Woof Woofington

Am I on Facebook? No, but I need to be on Facebark. Apparently.

The problem with being stuck in the countryside - yes, STILL here (B-O-R-I-N-G) - is that I am no longer at the cutting edge of ...well, life! God knows where the Mistress is; she promised me I would be back, if not IN the smoke, then very close to it, by now. I keep hearing the conversations the Mistress's Mother has with the Mistress and I'm not that impressed.

A dog like me has a certain reputation! I can't be left in this creative desert to dream up witty posts to keep all and sundry amused. Oh no!

Anyway, I like to think I was pretty up to date with all the social networks - MySpace, etc, and yes, Facebook but, the thing is, I can't get on Facebook. My face doesn't fit! Ha ha!

But no matter because, apparently, THE place to be seen, right now, is Facebark. Yup! Facebark! It's such a fabulous idea, I wish I had thought of it myself.

According to The London Paper, "almost 30,000 pooches have signed-up to a London-based social networking site for dogs dubbed Facebark. The website (www.doggysnaps.com) was set up as a cheeky canine alternative to sites like Facebook and Myspace by the charity Dogs Trust..."

"Owners can even ‘poke’ other pets sending a dog a 'treat' to show that they enjoyed the picture and profile.

"The animals are rated in categories including friendliness and intelligence and the site lists their likes and dislikes.

"The site also acts as a dating service for lonely owners."

So, happy days! If the Mistress hasn't got rid of HIM yet, the Mistress's other half, in case you're wondering, then I think we could both get on here sharpish. In the meantime, why don't you get yourselves (fellow canine chums) logged on quick and then we can all 'poke' each other!

WoofWoof

www.doggysnaps.com

Maybe it’s not how you ask but who you ask?

Who says that the sense of community is dead? Well, I can reassure everyone that the Internet has not killed off human (and animal) relationships but positively enhanced them. How can I be so sure? Because the news is full of stories of random acts of kindness, often facilitated through modern technology.

Take a little pug called Buck, who lives in America. Last week Buck was hit by a car and broke three of his legs; unfortunately, his owners could not afford the $3,000 surgery required so they decided the only alternative was to have him put to sleep. (It’s a disturbing tale so far but does have a happy ending so read on…) Buck’s Mistress belonged to a pug-lover’s website and regularly wrote about her dog. The night before Buck’s imminent demise was no exception and after she updated her details, lo and behold someone from Australia – all the way from the other side of the world – stepped in and offered to donate cash towards Buck’s treatment. Buck also touched the hearts of owners in France and Alaska. Buck is now recovering and his owner has no doubts that so-called fellow geeks and Pug lovers saved her dog’s life.

Maybe other dog owners would have been sympathetic but perhaps they would not have been so compelled to support Buck directly. So it’s a Pug thing? Well, sort of. Maybe what it’s really about is whom you ask, not how. If Buck had been living in the UK, there is every chance his owners could have approached one of the animal charities that support owners facing financial hardship. But there would have been no guarantee.

All over the world, thousands if not millions of virtual communities are set up all the time. People are looking for a connection that they don’t have with their own friends and families; a virtual community can give you that something else that is hard to define.

The Mistress has joined a couple of dedicated doggy sites (on my behalf, of course); they’re wonderful because people will wax lyrical about why they love their pets. I can’t imagine a human equivalent but they always make the Mistress smile.

And clearly, when someone (human or canine) is in need, there’s a whole community out there just waiting to help.

Woof Woof

RIP Robodog

News reaches me from those technically-minded folk at The Register and Tech Digest that Sony’s robodog, Aibo, is going to the big kennel in the sky. As the global corporation tries to get back into the black, it is putting its plastic pooch on the back benches. There will be no more R&D (research and development) into Sony’s answer to Toto (Dorothy’s dog in The Wizard of Oz) but you can still buy a robodog – a snip at £1500 – until the end of the month.

Apparently, the essence of Aibo will live on as his technology will be used in other products.

So it’s au revoir rather than goodbye to the robodog. The Mistress's other half is devastated; for him, Aibo was the perfect pet requiring minimal effort and it was another Sony toy for his gadget collection. Of course, however expensive and technically magical he was, Aibo would always have been a poor second best. Sometimes only the real thing will do.

Woof Woof

Who’s the apple of your eye?

