golotto's Blog

I love reading about how the lottery was born in Genoa, Italy in the sixteenth century. Genoa was a very vibrant place. Early lottery players in Italy put much emphasis on assigning definitions and numbers to various dream elements. They even published books on the subject. I find this fascinating!

 

The Rusty Nail and playing the Lottery

A true story.

It happened to me exactly as described last evening while cleaning out a storage shed on my parent’s farm here in Wisconsin.

What does a story about a rusty nail have to do with the lottery? You shall see.

I was cleaning up some old building materials stored at the end of a pole shed and the light was getting dim as it was after sunset. There is no electricity in this very remote building so it was getting difficult to see.

As I was about to finish for the evening, I accidentally stepped on a board in the corner of the building with an upright rusty nail on it. The nail went all the way through my shoe and “exactly between my toes” not even scratching my skin. I quickly took off my shoe and could see rust stains on the inside of my first two toes on my right foot. Stains from the rusty nail passing by, but no injury. No tetanus danger at all.

What are the odds of stepping on a rusty nail in near darkness and having it poke all the way to the top inside of my shoe, yet passing between my toes without a scratch to my foot. The odds against this happening are astronomical. But it did. A couple of millimeters either way and I would have been at the emergency room.

I could never repeat this again. Never. I could try for 100 years and never again step on a nail in near darkness without injury.

If I could be this lucky avoiding injury while stepping on a nail ... I could also be just as lucky someday getting the right quick pick numbers.

So could you!  good luck to all

i stare at my blank and yet unused Powerball play card

fifty-five white ball choices available

forty-two red ball choices

decisions, decisions

moving my scripto marker across the card i darken five boxes plus one, i repeat this in the next column

why does the Goddess of the Lottery aka Lady Luck make things so difficult?

i tear up my card and approach the clerk at the counter

i’ll have two quick-picks please

One of my favorite lottery hits of all time is still the $183 million dollar Mega Millions hit which occurred on June 20, 2003.

The set of numbers that matched were

01, 02, 03, 12, 37 +mega35

Recently, another neat looking set hit for the WI Cheeseworkers during the $208.6 million draw

02, 03, 09, 48, 50  +pb23

are there any similarities?  uncomplicated and simply beautiful

Looking over the match (5+0) and (4+pb) prizes of the New Powerball, the first thought that comes to mind ..."It's a good thing!"

The more I see of the program called Mutant X ...the more I'm starting to like aspects of this sci-fi TV show. Now where exactly is Adam these days?

I was just thinking the other day how important it is to stay in a jackpot game ...what ever game one chooses. As Bart Simpson would say after a run of non-winning tickets ..."Don't have a cow man - stay in the game!!"...and he is absolutely right. Many jackpots have been won with a single ticket by those who stayed in the game!

ty Bart for your insight

I was somewhat saddened this morning to hear that Star Trek Enterprise will be airing it's final show on May 13th. I was happy to hear that the program will go into rerun syndication starting this fall. I will always be fascinated by the Xindi.

The Earth tilts on it's axis as it moves around the sun. In the Northern Hemisphere, Dec. 21 is the day when it's tilted the furthest away from the sun. After today, the amount of sunshine will steadily increase. At first it will be a minute more every couple of days, increasing until June 21, the summer solstice which is the longest day of sunshine in the Northern Hemisphere. I personally consider tomorrow to be the beginning of the New Year :)) Let's all hope it's a lucky one with the lottery!! Good luck to all.

I consider Halloween to be the beginning of lottery season. For me, lottery season runs from the end of October through April. It consists of the colder months when the picnics and warm weather activities are mostly over for the year. It's a time when people are nestled in front of their TV sets thus paying attention to the lotteries and jackpot levels. It's a time of nice big rollovers. It's a time for setting new Jackpot records!

 It's gonna be a great lottery season  

Without question, I am of late showing clear signs of becoming a pack rat. Over the last year an accumulation of paper documents, manuals, magazine articles and general paper clutter that I can't stand to part with have accumulated on or near my desk that would fill about three large file cabinet drawers.

Actually...I hate clutter! So how can I deal with this growing problem that is about to cover my last remaining working space and soon impede my ability to get things done.

