Name Game

Did you know qoogle.ws (not a mistake, that's a "q" at the beginning is currently selling for $955! Check out this site to see the current action in domain name selling. It's pretty interesting to see what's hot in domain names.

Wonder what davesbeer would catch?

Don't worry, I'm not going there (all 8 of you).

domain domain auction url

When corporate marketers steal

The other night on a tv commercial I saw an ad for Secret deodorant. The ad was some stupid thing about how lovely a woman's underarms smell or something like that but they ended with what more commercials are ending with these days: a url. ShareYourSecret.com was the plug at the end of the commercial.

So frigging lame.

Confessional sites are abundant. I think one of the first or one of the most successful to date is GroupHug.us. This site, I believe, was one of the forerunners and gets on the order of 10's of thousands of visits a day. Yeah, it's largely salcious stuff but it was (and is) original and cool. So who steals it? Many bloggers who haven't been so successful (e.g. confess.us). And, now, the marketing folks behind Secret deodorant have crafted what is probably a fictitious bunch of "confessions" that are so cute, you just feel all cuddly and sweet smelling. It's too bad they couldn't respect the originality of GroupHug.

I wish I could hack the site and add some slightly more realistic confessions.

marketing confession deodorant

Finally, an exhibit a kid would love ... Shiny

While we adults love the opportunity to go a museum exhibit, it's usually a tortuous event for the tikes. Standing still, looking, moving a bit, standing still ... lather, rinse, repeat. In five minutes, the kid's running around crazy. Alas, there's a new exhibit at the Wexner called Shiny.

For a kid who picks her pizza places based on the number of colored lights they have hanging from the ceiling, I think we have a winner.

Image credits:
Jeff Koons
Balloon Dog, 1994–2001
Stainless steel with transparent color coating
121 x 143 x 45 in.
The Broad Art Foundation
Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

wexner shiny columbus oh

Help us St. Joe

This is St. Joe swaddling the potential buyer of our house. You know, he's the patron saint of real estate. Even if the Fed doesn't raise rates today, we'll still need his help. Housing has replaced inflation as Wall Street's biggest worry, with fears that a sharp drop in the sector could cause a spike in unemployment and a slowdown in consumer spending. Yikes.

And, speaking of saints, The Atheist Mama is going to partake in a forum entitled "Godless by Choice" on September 22 at 2231 North High Street at 7pm. Show up and support her.

Related Columbus Dispatch article in which she was quoted.

real estate columbus oh atheism

Not looking good.

We entered the negotiation stage of the property we placed an offer on the other day and it's going to be rough; we're asking the sellers for a bunch. If we walk, there's always this little gem we could fix up. It's only 10,000 square feet but I think with a few walls studded up, it'd do nicely.

Hey, interior decorator, it's a home not a house (Dave puts his thumb to his nose and waves his fingers)

We're diligently trying to get our house ready to sell. Every time Frankie sleeps, we jump to action. It's exhausting. We even consulted an interior designer. She told us to make sure our home looks like no one lives in it. No personal pictures. No odors. No blemishes of any kind. Sterile.

Real easy with a 3-year old.

Our realtor, however, told us the whole "pictures of people" in a house thing is controversial. Some like to envision their own family in the house and the pictures can be distracting while others (like myself) like to see some signs of life. We're going middle of the road and placing two photos of people in the house. One of my father when he was a boy and the other of us in 2002 in the South of France at a friend's wedding (Frankie was only about 6 weeks old at the time).

We hope this doesn't jeopardize the sale.

First half of the move today. Frankie goes to daycare and the movers come in. Wish us luck.

(Note: I lost the original image of us and had to photograph our framed copy, this is the result. I think it looks kind of cool.)

youtube is awesome

We actually don't own a television per se, but, we're just as guilty. We have a tv tuner card in the computer and watch television when we need to veg - usually after Frankie hits the bed and we collapse. So, we have the television going on one monitor and we surf on the other (this is especially handy when we're watching Frankie's favorite movies for the 50th time). But, gradually, I think we're starting to see what may be the merging of the television and computer. We often see sites advertised on tv and quickly surf there to see what it's about or who the clever company is behind the ad.

On the sillier side, the computer also allows watching of South Park snippets, one of my favorite guilty pleasures. And, Scarface is one of my favorite movies of all time. If you like South Park and Scarface, this clip's for you.

marketing youtube scarface southpark

Composting is very in these days

Freecycle.org is a site where you can get rid of things you no longer need but don't want to pitch. You must give them away for free though. It's a clever set-up. You check the site to see if a chapter exists in your area and the transactions are done via a Yahoo! group (Columbus). You have to apply to the group and it's moderated, so don't try to palm off your inflatable dolls or anything. It's a serious effort to get rid of stuff that would otherwise go into a landfill.

