Luck Vs Chance

Is there really a difference? Are people just lucky? Or is there some little pack of powers-that-be who pick and choose who they want to reward or mess with?
I know you’ve been wondering about this, so I figured I’d get it off my chest and help get it off yours.

We’ve all had those days and certainly those thoughts of why ME and why NOT me. Yeah, yeah I know we’re supposed to be thankful, and I am, as I am sure you are. But come now, haven’t you ever wondered about stuff? Like the Lottery numbers and how some days they come out 1-2-3-4-5-6-11 or 34-35-36-37-38-7? Or my personal favorite, when MILLIONS of people are playing MILLIONS of different combinations of numbers, yet days go by without a winner and then BOOM someone (no one we know of course) wins the whole kit and caboodle! Somewhere along the lines of Eighty-Two Krillion dollars to the ninth power.
Is that LUCK or CHANCE? Or is it that your chances AND your luck just plain SUCK!
How is LUCK determined? Who determines? Is it living right? Living wrong to see what you do with it all?

Why am I going here? Certainly you’ve heard about the family that won Million in the Lottery-TWICE! Oh I can just hear some people saying that they might have things in their lives that are NOT so favorable and I totally understand that, but TWICE in less than ten years?

You like that? well you're just gonna love this. MILWAUKEE - U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, already a millionaire and heir to the Kimberly-Clark fortune, is on a lucky streak. The Republican hit it big in 1997 with a $250,000 jackpot in the District of Columbia lottery. Then, last spring, he won $1,000 prize in the Wisconsin lottery, and he won another $1,000 in that lottery last week. Okay so it wasn't like he didn't ALREADY have money, the fates decided he needed MORE $$$. Go Figure. Or maybe not because in the scheme of things, the figures just don't add up.

And what’s this mess about people saying that after they’ve won One hundred sixty BA-ZILLION dollars that they will NOT quit their mundane (usually just above minimum wage) job because they LIKE it there. This is right up there on my give-me-a-friggin list. Everybody I know would not only quit, but act like they never had a job in their lives.

Okay so let’s talk about the actual cash. How come people who win go bankrupt in a few years? Why don’t they ask me about how to spend money, or better yet let my friend Thel SHOW them how to spend it. She’s an expert and will not only have them buying stuff they don’t need, but everything they want but with purpose. But NOOooooooooooooo, people just have to spend it until its gone. What ever happened to the rainy day syndrome? SAVE SOME FOR A RAINY FREAKIN… well you know what I mean. Maybe I should win so I can show people that it won't change me. Yeah right!

I know someone has to be first, and someone has to be last. I know the world is filled with winners and losers, (a lot more losers given today’s standards and all), but what are the chances that the same people would hit on good fortune so many times? On the other hand I know its not just GOOD luck, but how about the people seemingly have nothing BUT bad luck? WHO IS MESSING WITH THEM AND WHY? (This is where being thankful for the hand you've been dealt comes in.

I think I ought to stop here, because the fates are listening and I don’t want to catch any undue attention. But this right in the realm of why and something to make you think. So? what DO you think?

Daniel Jackson an Ori? I don’t think so.

Okay, so I pretty much stopped watching Stargate SG1 when Richard Dean Anderson left. As a creature of habit I usually stay close to the original of things. Like Lays and Wise potato chips, not
Utz or store brand, Hellmans REAL mayonnaise not Salad-spread and Butter not Margarine, stuff like that.
I love the chemistry between Daniel, Samantha Carter, Jack and Teal’c, it just worked for me all the time. By time R.D.A left the show and they brought on Claudia Black and Ben Browder (formally of Farscape) I was pissed. I mean they worked fine there, I loved them there, but they never worked on SG1 for me. Number one, Ben is cute but he’s a little too cutesy and Claudia Black is getting a little long in the tooth to be wearing them damned pigtails. GIVE EM UP ALREADY.

I liked it when Daniel ascended into a higher being. (do these writers recycle? I saw this premise on Buffy, Angel AND Charmed) not to mention the 5thj incarnation of DR.WHO, but this ORI thing was a complete mystery to me.

Having spewed my disgruntled-ness, (is that even a word?) I might as well go on to say that I got so stubborn that I adamantly REFUSED to watch Stargate Atlantis. But like a child coaxed with a treat I gave in and discovered Ronan Dax (Jason Mamoa) and well anyone who knows me, knows what happened next. Yep you got it, but I only watched the scenes with him in it.
But like all really good shows, Star Trek, Beauty and the Beast etc, it all has to end. So what am I tiptoeing around now?
EUREKA!

Exercise and Cake

I couldn’t have had a lovelier Thursday evening.
Okay, I’d all ready been told that my wonderful Aqua Aerobics buddies wanted to take for dessert at a local restaurant to celebrate my new book. What I did not expect was Joan T., a truly terrific person (as well as alternate instructor) made me a beautiful Tee shirt and Tote bag with the cover of my new book on them. I was floored.

Ordinarily that accompanied with the much anticipated gooey sticky calorie laden-gut-bustin-ruin-every-diet-you’re-ever gonna-be-on cakes and pies, would have been enough, but there were other surprises, like how ALL the ladies jumped out wearing a tee with the cover on it. You simply cannot buy that kind of advertising folks.

As we got to the restaurant, still more people showed up including someone who no longer comes to our classes (because of the distance) and I wanted to cry but didn’t because I was all ready a sight having just gotten out of water and make-up was distant memory. Both my instructors were there Laura and Diane, and at least I couldn’t feel that guilty about eating the Pecan pie sans whipped cream (because they didn’t have any).
You think that’s all? NOT!, I was presented with a HUGE bouquet of flowers with everything in them including tiger lilies, roses, freesia and everything else.
We ate and laughed and then I signed their shirts. I couldn’t have felt more like a celebrity.

If you ever wonder why special people come into your life when they do, don’t just be grateful for the blessing of their presence. Thank you Julie, Sue, Laura, Liz, Diane, Alicia, Mirta and Mary too who would have been there but had a really bad cold. I especially want to thank and give a great big cyber-hug to Joan. It’s not just for this but just being a great person.