New Year's Resolution

Things have been so hectic lately that I haven't been able to do any work on my Spelling Bee studying. Nor have I been able to do any Scrabble word studying (the two are actually different - spelling bee words are typically over 9 letters long, while Scrabble words can't be)

I have been playing Scrabble online of course and writing down all the words I've been using, but even there I've had to miss several days.

Well, I've got plans to have very much more structured days come January 1, and then, watch my smoke!.

Dictionary Defs: AGGADA

According to the Dictionary., AGGADA means AGGADAH. It and its potential plurals AGGADAHS, AGGADOT and AGGADOTH, means HAGGADAH.

And AGGADIC means HAGGADIC.

HAGGADAH is a Biblical scolar.

Posts resume this Wednesday

I'm a freelance writer and I am way behind on a job I have to do, so I won't be posting here until Wednesday..

Thanks for your patience!

Writing out every word in the Scrabble dictionary!

In preparation for the 2012 Spelling Bee, I'd started writing out every word in the Webster's Dictionary.

Now that I'm preparing for the 2013 Spelling Bee - which is taking place in July - 2 months earlier! - I'm doing the same thing  - but starting out with the Scrabble Dictionary, because I'm also trying to get ready for a Scrabble tournament on Memorial Day.

Learning words out of the Scrabble Dictionary won't do me any good if I make it to the oral rounds - when every word seemed to have 15 letters, and the words in the Scrabble Dictionary are 8 words long at most... but it MAY help me get to the oral rounds, which is my goal for this year.

Just can't get past +23 games

I'm really starting to think that the WordBiz computer has it in for me. I can NOT get more than 23 games over .500.

Doesn't matter who I play - I play a couple of games and get all the power tiles and win easily, then I play a couple of games where my opponent gets all the power tiles and I get nothing. VERY ANNOYING.

I know that can somewhat replicate the real game experience...but it happens too often to be a coincidence, in my opinion.

Also when I get 4 or 5 Is in one hand, and turn all the Is in, I invariably get them back within two or three turns.

Still, it doesn't annoy me too much because I am actually playing for more than one reason ... regardless o f my score I'm able to highlight several "used words" in my Dictionary, pursuing my ambition to use every single word. It may take me 5 years, it may take me ten, but I will do it!

Will A Scrabble Display Increase Interest?

Earlier this year I had talked to my local library's Exhibition Coordinator to see if I could put on a display of Scrabble ephemera. She finally got back to me and said the display was a go. Not only can I have the month of May for the exhibit...but also a couple of weeks of April.

So I'm hoping to get in a few ads for the May tournament as well as show off the Scrabble stuff.

All of a sudden the thousand bucks I spent on Ebay for various Scrabble stuff no longer seems wasted.

Though if it generates no new people to my Scrabble club, it will be a failure.

Oh, well, I've got 6 months to prepare for it. We'll see what we can do.

I've started mah jong...

I had read about the game mah jong in the Agatha Christie book The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, 30 years ago! but had never payed it.

Well, there's a few old women here in Cheyenne who play it (well, 10 years older than me!) and I've started playing. They bet on the game...each one puts in a quarter a piece. If you play 5 games, you can win, or lose, a dollar...

I don't have the time to play it two days a week, but after I get enough experience at the game (maybe two more weeks) I'll drop it down to every Saturday. (Right now they also play on Mondays.)

It's interesting..but if there's a chance of winning even a dollar...I'm there.  ;)