Archive for the ‘oddities’ Category

Sometimes your roll comes up; just a dusting

Posted: December 20, 2009 by datechguy in local stuff, oddities
Tags: ,

A few years ago at Foxwoods (my last time there) a fellow at the Craps table was dropping $100 chips on the 15-1 single roll line table. (most people play $1 on that line)

For those of you not familiar with the game, in addition to all the other bets there are single roll bets. You can bet on a 3 (as he was). If the three comes up on that roll it pays 15-1. If it doesn’t then you lose.

Since the odds of getting that 3 are 16-1 Gambler’s fallacy not withstanding most of the time you lose, but for whatever reason that fellow managed to hit on the third roll from and walked away with $1200 ahead after only a minute or so. I’ve been to foxwoods maybe a dozen times in my life and this is the only time I’ve seen it happen.

I live in Northern Worcester County Massachusetts. When a snow storm comes through almost invariably we get the majority of the snow as compared to Boston and the cape, but once in a while the storm comes more from the sea than from the land. In those cases like today’s storm Boston and the Cape get nailed and we get off much easier. Even rarer is the case when we get off with practically nothing.

Yesterday I was all ready. Bought a new shovel, ice melt, went to the 4 p.m. mass instead of the 8 a.m. as I normally do, parked the cars strategically in the driveway and kept track a weather.com. The indications were the snow would start around 5 p.m. (No snow) , then 7 (no snow), then 10 (no snow). When I went upstairs at 11 and still saw no snow I was pleased since my oldest was getting out of work at 11. I fully expected to wake up a fair amount on the ground and a lot of work shoveling to do.

Instead when I looked outside this morning there was barely a dusting on anything. Snow is coming down but not all that fast. In the hour I’ve been of bed not even an inch has accumulated.

It doesn’t happen often but it looks like I’ve rolled that 3. I think I might buy a lottery ticket at Romano’s this morning, gambler’s ruin not withstanding.

It’s quite a change from last year.

How bad are times around here?

Posted: December 14, 2009 by datechguy in local stuff, oddities
Tags: ,

Times are so hard that when I went to the supermarket I was able to find package after package of chicken feet and claws, but not a single package of boneless chicken breasts.

With people hard up more and more of the cheaper cuts are being carried in larger and larger quantities, anything to stretch a dollar.

Of course part of it is the change in demographics, as little as 5-7 years ago it would have been almost impossible to find chicken feet and claws in this neck of the woods outside a specialty store.

Oh and if you are wondering why I just didn’t go to Romano’s, they are closed on Mondays. Ironically the breasts I wanted are going to be on special this week there.

Is it important? No but just another little oddity of life.

This was the #1 image result?

The photo is 5 years old but I think the statement is still true.

If you want to see the post where those photos came from, including some nice shots of the Crayola Museum, Hershey Park, and the Gettysburg Battlefield, then click here.

Unfortunately the last 13 months have given an answer to the question associated with the final shot on that page. I was hoping for a different one.

…in terms of hits.

#10 is from Sept 22nd. The title says it all:

DaTechGuy Banned by LGF.

I guess this would qualify under rule 4.

#9 with 6% more hits than #10 is from May 7th and deals with Baseball and the wisdom of youth, a particular youth.

That Theo Epstein is really smart:

The topic of the post was Manny and steroids. I think it’s still a valid question, would Manny have made the money he did without the drugs?

#8 with about 9% more hits than #7 was big news on Oct 22nd 2009:

BOOM! SARAH PALIN ENDORCES HOFFMAN!

This was big news then and the fact that it lead to the defeat of Dede is still one of the best things that has happened to the GOP, David Frum not withstanding

#7 has a full 31% increase on #8 but the numbers are a bit phony in one respect. From April 30th 2009:

Breast cancer at 10

The story is sad but the hits were totally accidental, I linked to the blog that contained the story, apparently I was the only trackback so a lot of people clicked through. Some good news the latest news from the blog suggests a happy ending.

#6 increased traffic 18% over #7 and is only 10 days old December 1st, 2009. Again the origin of the hits involves the trials of someone small and green:

FLASH! Charles Johnson trolls for hits: Lobbies to be an MSNBC regular…

No word on if MSNBC has called yet.

#5 increases the hits by a further 17% and proves that sex sells over anger. From June 24th 2009:

I would rather get laid than be president…

There is actually an update on that story in today’s news. The extra hits came via Michelle and the Anchoress. My trackbacks never show up on Michelle’s blog anymore for some reason.

Believe it or not there is an exact tie for #3 both with a 7% increase from #5 and both are from the same day (Sept 15th) dealing with pretty much the same subject:

How much traffic can you actually get from Hannah Giles Bikini photos?

Look at the hits Update: (and they keep coming)

Ironically the hits actually came not from the googlebomb from Hannah Giles Bikini photos but from the same source as our next entry…

#2 that comes from the same day as the two posts at #3 but managed to get 89% more hits than either. The reason is in the title

Morning Joe notices Acorn…Update: Welcome Rush Listeners!

It wasn’t a direct link, Michelle Malkin’s top story was linked directly by Rush and My link is the first trackback on her page. All three posts had hits through the roof because of it showing that a secondary Rush provides link provides more hits than Sex, but not more hits than…

#1 From Feb 2nd 2009. It is an increase of 122% over #2 and accounts for more hits than #2-4 combined

Human Rights (watch is optional)

This is of course my instalanche, I remember the day well. I had put up the post on the president and Rendition. Nothing much happened for most of the day. I was surfing that afternoon and left the computer as it was time for dinner. I went to the table, ate, came back to the den and looked at my stats and they were through the roof. The post had gone up before 7 a.m. but Glenn’s post went up at just before 5 p.m. and that’s when the hits went crazy.

I have yet to see another day like that one or another instalance, but to all of you who have come and stayed, my heartfelt thanks.