Tootin' Khamen

2010-09-20T17:35:00.000-07:00

NASPA Scrabble mini, Sunday September 19, 2010

After last month’s WGPO tournament, I played in the NASPA tournament this past Sunday. Same location, same third Sunday of the month, just under a different banner. It appears that the tournaments will alternate between NASPA and WGPO for the rest of 2010. Mountain View may switch fully to a WGPO venue by next year as current NASPA memberships expire at the end of the year while Berkeley will remain a NASPA venue. My WGPO rating shot through 1200 finally, now at 1259. NASPA rating is at 1172.

Game 1 – Opponent: Gloriosa Ondoy Agdeppa, rated 936
A rather disappointing game and a little disappointed in myself. I picked up a blank tile on the opening rack and played DELeT(I)ON for a low scoring 59 points. Gloriosa bingoed with a better scoring QUIETER (+80 points) in two turns later. The game was fairly close and she was able to continue scoring well with small plays. I even played wrongly with EW at one point. And my biggest mistake was missing the bingo PUNIEST along the triple word line which would have kept me way ahead. Lost the game by a measly 4 points, 356-360.

Game 2 – Opponent: Sandy Parry, rated 1026
This game fared better. I bingoed with low scoring R(E)MINTED (+61) and IODATEs (+71). Sandy had TANSIES (+64). My end rack after IODATEs was one of the worst: EEEIOUU. Still, I won handily 415-345.

Game 3 – Opponent: Joan Mocine, rated 1061
This game went very well for me. My second rack was CNORSTU and I hoped for an E to come up. Joan nicely played TAENIA to expose the E for my bingo COUNT(E)RS for +70. She PARTIED immediately (+79) after that. I continued to play fairly high scoring plays while Joan had bad racks and had trade tiles twice. Meanwhile, I saw a nice play and wished for a E and a U, and I actually got it pulling two tiles! Played QUEEN for +48 with that. Had a bad rack myself with IIFNNVV. Traded it, got a blank, next turn got the second blank and played MotIvES (+66). Won 460-273.

Game 4 – Opponent: Phil, rated?
Phil is a new player, this being his second tournament. I bingoed with (C)RULLINg +61. Phil, on the other hand, played some phonies such as PO, YAD, ROY which I challenged off. He did play fairly well. I won 369-322.

Game 5 – Opponent: Pat Diener, rated 1313
This is a game I could have won if I had guts to challenge her words… She played VENTAL which I doubted and not challenged. More importantly, towards the end I did not challenge her MISWoRN (+89) on a triple word despite having serious doubts. I was worried that with a closed up board and if I lose my turn, I may not have been able to respond with my own bingo ERInGOS (+76). I could have challenged that word off and used that triple word score myself to build a lead. Lost 389-408.

Game 6 – Opponent: Pat Diener, rated 1313
Played Pat again as we were the top two. This time, I played really carefully. My opening rack was a natural bingo BRAVEST (+76) which she immediately responded with AdMIRE(R)S (+70) across the R in BRAVEST. Later on, I bingoed with RATTLER (+68) and then she had EQUATEd (+81). I then continued to play a tight game and slowly build the lead I had. Won 446-372.

Overall, came out second placed after Pat. Not too bad, although I wished I could have won the other two games with just a little better foresight and more guts to challenge the doubtful words…
My bingoes:
DELETION
REMINTED
IODATES
COUNTERS
CRULLING
ERINGOS
BRAVEST
RATTLER

2010-08-17T00:37:00.000-07:00

Sunday, August 15, 2010

I participated in my first tournament under the WGPO banner. WGPO was formed out of unhappiness on how NASPA was being managed. I must say, great start to a new beginning! Won my division with a 5-1 record despite being the 6th and last ranked with rating 1172.

Game 1 – Opponent: (B1) Joan Clark rated 1544

Had pretty good tiles in this game. Managed 3 bingos: REFLIPS# (did not see PILFERS), cOVERIN(G) and DeGRAD(E)S. Had both the blanks, 2 S, the Q and Z as well. My opponent, on the other hand, had not much to go with, biggest score was AXE for 30. Joan has not been playing for 20+ years. Cross-tables recorded her last tournament in 1986! Perhaps I got lucky she did not warm up yet. Won 430-315, +115.

Game 2 – Opponent: (B4) Jon Demeter rated 1345

Jon mostly won in our numerous matches. He started with a bingo, ARREArS and I responded in my 2nd move with COATTAI(L). Then I scored well with EX (31 pts), ZINC (45 pts) in the next few moves, and another bingo DArTING later. Jon was keeping up with good scoring words in strategic spots with FOVEA (39 pts), YEOMEN (35 pts), WENS (46 pts) and KI (34 pts) but was not able to take the lead after my second bingo. Won 415-373, +42, total +157.

Game 3 – Opponent: (B2) Pat Diener rated 1329

Again, Pat usually won in our matches. And she was leading in the first half of the game until my first and the only bingo in this game with REASOnS. I started off with 3 S’ on my first rack and little vowels. Had to change 4 tiles on my second turn. After my bingo, she almost caught up playing NERTZ (50 pts) but I managed to keep ahead. The board quickly closed up and I edged a win. Won 333-313, +20, total +177.

