I travel and see local traditions it always makes me realise how little we have in this respect. So, today is Valentine’s Day where the card industry wants us to feel guilty if we don’t mark our deepest feelings with the purchase of a padded card, we’ve just had Christmas, which in a predominantly secular society is not really about gratitude, isn’t exactly spiritual, and is really about being coerced into buying stuff people don’t really need or want. Looking forward we have Shrove Tuesday next week sponsored by Jif - why would you buy fake lemon juice? Now I’m all about convenience and would typically buy rather than make filo pastry but a lemon?? Then we have Easter (Jesus died to save our souls so have a shitty chocolate egg for a fiver!), May Day, and a couple of random holidays in August that we don’t even pretend represent anything. To complete the year we send out our children onto the streets to harrass and blackmail terrified pensioners or pelt them with eggs.
This isn’t a new thing - in my lifetime it hasn’t really changed, except that lemons are possibly more widely available now and available with our without a plastic coating… So what does it mean to be British? What are we trying to teach immigrants, and our children? The honest answer is that I don’t know - we’re quick to judge and condemn the Americans but at least they know what they’re about - they have proper holidays (Labour Day, Memorial Day, etc), the American Dream, strict moral codes and a strong sense of who they are - they have fierce personal liberty enshrined in a constitution, a passion for success and hard work and a sense of patriotism - they are extraordinarily proud (and grateful) to be Americans. Are we so proud to be British? Or English, or is that European now? Most British people are united by their constant disappointment with the weather, distrust of politics and a sense of abject frustration at the state of our woeful transportation system. Massive numbers are emigrating each year to Europe, US/Canada and Australia - all places I think of as being much ‘happier’ places.

If we could easily take our friends and family with us I wonder how many of us would consider leaving?

As an economy we are much better off than we were just 20 years ago - children living in poverty have access to DVDs - often bought down the pub, more and more is spent on education and health, but it seems that people don’t feel better, happier, more fulfilled - the tidal wave from a christian society to secular consumerism has left a vacuum which we don’t seem to know how to fill - except with alcohol, recreational drugs, sugar and processed food and watching endless celebrities doing really daft things on telly.

This has taken a far more negative tone than I had envisaged but that just represents how I feel about my homeland right now. As a nation we need to really think hard about what makes us happy, makes us British and why we don’t celebrate St George’s Day (23rd April if you didn’t know).

I hadn’t even heard of this until a couple of minutes ago, but it sounds like the sort of thing that might happen so I guess I’ll play along… Apparently the rules of the game are that a fellow blogger ‘tags’ you and then you have to reveal 5 hitherto un-public facts and tag 5 more people - you can see how this could quickly get out of hand if it weren’t for the totally reliable constraint of apathy and the fact that I’m not even sure I know 5 bloggers…

Five Facts you might not know…

1. I have a black belt in Jiu Jitsu - I spent 5 years getting battered and bruised, ignoring my complete lack of any natural talent or physical coordination and for once in my life relied on sheer determination to get through, and you know what, it worked. One Saturday morning in July 1992 I walked into a room, with absolutely no idea what was going to happen other than that I probably wouldn’t like it (maybe like the opening scene in Saw), and an hour later I walked out, intact, having stopped some very determined people from hurting me very badly - with knives, broken bottles, swords (katana), chairs, and good old fists and feet - it was without a doubt the best hour of my life - I have never felt so alive, so focused and so completely committed - I am sure that in this state you could achieve anything…
2. I have walked on fire - you know the burning coals thing. I went to Hawaii for a personal development course (as you do!) and on the final day we all walked on fire - under a full moon, with drums for a soundtrack, burning torches lighting the way - 1,500 people all absolutely focused (see above) on one thing - not burning their feet - and to achieve whatever end they had committed to earlier in the week, to rid the demons, close the skeleton closet, lose the baggage and not let anything ever get in the way of their pursuit of personal fulfilment. It was an unbelievable experience and one that I would certainly recommend to anyone. And no, I didn’t burn my feet because I am way too cool for that.
3. I have done a half marathon - 13 miles in 2 hours - wasn’t really that tough - but couldn’t walk for a week afterwards. Was a great day out and have enormous respect for my sister who did a full marathon on her 40th - I have a couple of years to decide that I won’t be doing that…
4. I’ve seen the sun rise over Everest - it was very beautiful, but I was massively distracted by acute mountain sickness - the night before I had the worst headache of my life, and we woke at 3.30am and had to climb 600m vertically - I could only manage about 10 steps (literally!) before I had to stop and rest, it took forever… shame, it should have been magical but it was awful…
5. Many of my friends think I’m a good cook. What they don’t know is that I can only make about 1/2 dozen dishes and that all guests get the “World’s best risotto” the first time they’re invited for dinner. I live on my own so like to keep things fairly simple - I keep telling myself I should throw more dinner parties, maybe I will…

So - who can I tag??