The Waiting Game

Thought I'd check my Mega Millions lottery ticket; I knew from past experience to not even bother for a few minutes after the drawing and it's a longer wait when the jackpot is huge as it is now. The official Texas Lottery site has the results for all the Texas games as well as Powerball and Mega Millions. I waited for thirty minutes, then clicked on the link and got this error message:

A little unusual, but not totally unexpected. I then went to the official Mega Millions site and saw this:













The Texas Lottery site was probably just overwhelmed with traffic.  I bet I could have kept refreshing and eventually got the site to load.  I imagine the Mega Millions site servers have crashed.

Not sure why I'm even bothering about it; I'd bet - if I had it - 363 million I didn't win. The odds of me winning that bet are much better than the odds I won the lottery. (the same, only in reverse)

Oh well, I'll just go on to bed ,check in the morning.  I might be a multi-millionaire when I wake up.

Yeah, right.

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UPDATE: According to an unofficial lottery results website, no one won the lottery. They put the new jackpot at 476 million with a cash value of $341.4 million. They also state it will be the largest prize "the world has ever seen."

I plan on buying a ticket early.  I remember a drawing for a huge jackpot a few years ago where there was so much activity, the Texas Lottery machines couldn't communicate w/ the main computer in Austin..

Tuesday Afternoon - Moody Blues

Some Might Say

I don't have a brain.

You Are 35% Left Brained, 65% Right Brained

The left side of your brain controls verbal ability, attention to detail, and reasoning. Left brained people are good at communication and persuading others. If you're left brained, you are likely good at math and logic. Your left brain prefers dogs, reading, and quiet. The right side of your brain is all about creativity and flexibility. Daring and intuitive, right brained people see the world in their unique way. If you're right brained, you likely have a talent for creative writing and art. Your right brain prefers day dreaming, philosophy, and sports.

Are You Right or Left Brained?

Blogthings: Learn Something Surprising About Yourself

Mega Wages

The Mega Millions lotto had no winner this last drawing, so it's rolled over again, making the jackpot of $365 million one of the largest ever.

The amount is staggering, isn't it? Over a third of a billion dollars.  It would be nice (an understatement) to win it, but even nicer (read:greedy) to be the sole winner.

The $365 million is for an annuity which would be paid out over 26 years.  When you purchase a ticket, you have the option of the annuity or taking a lump sum, which for this drawing would be $255.1 million. After federal taxes, that figure would be $165.815 million. (No state tax in Texas!) I've always thought I would opt for this method of payout, considering what my age would be after 26 years.  I have to face the fact that I most likely wouldn't live to see the last yearly payments. (or wouldn't remember my name or that I had ever won the lottery) That's not the only depressing fact to take into consideration - the interest on certificates of deposits is pathetically low.  They vary all the time and from bank-to-bank, but some yearly CDs pay less than 1% a year and 5-yr CDs anywhere from 1.7- 2%. 

Let's say you blew through 10 million right off the bat and allotted another million a year to spend until your jumbo 5-yr CDs matured. (of course, you could make a dab of interest on unspent money, but let's disregard that for the sake of simplicity.) $150 million @ 2% would, with simple interest (not figuring compound rates) get you $3 million per year. (15 million+ over the five yr. period)  Of course, Uncle Sam would want his 35%*, so the yearly net would be $1.95 million. I think most people could live on that.(You could also make some interest on the earned interest if you reinvested it.)  You could then leave the huge sum of money - the 150 million-  to your family.  (Although in some cases, you *might* want to lie to them and tell them you're leaving most of it to charity.  Otherwise they might want the will to be read a little early, if you get my drift. It's happened.)

On the other hand, if you did opt for the annuity, the income is much better.  Before taxes, the yearly payout would be $13.692+ million a year with a net of $8.9 million.  That would give you a monthly take-home income of a little more than $741, 666, a weekly income of $171, 153 and change - which works out to $24,383.56 a day.

Or, you could look at it this way: $1015.98 an hour.  You could afford to pay someone minimum wage (Federal min. wage is $7.25) - along with some basic benefits - just to screen your calls from all the distant kinfolk and scam artists who would want some of your new-found riches.

That leaves you with a thousand bucks an hour for 26 years.  That's $1000 per hour, every hour of every day of every week of every month for 26 years.  Rain or shine, asleep or awake, it's going into your bank account.

Not bad wages, huh?

