I've moved on to Crosswords

I had been taking my "mental health breaks" by playing a game of Scrabble at Word Biz. My goal had been to get to .500, then stop, so that I could concentrate on learning words for the upcoming spelling bee.

I had been very successful for many days - getting up over 500 rating points  and getting within 15 games of my goal. Then it all went to pot. I'd be challenged by lesser-ranked players, get lousy, lousy, lousy letters each time, and lose.  So I'm well below the rating of 500 again and far away from .500.

I'm a bit obsessive-compulsive (in case you haven't noticed) and I have to stop playing Word Biz scrabble until after the spelling bee, because I'm just spending too long on it.

So my mental health break is now crossword puzzles. Which actually are pretty helpful because you do have to do a bit of anagramming and thinking. Even though I'm doing Easy Puzzles. ; )

I've set my sights on at least getting third place at this spelling bee,..but to do that I've got to study.

I'll still be playing Scrabble every Thursday at my Scrabble club, of course.

308-325 (522)

Well, at the time of this writing (I've just started a new game) I am 17 games below .500, with a ranking of 522. (On Wordbiz)


I've been getting good tiles. I'd say 3 out of 4 games I get good tiles, the 4th I don't and that's when I lose.

Sometimes when my letters are so bad I'll turn them in, only to get the same ones back 3 turns later. It's at this point that I know the computer doesn't intend for me to win the game.

I've also finally started studying my Merriam-Webster 14th edition dictionary in earnest. Only 3 months after I signed up for the Aug 11 spelling bee, with a month to go. Plenty of time!

Local scrabble players contest Caricom championships in preparation of Caribbean tournament

From Kaeiture News:   Local scrabble players contest Caricom championships in preparation of Caribbean tournament
Two weeks ago, scrabble players convened in the Mining Town of Linden to compete for honours in the Earl Vigilance Memorial championships and Leon Belony amassed 5 points and joined national champion, Abigail McDonald and top seed, Moen Gafoor, inscribing his name to the lien trophy.

Abigail McDonald

Fred Collins

Former national champion, Fred Collins turned in a top performance but had to settle for second place, with similar points as Belony but a lower spread.  The players will convene once again this morning to continue the intense rivalry when the Guyana Association of Scrabble Players (GASP) stages the Caricom Open Championships at the Malteenoes Sports Club.

If one is looking for evidence of the intensity of the championships one only needs to examine what transpired in Linden. Belony lost to Collins who in turn lost out to Grace Hercules. Ruby Cummings lost to Hercules, Belony and Cave but rebounded to win her other games to finish 4th and cart off the prize for the best player outside the top ten rankings. When one notes that several top guns did not participate in the just concluded tournament but will be contesting today, the prospects of a highly competitive tournament are high.

The youngsters are also coming into their own and one could anticipate the keen challenges of Hercules Wayne Cave and Michael Benjamin, all turning in improved performances in the previous tournament. Activities get underway at 09:30hrs when the registration period begins up to 10:00hrs when the first tile would be moved. Prizes would be awarded for the top 3 players and the best player outside of the top 10 rankings.

Meanwhile, today’s tournament would be used to select 8 players to contest in the Caribbean Championship slated for the Bank of Guyana Sports Club between August 23rd- 26th next.

Reigning team champions, Trinidad and Tobago is expected to field a strong contingent while Barbados is also expected to add to the competitiveness of the tournament. Former national champion, Fred Collins is currently the Caribbean individual champion and he is keen on retaining that accolade. Officials of the GASP said that they will field a strong team based on the performances of the players in this morning’s tournament.
Players are reminded that failure to be at the tournament venue at the stipulated starting time would result in their clocks being activated in their absence. A registration fee of $500 would be collected from each player.

Scrabble Journal, Scrapbook, Art Pad, and More

From YahooVoices:  Scrabble Journal, Scrapbook, Art Pad, and More

Some of the trays are missing; a few of the letter tiles are gone. But there's nothing wrong with the Scrabble board. Use it to make your choice of a scrapbook, a journal, a ledger, an art pad, or another book. It's a cute way to use an old Scrabble board and make something that you'll adore. Nice enough for a gift, the Scrabble book can hold photo pages, a writing tablet, or even a chalkboard!

Use a regular, board-type game to make the new book of choice. Lay it on a table and cut it across the back, right where the fold is. To conceal the cut edges fold colored or decorative tape over them. If you use tape that matches the tape-like border around the game board, the edges will look normal. Although it's easy to cut a Scrabble board in half, it makes quite a tall book. To make it shorter, you do have the option of cutting the board again.

The way that you finish the Scrabble game book will depend on the type of book that you want. To make a writing or drawing tablet, a journal, or a ledger, lay one board half on a table, lay the tablet on it, and cover it with the second board half. Use paper tape to make a binding, which goes across the cut edge of each board, with a space between them. On the inside, stick another piece of tape down the middle of the first piece, to conceal the sticky area. Glue the ends of a wide ribbon on the side edges of the inside back of the book, and use it to slide the cardboard piece on the writing tablet, into the book. To make a kid's version, paint the inside front, and the inside back, with chalkboard paint.

Make a scrapbook by punching holes along the cut edges of the board. Slide binder rings into the holes and they can hold the book covers, as well as plastic photo holders, on the inside. Or, for a prettier look, use ribbons instead of binder rings. Fill the pages with photos holders, or punch holes in scrapbook papers, and fill the book with them. The scrapbook papers allow you to make a book full of photos, trinkets, frames, borders, and more.

