Life is Funny

I was watching an infomercial last night. I watch them because some of them are quite amusing, almost like a comedy show. I figured I’d write about some of them every now and then..

Last night was John Beck’s program on how to buy houses worth 180,000 for as little as $300

While I’m watching, they are flashing nice looking homes on the screen, and coming up with numbers and testimonials. “I bought this house for $427.65!”

They go on and on… Now while it all sounds amazing.. at some point, a logical person has to go..

WHAT IS THE CATCH? Surely if homes worth $180,000 can be bought for $300 and THESE INFOMERCIAL people know that..

What the heck are they doing advertising how to do it? Surely they would be running around buying as many of these homes by themselves and turning profits.

Well think about that … think about it again.. and then again…

Why would anyone pick up a phone and order the program without some advanced research? I can tell you why. People watching the program late at night are overtired, some have been drinking, people’s minds don’t work right and they just go “ah, what do I have to lose”

Well today, I did some research, and YUP, there is a RipOffReport about this:
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/177/RipOff0177451.htm

So people, if you are reading this blog right now.. It means YOU HAVE ACCESS TO THE INTERNET.

..and if you do have access to the internet — whenever an infomercial advertises something you might be interested in, DO SOME RESEARCH ON THE INTERNET BEFORE ORDERING!

Simple concept. Yet millions of people don’t think. They pickup the telephone and grab their credit card without doing any research whatsoever. The excitement of watching something on TV that you want to be part of, confuses the logical part of your brain.

Have you ever been taken advantage of by an infomercial? If so, let’s hear your story. Be honest — many of us can learn by hearing about any misfortunes you might have experienced.

Ok, about a week ago, I heard my first song of “Jingle Bells” in the mall. Remembrance Day wasn’t even here yet, nor was the U.S. Thanksgiving Day.

Now we all know how commercialized Christmas has become, but isn’t there any reasonable etiquette on how early is TOO early to start playing holiday music in stores?

I know some people like to do their holiday gift buying early. That’s fine. But atleast get Remembrance Day and Thanksgiving Holidays out of the way first.  How are we suppose to remember our fallen war heroes while Jingle Bells and Silent Night are playing over the mall’s speakers?

I mean, why not start advertising Easter now? Perhaps easter  bunny chocolate should hit the shelves in November?

To be honest, the over commercialization of the Christmas holiday season is what ruins the holidays for many of us. By the corporations pushing the season down our throats, they are taking the true fun and spirit out of it.

By over advertising, over marketing, and over promoting — it’s caused a lot of us to turn into holiday scrooges who end up turning our backs on the whole concept.  The “specialness” of hearing Christmas music at that time of year has worn off of me.

If I hear Jingle Bells while snow is falling, a week before Christmas, I’m joyeous and happy.

If I hear Jingle Bells a few days before Remembrance Day in November, I’m pissed off, annoyed and upset.

How do you feel?

Ok, once in awhile, we all like to go out to eat. Sit in a semi-fancy restaurant, eat about $8 worth of wholesale food, and pay $17 for the opportunity to have someone else cook, someone else serve us, and someone else do the clean up.

So.. For the extra bucks, what are we all expecting?

First of all, we expect that our dinner will be cooked to perfection. Someone trained and qualified to cook our food the way it should be, without burning it. Someone who knows how to season the food correctly, and for the ingredients to be fresh.

Secondly, when our beverages start to run dry, whether it is coffee, tea, soda pop, or even just plain water. Never should we spend almost $20 a person to go “out” and eat, and sit there stupidly parched during our meal.

When you go out and dine, which most of us only do only once or twice a week… You want it to be a favorable experience. After all, you are expected to pay triple the amount of what it would have cost you to prepare the meal yourself. Plus you have taxes added… not only that, but you are expected to tip your server.

What can ruin the whole night, is to have a lazy waiter or waitress, who lets your water glass run dry. Who serves you your meal and then doesn’t come back 5 minutes later, to ask you if there is anything else you need, or if everything is OK.

Today that happened. Four of us went out to a golf & country club, for an “elite” breakfast brunch buffet. Each plate cost $25. The food was great. The atmosphere was great. The service “sucked” which basically ruined the whole meal.

There is nothing worse than enjoying a cup of fresh coffee with your meal, and then finding yourself looking all over the place for your waitress — trying to make some eye contact which basically says “hey! I’d like a refill of coffee please.. is there any chance you can pay attention to the customers in your section?”

