Samson - A Student's Life

Okay, spring is here, midterms are over, and we all have a chance to breathe a little. Now I will do something that I've been meaning to do for a long time, but just haven't had the time. That is, to look back over the past year and write a little about myself.

First, let me tell you a little bit about myself. I am 19 years old and a student at the university. I come from Brooklyn, New York, former home of Jackie Robinson and the world-famous Brooklyn Dodgers. My parents named me Samson, after my great-grandfather. It's a funny name for me, because the original Samson in the Bible was strong and stupid and had long hair. I'm exactly the opposite: I'm weak and smart, and I have short hair. Anyway, everyone just calls me Sam, so it doesn't really matter.

My Classes

My favorite class is twentieth-century American literature. I wrote my midterm paper on Joseph Heller's "Catch 22." It's funny how everyone goes around using this expression. Whenever they're in some kind of a bind, they say, "It was a real Catch 22." Most of them have never read the book, and they have no idea where the expression came from.

Anyway, this is a book that everyone should read, even if you are not required to read it for a college English course. For one thing, it is really, really funny. For another thing, it has an important message, which is that everyone in the world is crazy. The only exceptions are the people who have been officially certified as crazy by a qualified psychiatrist. In other words, the "sane" people are really crazy, and the "crazy" people are really sane. Something like that can really make your head spin.

I am also taking a math course on Probability. I am not a math major, but I have always liked math. Even in high school, I enjoyed algebra, geometry, trigonometry, all that stuff. Some people thought I was weird, but why should I care what other people think of me?

I've learned some pretty cool stuff in Probability class. For example, if there are thirty students in a class, what is the probability that two of them will have the same birthday? Most people would answer "less than 10 percent," because they divide the thirty students by the 365 possible birthdays. But the right answer is more than 70 percent. The math is pretty complicated but, trust me, it's true. As far as I'm concerned, math can boggle your mind as much as "Catch 22" can, as long as you're not afraid of it.

How I Spend My Spare Time

Well, that's enough about class. (I'm also taking history and psychology, but I don't feel like writing about them now.) Now I'll write about how I spend my spare time. In my spare time, I like to play blackjack online. Blackjack is a really interesting game, and I find that, after a long day of class, homework, and studying, it helps me relax. And yes, I play blackjack for real money. Of course, as a university student without a full-time job, I can't bet large amounts. But I bet what I can. My philosophy is: If you're going to play the game, you might as well make it interesting. So far, I am down $65 for the first quarter of 2007. That's not much, when you think about it. If I had spent my spare time going to the movies, I would be down a lot more, especially if you factor in the price of the popcorn.

Another thing is that when I play blackjack online, I get to use all the stuff I learned in Probability class and to see how the theories hold up in practice. So if I have a hand of 15, for example, I calculate the probability that I can draw another card without going over 21. That way, I can justify my gambling losses to myself (and to my parents) as an educational expense.

By the way, when I play blackjack, I always play in a no-download flash casino. That way, I don't have to download any software, which would take up space on my hard drive, and the games are just as good as in the download casinos.

See You Soon

Well, that's all for now, folks. Next time, I'll tell you about my other classes, my roommates, and my fruitless search for a girlfriend. Stay tuned.