After years and years of having a highly old fashioned and out of date mobile phone, I finally got round to buying a new one. Well, I only bought it because the one that Elke gave me to replace my crumbling old Nokia finally gave up (er, when I accidently ripped the insides of it out while it was charging...). So anyway, I've got this brand spanking new phone that does god knows what, could probably boil an egg and feed my fish if I programmed it right. Today, I thought, I'm going to learn me some gadgetry! Off I trot to watch Elke dance the salsa at Cantinero for Queen's Day with my phone in my sweaty palms. And voila. Here's my first attempt. Unfortunately, I held the phone the wrong way round for most of it. Oh well, live and learn eh.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
My first Scrabble tournament
So, after weeks of telling slightly amused/bewildered/astounded friends and colleagues that I was to enter a 'proper Scrabble' tournament, I've finally taken part in it.
Watch the movie
===========
Yes, there really is a movie! Watch it here.
Strategic sneezing
===============
Last weekend, orf I trotted to Amstelveen's European Go Centre (see below), equipped with printouts of every acceptable
three letter word in the English language and sheets and sheets of front and end hooks*, none of which I actually got round to learning of course, and the best cold remedies that money could buy to stave off my stinking cold. I was feeling pretty lousy but thought that my constant sniffing and sneezing might put off my opponents and give me an advantage. Failing that, half of them might succumb themselves, not turn up the next day and then I would win all my games by default. Alas, my cunning plan backfired. They're tough, these Scrabble players. 
Scrabble's, like, really cool man
====================
The journey from tram stop to location was uneventful and I am glad I overruled my own inner monologue which was telling me "you don't need a map, you'll find it" and printed out a map. Good job I did, as I had convinced myself it was going to be right next door to the tram stop for some reason, which of course it wasn't. Once I arrived, I was quite surprised to see a people of my age as well as older people there, having convinced myself that my opponents would all be retirees. Not so! Scrabble really *is* cool after all.
Did I win, did I win?
================
There were two leagues. Needless to say I played in the one with the lower ranked and unranked players. Day one got started, and I lost my first game. No matter, I thought, I'll win the next one...which I didn't...waaah. Anyway, to cut a long story short and to prevent myself repeating "and I lost game number x too", I played 12 games over two days, won 4 and lost 8. I did however, pull off an amazing win in my last game, and scored my highest ever number of points, 504, and my highest ever number of bingos (7 letter words) in one game: dingier, stealing, beloved and remains. I was dead proud of myself, hurrah!!!
Muff-tastic
=======
On day one, the theme was 'flowers'. Anyone who played a word related to flowers could put their word and points on the board and perhaps win a prize. There was one entry for this competition. But on day two the theme was 'sex' and my god, the number of entries for this competition was huge and there were some pretty bizarre words. I had three entries but I didn't win... the winning word, with the highest points, was, ahem, fistings. HA HA HA. Although I think my entry of 'muff' was much, much better :).
Online Scrabble vs face-to-face
=========================
As someone who plays online a lot, playing ProperHumansTM is quite different to online games. When you play online, the software adds up the scores for you.
My biggest worry going into the tournament was knowing that I've got a problem calculating the scores. I find it really difficult to add up quickly, well adding up at all whether slow or quick to be honest. I blame it on my Tory-dictated education you see (that- bitch-Maggie forced me to use a calculator)! I never really did much mental arithmetic. Fortunately, most of my opponents were well practiced with totting up numbers and helped me out a lot. Playing with 25 minutes on the clock was never really a problem either being that one of the things that really hinders my game is playing too fast. It's my guppie-sized attention span: can't concentrate on anything for very long! Give me a ten minute game (and an adding up assistant) and I am happy :) Anyway, if anyone feels like playing online, give it a try!
What's this Go stuff?
================
The tournament was held in the European Go Centre which is a rather odd place. It's stuck in the middle of a residential area and is full of poky little rooms and a bar - if you ever have the pleasure to go there, don't get the tea unless you like it lukewarm (me, I prefer it to scald a bit on the way down as I seemingly posses a teflon coated gullet).
Apparently, this game, Go, has enough of a following to warrant its own headquarters (I bet they are in Holland for tax reasons ha ha ha) and is some complicated pastime of Chinese origin. I can imagine the Stereotypical-Chinese-Guy we met in Hong Kong playing it in the evening with his chums after a long day convincing all his clients that he really is the cutest old Chinese tailor on the planet. I don't know the rules and will probably never bother learning them, so if you're interested, take a look.
What's next in my career as a Scrabble player?