So now we get to the concept of the ultimate gratuity or tip that the staff is expecting.

But if my coffee cup has to go empty, and I have to search around like a scavenger for a coffee refill.. What does that say about how well the waiters & waitresses performed?

Keeping your dining customers happy is quite simple. Insure that their beverages are filled. Insure that their food is digestable and is fine.. and best of all..

Wear a smile and be attentive, whether or not it is in your job description.

When people are dining out and spending hard earned cash to enjoy a meal at an expensive restaurant… They don’t want much. They just want to be noticed and treated as if they “matter”.

Out of 10 times I’ve dined out, I can safely say, its is only about 50% of the time, do I have a good experience, whether it is food quality, freshness, and taste — or simply service by the wait staff. That is a very bad ratio.

If the food service industry did its job, 90% of the time, people would be totally content with dining out, and only 10% of the time would anyone ever have any complaints.

Let me know about your dining out experiences..

Video games on our cell phones. PS3, XBOX, and Wii in our homes. Video games on the PC, on your web browser. Anytime you want to play a game, it is only an arm length away.

What about pinball? Any of you remember that? The big shiny stainless steel ball that rolls around the lit table, and you slap it with the flippers, one on each side?

Or is this something only 35+ year old people remember?

Tonight while picking up a pizza, I saw two pinball machines. That use to be the standard fare before. Visit a pizza joint, play pinball while you wait.

It’s actually a lot of fun.

Pinball is something that seems to have been lost in this day and age. The thought of playing something mechanical, yet electronic, based on skill seems to have been lost.

Today I had about 15 straight minutes of fun, for less than a dollar.

Even bowling costs more..

Maybe it is time to re-introduce pinball into our daily lives. Its a fun game, it just has been shunned over last 10 or so years, because so many new things seem to have replaced it.

But guess what? Nothing compares to pinball, we just need to stop forgetting about it.

It is no secret that we are paying a premium for our gasoline these days. We also know that a tiny bottle of soda pop at a gas station is going to cost 2x to 3x what you’d normally pay in a grocery store.

The trip to the pump, is where you can drop $50 to $100 quite easily. Count in an expensive bottle of oil, and the whole gas station trip hits your wallet hard.

Now that’s just a fact of life, and something we all have to deal with.. But here’s a major pet peeve of mine. More often than not… actually the MAJORITY of the time, when I go to wash my car windows, they have just plain old water in the squigee bucket.

Is it really that expensive to put some soap in there?  For $3 you can buy a whole bottle of washer fluid. That would probably last the gas station 3 days… They could water it down as much as they wanted, but at least leave some suds in there.

No.. the gas stations these days would rather save $30 a month, by giving you water to wash your windows with.. with no soap.

Now they get away with it, because people would rather overlook the small things in life, and we look past it. It annoys and irritates us, but who has time to make a big deal out of these things? If you bring it up, people think your a little nuts and off your rocker.

Well I’m bringing it up anyway.

So if you’re reading this, and you work at a gas station, in any capacity, and have some control over adding a little soap to the washer fluid.. listen up..

That tiny bit of suds, will probably please a minimum of 20 or 30 customers that day who wash their windows. It will make people feel that little bit more comfortable to stop at YOUR gas station and bring their customer dollars to that particular street corner. We should be paying attention to customers, and trying to save $30 a month in soap, is ridiculous.

It is akin to a fine restaurant having a roll of toilet paper on the table to be used as napkins, because dinner napkins are too expensive.  Well maybe not that bad.. but guess what.. they are still WRONG THINGS TO DO!

Get some soap in those window washer buckets, and do it quick before I lose my patience!

We all know plenty about Las Vegas and the vast number of casinos there are there. We also have a good idea about the hundreds of thousands of people who cycle through that city in any given month.

As a result, there are huge prizes to be won on slot machines. You can win cars, diamond rings, huge piles of cash in a glass box, and more.

In addition, the casinos will give you free complimentary alcoholic beverages while you play, they offer nice buffets for $2, and they’re payouts are quite reasonable. Spin 10 times on a lot machine, and you’re bound to win something, even if it is only 1/2 your bet back.

So, let’s rewind to the casino in your neighborhood or an hour drive away from your home.

They advertise huge progressive jackpots like $250. Oh please..

The’re buffet runs from $9.95 to $19.95 … again, no biggy there.

