Investing in Vests
I have a vested interest in investing in vests.
~Alex Krasny
The Powerball in MN is up to a prize of $580 million dollars, or a $380 million lump sum. When it gets this high everyone gets really excited to buy tickets. Then you have the “smart people” who make fun of people who buy Powerball tickets.
They say things like this:
- “The lottery is a tax only on stupid people.”
- “Playing the lottery is like throwing money away.”
- “You are more likely to get hit by lightning than win the lottery!”
Which am I? I am the guy who makes fun of the people who make fun of the people who buy Powerball tickets.
I will confirm that it is true, you will probably live your entire life and never win the lottery. HOWEVER is it actually a bad bet? Well according to MNLottery.com your odds of winning the Powerball jackpot is 1:175,000,000 and you stand to win some portion of $380,000,000. Guys, that isn’t a bad bet. Even considering you split it, even four ways, you stand to win $95 mil, I have seen people make dumber bets when they rent a movie they aren’t sure about. Ok sure, taxes right? Alright lets just say you get only 50% of the pool. $180 million whatever. Still positive expected value!
Also consider that going from 0 tickets to 1 ticket increases your chance to win by HUGE (infinite?) margin. Consider that winning the Powerball will give you so much money you will never need to do anything ever again. Is that worth $1 to you? Even if your odds are 1:175million. The answer should be yes, unless you are a moron. Or unless $1 is actually very important to you. In which case you should do the responsible thing and spend it on rice.
Want to know something else cool about Powerball? If you buy a ticket every single day for your entire life and you live to be 80, you would have spent $30,000 on Powerball. But if you hit you will win $180,000,000 or more! It’s a classic lose small win huge opportunity. This is the kind of bet you dream of.
So who is really the stupid one?
I need to go buy a ticket.
I was on my way to pre-order Assassin’s Creed III. I was deeply disturbed by the $60 price tag. Then, I started thinking… Is the game really worth $60? How do I value a video game?
Recently, in preparation for ACIII, I completed Assassin’s Creed II. Although it actually took me about 4 years to beat that game, in game time it took 32 hours. That means I paid approximately $2 per hour to play this game. Assuming I was “entertained” each hour. How does that fair against other games? Let’s compare that to Mass Effect .
I have played Mass Effect 3 160 hours. An eye-opening figure to say the least. ME3 cost me $60 which only ends up costing 37 cents per entertainment hour. That is already amazing and I am not even finished with that game yet! I still want to beat it at least twice more. Of course, the majority of my ME3 time has been spent in multiplayer. I am glad to know that Assassin’s Creed III will offer multiplayer otherwise I can only assume beating it will only take about 30 hours.
This way of valuing games is interesting. Especially when comparing console to mobile games. The iOS classic Game Dev Story only cost $3 put I have easily spent over 30 hours playing it (yeah I really like Game Dev Story). That is only 10 cents per hour! Mobile games usually carry a very low cost yet people are still hesitant to spend more than $1 on a game. They shouldn’t be, even if only an hour is spent playing it, it is likely more entertainment value than going to a movie.
Speaking of movies, if we apply this same measure of entertainment hours to a movie theatre, buying a DVD or even a music album it looks like we are being ripped off!
- Movie $5 per hour ($10 ticket, 2 hour movie)
- DVD $10 per hour ($20 DVD, 2 hour movie)
- Album $8 per hour ($10 album, 1.25 hours of music)
Granted in the case of a DVD or music you will watch/hear the media multiple times and the value of that entertainment will increase each time. Sometimes buying media this way is worth it. Star Trek the Next Generation, the greatest series ever created, can be purchased for about $300. Total running length of TNG is about 150 hours. Watching all of it only once is about the same value as you get from a 30 hour video game, or $2 per hour. But who can watch that series just once? I am currently watching it for the fourth time.
I could go on all day but I better not. Keep this in mind when you are thinking about buying a movie or game though, it might help you make up your mind.
A club sandwich is a double decker sandwich turkey, bacon, lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise on toasted bread. Most everyone has eaten a club sandwich at one time or another. Every Americana restaurant has a club sandwich on the menu. Seems hard not to like, it doesn’t have anything weird on it like thousand island dressing, sauerkraut, black olives, avocado, just the basics. They even seal the deal with bacon.
Want to know what my two favorite things are? Techno music and beautiful women. Beautiful women that dance for me and entertain me. Lucky for us these two passions of mine sometimes come together in a magnificent work of art like a music video in which women are exploited and objectified. When I run into such a video I always save it, and now I present my collection to you.
Windowlicker – Aphex Twin
I am going to start with Windolicker, and those of you who have never seen it… You are in for a ride. But I think it’s good to put everyone into the right frame of mind to enjoy the rest of these videos. Although it’s hard to call these women beautiful, I think this video is probably making a profound point about objectification. Maybe?
Chica Bomb – Dan Balan
Dan Balan, world’s best dancer knows how to make a video. Make sure not to miss his epic seizure dance at 1:55, I usually watch it 5-7 times in a row. Bonus points for girls sucking on popsicles and dumping water all over themselves to get wet and cool off.
