tbourner

Mine's fixed at 5.99% until June next year, when it will no doubt be up at about 15% or something stupid. It was a 100% mortgage as well, so with house prices going all over the place we're now slap bang on 0 equity again. Still; only 31 years left to pay.

I've been thinking about this, as I want another Supra but can't afford it at the moment, probably for another few years! So what will I be able to get instead if all the Supras are tatty and falling to bits!! The thing is it needs to be slightly unknown (so no DB9), and a bit of a street sleeper (so no Porsche or Ferrari etc.), easily tunable (so no R35 GTR ), but still attractive and comfortable.

This is true, but don't confuse dominance with bullying. A lot of breeds (including mine) do NOT respond well to aggresive behaviour and will most likely go completely the wrong way and fight you as hard as they can. Being dominant is understanding what they want and how they're feeling, protecting them and giving them clear boundaries and CONSISTENT training. IMO if you smack them and growl at them you are trying to play them at their own game and you'll have to be willing to go all the way if they decide to test your muscle.

I've never shaved with anything other than electric.

Yes he is, and he's lovely! They're definitely a strong willed dog, he's at the teenage stage now so he's constantly testing us! We have to be very firm with him but he knows his place and seems happy enough.

I was going to mention Leerburg, but as you say it can seem quite radical and without REALLY knowing what you're doing I wouldn't want to suggest his training techniques to anyone! Having said that I haven't looked at the site for some time - is he still doing the "when you bring your dog home, lock it away and don't interact with it for 6 months except to feed it and exercise it" thing?

If you're using a crate it should be kept as his 'safe place' otherwise he might start howling when you lock him in at night - so I wouldn't recommend it as a telling off place as well. When Loki's naughty we just shout NO, and if that doesn't work we shout OUT! Which basically means out of the lounge - he normally runs out with his tail between his legs and runs to his bed (not a crate but the same idea). It's hard to think in dog terms, you need to try not to humanise them which is the mistake most people make (for example; when they're scared you don't go up and cuddle them and tell them it'll be OK like you do with people - because they think you're scared as well, you need to lead by example by ignoring the thunderstorm or fireworks - most people don't think that way though). So when he's playing his natural instinct is to bite as that's what his brothers and sisters would have done - you need to teach him that you don't want him to do it. You're not telling him off because he doesn't know he's doing anything wrong, you need to show him in a way he'll understand what you expect of him. Puppies just want to play and run around and be with their 'pack', so if you can find a way to stop play and get his play things (toys and kids) away from him for a few minutes, he'll soon learn that his biting is causing that loss of play time. Note though, dogs have an attention span of at most a couple of minutes, so if he bites and you don't go in STRAIGHT AWAY it won't mean anything to him. People make that mistake with toilet training all the time, telling a dog off even 3 mins after they've weed on the floor is no good, if you don't catch them in the act you can't tell them off for it even though you know full well they've done it!!

Use positive training methods when they are a puppy, otherwise you can cause them to become aggressive to people when they're older. When playing if he starts to bite just say "NO" and stop playing, stand up and walk away, or cross your arms and ignore him. DO NOT hit him on the nose!! Eventually he'll learn that biting means you stop playing and he gets ignored, and dogs really don't like being ignored. You'll find ignoring him is a great tool for telling him off for anything, when he's doing something naughty just walk away (and when he's older find a place you can 'put' him - small room or cupboard under stairs etc. just for a minute [or until he stops moaning]). Dogs learn pretty quick generally, it should only take a few ignoring sessions to teach him not to bite. you have to remember at 2-6months they can be teething and will want to chew ANYTHING to ease the pain, so getting him some wooden dumbells is a good idea, if he starts biting or chewing furniture, again say "NO" and give him the dumbell - when he chews the dumbell just say "good boy" and leave him to it. We've just been through the puppy thing over the last year, and we've learnt loads. Our dog is a very dominant breed as well, and we're proud of what we've achieved. Chris Wilson is also good with this kind of thing.

I thought used gearbox oil smelt like a rotting corpse left for months in the ceptic tank of an octogenarians care home?

You logged on after receiving lots of emails from various forums saying Happy Birthday, had a quick look in 'New Posts', then searched Off Topic, then searched for your name, but alas; nobody had posted a Happy Birthday MrRalphMan thread.

Kobayashi was so confident and forceful I think he'll complete a lot of laps! //edit: Are we keeping the 1 point per lap then?

I thought I'd go for a random choice of the Campos TBA.

I don't think there's only one. I think the human species is designed to desire relationships with a variety of lovers, falling in love easily. This means there is likely a potential soul mate for you around every corner. It also means there is a potential affair trying to entice you regularly!! We were talking about it with friends at the weekend, the 2 couples aren't what we would say are our ideal partners, but we've been together 7 years now and married for 1, and they've been together the same with a 15 month old son. There's love even though we wouldn't have been matched by eHarmony.

How about: "We came up with a few ideals that I think might work."? I understand what you mean with "We came up with a few ideals", but surely bouncing ideals around doesn't work? You don't brainstorm ideals do you?

When people say 'ideals' instead of 'ideas', for example: "bounce ideals around. We came up with a few ideals".

He said Jacob had a thing for numbers - maybe those were the numbers chosen and he made sure they were everywhere as a kind of suggestion thing, meaning it would bring those people to the island.

The 6 numbers were 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42, the same as the winning lottery numbers and the same as were on the hatch. Names were for Jarah (Sayid), Reyes (Hurley), Shephard (Jack), Kwon (either Sun or Jin), Locke and Sawyer. The fact that Flocke didn't know whether it was meant for Sun or Jin suggests it wasn't related to the Oceanic 6?

That's why I hedged my bets with Ferrari and went Hami and Massa, hopefully he hasn't lost anything since the accident - although the wife will wonder why I'm screaming for Massa to do well this year.

I never miss Top Gear but it's not on at the mo so I didn't include it. Otherwise I'd have put Red Dwarf and Fawlty Towers.

Yeah, but who is the kid? Clearly Flocke and Jacob are super beings of some kind, and that kid put the frighteners on Flocke so there's more to this that we're seeing. Plus who is 'that team'? The woman seems to know FAR too much about EVERYTHING!! Like Flocke is now stuck in Locke guise and can't change (except to black smoke), maybe some of the other ghosts that they've been seeing all this time were the kid?

PM'ded.

We've got every episode on DVD, watching through them for the 4th time at the moment (actually it's postponed until we've finished season 1 of Fringe). My 2 must see progs are probably LOST and Heroes though. Waiting for Flashforward to come back as well. My alternative viewing favourite has to be Mythbusters - I think I'd prefer their jobs to Tog Gear presenting!!

I was just reading a book about Reading.

With some fava beans and a nice chianti?

No no no, see what I said in post #63.