Roll a slot, and amazingly 10 spins later, you have yet to win even one single credit back. (Sometimes you do, but sometimes you really don’t.. and that gets frustrating).

Last “domestic” local slot machine I played, it was $2.50 a spin on max bet. I hit a shiny silver star on all 5 reels. The credits started counting, I started getting excited, and then it stopped at $20

At $2.50 a roll, and with all 5 symbols on all reels… it seemed kind of cheap to me.

I looked up and the progressive (which stopped counting and stopped at $200) was another reason I thought I should leave.  Think about that… a progressive jackpot means that it keeps incrementing until someone wins it. WHY WAS THAT MACHINE’S progressive pot STUCK at $200 and it wouldn’t increment any further?

Are they suggesting that the $200 should have gone off a number of times, but rarely does? Are they worried that the machine will count too high because of the low payoff odds that are programmed into that slot machine?

What would happen if they let it count, even by adding a penny everytime the slot machine is spun? Would the progressive be up to $900,000 by now? How often do these guys pay?

Casinos in your home town may be regulated. But a high amount of the regulation, is based on the Province or State wanting their “cut”. That’s probably 80% why they are regulated. The other 20% of the regulations is to promote fair game play.

But what exactly is fair game play?

Another casino I went to, had a 1 cent machine. The LED scrolling at the top said “Play for only pennies”. Guess what the max bet was on that machine?  20 lines x 500 credits. That’s right, a whopping $10.00 a spin!

I started playing that machine for awhile, and figured, let’s try the max bet thing, surely it will give me something. I may not even win my bet back, but I should win something..

I did 6 spins at $10/spin = $60.00

NOT ONE SINGLE CREDIT was awarded to me. That’s 180 combinations of lines… and not one of them matched a single symbol to pay me a cent.

So I think its time to make a new rule.

Save your $200 casino night outs, and shove it into a bank account. With only 5 abstained trips to your local casino, you can buy a weekend package, which includes airfare, hotel, and even a few meals for under $1,000

Spend your gambling money in Las Vegas, and go for that car, diamond ring, or glass box of cash. You’ll have a much better time, and even if you do walk away with nothing, you would have enjoyed the trip away from home. Atleast then, you’re competing for more than just a “stuck” $200 progressive.. and going for the $200,000 and counting prize in Las Vegas.

At a local casino, if you lose $200, you think “oh well”, I came for the fun anyway.

But if you win and walk away with $400, you figured hey! I doubled my money.

WELL GUESS WHAT…

You risked $200 to make $200. That’s not that good of a payoff. Especially since 3 out of the 4 times you visit a casino, you’re going to lose in the end.

So you gamble $800, and lose $600, and one time you walk away with an extra $200

The casino’s getting paid by you all the time. So if you’re really out for a fun night gambling … do it where it’s right, a lot more fun, and much better payouts… That would be Las Vegas…

Most have us have seen the standard buffet All-You-Can-Eat restaurants. Many people like buffets because it means that you can choose your own plate, eat until your heart is content, and come back for “seconds” of the good stuff if you like.

The whole concept is decent, based on the fact that:

a) You have some say on what is served to you, based on the look of the food item

b) You can choose how little or much you want of the food items available

c) You can keep coming back for more as long as you are still hungry

d) The buffet / All-You-Can-Eat price is generally affordable… Less than $20 per person.

———-

From the restaurant owner’s perspective, this is a very dangerous game. Yes, some people will definately eat much less than the buffet price. However, those people who are (for the sake of argument) say “pigs” who overload their plates, eat until their stomaches are stretched to the max, and even waste food unnecessarily… ruin the business plan completely.

There have been even some fraternity initiations that have taken place at all-you-can-eat buffets, where the business proprietor has had to foot the bill, simply by having to live up to his advertised offering.

Since this has turned into more “the restaurant gives, and the customer takes” scenario, many buffet / smorgasbord owners will deliberately do things like:

a) Water down sauces

b) Re-heat and re-serve expired food

c) Over deep fry, and serve over-breaded items, since they expand in your stomach

d) Sprinkle MSG over almost everything (Monosodium glutamate) to which is officially known as a flavor enhancing drug, to make foods taste better

e) Serve the cheapest of meats, instead of expensive chicken breasts or wings, serve drumsticks or theighs, etc.

————–

Now while all this is going on, between restaurant owner and clientel, I have a major complaint:

People who stand in a buffet line, put food on their plate, and rather than wait 5 minutes, they begin eating right there, sampling food from their plate while they wait to get to the next dish.

