Tag Winning

Lovable Loser

Michael 5 Comments

The block of pine whittled into the shape of approaching that of a 4 wheeled vehicle sat perched atop the hilltop created by the wooden track. Someone blew a whistle, someone else started a stopwatch, a third someone dropped the pins holding back the blocks of pine. The Pinewood Derby, a mainstay to this day in Cub Scouting, was underway!

I never won The Derby. I remember coming close but my memory doesn’t extend to remembering how many places down the leaderboard I considered close back when my age could be expressed in single digits. But I definitely remember not winning. I remember that because each year I tried to do better. I think I did. I do remember the dads saying how much faster everyone got this year.

I also remember we didn’t have any juggernauts in the wood race car circuit. No one was a perennial powerhouse. Someone new always took home the big trophy. (I have no recollection of this at all other than my intuition but I’m pretty sure that big trophy stood about 3, maybe 4 inches high.)

The pinewood derby isn’t the only thing I never won. It heralded in a lifetime of losing. I don’t mind. Sometimes it gets old never getting to take home the big trophy. But along the way I’ve amassed an impressive number of little trophies, plaques, and certificates.

There were losses in Little League baseball, high school baseball and basketball, college bowling, gun club skeet shooting, and car club rallying. Actually, at the car club I do have a few first-place plaques but only in the novice division rallies. There too the big trophies eluded me.

Another set of competitions I’ve proudly lost at have been speech contests. Going back to high school forensics competitions I’ve only ever come tantalizingly close to a trophy I’d have to readjust the shelves in the bookcase to display. Even today, after countless attempts at Toastmasters International World Series of Public Speaking I’ve never broken past the district level, leaving me only halfway to the international stage and the really big trophy.

I’m happy with my life of loserdom. Each time I didn’t win, or won only to put me back into a more competitive position, I learned something about myself, what got me that far, what I need to go farther. Toastmasters has a rule, if you ever win the WSOP, you cannot compete again, not even all the way back at the club level contests. You’re one and done. I think it’s a sound system.

We looked at winning, losing, and learning, in this week’s Uplift, Run the Good Life. We said, “Winning isn’t everything. Not quitting is! Run the race so you get the most out of life,” and much, much more. Go on, take a look.

Too odds to be true

Michael 3 Comments

I had intended today’s post to be of a single thought unlike the previous few that meandered through my consciousness. And then fate intervened. Fate does that you know. One thing happened and one thing will that combine might actually make me question my theory of all things are 50/50. If you’re unfamiliar with that, go read it here. We’ll wait. 

These is uniquely an American post although other readers surely will get something out of it. They may learn a lesson or two or they may get a good laugh at thee crazy ‘mericans. 

I am still a firm believer that life is an even odds proposition. Everything either will or won’t, is or isn’t, does or doesn’t. I’ve said that so often I could have made a career out of it. I’ve actually gotten close to doing that, having written various blog posts and resented either in meetings or in podcasts, my theory of everything is 50/50.  

And then the PowerBall happened.  As of Sunday afternoon, the jackpot reached $1.9 billion. Lottery watchers anticipate it will top $2 billion by tonight’s drawing. People are quite literally betting the rent that a 1 in 292,200,000 long shot will come in for them. It’s making my plan to buy a single ticket because it’s odds of winning are just as good as it’s odds of loser are. (For the record, I bought 5 chances.) 

It is easy to be carried away by the thought of winning $2 billion. That’s a number I cannot grasp. Of course, that’s the price if you take the annuity option paid out over 30 years. If you want cash, it would pay out about $600,000 before taxes, maybe a little over $380,000 after state and federal taxes. Now we’re down into territory I can fathom. Still, that’s a lot of money. I said this was an American thing. Not completely. I’m sure there are Canadians, Mexicans, Etceterians willing to cross borders for a chance at $2 billion, US.  But it’s not completely All- American. You can buy a PowerBall ticket in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. That leaves 5 states and a few territories out of the picture. Let’s stick with the states. Hide that do not participate are Alabama, Alaska, Nevada and Utah and presumably residents of those states can drive across the closest state line and plunk down however many $2 offerings they desire, although it only takes one. Oh wait, you say we’re still missing a state. Hmm yes. The fifth state where the PowerBall is only a game to be played in one’s mind is our fiftieth state, Hawaii, and not even just a quick drive across the state line will be enough to get you a chance to lose two bucks.  

Now that second thing going on that defies odds is tomorrow’s elections. It’s Election Day in the US and some of the nastiest, meanest, and dirtiest, politically races should come to an end by the close of polls on Tuesday. Unfortunately, reports are that candidates are already preparing legal challenges to voters, votes, and election certifications, some saying they will not accept the decision of the voters if they are not declared the winner. I’m not kidding about that. One has gone so far as to say when he is governor of his state he can and will decertify any or all voting machines at his discretion, basically insuring his stay as governor as king as he gets over that first hurdle and makes it past the voters this week. It looks like tomorrow will be just the beginning of politician season.

