Not So Random Thought

Is there anything sweeter than drawing satine + a blank to start a game? Nope.

Not So Random Thought

It would be nice to draw an ess during a Scrabulous game sometime this Fall.

Back to Scrabble

With my recent foot surgery limiting my ability to walk long distances, and parking in Manhattan being non-existent, my live Scrabble play pretty much dissolved into my occasional games at bookstores with the Scrabble gang or impromptu four ways in my house. Of course, I’ve become a fiend for Scrabulous and the internet Scrabble club, but this past weekend, I was reminded that it’s just not the same.
My nemesis and ersatz Scrabble tutor was in town and we managed to play something like 16 games of timed tournament-style Scrabble.
After the first 6, I received a text saying “I’m a bit in shock that we just split six games of Scrabble.”
I don’t remember all the details, but I will admit that the first two games I won, I drew both blanks, three esses, the x and the q – at most opportune times. However, I did open the first game with the masterful find of ‘ceramic,’ and Fisch incredibly challenged satinet (a common bingo found in the satine rack which any self respecting tournament Scrabble player should have memorized.) And in case you doubted whether he played tournament Scrabble.

He also almost challenged entasis…I was salivating the whole time as he paused to think it over. Incredibly, he then didn’t challenge artesian, which is a phony and lost that game by 60 points. After suffering back to back defeat at the hands of a girl he used to abuse while watching MTV and talking on the phone at the same time, he managed to comeback with a vindictive crushing that resulted in the patented Dawn Summers throwing her tiles on the board in the middle of the game and saying “okay, next game.” Usually a 200 point deficit is involved.
The last game we grinded it out, and in the end, I failed to see the opportunity to use all my remaining tiles “i r l” to play girl and win by the tiles on Fisch’s rack and instead, he finished first and won by the two points for my remaining l. He then spent another minute looking for the play that would have won me the game and proceeded to mock me for being a girl who didn’t play girl to win.
This is why we hate him more than all others.
We played again the next night and it was yet another back to back crushing by yours truly, I opened with something cool…oh…quality! That was awesome…the whole game we were waiting for one of us to extend it with an ine to hit the triple. It didn’t happen.
His short game is vastly superior to mine. Who the hell knew Honda was a real word? Not I said the cat, but my long game crushes his. “You’d be able to find the bingo in this rack,” he’d cry while taking five to ten minutes staring blankly at his rack only to eventually play “retailer” and I’d laugh “hahahaahaha…you couldn’t find retailer in less than an hour. BAHAHAHAHHAA. I won the last game of the night and he said “You’ve never won three in a row before.”
Grin.
And so after getting crushed in back to back to back games, he swore that he was bringing out his A game.
“I’m crushing you, Dawn.”
He said using the steely eyes.

And sure enough, he opened with a bingo.
“Rewinds” using an s and a blank.
I was sad. And a little worried…until I found “heavier.”


Then he played “pod”
And I bingo again with rolier.

I then drew a blank and an ess and made protons, but he challenged it off the board when I made “shep” with the p. Sad Panda.
And then he took the camera.
However, in the end, I was victorious! Though I squandered my hefty lead and ended up winning by only a few points.
So, having suffered defeat at my hands, once again. Fisch did what anyone else in his position would do.
He threw a tantrum.
Now, I’ve blogged about this before…but yes, either I just bring out the worst in people with all my awesomeness, or the best Scrabble players are just competitive bastards that will do anything to win…including studying for no other reason than they want to crush the people they play with.
“I'm not keeping score anymore. It’s taking all my time and I don’t have enough time.” (This is particularly amusing for me because when we played last Winter, Fisch always took a seven minute handicap and still won 99.999% of our games.) Ah the times, how they are a changing.
Unfortunately Scrabble apparently rewards tantrum throwers and he drew perfect against me. He opened with creation and didn’t look back. He might have had something like four bingoes that game, while I struggled to get to triple digits thanks to a string of craptacular tiles.
The games which followed aren’t at all memorable in any way (oh, he did play “bingoed” as a bingo, which, though I didn’t challenge it, is no good.)
I managed to play more phonies on him including the one that I challenged F-train on one time. Sadly, after running neck and neck for the whole weekend, I had a few bad games and ended up with a 7-10 record, which isn't too shabby for a girl who just learned to play eight months ago. But I have my taste for live competitive Scrabble play back and so I shall make my triumphant return to the club this week.
Watch your back old Fischwoman. I’ve been studying.

