Has Facebook become its own Worst Enemy?

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If you play any Facebook games, you may have a large accumulation of "Facebook friends", which are people you have "friended", but whom you don't actually know or care about, they're just there because you're both playing the same game(s), and these games are designed to reward you for having a lot of friends as players.

Except, Facebook doesn't like you doing this. In fact, it's against their TOS, and of late, they've made it considerably harder and harder to be able to do this. But since most of us want to keep our ACTUAL friends by NOT bombarding them with game requests, you can either friend people you don't know who are already playing the game, or you can create a second account and use that for games, which Facebook ALSO doesn't want you to do.

Why should they care who you friend?

Two big reasons.

Be a Billionaire in Five Minutes

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The other day, I made the case that playing the Lottery was a losing proposition, but I also promised there might be a better way to win a lot of money.

About three years ago, I came across a casino scam, and explained how not to fall victim to it. However, it occurred to me that the Roulette wheel is better odds than the Lottery, and you can play with the same amount of money, $1.

The Lottery has about a 50% payback, which means that over the long term, for every $1 you spend, you get back 50 cents (before taxes). You could restrict your purchases to only those jackpots which exceed 100%, but it already takes thousands of years to win, so there's no point in that.

One day when I was in a casino, I saw the number 12 come up 4 times in a row, and I wondered, if I had put $1 on 12 and let it ride all four times, how much would I have won?

Best Way to Win the Lottery

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As I drive around the country, I've noticed a lot - I mean A LOT - of billboards, and a significant percentage of them devoted to Powerball. With quite a few jackpots reaching 8 digits, it was only natural that I start wondering if maybe I should start investing in lottery tickets.

When I was younger, I occasionally paid attention to the Illinois Lotto, thought of what might be the best strategy to win it. The odds of a single ticket winning were about 56 million to 1, and the average payout was around $28 million, which is half the odds. Checking out Powerball, I see the odds of winning is about 175 million to one and the average payout is about 90 million; again, half.

Why half? Simple, really.

How to Not Waste your Vote

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I see a lot of people screaming, "Don't waste your vote." "A vote for a third party candidate is a vote for the guy I don't like." Yes, both sides are lying (surprise surprise) by saying that voting for real change is a vote for no change. Die-hard Democrats say voting for Gary Johnson or Buddy Roemer is a vote for Romney, and die-hard Republicans say a vote for Johnson or Roemer is a vote for Obama.

It's a lie, of course.

Did you know that this year, we are expecting to see the LOWEST voter turnout EVER? Over 1/3 of eligible voters are expected to not vote at all.

Do you realize that's enough to vote in someone BESIDES a Democrat or Republican?

Of course, there's not enough consensus right now among those people to get anyone else voted in, but there is a better option:

Eleven and Counting

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It's been 11 years today.

I've puzzled for a couple days now what I should say, but I feel like I covered everything last year. What more is there to say? The World Trade Center's replacement is still on schedule. I think it's already the tallest building on the continent.

Life goes on.

As it always does.

Whether we enjoy it or not is a different matter, but at least it's within our power to choose. Choose wisely.

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Can you Compete with Free? Yup.

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The music and movie industries have been belly-aching for YEARS that if they don't sue their own customers when they download music, then the artists will all starve and we will never ever have music or movies again. For a while, they made only crappy movies and music in order to "prove" it; people stopped going to the theaters and concerts, and they blamed this reduction of their obscene profits on what they called piracy. They said, "We can't compete with free."

The computer software industry just groaned and kept right on doing it.

And now there's someone else doing it too.

Truckstops.

Truckstops?

2012 Truck Speed Limits Map

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I've updated my map of truck speed limits for 2012. I find it amazing that no one else posts maps like these to let commercial drivers know in a quick and easy fashion what the speed limits are, and in fact, it's darn near impossible to find this information even in list form.

A couple notes about the map:

I Deserve a Break Today

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Dear McDonald's,

I have loved eating your food for as long as I can remember. My dad worked for you when he was a kid and I did as well. We both have good memories from those times and are glad for the experience. Plus, I find it very flattering that the Double Quarter Pounder was created in homage to the Bigger Mac I invented during my tenure, but it would be nice to get a royalty check or at least a credit on the website which I can use to impress my friends.

Can You Spot the Flaw?

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I'm sure we all remember the 50's, even if we weren't alive for them. Every man had a wife and 5 kids, and every man had a job which could pay for his family's food, shelter, clothes, college, and annual vacation, plus a car in every garage and a chicken in every pot. Nowadays, though, Wifey has to work, and the kids do too, just as soon as they're old enough, and even then the family is still scraping by. And let's not forget that the family size has dropped to 1-2 kids now.

What happened?

When did life shift from being so easy that only 1 mouth in 7 had to work to being so hard that even when every mouth works the family still can't get by? If you take a look at some of the other countries out there, they've got larger family sizes and fewer mouths having to work to feed the family. How did things go so horribly wrong in America?

Still Kickin'

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Yeah, I'm still kickin'! Most of my online activity has been taking place either on my Twitter account or the More In Sanity Facebook page, but I've also posted several interesting things on my personal Facebook page (which you probably can't read all of), or on others' pages.Sign up to be a follower or a liker or a subscriber to keep up with most of my shenanigans. It's worth it, unless you're a hater or a schmuck, but no one who enjoys this site is one of those.

Some of you know I've been driving a truck again for the last few months, which is my excuse for not stopping by here more often; I've definitely been busy. Gotten a little work done on a couple of my stories, came up with a few more (:rolleyes:), and have been working on a business plan for a friend who may be selling some tasty confectionaries in the near future, which she makes now and then for only her favorite friends. (Is it any wonder I can't quit chocolate and sugar?)

I did manage to finish up a piece I'd started writing a few months ago, which will be posted Monday morning, and I may be releasing a few more in the coming weeks, but for the time being, I'm probably not going to be as hot and heavy as I have been in the past. Using Facebook to share my thoughts is SOOOO much easier for both me and my fans who respond that I will probably use it for the bulk of my activities. When time is limited, you have to use it carefully. But this place can still do a lot that Facebook can't, so I won't be changing where the URL points any time soon.

Stay tuned, because in the coming weeks there will be more articles and perhaps even some big changes if certain plans work out. And now to go update my wifi.mopjockey.com page...

Have a good weekend!

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