Every Man's Dream
Last month I talked about how being Mr Computers can sometimes pay dividends. This weekend was another example of that. Friends of ours own a group of holiday cottages in the Peak District called Hurdlow Grange. For the design, hosting and upkeep of that site I get to stay there free of charge. Since designing that site they've bought the local pub, The Royal Oak, for which I also host the site (a modified copy of the other). In return I have been given every man's dream - a free tab in the pub.
This weekend a group of us had a get together, based around the pub. We (the Howletts) stayed in the cottages and ate/drank in the pub. All free of charge. Although I'm paying the price in other ways this morning. I'm getting too old for a whole weekend in the pub and probably won't feel myself again until at least Wednesday.
Having a free tab in a pub is only a good thing now that I've grown up somewhat and learnt to drink responsibly. Having children really does make you think about how that extra pint at the end of the night is going to make you feel in 7 hour's time when you wake up.
Talking of drinking responsibly I was in our local pub the other week with the guys off our street and fiddling with one of the beer mats on the table. On it in small (about 8pt) font in one corner was the web address D-RINKAWARE.CO.UK. I'd seen it before on other adverts for alcohol and wondered why they'd had to register d-rinkaware.co.uk. Was drinkaware.co.uk already taken? Drink-aware.co.uk too? How do they expect people to remember the dash. Especially if they've a fuzzy head in the morning, as I'd imagine their target audience might.
Now what was that address I saw last night? Oh yeah it was dee dash rink aware dot co dot uk. Catchy.
Then, while fiddling with said beer mat I must have tilted it enough to notice the "clever" part. As you'll see from the logo above the D and R help form a wine glass on its side. While this is a nice little visual trick (although not half as good as the FedEx arrow) and immediately(?) obvious in the full-size colour logo it doesn't work on the scale that most people see it. They must know this as they have in fact registered d-rinkaware.co.uk as well as drinkaware.co.uk.
Skip to the 
You can subscribe to an individual
Nice one, Jake. I love labor for barter returned in kind. I wish there was more of that. My neighbors and I occasionally help each other in this way, me playing the role of Mr. Computer, but we have to keep it to a minimum as apparently our beloved I.R.$. has a dim view of transactions which they can not tax.
I hope you don't similarly draw attention from like esteemed institutions in the UK.
Nice tidy websites, btw. Gorgeous views on the banners.
Please hide the next comment on your article from childrens' eyes:
You lucky bastard.
That being said, @Jerry, I know the US tax department takes a dim view to being paid "under the table," but can they really do anything to transactions using a barter system?
I wish I could say I took the landscape shots Jerry, but they're from istockphoto.com
mdmalph. I'm not that lucky. The pub is over an hour away. Now if it were my local that would be a different story (one in which I'd have to get myself barred). Anyway, shouldn't that be a bartENDer system ;o)
Only because you PUBlished the fact.
Or rather, more than one way to be "under the table"? hm. Not sure if that bit of humor translates across the pond.
Oh.
Well, the obvious solution is that you now need to move. :P
Being Mr Computer can be great. Couple of weeks ago I discreetly fixed the mayhem wreaked on my neighbours p.c. by some of his more unfortunate browsing habits. Now I have a decent bottle of Moet in the fridge.
You are 1 lucky dude my advise would be to go and live in the cottage, a 1 hour drive is just no good.
:D