Quote of the Day

"You're a better Scrabble player than me now, Dawn." - My newest Scrabble student, Fisch

New GTUAS Feature

We'll call this this "holy mother of God" play.
So, I'm playing online with Texas April and I am sitting their with atineib...so I play off my bi making ob and bi and sing a little "give me an s and anything but a j, q or y" song. Those are pretty much the words. You say them over and over in a singsong tone until boop boop boop: you get an s and r! You go yay! And then pray she doesn't challenge Ob off the board, making you cry.
Anyway, she doesn't challenge, instead she bingoes with outacts. She takes a commanding lead. But no worries for Dawn, I bingo right back with retains, I'm retake the lead.
And then the holy mother of God play of the game:

SHE PLAYS JEUX through my e in retains to hit the double letter with the j ON THE TRIPLE WORD SQUARE FOR 78 points.

That sound you hear? That's right? My spirit breaking.

Holy Mother of God.

Wow! That is a wacky idea

Hello!

We had a really whacky idea last night!! We wanted to see how many "offline connections" we can make through Scrabulous.

Here's how you can be a part of it:

1. Wear a shirt or a cap that says "I Scrabulous - do you?" (You can buy one from our CafePress Store. It's reasonably priced and we DO NOT profit from it even one cent).

2. Go about your day as you normally would. Make sure you carry your camera phone or, digital camera with you.

3. If anyone approaches you and says that they also Scrabulous, then take a picture and send it to us at fb.scrabulous@gmail.com with your first names and location where you met!

Let's see how many strangers meet like this!

And...no.

Scrabble and me

"Scrabble tricks smart people into thinking they should play the biggest words, instead of looking for the most points." -pearatty

I was not always the nationally ranked Scrabble professional that I am now. In fact, here is the first publicly available picture of my early Scrabble play:



Now, I did win this game, like I won all my Scrabble games in those days. Threw a tantrum until it was declared that whoever had the least points was the winner.

Or as Rick so kindly wrote:

For those of you who are interested, according to Dawn a “jif” is a “hurry”; “bonrelaxer” is “a very good relaxer”; and “zariy” is an adjective that refers to something that makes the Baby Jesus cry (for example, the word “bonrelaxer"). Apparently, “Zariy” is also a popular name in the world of pre-pubescent cartoon fan-fiction. I have no idea what a “codet” is, but I think it was featured in the DaVinci Code.

Needless to say Dawn won (as per our prior agreement), and a good time was had by all.

We can’t wait to have Dawn back, and I only hope that the next time she comes out this way she won’t be lured by strangers with Bavarian candy. After all, the doors on a Bimmer all open the same way.


** I meant “OK, we’ll play”. Dawn heard, “OK, you’ll win”.

I miss people blogging about me. I would probably have at least three less blogs if other people would pick up the slack.

Anyway, Scrabble. Yeah, so I was a creative Scrabble back then...I'm still a creative Scrabble player now (ahem: sinulae), but you know what I mean, I had no idea what I was doing then, as opposed to knowing now, just not doing it. But I hated losing and playing would always frustrate me. Even as I started to play more frequently this past Winter, if I'd have a sucky night of crap tiles and brain freeze, I'd want to throw things. Leading to the infamous "I'm never going to let you win, Dawn, so if you can't deal with losing, maybe we shouldn't play," night of a hundred lost dollars and a million broken dreams.

I thought of those days on Sunday night, when a few friends were over to play and one guy was pretty much talking to himself after he hung a T and I opened with the bingo toothier through it. Then when he played har and I challenged it, he totally lost it -- first refusing to honor the challenge and choosing new letters anyway, then knocking the tiles off the board when (I assume) his new tiles were equally sucky.



And then he in turn, blamed me for challenging such a low point play, just because I could and then Scrabble for its arbitrariness in what are words. Non: No. Hae: Yes.

I see that look in the eyes of a lot of the people I play live now, except for Alceste's, because he is dead inside, and I know that look stares back at the many of the people I play with at the club. Stupid Old Fischwoman. The combination of dammit, if that u was just an e, I would...or if that damn c wasn't in the way, I could! And ultimately, I think that's what ends up separating the casual livingroom player from the people that end up becoming really good players. One doesn't care that they've used an blank and opened up a triple line for a mere 14 points, the other one will smash your face in, if you block the spot for him to play the j on the TLS going two ways.