Put your Hands up for Detroit – Fedde Le Grand
Fedde Le Grand puts out some good content clearly, as he makes my list twice. This video takes place in a not-so-desolate future where robot women tirelessly work at a “Fedde Le Grand” factory trying to make the perfect male robot. The key ingredient is to make sure he can be properly “aroused?” Wonderful.
The Creeps – Fedde Le Grand and Camille Jones
Fedde Le Grand doesn’t disappoint in this video as he plays the part of a super rich company head who employs only beautiful submissive women (all of which are wearing stockings – win). Actually I think “50 Shades of Grey” is probably based on this music video (although this video is better written). Bonus points for a woman seductively crawling on the ground while holding letter in her mouth. I wish that is how everything was delivered to me.
Destination Unknown – Alex Gaudino
I have a soft spot for green and pink color schemes. It reminds me of watermelons, and I love watermelons. We have a whole marching-band of foxy girls in green underwear and pink lipstick blowing into saxophones. Nice choreography. Bonus point for a girl licking a saxophone.
Call on Me – Eric Prydz
I remember watching tv shows like this when I was six years old while my mom was cooking or cleaning or something. I loved them even back then. Now that I am a big boy there is nothing better. It’s a real shame most aerobics sessions look nothing like this mostly the women are old, large and ugly, but at least we can dream. Eric Prydz knows what I am talking about.
Satisfaction – Benny Benassi
This is the big daddy of techno-porn. Benny Benassi is a hero of mine, not just because he uses the most aggressive bass, but also because he is king of making videos. My favorite girl is the one drilling at 0:20 seconds. Yeah… lick those lips baby.
Who’s Your Daddy – Benny Benassi
Benny outdoes himself with a music video I would never want my mother to see. It features a set of fictional and satirical porn film DVD covers. Bonus point for two girls simultaneously licking a vanilla ice cream cone.
Pon Da Floor – Major Lazer
You guys know who Eric Wareheim is? He is from Tim and Eric’s Awesome Show Great Job and he is a supremely weird dude. A video like this could only come from him and it’s hard for me to describe. What I can say is it seems to be based on a Jamaican form of “dance” called “daggering.”
Lollipop – Alexandra Stan
The lyrics… I am very confused. “I’m so deleeeeeecious when I lick my lollipop?” Well, I guess it isn’t my concern is it? The best part is easily the wonderful female saxophone player at 1:15. Who would have thought she could be so good at playing?
Easy Love – MSTRKRFT
Video starts off pretty tastefully with conservatively dressed women sucking milkshakes through straws. Then turns into a strange erotic strawberry milkshake innuendo. Ever heard of a pearl necklace? How about a facial? How about water-boarding? It’s all here.
Rock DJ – Robbie Williams
Here is a free bonus. Although it isn’t really about the women, I do think it is making a statement about music videos and how far one needs to go. It also features some very hot cannibal chicks. Yeah watch it till the end, I dare you.
I wrote a blog post for MentorMate.com about making the perfect CSS only Post-It note. I am pretty sure I nailed it. will probably start seeing it appear in my haiku blog every now and then if you know what I mean. Check out the post:
I just think this is really interesting for no particular reason. I tried to guess them all, but I don’t actually have the correct answers so it was futile. Made me hungry for a Snickers though I’ll tell you that much! Here is what I can identify: Snickers, Rolo, Almond Joy, Mounds, Butterfinger, Three Musketeers, Milky Way and Caramello.
In case anyone is curious why the Disney movie John Carter is bombing catastrophically in the box office despite a 100 million dollar marketing budget, I think I know why. It isn’t because the acting is bad. Not because the casting is bad. Not even because the plotline is bad. I haven’t even SEEN the movie and I can tell you exactly why it didn’t do “as well as expected.” Look how awful these movies sound. Can you figure out what I changed to ensure these films auto-bomb!? Click on the images for the unmodified versions.
A spaceship arrives in Arizona, 1873, to take over the Earth, starting with the Wild West region. A posse of cowboys and natives are all that stand in their way.
In a Fascist future where all forms of feeling are illegal, a man in charge of enforcing the law rises to overthrow the system.
The aliens are coming and their goal is to invade and destroy. Fighting superior technology, Man’s best weapon is the will to survive.
A computer hacker learns from mysterious rebels about the true nature of his reality and his role in the war against its controllers.
In a future where a special police unit is able to arrest murderers before they commit their crimes, an officer from that unit is himself accused of a future murder.
In a dystopic and crime ridden Detroit, a terminally wounded cop returns to the force as a powerful cyborg with submerged memories haunting him.
A human-looking, apparently unstoppable cyborg is sent from the future to kill Sarah Connor; Kyle Reese is sent to stop it.
An astronaut has a quintessentially personal encounter toward the end of his three-year stint on the Moon, where he, working alongside his computer, GERTY, sends back to Earth parcels of a resource that has helped diminish our planet’s power problems.
When a man goes for virtual vacation memories of the planet Mars, an unexpected and harrowing series of events forces him to go to the planet for real, or does he?
A hacker is literally abducted into the world of a computer and forced to participate in gladiatorial games where his only chance of escape is with the help of a heroic security program.
Transplanted to Mars, a Civil War vet discovers a lush planet inhabited by 12-foot tall barbarians. Finding himself a prisoner of these creatures, he escapes, only to encounter a princess who is in desperate need of a savior.
Push My Buttons