Game 4 – Opponent: (B5) Alan Whitman rated 1262

I do not get to play with Alan much as he is usually a division above. I did surprise him with a win the first time we played many years back in an open division tournament in Los Gatos back in 2006. I was rated 836 while he was 1529, a major upset. He started with AMATIVE, which I challenged and it was good. By his second turn, he was 122-0 ahead. I tried to catch up. Even with 3 bingos: ASTERIA, (R)EOILINg and PUNI(S)HER, I could not overcome his lead. He scored well with strategic plays of GANJA (39 pts) and SYNES (43 pts) on the triple words. At least I did not get steamrolled… Lost 373-437, -52, total +125.

Game 5 – Opponent: (B3) Mary Stevens rated 1372

The last time I played against Mary was 2006. Again, she usually is in the higher division. She started with HM, and I bingoed with REMANDS/HM/MA under HM. Had great scoring plays with QUINCY (40 pts), QI (41 pts) and JESTER (67 pts, non-bingo). Tried ACETINE# but it got challenged off. I had a end-game outplay bingo of RETINES but I chickened out from playing it as I was not sure of it and she had 7 tiles which might be a bingo. So, I played safe instead. Won 436-377, +69, total +194.

Game 6 – Opponent: (B5) Alan Whitman rated 1262

As predicted by Alan, we met again for the final game of this 1-day tournament. I started with SURLIED# but was challenged off. He had ITCHY (34 pts) to start and I bingoed down the T with oU(T)SIDER. He responded immediately with T(R)EELINE. Later on, I bingoed NaMELES(S) and he responded in kind with BE(A)TNIKS. I was leading till towards the but it became very close. In fact, he led 370-387 before my out-play. I had ALERT on my rack and he did not check that I have only one out-play of TAL(L)ER and failed to block. Won 394-387, +7, total +201.

That’s it. My first WGPO tournament and a win! The results was almost a complete reversal of the ranking: B6, B5, B4, B3, B1 and B2.

Bingos:
REFLIPS#
COVERING
DEGRADES
COATTAIL
DARTING
REASONS
ASTERIA
REOILING
PUNISHER
REMANDS
OUTSIDER
NAMELESS

DemandTec is looking for a Senior GL Accountant

2010-07-13T15:51:00.000-07:00

DemandTec is looking for a Senior GL Accountant

US National Scrabble Champion 2008

2008-07-29T18:47:00.000-07:00

Nigel Richards, the Champion of US NSC 2008!!!

p/s: Funnily enough, he is announced as from Malaysia!!!

National Scrabble Championship 2008 - Day 4

2008-07-29T10:58:00.000-07:00

The winner plate for Division 4. Too far for my reach :(

Day 4, starting with new determination. I've got to win 5 games to even out win-loss record.

Game 22: Against Gene Tyzska, no luck... Started ok, and tried to keep up with him. No bingoes for me in this game. Played DINES(31) instead of KINES(49) at N14 down, because I was unsure of it (yes, back to study words). He phonied me with NOLLI(6) but I let it go because of the points. Looking back, I probably should have (could, should, would etc). He had EX (38), ZOA (32) and a well played NAP(31) and of course, bingoed first with LASHiNG. It was 259-321 towards end game, where I decided to play IF(30) to gain some points but opened up the triple-word line. Of course, he had the last blank and played iFf/fRIGATE on the triple word. Bingoed out with 78 points and grabbed 16 points from my rack. Lost 289-415.
p/s: Not very good at counting scores. Tend to 'overscore' *wink* *wink*

Game 23: Against Barbara Epstein, luck turned for me. Fourth rack, bingoed with VARA/EARTHeD (69). Then scored well with FOEHN(39), PLUG(30), HAHAS/SICK (31), SICKO/COOT(38) and other strategic plays. She bingoed with RETAiLE(D)(70) and kept close till towards the end where I pulled ahead. She later told me my SICK play blocked her SOLVENTS to the triple word. Woohoo! Won 444-307.

Game 24: Against Joan Gatthorn. Close game. Actually, a pretty low-scoring game for us both. She probably could have played her many 'S' and blank tiles better, as well as the Z, J, Q. She conned me with ZEN/ZONE(26) then picked up her tiles pretty quickly. I was slow, I guess. No bingoes for either of us. She tried GIRLIES/OYS, which I challenged off. Played EX(36) and the rest were pretty bland plays. She played TROTH(27) which is good, and OMAN(16), which is no good. I left it there unchallenged because it was so close towards the end, and I could not afford to miss a turn while slightly ahead. Won 341-317.

Game 25: Against Andy Ludwig, luck ebbed and flowed and turned bad against me. First, he LIONISE(70), then JOKE(30), then bingoed again with REALGAR(68), then NIX(47). At the end game, he had hWAN/AQUA(33). Me, I got JILT(57), then picked up the orphaned bingo EARNEST/EASTERN/NEAREST rack. Played ED to open up a line. Later, bingoed with BUTANES(71) but I missed NATTERS/RATTENS worth 80 points a turn ago. Got to memorize my RANTER 6+1 list again.... Then had HUGER(34) and WOMAN(37) towards the end, but he was too far ahead. Lost 359-462.

