winterbadger (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
winterbadger) wrote2004-02-23 02:45 pm
winterbadger) wrote2004-02-23 02:45 pm
luck and its selectivity
Audaces Fortuna juvat. The Goddess Fortune delights in those who are daring. Or, more commonly, fortune favours the bold. Or,
Anyone who plays games with me knows that I'm not exactly as calculating as I should be. If I do well, it's because I can be lucky, or do better at the "react to a changing situation quickly" kind of test as compared to the "examine the situation in advance and devise an effective plan" kind. In fact, even that isn't quite it. I can devise a good plan, but following through is difficult for me, especially if it invovles sitting and waiting, as opposed to racing forward and geting stuck into the enemy.
So it hardly surprises me to report that, from Saturday through Monday I played four different games and won nary a one. Lost a game of Warhammer Fantasy on Saturday morning (slightly outnumbered, but really I had terrible luck, didn't position myself as well as I could have done, haven't quite figured that game out after many years of playing it, and, oh, did I mention the terrible luck? I mean, an entire lance of nine Brettonian knights of the realm, led by a paladin, plow into the flank of a unit of Chaos knights and get *no* hits?) Lost a Wars of the Roses DBM battle on Sunday, though I came close to demoralizing my opponent's second battle just before he demoralized my army. Oh, and one of my generals was playing Percy and didn't join the combat until it was almost over. Then we played again, using Might of Arms, and he beat me again (though again, it was close--his Welsh contingent dissolved and headed for the hills about the same time that he broke through the opposite flank of my line). And then last night my housemates and I played Java for the second time, and Melissa totally romped home (due both to her own brilliance and a fatal error on my part not ending the game early when I could have done.)
So, am I downcast? Well, a bit. I would like, one of these days, to actually win a game that I play. I'm not sure whether, like my friend Peter, I would be wracked with guilt at having deprived others of winning and thus not be able to enjoy it :-) But it might be fun to find out.
On the other hand, what Dame Fortune takes with one hand, she gives back with the other. After months of whining to my freinds and relations about the barrenness of my social life, I find that green shoots and buds are coming out here and there in something close to a pleasing profusion.
I met someone very pleasant through mutual friends a week or two ago, asked her out, and had a very nice evening together last Friday, having dinner and seeing "Girl with a Pearl Earring" (though I fear I nodded off once or twice in the middle, as I hadn't been getting much sleep and the movie started at 10...)
Saturday, after getting smacked around on the tabletop (by a perfectly nice gentleman, who was a terrific sportsman), I did a shopping blitz and made dinner for a friend who came over, helped with the preparation, hung out, and watched a movie with me ("Comfort and Joy", my own favourite silly "Xmas movie"--from Scotland, of course). She and I met through an Internet dating site, decided to be friends instead of dating (she wasn't comfortable with the whole idea of polyamory), and are thinking that maybe we want to try dating again, which is really cool. I understand (I think) her reservations about sharing a sweetie; she understands (I think) my feelings about trying to limit who you love; but we like each other a lot,a nd we're going to try to figure out how to work things so we're both OK with what's going on.
Then, today I discovered that I have a date for tonight as well. I'd been talking with someone at work (we're in the same department, but work in different offices on different projects), someone I'd seen around and who I have thought seemed very interesting but had never gotten to meet and talk to properly. I still can't quite believe I did it, but I asked her out. She said yes and then started grilling me about my love life, at which point I pretty much spilled the beans. Marriage, poly, separation, sort of like Dogg's Hamlet, all in a few well-chosen sentences. She boggled slightly and said she'd need to think that over, which I was rather afraid meant that I wouldn't be seeing her tonight. But, instead, she came by today and said that she was grateful for my being open and honest, that she had a very low BS threshold and preferred people who just came out with the truth instead of playing around, and what time did I want to have dinner? :-)
All of this *and* my friend who's finishing her grad degree at GMU is almost done with all her coursework, which may mean I actually see her from time to time. We're buds, we both agree that there isn't anything romantic likely to happen between us, but we do like hanging out, gaming, and having the occasional canoodle.
