Power Ball

   My Math professor stated a long time ago, that the chance for people to win the powerball, let alone the lottery, is close to 0 %. This is true. the chances are probably 1/178,145,688. This is quite impossible, but people get their hopes up. There's a quote in Spanish that says, " La suerte es loca, y a alguien le toca." Luck is crazy and someone eventually gets it. But,  that someone is probably not you. This is also true.

    My friends brother who works in Merry Linch basically collected 80 powerball tickets, since 80 people each played 5 dollars, so they had more than one set. My mother who works in Total Pack, and the manager did the same thing. He collected 5 tickets each from 18 people and e-mailed copies of it so as to know if they won or not. This was all useless. I played like 3, my brother 10 sets, and my dad 10 as well. Out of all of these numbers, which were probably close to more than 200, not even one had at least 3 numbers. The numbers were super small, and close to each other: something like 6, 22, 23, 29 and two others. This is even more impossible to win. I was surprised someone actually won the 500 million.

    Even if you win 500 million, or around 475 with taxes,it's still a lot of money. What exactly will you do with that? It's an insane amount. I would be nervous if I had gotten that much, so I would have probably left Florida, since the winners are required to confirm their address, and even have pictures taken. I would have changed my appearance, and left since anyone would kill for that amount.

   The chances of you dying from a coconut, from being eaten by a shark, are probably higher than the chances of you winning the lottery. But yet again, they could be saying this so you don't play and actually win. But, nonetheless, the chances are quite low. It's probably easier for you to work for a couple of millions, than to actually win them without blood, sweat, and tears. 

   Fiscal Cliff

   There's been so many news about the "incoming fiscal cliff" that it's been so redundant. They are stating that homeowners will get increased taxes, and that they are going through a crisis. This is not new but it sounds like it's the end of the world. Now, the GOP has been debating whether to break their promise of not increasing taxes, but the new talk of being bipartisan has obstructed with the negotiations. The left doesn't want to overhael entitlements, and the right doesn't want to increase taxes, so now we are stagnant in the middle.

   The whole fiscal cliff debate is actually very important because if we don't do anything about it, we will be heading towards the direction Europe is in, especially Greece. The fact that nobody is dealing with the tough issues, and setting them aside will eventually lead to the issue catching up with us. Then, that's when the real trouble will begin.

   I personally belive that the whole "being bipartisan" bandwagon is not really helpful. This country functions on having different interests that compete against each other- creating a "friendly" political atmosphere is unrealistic and defies what this country was built upon.

   Yesterday we went to Publix and my grandmother got lost. We looked for her for about an hour and still she was nowhere to be found. We went to the bakery aisle and nothing. Then, we started asking the employees and there was nobody there who had seen her. We got so worried. Not only was she lost but all of our grocery items were in the cart and she had them with her.

    An hour later, after asking everyone that was in the store, we finally see a  huge cart with a small lady with huge glasses. Yep, there's grandma walking around the store , desperately trying to find us. I run towards her and ask her were she was. She told me she was waiting for us near the entrance of the store cuse she thought we were done. She was even ready to pay.

   We laughed so much that our stomachs hurt, and that's when  grandma got mad at us. She gets grumpy whenever we laugh at her. Who wouldn't? Anyways, she never spoke to us afterwards., and we had to apologize. But, we were happy we found her at the end.

 Media Craze and Tim Tebow


  Tim Tebow is arguably one of the greatest college quarterbacks in the history of college football, yet there's people in his own team that are trying to savotage him. Some are even to cowardly to reveal their identity. One of the players stated that there's only one quarterback in the team, and he is basically Sanchez, and Tebow is just a "wildcat" and an "athlete" instead of a quarterback. This is quite ridiculous, and even though his coach doesn't want him to win, sitting him on the bench when he could be scoring points, Tebow still is Tebow. Being too nice like always, his response to the criticism was that he has been criticized all his life and he has no control over that. He can only improve himself and get better, thus stating criticism  makes him stronger. If he would have been a different person he would have gotten mad and told the coach straight up.

    The coach has been trying to prevent Tebow from actually playing, not giving him a chance. Why then did they buy him? Is it to tear him down? What he needs to do is leave the Jets, but ostensibly, he is under a contract. It is so sad the way that the media raises people up, and when someone has values like Tebow, they try to tear them back down. He is a Christian and a genuinely good guy who is too nice to even get mad at his coach and the Jets. Perhaps, that is the reason as to why they hate him.

