Saturday, March 31, 2012
Friday, March 30, 2012
Mega Millions...
Just in case you were wondering...I didn't win $640 million tonight.
Not a huge shocker, I'm kinda thinking you didn't win either.
But that's definitely OK!
Life is OH so good...so enjoyable, so full...
What would I do if I won? I'll admit, I have thought a little bit about it...
In order:
- Put in my notice at work. Yep, I'd give them two weeks since they've always been so good to me. I am ready to sit down, relax and throw my alarm clock out the window. I would hope to never see 4am again...unless I'm catching a flight to Italy.
- Get my cable turned back on....just in time for baseball season.
- Buy my Dad a Porsche. We'll test drive a TON of them first...then I'll let him choose his favorite.
- Buy a FLEET of Toyota Priuses...one for Allison, one for Zac, one for Logan, one for Thatcher. And Gina gets a brand new Jaguar.
- Buy season tickets (with parking!) for the Dodgers and the Angels...and go to a TON of games with all my friends! And give away most of the tickets.
- Buy a very modest but slightly bigger home. One with an extra room for guests, a two car garage and room for small, beautiful garden.
- Share my good fortune with a couple of very close friends.
- Sit down, relax, read, WRITE. Breathe, smile, laugh. Sleep in.
- Put a big chunk of it in the bank and start giving the rest away--immediately. Honestly, I already have everything I need, how much could I possibly spend? OK, I will have to buy a few rose bushes, some vegetable seeds and a gardening tool or two...but that's about it.
- Get in the car and start driving. It will most definitely be time for that long LONG road trip.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Monday, March 26, 2012
So you're saying there's a chance...
The Mega Millions Jackpot tomorrow is $363 million.
I've had friends, family and co workers remind me of this fact. Come on, who doesn't dream of ways to spend $363 million?
Sure, everyone knows that the probability of winning the lottery is a long shot. How long, however, you've probably never really thought about.
Your actual odds of winning the lottery depend on where you play, but single state lotteries usually have odds of about 18 million to 1 while multiple state lotteries-like Mega Millions-have odds as high as 120 million to 1.
Of course, if you have ever thought you'd win the lottery, you're not alone. About one out of every three people in the United States think that winning the lottery is the only way to get out of their dead end job and/or the only way they will ever be able to become financially secure in their life. This is actually a frightening statistic when you sit down and consider what the above odds really mean.
While winning the lottery may be something that you want, to show you your chances let's take a look at a number of remote occurrences that you probably wouldn't like to have happen to you - and probably don't think will ever happen to you - but are still much more likely to happen to you than winning the lottery.
How about the classic odds of being struck by lightning. The actual probability of this happening varies from year to year, but as a good estimate, the National Safety Council says between 70 and 120 people a year die in the US by lightning - so let's take 100 as our base. With the US population being approximately 265 million people, that means that the chances of being killed by lightning are roughly 2,650,000 to 1. Not very likely. However you are still 6 to 45 times more likely to die from a lightning strike than you would be to win the lottery.
Now nobody wants to die from flesh eating bacteria, and with odds at about 1 million to 1, the chances that you will die that way are pretty slim. Then again, you are 18 to 120 times more likely to die this way than to win the lottery.
What are the chances that if you're playing golf with a group of four that two of you will get a hole-in-one on the exact same hole? 17 million to 1...yep, they're better than the chances of you winning the lottery.
What about dieing from a snake bite or bee sting? It probably isn't a way that you have imagined that you would leave the earth. You're a whopping 180 to 1,200 times more likely to die from one of these incidents than win the lottery. That's because the probability of dieing from a snake bite or bee sting is about 100,000 to 1.
Now I know that you are not a bad person and you don't imagine finding yourself on death row for a crime you committed anytime soon. Still, it's a lot more likely that you will be legally executed than win the lottery. In fact, you are 30,000% to 200,000% more likely to die in a legal execution than to win the lottery!
If none of the above has convinced you to stop playing the lottery, then it's time to bring out my favorite lottery fact. If you drive 10 miles to purchase your lottery ticket, it's three to twenty times more likely for you to be killed in a car accident along the way than to win the jackpot.
All that said...what are the odds of winning if I don't even buy a ticket?!
You know the line... "You can't win if you don't play."
I just bought 10 tickets.
Wish me luck.
I've had friends, family and co workers remind me of this fact. Come on, who doesn't dream of ways to spend $363 million?
Sure, everyone knows that the probability of winning the lottery is a long shot. How long, however, you've probably never really thought about.
Your actual odds of winning the lottery depend on where you play, but single state lotteries usually have odds of about 18 million to 1 while multiple state lotteries-like Mega Millions-have odds as high as 120 million to 1.
Of course, if you have ever thought you'd win the lottery, you're not alone. About one out of every three people in the United States think that winning the lottery is the only way to get out of their dead end job and/or the only way they will ever be able to become financially secure in their life. This is actually a frightening statistic when you sit down and consider what the above odds really mean.
While winning the lottery may be something that you want, to show you your chances let's take a look at a number of remote occurrences that you probably wouldn't like to have happen to you - and probably don't think will ever happen to you - but are still much more likely to happen to you than winning the lottery.
How about the classic odds of being struck by lightning. The actual probability of this happening varies from year to year, but as a good estimate, the National Safety Council says between 70 and 120 people a year die in the US by lightning - so let's take 100 as our base. With the US population being approximately 265 million people, that means that the chances of being killed by lightning are roughly 2,650,000 to 1. Not very likely. However you are still 6 to 45 times more likely to die from a lightning strike than you would be to win the lottery.
Now nobody wants to die from flesh eating bacteria, and with odds at about 1 million to 1, the chances that you will die that way are pretty slim. Then again, you are 18 to 120 times more likely to die this way than to win the lottery.
What are the chances that if you're playing golf with a group of four that two of you will get a hole-in-one on the exact same hole? 17 million to 1...yep, they're better than the chances of you winning the lottery.
What about dieing from a snake bite or bee sting? It probably isn't a way that you have imagined that you would leave the earth. You're a whopping 180 to 1,200 times more likely to die from one of these incidents than win the lottery. That's because the probability of dieing from a snake bite or bee sting is about 100,000 to 1.
Now I know that you are not a bad person and you don't imagine finding yourself on death row for a crime you committed anytime soon. Still, it's a lot more likely that you will be legally executed than win the lottery. In fact, you are 30,000% to 200,000% more likely to die in a legal execution than to win the lottery!
If none of the above has convinced you to stop playing the lottery, then it's time to bring out my favorite lottery fact. If you drive 10 miles to purchase your lottery ticket, it's three to twenty times more likely for you to be killed in a car accident along the way than to win the jackpot.
All that said...what are the odds of winning if I don't even buy a ticket?!
You know the line... "You can't win if you don't play."
I just bought 10 tickets.
Wish me luck.
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
This Sweet JuJu's already a winner...
Three grand essentials to happiness in this life:
something to do, something to love and something to hope for.
~Joseph Addison
something to do, something to love and something to hope for.
~Joseph Addison
I've already won the jackpot.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
So simple...
The man who has begun to live more seriously within begins to live more simply without.
~Hemingway
Monday, March 19, 2012
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Thursday, March 15, 2012
One more thing that's very hard to admit...
I love this song...
and have listened to it about three dozen times in the last 24 hours...
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
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