So, sometimes it's not so much a question of whether one is lucky or not, but what parts of your garden of life the rain of good fortune falls upon. And if the price for having good friends and interesting people to date is not winning games, well, I can stand to suffer a bit at the hands of the dice gods.
Anyone who plays games with me knows that I'm not exactly as calculating as I should be. If I do well, it's because I can be lucky, or do better at the "react to a changing situation quickly" kind of test as compared to the "examine the situation in advance and devise an effective plan" kind. In fact, even that isn't quite it. I can devise a good plan, but following through is difficult for me, especially if it invovles sitting and waiting, as opposed to racing forward and geting stuck into the enemy.
So it hardly surprises me to report that, from Saturday through Monday I played four different games and won nary a one. Lost a game of Warhammer Fantasy on Saturday morning (slightly outnumbered, but really I had terrible luck, didn't position myself as well as I could have done, haven't quite figured that game out after many years of playing it, and, oh, did I mention the terrible luck? I mean, an entire lance of nine Brettonian knights of the realm, led by a paladin, plow into the flank of a unit of Chaos knights and get *no* hits?) Lost a Wars of the Roses DBM battle on Sunday, though I came close to demoralizing my opponent's second battle just before he demoralized my army. Oh, and one of my generals was playing Percy and didn't join the combat until it was almost over. Then we played again, using Might of Arms, and he beat me again (though again, it was close--his Welsh contingent dissolved and headed for the hills about the same time that he broke through the opposite flank of my line). And then last night my housemates and I played Java for the second time, and Melissa totally romped home (due both to her own brilliance and a fatal error on my part not ending the game early when I could have done.)
So, am I downcast? Well, a bit. I would like, one of these days, to actually win a game that I play. I'm not sure whether, like my friend Peter, I would be wracked with guilt at having deprived others of winning and thus not be able to enjoy it :-) But it might be fun to find out.
On the other hand, what Dame Fortune takes with one hand, she gives back with the other. After months of whining to my freinds and relations about the barrenness of my social life, I find that green shoots and buds are coming out here and there in something close to a pleasing profusion.
I met someone very pleasant through mutual friends a week or two ago, asked her out, and had a very nice evening together last Friday, having dinner and seeing "Girl with a Pearl Earring" (though I fear I nodded off once or twice in the middle, as I hadn't been getting much sleep and the movie started at 10...)
Saturday, after getting smacked around on the tabletop (by a perfectly nice gentleman, who was a terrific sportsman), I did a shopping blitz and made dinner for a friend who came over, helped with the preparation, hung out, and watched a movie with me ("Comfort and Joy", my own favourite silly "Xmas movie"--from Scotland, of course). She and I met through an Internet dating site, decided to be friends instead of dating (she wasn't comfortable with the whole idea of polyamory), and are thinking that maybe we want to try dating again, which is really cool. I understand (I think) her reservations about sharing a sweetie; she understands (I think) my feelings about trying to limit who you love; but we like each other a lot,a nd we're going to try to figure out how to work things so we're both OK with what's going on.
Then, today I discovered that I have a date for tonight as well. I'd been talking with someone at work (we're in the same department, but work in different offices on different projects), someone I'd seen around and who I have thought seemed very interesting but had never gotten to meet and talk to properly. I still can't quite believe I did it, but I asked her out. She said yes and then started grilling me about my love life, at which point I pretty much spilled the beans. Marriage, poly, separation, sort of like Dogg's Hamlet, all in a few well-chosen sentences. She boggled slightly and said she'd need to think that over, which I was rather afraid meant that I wouldn't be seeing her tonight. But, instead, she came by today and said that she was grateful for my being open and honest, that she had a very low BS threshold and preferred people who just came out with the truth instead of playing around, and what time did I want to have dinner? :-)
All of this *and* my friend who's finishing her grad degree at GMU is almost done with all her coursework, which may mean I actually see her from time to time. We're buds, we both agree that there isn't anything romantic likely to happen between us, but we do like hanging out, gaming, and having the occasional canoodle.
So, sometimes it's not so much a question of whether one is lucky or not, but what parts of your garden of life the rain of good fortune falls upon. And if the price for having good friends and interesting people to date is not winning games, well, I can stand to suffer a bit at the hands of the dice gods.
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LOL