luck (or lack of it)

TdC

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bit naff posting this alongside a thread about depression, as real issues do tend to top my own paranoia (imo) but still.

Luck. Are you "lucky"? Myself, I do not regard me as being particularly lucky, inasmuch as I don't find 100 euro notes in my morning shredded wheat box, or winning the lottery, or anything of the material sort. I notice that I tend to be what I consider "lucky" about once a year, where I do *not* miss a flight, or *not* die or just manage to catch a bus.

As of now, I note two occasions in my life where I regard myself as being really lucky, one being getting back with my gf after we'd broken up (not in a sense that I or she was lucky to have me/her back you understand, more in a sense that we saw that we really were for each other and both managed to see it) and the other being getting my current job and managing to keep it heh. Obv as I hold no qualifications of any kind relevant to doing what I do, while I boss people about who hold degrees and things. The luck being that my bosses decided to let me prove my worth and I managed to do just that.

Major stuffs that. Anyway, where is my point. Atm I am peeved that it seems to me that the gods/luck/fate/kismet are/is preventing me from doing something that I want. Ever since I made a mental note to do said thing, it seems to me that events are moving to prevent me doing it. First my washing machine started to break, and when I'd more or less decided to not get a new one or get it fixed (it's not broken enough to not work, I just have to stay near when it's on so I can manually move the dial along the programs) I got a huge and completely unexpected bill. So now my plan is nixed.

Thinking about this, I recall that I tend to have a run of "bad" luck about every two years wherein I tend to miss the bus and the trains all the time, where several unexpected and usually negative things occur that either block something good or are just negative of themselves, etc. Remember me breaking my leg? That was two years ago too. This doesn't really affect my general mood, though I do notice it.

Recent "unlucky" events: my washing machine broke; a car rental company sent a bill to my work completely of their own accord without me having told them to do so and after I had paid the bill myself anyway causing me to get into trouble with the beancounters before I discovered what the heck was going on; I got a huge and completely unexpected bill dated february 2006 (wtf?); a courier lost a package I was expecting and took me bloody aaages to get it back (yes, I did eventually get it which you may count as lucky but I'd rather they'd not have lost it in the first place thus being lucky by first being unlucky doesn't count)

Anyone else have this?
 

TdC

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hmm I don't agree. Imo, "life" is where it all balances out. I do take the bad with the good, but when the bad starts to outweigh the good I tend to get a wee bit worried :)
 

tris-

Failed Geordie and Parmothief
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i dont seem have good or bad luck.
although a friend of mine is extremely lucky, always in the right place at the right time etc.

this ofc means he wins a lot of money :)
 

evzy

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Luck is what you make of it.

don't believe in luck tbh.

As someone once said - The more I practice the luckier I get.
 

DaGaffer

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hmm I don't agree. Imo, "life" is where it all balances out. I do take the bad with the good, but when the bad starts to outweigh the good I tend to get a wee bit worried :)

Aah, the old Karma delusion. I sometimes think of myself as unlucky; after all, over the last five years I've had to deal with death, divorce, redundancy, family illness, the list goes on. So in the karmic scheme of things I should be due some good luck. But, of course there's a big argument to say I've already had my good luck by being born in the west, having the opportunities for education, not having any childhood diseases or congenital defects, having paid off my mortgage, being able to travel for a year. It all depends on how tightly you define 'luck', and over how long a time period; after all, we all get unlucky in the end ;)
 

NikonL

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"You are unlucky in nothing more than a frame of reference for the lucky Mr. Fisher. You are unlucky so that I may know I am not. Unfortunately, the lucky never realise they ARE lucky until it is too late. Take yourself for instance: Yesterday you were better off than you are today but it took today for you to realise it. BUT, today has arrived and it is too late. You see? People are never happy with what they have, they always want what they had, or what someone else has." - The Rabbi, Lucky Number Slevin


Killer quote :D
 

Kryten

Old Cow.
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Think it all balances out - luck is just what it says on the tin. Some call it karma, anyone that's not of American IQ level calls it the law of averages.

I've had a fairly shit life, bluntly. Left school after years of bullying, landed my dream job without any further education - company goes bust 10 months later.
Started a fairly shit PC sales job, developed a very bad stammer which I still have to this day. This problem loses me this job and eventually a long term administrative job after 5 years of service.
Get a great job, albeit in a warehouse for 8 months - company loses a major contract and can't afford to keep me on.
In the same year, 2 family deaths, 3 weeks of travelling to a very distant ill relative and a few other financial misfortunes I wont discuss - all this lead to near bankruptcy (now having to go through an IVA)

However, this time last month I have landed my absolutely perfect job with a very large and very expanding company, have already had a promotion and my prospects look excellent. Heres looking up...
 

Dukat

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"Half of everything is luck, James"
"and the other half?"
"Fate."


