Thanks, but Joining the Darkside

Effective April 13, 2012, pages maintained only for historical reference and do not reflect current opinions nor events.

 

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To all my past blog readers, you know that it’s always been about the money, so now I’m off to the Darkside, where money talks, and everyone else? Well, you know what they can do. But in the meantime, thank you so much for giving me a piece of your day. It has always been very gratifying for me, and thanks to the modern miracle of website analytics, I know where all of you live and get your dry cleaning done.

 

Creature of Habit












 

I really am a creature of habit.

If you have any doubt just do a search of this blog for “creature of habit” and you’ll see just how many times I’ve mentioned that personality characteristic of mine.

Creature of HabitAlthough it’s convenient to blame redundancy on memory lapses that accompany advancing age, that’s really not the root cause.

That would be me.

It wouldn’t take you 27 years of marriage to realize that I’m a repetitive sort.

The last time I wrote a blog was from 2007-8 and it was in memory of my father and appropriately, was named after him in a manner that was understood by those who knew him.

Szelhamos.com

It ran for precisely one year. What gratified me about that year was that over 10,000 hits came specifically to watch the fairly crudely designed PowerPoint slideshow that tried to provide a glimpse into his life. Certainly far more people than he would have met during his lifetime came to know him and his signature invitation to all, as well.

After that one year period, writing about the same topic as now and with the same non-sensical perspective that only a delusionally knowledgeable person could have, it was time to hang it up.

The second incarnation celebrates its first anniversary today.

If you’re an impatient reader, I do apologize for burying the lead, but you can probably figure out where I’m going with this.

This time around the Szelhamos.com site was resurrected in order to find an outlet to publicize my book, Option to Profit, that, as a creature of habit, I’ve name dropped about 10,000 times, as well.

Option to Profit. And make that 10,000 and one.

So in celebration, if you have a Kindle, you can download a free copy today or tomorrow (April 12-13, 2012) or if you’re an Amazon Prime member you can “borrow” a copy from here until eternity, whichever comes sooner.

As an aside, I don’t care for the formatted appearance on the smaller Kindle screen, so why don’t you just go and buy a copy of the real thing? Send me proof of the purchase and I’ll laugh at your judgment and decision making  process.

What? No Kindle and no money? No problem, other than the no money part. But go ahead and Download to your PC. But if you’re reading this after April 13th, you get nothing

It was my oldest son’s idea to set up Twitter and Facebook presences in order to publicize the book and blog, despite my disdain for all things social. It was also his idea to transform Szelhamos.com to TheAcsMan.com, reflective of the Twitter handle.

Branding. It’s all about branding. Blame MalcolmAcs. Get off my back.

While all of this was about to go on, my other son GregOx was getting ready to learn how to defend his nation so that idiots like me could speak and write freely,

So in the one year that the new blog has been back, between the two sites, there have been about 50,000 visits and over 100,000 page views. I’m absolutely stunned by the number of regularly returning readers who needed no prompting, as well as the readers that responded to the barrage of self-serving Tweets that I’d sent out, as well as to the re-Tweets served up by some newly found friends.

There would have been many more had I not filtered out my IP address, as I was always continually amused by my own musings. Luckily, whatever of my own clicks were not counted were more than offset by the many readers sent by Danielle Kost of TheStreet.com.

And with all of those clicks, I can still confidently say that I added value to no one, but at least kept my La-Z-Boy lounger from walking off.

Although books did indeed sell, more than I would have ever imagined, that purpose became secondary, as I enjoyed the blogging, the Twitter community and the many opportunities both afforded me.

Firstly, I had the opportunity to meet Herb Greenberg, an intellectually honest journalist who is able to impeccably balance passion with objectivity. He was good enough to introduce me to his CNBC colleagues Brian Sullivan and Mandy Drury, both genuinely nice people.

I also had the very good fortune of appearing on Matt Miller’s show, Bloomberg Rewind and sold yet even more books as he so graciously mentioned it on air.

Money, money, money.

Strangely, I did with the book royalties what I would never do with my gainfully earned money.

I bought shares of a sub-$5 stock, Sprint and then more shares and then even more. I actually closed out that position just a few weeks ago, having had my entire lot assigned.

How completely expected, as befits a creature of habit.

If I were to do the book all over again, at least I would know that I was entirely justified in having included Herb Greenberg in the acknowledgments. It absoluely amazes me how much crap is sent his way in the form of 140 space or less packets.

