The Simple DudeA Simple Dude in a Complex World

On Tuesday I showed off my generosity…  once again… by giving away a $50 Amazon gift card to a lucky follower of mine.  But not just any follower, a SINGLE follower.  By single, I mean not involved with anyone, not married, not seriously dating.  Casually sleeping with someone?  Yeah that was ok.

It was Valentine’s Day and  on that crappiest  of all days for single people, I thought I would do something nice for one of them.

Because if you’re not going to get all hot and bothered with a special someone, you should at least have the chance to buy a hot and steamy movie.  Or a pair of shoes.  Maybe a gag ball… whatever yanks your crank.

I drew a winner at random from everyone who re-tweeted me and Youngman Brown was the big weiner.  And you know what cool thing he did with $1.99 of that $50?  He bought my blogging e-book for a COMPLETE STRANGER!  He bought it for Brett Minor who had left a comment saying he would buy my e-book if he won the cash.

Now THAT is some damn good karma dude.

We ALL could use some good karma like this

I also wanted to give a sincere and honest thank you to all of you who commented on my Monday post about the dilemma I am facing in using a pen name VS my real name for some writing I’m doing.

In reading all your comments I was left initially more confused then when I posted because you all had some awesome arguments…

Jewels, Jonathan Guarano and Rusty all thought going with a real sounding pen name was the way to go.

Youngman Brown, ThaiDyedMissy and my fellow Minnesotan Pearl all said I should go with my real name.  Yes, believe it or not my parents did not curse me with the birth name Simple Dude.

Actually some people said just stick with the name Simple Dude.  It’s something people know me by already, why not keep things… well… simple.  As someone who works in marketing, I do see some appeal in the branding I have built with the name Simple Dude.

To be honest I have not quite decided exactly what to do yet, but there was one comment that really stood out.  An excellent writer herself, Mandy wrote this comment:

“You have to use your real name on a real book. Chuh. It’s the achievement of a lifetime and you’re not going to slap your name on it?”

I hadn’t thought of this before… but she makes a great point.  It would be an achievement to have a book actually in print.  I am not sure my ego could handle not getting credit for it!  You won’t have to wait too long to find out what I do…  as I mentioned in the post Monday, I am hoping to get this sucka done by summer.

Thanks again Simpletons – more good karma from all of you!

SD