=============================
Well, to get an official ranking I need to play in another tournament and then keep playing in order for my ranking to go up (or down as the case will probably be). I'll definitely play again if the tournament is in Holland although I'm not sure if I could be persuaded to travel to the UK yet...but who knows. I've mastered all the accepted two letter words so now I'll move onto the threes. My gawd, there's LOADS of them...
* For non Scrabblers, this means the letters you can add to the beginning or end of a word to make a new word. See, the gems of wisdom you learn from me. Keep that one in the mushy folds of your cortex for retrieval at dinner parties.
Watch the movie
===========
Yes, there really is a movie! Watch it here.
Strategic sneezing
===============
Last weekend, orf I trotted to Amstelveen's European Go Centre (see below), equipped with printouts of every acceptable
three letter word in the English language and sheets and sheets of front and end hooks*, none of which I actually got round to learning of course, and the best cold remedies that money could buy to stave off my stinking cold. I was feeling pretty lousy but thought that my constant sniffing and sneezing might put off my opponents and give me an advantage. Failing that, half of them might succumb themselves, not turn up the next day and then I would win all my games by default. Alas, my cunning plan backfired. They're tough, these Scrabble players. 
Scrabble's, like, really cool man
====================
The journey from tram stop to location was uneventful and I am glad I overruled my own inner monologue which was telling me "you don't need a map, you'll find it" and printed out a map. Good job I did, as I had convinced myself it was going to be right next door to the tram stop for some reason, which of course it wasn't. Once I arrived, I was quite surprised to see a people of my age as well as older people there, having convinced myself that my opponents would all be retirees. Not so! Scrabble really *is* cool after all.
Did I win, did I win?
================
There were two leagues. Needless to say I played in the one with the lower ranked and unranked players. Day one got started, and I lost my first game. No matter, I thought, I'll win the next one...which I didn't...waaah. Anyway, to cut a long story short and to prevent myself repeating "and I lost game number x too", I played 12 games over two days, won 4 and lost 8. I did however, pull off an amazing win in my last game, and scored my highest ever number of points, 504, and my highest ever number of bingos (7 letter words) in one game: dingier, stealing, beloved and remains. I was dead proud of myself, hurrah!!!
Muff-tastic
=======
On day one, the theme was 'flowers'. Anyone who played a word related to flowers could put their word and points on the board and perhaps win a prize. There was one entry for this competition. But on day two the theme was 'sex' and my god, the number of entries for this competition was huge and there were some pretty bizarre words. I had three entries but I didn't win... the winning word, with the highest points, was, ahem, fistings. HA HA HA. Although I think my entry of 'muff' was much, much better :).
Online Scrabble vs face-to-face
=========================
As someone who plays online a lot, playing ProperHumansTM is quite different to online games. When you play online, the software adds up the scores for you.
My biggest worry going into the tournament was knowing that I've got a problem calculating the scores. I find it really difficult to add up quickly, well adding up at all whether slow or quick to be honest. I blame it on my Tory-dictated education you see (that- bitch-Maggie forced me to use a calculator)! I never really did much mental arithmetic. Fortunately, most of my opponents were well practiced with totting up numbers and helped me out a lot. Playing with 25 minutes on the clock was never really a problem either being that one of the things that really hinders my game is playing too fast. It's my guppie-sized attention span: can't concentrate on anything for very long! Give me a ten minute game (and an adding up assistant) and I am happy :) Anyway, if anyone feels like playing online, give it a try!What's this Go stuff?
================
The tournament was held in the European Go Centre which is a rather odd place. It's stuck in the middle of a residential area and is full of poky little rooms and a bar - if you ever have the pleasure to go there, don't get the tea unless you like it lukewarm (me, I prefer it to scald a bit on the way down as I seemingly posses a teflon coated gullet).
Apparently, this game, Go, has enough of a following to warrant its own headquarters (I bet they are in Holland for tax reasons ha ha ha) and is some complicated pastime of Chinese origin. I can imagine the Stereotypical-Chinese-Guy we met in Hong Kong playing it in the evening with his chums after a long day convincing all his clients that he really is the cutest old Chinese tailor on the planet. I don't know the rules and will probably never bother learning them, so if you're interested, take a look. What's next in my career as a Scrabble player?
=============================
Well, to get an official ranking I need to play in another tournament and then keep playing in order for my ranking to go up (or down as the case will probably be). I'll definitely play again if the tournament is in Holland although I'm not sure if I could be persuaded to travel to the UK yet...but who knows. I've mastered all the accepted two letter words so now I'll move onto the threes. My gawd, there's LOADS of them...
* For non Scrabblers, this means the letters you can add to the beginning or end of a word to make a new word. See, the gems of wisdom you learn from me. Keep that one in the mushy folds of your cortex for retrieval at dinner parties.
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