Break Time

I hope you're having a good holidays and have a happy New Year. The blog this time is pretty short, since it's been a rough week. There might not be a blog next week, or it might be on a different day than Friday.

Is He Still Alive?

Bob Newhart. I remember him from Newhart, a show that ran from 1982-1990 in which he played an innkeeper. I was never a huge fan of the show but watched it some. I may have been too young to appreciate it. I've seen him on Johnny Carson on YouTube since then. He was born in 1929, which would make him 88 if he's still alive. Statistically, that doesn't look good for a man. However, the wealthy have access to phenomenal healthcare that most people don't. What does Wikipedia say? It says, Bob Newhart is still alive! And according to IMDB, he seems to still be working as an actor on television.

UNC vs Wofford

I saw something new this week: the Bob Ross Chia Pet. When I was trying to learn to paint, I watched tons of Bob Ross on television. Every once in a while, I'll see a Bob Ross reference in popular culture. I had no idea he was such a widespread phenomenon that he has his own Chia Pet. I'm also kind of amazed that Chia pets unlike Bob are still around. He passed away in 1995. :( His shows still run on PBS.

So, when it comes to sports, I generally watch my few favorite teams but don't follow other teams or a sport as a whole. Sometimes, I'll leave an ACC game on in the background or a National League game. I don't watch American League games, because that's not authentic, American baseball. Nothing with a designated hitter is. This week I was going to watch a Perry Mason from 1961 I taped. The book after AoE is supposed to be a mystery. I've been taping Peter Gunn and Perry Mason to get the old flavor and to see what older shows were like. I was shocked when Peter Gunn used his car phone in a 1959 episode. I thought those were invented in the 70s. Whoa.

One night I fixed something to eat and was going to watch Perry Mason. A UNC(University of North Carolina) game was on. They're not my team, but they're in the ACC. My team has to play them at some point. UNC was playing Wofford, who had barely beaten Georgia Tech a few games back. Since two of Tech's best players were out and another was playing injured, it was not a quality win by any stretch. Wofford scored right before the buzzer. If Tech had had all their players, they would have won easily.

Going into the game against Wofford, UNC was ranked #5 in the country and is last year's national champion. Wofford was unranked and had never defeated a top 25 team. Based on the Tech game, I figured I'd watch three minutes of UNC stomping Wofford and then watch Perry Mason while I ate. Unfortunately, UNC had some early turnovers. After three minutes Wofford was actually ahead. I had to keep watching. Wofford kept the lead for over 6 minutes before UNC finally got on track. Wofford came back but fell behind due to poor shooting. UNC took a good lead, and I was getting ready to switch to Perry Mason. Then Wofford went on a run and was ahead at the half. How could that happen against the 5th best team in the country? They barely beat an injured, suffering Tech team. On the whole the first half was a bit of a nail biter.

It turned out to be an amazing game. I was on the edge of my seat. It's one of those classic underdog victories against a giant. Wofford ended up winning 79-75. Wowie Kablowie! You can see an article here. It doesn't really show how awesome the game was. Beating Tech seemed like a bit of a fluke, but maybe Wofford is for real. They played hard the entire game and completely deserved what ended up being a spectacular win. Hats off to them. If they keep it up, they'll be in the tournament in March.

Is He Still Alive?

This week's Is He Still Alive features Lindsay Wagner. I remember her mostly from The Bionic Woman and The Six Million Dollar Man. Looking at her IMDB entry, she was in tons of things I didn't know about, but is she still alive? Born in 1949, she would be 68. Statistics are on her side, but you never know what can happen on an individual basis. Nevertheless, according to Wikipedia, Lindsay Wagner is still alive! IMDB tells me she's also still working and has something coming out next year.

Time to Pivot

I saw Grav3yardgirl in a commercial! I couldn't believe it. If you've never heard of her, she makes tons of YouTube videos. She has a series called Does This Thing Really Work? I've watched some of those in the past. The premise is she opens and tests products sold on television that make people ask themselves, Does that thing really work? Some of them were funny. And if you've ever been tempted to buy one of those products, you can see ahead of time what it's really like.

There was good news and bad news this week. It snowed, and I lost power. It kept going on and off. The longest stretch of being off was maybe 5 hours. I didn't lose anything in the freezer or refrigerator, because I had ice ready for that. That was the good news.

I've been talking about starting a business and doing research. In one of those blogs I mentioned going to the dentist. It cost $103. What I didn't mention was I had a followup visit scheduled for this week. Since I don't have dental insurance, it cost $570. One of my motivations to start a business was for health insurance. So, hmm. That was a big hit to the business account. I'm going to have to put some thought into what to do now. I may take what's left and invest it for a year. I'm not sure.

