For nearly 7 years now, Lazy Man and Money has been a one-author blog. I’ve always felt that’s the way it should be. When I’ve read some sites like Consumerism Commentary, I’m expecting to read and hear Flexo’s opinion. If an article starts off with something written by a female, I’m disoriented. Consumerism Commentary makes it quite clear who is writing the article at the beginning, so it’s an example of a blog doing it right. However, many other blogs that I follow don’t make it as clear.

I want to be sensitive to those two things: giving people what they came for and not disorienting them. With that in mind here’s how I’m going to try to avoid it:

• What you came for – My ego would like to think that you come here to read what I have to say. However, I think you, like me, are a busy person and looking for a quality article for your time spent on the site. While I’m working on my Money Start-up, I don’t have the time to create the number of quality (or lack there-of) articles as I did in the past.
• Not Disorienting You – I plan to clearly disclose who the author is up-front. Not only that, but I’ll try to add a few lines at the end of the article with my thoughts. I think we’ll end up covering a broader range of topics.

Why the change? I think Aerosmith said it best:

Same old same old every day if things don’t change you’re just gonna rot
Cause if you do what you’ve always done you’ll always get what you always got – Get a Grip

This isn’t just making change for change’s sake. I think the site will be a lot stronger.

What made this possible is that I was been able to hire a superb author. You know him as Kosmo from The Soap Boxers and he’s been a guest poster in the past here. I’m a believer in the old adage about surrounding yourself with the best talent.

What you won’t see, at least for the near future, is a bunch of to try to keep track of. I plan to keep the number of regular authors at 2.

Kosmo shared a few words in the comments below, but I think they add to the introduction itself, so I’ll put them here too:

Thanks for the kind words. I’ll try not to disappoint.

The community on this site is so active, engaged, and … civil :) It’s nice to see people take completely opposite views without anyone resorting the the name calling you see on some sites, which shall remain nameless. (cough, cnn, cough)

I’m a fan of this Aristotle quote:
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

It seems that quite often people cannot entertain a thought if they do not agree with it (accept it). Lazy Man and I often disagree on a particular topic, but generally can have quite a lengthy discussion to drive out the details of each other’s opinion – which is awesome – a great learning experience.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with me, I’ll give a brief bio.

In terms of background, I’m basically the Bizarro Lazy Man. I grew up on a dairy farm in northeast Iowa and have lived all but 5 of my nearly 38 years in the Cyclone state. I am a proud alum of Iowa State University.

I’m married with two kids (5 and 3), and have spent nearly 16 years as a computer systems analyst for a large financial service company (I prefer not to name the company, but suffice it to say that it’s very well known).

In additional to the family and kids, I am working on the Great American Novel (as well as other side projects). My preferred genre to write is crime fiction, with serial killers as my niche. One of my stories gave an acquaintance nightmares, something I’m very proud of.

My site, The Soap Boxers, is very different than what you see on Lazy Man and Money. It’s more of a writing project, with no real intention to make money (which is good, since it doesn’t). I command a cadre of writers who share in the meager profits. This time of year, you can find articles on baseball, politics, baseball, news, and baseball. Sometimes, I write about baseball.

And finally … although I’m pretty quite in person, I can really run my mouth when I’m writing.