It's Friday, Friday...

Gotta get down on Friday
Everybody’s lookin’ forward to the weekend, weekend.


Yes, the song is so bad that it's good. But to be honest, Rebecca Black hit the nail on the head with her profound lyrics. It most indeed is Friday.

Now I have not done research on this, but I bet it is safe to say that if you polled (FB idea) the general population, the most popular day of the week is Friday. It's pretty obvious why because it's the end of a long, bitter week (whether your's involves work, school, or staying home) and the start of a well-rewarded weekend.

But if you analyze it closer, we spend the majority of our Fridays trapped until the last class of the day ends or the "yabba dabba doo" moment at 5 PM. We waste most of this day in zombie mode just trying to get through it. If you think about it, you could argue that Saturday is the most popular day. You get the whole day from sun up to sun down to do whatever makes your heart content. No sitting through a boring lecture or worthless work meeting.

But Rebecca's words of wisdom ring true... Everybody’s lookin’ forward to the weekend. The anticipation is sometimes even better than the moment. Being a family man, my weekends do not involve partying or gettin jiggy wit it anymore so my Friday nights and Saturdays are pretty boring. But come 2 hours before closing up shop I feel like I am playing the SuperBowl tomorrow. No matter what my plans may or may not have in store, I so esscited.

That feeling has been there ever since I can remember. Junior high Friday afternoon's before the bell rang at 3:15 consisted of drafting our fantasy baseball players for the video game Baseball Stars on our first-gen Nintendo. We spent study halls, a quick ten minutes between classes, secret discussions while the teacher wrote on the chalk board picking guys like Frank Thomas, Joey "then Albert" Belle, and my all-time favorite player Will Clark (side note - I still do these things this time of the year for fantasy football during work... thank God for technology). When we got to whoever's house we were sleeping at that night, we'd spend almost all night editting the default names to the guys we spent all afternoon picking. The funny thing is we would spend more time on that then actually playing.

During high school, Fridays really meant something too. I can look back at the anticipation of the big game whether it was football, basketball, or baseball. Especially if you played the sport like I did, you could forget about acing that last test on Friday. All this nervous excitement makes it hard to remember the pythagorean theorem.

College... well, in college it was more about the parties. You would ask around during lunch in the commons who was having a party. You would figure out how you were going to get beer and sneak it in to your dorm. If you were smart, you would avoid scheduling Friday afternoon classes altogether. But since you were not a morning person you were stuck with Theories of Art during the Renaissance, learning about the unique brush strokes of some French dude while your buddies already polished off a case of Milwaukee's Best... not that I would know.

Even though my college sucked at parties (another side note - if partying was a program in college, then my college offered an unaccreditted certificate taught by a nun), it was still exciting to think the next epic party was just hours away (yet another side note (side note to the side note - I realize that's two side notes in one sentence and one to recognize them) - epic back then was only a term used by people who played Dungeons and Dragons, but now is considered cool).

Today a Friday for someone slaving away until retirement still holds fondness. Like I said before, I might not be deciding which drinking game to play first or getting ready for a big game, but the anticipation that maybe something I'll never forget could happen reminds me to... Check my time, it's Friday, it's a weekend. We going to have fun, come on, come on, y'all.

I leave you with this most epic Friday remix.

Lucky numbers: how to win at Powerball

I didn’t win it.

But someone in the land of 10,000 lakes (ticket sold in Dakota County if you’re wondering) won the Powerball last night. That lucky person or person(s) will take home a little over $83 million dollars after taxes. The odds of winning are 1 in 195,249,054, which is staggering to say the least. But when you think about it, you can prolly improve those odds by not playing combinations of numbers. Even though statistically it could happen, how many times have you seen the Powerball go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and then the powerball? Answer… never.

By getting rid of those sequential combinations, get rid of all combinations that show a pattern like all evens/odds, same increments like 4, 8, 12…, get rid of all previous winning combinations, getting a totally random combination could improve your odds to 1 in 150,000,000 I would think. Good luck.

Well, this is how I look at it. Instead of it being 1 in impossible odds of winning, I figure someone has to win it, might as (not mind as or minus as I’ve seen according to FB language) well be me. Those odds then decrease significantly. They get even better when you play easy pick because now I figure it’s just a matter of timing. Most Powerball winners come from the easy pick (randomly chosen by the computer). So if the computer is doing it consistently it’s just like a slot machine. Whoever was there at the right time is going to win. So that guy in front of you who got out of line to go grab a Yoohoo, which allowed you buy your easy pick 30 seconds earlier could have cost you $83 million and you’ll never know. Freaking Yoohoo!

Anyway, I only play Powerball or MegaMillions when it’s big. I don’t want to settle for $10 million… lol. I know I’m not going to win, but if I did I want it to be filthy big. I have already imagined what I would do with it. Imagine is prolly not a strong enough word… I have a master plan laid out.

