Mega Millions jackpot over $640 million

So I decided to buy my first Mega Millions tickets today. My friend Jeff used to always say that the lottery was a tax on people that were bad at math. I guess I just got caught up in all of the excitement of a potential half a billion dollar payday.

The way the Mega Millions works is that you pick 5 numbers between 1 and 56 and then pick a 6th number which is between 1 and 46.

I even downloaded the winning number history and did some research. For whatever its worth, 48 appears way too often as a non-mega number and 36 appears the most as a mega-number. The least drawn mega-number by a fair amount is 28. The sample size is way too small to draw any worthwhile conclusions, but maybe there is a bias for or against those balls for some reason.

I decided that I would pick my 5 numbers and then buy 46 tickets -- 1 with each mega number from 1 to 46. This proved more difficult than I anticipated. I thought that there would be some way to do this without filling in 46 betting slips. For instance, leave the mega number blank or select the "asterisk" or "play all" box. It turns out no such boxes exist and the operator behind the counter at the gas station looked at me liked I was not too bright for asking the question. I started manually filling out my picks from 46 down to 1. Unfortunately, my hand got tired after 11 tickets, so hopefully the mega number is 36 or above.

The odds to win the grand prize with 1 ticket are 175,711,536 to 1. So with 25 tickets between my wife and I, we are approximately 7 million to 1 underdogs. Odds that I call in sick on Monday if I win: 1-9.

Fired for posting Dilbert cartoon

I just read a story about a man named Dave Steward who was fired from Catfish Bend Casinos in Burlington, Iowa for posting this Dilbert cartoon (published in late 2007) in his office:




They used surveillance video to identify that Steward was the one who posted the cartoon. He said "I wanted to try to boost the morale for the employees," but was fired 3 days later because his bosses didn't like being referred to as a drunken lemurs.

In order to receive his unemployment benefits, Steward actually had to prove in front of a judge that he posted the comic because he was merely stupid and not intentionally misbehaving.

The creator of the Dilbert comic strip heard about this story and posted these cartoons on 2/20 and 2/21/08 in response:




I have posted several Dilbert cartoons at various offices as my small way of expressing some frustration in situations in which I had no other outlet. Luckily I have never worked for anyone so uptight and rigid to have fired me for it.

Sources:
ABC News
Des Moines Register
Troy Bettinger's Blog

Another year, another new job

I have not posted here in a while. I wonder if anybody ever checks my posts. If you do, leave a message.

Recent news: I have gotten married and just got back from my honeymoon. :)

I have been on my current job for almost 6 months. Many stories to tell. From ice chewing to uses of "irregardless" More on that later.

Critical Beeping

If you know me at all, you know I am (overly?) sensitive to noises around me. From open-mouthed chewing to tapping on desks repeatedly throughout the day, every day, day after day. Oh when will the tapping end?

But I digress.

For the past several days an annoying beeping has been disturbing me. It is the standard critical stop beep from a coworkers computer. It took some deduction and some slight stalking behavior to narrow it done to the culprit. I decided to try the direct approach...


Dan's Email*:
------------------------
Hey Karen,

I am not sure if this is a fair request, but I have been noticing your critical alert beeps from your computer often in the past several days…

I was wondering, is it possible to turn down or turn off the volume?

Thanks,
Dan


*Name has been changed to protect the innocent

Karen's Response Email:
------------------------
Sure, no problem.


That was easy. She even came over to my desk and we shared some stories about noisy inconsiderate coworkers and she even had a coworker who chewed so loudly it drove her crazy.

There is hope for a quieter workplace!

Sirius problems

My Dad bought me a Sirius radio receiver for my birthday a couple months ago. He got me the car unit and an additional workstation unit. I had been procrastinating about trying it out because I didn't really think I would like it. I have no complaints about my terrestrial radio besides too many commercials, but even that gives me an excuse to channel-surf which I also enjoy.

Sirius has no commercials and lots of speciality channels, including all-comedy, traffic, and weather reports. I also learned that Sirius broadcasts every NFL game and after 6 weeks of CBS airing awful Raiders games I was finally inspired to open up the packages and give it a whirl, if only to listen to NFL games when I worked late on Mondays.

So, I brought it in to work and unpacked everything and plugged it in. Then went
online and activated it (paid for 1 year subscription.) It didn't work. I got
the message "Antenna Not Detected" Then I called for help. The first person
asked if the antenna was plugged in and did it have a clear view of the sky. I said "No" because it is at my desk at work. I asked, "Does it not work indoors?" She said "Hold on" and transferred me.

