A Top In The Poker Market?

As many of you know I enjoy exploring fads - like the poker fad that has spread around the world.

In fact this blog started as a poker blog - The Tsunami Hitchhiker. I played in games, read the books, immersed myself in the early stages of mania.

I won some tournaments and became fairly proficient as a "rounder." I even ended at the final table at a couple of larger events. One tournament I particularly enjoyed was one in Vegas for poker bloggers. Some had turned pro, most were quite good - it was a lot of fun, and the last tournament I played.

The Fad was in full swing - and growing quickly.

One method of spotting a fad's top is to watch magazine counters. When I started playing poker, the only magazine was filled with ads, and given away in poker rooms. I mentioned early on in this blog, when you find many poker magazines - the fad will probably be topping.

We are there.

This also brings up a sad point, this may be one of the last fads where my magazine indicator will work. Print media is withering as instant in depth information is increasingly accessed on the Internet.

In fact many new fads are going to be Internet based.

A fad starts because a few leaders start in a direction - and with insufficient information others follow to try and discover the attraction. Motion breeds more motion - and the fad takes on a life of its own.

While poker has been a fad, I think it will diminish like baseball card trading more than like pogs or bennie babies. It will continue at a slower pace, but those that have discovered poker - including grade school kids, will not abandon poker in a wholesale way.

Expect flurries of revival in poker playing, it will be around for a long time.

Unless

During a slow period politicos may seek to find favor with some vocal constituents and ban it altogether. They have made threats for years during the fads growth - and done nothing - once the poker boom subsides however - they may suddenly see a chance for publicity.

Did you know that slavery was banned in England before the American civil war? The industrial age destroyed the economics of slavery in developed nations - that is when the powers that be felt secure in banning it - after it was weak and dying anyway.

Poker may fall to the same fate.

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As The Netcohort Society Emerges

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You may have noticed that there have been fewer posts to this journal over the last week or two.

I've been working on updating the Speculation Rules site. Some of the information I normally would write into A Sovereign Speculator has ended up there.

Some of the topics I've discussed here have been moved to Speculation Rules. PT or permanent Tourist and information on the Netcohort have found their way there.

You will also find a growing section on why long term investment is dangerous - and speculation may be the best tool for creating and preserving your wealth.

I'll be back soon with more of my normal rants, but this would be a good time to look at Speculation Rules and see if any of the resources it provides may be of use to you.

Enjoy life,

Allan

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The Varb Rank - Do You Realllly Love Me?

Occasionally I surf blogs using Blogmad - they have a Varb ranking system that is basically a popularity test.

The varb rankings are 1-5 with 5 being the highest. Some of my blogs get well above four, almost a unanimous five. These are blogs with challenging topics, it is nice to be appreciated.

Not this one.

A Sovereign Speculator gets a 1.67

It is easy to understand why, this is the blog where I stick the rants I don't want to inflict on my main site readers. I consider this journal a pressure relief valve.

While some folk's tongues are fine sharp swords, here I prefer using a journalistic bludgeon on those I feel deserve it.

Political bloggers of any political stripe or spot that think by writing lies they will convince someone of the truth of their position. For some reason they never realize that no one reads their tripe but folks that already agree with them. I am sure they therefore get high Varb rankings - cheers from fellow knaves.

Bureaucrats that love to make decisions for others, folks they don't even know.

Perhaps it is a educator deciding I need to read a certain book or think a certain way. Maybe its a politico that decides to take my money to build a road in his home town, they all feel they are smarter and wiser than myself. They make decisions for me and my future based on their perceptions - and their own best interests.

There are others I have subjected to study - probably too many to mention. I will mention myself - some things I write here are really idiotic and poorly structured - emotion can do that.

But here is the reason I mentioned that Varb rating system - it shows folks read what I write - and it irritates many of them unto the action of clicking the thumbs down button.

Every time I realize I'm communicating with a bludgeon to fools and knaves about how shallow, obvious, and oblivious they are I have to smile.

Varb 1.67


That acknowledgment is worth a realllly big grin.

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Vertically Integrated & Optimized Internet Business

Say that fast three times: vertically integrated & optimized internet business.

Hopefully your tongue does not get as tangled as my typing fingers.

This may not be for you - but I'm giving it a try.

It includes all the expected goodies, splash pages, squeeze pages, auto-responders, follow up, and lots of potential for up-sales at the back end - and a host of other goodies.

There is one complete website, and an empty one to play with that you can name and use for whatever you want. There are lead generation, list creation, and traffic building tools all included - and each is a best of type.

Entry cost = US$00.00

Monthly fixed overhead $10.00, and declining from $10.00 almost immediatly.

Potential?

Thats what I'm in it for - to see how much I can learn about internet specific marketing, and how much I can earn while learning.

Also included is a free to you e-book that you can republish with your information.

The story is in the e-book. (will require Adobe or Foxit PDF reader)

Read more in the free e-book itself:

Seven Super Strategies

by David MacGregor

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What Generation Y is Not

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Various labels have been dropped on Generation Y ( Gen Y).