I want to ask these people… Is there a reason why you must eat, right there in the buffet line, rather than wait 3 or 4 minutes for you to return to your table?

Why do you feel so comfortable chowing down right infront of me, with your fingers, with no cutlery whatsoever? Smacking your chops, eating with your mouth open, acting as if you are home, in your own kitchen?

This is a public place dammit. Have the decency to return to your own table. Sit down, put a napkin over your lap, and eat privately at your own table.

I really don’t want to see how impatient you are, that you must feel comfortable standing in a buffet line slopping down food, because you are so desperate to eat, you don’t care who is watching you..

People who sample food, or eat food while standing infront of a sneeze guard at a buffet line discust me. They are acting very informal, behaving in a childish manner, and show they have no patience or regard for the public setting they are actually in..

Let’s get away from food for a moment… To reillustrate this point.

Let’s say, you are out in the country. You’re by yourself, and you have a flatulence issue where you feel the need to “fart”. No one is around, you’re alone. So you let it your body’s internal gases release.

At the same time, if you were sitting at a table in a public restaurant, would you feel the same urge to publically fart and let your flatulence arise in public without excusing yourself to the restroom?

No?

Then why is it ok, to publically act like the restaurant is your own kitchen and dining room, where manners mean nothing? Is it really that impossible to load your plate of food and return to your table before you start chowing down?

I find it extremely disrespectful to those around you, to stand in a buffet line, and sample food from your plate, with your fingers, smacking your lips, acting like you are at home.

You are NOT at home, and this is not your own place. Stop acting like a pig, and pick up some manners… It is completely rude to eat before you return to your table.

Is it just me, or should we all act like we’re all standing at home, and no respect of formality should be taken when we are in public?

Online gambling sites are illegal in many parts of the world. In order to run one in North America it isn’t easy. Therefore, many setup shop overseas. Once you do that, people worry about trusting the establishment, since they seem so unreachable. (Ie: Not easy to drive over to their office, or file a complaint with the local authorities).

So it’s about trust. It’s no secret that the early online casinos and online bingo halls were run by fraudsters and tricksters who would modify their software to give few few payoffs.

Things have changed now. I’ve been playing one tonight named www.bingosky.com and it seems very legitimate. There are rules and regulations that you do need to know about, but other than that, it seems like a real legitimate outfit.

For instance, in order to keep your “bonus dollars”, you must make a deposit (minimum $20) every 45 days, otherwise you just get to keep your current cash balance and any winnings. So when you are awarded a 500% bonus when you first login, it is important to make note of that fact.

If you do not keep your account “active” which means either buying bingo cards, or making a deposit once every 6 months, all money you have in your balance is forefeited and donated to charity.

These are big deals that many people do not read when they first login. So before you make that spontaeous decision to start playing. READ THE FINE PRINT. It is there to protect the online gambling site, but also to protect the consumer too.

Now that we’ve talked about the negative aspects of online gambling, let’s talk about the positive ones. You can gamble from the comfort of your own home. That saves on gasoline, wear and tear on your car. It saves on expensive food bought elsewhere. It guarantees you a comfortable seat, in a comfortable setting (your home). You have access to your own private washroom. Using a cellular phone or regular phone in the middle of the session is perfectly ok.

It’s really enjoyable to spend a bingo night at home.

The way I found www.bingosky.com was in a magazine advertisement. Right on their website it says that they have received a stamp of approval from the Internet Gaming Commission.

After doing some more reading, it appears that the Internet Gaming Commission (IGC) was actually a fake watch dog site, a parody of the real “Internet Gaming Council”

So what I’m basically telling you, that if you are gambling, realize, that the whole concept of gambling online is a gamble in itself. You might get paid, you might not. The payoff odds might be correct, or they may be in the house’s favor.

Either way, it is fun. Just be careful with how much you spend. Keep an eye on your credit card balance too.

Good luck to you.

Here’s the thing.

You reading this.. have your family. You have your friends. You speak english, so do I.

We’ve all sat in restaurants or cafe’s and overheard a conversation one table over…  We hear their issues and can identify with them. We look at them as people, same as us.

We almost want to go over and say “Hey, how are you?”, but society dictates we can’t. We’re not suppose to ever know people we’re not introduced to…

It’s OK to listen, it’s just not OK to introduce ourselves.

