Patrick O'Keefe

HomeSearch Allows Shill Bidding Up to Reserve Price on Real Estate Auctions

May 9, 2014 108 Comments

HomeSearch is an online auction site for real estate. I hadn’t heard of them until recently when a member of my family was shown a house that was listed on their platform. Out of curiosity, I had a read through their event agreement and I came across something that I thought was odd.

They allow the auctioneer, who represents the seller of the real estate, to bid up the auction on behalf of the seller, until the reserve price is met. In many circles, this would be known as shill bidding.

Mike Pouncey Jokes About Rookies Giving Him Gifts… After Scandal Involving Rookies Being Forced to Give Gifts

May 9, 2014 15 Comments

If you follow the NFL, you’ll know that my Miami Dolphins had a big, headline-grabbing scandal last year involving bullying. Specifically relating to members of our offensive line. There was a special report convened by the NFL that found three players responsible for consistent harassment: Richie Incognito, John Jerry and Mike Pouncey.

Incognito is gone, without a team. Jerry has moved on to the Giants. Pouncey, a Pro Bowler and the most talented of the three, remains in Miami.

Why I Backed StandDesk on Kickstarter

May 8, 2014 2 Comments

I have long been interested in getting away from the standard desk and chair setup when I’m working. I’ve read plenty about the dangers of too much sitting and, even though I am more active than most, there is a lot of room for improvement.

The idea of a treadmill desk intrigued me – and still does – but when I discovered StandDesk on Kickstarter, I was really excited because a healthier office setup was actually attainable. What is on the market doesn’t really match up. StandDesk checks every box for me.

People look at you strange, saying you changed. Like you worked that hard to stay the same.

April 29, 2014 2 Comments

People look at you strange, saying you changed. Like you worked that hard to stay the same. Like you’re doing all this for a reason. And what happens most of the time: people change. People change around you because they start treating you different because of your success.

– Jay Z

DJ Khaled’s “They Don’t Love You No More” features this great intro by Jay Z, from an interview conducted a few years ago. I think a lot of people can identify with it.

It’s Time to Get Back to Writing Here

April 27, 2014 7 Comments

10 years ago today, on April 27, 2004, I launched this site under the pokeefe.com domain name. On July 7, 2007 (07/07/07, I always loved good dates), I moved it to patrickokeefe.com and converted it from Nucleus CMS to WordPress (thanks again Chrispian).

Somewhere along the way, I became too “busy” to write here. Busy just means that I chosen not to make it a priority. Everyone is “busy” – we just do what we most want to do. You can probably take it back to the end of 2010, though I did write several posts of length here in 2011. But it was quiet for much of that year… and 2012… and 2013… and 2014, thus far.

Please Update Your patrickokeefe.com RSS Subscription

October 6, 2012 7 Comments

photo credit: Open Kitchen España

Thank you for visiting my personal blog. This is a special message for those who subscribe it through RSS.

Until now, I’ve used a service called FeedBurner to serve my RSS feed. Unfortunately, there have been some ominous signs that the product is not receiving adequate attention, leading to questions about its reliability.

I wanted to address this before it is a real issue and, as such, have moved my RSS feed to another provider. To that end, I would like to ask you to please delete your old subscription and subscribe to my new feed URL, which is at http://feeds.patrickokeefe.com/patrickokeefe.

Some Thoughts on the Ocean Marketing Story

December 28, 2011 2 Comments

photo credit: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

As I read through all of this Ocean Marketing stuff, a few thoughts came to mind that I wanted to share.

The situation reminds me of my own story about Sports Legends Challenge. The more I read about Paul Christoforo and, especially, his follow up messages and everything that he has said after the blow up, it sounds similar. He gives off the impression that he’s not sorry – he’s just sorry he got caught. SLC was the same way.

It’s the classic marketer or PR mistake. This person is unimportant, let’s ignore him or put him down. This person is important, let’s treat him very well. Eventually, that will burn you.

Happy Holidays! (and Thank You)

December 21, 2011 1 Comment

photo credit: nyoin

I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you to everyone who has really supported me in 2011. This is decidedly unspecific, but I suspect that you know who you are.

Thank you to all of my loyal, close friends. That’s a small group. You know who you are.

Thank you to everyone who has been genuinely kind to me. I hope that I have thanked you all individually throughout the year. I mean it.

Thank you to everyone who shares my work and uses it to build a better business or online community. Your success helps to validate my work and I appreciate it.

I hope that you have a great holiday season and a happy, healthy and successful 2012.

I have a feeling that 2012 is going to be a really interesting year. I’m ready. Let’s get it.

Amazon Kindle Fire Review: I Love It

December 15, 2011 2 Comments

Disclaimer: I am a long time Amazon.com customer, which has led to me becoming a huge fan of the company and a shareholder. I just wanted to get that out of the way, up front.

I really love the Amazon Kindle Fire.

I would estimate that I am safely spending more than an hour every day on it and, more often than not, multiple hours, just depending on what my day is like.

There is a lot of video watching. I’m currently working my way through “My Name is Earl,” every episode of which is free for Amazon Prime subscribers. I also have been playing a bunch of games. “Night of the Living Dead Defense” and “Airport Mania 2: Wild Trips HD” are among my current favorites.

Thoughts on SOPA and Defending Copyright Online

December 14, 2011 4 Comments

photo credit: Mads Boedker

Don’t get it twisted. The propaganda, scare tactics and fear mongering going on, in regards to SOPA, are no better than anything that the RIAA or any creative rights organization has done. Much of it is marketing, meant to sway people with convincing language.

There are people with bad agendas on both sides of the table.

I’m not pro-SOPA or anti-SOPA. I’m anti-nonsense propaganda, pro-internet and anti-copyright infringement. When I saw all of the noise, I was thinking I would be anti-SOPA, but when you put those three together, I’m not compatible with (seemingly) most of the anti-SOPA efforts that are going on. I just don’t fit in with that crowd.