Is He Still Alive?

Kirk Douglas. He was born in 1916 and had a serious stroke in 1996. I remember him mostly from the 80s, when he was in various movies. Statistically, his chances of being alive are very slim, since he would be 101. Who lives that long? Nevertheless. Is he still alive? Absolutely! He turned 101 on the 9th.

Party in Jerusalem

The U.S. recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Celebration and outrage abound. The news is interesting, but will it change anything? I'm waiting to see whether the embassy actually gets moved. Recognition of reality and moving the embassy are completely different things. Even if the embassy is moved, it will almost have to be moved to western Jerusalem and not eastern Jerusalem that the "Palestinians" claim as theirs despite the fact that Israelis have been buying as much of it as they can, making it more Israeli all the time. At some point the "Palestinians" won't own enough of it to care about fighting for it any more.

And if the U.S. moves the embassy, will anyone else? I'm sure some nations will, but what about the ones who are moaning and screaming so much today? Are we going to have a situation where some embassies are in Jerusalem while most are still in Tel Aviv? That's a lot of driving back and forth. :)

I have a silly theory. Jerusalem is about twice as large as Tel Aviv. That means it's twice as happening and has twice as many parties. Partying is about the self not about God. The nations who don't care about God are into self. They'll go where the parties are.

Is He Still Alive?

I forgot to do Is He Still Alive? last week.

Martin Mull. Not just an actor with a long career but also an artist. Mull was born in 1943, which would make him 74. That's a borderline age for men. I remember him mostly from the 80s. He's in something that comes out in 2018, but is he still alive? Yes, according to Wikipedia, Martin Mull is still alive!

 Have a great weekend.

AoE and More Lottery Thoughts

This week I finished another pass through AoE. It was mostly polishing things and making changes based on feedback. I'm pretty much to the cover stage. I'm still not sure exactly what it will be. The other day I mentioned I paint a little as a hobby, but I'm not an illustrator. I'm also not good at painting the human figure and might want to put humans in the middle or background. Since it's a spy type book, I had a thought that maybe I could paint a figure with a hat pulled down low like you sometimes see on spy books. That way the jawline would be detailed, and that's a lot easier than a complete face. Another idea would be a silhouette of a side profile. A closeup side profile might work, too. I'm going to have to experiment and test something out and see if I can actually do it.

A few weeks ago I had a blog titled What If You Won a Fortune? that was a more realistic look at some of the taxes, challenges and expenses of wining a smaller amount like $5mil. I don't play the lottery, but I like seeing people win. I occasionally like to think about what I'd do if I won a fortune. Since that blog, I've watched some interviews with lottery winners to see what they had to say about their plans.

Some people don't know what they're going to do. I can understand that. Buying a house is a logical first choice as is traveling. How much travel? Would you want to buy a house that would sit empty for what might be weeks at a time? Is that safe? Where would you live? The choices would be endless. Would it make more sense to rent while deciding precise plans? It would be a huge adjustment with an overwhelming number of decisions.

I saw at least two winners who put the money into a trust. I'm not at expert on that, though it looks like it has some interesting options for transferring money to relatives. I saw a few winners who hired lawyers and a financial management company. The people who did that didn't claim the prize right away. They waited until everything was in place, which could take a number of days or weeks. I thought about that. They could have claimed the prize, put it into an interest-bearing account and set up the financial team while drawing interest. A winner in the UK said he was earning £800 a day from interest. Today that would be just short of $1,078 a day. That would make quitting work and driving around to meetings a lot easier while putting a team together.

Why wait to start earning money? In the blog I linked to, I referenced the federal tax rate on lotteries as being 39.6% with 25% due immediately and the rest at tax time with state taxes on top of that. A normal savings account(fraction of a percent) or money market account(1.24% perhaps) would pay a low return compared to an investment account(6% minimum). By waiting they're maximizing the interest payments and offsetting more of the taxes. Basically, they would get to keep more of the money and use the tax money they owe to earn interest in the meantime. Waiting a week or two to be able to keep more of the money makes sense to me.

So, if you ever won something, hiring a financial management company before claiming the prize would let you start earning good returns from day one while mitigating taxes. Even if you never win, learning more about what people who win do will enable to you better manage your money. It's worth it to look into a little. It gives you ideas and options you can use today you might not have known about.

Have a great weekend.