Year: 2011

Sold domain – slonn.com

I’ve been buying domains for a few years now.  Every time I have an idea for a project, I go and buy a domain for it.  Sometimes the project idea actually gets implemented and lives for a while.  Most of the time I just put it on the shelf.  I keep domains for two-three years just in case I go back to the project and then I expire them.  A few domains I keep longer, in hopes of selling them later.   I sold a few domains before to clients of mine, but I’ve never sold anything to an unknown party.

Today I did.  Well, technically it took longer than just today.  But today the deal is officially closed.  I put one of my domains – slonn.com – on the auctions at GoDaddy and someone bought it for $500 USD.  While I could have bargained for a better price, I really didn’t want to.  It’s a 5-letter .com domain with no promotion, no prior website.  I had it for about 5 years.  I thought the price was about right and GoDaddy made the rest of the procedure ridiculously easy.

I have a few domains up for sale, but at the rate it goes, I don’t expect it to be my primary source of income any time soon.  Heck, it won’t even qualify for business by any measure.  Just a little extra PayPal cash.

True Grit

Without waiting for local cinemas to catch up with the rest of the world, I got my hands on a copy of “True Grit” – a new movie by Coen brothers, of who I am a big fan.

Every film they do is different from every other, and is a masterpiece of its own.  “True Grit” follows the pattern.  It is a western, with beautiful and authentic cinematics, colorful characters, excellent acting, and simple, yet unique story telling.  The story itself is simple and straightforward – there are no twists as such.  But it tells the story of people with character, courage, and will.  It tells the story of the days that have long past, yet which is applicable to modern days.  It shows people who lived in a very different world, yet were so similar to us.

A 5 out of 5 from me and a recommendation for home collection – you’ll want to see it this movie more than once.

Season of the Witch

Olga and I spent some time choosing which movie to go see today.  There are a few showing, but none of them sounds even remotely attractive.  After we went through all options, we decided to watch “Season of the Witch“.  At least the trailer was attractive.

The film turned out to be a disappointment.  Whilst it had some good acting and special effects, the story failed it miserably.  It was too shallow and too raw.  There seemed to be no purpose, no connection.   And there were way too many contradictions.  Maybe fifteen or twenty years ago, all that could be easily hidden behind the visual effects.  But not today.

Overall, I’d give it a 3 out of 5.  Don’t bother with the cinema – watch at home.

Day in brief

Weeds

Everything has pros and cons, including such things as being sick and staying at home.  One of the benefits of such a situation is loads of time.  Being sick means you can’t really work productively or focus at length on any more or less complicated issue.  But you might just have enough brain power to watch TV series in bed.

It’s a been a while now that I’ve heard plenty of good about “Weeds“, but somehow I didn’t have the time or will to start watching yet another TV series that is on the air for several years.  Now seemed like a good time.  So I got myself all six seasons.  I got hooked from the first episode, which appeared like very light, entertaining comedy, with a pro-legalize twist to it.  What followed was way more than that.

All six seasons are done to the same level of quality, which is quite rare.  There is entertainment and fun to it.  But there are also characters that I couldn’t help but want to follow.  And there was even more than that.  Under an almost grotesque story setup, hidden is a very broad view of the drug problem in our society.  The story takes the characters through all sorts of situations, involving starting and expanding a drug business, ethics, society, legal and financial issues involved, government control, drug business relations with other crimes, corruption, and even a diverse exploration of how the problem varies between three different countries and states.  Without being too documentary or focusing too much on any specific issue, these TV episodes show how broad the problem is and how many areas it covers.

I wasn’t thinking much about all that while watching episode after episode. Maybe I was still too sick for that.  Or maybe I just didn’t have the full picture.  But once I finished with all six seasons, I can’t stop but think about it.

Despite your interest in drugs and legalization issues, I strongly recommend this show.  It is funny.  It is social.  It is about family.  It is about the current state of economy.  It is kind and considering.  And it tries to show the world from slightly different perspective without pushing a lot of agendas.   My rating is 5 out of 5.  Well done.  Can’t wait for seasons 7.