Off-topic thread - talk about anything

[Dave T]

After years of never winning, I have finally won a lot recently. 20 years ago, I won a plastic cup in an orange juice sweepstakes. That followed years of not winning.

Last year, I won a t-shirt.

Then..

I got a game piece when buying a tube of sealant at Autozone. After entering the number in the website, looks like I won! The last time I won something was about 15 years ago when I won a plastic cup. According to the fine print, there are 1,000 winners out of 1,175,000. Winning with odds of 1,175 is good!

...I won $40 to use at Autozone.

Then..for Easter, I won a $50 Walmart gift card!

Then...

Another win! This one is of a different sort. The BBC News allows comments. I never comment on stories. Today, I did along with 400 other people. The BBC chose 5-6 comments as "editor's pick" and puts them at the top. Mine was chosen as #2! The comment was neither left wing or right wing, just analytical.

Just a few minutes ago, another win! I won 24 quarts of synthetic motor oil! That's worth about $140-150 when oil is on sale! It seems like I wrote the winning essay to win the oil! I can pick the viscosity and it's ACEA A3/B3, BMW Longlife 01, GM LL-A-025 oil...good stuff.

[nordwulf]

Congrats! Perhaps you should drive down to Vegas and continue with this winning streak.

[Burnsside42]

Charlie Sheen would be proud. Keep it up!

[Dave T]

Congrats! Perhaps you should drive down to Vegas and continue with this winning streak.

I've analyzed the wins and find that strategy was the key. Namely, the odds of winning are better for contests where few enter.

The AutoZone sweepstakes was a test program. It was only in about 5 states and maybe 100 stores. Now, there is a nationwide AutoZone sweepstakes where there are 20 million game pieces for 1,000 prizes. I haven't won't this time.

The Walmart gift probably had a 10% probability to win due to lack of participation. The T-shirt was a blog prize with 15 prizes. Who knows? Maybe 25 people entered. With the oil, my essay was better than several previous
winners and there might not have been too many entries. I usually don't enter sweepstakes unless the odds are a little better than most contests.

[Dave T]

My new daily driver has entered into production! The thrill to have three cars, a 2005 9-3 (wrecked but can still be driven and last driven about 3 weeks ago), a newly bought 1999 9-3 5 door hatch (my first automatic in years!*), and a 2013 BMW 320i now in production.

*reminds me of a Belgian film where the dialog (if translated into English) went:
Father (looking through the car window): Look at that BMW (3 series), it has leather.
Son: And an automatic. Wow!

[ptech]

My new daily driver has entered into production! The thrill to have three cars, a 2005 9-3 (wrecked but can still be driven and last driven about 3 weeks ago), a newly bought 1999 9-3 5 door hatch (my first automatic in years!*), and a 2013 BMW 320i now in production.

*reminds me of a Belgian film where the dialog (if translated into English) went:
Father (looking through the car window): Look at that BMW (3 series), it has leather.
Son: And an automatic. Wow!

Nice one Out of all three Saab's that I've owned, only one(the '83, 900T)was a manual. Both the 9000 I previously owned, and the 9-5 I have now are an auto. Not through choice, just happened that way. When I bought the 9-5, the advert stated that she was a manual. I soon discovered she was actually an auto, as soon as I got a first look. I was a little gutted, I liked the idea of the booster switch on the manual! Anyway, I thought "ahh, balls too it"-and bought the car. The 9000, I bought off a friend from work. My first auto, and I must admit I'm a fan of just press and go, 'specially after a hard days graft The 9000 had a smoother ride(and drive) than the 9-5, I miss my 9000 I do though, love the way my 9-5 rips my face off! 0-60 in 8.2 seconds for the auto? Naa, mine's way quicker, don't know what's going on there

[Dave T]

Although I did not watch the TV interview, I read that Bill Gates talked about Steve Jobs and life, in general. Emotional Bill Gates recalls last visit with Steve Jobs Funny, I visited Bill Gates' street a few days ago, showing an out of town visitor the gates to his house. You can't see the house from the gate.

What would you do with a net worth of billions and billions, not just one or two billion? It's been said that each of his kids will get $10M. I think that is too little. For a house or car, $10M is fine. However, if one has a good idea, $10M is too little to start a dot.com company.

As far as trying to end malaria in Africa, that's a noble goal. I would be in favor of African countries having a more market oriented economy, education, and basic infrastructure so that foreign companies can set up shop to make trinkets or other things. If this happens, eventually, they'll develop into something more. Mainland China used to have cheap labor but now Chinese companies are setting their sights on other countries with cheaper labor as more and more locals are getting better paying, non-factory jobs.

Making America more efficient, not suing each other, not committing crimes against each other would be a noble goal but difficult to achieve. I'm not sure how it would be done. Throw money at the problems?

[Shazam]

Bruce Turk, the president of the Vintage Saab Club of North America (VSCNA) might be featured on Drive. Drive is a pretty cool YouTube car channel, and they feature a lot of interesting and fun stories and cars. Think Top Gear, the UK version, with less non-sense, and more about cars. Here is the preview, with Bruce driving.

[Shazam]

So they released the next part about Bruce Turk's 96. It is a really great interview, and worth the watch.

[Shazam]

Who else has been enjoying summer with their Saab?

I picked up a nice TrekLight hammock that I'll hopefully get to use on a backpacking trip. Still need a rain fly and mosquito net if I plan on going to the Adirondaks like I want to.


Borrowing a buddy's canoe to enjoy for a day.