Scrabble Game #5 and more

zero_zero_one:
slave, (vends, easy), waive, (tonnes, heirs), tarts, knolls, fibre, foxy, train, (ewe, te), jot, panic, hurled, (not, te)

noisms:
vend, boon, heir, (em, gum), wing, burden, heap, hurl, (fe, ge), (caged, dog), yid, oar, (me, ma), pi, evict, ye, doge

Final Score:
zero_zero_one, 239
noisms, 210

It was a low scoring game last night, and though there were some interesting words that came up we both felt that the letters were being quite unkind. I think that we're both wondering whether or not "te" and "fe" really do class as two letter words, despite the fact that we have used them in a few games now. I keep meaning to find the list somewhere online for that, along with the allowed three letter words (of which there are 972 according to a funny little section in jPod - which is apparently being made into a TV series, not sure how I feel about that), but there always seem like so many things to do each day anyway...

I've felt a bit run down this week: as time has gone on I've just felt more and more tired, waking up each day just as tired as when I went to sleep the night before. Some friends have just suggested that I should try to get more sleep - but it's not like I've been purposefully trying to sleep less!

Over the last couple of days I've been thinking about starting to keep a regular diary again. I started keeping one on the day I started my Masters back in 2002, and kept it almost daily for a couple of years, filling nearly twenty A5 spiral bound books... One day I guess I just woke up and realised that I had been doing it less and less, and then just stopped completely. I don't know why, but that was just the way it was.

Anyway, over the last few days I've realised that I want to write or record my more personal thoughts in some way, in a way that a blog just doesn't seem right. For one thing, I want the anonymity for myself (and for others), but at the same time, just recently I've kind of liked the way that I'm regularly writing something that other people are reading; this has lead me to the idea of slightly fictionalising it, treating my diary as an exercise in creative writing (or even like a journal-webcomic). Keeping a diary was always a cathartic exercise, maybe this would be good for me.

All I need to do now is figure it all out. And maybe learn how to draw.

Scrabble and TV

Played two games of Scrabble with noisms last night whilst watching the amazing Monday night line up on BBC2. I might say more on that later, but first the games!

Game #3
noisms:
jap, dig, kith, cub, via, vale, cubic, web, (sole, go), hex, reef, (four, no), zed, (don, do), (alp, pa), (ho, no), (do, tot)

zero_zero_one:
parish, (jape, rouge), aide, area, aviary, (boss, go, japes), jib, meow, (tuna, am), feint, gift, hexed, minuet, trysts, qi, (news, as), (li, in)

Final score:
noisms, 262
zero_zero_one, 273

Woohoo! I managed to pick up a small lead about a third of the way through the game (playing 'boss' whilst allowing 'go' and 'japes' at the same time), and just held on to it all the way. Sadly, my Scrabble prowess did not last...

Game #4
noisms:
fez, dewy, (yobs, sow), jet, lines, axle, (our, um, re), (omit, me), aide, lash, any, fie, (poof, to, if), pub, (gas, scart), oak, si

zero_zero_one:
fever, yob, (jilted, ed), solved, melt, (cost, smelt), pie, cart, laden, nand, dirge, (crag, are, rum), tonne, bane, (ta, aura), (phi, gi), ow

Final score:
noisms, 273
zero_zero_one, 232

noisms had the lead for the whole game here, right from the first word. Sigh... Next time, noisms, next time!

I very rarely watch TV any more, there are a select few programmes that I always try to watch (usually just Heroes and Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares), but yesterday we watched the Monday evening line up on BBC2, which is a mix of quiz shows like Mastermind and University Challenge, comedy and current affairs from Have I Got News For You, business and reality TV (kind of) in Dragon's Den and a wildlife show on the cane toad narrated by David Attenborough. Something for everyone really.

The highlight for me, and the programme that made us laugh more than any other, was Nigella Express, in which Nigella Lawson gives recipes and tips for hosting a party. It was absolutely outrageous. Nigella Lawson, for those not in the know, is a British woman who, after various careers in media, has settled on cookery programmes. What is most incredible about her shows is her presentation style: she blatantly flirts with the camera and quite literally everything she says has a coy, flirtatious undertone. It makes for pretty funny television, and while I'm sure her three million books have been sold to mostly women, I imagine that her show is watched by mostly men...

Scrabble Game #2

noisms:
teeny, grope, glute, sauce, hike, warm, denim, undo, jig, quiver, dozy, yon, mead, {vie, er}, {ore, er}

zero_zero_one:
epoxy, target, head, car, ollied, panic, {win, gluten}, {scar, swarm}, {tax, te, an}, solar, trial, habit, beams, buffs, rite

Final score:
noisms, 291
zero_zero_one, 238

Once again, I am defeated by noisms... We were pretty even for the first half of the game. The turning point was the play of "quiver" followed by "dozy" that noisms made. "Quiver" had the "q" on a triple letter score, and "dozy" was on a double word score. I never really recovered after that... Sigh.

Scrabble Game #1

zero_zero_one:
wined, cornered, slum, ace, median, mope, vine, after, van, art, race, dough, pin, nab, rafter

noisms:
wail, it, li, tilt, entwined, yays, my, fines, finesse, bee, wove, house, axe, hip, jut, gazer, gut, grace, kite

Final Score:
zero_zero_one, 272
noisms, 299

I got a fifty point bonus on my second turn, and kept a good lead for a while... And then it all started to go wrong... Sigh. Next time noisms, next time!

EDIT: I meant to say, those words were not recorded in order. My phone doesn't have a camera, otherwise I would have taken a picture of the board afterwards. We played a "speed Scrabble" game afterwards with a strict 30 second time limit for each turn, which I won but was much less satisfying as a game.