Musings...

       A friend has been telling me I need to put some advertising on this Blog so I can make some money.  The way he tells it, he is making “a lot of money” on his Blog.  I don’t believe him.  He has tried every get rich quick scheme he can find ever since I’ve known him and none of them has worked.  If he would have devoted as much time to a job as he has to trying to make money without working for it he would be a lot further ahead.  I have links to Adsense and Amazon on this Blog as a convenience to readers…now about 100 per day.  This Blog (not counting the original one which got hacked) has been in existence for about a year and a half and so far my “earnings” total $1.08 and that’s from legitimate sellers listed on Blogger, not sleazy grifters. Chess players don’t buy chess books and equipment off of Blogs anyway.
       As I mentioned at the very beginning of this Blog its purpose is to amuse myself; it keeps me from vegetating in front of the television and keeps me from sitting around McDonalds with a bunch of other retired fellows talking about the old days (some weren’t so good, so it’s just “old days”) and drinking too much coffee.  I reckon I’ve made about all the money I’m ever going to in life unless we win the Publisher’s Clearing House Sweepstakes, and despite the fact that it looked like we were close to winning several times, I have come to the conclusion that it isn’t going to happen.  So, I will keep posting even if nobody reads this Blog and will continue to list chess books offered by Amazon even though, if I’m being honest, very few books ever helped me improve very much.  Some I enjoyed a lot, but improvement…no.  I’ve always gotten the most enjoyment out of game collections and tournament books.  Tournament books are a rarity today, but if you can find one from any tournament from bygone days, buy it and just enjoy playing through the games. 
       When it comes to buying chess books, most of us own too many and most never get read.  We buy them with good intentions, sometimes actually start reading them, but then another one catches our eye and the last book is put on the bookshelf unfinished. I recently gave away about 50 or 60 books.  How many of them did I actually read clear through?  None!  I kept about a dozen that I had read plus one that I’ve never bothered to read but Dr. Max Euwe autographed it for me back in 1959. I got rid of a bunch of cheap trophies several years ago and threw out a bunch of medals won in postal chess tournaments so long ago I didn’t even remember what events they were won in…they were corroded and turning green.
       Chess sets were another money waster.  I gave away a half dozen of them and kept only two…my 1959 wood Zagreb set and a plastic tournament set which will most likely never see battle again.  In fact, if I ever found somebody that would give me $100 for my chess table I bought 40 years ago I’d sell that, too.  Today they go for about $600. 
       These days I prefer to spend my money on things that are more important.  Like a couple of weeks ago when I got a set of hex wrenches and a set of three different sized putty knives that were on sale at Home Depot.