Time For A Vacation?

Alright, there’s something that really riles me tonight: T.K. posted a little wrap up after the closing bell and so did I – and about 3 hours later his thread collected over 300 comments and mine has under 40. Now, mind you – this is not a competition and obviously Tim’s blog has been around years before I even started Evil Speculator. However, I remember Tim complaining to me about my growing comment count back in May and the ratio back then was roughly 2:1 in his favor (of course). I was pretty proud of that though and the current drop in traffic concerns me.

However, I didn’t really make that much out of it until I realized who was responsible for most of the activity over there. Turns out that that various senior and prolific posters have abandoned my blog and are now considered core Slopers. Not that it’s a bad place to go to – as you know Tim and I are pretty tight – and some of you wankers even trumped up secret gay lover accusations (trust me – I live in West Hollywood and could do a lot better than that – no offense, Tim – LOL :-))

But, I must ask – why is everyone leaving? I have to admit that I might have at times been running on fumes over here and that it’s hazardous being a bearish blog during bear market rallies, but I have worked extra hard lately to keep the energy going. If I pissed people off – well, I am evil enough to live with that and you all know that I’m a bit rough around the edges. Some of the jabs I have been getting recently reflect the current mood (i.e. bears are idiots and we’ve worn our our welcome) but some of them have been very personal and I don’t see Tim getting criticized with the same vigor. Or when someone dares to challenge him everyone swarms in to defend him. In contrast: someone made a nasty comment today and a lot of folks actually voted the guy up – which really surprised me. I don’t see that happen on the Slope and it increasingly seems to happens here now. So, if I’m so hated by various readers – why do they keep coming back? Is it a form of rubber necking – is everyone simply waiting for Mole to auto-destruct?

Of course another thought that occurred to me is that it’s the quality of my work that leads people to abandon this blog and that it might be time to take a vacation. To that point: Frankly, I have been feeling the burn lately and physically/mentally I am way beyond the point of exhaustion. My sleeping pattern has been shot to hell and I think the stress of the past year (and the lack of any vacation time) is starting to catch up with me. I know myself and if I don’t force myself to take time off I never will and now might be as good a time as any.

So, Mrs. Evil and I had a talk today and decided to take some time off starting mid next week, probably on Wednesday. We plan tol head out into the Californian wilderness for some much needed mind clearing and well deserved R&R. I’m not sure when I’ll return yet – but in the meantime Keirsten and Anna will occasionally post some  comment cleaners – unless they’re busy posting on the Slope – grrrr… 😉

I’ll be be back with my Sunday post and will continue my regular routine until my departure. Hopefully I will return extra evil and with super ninja turtle charting powers.

Cheers,

Mole