January is a funny month. Everyone seems in a state of flux after the hiatus of Christmas and New Year (not the Chinese one, obviously – yes, Year of the Dog is fast approaching!) and realises that, actually, we are right in the middle of winter. Even dogs can sometimes get the winter blues….

Some people want to just hide under the duvet – oh I wish the Mistress would do that and we wouldn’t have to go anywhere! At all! Others want to shake down the old year and really get into the new; sadly, this is what she has done instead. Hence the detox, the marathon training, etc, etc! (Hence the domestic hell as far as I can see but the caffeine withdrawal has calmed down so she is in a better mood. Most of the time!)

January, for many people, seems to signify a new start. New relationships, new jobs, new friends, new places to go…you know what I mean. Even, dare I say it, a new dog in your life?! And it’s always ok to get a dog AFTER Christmas!

I think the Mistress might be taking things too far; yesterday, we sat on the bus while she read, “Are you the one for me?” a book by someone called Barbara De Angelis. The Mistress’ friend lent it to her and said, “this might help” whilst looking at me at the same time! Of course, I am the one for her. Isn’t it obvious?! But it turns out the book isn’t about me at all…but more of that another time.

Sometimes the Mistress has meetings and errands to do and she likes to take me with her so yesterday we visited the Apple store, in Regent Street, heart of London’s West End. I think she wanted moral support because her Mac has crashed and her other half gave her a long shopping list of things to buy. When she doesn’t understand what she’s asking for – and let’s face it, how many people do when they are buying “extra support” - she gets quite nervous!

But the Mistress was quite taken with the Apple store and I am not talking about the computers!!! It’s a veritable eye candy feast for the boys and gals of London; everywhere we looked, beautiful people (but NOT in that model way!) were hanging about. Apparently, Apple had just launched some new kit – hence the buzz and excitement. But I reckon it could be like that most of the time and think it really could be the hot destination for 2006.

Even if money’s tight, think about treating yourself to an iPod sock, which you can flog on eBay later, listed as an unwanted gift. No one need know! Or, just sit in the theatre upstairs and learn all about a software system you don’t understand; no one likes to be more helpful that those IT geeks. But guess what? It’s pretty much a geek-free zone. Forget cocktail bars, internet dating, blind dates, singles nights, personal introductions, hassling your friends for details of any other single friends, furtive glances down the supermarket aisles (do people really find love at Sainsbury’s?!).

If you are looking for the apple of your eye (technical or human), get yourself down to Regent Street now. Remember, you heard it here first!

Woof Woof

Buzz! Sony’s new playstation game could be cited in the divorce courts…

Incredible but true, yes, a humble interactive music quiz, namely Buzz, could be cited in divorce courts across the land.

How do I know this? Because having seen the mistress in action tonight with her other half (whom I am still trying to ignore), I can see just a single outcome and it will, I predict, end in tears.

Buzz looks like the ideal party game and should, I think, remain that. Forget playing as a couple, particularly if one if you is competitive or just a bad loser. The mistress is both but so is her other half.

Catastrophe! And that is not a word I use lightly.

The game started off being friendly enough; the mistress knows nothing about playstations (she has played with HIM before but it’s always ended badly so I think she thought for the sake of the relationship….) so she was, in a way, dependent upon her opponent showing her the ropes. Only he couldn’t because, or so he claimed, he didn’t know how to play it either. He was a Buzz virgin so they could “learn together”.

At the end of the first game (several different rounds, including fastest finger first!), the mistress got beaten by just 50 points so she felt her score was fairly respectable. Come the second round it has jumped up to ….a defeat of 1500. By the third game, she was trounced; the mistress trailed behind by some … 3,000 points. After the trouncing, came..the flouncing and she marched off, calling him “dishonest” and “playing me for a fool”. Well, I could have told her THAT!

In fact, they both got so agitated that I got agitated and started barking but they told me to “Be quiet and go to bed”! I ask you!

It’s just like exam time when all those people (so I am told - I have never sat any exams) pretend to know nothing and then get straight A’s. You know the type. The mistress accused him of behaving in exactly the same way.

The mistress has calmed down now but they are seeing some equally competitive friends tomorrow; they also hate to lose – yes, all of them. If the friendships remain intact, it will be a miracle but, chances are, it will be a right dog’s dinner.

Woof Woof