^^
 

TdC

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Aah, the old Karma delusion. I sometimes think of myself as unlucky; after all, over the last five years I've had to deal with death, divorce, redundancy, family illness, the list goes on. So in the karmic scheme of things I should be due some good luck. But, of course there's a big argument to say I've already had my good luck by being born in the west, having the opportunities for education, not having any childhood diseases or congenital defects, having paid off my mortgage, being able to travel for a year. It all depends on how tightly you define 'luck', and over how long a time period; after all, we all get unlucky in the end ;)

I know, I know. though between you and me, I discount death; both my own and others for some reason. If you think of luck in even-stephen terms, a sine curve stretching from your birth to your death having an equal amount of extremes. I personally theorize that you just have the median as a base amount of luck but that it does fluctuate somewhat.

Bad luck for you, I imagine, could be your hurt knee playing up so much that you have to go home to get treatment. Banging your knee is part of the scheme of things, but it playing up instead of being sore for a few and going away naturally is unlucky. Due to the relativeness of luck, it's especially unlucky now. That is my own perception of it though, you may well be perfectly sanguine about the whole thing.

In my own perception, bad and good luck do somewhat cancel each other out. You may have hurt your knee, but you hurt it while on the extreme trip of a lifetime. I may not be able to visit Will for his birthday, but I am going to go to Australia for 10 weeks later this year.

Only extremely "lucky" people, like tris-'s friend can both have their cake and eat it. Then again, they may all feel like heels for all I know. When you feel lucky or unlucky for the reasons you mention above, imo that is all part of your baseline. Hurting your knee could be a fluctuation in your median. I don't really know. I'm not very philosophical or spiritual at all, and I don't particularly believe in bad juju or whatever, but I do notice when I have a string of naff things happen.
 

DaGaffer

Down With That Sorta Thing
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...but I do notice when I have a string of naff things happen.

Its a normal human trait to look for patterns where there are none; and the more 'right brain' you are, the more you're likely to do it. I certainly notice patterns; things happening in threes etc. but I recognise this is just my brain's way of trying to put some order into my personal universe; it doesn't make it feel any less real though.

As for my knee, yeah I'm a bit pissed off right now (I really don't think a five day hike is going to be realistic - I've just been out for a stroll, just a few Ks on flat ground and it was flaring up), but I don't really see it as a luck thing; it was my own fault ultimately, I got cocky on a quite challenging hike and its not the first time I've done something like that, which leads me to my main point, stupidity is a far bigger factor in one's personal universe than pure luck, at least in mine anyway :)
 

throdgrain

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Karma? Well...

Ive never won anything ever right. Then last year Ive as Ive said before I got made redundant after many years in what was basically my dream job. A lot of people Im sure would have made a pretty bad time out of this experience.
I decided I wasn't going to eat shit though, no matter who was serving it up :) I just did me best like I usually try to do, and ended up in a god-forsaken job , that was at least paying the mortgage.
This year starts, I immediately get a letter saying Ive got two grand worth of shares I never knew I had. I sell them (most of them) and get the money. I then in my first month out of training acheive the top bonus for my job (£1500) something that never happens apparantly. The top performers from each team then get entered into a draw for a prize. Guess what? I win. The prize is 3 months mortgage paid for free , which is apparantly £1700 for me.
This month the prize is less, just £100, but guess who wins it? You knows it bill :) Oh and I get £900 bonus too.

Karma or luck :)

Or do I just fucking well deserve it ? :D
 

Tom

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You make your own luck!!!

True for the most part. Unfortunately life has a way of making you feel completely vulnerable, and kicking you in the teeth every so often to remind you of the fact.

I might not sound like it here sometimes but IRL all I try and do is make my friends and family happy, be nice to people I respect, and do my bit. Hopefully the man upstairs is watching. If he isn't, then I'll carry on anyway.
 

throdgrain

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This is my point. I didnt lie down and cry about it, I did me best.

Hmm. Is that karma, or am I just bloody great?































WARNING I am getting drunk. Things can go awry.
 

Furr

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bah i have no luck, didn't win the lotto... again :(
 

Calaen

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Go on then. Make some.

As I have said you make your own with hard work and a positive attitude, like Tom says, keep yourself and close friends and family happy and safe and you get what you deserve.

:)
 

mank!

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I'm neither. Shit things have happened because I've fucked things up. Good things have happened because I've made them.

Although I did find a tenner on the floor the other day in Onestop....then gave it to the cashier :(
 

Nate

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I can only make so many women lucky everyday, I'm not a frikin machine!!
 

DaGaffer

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As I have said you make your own with hard work and a positive attitude, like Tom says, keep yourself and close friends and family happy and safe and you get what you deserve.

:)

But then that's no longer luck. If you make it happen then its not luck. "You Make your own luck" is an oxymoron. "Luck" is the truly random; the people in a plane crash can be truly described as unlucky as they have no control over events. Which isn't to say all accidents are unlucky.

Thinking about karma, in the My Name Is Earl sense, it would be easy for me to regard fucking my knee up just as I'm about to hike in Chile as karmic; a few years ago I went on a stag night with a mate in Brussels. He fell off a table and broke his leg. It had nothing to do with me, but I have to admit I found it funny (not at the time of course, but later) and have used that anecdote often. What was he going to do on his honeymoon? Go hiking in Chile. Maybe there's something to this stuff after all :)
 

throdgrain

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But then that's no longer luck. If you make it happen then its not luck. "You Make your own luck" is an oxymoron. "Luck" is the truly random; the people in a plane crash can be truly described as unlucky as they have no control over events. Which isn't to say all accidents are unlucky.