*I've read that 35% federal tax rate might soon go up to 39% if the current administration has its way.  It's not just the President and the Democrats in Congress - a growing percentage of the population is of the mind that the rich don't pay enough taxes.  Winning the lottery wouldn't just change your life, it might also change your political affiliation. -wink-

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Edit: I don't mean to insult anyone w/ the political reference. I expect you...or I...would keep our same core political beliefs as we had before winning the lottery, BUT I'd think...would hope...we would be more "liberal" in regards to charity and more "conservative" fiscally.

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UPDATE:  The announced jackpot is 363 million.  I guess the 365 number was the estimate.  Usually, though, when a jackpot is this large, the number goes up because the prize is tied into a percentage of tickets sold. So, my calculations are incorrect.  They were, anyway.  I don't know what caused me to make the mistakes, but I did.  (I used my computer calculator, but I guess you need to be semi-smart to use it.  That lets me out.) So sue me.  Wait until I win the lottery, though, because you damn sure wouldn't get anything now.

I read an article this morning which mentioned "lottery fever" - when people get excited by the huge jackpot and buy more tickets, often more than they can afford.  It also touted some "expert" who said a lottery player should always pick their own numbers, not allow the machine to choose them.  That doesn't make any sense, because one number is just as good as any other. (the winning number notwithstanding! -grin-) I always get a "quick pick" because my old set of numbers never did much good.  I also had a fear that if I ever did quit playing them or change to another, they would come up.  That could happen anyway, I suppose.

I also bought but one ticket.  Buying two tickets doesn't do much to increase your odds of winning, not by my thinking.  If the odds are one in ten million, then an extra ticket would make it two in ten million.  I suppose you've doubled your chances, but....

Quickie Wiki

The other day I was listening to an online radio sports talk show and they announced "This just in! Marion Barber retiring!"

Being a fan of the Cowboys and always enjoying watching Barber run the ball (his nickname was "Barbarian") when he played for Dallas, I did a quick search to see how well he had done after he had left the Cowboys. Quite a few results came up, most from football websites like NFL.com, ESPN, various fan sites and the official Cowboys site.

I also noticed news articles on Barber's announcement and most had "fifteen minutes ago" as the time the article was posted, which was about the same amount of time since I had heard the news on the online show. Also in the results was Barber's Wikipedia entry. I clicked on it and saw that it had already been updated with his retirement.

That wasn't surprising, though. It's been something I've been doing after hearing news of note - checking Wiki to see how fast it's updated. I've noticed that with other news stories, one recent one being the death of Whitney Houston. The Wiki entry for the last Super Bowl was changed to reflect the final score within moments of the game being over.

Now, you might think it's pretty sad or a sign of having too much time on my hands for me to check Wiki for updates when breaking news is announced. You would be correct, but what does it say about those who rush to the site to update the entry before anyone else?

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Update to add: Another example would be that of the NBC show Celebrity Apprentice. It's just now ending as I type this, but the results/who won the challenge/who was fired has already been posted. I realize there are different satellite feeds, one earlier on the east coast, so that accounts for the quick update, but it would be a spoiler for anyone who read the Wiki entry before the show airs in their time zone.

A disclaimer: I've never watched Celebrity Apprentice much before this season and I haven't seen all the shows this year.  I watched a few of the shows last year because Meat Loaf and Gary Busey were contestants and they had a huge fight during one competition.  (either one could be/should be the poster child for "Just Say No")  I don't care much for Donald Trump and, for the most part, don't care much about celebrities. The thing I like the most about the show is watching the celebrities stab each other in the back in order to be kept on the show for the next week.

Pinuninterested

I had been hearing good things about Pinterest, an online "pinboard" used to organize and share your interests. I have a couple of Facebook friends who use it and several of my favorite recipe sites have also touted the service.

So, I went to the site and requested an invite.  I wondered why they made people do that; I would think that the normal procedure of filling out a few bits of information would do. I signed up and got a message saying I would be notified shortly.

Again, I wondered why I had to wait.  I really don't know why, but my suspicion is that they want people to think it's "exclusive" and it is a privilege to be allowed to join.  Several days went by and I finally got an email notifying me that I had been accepted and to click on a link.

As you can see, I was taken to my Facebook account and, as with so many of these things, I had to allow Pinterest to access my data and to let it post on my account.

This app may post on your behalf, including pinboards you created, pinboards you followed and more.

I really hate those apps.  It not only accesses my personal data, but that of my Facebook friends.  I want to be the one to share information, not some invasive application.  It also said it was going to update me to the new Timeline.  I've been putting that off, even though all Facebook accounts will go to that sometime this next week.  (I don't mind change, but I do not like that new format.  What's wrong with how they're doing it now?)

So, here's what I did with the invite.