Win two books from The Nightstand!

The Nightstand is a hot new blog that reviews "books both sinister and strange." (How is that for a tagline?) To get some buzz going, they're giving away two great books - HUNTRESS by Malinda Lo and the deliciously creepy SLICE OF CHERRY by Dia Reeves. And the best part? The books are signed by the authors! It doesn't get much better than this, folks, so go over here and enter the giveaway. ;)

Win a $25 gift certificate to the Worthy Of The Prize shop! :)

The fine folks over at the Worthy of the Prize Sports Ministries are giving away a $25 GC to their online shop. What's "Worthy of the Prize"? It's a nifty reference to 1 Corinthians 9:24: "Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it." I'll be the first to admit I'm not a very religious person, but the Bible contains some pretty good advice, and this is a great example of it.

The giveaway ends on June 21st, so there's still a lot of time to enter - just click here. :)

Win an Amazon gift card!!!

In my book, there's no prize better than an Amazon gift card - unless, of course, you manage to find a contest that's giving away cold, hard cash. (I have yet to find one of those haha) "Finding Family Fitness" is giving away a $40 Amazon gift card - go here to enter. The deadline is May 28th. Good luck! :)

Win a copy of Eternal Rider!

This giveaway is for a paranormal romance novel by Larissa Ione. (Whatever happened to the normal romance? *g*) If you want to win it, head this way. The giveaway ends on Sunday night.

Win a copy of Flowers Bloom!

The "Wild About Nature" blog is giving away a copy of Flowers Bloom by Mary Dadson Wade. It's about flowers. That bloom. :) What's not to like? :))

If you want to win your very own copy of the book, head thataway.

Updates

Updating a blog on a regular basis is probably an acquired habit - I know that because I have yet to acquire it. :) In my defense, I just haven't come across a lot of contests that award extra entries in exchange for blog links.

So, what's new in the life of everyone's favorite shameless opportunist? Well, I flipped some stocks. :) I still haven't found a good, safe, underpriced company with a good margin of safety (aka "the moat") that I'd be willing to invest in for the long term. ISRG seems to meet most of my criteria, but if you look at its 5-year chart, you'll see for yourself how big its price variations are. No bueno. I got it for $357 a share when it started going up a couple of weeks ago, missed the selling opportunity when it got to ~$375, and bailed when it dropped back to $361. Not exactly my finest investment move, but hey - profit is profit.

I flipped BRKB for a couple of bucks and got back in again last Friday at $81. After all the bad publicity caused by the Sokol/Lubizol insider-trading affair, Buffett is finally getting some good news: his investment in GS finally got paid off with a 30% interest ($1.2 billion!), and he most likely has some other good news under his belt. As his renegade biographer Alice Schroeder points out, he always releases great news right before his annual shareholder convention. I expect the share price to go up even higher within a week. Today the trading closed at $82.36, or a total of 1.6% profit haha. Again - it's not much to write home about, but that's a solid 1.6% gain in only five days' time. I'm fairly certain there are some CDs that pay just as much in a year.


The TradeKing promotion with a $100 signup bonus for new accounts appears to be over...

The easiest *and* safest way to make $100 online

Yes, I know what you're thinking. No, this is not a scam. :) Note that I didn't say "easiest and fastest" - in order for this to work, you'd have to wait for six months. Here is how it works: my online stock broker, TradeKing, is pretty aggressive when it comes to recruiting new members. They're giving away $100 to all new users who were referred by an existing user (such as myself). If you open a stock-trading account with TradeKing, transfer at least $1,000 into your account, make one (just one!) trade and keep the money in the account for six months, you'll get $100 for your troubles.

Each trade (buy or sell) costs $5. If you don't trust the stock market, you can buy some stocks, sell them a minute later, and keep the cash in your account for six months. That way, you'll be out $10 (for buying and selling) and you'll make a total of $90 (100 minus 10). That translates to a 9% return on your investment of $1,000 - better than any CD or savings account out there! (Note: if you find a CD or a savings account that promises more than 9% in six months, run like hell - it's probably a scam.) Or you could park your money by buying stocks in some reliable, stable company like Coca-Cola (their ticker symbol is KO) and have it grow a little for six months. Not only that, but you'll also get a small dividend for being a Coke shareholder. Whatever you choose to do, it's up to you - as long as you keep the funds in your account for six months, you'll get a bonus. Who knows, maybe by then you'll begin to dabble in investing and start growing your portfolio. :)

What's in it for me? If you keep your money with TradeKing for six months, I'll get $100 too, so it's a win-win! This promotion is only for referrals - if you just open a new account all by yourself, you won't be eligible. To get a referral link, leave a comment on this post and I'll send you a referral letter. (Make sure to include your email in the comment!) Click here to read the complete rules.