Thinking about karma, in the My Name Is Earl sense, it would be easy for me to regard fucking my knee up just as I'm about to hike in Chile as karmic; a few years ago I went on a stag night with a mate in Brussels. He fell off a table and broke his leg. It had nothing to do with me, but I have to admit I found it funny (not at the time of course, but later) and have used that anecdote often. What was he going to do on his honeymoon? Go hiking in Chile. Maybe there's something to this stuff after all :)

Stop prevaricating you big girl.
 

DaGaffer

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Stop prevaricating you big girl.

That's not prevaricating, you know what people on here are like; if you don't qualify everything some dumbass picks you up on it. Of course, if you do qualify everything, some dumbass picks you up on it ;)
 

throdgrain

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That's not prevaricating, you know what people on here are like; if you don't qualify everything some dumbass picks you up on it. Of course, if you do qualify everything, some dumbass picks you up on it ;)


lmao very true mate, very true :)
 

rynnor

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I think Luck is a reflection of how you feel about your life - if your happy you always see the lucky outcomes - when down you see the unlucky.
 

Damini

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It's not outrageous bad luck I have, not death and ruin, just low level meandering absence of luck.

I've never won anything above £2 on a scratchcard. Never got more then one number on the lottery. Had the dealers at the blackjack table in Vegas trying to help me improve my card odds, and shaking their head in disbelief at the hands I would get dealt. The only time I've ever won anything in a raffle was in a school assembly, when the prize was a cake that looked like it had been vomited on by someone who had just eaten a stale rainbow, and I whispered to my friend "I'd die if I won that cake" - and I did win it. I didn't even know I'd been entered into the raffle. I've fallen down an open drain cover into a sewage drain, and had to pull myself out using stinging nettles. I was puked all over five minutes into the opening half of Pompey vs Liverpool in the FA cup second final. I had a wasp fly up my skirt once, and decide to take a rest on my knickers. I'm the person who my friends refer to in the statement "It could only happen to Louise".

Then I spot the BBC competition by random chance, enter it on a whim, and I'm lucky enough to win it. I know the logical ones will say that there were far more elements in play than luck, but it just feels like to me I'm meant to have amusingly naff luck, because this is the event that balances it all out.

It might not make sense in the big scheme of things, but it just makes an odd kind of sense to me.
 

Embattle

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Health wise I tend to think of myself as rather unlucky, like right now my teeth/gums are aching which ironically wasn't the case before I saw the dentist and month ago and had some fillings add to that the other health problems I've had and could I consider myself unlucky but I could also consider myself lucky to not have a life threatening condition *touch wood*.

We tend to dwell on the unlucky parts of our lives too much, it is much like the fact people complain more than they complement.
 

Munkey

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I fell into a manhole once as well, my mate pissed himself laughing at me, i hope he gets what he deserved.

My family generally has bad luck, such as my sister having her new camcorder stolen (with her only copy of her honeymoon inside it) as well as a nurses buckle that was a gift from my grandmother for graduating, in her flat just before she moved out.

Our family has never made a good investment, from shares to education and housing.

I suppose its not all bad, but we do wish some amazingly good things would happen to us.

My missus believes she's bad luck, but then again she did get me so I'm inclined to agree with her :p
 

SilverHood

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Heh, I can relate to this.

My luck seems to come in waves of good and bad.

Oversleeping when I have a flight to catch, getting to the airport in record time(or getting stuck in traffic) and managing to check in 2 minutes before the shut off..... only to get told the plane is delayed by 5 hours. Doh.
(has happend 4 times now in the last 2 years, with different operaters to different countries)

I once won 2/3 of the prizes for a small lottery at our local swimming club. There was 600 tickets, 18 prizes, and I had 15 tickets.
I won on 12 of them :)
A couple of weeks later, I was competing in a big championship, and lost out on first place despite the time being tied to the nearest 100th of a second. Ref calls it and it was 2nd place for me. Doh.

I seem to have a knack for catching trains too. But busses go past me just as I round the corner where the bus stop is. Sometimes I miss the bus, catch the next one, to get on the train I was supposed to get on. Wierd huh?

I also have the most amazing ability when it comes to working out football scores. Whatever I say, it isn't. I therefor predict doom and gloom for my team, and we win. Reverse jinxing. My mates wont let me predict scores for their teams. They've seen it go wrong too many times :england:

I am also remarkably free from injury. I've never broken a bone in my life.
My brother on the other hand, is constantly in and out of hospital for some injury or other.

Luck is just a bit strange. I'm sure i'm luckier than some people, yet when I really need a bit of luck, it's not there.
 

haarewin

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household wise, we've had a huge spat of "bad luck" lately.
the toilet broke, the ceiling under the watertank came through and water went everywhere, the drains (we are the 'lucky' household with the flow to the main sewage from 6 houses in our garden....) got bunged up and leaked into the garden, all over the new patio. 3 phones have all just randomly broken and all this within one week.
someone must be due some luck, because its all coming up shit at the moment. literally, in one case.
 

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