Ireland, The Emerald Isle. What a beautiful Country!

My family and I recently took a trip from the US to Ireland. It was everything we had imagined and more.

First things first…some Ireland Travel Tips
I have an iPhone through Verizon. It didn’t work, but I knew it wasn’t going to. I have an iPad with a SIM card so on day 1 we went to Vodafone and for $29.99 Euros, they sold me an EU SIM card with a 5GB data plan. Not a bad deal and it came in very handy. I did find that their cell service isn’t as fast as ours, but it got us through. WIFI at hotels, cafe’s, etc. usually run about $20 Euro for 24 hours. Some places have it free, but we found that more places charge for WIFI than not.

Don’t convert your cash at the Exchange place in baggage claim when arriving at the Dublin airport. Go through the doors just past baggage claim and there’s an ATM. When you pull cash from the ATM, it’ll dispense Euro’s and there are no service fees. Your bank however, may charge a fee. The withdrawal will reflect in your account at that days exchange rate. A cab ride to Dublin will be about $25 Euro’s, or there’s a bus you can take that’s much cheaper.

Keep enough cash on you to cover entrance fees. I found it odd that places like Blarney Castle, Cliff’s of Mohar, various Abbey’s, and various Castle’s will only accept cash payment for entrance fees. Every gift shop that we saw did accept credit cards. Yes, swipe credit cards do work, the place of business just has to use a different machine. Every hotel we stayed at took major credit cards, and almost every restaurant we ate at took credit cards even though we paid with cash.

When taking a cab, ask if the driver is local. Until a few years ago, Ireland had a law that cab drivers had to be from Ireland in order to take the job. Now, anyone from any country can be a cab driver as long as they pass a test. I have a feeling one of our drivers didn’t take his own test. We were going to the Shelbourne Hotel (where the Irish drafted their Constitution) and he couldn’t find the place. I had to tell him where it was, he couldn’t follow my directions and finally said “I think it’s best that you get out of the cab”.

If you’re heading back to the US from Dublin, you’ll need to get to the airport 2 hours early. You have to stand in line for your boarding passes, then through security, then through US Customs, then through TSA. We arrived 2 hours early and by the time we got to our gate we had about 10 or 15 minutes before they started to board the plane.

Enough of the travel tips. On with the trip!

The industry I work in affords me the opportunity to meet people from around the world. I had to travel to Germany back in September of 2009 for business. We did our fair share of touring while there. : ) I met a colleague (Craig) who was born and raised in Ireland and was a tour guide in his Country for a period of time. He told me if we ever wanted to go, he’d go with us and be our personal tour guide. Well, we took him up on his offer.

My wife and I got to Dublin early Tuesday morning, grabbed our bags, and caught a cab to our hotel. Our room wasn’t ready when we checked in so we freshened up a bit in the hotel restroom, gave the bellman our bags and headed off to sight see. What an awesome city Dubin is. The capital of Ireland, pubs on every corner, parks, eateries, shops, and best of all, friendly people. You can seriously talk to almost anyone there. They love hearing an American accent as much as we love hearing their accent. We had a busy day, which kept us awake. We wanted to get use the time change as quickly as possible. We started a regimen of 5 hour energy drinks in the early afternoon and Tylenol pm at night time. It took about 2 days before we were able to sleep all night.

Craig, our friend and tour guide, arrived on Wednesday around 11am. He met us at the hotel, dropped off his bags, and immediately took us for a pint at several of his favorite watering holes. I’m not a big fan of Guinness, but when in Rome I thought I’d give it a try. It’s absolutely delicious. We met a guy from California at the Brazen Head Pub (oldest pub in Ireland) who worked for Guinness. He said the oldest keg of Guinness in Ireland is not more than 10 days old. However, the kegs in the US are around 45 days old. Hence the difference in taste. It definitely goes down smooth over there and EVERY bartender knows how to pour the perfect pint. We continued our pub crawl through Dublin and had a great day. Eating, drinking, laughing, and preparing for the rest of the family to arrive the next day.

