Weekend Updates, Thoughts, and Tips

Been a bit of a rough weekend so far. Our daughter has been sick for a couple of days, and it’s been tough watching her not feel her best. It was nice being able to spend extra time with her on Friday, but I hope she gets better soon. She has scarlet fever (strep fever + a rash), and hopefully the antibiotics will help her get better quickly. To make matters a bit worse, our dog (a 7 year old puggle) chewed up an almost empty pack or Orbit gum, which apparently has a chemical (xylitol maybe?) that is bad for dogs. My wife took her to the emergency vet last night, and she seems to be no worse for wear today.

Hope your weekend has been better than mine and that your week gets off to a good start.

Here are some thoughts, updates, and tips:

• I was at our local shopping mall yesterday, and I passed the See’s Candy kiosk. Much to my excitement and surprise, they had their Cinnamon Lollypops in stock for a limited time. If you have never had one of these candies before, you need to try it. I haven’t seen them in quite some time, and when I see them I buy them. I should probably go back and stock up.

• Remember when I blogged about the startup using the heavily hyphenated N-O-R-T-H.com domain name? If you thought having four hyphens was excessive, you should see where the domain name now points. If you visit N-o-r-t-h.com, it takes you to N-o-r-t-h-T-e-c-h-n-o-l-o-g-i-e-s.com. L-O-L! (Thanks to James for sharing).

• My daughter is really into Disney movies like Frozen and Rio. According to several websites, including  a website called StitchKingdom.com, Disney has apparently registered some domain names with the name “Strange Magic” in them. Perhaps Mike Berkens will get a pay day with hs StrangeMagic.com domain name that his company has owned since at least 2001.

• In other entertainment news, Stephen Colbert’s new show is going to be called The Minority Report, and I wonder if they are going to try to buy the matching domain name similar to how they own TheColbertReport.com. It looks like they own TheMinorityReport.TV, and it also looks like MinorityReport.com is owned by another entertainment company (maybe related to the movie). TheMinorityReport.com is privately registered and currently resolves to a GoDaddy landing page.

• Putting a deadline on an offer is a strategy I have used in the past successfully. It can get someone to make a decision more quickly, which can be helpful. The downside is when the deadline passes and the person hasn’t responded, the deadline setter could look weak if he or she goes back to the other party with the offer still on the table. That happened to me this week, so I’ll probably not contact the prospective buyer.

• Tomrorrow morning, Escrow.com is sponsoring The Semper Fi / America’s Fund Charity Golf Tournament at the Coto De Caza Golf & Racquet Club. This annual golf tournament “helps to raise funds and awareness for the needs of military personnel serving in all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces.” It’s nice to see companies giving back like this.