Surprisingly, the Twitter experience has been especially gratifying and the small stream that I developed educated and entertained, while consistently humoring me both literally and literally. Not to mention the hordes of free iPad and Wal-Mart gift cards I’ve collected.

So, being a creature of habit, TheAcsMan blog takes its first anniversary as the time to hang it up again, but first, with a special #FF to my very favorite Twitter people.

First, I have to wonder about my first two Twitter followers who have stayed with me through the entire year. How pathology seeking are DGimbz  and Steve Boyle?

In no apparent order and without regard to those damn 140 spaces: HerbGreenberg, Dasan, Tradefast, SellPuts, MarekFuchs, PKedrosky,Chartsmarter, thehistorytwins, stockactionJane WellsSteveBeste, MattMiller1973, Aron Pinson, Lee Grindinger, Azahler, DennisKneale and EddyElfenbein.

One of the above mentioned and whom I have never had the pleasure of meeting, actually tracked me down from a FourSquare check-in and had two bottles of champagne delivered to our table at a fine restaurant as we celebrated Sugar Momma’s birthday. Wow! But that was just a single measure of his generosity and good advice and humor

A couple of other fine ones were always in great humor, even when providing weekly fire safety advice or when juxtaposing stock observations with the proper spelling of the plural of “dominatrix.” One guy actually joined us for Hanukkah Latkes, but then we had our locks changed.

In their own categories are Furlicity, for her tireless efforts to help me get a coveted “Shorty Award,” DeeRaz, whose Tweets are intelligently unintelligible at first while always being highly impassioned and sincere, JayHawkJockDoc, the blog’s single most engaged reader and ParmCharm, for always having something uplifting and nice to say.

Although she’s not on Twitter, I’d be well beyond remissful if I didn’t thank my Sugar Momma whom I mention with great frequency and may indirectly be the desire of many a surfing Saudi. I wonder whether it’s merely coincidence that she’s decided to work while I hold down the La-Z-Boy.

Probably.

So from now on, when she asks me what I’m doing on the computer, the correct answer will probably be “Porn.”

Interestingly, when I informed Sugar Momma that today would be my last blog, she asked if she could write one, as well.

As well? Probably much better. But her’s, if she meets the deadline, will appear tomorrow and I’m told she’ll also be posting a daily T-shirt and coffee mug photo. too.

Now, I’ve also been introduced to some very good bloggers, most of all James Altucher, whose stories are wonderful to read and consistently engage the readership, as well. I would really be negligent if I didn’t also thank him for so graciously allowing me the use of high profile real estate on his blog site and the placement of my own self-serving links. I received many repeat clicks from James’ dedicated readers. He is the ultimate example of a writer that srikes a chord with an easy to digest conversational tone.

Of course, I was also fortunate enough to get some guest bloggers for those days that I just couldn’t get it done. To my dismay, blogs from MalcolmAcs, Vahl and George Pick were more popular than my own.

Damn them all to hell.

But it seems like it’s time to move onto something else, although I have to keep doing the trading, as I’ve grown accustomed to food, shelter and other things and have been very fortunate in finding a way to eliminate the need to leave a 5 foot radius in order to do so.

Which reminds me, another special thanks to the engineers at La-Z-Boy for designing that chamode model with an easy to launder fabric.

Unfortunately, I’m rejoining the “dark side” having resurrected the subscription “Option to Profit” site, as I like to make money with as little effort as possible. That site will continue certain pages of this blog, such as the very recently introduced “Weekend Update” and the Portfolio Holdings, Transactions and Performance pages, unless I find myself getting embarrased by their poor performance. But seriously, as a guy who would walk around with a monkeytail beard and posts ridiculous T-Shirt coffee mug combo pictures everyday really get embarrassed by much?

Can’t say the same for Sugar Momma. Well, that’s a different story. We take separate cars a lot and it’s not a Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip kind of strategy to preserve the monarchy.

In the meantime, it is back to writing and I hope to finish a couple of books, with the first being American Colonic, a fictional autobiography and then some more serious pieces, which actually require an academic commitment to historical research.

Ugh.

Finally, a special thanks to the readers. Whether accidental, curious Twitter clickers, through the vagaries of Google search, which has brought an incredibly consistent flow of Saudi Arabian readers seeking information on “my Wife’s Bra,” or to those that came of their own volition, thank you.

And happy investing.

 

Look at this. She beat the deadline.So go and read Sugar Momma’s take, The Real Sugar of Life.

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