The Internet helps to prevent a scam

I was feeling a bit short of things to share on this blog. This was made clear while I was reading the latest hit title for holiday reading, "Counselling Skills for Dietitians," which contains little exercises as well as informative text (no pictures, it's not really for reading on the beach, guys). One of the things the reader is encouraged to do is to "make a list of changes that have occurred for you in the last year," and then "reflect upon how you reacted to the changes on your list."

I am much more comfortable with this reflection thing than I was when I started the course. It's a skill for dietitians (and presumably other health professionals) that's constantly emphasised, and is intended to prevent complacency and maintain the best standard of care possible. Rather than plough on without a backward glance, we are forced to stop and think about what we have done and how we did it, and consider what went right, what needs improvement, and whether we need help with that.

I started to make a mental list of changes that have occurred for me in the last year. I couldn't think of any. I tried again - surely something must have changed? But nothing has - for the last year I've been doing the same things, with the same frequency, in the same places, with the same people. Mr A, Lola II, badminton, university, blogging, reading blogs, listening to music and podcasts on my iPod, sitting on the sofa, going to the pub, the odd few days in London or Bournemouth or Manchester. I'm not complaining, I have a nice life and I enjoy all of this very much. But it doesn't make for an exciting or interesting blog.

I asked Lola II for some ideas last night, and she came up with a few that will probably make their way into future posts, but today one of my favourite bloggers asked for a favour. Actually, it was one of my favorite bloggers and he asked for a favor, but who cares about transatlantic spelling differences?

This is what he suggests I should write:

A friend of mine created a blog to talk about his experiences getting ripped off by a company called Lifestyle Pets, who claim to sell a hypoallergic cat called Allerca, but really just seem to charge thousands of dollars for the honor of being put on an endless waiting list.

And I'm happy to write it, even though he spells honour wrong, and in no sense can we be called friends, as we have never met or even corresponded except through my comments on his blog. I think I would like to be his friend, because he has a sense of humour (humor) that I find very amusing. He lives in San Francisco with a wife who is not called Hank and a daughter not called Daisy that he sometimes writes about, and a job where he has to work in an office and he has to share toilet facilities, which he often writes about. I'm sure if we met we would have nothing to say to each other and would find the whole experience acutely embarrassing, so perhaps it's best that we don't meet.

Anyway, the fact that I'm putting a link to this website here will help direct traffic there and may prevent a few people getting scammed in the same way. It's amazing to think that even an Internet-savvy man of the modern day can get fooled. I do hope he gets his money back.