My dad, my brother, my sister-in-law, my niece, and my brother’s best friend arrived Thursday morning. My brother rented a van for all of us to use during our tour of the Country. We were finding different write ups online that vans are smaller over there so we prepared and brought bungee cords in case we had to tie suitcases to the roof. The van was fine. It seated 8 of us comfortably and had plenty of room in the back for our luggage. We used http://www.cartrawler.com/ to find the vehicle we needed. They did a fantastic job. The single van was a little more expensive than 2 cars, but in the end, it was much easier having 1 vehicle vs. 2. The van was about 2 meters high so parking in garages was a bit tricky, but we managed. We did have to park in a disabled parking spot one night in Galway. We talked to the parking attendant and they were perfectly fine with it as they had plenty of other disabled spots open. We gave them our hotel/room information so if something came up they could reach us. Because the van was a bit larger than most cars there, it was a little tricky navigating the roads, but my brother lives in England and he did all the driving so it wasn’t really an issue.

We headed out Saturday morning for Galway and did plenty of sightseeing along the way. Clonmacnoise, Kilbeggan Distillery, and a nice little eatery. The next day we headed to Cork. On the way we saw Dunguaire Castle, had lunch in Doolin before going to the The Cliff’s of Mohar. The day after, up to Kilkenny via beautiful countryside. On the way to Kilkenny we stopped off at Blarney Castle. The line to kiss the stone was about a 2 hour wait. We opted to walk the grounds for 2 hours instead. What a GREAT decision! While in Kilkenny, we toured the Kilkenny Castle, and St. Canice’s Cathedral. Then finally, Waterford. On the way to Waterford we drove Magic Road and climbed up to the waterfalls at Mahon Falls. The next day, we headed to Dublin and stopped off in Glendalough. Absolutely beautiful! We hiked through the park and saw lots of scenery including waterfalls, lakes, mountains, the oldest gate in Ireland as well as the oldest Celtic Cross in Ireland. After leaving Glendalough, we passed the Wicklow mountains and stopped off in the seaside town of Bray. We walked around for a bit, had a pint, then on to Dublin for our last night in Ireland.

It all went too quick. We had such a great time and got to see tons of places. I’d do it again in a heartbeat and probably stay longer.

Pictures of the trip can be seen in album 1 and album 2 on my facebook page. All pics in these 2 albums were taken using only my iPhone 4. I did this to see if I really need to take a pocket cam. I try to stay as lean as possible when I pack.

WOW! Domain conferences are some of the best places to meet other domainers and to gain inside secrets to the domaining industry. Most conferences are worth every penny.

Since we’re moving the focus of our portfolio from parking to developed, we recently attended Affiliate Summit in NYC. We only wanted the exhibit floor passes so our conference cost was $99 each. Let me tell you….WORTH EVERY CENT! Our plan of action was to get a map of the exhibit floor to see who was there and write down domains that would be associated with each affiliate that was of interest to us. Using this method we were able to make the most of our time there and make as many related contacts as possible without wasting anyone’s time. Earlier this year we attended SES with the same plan but also attended the sessions. A bit pricey in my opinion, but very valuable information.

We also recently attended Meet Domainers. This is the first of these conferences we’ve been to and it’s a great opportunity to meet domainers from other countries….especially those that focus on cctld’s. I was fortunate enough to be invited to speak on one of the panels and I have to say, the attendees hit us with some good questions. I can only hope the answers we gave were sufficient enough.

Luckily enough my brother lives in the UK just outside of London so we managed to get in some vacation time during our journey. It’s nice to take time off, but the pain is the emails keep coming with most being time sensitive. So it’s imperative to know that you’ll have an internet connection and at least an hour or 2 per day to give timely responses.

And yes….conference fatigue hits everyone. It’s a blast….but a lot of work at the same time.

Next stop for us will be Epik’s conference in Seattle (I’ve never gotten to tour Seattle so am really looking forward to this trip). Then DNCruise in October (I’ve never been on a cruise….so this should be a blast).

Year to date we’ve attended:
DomainFest Global
Domainer Mardi Gras
SES
DomainFest Ft. Lauderdale
Affiliate Summit East
Meet Domainers
Epik’s conference
DNCruise

That’s a lot of traveling and a lot of shows in 1 year.

And guess what….we’re already starting to plan for 2011.

Maybe we could save a lot of time and trouble and just do all conferences at an airport. LOL!

I’m starting to loathe the NFL.

I’ve been a fan for about 30 years now and have played fantasy football for over 10 years. With each passing year, increasing ticket prices aggravate me, waiting lists for nose bleed seats aggravate me, ticket scalpers aggravate me, the NFL Network taking TV games away from regular broadcasts aggravates me, moving MNF to ESPN aggravated me, players who are constantly in trouble yet still manage to make millions of dollars a year aggravates me, the NFL wanting too much money per subscriber to put their station in a regular cable package aggravates me, and now the talk of having a Superbowl in London may be the straw that breaks this camels back.