    Football has become too political due to the media, and what is the coach's response? Tebow is a "victim". Out of all the words in the dictionary, he uses "victim". This goes to show that one cannot eclipse the sun with one finger. There's people out there that simply hate him, not because of his abilities, but because they don't like him as a person. He is too big of a threat for them.

   PUK code

    Yesterday, I decided to change the password on my phone and accidentally went into settings> phone> Sim PIN. then, entered a code three times and entirely locked my phone. This was quite idiotic of me. I couldn't take calls, send calls, messages, or receive texts either. So, I called AT&T and their horrible service. A representative answered and put me on hold five times, since he was looking up how to unlock it through a PUK code. I hate the annoying songs they play when they have you on hold- they go centuries back. Anyways, he gave me two twn digit codes; one for automatic PUK code messages, the other one for the error that occurs after going into a certain function that gets blocked.
 
    I had to press those numbers 10 times because there was an error message, stating the PUK was incorrect. Then, the AT&T guy referred me to an apple representative, and he got all pissed. "Why would they do that?" They had nothing to do with the SIM lock. It was such a hectic day, I thought I would completely have to buy a new phone, or SIM card, which is free, but wastes time when going to the store.

   Finally, I decide to write down the code that the 4th representative gave me and tried again. I remember inputting certain digits before I locked it and I tried to remember the combination. At last, I entered the PUK code, followed by the digits that locked the phone, and the issue was resolved. I had to go through all that, even though the issue was quite simple to resolve.

   This all happened because they forgot to mention that I had to redial the code I used when the phone got locked. That would have saved the 4 representative's time, and apple's grumpy attitude. Thanks for not telling me. Now I know not to ever so that again. Lesson learned.

Response to Tequille's Essay

  Tequille's essay was amazing because it flowed seamlessly into each topic. It also highlighted the dual nature of her character, making her more dynamic. Despite being a premed student by day, she is a stripper by night. He could have easily stereotyped her as the regular stripper, but the fact that the essay also explored both sides, made it less biased and less stereotypical. This is effective when he mentions that being a stripper has given her time management skills. Thus, the essay is not static and has different perspectives.

   There's a common theme, reinforced by the detail of her wearing different wigs each day. This further develops the theme by exposing the different aspects or layers of characters. Moreover, the theatrical name of "Gold Fox" is connected seamlessly with her appearance, making the essay less genetic. He explains the name came from her golden skin color and the blonde wigs that she would wear. There's also an analogy with wonder woman. Thus, the connection between the wigs and her appearance is quite interesting.

  He also talked about a scene in which she was dancing, without being vulgar. The description enveloped the reader in the scene. But, perhaps it would have been better if instead of placing that scene near the end of the essay, he would have done it at the beginning so as to lure the reader in.

  The conclusion could be stronger despite stating that she is not put off by the degrading nature of her job, but by her teachers finding out. Maybe he should go back to the previous scene and connect the two.

 

   
        I am predicting that for the presidential elections, Obama will win with a slight victory over Romney. Romney will probably win Florida, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Texas and southern states while Obama might win the northern or northeastern states.

     It;s probably because although the economy is not at its best, Obama has rallied up voters, probably more than Romney and since he is the incumbent president, chances are he is more familiar and people tend to vote for him, especially young college students.

   I don't think Romney has made a clear contrast between himself and the president ideologically. In debates, they have been rehearsed, mostly talking about statistics, polls, and figures. Statistics have become a method for manipulating what the media wants you to believe. There are margins of error, but sometimes they discard that and report it as a win for either Romney or Obama despite being 3 points off, within the margin of error.

   Also, there might be a slight advantage for Obama given that he has Clinton who has been known for his great economic policies, which is a contrast to Obama. He also sets a contrast to Paul Ryan who appears as an "extreme right-winger" and who potentially wants to overhaul healthcare.

    People tend to say that politics is "dirty" or polarizing, which is true. But, there's also another side of it. Unfortunately, if one isn't into politics, ignorance will create even more problems after people vote. They should be making smart decisions about the next president, and stating, : I don't talk politics" paves way to misinformation and more ignorance.