Kevin Muldoon

When I was in New York the other week I bought the Western Digital 250GB Passport, a portable USB powered 2.5″ hard drive which is suitable for travel. I purchased the hard drive from the electrical shop at the bottom of Macys on 34st for $124.99.

I got an email today from Amazon about their low prices on hard drives and usb drives. Amazon are selling the 250gb WD Passport for £87.98 (and in my experience Amazon are usually pretty cheap and a good bench mark for prices). With a $10 charge for tax in New York and even considering the low exchange rate my credit card gave me of 1.92 dollars to the pound the hard drive was just over £70, nearly £20 cheaper than the UK.

Infact, this is probably the worst example I could give you all as clothes have a bigger price difference and higher priced electrcial goods have even bigger savings. I know the dollar is weak just now and I know that I’m not taking standards of living into account but it still highlights how expensive goods are in the UK.

I can only imagine that the poor dollar and low cost of living makes travelling outside the USA expensive in comparison to other options but I’d still prefer to be in their position!

Two thumbs down to Rip Off Britain!

One of the things I have found about working through the web is my inability to correctly give myself a title ie. a name which explains what I do for a living. Lot’s of people online seem to be using the term ‘Entrepreneur’ but I really hate it, it’s kinda pompous in my opinion.

When applying for something, for example a loan, you need to write the name of your profession. In the last few year’s I have wrote ‘Web Developer‘. Webmaster is probably a more accurate description but I thought Web Developer sounded better

Meeting people for the first time there would come a point where they would inevitably ask you what you do. When I explain I’m self employed via the internet and that I make money through advertising they usually reply ‘Oh, you’re a web designer’. This is usually followed by a reference that a cousin or uncle needs a website built and I then need to backtrack and explain that whilst I can design websites from scratch, I’m not a web designer and usually leave that aspect to people who are good at it. I don’t believe that explaining an online job to people who are not nev savvy is ever going to be easy!!

In the last few months I have sold my poker forums and several other websites which I owned. This has helped me clear the debt I had from travelling last year and gave me a chance to work on some other projects. Other than my online shop project with my friend Eddie, lately I have been working mainly on my blogs and when someone recently asked me what I do and I told them I’m currently running some blogs etc they replied ‘Oh so you’re a blogger’. It seems that whereas a lot of people struggle to understand how people can build websites specifically for profit, most people understand how blogging works.

With blogging taking up most of my time now I am more than happy to use the title ‘Blogger’. It’s pretty much what I am until I start another non-blog project and it seems to keep the non-savvy people happy!

What do you call yourself? Do you constantly find yourself having to explain to people exactly what you do?

I was watching the news tonight when it announced that KFC will be removing the ‘Fried’ part of their brand to replace it with ‘Grilled’ in order to promote a healthier image of their food.

They will be trying out their new grilled chicken in in six cities — Indianapolis, Colorado Springs, San Diego, Oklahoma City, Jacksonville, Florida, and Austin, Texas.

I wonder if it will be a success?

Source : Reuters

At the end of June last year me and my friend Michael flew from Tokyo to Berlin to meet 9 of my friends who were over for a long weekend. For the first 3 days we stayed in East Berlin and the last 3 days we stayed with my friends on the west side, quite close to Checkpoint Charlie.

The place we stayed at in East Berlin wasn’t the greatest. Infact, it was a complete craphole if im honest. The beds killed my back and the hostel was situated in what can only be described politely as ‘not a nice area’. Ok, it wasn’t that bad but it was hardly the hilton!

I took a few photos from my window on the first day. Check them out

On the 2nd day my mate Michael was looking out the window and said ‘Have a look at this’. This is what I saw

At first glance you probably don’t notice anything different from the photo I had taken the day before. However, if you look closer you will notice that there is a man sleeping at the top of the chimney.

The pictures above don’t show how tall and thin this chimney was. We checked it out from the ground and it was really thin – quite simply, if the guy had to jerk out of sleep quickly he would no doubt have fell to his death. We went out for a few hours and saw some museums and when we came back he was gone however we still couldn’t work out why the guy wanted to sleep up there for hours.

Strange to say the least! What’s the strangest place you’ve ever slept?

I touched down in Glasgow this morning at 7am after a very enjoyable 6 days in New York. 9 of my mates booked up last year when I was still in New Zealand so whereas me and my friend George travelled direct from Glasgow, they had to all go via Amsterdam with a 4 hour wait in between. 3 other friends who were staying around times square also joined us but even though there were 14 of us there, I don’t think we were ever in the same room at the same time as someone was always doing something or heading out early or late or whatever.

Most of my friends stayed in the penn hotel (great location, poor hotel) whereas me and my friend George stayed just one street behind on W 32nd street (La Quinta Inn, situated in Korea Street). Our hotel was pretty basic too but after backpacking so much over the last few years and staying in rooms with 10 people in bunk beds I am very easy to please! If I ever went to New York with a girlfriend though I’d maybe splurge on something a little better.

What did I do in New York? Well, nothing. Absolutely nothing constructive. Other than making a knicks game all we did was go out and party in the pubs but I have to say, I loved every minute of it. The place was buzzing because of St Patricks day and we had an absolute blast.

Unfortunately, I don’t have too many pics from the trip at the moment. I never remember to take my camera anywhere and I haven’t got the pics from my friends yet but here’s a few pics I did get.

Checking my hotmail with my eee

What happens when you turn around and someone says cheese!

Watching the Knicks get beat by the Hawks – as you can see, we don’t hide the fact we’re tourists!

Me and some friends at Herald Square on our first full day in NY

This was my 4th time in New York. I’ve been to a few places in the USA now so here are some thoughts from someone living in the UK

• Americans are really friendly. Maybe our view is skewed because we are tourists but everyone we met was really friendly and we met some great people…though no one can tell the difference between a Scottish accent and an Irish one haha
• I still don’t know how to tip. Here’s the thing, in the UK we only really tip in restaurants. I don’t hate tipping, infact in some situations I think it’s better as service tends to be better. Here’s my problem, I just don’t know when I need to tip. I clearly tip too much in bars and restuarants but I’m not sure when to tip the bellboy etc. Any suggestions?
• Portions in some restaurants are just too much. I really empathise with people who have weight problems in the USA. I reckon if I stayed there a while and partied a lot I’d put on a lot of weight. For example, we were sitting in Jack Dempseys on 33rd Street. Me and my friend were not really that hungry but ordered some buffalo wings to nibble at. The order came with about 16 large buffalo wings. Value for money but I think this excessiveness is responsible for a lot of people being overweight. A few days later I had a burger in Ruby Tuesdays and even though I was starving I couldn’t finish it, it was huge!!!

Although there are obvious differences between the UK and the USA, culturally we are very similar and it’s very easy to feel at home quickly. This is the same with Australia, Canada and New Zealand ie. a common language and shared history.

With Delta opening more routes in the UK and flights in general to stateside getting cheaper I’m sure I will be back sooner rather than later

It’s 7.30pm just now however I’m just about to head to my friends to stay as we are up at 4.30am to fly to New York. I will be away for a week so there probably won’t be many posts until I return (if any).

I’ll try and post some pics of the trip when I return. Speak to you all soon.

Kev