Truly only in American politics can my theory of everything is 50/50, either it is or it isn’t, either it did or it didn’t, be invalid. To listen to those yahoos running, everything either is or else. Now those odds are truly too odd to be true. 

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Have you thought how much you could benefit by doing for others with no thought of a reward. It is the beginnings of selflessness and the foundation of character. We do these not because we want something. We do them because we don’t. Read how we find our selflessness at ROAMcare.org

Luck O’ the Irish

Michael Leave a comment

FIFTY-FIFTY! GET YOUR FIFTY-FIFTY HERE! FIFTY-FIFTY! THE MORE YOU PLAY, THE MORE YOU WIN!

Anybody who has been to a high school football game, band festival, or cheerleading competition knows that call. The fifty-fifty raffle has long been a stalwart fund raiser for these and other family-supported extracurricular activities. I remember some years ago being on the calling end for my daughter’s high school band and color guard counting up $300, $400, sometimes $500 dollars in the Saturday competitions pots. But you don’t expect them at the professional levels.

Last Friday I was at the hockey game and thought about buying a fifty-fifty ticket orpot-of-gold eighty. Yes, at the hockey game. A professional, NHL type hockey game. Our local team’s affiliated foundation uses fifty-fifty raffles at all of the home games to help fund their philanthropic activities. To date they have raised over $3 million for local charities. That means over $3 million dollars have been awarded to lucky ticket winners. I wasn’t one on Friday even with the special Luck o’ the Irish promotion of 80 tickets for a $20 donation versus the routine 40 tickets.

As I saw the total pot announcement during the third period ($57,000+) I wondered what the odds were of hitting that. There were over 18,000 people in attendance. If 10% bought tickets and the average purchase was 20 tickets that would be 1:36,000 odds of hitting the jackpot. Not bad when you consider similar odds in the Powerball (1:36,525 last Saturday) will net you only $100. Actually that will gross you $100. You’ll need to spend two bucks on the ticket. Sometimes even I spend those two dollars. With winning jackpots averaging about 100 million dollars, why not. Well, the odds for one reason.

The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot change with how much is played but you can figure they’ll be around 1 in 290,000,000 (that’s million). The Mega Millions is about 1 in 250,000,000. The odds of winning the Publisher Clearing House $1 million a year for life jackpot are one in 1.3 billion (with a B), but at least you don’t have to pay for one of those chances. Long odds but for big winnings. Still, not something you want to bet the mortgage on.

I have nothing against betting. I’ve already documented my big winnings (Confessions of a Lottery Winner, July 5, 2014) and even helped out at our state lottery drawing (Pressing My Luck, September 22, 2016). But even with the unfathomable amounts that are possible out there I think I’ll stick with the local band fifty-fifties. And if I ever should win one of them, I’ll probably donate my winners back to the kids.

That’s what I think. Really. How ‘bout you?

Have you ever hit it big in the lottery? Sweepstakes? Basket raffle?

Confessions of a Lottery Winner

Michael 1 Comment

Before the numbers are revealed everyone says “If I hit it big I’m never working another day in my life.”  After the numbers are drawn and someone actually hits it big, at the interview on television he or she says, “It won’t change me at all.  I’ll still live in the same house, drive the same car, work at the same job.”  After the numbers are drawn and someone actually hits it big, on the phone with his or her boss, he or she says, “Take your job and shove it!”

We don’t know how we’d react.  The biggest hit we can remember is He hit a state drawing for $40.  That allowed him to shove his job for about four minutes.  But, He has had some other wins.  Not counting the occasional silent auction or charitable raffle with a top prize of a questionable line drawing or an equally questionable wine vintage, he’s hit it big at casinos and racetracks even if the PowerBall, MegaMillions, and state offerings have let him down.

Big might be just a bit of an exaggeration.  There was one night at a local harness track when he had a hard time picking a loser.  But since most of the bets were of the pedestrian $2 variety and most of the winners were favorites, the winnings didn’t tally very high.  And there was one trip to Las Vegas that ended up as a break even trip.  For him, breaking even isn’t far from winning.  But then when one seeks out nickel slot machines and $2 tables, winning isn’t far from breaking even.

So when it comes to games of chance, you could say that he is pretty lucky.  But his luckiest was last summer when he really hit it big.  It was just about a year ago when he was in a hospital bed and his doctor came in and said, “All the tests are back and there is no cancer.  We got it all.”

Since then there have been other days in the hospital.  There have been lots of pills and tests and scans.  But no cancer.  There have been days at work when he’d rather have been doing anything but be at work.  There have been days off where he’d have rather been doing something more constructive.  But there have been days.  Days that might not have been.

So if every now and then we miss a Monday or a Thursday post (or both), or it seems like one was particularly short or another somewhat rambling, it might have been one of those days.

But at least there are days.  Even if there isn’t a big lottery winner, having the day is winning enough.

Now, that’s what we think. Really. How ‘bout you?