Wait a Little Bit Longer...

I know everyone is waiting for my Christmas photos, but Hello (my uploading tool) is not working well (i.e., it crashes). So it's text for now.

My wife just came into the room to check her lotto numbers. No dice. She keeps playing these things but never won more than $10 I think...have no idea why she needs to buy them tickets every once in a while. The odds are 13.9 million to one that you win and a ticket costs $2 now; so, the pot has to be above $28 million just to give you fair odds. Add in the event of multiple winners (to split the prize) and it makes even less sense.

Lotto was really big in Korea until they wanted to cut the ticket price by half. Of course the prize would be smaller but your odds were not any different, were they? You still buy the same number of chances for the same dollar (or won, in this case) right? What's the difference between 1 chance at $1,000,000 for $1 and 2 chances at $500,000 for $1? You're twice as likely to win the smaller prize, that should be about it (the number combinations stay constant). With more numbers chosen there may be more prize-splitter, though. Hmmm....maybe there is a method to this madness. The lotto corporastion not only has lower prizes (psychologically lessening the impetus to buy tickets) but also may distribute the prizes to more people (with the splitting of grand prizes). Hmmmmmmm.

There are other ways to get rich in Korea, though...such as by eating chicken. Or the new once-a-minute lotto. (Palli means quickly/fast). But don't go overboard on it (they should have proofed this better, the correct term is 'hanged'). Oh, here's a good idea, let's make a Teen Lotto too so they can get addicted to gambling nice and early! Either way, getting rich quick is a big thing in Korea.

So my last batch of stew had something to be desired. Kate said I should hav used less meat in it and added more water (forgot to add some before cooking, oops). She, in Korean fashion, told me this 2 or 3 times. Ok, whatever, I will...next time. This time is done; I will surely do that next time. Then later in the day her Mom and I were watching T.V. together. She mentioned the same thing. I was growing tired of all this and just said 여/ye/yay (yes) to placate her. She, as you might imagine, said it twice (good practice for her English!) and I just said the same thing. You know, in my mind I was getting frustrated so my short answer was (at least for Westerners) a kind of an "ok, I got it; let's get on with life" thing...but later Kate said her Mom was beaming and overjoyed that I didn't 'talkback' and just agreed with her! Ok, so I do something that could be rude to Westerners (monotone, unchanging, one-word answers) and the Koreans love it? I think I'm getting the picture here. Go figure. Here's your tip of the day: when faced with a comment from an older person just agree to it (of course Koreans reading this will think "Of course!").