(A Baby Boomer tries to explain his nebulous understanding of Gen Y)

Generation Y – generally accepted to be the last generation of the prior Millennium – would be the technologically aware cohort born somewhere around 1980 until the year 2000.

They have been called The Milliennials, The Google generation, and even the Entitlement Generation. I have even coined a phrase for independent technology workers - the majority of whom will be Gen Y -- the Netcohort.

If you look at the issues that have sprung up around Generation Y you will see a pattern. Web 2.0, frequent job switches, indie rock, and a much wider variety of dress and activities than prior generations – all are influenced by Gen Y's primary characteristic.

Where the Baby Boomer's lives were influenced by wars, WWII, Korea, Vietnam -- the Gen Y existence is primarily influenced by their personal relationships.

Generation Y is perhaps best defined as The Relationship Generation.

The web sites that stress relationships are what web 2.0 is all about. Gen Yers instant message, exchange pictures and bios on My Space, and experiment with new trends based on trusted recommendations.

The formalities of prior generations are vanishing. If this is just the result of fifty years of increasing prosperity or a full cultural shift will be discovered as we leave the next depression. My feeling is that as the industrial age and its economies of scale collapse before empowered individuals – formalities may decline even further.

If you work for an old line bureaucracy – you will have noticed the difficulty in retaining your promising Gen Y new hires. They entered your environment with certain promises, when those promises are not fulfilled – they leave.

Relationships are built on trust.

Trust is difficult to win and easy to lose. Generation Y understands this – they will readily recommend what they have found pleasing. If a Gen Ys recommendations have been sound – they develop an audience. Trust therefore becomes the basis of interaction and migration to new experiences.

If you are part of Generation Y – The Relationship Generation – you may be best served by developing your own passions and creating your own company.

If you are working with Gen Y, don't over promise and under deliver. Don't hire a Gen Y by talking about the challenges of the work – and expect them to be happy running your errands.

The dues paid by Generation Y are different than those paid by Boomers and Generation X.

Gen Y has paid for credibility in their cohort – let them use the flexibility and power of trusting relationships to everyone's advantage.

You will eventually have to trust Generation Y – they and their relationships carry our future.

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A Bit Too Real

A bit too gloomy.

A chapter not included in the latest version of the Jonathan Gullible book.

"From time to time, we wish to reward our website fans of Jonathan Gullible with some material that was excluded from the latest edition of the book. One chapter that was somewhat too gloomy to be included was called "Chapter 12: Opportunity Lost."

The short excerpt on this page lets you know what to expect from the rest of the book.

This is an excellent story for kids, but the truth is right there staring at the adults.

This is a book that is fun to read for anyone - but serves its highest purpose in unlearning those that have fallen prey to the easy lies.

If you have not yet had a chance to read The Adventures Of Jonathon Gullible, now would be a good time to pick it up. You can try it in many languages - it has world wide popularity.

Light summer reading yes, and also challenging thoughts for cooler summer evenings.


Best,

Allan
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Everything You Thought You Knew About Politics Is Wrong

Liberal, Labor, Conservative, Republican, PRI, Democrat, Left, Right - all of it is wrong.

In every country, to every person in that country - these words mean different things.

These descriptions hide the simple truth. There is another continuum that explains the relationship of people and their governments far better.

You are free.

or

You are a slave.

or

Perhaps you are somewhere in between headed one direction or the other.

Think of it as being an individual totally in charge of your own life at one extreme and a totalitarian government totally in control of everything but your thoughts at the other end.

A totalitarian government can be democratic or communistic - but what counts is not the label but its power over your life.

America was founded by visionaries that knew all of us were created with inalienable rights - meaning these rights can not be removed. The U.S, Constitution and the Bill of Rights were written to protect those inalienable citizen's rights from government usurpers. A government has no rights or powers - except those that are stolen or surrendered.

Every action, by every government in the world, can be judged by this simple test. Does it make the government stronger - or does it increase liberty for the individual?

If it will make a government stronger - fight it tooth and nail.

several days after this posted I've come back to change this last line. It was too strong with my opinion - I think it would be better if you thought about what I've said and formed your own opinion.

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Happy Fourth of July In The Land Of Immigrants

America is a land of immigrants - the statue of liberty stands as a beacon to a once open society.

Today, now that they are secure, America asks that you keep your poor and your huddles masses at home.

I live in America, and also in the Peoples Republic Of California. In a similar move folks in many California cities seek to limit growth - after they have bought their house. The fact they are stealing the plans and dreams of land owners is of no consequence - morals no longer hold sway in the land once know of as free.

Perhaps if I have a chance I will drop in a bit of personal family history in another post. I suppose we are not specifically immigrants - we were probably tossed out of our country in 1704 and forced to come to America.

The only consolation was that just a few generations latter we fought and helped toss out the folks that had sent us here.

I suspect that the next generation of my family will be leaving America after our three hundred year stay. It is now managed worse than it was by the British government that proceeded it.

I don't hold much hope for just tossing the scoundrels out.

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