The more teams pay players, the more ticket prices will go up. Why would a team pay a rookie millions of dollars when they haven’t proven themselves in this league? A rookie payscale is being considered. That doesn’t make me feel any less aggravated. If we don’t pay ticket prices, it won’t help.

I LOVE the game of football. And even though the Skins have really sucked ass since Dan Snyder bought the team, I’m still a fan. Dan has single handedly ruined the Redskins with his over paying for “stellar” players thinking he can buy a Superbowl. Dan, if you’re reading this, THAT WON’T WORK!!! You act as though you’ve never been on a team before. Just because you hire the best players in the league doesn’t mean they’ll click and work together. These guys are mostly primadonna’s that are only out for themselves. Think about it for a second. If I were going to make $1 million per year whether I’m sitting on the bench or not, where do you think most would choose to be? Dan’s main concern is how much he makes off of the team. And as an investor, I can certainly understand that point. However, he’s done nothing but cripple their long term results. If you lay a good foundation and build upon that foundation, you’ll get results…..EVERYTIME! With no foundation, the team gets beat by the Bengals in one of their worst years as a team recently. WE GOT BEAT BY THE BENGALS!!! WHAT!?!?! When the schedule was released this year, I really hoped we’d play the Lions 16 games straight…..or a new surprise all girls team would’ve been introduced and we could’ve played them 16 times. We would’ve possibly had a chance at the playoffs. Who am I kidding?

Now, with the talks of playing a Superbowl over in London, I’m really torqued. The common man can’t enjoy the common mans sport anymore Mr. Goodell. You’re slowly but surely taking the game away from us…..your largest demographic I’m sure. But, since you’re a smart business man, you know this and you’re preparing for the day the common man no longer watches football….but chooses another sport instead. So you’re marketing your ass off with “global games” to tap in to the pockets overseas. Smart, but I refuse to pay ticket prices over here…..so I certainly won’t be attending any games outside of the US. The next move will be considering making the Superbowl a Pay-Per-View event.

Here’s my take if I owned a team and there wasn’t a players union involved to make sure everyone was treated “fairly”. Each player would get a base salary depending on their position. Then any other money above and beyond that would be based on performance….PERIOD. If a QB throws a TD, he gets $10K as well as the WR that caught the ball. If the QB throws an INT, he gets nothing extra for that play. I truly believe that there are players in the NFL that play with 100% of their heart regardless of their paycheck…..but when money is on the line, not one player will want to be on the bench because they stubbed their toe.

I’m almost to the point that I may not watch any games this year. And for the first time in over 10 years, not play fantasy football. Will I miss it? I’ll miss the games of the past and what the NFL was before it was so commercialized.

Greed and the NFL are really showing their true colors.

Just got back from a working vacation in Mexico. WOW! We stayed at the Cabo Azul Resort and it was nothing short of awesome! Everything was perfect.

We did more than I expected to do and the area exceeded my expectations. We saw Sammy Hagar play at Cabo Wabo’s. Unbelievable. The chances of ever seeing that are slim to none. We rode horses during the sunrise…which was absolutely beautiful. We had massages on the beach, drinks by the pool, and drinks in the pool.

I was reluctant to go at first with all the crime at the Mexican/US border. I thought for sure with my blonde hair and blue eyes, I’d be screaming kidnap me and ask for a huge ransom. Never once did I feel like I was going to be kidnapped, mugged, mislead, or anything. Everyone we spoke to was just as nice as they could be. Most of the folks there speak enough english to understand. So, if you know a little spanish and they know a little english, you’ll be fine.

This was probably the most relaxing time I’ve EVER had on a vacation. I’m usually up tight because I’m constantly worried about my surroundings. I thought it would be 10 times worse being out the U.S. Boy was I wrong!

Get over to my facebook page to check out the photos.

Are Americans really ready? We bitch and moan about things wrong with our Country, but as a whole, are we really ready to stand up to our leaders and put our government back in its place. I think some Americans have seen this moment coming for a long time. I think more Americans are coming to realize that our current situation needs to be addressed. But sadly enough, I think most Americans are far to self indulged and are of the mindset that someone else will stand up and fix this situation. What the self indulged don’t realize is that all of the little conveniences we have today that have made the self indulged what they are will not be as plentiful for their children. Maybe that’s a good thing. I don’t have kids, but I worry for other peoples children and the future they’re going to have to fix if we don’t do something soon!