Friday morning I took a shot at getting rid of our compost bin before we move. I posted it and within 10 minutes had about 20 interested parties and by the end of the day, over 30! After I chose someone (not a brief exercise), I instructed them (by personal email) to pick up the bin outside my garage. They came, it went, gone. No tax write-off but at least it was used by someone who appreciated it and it didn't get pitched. I was then obliged to post the same item as "Taken" and delete the original "Offer".

Give it a shot sometime, tons of stuff to get too (your first post, however, must be an "Offer" of something rather than a "Wanted"). But remember, it's members only and totally worth the short wait for approval of membership; that's to keep things a bit safer. The transaction of giving something away is done at a residence, so an additional layer of screening is prudent.

It's very cool.

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Friday Links

1. Always on the lookout for super simple sites that have massive amounts of traffic, I found indexed. It's pretty cool and after two months has about 800 links to it. Pretty clever. Enjoy.

2. Lynd's Fruit Farm, down Morse to Pataskala, go pick some fresh fruit.

3. Freecycle is a cool Yahoo! group to get rid of crap that's cluttering your basement. It's all free. Join.

seo site traffic indexed jealous columbus recycling

Cold Feet

We've pondered this move since July 14, 2000 (Bastille Day you know) and know it's the right thing to do. We've made lists of pros/cons and we're only moving a mile away. So, what's the big deal?

Change. Change is good, scary, unsettling, and not particularly welcome for a small child (it's worse for us though). I'm trying to convince myself we're not leaving anyone behind but expanding our circle of friends in the city and trying to look forward to making new friends in our new neighborhood, but it's tough.

And, it's all on ONE level and on the edge of a ravine/park.

If we only had to prep the house for a 3 year old.

On Thursday evenings, Frankie and I do the town. Or, at least, High Street. We go out to eat, to Big Park (Whetstone), the library and finally Denise's Ice Cream. We used to start things off by going to Wendy's. Lately, we've tried new dining venues. She likes Pig Iron Barbecue because they have a bees' wasps' nest hanging from the ceiling and Villa Nova (a very mediocre restaurant) for pizza because it's dimly lit and has colored lights hanging from the ceiling.

It would be soooo much easier to get our house ready for her to buy than any adult, according to an interior designer.

We had our consult last night to get some tips on how to prep the house for marketing. It seems she liked every room - as long as we promised to make it empty and devoid of animal life. Plants are fine. No pictures of humans or animals should be on the walls, half our furniture needs to be removed, we have more painting to do (not the kind Frankie has in mind), we need to mulch outside, rake rocks (your guess is as good as mine), etcetera (and that's a biggie in this case).

If a prospective buyer were to be more like Frankie, all the furniture would be gathered in a circle in the middle of the room and sheets would cover it all to make a fort. Then, we'd string christmas lights all over the bookshelves and finger paint the walls. That would catch a handsome price indeed.

Unfortunately, we have to make things sterile and it will not be fun. Lists will be made.

columbus oh real estate interior design parenting

Think she'll forgive us?

The countdown begins.

In 8 days our realtor is going to show our home to other realtors and eventually attempt to sell it at a bad time of year in a slumping real estate market. Trish and I and Frankie (kind of) are bustling about trying to reverse entropy. It's tough. Our house is small but I believe one of the prettiest in Columbus. When it sells, I'll show you a picture. I'm optimistic.

The toys ... oy. I just reduced the population of stuffed bunnies lying about her room by about 2/3 and there's still more bunnies than you can imagine (are they reproducing or something?). I'm also swiping toys out from under her when she's not looking. I feel terrible about this but it's necessary to get an edge. I just hope she doesn't notice. Tonight should be telling.

We're even having a Columbus-based interior decorator over tomorrow night for a consultation on how to make the place look better for our prospective buyers. This should be a rough exercise. If it helps, it'll be worth it.

Wish us luck.

Selling a House (with a 3-year old)

Is it possible to live in a house that you're trying to sell with a 3-year old tromping around like she owns the earth?

We'll see.

Our house looks beautiful these days. Neater than it's ever been - but, it's absolutely exhausting. Trying to clean up after Frankie whenever we leave is just unnatural. It's not on the market yet, we're just practicing.

Our goal is to find a house with a bathroom, bedroom(s) and laundry on ONE floor. We believe there are approximately two in Franklin County and are taking a look at one for the second time today. It's close to the mainstream stuff on High yet on the edge of a ravine and looks, from the back of the house, like you're in the middle of a forest. Pretty cool. Even has a deck that was featured a few years back in Columbus Monthly. Small yard but plenty of space for bbq. We'll be probing a bit more closely today and deciding if this is "the one".

real estate parenting columbus oh