This is where society is totally f*cked up. Why can’t we say hello to people near us? That’s the way the 50’s were (and I was born in the 1970’s).. but from what I understand, this is the way the 50’s were:

1. Anyone could say hello to each other on the street, and it was politeness, not a come-on.

2. Any adult could disipline any child that was misbehaving in public, or throw a punch to any adult that was completely out of line. If a cop pulled up, they’d ask what was going on, and the story would dictate whether or not the adult was out of line.

Here were are in the 2000’s, soon to be the 2100’s…

You can’t pay a female compliment without it being border line harassment. You can’t spank your kids without them taken away for child abuse. A lot of how we came to be, is completely gone by legistlation, laws, policy, and the way society dictates.

There was a time when people policed themselves, and only needed police when logic and simple right-and-wrong was not able to dictate how we behave.

Now… Something is lost.

We can no longer say hello to someone on the street, a complete stranger, without them wondering “why is this person even talking to me?”

Somehow, we think we are so much better than those people in the 50’s. We are so much more graduated in society.. a higher level of thinking. A better society.

So then..

Why is it so weird to say a simple hello to a stranger?

Why is it so weird to say “how are you” or “how’s the weather” ?

We’re so in the fight as a society to become better and more mature, but someone has to realize, we’ve lost plenty in the process…

So the next time I’m in a restaurant or cafe, and I overhear a conversation with people I can identify with, and want to introduce myself and feel welcome in their conversation…

Instead, I’ll sit away, realize my “place”, and realize, its the 2000’s, and its against society policy to ever talk to strangers. We can all co-exist, but NEVER EVER should we bridge the gap that we’ve created amongst ourselves over the last 40 years

Because.. that’s how life us is. Same language, same situations, same people, friends on the horizion. But NO… don’t do that. Don’t ever talk to someone you haven’t been formally introduced to, because, that makes you a freak, and no one likes a freak.

Without blogs, we couldn’t talk about this either. But you’ve all been in those positions at some point to… Thank god for the internet. Atleast we can talk openly without someone slapping us and saying “why did you say that?”

When fuel prices go up, so does everything else.  Anything that can trigger widespread problems, like natural gas or hydro, is often regulated by the government, even if it is delivered by a privatized corporation.

So why is gasoline any different?

I understand that with global warming concerns and the environment, having high gas prices does keep us driving less. But it’s also driving up the cost of groceries and other basic necessities. We all need to eat. We all need to therefore make a living to support basic survival.

Fuel Prices need to be regulated. Find another way to charge people who drive too much. But leave our grocery prices alone.  There is fuel surtax on wholesale food. Which in turn, drives up the cost of retail food.

It’s important that our Government gets more involved, and starts regulating Fuel Prices, even if it means, only for the trucking industry.

If you are like me, you dread going to the Hospital emergency room. Luckily I only end up seeing one maybe once or twice a year, whether its for me, or another family member.

Under any other circumstance, I would be patient with things like this, because it’s rare that I need to go there..  But since the reason I am going to a Hospital’s Emergency Department… is always an emergency, I want emergency care.

But it doesn’t happen like that..

You show up at the Emergency Room, and a triage nurse takes your temperature. She asks how bad your ailments are, and then sends you to the registration desk. You answer a bunch of questions, and then you get directed to the waiting area.

Now waiting up to 20 minutes to see a doctor is about the most I can handle before I start getting pissed off. Usually your pain is so extreme, or you’re light headed and have nausia, coughing up a storm, whatever the case..

You want help, and you want it fast.

As you sit there, you watch all these “druggies” walk in, who are begging for pain killers, and they know how the system works. These druggies take up the nurses time, and everyone knows what they want, they just add to the wait queue. Sometimes they’re seen faster than the rest of us, to expedite their request.

The last time I visited a hospital emergency room with my wife, she had a 106 degree temperature, had major chills, and was in severe pain. We drove by the emergency room and only saw 2 people waiting. We figured it would be a 30 minute wait at the most. We parked the car, went in, got seen by the triage nurse, and then they wait an hour and a half to see a doctor.

My wife was complaining about how cold she was, and one of the nurses told us where to find blankets to cover up.  You would think that if you’re running 106 degree temperature, that covering up to preserve more body heat is a bad idea. Obviously the patient’s care isn’t that important to them. I ask how long it will be to see a doctor, and I’m told there are 4 people ahead of us.

