Simple Strategy

I enjoy game shows.  I enjoy watching people smarter than me get on TV and win tons of money.  What I enjoy even more than that, is answering the question or solving the puzzle quicker than the person on TV, and feeling much smarter than them even though i know i just answered the $200 question before Alex even called on anybody.

I always like to put myself in the shoes of the person on the show; What letters would be best to choose, solve or spin, how much should I wager, risk it or stop here.  Naturally, whenever the person on the show doesn’t do what I think they should, I call them an idiot and question how they got on the show.  That is usually followed with someone saying, “it’s easy to see that from here, they are probably under a lot of pressure.”  Sounds familiar doesn’t it?

Anyway, I was watching Jeopardy the other night and saw someone lose the match because of stupid wager.  The players in first and second place both got the question wrong (player 3 was way behind so I don’t remember what they answered) and the person in first place still won.  Sounds right, right? NO NO NO.  I’ve seen this too many times, some goofball gets on this show that can answer anything about 14^th century European authors, but simple game strategy never crosses their mind.  In hopes of one of my readers getting on Jeopardy one day, I’m going to share this strategy (that you hopefully already have thought of, and will claim you have even if you haven’t), follow along…

Going into FJ, Player 1 has 10,000, Player 2 has 8000, and Player 3 is completely out of the race with 1500, so this is the last mention of Player 3.  Player 2 should know right now that Player 1 is going to wager AT LEAST 6001 in order to guarantee that he will win.  So, Player 2 knows that the only way he can win is if Player 1 gets the question wrong.  This leaves no reason for Player 2 to wager everything.  Player 2 should wager anywhere from 0 to 4000, and really has no reason not to bet the full 4000.  This way, if Player 2 gets the question wrong he ends up with 4000 as an end result, and wins the match because Player 1 got the question wrong and had to bet 6001 and ends with 3999.

Sounds confusing, but it’s really very simple.  I know it doesn’t always apply, but when the scores are right, I haven’t figured out why these really smart people don’t think of this.

 If I only knew my European authors.

Until next time, 

Worst Week for the Teacher

I’m a big fan of legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden.  I am fascinated enough with him that I have read 4 books that he has co-written and listened to another book about him on tape.  One of the many sayings that he was fond of was “the journey is better than the inn.”  While a positive end result in any situation, especially sports, is often extremely satisfying and enjoyable, looking back on all of my sports experiences it was the journey (the people, the struggles, the adversity, the camaraderie, the development) that I remember, not the inn (a win, or a championship). 

I played 9 holes of golf this morning with a buddy from Gahanna.  As we walked one of the fairways I thought about how much I hate this week, and Andy being a fellow teacher agreed.  This final week of summer, to me, is even worse than the first week of school.  The entire week I think about the looming school year, the lack of preparation I have managed to do, and the 9 months of actual work I will muscle through.  All these depressing thoughts are compounded by the thoughts of what I didn’t do in the past 3 months.  I didn’t go to Maui, played far too little golf, and only had one fire in the backyard.  I sit and debate with myself countless times “should I go in and do some work or…?”  I end up putting it off another day, only to sit around the house and think about the work I should be doing and how horrible it will be when I actually do go in.  It’s kind of like the opposite of Coach Wooden’s saying in that I cannot wait to actually get to the inn because the mental journey of this last week flat out stinks.

The best part about the inn in this case is that it signals the beginning of a new journey for me.  I am very excited about starting my new position as the physical education teacher at Conger Elementary and Carlisle Elementary.  I’ll be spending 2.5 days at each school, welcoming over 750 wound up kindergarten through 4^th graders into my classroom weekly.  I’m excited because 99.9% of those kids that enter will be excited to be there, a big change from the 20% that are excited at the high school. 

Coach Wooden’s most famous quote may be “be quick, but don’t hurry.”  And to this week I say “be quick” and while I’m excited to go back, I still say “don’t hurry” to the looming world of work. 

Until next time,  

Loving Dan

Of course I love my wife.  I love her for many many reasons. 

One reason that immediately comes to mind is the fact that when we go out to dinner she rarely finishes her entire meal.  I often base my dinner selection on her dinner selection.  Lets say I’m looking at getting the open faced roast beef, or the turkey dinner. Dan rescues me from one of the greatest stressors I have in my life (the agony of selecting off of the Bob Evans menu) by ordering the turkey dinner.  I know almost for a fact that a good portion of that will be left over, so I go ahead with the roast beef and get the best of both worlds.  If you don’t get why that is such a great thing, I wonder where you find joy in life.  (ha, how did I ever avoid fat camp?)

Another reason happened about 20 minutes ago and inspired this entry.  We just finished watching Big Brother, turned immediately to ESPN where the Dodgers were playing the Braves and Manny Ramirez was being shown on the screen playing left field.  The conversation…

Dan:  (very cute chuckle)  Who is that?

Me:  (No answer due to the fact that it was Manny and I was thinking in my head “who doesn’t know who Manny is”)

Dan:  (chuckle progresses to all out laugh)  it looks like they just found some homeless man and asked him to stand out there

Me:  (thinking, “wow that was pretty damn funny”)  That’s Manny Ramirez, one of the greatest baseball players ever.

Dan:  (still laughing)  He looks like Happy Gilmore’s caddy

For someone who loves sports as much as myself, my wife’s simple observations often bring me great satisfaction.  When Dan and I watch sports we see the game from totally opposite angles.  I could never see Manny Ramirez as the homeless man in left field, or see Dwight Howard as just the tall boy that just keeps dunking it every time.  While somewhat true, it’s a completely different viewpoint that is one of the many reasons I love my wife.

 

Until next time,