Goodbye Cally

Just wanted to say a quick goodbye here to Cally. She is my mum and dad's dog and she has been with them for about 10 years. It's sad but true that she has never had enough attention there. It's not particularly anyones fault, it's just one of those things. Anyway, she is the loveliest dog and my mum and dad have found some old woman somewhere who can take her in and give her the attention she needs. It's good really even though we will all miss her.
So here's to Cally - get your paws down ;-)

Hola

Just a quick shout-out to Vicky in Spain. I had no idea you read my blog so I'll be careful not to say anything nasty about you :-)
Hope the weather is nice there and that you haven't been drinking too much sangria...

Pirate day

As has been pointed out to me, Sunday is international "talk like a pirate day"
Arrrr!!!

http://www.talklikeapirate.com/piratehome.html

No-one ever expects the Spanish Inquisition...

...apparently.

Anyway, in other news, Russ came over last night and we played the Dungeons and Dragons board game which was pretty good. It's basically roleplay without the roleplay. What I mean is, you know all the dungeon trawling you do in roleplay? Well it's just that. There's some character progression and items to collect etc but it's a really good game for introducing non-gamers to the world of *real* gaming.

Comments?

No one ever seems to comment on my posts. Maybe it's because I'm not posting anything that anyone feels strongly enough to post about but some feedback would be cool. You dont have to sign up to post, you can just post anonymously and sign your comment at the bottom.

Roulette system

This post is a long-winded musing over ways to beat roulette. If you don't think it will float your boat then don't bother reading it because you will more than likely find it very boring.

I have been doing some research into my roulette system. It turns out that the system is called the Martingale system and has been around for donkeys years. The general impression on the web is that only an idiot would play this system as the odds dictate that you will eventually lose. Although this is true, I have played this system twice now (once for fake money and once for real money) and it has worked out both times.
From what I can tell on the web, there is no way to really win on the roulette table. For example, if I played my system on a regular basis I would eventually lose and in the long term my losses would be greater than my winnings. There are loads of people out there who claim they know how to win on the roulette table but they all require you to pay for their idea and no doubt they would all be a waste of money.
I have come across another 2 systems that seem interesting although they are slightly more complicated that the one I have used previously.
The first is kind of a reverse of the Martingale system. Basically you double your bet on the same colour everytime you win rather than everytime you lose. You stop betting on the same colour when you have won on it three times in a row or when you lose. I haven't done the maths but on the face of it it seems to work with pretty much the same odds as the Martingale system.
The second is one that takes into account the fact that the three columns have a different distribution of red and black numbers. The first column has 50-50 red and black, the second column has 8 red and 4 black and the third column has 8 black and 4 red. This means that if you put one unit on red and one unit on the third column then you have covered 3/4 of the board with only 2 units. If it comes up red then the worst case is that you have just bet for free. If it comes up red and in your column then you win 5 units (minus your 2 unit stake equals a profit of 3 units) and if it comes up black but in your column then overall you win 1 unit. Of course it could come up black and not in your column but there is only a 25% chance of this happening. Compared with the Martingale system, the third system still gives you a 50% chance of winning but when you win, there is a 50% you will win more and it still gives you a 50% chance of losing but when you lose, there is a 50% that you actually dont lose anything. The only down side is the increased stakes. I'm not sure if you could combine the two systems so that you are basically using the third system but when you lose you double up as in the Martingale system but the idea may have promise.
I will close this post by saying that after all the research that has been done by individuals and by groups, online and offline, over the course of a large period of time, the absolute best system is: bet everything you can on a 50-50 chance, hope luck is on your side and if you win then walk away. I'm not convinced...

Time for an update

Its been a few days since I've posted and I really need to catch up. I think writing so much about the holiday took it out of me but I've recovered now and I'm here to post once again.
Friday night Laura, Badger, Reece, Kieran and myself went to the pub for a pint which was cool. We played on the quiz machine and Reece lost some money on the fruit machine :-)
After that, me, Laura and Badger went on into Manchester and met up with Olly for a pint. Olly brought a few mates with him including one girl who was pretty damn fine.
Anyway, after that me and Laura went out for our overdue anniversary meal. We went to some indian restaurant in Rusholme and had a curry. It was pretty tasty and they gave us some freebees because we were there on our anniversary.
When we had finished we sat at the bus stop for nearly an hour waiting for the number 41. A number 42 came past about every 30 seconds which was very annoying.
So Saturday we got up, Laura had her leftovers from the night before as breakfast and then we headed over to Toys R Us to buy Anya something nice. She took a particular liking to a little barking, shaking dog so into the trolley it went (alongside a Dungeons and Dragons boardgame and a couple of packs of Top Trumps).
When we got to the counter they were only taking cash because their systems were down... Great. So we went back home empty handed.
That afternoon we set off to Yorkshire to visit Gubble. To be fair we had a pretty uneventful evening. We watched a movie, got a takeaway and went to bed pretty early. Laura wasnt feeling well either due to the takeaway or due to reheating her curry earlier on.
The next day we headed over to my grandparents house in Harrogate. We had a fabulous Sunday Dinner (it always gets capitals when it's made by my Grandma) and chilled out for the afternoon. Laura wasnt feeling much better so we set off pretty early back to Manchester.
When we arrived back I spent most of the evening revising for my exam on Monday even though I knew there was no way I could pass it with such little time to revise.
We (me, mum, dad and Reece) played the Pokemon board game before bed which was ok although it didnt really capture the essence of the TV show as much as I would have liked. Still, Reece only paid 50p for it so you cant complain.
Monday I went over to my exam. 40 minutes of an hour and a half exam later I had finished so I pressed the submit button to the inevitable response of "you have failed". Back at work I was told to book the exam again for as soon as possible. Some people never learn.
Monday night I was pampered by Laura. She cooked an ace meal for us and we even had apple crumble and custard for pudding which was well nice. We also went out to Toys R Us but Anya didnt really seem interested in the dog again so we left it although I did get my Dungeons and Dragons boardgame :-)
ttfn