Today, while mowing the lawn I had what might be called a paperless vision that will forever free me from paper clutter and possibly change my life. I realized that the only thing standing between my three favorite piles of paper documents "that I can't part with" and total neatness ...is my computer scanner. Yes, I can scan those papers that I don't want to part with and store them on a CD. That way if and when I wish to see them again I can either look at them on the screen or print them out. I will never be forced to part with my articles, favorite documents, etc. and yet after scanning them onto a CD I can throw away the originals and live paperless. Oh yes, I realize that I will always have to save a few paper items such as camera instruction manuals, receipts, tax info and pamphlets that I can't throw. There will always be books on the shelf and they can be arranged neatly ....but I can reduce my towering paper piles from three or four file cabinet drawers to only those items that will easily fit in existing desk drawers ...with room to spare.

Closed desk drawers, tidy bookshelves, and filed CD's ...no piled papers. None.

I will become paperless; I will live paperless! Tonight I begin scanning. Yikes! Ok then, today is the beginning of my paperless, clutter-less life! I will never be messy again! Say that and believe it can happen.

Wasn't that my last New Year's resolution??

 

Pew Research Group follow-up polling as of Sept 11-14
Registered voters: Bush 46% Kerry 46%
Likely voters: Bush 47% Kerry 46%

Investor's Business Daily poll conducted Sept. 7-12 found them even with 46 percent support each.

The Gallup survey is arguably considered by some to be more of a rogue poll.  There is a reason the Olympics don't count the high and the low scores.

"Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore" ...on to them there debates!  

I have come to the conclusion that my favorite television series of all time is very likely the sci-fi program called Star Trek Voyager. There were seven seasons and 172 episodes produced. For those unfamiliar with this show, I can only say that it was and still is different from any other sci-fi series that I have ever seen. When I'm watching it, I frequently forget that "it's just a show"...in other words, it's so well written that it's very easy to become totally engrossed in the various episodes of this series. One of the main reasons for my interest is the make-up of the crew and visitors ranging from the holographic doctor to the unique members picked-up along the journey. The relatively spacious and very comfortable design of the ship also adds to the enjoyment. If I were stranded in space for many years and trying to find my way back home, I'd certainly want it to be on Voyager.

  

when i read today that last week's megamillions win was a machine generated set of numbers ie. 'a quick-pick', it makes me more determined than ever to play my own number sets. this is not sour grapes at the 'quick-pick only' group of players who match a lottery draw and i'm always happy for those who manage to find a hit at just that right moment in time, but my numbers are just as playable and winable as anything that is spit out of a random number generator. it all boils down to the fact that as has been mentioned umpteen times ...all the numbers are in the lotto drawing machine, all the numbers on the play card can theoretically drop, all the numbers on the 'my-pick' ticket are there and ready or should i say 'able' to fall. i still virtually always approach the larger lotto jackpots on a 3 to 2 plan. i choose three of my own number sets for ever two that i let the computer select. the question for me goes beyond whether any of my number sets will hit a lotto draw. the main question that i think about while playing a jackpot game is whether it will be my selection or the machine's that match if a hit occurs. i'm still putting my trust in my own numbers and it's just a feeling that causes me to do it. i have no way to explain it. most people play quick-picks, close to seventy percent the last i heard. quick-picks do win jackpots but i can't seem to go exclusively quick-picks no matter how hard i may try and i also don't want to approach one of the higher jackpot offerings without at least a representation of computer generated sets on my five set play ticket. jackpots have been won in the past using the 3 to 2 ratio and for the foreseeable future i'm happy approaching it this way.

I love beginnings! For some strange reason I always look at the 4th of July as a new beginning. I really don't know why. Just like with the lottery, the biggest jackpots are yet to come, right?  No doubt about it, it's an indisputable fact that new records will be set in the not too distant future - and as long as I (we) have a ticket I'll (we'll) be in the game - right? None of us know if or when that sneaky Goddess of the Lottery aka 'Lady Luck' will point to us (she knows we're here) ...and by the way, congrats to all those who have won 'so far'. The end of the story has not yet been written - far from it! The new jackpot cycle has already begun and the only big (really big) question left unanswered is ...who will be next? There are plenty of record setting jackpots on the horizon. Will I be there with a ticket in my hand - in the front row at the lotto counter ...in the game!? Darn Tootin yes, I will! And forget the odds, I now believe it's important to forget odds altogether, put them out of one's mind because anyone, let me repeat that please, anyone with a ticket could be next. It could be you. It could be me. We all know it takes one ticket and it certainly can happen. And I am unanimous in that! Ok, time to get outside and mow the lawn.

   ..have a Happy and Safe 4th ...rest, have fun and get ready - as we will very likely set jackpot records during the next few months? It's gonna be fun.