I got all 6 numbers on the lottery!

And won £20.

2 x £10 wins, 3 winning numbers on one line and the *other* 3 on the
next. Oh.... so close!

(Buys beer to go and weep into.)

 

<g>

How's Janet btw?

 

You'd have got 35:1 on an English roulette wheel for one number.

 

Getting there I'm glad to say. Her wound still weeps and needs
dressings, 7 months after her operation. (3rd March.) She has days
where she wishes she hadn't survived and our boy isn't helping by
being very disobediant. But overall, seriously better than she was
which shows how far down she was when she realised what had happened
to her.

As there has been some pictures of gore in here lately, this is what
Jan's abdomen looked like with and without dressings after she was
sent home the first time, one month after the operation.

If you don't like gore, don't look. If you look, don't complain! I'll
take this down again after a few days.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/16455020@N06/?savedsettings=4005988820#photo4005988820

 

On Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:37:07 +0100, Mike Barnard

snip>

That's pretty gruesome.

All of a sudden I've decided that my manky finger looks fine.

 

I'd say that was pretty impressive!

 

Quite - the Lottery is a bare-faced rip-off, and especially for those
who cannot realistically afford it - lured by rosy visions of riches.

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/5911581/National-Lottery-is-tax-on-the-poor.html
27 Jul 2009

"Tax on the ignorant" is my preferred description. Those years
studying statistics are now actually worth something to me

I would suspect though that any government that tried
to do away with it now would lose votes - how sad is
that? Firstly some players would be pissed off
that their dream of retiring to the island next to
Richard Branson's was lost and I guess some of
beneficiaries (of lotto grants) might be unhappy too.

 

I've read this several times, and I really don't understand what
you're on about.

 

I think he's suggesting that a high percentage of the population are
too thick to realise the odds are heavily stacked against them.

It's a snobbery thing.

 

Too gullible, perhaps, rather than too thick.

Probably.

But it's always puzzled me why people are more drawn to a 1 in 20
million chance of winning 20 million quid, rather than a 1 in a
million of winning a million. Seems that if you make the possible
winnings so high as to be completely outside the realms of anything bu
fantasy, people don't care what their chances of winning it are.

 

When the Euromillions jackpot gets to obscene amounts it just seems
rude not to have a punt occasionally.

<pats bike bought with ticket just one number short of a full set>

 

Are they?

I'd phrase it slightly differently. I do the lottery purely so that I
can dream about winning it. I'm not really worried whether the prize
is half a million or 20 million, because I'm unlikely actually to win
it.

My only concern is what proportion of the stake goes to the prize
fund. In the national lottery admittedly that's shit, but at least
half of it goes to *good* causes. I might go back to doing the pools.

 

Why? Please explain.

 

Well, it's always on the big ones that you seem to get people saying
'oooh, I must have a punt in that' who wouldn't normally bother.

You surprise me. I always thought you were the soul of rationality.

<Boggles>

You're wierd. Or maybe I am. But from my POV it's definitely you.

 

Why? I've just given you the only rational reason for doing the
lottery.

Everyone needs a dream. Most people dream of being rich. It would be
weird to do that without doing anything that might make it happen.

 

^^^^^^^^
something

 

No they don't. I've often heard this stated, but I'm sure I'm not
alone in saying that it's not true. A dream is, almost be definition,
something that you don't reasonably expect to happen. From my earliest
working days I never dreamed that I'd get anything for nothing -
dreaming is for those that don't expect to get there in real life.

How rich, though?

Sure. But why dream?

 

Well yes - a local community charity I do voluntary stuff for got
8 Grand last year from the Lottery, and I didn't quite know how to
feel about that.

 

Yes Mr Brittas ...

It makes me feel uncomfortable, and there is a percentage who go off
the rails when it happens.