Getting Sucked In

In the last week, my wife has been seduced into the world of Trivia Crack. I have family and friends that have already started playing it, so I was somewhat familiar with the mechanics of the game before she picked it up. From what I've seen (obviously I don't play it myself), Trivia Crack is pretty easy to get sucked into with the challenges between players and the rush of getting random trivia questions correct in a race-like match format. It looks like that one extra thing that I just can't make time for.

Subtle Assistance

Last night, I was working hard on some JavaScript (yay!) while my wife was watching something on TV and doing "something" (hint-hint) on the Chromebook.  A few minutes into this, she asked me some geography related question. I didn't think anything of it. I was enjoying my JavaScript and a little geography question barely made me break my stride. A few minutes after that, she asked me something about a movie I vaguely remember. Again, I told her what I knew and kept working. This process kept going for the better part of an hour.

Now, to be fair (mostly to me because I seem rather oblivious to the obvious at this point), my wife and I have a relationship in which we commonly ask each other random questions. It's not like we're testing each other or like poking the limits of our IQ, we simply bounce things off each other for amusement's sake or indulge in seemingly random curiosities in various topics. It's fun.

In this case, that question-and-answer pattern tripped me up. Before I knew it, I was assisting her with the questions that were outside of her familiarity.

On the other side

What I really didn't know was that she was "facing off" against none other than my mother. That's right: on the other side of this Trivia Crack match was my mom, the lion's share of why I am the intellectual that I am. Her intense approach to my elementary and middle school homeschooled education built the foundation on which I achieved scholastic success and a passion for life-long learning. And guess who was helping her? You guessed it: my dad.

Showdown

So, on each end of this match, we had two educated, intelligent women. Both not only learned, but also teachers themselves. And behind them their respective husbands acting as lifelines for the questions that were outside their comfort zones. I honestly have no idea how involved my dad was. For all I know he was reading a book or playing solitaire on his own computer while mom casually asked him random questions like my wife was asking me.

#Winning

The point is: we were winning. Now, obviously I wasn't trying to win, and I'm sure my father wasn't either. But together, me and my wife were beating my parents at Trivia Crack. #winning

In My Own Head

Now, I'm probably crazy, but I see it this way: for the most part, my mom and my wife knew most of the questions. That's why my dad and I only got brought in once in a while. Trivia Crack is random enough that everyone gets at least a few questions on topics they're not familiar with. So, basically, my dad and I were being brought in on the hard or unusual questions. So, if my assistance on the hard questions was helping push my wife over the edge into a victory and my dad was the one helping my mom with those hard questions on the other side, then basically I was beating my dad at a game that neither one of us were technically playing.

So, basically I feel like I'm winning a game that I'm not really playing.