The Scrabble book is a nice, personal belonging, which you design. If you want, glue Scrabble tiles to the board to spell out "Scrapbook", "Family", "Photos", "Thoughts", or other sentiments. It will become one of those cherished things that you pass down to someone, who later passes it on again..

 

Still under .500 at WordBiz

I have been playing Scrabble at Word Biz. I'm back over 500 in the rankings (I had dropped to about 390 or so for a while), but I can't get any closer to getting to .500 in games played, i.e. more wins than losses.

What really becomes clear to me is that it's the tiles. If I get good tiles, I win, if I get bad tiles, I lose. Anyone can score big if they get all the power tiles (X, Z, Q, and J) and their opponent doesn't!

I have lost a handful of times because of stupidity on my part, opening up a triple without figuring all the options. (Unfortunately, this game allows people to see the last 7 letters that their opponent has. So I look at 'em, think, oh, they can't get to the triple if I spell this. I spell it, they get to the triple! With a common word, mark you , not one that I don't know.

About 3 months ago I'd talked about how I'd have to start studying seriously for the upcoming spelling bee (August 11) and the upcoming Scrabble Tournament in Irvine Texas (Sept 1).

Well..I still have to start studying seriously for them!

Scrabble and my return to hearing

From New York Times:  Scrabble and my return to hearing

I’VE NEVER BEEN A JUNKIE, but I feel like one when I play Scrabble. My husband, Ethan, and I are recent addicts. Every night after dinner the ancient box comes out, held together by rubber bands, filled with the board, wooden tiles, and scores from bygone games. Our new 8-pound American Heritage Dictionary is rapidly showing wear.
This Scrabble addiction is serious play. Two years ago, after a decade of deafness, I had a cochlear implant. It’s one of the few miracles in my life. I was very lucky — as soon as the implant was turned on, I could hear.
The worst parts of being deaf were losing words and not being able to hear either my own voice or other peoples’. And a third of my speaking vocabulary disappeared. I could read and understand words the way I always had, but not retain them in my brain’s dictionary. Even with the magic implant, I had to struggle to recall words. They came back gradually, and I was ecstatic at their return, but I wanted faster progress. That’s when we started to play Scrabble every night, hoping it would help me re-create and enlarge my inner dictionary.

For us, Scrabble is not just therapy or just a game. It’s a sweet way to repair a relationship decimated by the loss of hearing. My husband was probably a candidate for sainthood as he lived with me and my deafness, but it was impossible, even for him, not to feel annoyed at times and, even worse, disconnected from me, having lost the serious conversations we’d had in the past. 

At first Ethan was very generous with our games. I played with eight letters rather than seven. I could trade in tiles without losing a turn. If I said, “Don’t you dare use that open triple word square,” he graciously moved somewhere else. He let me use abbreviations (hundreds of them) — even the two-letter ones for the chemical elements. As my hearing and vocabulary returned, the game became more competitive. Just like in the old days, Ethan felt entitled to play all seven tiles at once (for a 50-point bonus). I knew I was getting stronger when I didn’t throw a tile at him.
Our competition is also intimate. We take turns asking, “Is this a legal word?” or “May I borrow an ‘E’ from you if you have one?” and complaining, “Damn it, I was going to put something great in that place you just stole!” I’ve been pushing lately to claim extra points for obscene words — my husband grew up with parents who cursed like sailors, so he went to the opposite extreme and never swore, but I could help him enjoy some “dirty words.” Although we still sometimes come to each other’s aid now, our delight in winning overcomes graciousness at other times. Very occasionally I’m generous to Ethan, but not nearly as often as he is to me.
This is a story of my return to the world of hearing. My fingers and my eyes helped give me back my words. The indentations on Scrabble tiles remind me of Braille, even while I both see and hear them touch the board. But it’s also the story of how the strength of a long healthy marriage helped make that return possible — via an old game in a torn box, but with board and tiles intact. Like us.
We’ve been married for more than 50 years, and Scrabble — and the ways we use (and misuse) it — is a good test of how we’re doing. We’ve both discovered that an ancient Scrabble game can also repair. Its give-and-take enriches the many other things we share together.
We do, of course, have other pleasures, but that’s another story.

 

 

Tourney News: Nigeria: Hallmark School Wins Scrabble Tourney

From All Africa:  Nigeria: Hallmark School Wins Scrabble Tourney

Hallmark School in Ikeja, Lagos has emerged winner of the second edition of the Winifred Awosika Scrabble Tournament for schools (WASTFS) held at the Victor Awosika Hall, Opebi, Ikeja.

Mofetoluwa Lawal of Hallmark School came tops out of over 104 pupils who participated at the 2-day tournament held last Thursday and Friday and went home with a cash prize of N250, 000.00, a trophy and a certificate. Also, second position went to Samuel Enegbuma of Saint Peter's Anglican Pry School while Pese Alo also of Hallmark School finished in 3rd position with a cash prize of N100, 000.00.

Lanre Fajoyomi of Chrisland School, Ikeja came 4th. The tournament was organized by the protégé centre and the scrabble in schools initiative and sponsored by the Winifred Awosika Foundation chaired by Doctor Winifred Awosika.