June 18, 2013

• Doing the Right Thing

  

  Have you guys ever played Blackjack? Novices at the game ask what to do when they have a certain hand and the dealer has another. Do I hit on 16?  What am I suppose to do?   The game is statistically solvable and outside of counting cards the above chart is the best options for you in every scenario of the game.   

  My friends today went to Matrix in San Jose.  It is a pretty nice new casino in the area.  Lots of pretty waitresses and I guess my friends were bored. I don't gamble much.   My cousin's friend had 11 and the dealer was showing ten.  I told him that he was suppose to double down, but he would not listen.  I told him that statistically speaking he will come up in the long run and the books says double.   He reluctantly doubles and shows a 3.   He loses his hand and another bet, when the dealer shows 18.   

  He was upset with me that I told him that he should hit.  He said he has a choice and I told him you can choose to hit on 21 if you want too, but that isn't what you are supposed to do.   

  Later on my cousin has 15 and the dealer is showing a 10.  He chooses to be a rebel and the dealer reveals a 2 in the hole card and hits and busts with a ten.   

  I learned something.   You can do the right things and you can still lose and you can do the wrong things and you can win.  

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  I am reminded of the story of Joseph in the bible.  Joseph was one of 12 brothers and early on in his life he always had dreams of grandeur for himself.  He would tell his brothers that he would one day reign over all of them and they would bow to him one day.   He would have these dreams and his brothers hated him so much that they plotted to kill him.  Can you believe that? They wanted to kill their own brother.

  They had mercy on him and decided to just sell him into slavery.   So you can imagine being a slave you could just complain all day and tell your slavemaster that this as all a mistake, but he stayed a slave and when the housemaster wife wanted to sleep with him he told her it would be wrong.   She then told the slavemaster that Joseph tried to rape her and then he is thrown in jail.  He stays in jails for years, but long story short he finally starts to rise and becomes Vizier of Egypt,  the Pharoah's right hand man.   Through all this he is still happy and when his brothers come to him and bow before him for wheat during a 7 year famine, he welcomes them freely and tells them to bring their father who has missed him dearly.

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  Doing the right thing is hard and especially if you see others doing the wrong things and getting away with it.  Your character is being built every day and if you can be sold for a million dollars you can be sold for one dollar.   You can be bought in essence.   I gotta keep remind myself to do the right things again and again, and my day will come.    Life isn't about wanting things when it is not your time.  All good things come to those who wait ... hustle and continue to do the right things.  There will be no anxiousness in my heart.   I have faith that good things are unfolding.   I will not covet what others have which in my eyes they have done much less for. I do not know their story. I will not seek what does not belong to me.  What you eat does not make me shit.   

  One day at a time. Come at me bro! Hit me!

  • 2:42 am
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