Let’s take last night’s winner who will bank $83 mill. Before I claim the prize, I would contact a top-notch finance lawyer who would set up my contracts for me. I have a buddy accountant in mind and would retain his services by doubling his current salary just so he can do my taxes every year. He could quit his current job and spend more time with family b/c he’ll have one client.. me. My financial planner buddy I would do the exact same thing.

Now I’m going to claim the prize. Don’t expect a press conference because I will remain anonymous. The winner would be me, but announced as some obscure trust called The Likeded Group set up by my top-notch finance lawyer. I don’t want 4^th cousins I’ve never talked to coming out of the woodworks begging me for money. Worse, I don’t want them pressuring my family and guilt-tripping them to give them money (even though Hmong people have big mouths and it would get out eventually). And we’re definitely moving to an undisclosed residence for about a month, most likely some fancy hotel in downtown Minneapolis so we don’t get random people knocking on our door.

Now I’ve got the money. What do I do first? “Two chicks at the same time” (Office Space – great movie). The obvious thing to do is to become debt free right away. Then I would start giving it out. First my side of the family. I have 3 brothers and 2 sisters. Each would receive $1.5 million. I would then give them $100,000/year so they could quit their jobs and hopefully use their $1.5 million wisely. My parents would get $3 million. Total of $10.5 million gone from the top on immediate family members. My aunts and uncles would get $200K each. I think there are six left from both sides. Cousins get really tricky, but I would give varying amounts up from $25K-$50K depending how close I am to them. So from 1^st cousins and aunts/uncles I’m thinking $1.5 million – gone just like that. So my side trimmed it down to $71 million.

Now the wife’s side. Three sisters and one brother. Again $1.5 million each and $100K per year. Mother and father-in-law, $3 million in the bank. Will try to do the uncles/aunts/cousins similarly, but her side is not just some average family tree. No, it’s like that freaking Mother Tree in the movie Avatar (another pretty good movie if you’re bored on a Friday night). So I’m budgeting about $2 mill for them, which brings the Hang side total to $11 million. Now down to $60 million.

Friends… can’t forget friends. I have some really good, life-long friends I would definitely hook up. Mortgages would be paid for. I would pay for college educations for some other buddies, pay for cars, credit cards, etc. We will have one awesome poker night that’s for sure. Guesstimating $3 million… down to $57 million.

Churches… I know times are tough and so are tithes so there are few I have in mind. $3 million (accountant buddy should see about tax deductions). Charities… I have a few in mind as well like the homeless, anything with kids, cancer research, make-a-wish, etc. $2 million.

$52 million left.

We’re moving. I love having four seasons, but not 3 months at a time. We’ll either buy a place or build in the Monterrey, CA area. Guessing $5 million will do… trust me I have looked (you gotta have a master plan). Great weather year-round and most importantly great golfing i.e. Pebble Beach. Bam! Down to $47 million. After purchasing toys, installing putting green, Winnebago, furnishing home I’m guessing $2 million total will be spent.

So that leaves $45 million to live off for the rest of our lives. If my financial planner buddy diversifies our money in the right/safe places I am thinking we could easily get 5% overall every year. That’s ultra-conservative and still yields $2.25 million every year. Giving my siblings $900K per year and paying my accountant, financial planner, and lawyer their salaries/services would be about $400K a year. That means I could spend $1 million a year on living expense and never have to touch that $45 million nest egg!!!

So Powerball/MegaMillions will surely climb back up eventually and I’ll surely get my easy picks. And sure mo’ money mo’ problems as they say. So if one of you Dakota County friends of mine won last night, I’ll gladly share in your burden.

back to the future

I wrote this almost 10 years ago. most of it still holds true, but ironically I work at a career-focused school now. By the way, I like to read comments about my blog... good and bad ones.

is it better to be pretty good at everything or exceptional at one thing? i'm perplexed b/c my strength is my weakness. i can talk to you about philosophy and i can throw a baseball very hard. however, you won't see me leading a new age mind of thought or leading a baseball team to the world series.

i'm grateful that i went to a liberal arts college instead of some trade school, but it's like i know a lot about nothing and then these computer nerds that never went to the keggers are making boat loads of money. sup with that? i know, that's why they make you declare a major, but how vague can business management be (which was mine)? the only thing worse would be the diversity major my school offered... 3 minors equaling one major. hello? might as well have declared "undecided" and graduated suma cum dunno.

but it's not just in schooling though. being hmong in america, i've grown up knowing two worlds. the american way and the hmong way. and somewhere inbetween i've incorporated the hmong-american way. i'm not fully one or the other.

wierd, but... i'm not definitively anything. i can't be pigeon-holed i guess. but i can't be an expert either! i'm like an oxymoron or maybe i'm just the moron.

i guess i'll just be exceptional at being pretty good at everything.