Define: Good Luck

Query resulted with the following answer:

1. Me

Just a few days ago, I played a game of Monopoly with my host parents that ended in disaster. It was a shocking defeat. Being in the perfect position to win, I lost. I couldn't believe it.

The exact opposite thing happened today.

I was in the perfect position to lose. A blunder on the part of my Okaasan netted my Otousan an early Monopoly of the orange group. He was also quite rich, having landed on free parking a number of times. This spelled certain doom, despite the trade I made with my Okaasan netting her monopolies with the red and yellow groups and myself monopolies with the violet and powerful dark blue groups. We simply didn't have money, and he did.

It got worse for me when my Okaasan did come across money, because now I was a mouse between two titans. My Railroads kept me alive for a while, netting me a good two hundred dollars every now and then. I struggled to keep my houses on Boardwalk and Park Place. Finally everything was mortgaged save those two properties, and one house had been knocked off of Park Place, leaving it with only two and Boardwalk with 3.

Sitting on St. James place (which had just fleeced me), I could see very few likely scenarios (none) that would lead me to victory. One titan or the other would crush me, and it was simply a matter of time.

For a moment, a glimmer of hope appeared when I landed on Free Parking, but it was immediately followed by my landing on a yellow property with four houses. In order to pay the debt, I would have to sell my houses.

I decided to cling to life like a drowning cat, and negotiated to give away my violet monopoly, and a couple miscellaneous properties in lieu of money. The reasoning being I could pay, but it would be more beneficial for my Okaasan to make sure she grabs my property, as opposed to my Otousan. I doubted I would be able to cancel anything but a pithy debt with my mortgaged railroads, but I still had my houses.

Then, my Okaasan landed on Boardwalk (thanks to a well timed chance card). I netted $1100. That money kept me alive long enough to land on Free Parking again, and take another hit on top of that. I was living by the skin of my teeth, but I was living.

I made it safely to Pacific, just past GO TO JAIL, and breathed a brief sigh of relief. I would make it to GO, net another two hundred, and possibly my Okaasan might land on my property and keep me afloat longer once I did get that far.

This miraculous series of events then transpired.

My Okaasan landed on Park Place, netting me $600.
I gambled, built three more houses (bringing the total to four each) and rolled a four, also landing on Short Line.
My Otousan landed on the Short Line, but it was Mortgaged.
I joked, "Okaasan ni!" (Okaasan two, indicating I wished her to roll a two).
My Okaasan rolled a two. I got $1700.
I rolled a four, landing on Boardwalk. I joked, "Otousan yon!" (Otousan four).
My Otousan rolled a four. I got another $1700.

This huge hit on both my opponents dehoused most of the board. I bought back the property I had given my Okaasan, and built it up. Avoiding all danger in another trip around the board (and landing on Free Parking again), I watched as both my opponents landed on the now fully armed and operational Park Place netting me a nice $1500 each. The remaining houses vanished, my Okaasan went out on the violet monopoly, I unmortgaged all her property, and fully built up the red and yellow monopolies. My Otousan didn't make it past the violets.

Victory was mine.

It was insane, I had been on the brink of death, I had zero dollars exactly, and only a faintest prayer of life. In fifteen minutes I went from the brink of death to a rebirth and vitality unheard of. It was impossible, but it happened.

Luck is obviously fickle, or at least likes to play around with people. Luck said to me these past two days, "Look at this! Behold that I can supplant all your skill or lack thereof and bring you victory or defeat on a whim!"

Obiwan Kenobi obviously was being more witty than insightful when he said, "In my experience there's no such thing as luck."

Define: Bad Luck

Query retrieves the following definition:

1. Me

Some of you may remember my firey entry regarding my resolve to win the next game of Monopoly I played. Some of you may remember that I resolved to use every power I had to that end. I only managed the latter.

Oh how I managed it too. Using my skills, I piled up a ton of cash, netted myself three monopolies for the cost of giving my opponents one a piece, and built up fully said monopolies with plenty of money to spare. The remotest chances of my losing required one of the following two scenarios.

1) On my first turn after arranging this, I land on Park Place, followed by rolling a two to land on Boardwalk, followed by rolling an eight, landing on chance, and drawing the "Take a Walk on Boardwalk" card.

2) One opponent dies on the other, who begins to reap the slow rewards of the monopolies gained and, landing on my property once in a blue moon, continually gains more and more cash until his power rivals mine, at which point I either will land on his or her property continually or will have already been whittled down to nothing.

The latter happened.

When the deal ended my closest opponent, Hiro, had only enough cash for three houses on Boardwalk and Parkplace. That isn't an insignificant number, but he had very little cash remaining in his bank after doing so. He only needed to land once on any of my properties to have to pull back that number. Given that I had the deep Purples, the Violets, and the Oranges all lined up to snare him, it seemed likely.

Instead, the dance began, my Okaasan gave me loads of more cash before going out on Hiro with loads of morgaged property. I thought, "Fine, he doesn't have the cash to build on them." Then he landed on Free Parking a few times. "Fine," I thought, "He still hasn't even maxed out Boardwalk and Parkplace, and I have plenty of cash. If you know me, you know I stand up when I get excited. I did not stop standing up when after five times in jail, Hiro rolled nothing but twelves and escaped the deadly trap I had set up each time.

Then finally, he landed a huge jackpot of nearly two thousand dollars from Free Parking, and the Hotels appeared. I landed on both Pacific and Pennsylvania, followed by Boardwalk, all Hotels.

I lost.

I've come to the conclusion that on occaision, an unstoppable force plays around with us mere mortals. When this force, hereby referred to as "Luck", begins to affect something all ideas of strategy and skill become irrelevant. Regardless of any other factors, "Luck" calls the shots and the affected can only ride the wave or dig their grave.

Mine's pretty deep.

I could analyze that game a billion times, and I tell you I did, but I would still come to the same conclusion because there was no other way given how awesome I set myself up.

In any case, I'm not terribly upset that my Otousan won. If anything it is sort of nice to be consistantly beaten. However, I am entirely shocked at the incredible ill-fortune that was mine.

I think Shigeru Miyamoto probably tried to warn me about this in the dream I had last night. So again let the moral be that if Shigeru Miyamoto tells you something in a dream, you darn well better write it down.