We wait another 1/2 hour… Bringing our total wait to 2 hours.

There is another smaller hospital in a small town nearby. We started thinking that driving to the new hospital might get us seen sooner. I ask how much longer the wait will be, and the nurse says there are still 6 people ahead of us.  I explain that 1/2 hour ago, they told us that only 4 people were ahead of us..

The nurse then says. See this side of the room? These are the almost dying people. See that side of the room? That’s the more dying people. See your area? That’s the not so dying people. Everyone is seen in priority, you just have to wait.

I go back and tell my wife that maybe we should drive to that smaller town. Usually the wait there is only 10 minutes to see a doctor, eventhough its a 30 minute drive to get there.  (We should have just went there in the first place. Who would have thought that 2 people in the waiting room would turn into a 2 hour wait, with STILL  6 people ahead of us?)

My wife, now with a migrane headache, severe chills, and abdominal pain, said “yes, lets go, I can’t wait anymore”. She’s in real rough shape.

We walk past the desk and say, we’re going to try that small town hospital, we can’t wait here anymore. Immediately one of the doctors who was sitting there filling out paper work looks up and asks the nurse, what’s happening?

The same nurse I just talked to 2 minutes earlier goes “they’re driving to that small town hospital. They were next to be seen, but I guess they don’t want to wait”

WHAT A BLOODY LIAR!! SHE NEVER TOLD US WE WERE NEXT!

The doctor looks concerned, more than the nurse. See, the doctors are there to help you. The nurses, seem to look at people as mere annoyances.  Sorry if you’re a nurse who is reading this, but I just find that many people simply do not care about the patients. They’re just there for the paycheque.

At this point, we don’t trust anyone anymore and why high tail it out of there. 40 minutes later we’re seeing a new doctor at the small town hospital who confirms that my wife has a severe kidney infection. He administers pain medication, breaks her fever, sends her home with antibiodics and takes proper care of her condition.

It took less than 10 minutes of the doctor’s examination to diagnose and treat her condition with the aid of a nurse. Why must we wait 2 hours at the original hospital, and be lied to, about how many people are ahead of us?

I hate Hospital Emergency Rooms! Can someone please fix this system?

Ever sit in a restaurant, look over, and you see someone staring you, or the people you are with? Often it is an older couple, usually in their late 50’s, mid-60’s. They sit right next to each other, so they can have the same viewing angle.

These people watch people walk into the restaurant, they watch how people behave, they watch walk towards the watchroom. They just take in the scenery together. They NEVER talk to each other other than in the form of a quiet whisper and a slight nod towards whoever they happen to be talking about.

It’s the busy body disease. These people are have such shallow souls that they need to judge each and every person they see in a public place in order to feel better about themselves.

You can almost hear what they’re talking about…

“Oh, look at what she ordered! My god, she’s not going to eat all that is she?”

“Look at the small tear in that guys shirt? Do you think he knows it?”

“Hey, see the guy sitting next to the lady we just talked about? Look how dirty his shoes are! Isn’t that discusting?”

“Oh no, look at this guy, he looks like he won’t be able to afford his dinner. I wonder what he’s going to order”

“Look at that mother, why doesn’t she stop her 2 year old from fussing like that?”

—

People, they created dinner theaters for a reason. If you want to be entertained, do it at a dinner theatre. Don’t make the general public your personal clowns. We’re here to enjoy our dinner, and you make it very difficult when everytime we lookup from our plate, we see your ugly face staring..

I find that couples who cannot chit chat among themselves, have very dull dreary marriages, and they depend on getting out in public and watching and judging everyday people to take away their boredom.

Usually I will just disregard and ignore them. However in extreme cases where you look up at the person, and stare back, and they are so secure into their own comfort zone that they do not shyly look away for a second.. It is these aggressive starers that I hate the most.

These are the ones that aren’t still judging you, but have passed judgement on you, and they think they are better than you. You look back, and they’re not afraid. After all “you” are the freak in their mind. How dare you stare backat us?

Well when that does not work, I will often approach these insecure, shallow people, and I’ll start up a conversation. Sometimes I’ll start with “do I know you? I notice you’ve been staring at our table a lot tonight, so perhaps we know each other?”

It usually takes them about 5 seconds for their fixed glaze to wear off, and then to immediately begin to think “uhn, no! I’m uhh, no I don’t know you”. You can see the surprise on their face when they switch from stare, to shock.

