Lotto Fever

Last monday was the day the my life almost changed.

It's the day I almost won the 230M lotto draw! I was just like ... uhm... you know... five numbers off.

A little bit of reality rewind might be in order.

It was almost years ago since I bet on lotto. Last monday was more of an impulse. I was my way home and as I pass by the usually busy lotto outlet, the outlet was unusually unbusy and vacant even with a modest streamer saying "239M Draw Tonight."

Coincidentally, at that exact moment, I got my left hand holding on to my P140 change from the banana stand. The exact amount needed for the 7 number bet. (You pay P140 for 7 numbers of your choice and if the lotto draw hits any 6 of them, you still win the jackpot)

It may sound stupid right now, and it was back then, but I was thinking, is this the cosmos' way of saying, that this is it Ron, your time to win.

Pffft, probably not. But whatever, let's give this luck-one-in-a-billion-odds thing another try.

I went the sentimental route of choosing my numbers. (The other route would be the statistical way of choosing the 6 numbers that least came up during the previous draws.) The other route needs time and effort to compute, so sentimental route it is. Numbers that are important to me are, birth date, 12 and 1, check. Significant other's birth date, 11 and 25, check. Age I got circumcised, 21 ehrm.. I mean 7, check. Century I was born, 1900 = 19, check. Age right now, 24, check.

Well, you know how it ended. (See 2nd paragraph if you already forgot)

But, chance, there is still. None won and another draw is up tonight.

I already bought tickets in the am. This time I went the f*ck-this-i'll-let-the-system-choose-random-numbers-for-me route. Six squiggly lines later, 5 tickets, 6 random numbers each.

Well, this got me thinking, how could I increase my chances of winning the Lotto? After much sleeping, internetting and watching tv, I came up with this list.

Five ways to win the Lotto

1.)  Get a statistics major friend compute the 6 least occurring number based on the previous lotto draws. Chances say that all the 49 lotto numbers should equally be drawn in time. (I don't really know if this is statistically sound but hey, no need for factual information on this blog)

2.) Pray to your god. Let your god know that you deserve this since you've been treated unfairly almost all your life. Say what you'll do in case you win. (In my case, theoretically, I would be willing to split the pot 200-30, 200 for me, 39 for you. I like round numbers.)
       2.1) Pray to all your gods. For polytheists, pray to all of them. Customize your plea to fit their moods. You don't pray for world peace to the war god do you?
       2.2) For monotheists, secretly get another monotheist god or two. How you keep this secret from an omniscient god is beyond me, but if you pull this off, let me know. (Remember the numerous they are, the numerous powers that be, the more chances of winning)

3.) Draft your resignation letter, ready to click send. You got to let the cosmos know your f*cking serious about this.

4.) ???!?
    4.1) This probably the most important step, missing this step would be catastrophic to your chances of winning. Until somebody figures this out, sigh, we can go on hoping.

5.) Buy a ticket.

P.S.

I just got on twitter as blognironald, (yeah, I'm such a late adopter). If you're on it, let me know and if I stalkerishly like you so much, I'd probably follow you!

-update- 2/30 1143h

No one one the jackpot: 01 - 22 - 35 - 36 - 41 - 42

the good: i still have a chance to win over 300M on sunday
the bad: i didn't win 288M last night
the ugly: i have already planned out what to do w/ 288M up 'til the last centavo. Sigh, i now have to redo it for 300M.

i should have still gone the sentimental route of choosing the numbers the 2nd time around. the winning numbers have very significant meaning in my life:
  1 - my birth day
  22 - pairs of socks i own
  35 - number of days in the month of december + 4
  36 - 6 times 6, 36. 6 times 6, 36 (there's even a song for this number!!)
  41 - my target life expectancy divided by 2
  42 - my target life expectancy divided by 2, then add 1

dammit!