I’m 38 years old and want to act now. I may not have the energy when I’m 75 and I certainly hate depending on others for anything……and I mean anything!

For all you Americans out there that think standing up to your government needs to be scheduled or you’re just not quite sure you’ll have the time with all the running you have to do for the kids between soccer practice, cheerleading camps, karate class, etc., I say to you WAKE UP!! Look around you. If YOU don’t do something who will. And if YOU don’t do something, what does that teach your children. I’m not saying drop everything and drive to D.C. and live in a tent in the park across from the White House. What I am asking is to educate yourself about our government. Educate yourself as to who your local Representatives are and how to contact them and voice your opinion. I guarantee you’ll find something that person voted for or against that affects you personally, you’ve just never taken the time to care.

I’m primarily a fiscal conservative with libertarian mix. I’m not saying my point of views are the end all be all. I’m simply trying to point you in a direction. I promise you, I’d rather you know what’s going on with your government and disagree with me than not know anything at all and let others make those decisions for you.

My biggest problem with Americans is Frivolous Lawsuits and I’ll explain.

Many years ago there was a commercial about cocaine addiction. This guy says he does more coke so he can work longer so he can make more money so he can do more coke so he can work longer so he can make more money so he can do more coke. The ad ends by saying if you or someone you know is addicted to cocaine call 1-800-662-HELP.

I’m going to tie frivolous lawsuits and our medical expenses together in this article.

We’ve all heard about the person with diabetes who had to have a leg amputated and the doctor ended up cutting off the wrong leg. The patient then sued and got 50 gazillion dollars. Good for the patient you say? WRONG! Bad for everyone. RIGHT! Here’s why.

Who do you think pays the 50 gazillion dollars? The insurance company. So now, the insurance company has to raise their rates on not only the doctor that cut off the wrong leg, but all doctors. So now, doctors still want to maintain their “lavish” lifestyle so they have to raise their rates and patients end up paying more for each visit to the doctor. Then, another lawsuit comes along, another 50 gazillion dollars is awarded, insurance rates go up, doctors fees go up. It’s a never ending cycle just like cocaine addiction.

I don’t know how to stop it, but I do know a cap needs to be put in place. And attorneys will disagree with this because the less money their client wins, the less they get in their paychecks.

If a 25 year old person goes to the doctor to have a leg amputated and the doctor cuts off the wrong leg. How much should the patient sue for? I agree 100% that a lawsuit should happen. Chances are the 25 year old will never in their life be worth 50 gazillion dollars with both legs so why should they get 50 gazillion dollars with no legs. Their medical expenses related to the surgery past, present, and future should be covered, no questions asked. However, when it comes to the pain and suffering, and any other monies awarded, this is how it should work. How much money was the patient earning at their most recent job? How much was their last pay raise? If they’re making $40,000 per year and have gotten a 3% pay raise over the last 2 years. You take those numbers, figure they would retire at 67 and that’s how much they get with a little fluff on top. PERIOD! They DON’T get 50 gazillion dollars!

If a person with a long history of unemployment goes to the emergency room for chest pains and the hospital screws up and the patient dies, why do the living family members get 50 gazillion dollars? THAT MAKES NO SENSE! I’m not saying the persons life wasn’t worth something, but the person who died obviously didn’t value their life at 50 gazillion dollars so why should we?

I don’t know what the perfect math equation would be and I doubt there would be only one equation. But you get the idea.

These lawsuits eventually drive hospitals out of business and we complain because we don’t feel like we’re getting the medical care we need. There are tons and tons of release forms that now have to be signed. Some hospitals no longer allow the birth of child to be filmed in fear of the parents turning that video around on them and suing. Quite frankly, I’d be afraid to be a doctor. For God’s sake, we’re even scared to pull over on the side of the road to help someone in fear of getting mugged or if we gave them a ride and got into an accident, we would get sued for simply trying to help.

We’ve got to stop thinking of ourselves ONLY and look at the big picture America.

Capping frivolous lawsuits is only a small part in getting things back on track.

