Links

Having been ferreting around on the internet for most of my <ahem> adult years, I have browsed many pages of absolute total utter tat. Fortunately, hidden amongst the crap is the odd amusing or useful site, a few of which are included below... please enjoy.

The links have been divided into the following sections:

Random Websites
Travel Resources
IT, Web-Editing and HTML Resources
Online Shopping
Friend's Websites
Teaching Resources

If you can't find what you are looking for, check out Adele's links page here.

Random Websites

Lolcats	The thoughts of cats revealed in glorious technicolor... The constant quest for noms, the dispair of having to deal with hoomins and just not quite learning how to type...	icanhascheezburger.com
Fail Blog	People only watch Formula 1 for one thing... the crashes. This website follows the same ethos, that it is human nature to point and laugh and yell FAIL!	failblog.org
B3TA	King of photoshopping and randomness. Sign up to their weekly newsletter and ensure your Fridays are complete! In case you were wondering by the way, it's pronounced beta (rhymes with Peter)	www.b3ta.com
Rather Good	Home of Joel Veitch - author of more scary kitten driven Flash monstrosities than you can shake a stick at. Also includes the adventures of Blode.	www.rathergood.com
Weebl and Bob	Two small pie obsessed egg shaped errrm.. things for your enjoyment. The author is fairly prolific so be sure to check out the archives for some of the best stuff. I particularly like "hentai", "cheese", "quest" and the monkey from "anywhere".	www.weebls-stuff.com /wab
Bored.com	Packed with links to help stave off boredom including music videos, virtual bubble wrap, games, quizzes, and more. Bit irritating on the pop-up side of things, but still worth a visit.	www.bored.com

Travel Resources

Expedia	I've found Expedia to be one of the better hotel and flight search tools around, and it's usually my first port of call when sorting out a trip	www.expedia.co.uk
Seat 61	The Man In Seat 61 is a legend when it comes to train travel in pretty much every country in the world. One of the best ways to see a country is from a train, particularly travelling over long distances - check it out and go!	www.seat61.com
STA Travel	STA have sorted us out for the major flights on most of our trips... We've always found their ninja booking skills very useful, and they can always help with ideas for stop-offs and things to try all around the world	www.statravel.co.uk

IT, Web-Editing and HTML Resources

Portable Apps	This is a great concept that really works... Portable Apps is a suite of popular open source programs such as Firefox, OpenOffice, GIMP (Image editing), Kompozer (HTML editor - used for this site) and a whole load more. What sets them apart is that you can install them on a USB key and take them anywhere you want, or install them to a directory on a hard drive and not have to worry about them interfering with the programs already there. Great for travelling!	www.portableapps.com
Flask Kit	For those of you who don't know - Flash is a scripted vector graphics manipulation system for use on the internet. What that really means is that it is possible to have funky moving things on your website without them taking an eternity to load.  Flash Kit is a community of Flash users with stacks of useful tutorials, examples and components to use on your site.	www.flashkit.com
Westhost	This is where the cave is hosted... We had numerous problems with our last host - Easyspace after they were taken over by Iomart... Long story, but we escaped relatively unscathed to Westhost. The difference in service, speed and features (not to mention price) was worth the effort.	www.westhost.com

Online Shopping

Dabs.com	Dabs is a reliable and very competitively priced site selling computers, computer bits and other electronicsy gizmos. It usually offers pretty good info about each product and links to manufacturers websites. Adele purchsed her laptop from these guys and I've spent a small fortune on bits and bobs from here too.	www.dabs.com
Scan Computers	The home of "Today Only" - knock down prices on computery things for (surprisingly enough) one day. Their normal prices aren't too bad either but they don't have the product range of dabs. I have heard stories of long delays in shipping of items from Scan, but I have never had a problem with them.	www.scan.co.uk
Amazon	OK... If you haven't heard of amazon.com you have probably had your head encased in concrete and a multistorey car park built on top because its been buried underground for so long (or to put it another way - amazon is a pretty well known site). Top banana for all things book, CD and DVD shaped.	www.amazon.com
Play	This site offers pretty much the best value DVDs I've seen anywhere. Prices quoted include delivery and are usually a couple of quid less than HMV or other similar stores (and that goes for the bargain sections too). They also sell CDs and computer games, but unfortunately don't deliver to Japan - Bah!	www.play.com

Friend's Websites

Cavegirl	Just in case you didn't come here from Adele's site, dive in there and furtle about in the many hundreds of photos for a while. After that you can check out the diary, find a good book to read, laugh at the utterences of Japanese kids at school and enjoy all the rest that this very extensive and regularly updated site has to offer.	www.cavemantom.co.uk /cavegirl
Lewis	Lewis lived further out in the countryside of Fukui - far enough that he had an entire house to play with... His blog gives a fantastic insight into living in this crazy country. Enjoy! Since returning to the UK, Lewis has continued his blogging, now paying homage to the 101 video games that made his life "slightly better". Yay!	anenglishmaninnyugun. blogspot.com 101videogames. wordpress.com
Brandon	Brandon's view on life in Japan. Each month she delved deeper into the Japanses psyche and dug out interesting facts for our enjoyment. Also included in the deal are some rather nice pics and if you hunt around a bit - some favourite quotes.	www.duke.edu /~bhl/japan/
Anne	Anne keeps the world informed of her antics from this site. Photos of events and bang-up-to-date news of the Annie-tank can all be found here.	www.anneworkman.net

Apologies if I have missed anyone off the list... Send me an e-mail if you want a link (or want an extra person to peruse your site).

Teaching Resources

Echizen English Center	This is where I worked for two crazy years in Japan... The original website took a while to design but it looks like it has stood the test of time!	www.eecfukui.jp
Discovery School	The Discovery Channel School page has a very funky puzzle making kit that allows you to customise all sorts of teaching aids such as wordsearches, crosswords and mazes. It also has a good school related clipart archive.	school.discovery.com
Enchanted Learning	Nursery rhymes, clipart, lesson plans, activities (including some good dot-to-dots) and much more... Covers many subjects, not just English.	www.enchanted learning.com
Teachit	Teachit is a UK site and is based on the National Curriculum so some stuff may be a little advanced for the poor Japanese students, but if you feel like making their heads explode - here is where you can get some ammo. The primary school stuff is pretty good though, with most of the documents available in pdf or word formats. Definitely worth a peek.	www.teachit.co.uk
3 Wise Monkeys	A whole load of activities and ideas for teaching collected by the JETs in Tochigi prefecture. Some activity plans even have tips on how to coerce your JTE into cooperating with you.	www.edochan.com /teaching