December 13, 2005

Scrabble Words of the Day -- Short, Starting with X

Well, the Xerox company probably isn't too happy about this, but did you know that you can use "XEROX" as a Scrabble word, even though it's technically a trademarked name?

Words, 4 letters or less, that begin with X:

XI
XU
XYST

And another fun one at 5 letters:

XYLYL -- Def: a univalent radical

December 12, 2005

3 Bingos and a Loss

Heavens to Betsy it's been a long time since I've written here. But I think that's the nature of blogs that aren't strictly used as part of a business.

Anyway, just a quick tip for today: bingos are great, but don't wait for them at the expense of other good turns.

I played against the computer today (1600 rating for the maven in the "Scrabble Complete" software) and scored 3 bingos to maven's 1. Still lost the game 421-379.

Now, for me, 379 is still a good game. It's above my average. But not by a lot, and I can often score that with 1 or even zero bingos. Maven got some good tiles tonight, but I have the feeling I averaged out those bingos with a lot of poor plays while I tried to set myself up for bingos. And I lost my following game as well doing the same thing.

Lesson learned: I can't just sit on good plays because I'm going for the homerun. I know ... it's the American way. We pay guys who bat .281 and hit 50 homers a year way more than the more valuable player who consistently hits .340 without many homers. I'll have to adjust my game.