Have you ever gone to one of those restaurants where it has a lot of potential to be “the cool” place you envision it be but it’s lacking something? We have a restaurant like that here in Pigeon Forge called The Blue Moose. I’ve just learned they don’t have a web site after searching for it in Google. I can add that to my list of things they’re missing.

We’ve eaten here about 5 times. The first time, we were excited to try their wings. They boast about them and have a ton of different sauces for dipping. The sauces were GREAT, but the wings were slightly over cooked and not very meaty. It took them a while to get our food to us but, they were a new restaurant so we gave them the benefit of the doubt.

It was a while before we went back. We took some friends with us this time and everything was perfect. I had the chili dog which has to be the best in town. Absolutely delicious. The service was great as well. After our second experience, we were ready to go back.

Our third visit was with my dad who had come in to town for the weekend. Again, great food, good service.

Fourth time was just a trip to the bar for a few beers during happy hour. The bartender was really nice. Her attentiveness to our “needs” was impeccable.

Our fifth time was earlier this evening. We were meeting some friends there. It took us a while to even get a hostess to seat us. Our waitress was friendly but very slow. The cheese for the nachos came out cold. She forgot an order of onion rings…not as in left them in the kitchen, but forgot to put them in so the kitchen knew to cook them. Our drinks went empty on more than one occasion. In her defense, she was also working at the bar. Not as the bartender, but helping out in that area. The place wasn’t really busy.

We’re not picky when we go out to eat.I promise. I think the cheese was the second thing I’ve EVER sent back to the kitchen and we eat out A LOT!!

Towards the end of our meal, the manager came by to ask how everything was. We like the restaurant and want them to succeed and they can’t if we don’t tell them what’s wrong. She listened to our complaints, apologized and even took the nachos and onion rings off the tickets. We told her we didn’t mind paying and weren’t looking for a free meal. She explained that it was something she wanted to do for us because she wants us to come back. We accepted, paid and left. And yes..I left the waitress 15%. I have NEVER stiffed a waiter or waitress. They could be having an off night. Even if it’s the worst service ever, I still give them 15%. I know..some of you will say if you don’t tip them, they’ll never understand. Well, we voiced our complaints to the manager and it’s now up to her to address them to our waitress. Leaving no tip wouldn’t solve anything in this situation in my opinion.

The atmosphere of the place is sort of cool but a little cold and uninviting. The sports memorabilia hanging around the place gives a feel of a sports bar and grill, but there’s just something missing that I can’t quite put my finger on.

Our restaurant of choice here in Pigeon Forge is the Smoky Mountain Brewery. See, because they have a website, I hyperlinked it. : ) They’ve even got a MySpace page.

If I find out what’s missing at the Blue Moose, I’ll sleep better at night. It’s got great potential….it’s just missing something.

I’m sure it’s happened to all of us. We get intrigued by a thread that says something like “I’ve got some premium domain names I’m looking to get rid of….blah blah blah” and we all ask for the list only to find most of the names on the list will most likely be available for reg fee in a couple of months let alone even come close to being premium name(s).

So, with the input of others I hope we can all come to an agreement on what defines a premium domain name.

I personally would define a premium domain as a single generic word or 2 great generic keywords together. Examples are earth.com and MortgageCalculator.com . Mortgage-Calculator.com would NOT be a premium domain name in my opinion simply because of the hyphen. That domain would ONLY do well developed in my opinion because there would be zero type in traffic. Also, in my opinion MortgageCalculator.net would NOT be a premium domain because of the .net extension. It would be a great domain, but not a premium domain. I won’t even discuss CalculatorMortgage.com . : )

A premium domain name in my opinion will always end in .com. Toys.net would not fetch anywhere near the price toys.com did. However, if the owner of toys.com also owned toys.net , that only makes toys.com worth more if toys.net were included in the sale.

.com is definitely the premium extension with .net second….not a close second….but second. Then probably ccTLD’s in no particular order like .ca, .de, co.uk , etc. The less the chances of type in traffic, lowers the value of the domain.

Plural and singular versions matter as well. PromDresses.com is better than PromDress.com . Type in traffic will drive the value here on these 2 domains. Most people want to select from PromDresses vs. PromDress.

3 letter domains that end in .com would also be considered premium names.

Looking forward to everyone’s responses.

Brian

I could rant all day about the US Government. On the other hand, I could rant all day about how much the American people have let the US Government get away with. As news happens, if I have a rant, I’ll share my thoughts here. It’ll be a good place to vent.