As a hosting reseller with a few vendors, I used to request domain registration through those Web hosting service accounts. One of them outsources the registration to Melbourne IT (melbourneit.com.au/). This is perfectly reasonable because the hosting service is not set up to be a domain registrar. What is not reasonable is their choice of Melbourne IT. Of course, you might not know who the registrar is going to be when you sign up, either as an individual or a hosting service reseller. I did not, but ultimately decided to deal directly with the registrar and had my hosting service transfer the domains from their control to mine so that I could manage my own domain registrations directly with Melbourne IT. Once I obtained this access and could bundle all of the domain names under a single account, I proceeded to transfer them out of Melbourne IT one by one as they came due. I chose to transfer them to GoDaddy. Melbourne IT is one of the slower-to-transfer and most expensive-to-renew registrars that I have ever dealt with. Today I made the long distance call to Australia to deal with Melbourne IT about a transfer that I initiated 8 or so hours ago and found out from Support, that transfers...

You can find the work of journalist and author Scott McMillion on his new Web site. Scott McMillion is an award-winning journalist, and the author of Mark of the Grizzly. He is also senior editor of the terrific Montana Quarterly magazine for the past five years. Scott’s Web site has his magazine and newspaper articles, videos, and info about Mark of the Grizzly. The site has the nifty iPaper PDF viewer so you can read his magazine pieces, and see the excellent photography that accompanies them, right there on the site. Mark of the Grizzly was the very first book I read by a Livingston author just before I moved here in 2002, and I have been reading Scott’s writing ever since. I was also interviewed by Scott for the Bozeman Daily Chronicle when I started LivingstonOutLoud.com in 2005, and I had first-hand experience of how well he gets his subjects. So it was a real pleasure to work with him on his Web site, and to read some of the articles I hadn’t read before. Scott’s style is distinctive, smart, insightful, wry, and often moving. Consider his lead in for the current Bugle Magazine article “Elvis Has Left the Building” about a well-known Yellowstone...

The current issue of Cowboys & Indians magazine has an article about one of my clients, Kendall Grumman/HawkwoodMT.com. The article covers the history and building of the current Hawkwood West Boulder Valley retreat. Kendall created this extraordinary home around the original Hawkwood School and Post Office. She fell in love with the hand-hewn log structure and preserved it and built an additional 2000 square feet of living space around it, using reclaimed materials for flooring, trim, furnishings, and custom kitchen cabinetry (built by Crown Creations Cabinetmakers). Congratulations on the Cowboys & Indians article, Kendall! Inside the house, built around the original cabin:

A customer just told me that she found the perfect size frame for our 12″ by 18″ posters at a local (Bozeman) Michaels Arts & Crafts store. You can view them on the Web; just click on Framing > Poster Frames. According to MIchaels.com: We have the largest assortment of styles and sizes of poster frames found anywhere. Our poster frames come in the basic sizes: 11 3/4 x 36, 16×20, 18×24, 22×28, 23×35 and 24×36 and also we offer some unique sizes: 10×20, 11×17, 12×18, 13×19, 20×30, 24×32 and 27×40! Great for digital prints, with the 12×18, 13×19 and 20×30 sizes! Michaels hours are Mon-Sat: 9:00 am- 9:00 pm, Sun: 10:00 am- 7:00 pm, and Montana store locations include: Bozeman store: 2855 N 19th Ave, Ste B Bozeman MT 59718-8504 (406) 587-4103 Billings store: 2800 King Ave W, Ste C Billings MT 59102-6432 (406) 652-7440 Great Falls store: 1601 Market Place Dr Ste 25 Great Falls MT 59404-3482 (406) 268-0800 Missoula store: 2850 N Reserve St Missoula MT 59808-1318 (406) 542-0128 To find other stores in the US and Canada, use the Michaels store locator. Also, see a previous post about where to...