I was transferred to a guy that mumbled badly and had me push some buttons first and
then unplug everything and wait 2 minutes and plug everything back in. Same
error message. He said I need to get it replaced. There was a problem with my unit that was 1 in 1000 he assured me. Funny, because my Dad warned me that he had to get his replaced twice. I guess it is a 1 in 1 problem if your name is Rosenthal!

I planned on heading over to Best Buy on my lunch break to see if I could get this
thing sorted out. Before starting my car, I thought I would try to see if at least the car antenna worked, and it did, but only when I held it out the window. The car antenna has a powerful magnet on it, which the instructions say should be attached through the window and onto the roof. This presents a problem for me because I have a convertible. I also tried the first antenna, and it worked fine outside.

So, I called them again and first told them my antenna works outside. And after a little arguing I was told that if I didn't have a window at my desk I simply couldn't use it at work. On to the car question....I asked where to put the magnetic antenna. The first idea was roof, but obviously I can't do that with my convertible. The second idea was metal cross bar (which many convertibles have, but I don't), third and final idea was metal side-view mirrors (Alas, mine are plastic.) I asked if maybe anybody else had another suggestion. He said that was all anybody had. He then starting throwing out random ideas, like maybe velcro-ing it somewhere. It was at this point that I asked for a complete refund.

I found out some things. Mostly that the people that answer the phones at Sirius don't know their products very well. At least the ones I spoke with (Is the 1 in 1000 problem that I didn't realize the antenna needed to be in a window?). It turns out that the antenna does need to have clear view of the sky. And that is basically impossible for those of us that work in windowless cubicles, unless I were to wire through the ceiling, but the Facilities Dept. here doesn't even like us touching the thermostat.

Am I the first convertible owner to try to use Sirius Radio? They sure made me feel that way. Attaching the antenna using velcro to my dashboard might have worked fine, but not being able to listen at my desk at work made it undesirable to me. I have never owned a satellite dish, but I guess they are the same story, as I always see them attached to roofs or on patios. It seems like a decent product, but too bad they don't have a solution for the workplace. I suggested to them coming up with a wireless option so that I can connect to an antenna that I leave in/on my car from my desk. Seemed like a good idea to me.

Overall, I am not impressed with Sirius.

Are you going to eat that...like a cow?

Have you noticed that height is often inversely proportional volume?

This little woman that sits behind me can't be more than 5 feet tall and is by far the loudest woman on the floor when she is taking personal calls at work. I know all about her husband and how funny it is that he is over 6 feet tall while she is barely 5 feet tall, yet I have never talked to her about her husband nor have I seen him. I also know that if she doesn't leave at 4:30, traffic is way too bad, and she wants to stay much later.

Just today she insisted that her husband should work out first tonight before installing new software on their computer and that her "tummy" hurts and she is thinking of going home. I also know all about a wide variety of issues concerning this woman's personal life which I don't feel like going into any more detail.

To make matters worse (for me and my over-sensitive ears) she types with very heavy fingers and chews very loudly with an open mouth when she eats at her desk.

I often seem to have problems with co-workers and various annoying noises, so it just MIGHT be that am a bit too picky. But do you really have to chew with your mouth open? and if you are going to take personal calls at work, can't you use your cell phone and take a walk outside the office? or at least call from an unoccupied conference room? or at the very least talk softly enough so that your co-workers aren't bombarded by the intimate details of your life?

If I could just get everyone chewing with their mouths closed I might just be satisfied.

Nice Ash

Let me ask you a question: Have you ever been upset with someone in front of you on the freeway flicking their ashes out the window?

This is a true story...it happened on my drive to work a couple weeks ago...

I was driving on the 405 to work and noticed the woman in front of me was flicking her ashes out the window. This has always bothered me. First of all it is illegal. From numerous visits to traffic school (which is another topic) I know that there are only 2 things that are legal to throw out of a moving car, one is water and the other is chicken feathers (but only if there are live chickens with you.) If you insist on smoking then you should use your own damn ashtray. Don't litter on top of giving yourself cancer, and especially don't litter at my expense. Do you really think that I want to smell your smoke? Roll up your windows and enjoy your smoke to the fullest. Don't share it with everyone else.

Anyway, I wasn't really trying to, but I think scared the crap out of this woman. I was just really upset to see her continually flicking ashes in front of me. My response was to honk whenever she flicked. I am not sure if she put the two together, or if she was just thinking I was some sort of maniac. She eventually changed lanes, but as my exit was also approaching I changed lanes right behind her. I ended up getting off the same exit with her about a mile later and then actually felt slightly bad about scaring her, because she seemed concerned that I was still behind her.

I thought about following her to apologize for scaring her, but figured that would probably be even worse. Bottom Line: Use your own ashtray! And honking at strangers gives you something to talk about, but may not always end up going well.