New Riordan Book

To get some bonus MyPoints, I had to do 104 searches before the end of the month. One of the things I thought to search for was the Son of Neptune book by Rick Riordan. As I previously blogged about, the book is the second in the Heroes of Olympus series. The Heroes of Olympus series incorporates characters from the Percy Jackson and the Olympians 5 book series while introducing new Roman demigods who are the children of the Greek gods except in their Roman persona. The first book in the series "The Lost Hero" was very good. My only complaint would be it leaves you hungering for the 2nd book "The Son of Neptune." Sadly, that book isn't due out till October of this year. Thanks to the search I did, I found out Riordan has a website called The On-line World of Rick Riordan. The website has lots of information on the various books Riordan has written such as the Percy Jackson series as well as news of books he will be writing.

It was through this site that I found out that Riordan will be coming out in May 2011 with a second book in the Kane Chronicles. The book is called "The Throne of Fire." It continues in the 2 person narrative and tells of the further adventures of Carter and Sadie Kane, the brother and sister magicians who must work together to defeat the chaos serpent Apophos. The book should be another good read. Plus, it'll tide over those of us who are waiting for the 2nd book of the Heroes of Olympus series.

Another nice feature of the website is it has a link to Riordan's blog where he posts various comments and observations. Also, he gives updates on various books such as his March 12th entry where he reveals that revisions for the Son of Neptune book (he had a complete manuscript according to his February 13th entry) are coming along and, he should make the October release date.

Riordan is going to be a very BUSY writer as he'll be putting out 2 books next year. The 2 books will be a 3rd book in The Kane Chronicles and the 3rd in the Heroes of Olympus series. Riordan's website hasn't revealed yet if the Kane Chronicles will go to 5 books like his Percy series did and his Heroes of Olympus will. However, I suspect it's likely. That should please his readers as Riordan does produce consistently good stories. His books have won him a number of awards and made him a best selling author on the New York Times booklist. Cheers all!

Five Winners

As I reported in my last blog entry, I was keeping my fingers crossed for the super jackpot in the MegaMillions game. I knew the odds were extremely long but, I was having some luck with it. My luck was better than the odds. I ended up with five winners. I had 4 $2 winners and 1 $3 winner which breaks out to 1 in 20 winners. Your chances of winning something in the game are 1 in 40 according to the Megamillions website. Plus, $11 is better than nothing. I'm sure there are plenty who won zilch. Now, the jackpot goes back to $12 million which still isn't that bad. That would break out to just under half a million bucks per year. I could live on that. So, I'm going to be a schmuck and keep on trying. If nothing else, it allows me to dream. Also, you can't win if you don't play. Good luck to the other players out there. Cheers all!

Mega-Millions Game

I'm not much of a gambler. I don't have the nerves for it or a poker face as they call it. I remember watching as a kid the adults play cards when my family clan would gather at my Grandma Wilkes's home. It looked pretty fascinating watching but, I wasn't allowed to play as I wasn't old enough. When I finally turned 18 years old, Grandma Wilkes gave me a $10 roll of quarters for a present. She won that back and $10 more before she left. It did wonders for curing me of any desire to gamble.

On occasion, I would play the state's lottery. I think my biggest win was $120 which didn't come close to what I've spent on lottery tickets. Big jackpots can tempt me to play and the last 2 jackpots in the MegaMillions game have been up there. Last Friday's jackpot was $204 million, this past Tuesday it was $244 million and today's jackpot will hit $312 million. The thought of winning that much money and what it would mean (Johnny Paycheck's famous song comes to mind) has caused me to play. So far, I've had 3 winners last Friday for a total of $13 in winnings and 1 Tuesday for $3.

I know the odds of winning in MegaMillions are very remote to say the least. According to their website (http://www.megamillions.com/), the odds of winning are 1 in 175,711,536. Also, incredibly, you are playing against other lottery players in 41 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands (source: MegaMillions game website). I had no idea the game was THAT big. The game is renowned for colossal jackpots. According to the MegaMillions trivia on the website, they've had 5 that went over $300 million including the largest jackpot ever offered in North America. In March 2007, the jackpot hit a mindboggling $390 million. I think I remember that one. I don't remember if I played or not though I probably did. The temptation would've been too great not to play.

So, we'll see if I become terribly rich tonight or joins millions of Americans who will throw their losing tickets away and continue to dream of hitting it rich some day. Odds are I'll be among those Americans though it has been nice dreaming of what I could do if lady luck royally favored me. Cheers all!

Haircut

I needed to get a haircut before an important meeting next week. As I had a short day at work today, I decided to go to the 198 Barbershop on MD-198 and get myself all neat and trim again. I'd let my hair grow long and, I looked like a hippie. I thought that was kind of fun but, that look doesn't make the best impression and, I'll need to make a good impression next week.

The 198 Barbershop is a nice place. The barbers are friendly, competitively priced and do a good job. The shop has adequate parking and is very close to the MD-295 exit making it easy to get to. As an extra treat, they have a popcorn popping machine where you can get yourself a free bag of popcorn while you wait to get your hair cut. As far as waits go, I've never had to wait that long there. They usually have 3 barbers there and, they don't lollygag. I don't know if you can make appointments with them. You can find more information about the shop at http://www.198barbershop.com. I would definitely recommend them. Cheers all!

Update February 27, 2018: I just wanted to mention that this barbershop has gone out of business. The owner as I understand it wanted to cut back on her responsibilities and tried to sell the business. As far as I can tell, there haven't been any takers so far.

Oasis Class Ships

Royal Caribbean International seems to repeatedly outdo its competition when it comes to cruise ships. How many ships do you know where you can go ice skating, rock climbing, roller blading, miniature golfing and play basketball (all the ships I know of have a full length court)? The latest and greatest by Royal Caribbean is the Oasis class ships. They are the largest cruise ships in the world coming in at over 220,000 tons. They have 18 decks and incredibly draw only 30 feet of water. The 30 feet thing boggles when you see how much ship is above water. As I mentioned previously on this blog, I got to see the Oasis from a distance and, I was in Ft. Lauderdale when the Allure (the second of this class) arrived from its maiden voyage from Finland. Reviews of the 2 ships have been unanimously positive. Because of that, you would think I'd really like to cruise on one of these marvels but, I confess I don't care to right now. My only complaint with the class is their itineraries. I don't go cruising to spend time on the boat. I go cruising because it is the most convenient way to see the particular destinations I'm visiting i.e. the Caribbean islands or in June - Alaska. Looking at the itineraries of the Oasis class, I see you spend half your time at sea. I don't care for that at all. I've heard the reason for that is because a number of the ports can't handle the massive ships. Royal Caribbean according to cruisecritic.com (I couldn't find the article I saw on this) is working on that. When Royal Caribbean improves the class's itineraries, I'll be lining up to go cruising on one of these extraordinary ships.