October 23, 2005

slim chances

Where would you live if you had either a) $300 million dollars or b) only a year to live?

I bought a lottery ticket today because it could be worth $300 million. That’s a big chunk of change. I would give most of it away. I wouldn’t want to have that much money. There is this story/myth/fable/lesson/whatever about this guy who has a golden cup. He spends all of his time worried about the cup and eventual it is stolen. He was quite alright with this because he was tired of thinking about it anyway. That would be me with that amount of cash — yeah, yeah, minus taxes.

We bought this motorhome. For several reasons it may not have been the smartest decision we’ve ever made. (I should note that while I’m using the pronoun “we” it was mostly my idea and persuasion that turned it into a “we” thing.) I won’t go into great detail about why it may not have been, suffice to say that mostly it has to do with money.

Great. So, now we have a portable house. We both have jobs. I have been working for a year and have a pretty good credit rating. This means the possibility of a house would be realistic right now. In the city where we currently live. If we move we have to establish ourselves all over again. For a year.

I like the motorhome, but a full year will be difficult. People warned us and we aren’t yet saying they are correct. Yet.

If I had a year to live, given all of our current conditions I would buy a home. I would try to get my family as financial secure and comfortable as possible. Even if it were not the ideal location. They could sell the house later and move if they wanted.

If I won the lottery I would buy a house in three locations: Santa Cruz, CA; Spokane, WA; Kalispell, MT (plus a new motorhome). I’d spend most of my time in Santa Cruz and take long vacations to the other places to visit family. Actually, I just thought of something... If I win $300 million dollars, all of the people I’d want to see in Spokane or Kalispell could just build a guest house for us (and others). We wouldn’t need to buy our own, our family will also be rich.

Weird to think this will actually happen to someone. It’s like a crazy social experiment. All thanks to Ben Franklin, the lottery. I learned this from the lottery commercials. Anyway, before I get off on the ‘crazy-leftists-they-are-programming-us’ stint...

The reality is that I likely won’t be the guy to win the lottery, but I will mostly certainly die at some point. And death is just as random as the lottery — only everyone “wins”.

So it would seem that I’ve drawn some sort of conclusion. That’s kind of a relief.

posted @ 12:11 PM

October 3, 2005

nelson, bill, hhdl

Interesting. Bill Clinton beat out the Dalai Lama as a “fantasy government” leader. Noam Chomsky came in fourth.

posted @ 9:35 PM