Now you’ve called them out. Now they are no longer in their comfort zone. Now the spotlight has shifted from you to them, and they NEVER want to be in the spotlight. They hate this so much. Usually that does the trick.

Now everytime you look up, they will look away, or they simply will not look at you again. They are so afraid you are going to walk over and catch them in a conversation again. They want to be the audience, but not part of the act. By dragging them into your world, you make them a part of you, which they never want. They want disassociation, prejudgement, and the feeling of being an elitist. How can they do that while you are speaking with them?

The problem with these people, is that the next time they go out to dinner, they’ll do it again. They’ve turned their staring habit into such a routine, that they can barely eat without starting and judging someone. They’ve done it so many times that they can’t stop themselves.

It is rude to stare. It is socially unacceptable to stare. Staring is threatening to the person who is being stared at. In the animal kingdom, staring often happens just before an attack.

It is natural for staring to be an act of hostility towards you and it should not be tolerated!

Today I learned a new thing about a new movement called Freeganism or Freegans.

Basically it is a group of people, both poor and middle class, who are sick and tired of commercialism and waste in society.  They find that by raiding dumpsters behind grocery stores for food, they are harvesting tons of quality edible food for free!

Personally, I think if your stomach can handle it, and you’ve got nerves of steel to be caught doing it (it’s not socially acceptable behavior), then more power to you. I agree with the premise.

We overpay at the grocery store for simple items, but one of reasons why the prices are as high as they are, is because of the waste that is going on at the rear of the grocery store.

They are saying that when an egg breaks, often they will throw out the entire carton (because you can’t just sell 11 eggs to someone).  That’s significant waste!

I think the whole concept of Freegans needs more attention. Share this with people you know.

Keno use to be one of my most favourite games. It was easy enough to play, and you always “came close” to your number, giving you that false hope that your only a number or two a way from htting it big.

At a nearby casino, I examined their multiple keno game plays, all costing different amounts. I took home the card and did some research on the internet to find out what my best odds would be, for a certain dollar played in order to get a nice profit if I won.

I took a look at this Keno odds chart and I was very shocked to see certain combinations are extremely hard to hit.

For instance, if you bought a $5 Keno ticket, where you picked 6 numbers, and your payouts would be:

Match 6 numbers, win $6,000
match 5 numbers, win  $275
Match 4 numbers, win $35
Match 3 numbers, win $5
Match 2 numbers, win nothing
Match 1  number, win nothing

You might think, well, $5 isn’t too expensive if I can win $275, even $6,000!

Let’s look at your odds now:

Match 6 numbers, you have 0.1% chance of a win (Buy $38,755 worth (7,751 tickets x $5 ea) you are bound to win once)
Match 5 numbers, you have 0.3% chance of a win (Buy $1,610 worth (322 tickets x $5 ea) you are bound to win once)
Match 4 numbers, you have 2.8% chance of a win (Buy $170 worth (34 tickets x $5 ea) you are bound to win once)
Match 3 numbers, you have 12.9% chance of a win (Buy $35 worth ($7 tickets x $5 ea) you are bound to win once)
Match 2 numbers, win nothing, 31% chance
Match 1  number, win nothing, 36% chance
Match 0 numbers, win nothing, 16 chance

So those are your wonderful keno odds. Buy a $5 pick-6 ticket, and there is a 83% chance you will win absolutely nothing.

There is a 13% chance you will win your $5 ticket cost back.

That’s 96% of the time, you will either lose, or only win your money back.

This is why people go broke playing Keno. Lot of fun, isn’t it?

I recently met a very old lady who is 72 and she said for 15 years she worked in the customer service department at Walmart.

She said she dealt with a lot of customer complaints. Often customers would start getting very loud and obnoxious toward her, and she would cool them off by saying things like “oh, I agree with you. If I had any idea that they made the product like this, I wouldn’t have sold it to you myself”

That would usually crack a smile with the customer, and she’d process the refund.

One day a troubled woman came into the store, and said “I have to return these bed sheets I bought. They were suppose to be for my son, and it turns out that he can’t possibly use them”

Interested, the customer service clerk said “oh dear, why, what is wrong with them?”

The troubled woman replied “My son has severe allergies to flowers”, and then she pointed at the floral pattern printed on the sheets. These could be dangerous to him.

Now, I’m not sure if:

a) This actually happened

b) If this was her interpretation, and not what was exactly said

But I will tell you that this 72 year old lady shares this story often.