Got to win all three games after lunch to even out at 14W-14L. Yes, set target. Possible, yes, probable, no.

Now typing this at lunch, where I am having Asian Chicken Salad at the poolside bar & grill. It's gonna pour soon. I hope it showers some luck on me for the last three games. Signing out!

p/s: Nigel Richards, after 24 games, is tied 19W-5L with Brian Cappelleto but loses out in spread, so in 2nd position now. The others are at 19Ws, so not likely that they can catch up against the two of them.

Part 2...

Game 26: Against Jerry Schwartz, it went smooth for me. He was to started but changed tiles instead. Early on, I played ZItI(54). I challenged off two of his non-words, JULIP (should be JULEP) and NEAF (should be NEIF). I played somewhat dangerously because I wanted to get rid of the Q on my rack. I played QIND(a)R for 25, leaving the end exposed to a double-word tile. Both blanks and three of the 'S' tiles are already played out, mostly by him. There was still one 'S' tile either left in the bag or on his rack. It actually took ten turns between us before I drew it! Before playing QINDaRS/OMS(42), I scored with JAMBE(34) and BELONG(30) and picked up the 'S' tile!!! Later, a nice play of KEPT/REE/YAP/UT for 34. He played IXIA(35) and OVARY(36) but was otherwise fishing for a bingo or have a really bad game. I won 367-321.

Game 27: Against Tim Wise, my luck continued to roll. ZOA(32) early on, JIG(31), then bingoed with SOARING(66), then FUME(30) and bingoed again with MANNErS(65). He had KAY(32) and QaID(52) but was pretty much low scoring with the rest of his tiles. Won 415-289.

Game 28: Against Marie Gier, this game I deserved to lose. I had good tiles but did not see the words. She changed seven tiles on her first move, and I played ULU(7) on second turn. She bingoed with ABOIDEA(U) (72) on my U!!! I played ABUNA#(30) (British-only) but she did not challenge it. I scored well with YAH(37), JAY(29) early on and XI(56) towards the end. But I had so many missed bingoes! She had at least three of the 'S' tiles and she was fishing for a bingo, so I raced her for a bingo. But I missed the chance. I changed on my sixth turn EEIITOU and drew a blank tile. With it, I had sEVENTH, which was orphaned. Played VOTE and had up AEILOT?. The number of vowels confused the hell out of me and I did not spend the time to look for the words (had a E hook available). I should have known about fOLIATE, vIOLATE and IsOLATE. This costed me the game. Next came SHeENIE (needed a E hook), which I did not know, so I don't blame myself. She beat me to it, playing STEALER/PE/NICER for 72. I responded with XI(56) with the X on the exposed triple-word tile. Then, I picked up the second blank tile!!! Then I had EXItINg or EXILINg which was orphaned with the increasingly closed up board. The only location was a 'A' hook on top of the VOWS that she played earlier. The only play available was aEONIaN, which of course, I do not know. I was hoping to pull RETSINA, INGESTA or something, but it did not come. Lost closely 354-380. So disappointed that I did not equalize my wins-loss in this tournament. But my rating should remain pretty constant. Preliminarily, I came in with 13W-15L, ranked 81 of 114 players. I am exactly where I was supposed to be....

p/s: Nigel Richards is the US NSC 2008 Champion!! 22W-6L. He overcame Brian Cappelleto who came in second at 20W-8L. He must have been 21 vs. Brian's 20 wins in round 27. They played at least four rounds with each other.

National Scrabble Championship 2008 - Day 3

2008-07-29T00:31:00.001-07:00

Today was a terrible day to play….

Game 15: Against Terry Aitken, it was a disaster for me. I changed three racks (AEEIIOU, AAAEIUV, DLNSVVW) and played words of no consequence. Meanwhile, Terry started with SIX (35) and continued to score with MOZO (44), SOLAR hooked to MOZO (35), CAJoNE(S) (36), JEAN (30). Lost badly 282-362.

Game 16: Against Betzy Collins, second disaster of the day. Again, no words of consequence for me. Meanwhile, Betzy had GAUNTEr (65), TAX (39), ZITS (39), RAZEE (30), JURA (27) and finally a bingo of RO(C)KeTER (64), which I challenged unsuccessfully. I was thinking about the movie Rocketeer, so I thought another E was required. Sigh…. Lost 259-453.

Game 17: Against Keith Nishimi, my third disaster of the day. I only had FEZ (35), and played a British only word TENE# that he challenged off. Meanwhile, he ran with the game GENE (34) on the same spot I played TENE, JAMBE (50) and a bingo which I forgot to record (66). Lost badly at 250-416.

Game 18: Against Conchita Deprospo, my fourth disaster in a row. I had one very good play of Jo(K)ES (62) on B10, with J on triple-letter, leading to the double-word, and later on had AZO (31). Meanwhile, she consistently scored and bingoed as well with AnNUALS (62). Lost 285-375.

I got so frustrated, so I went off to get a good lunch at Tchoup Chop, a Hawaiian/Asian fusion restaurant in the hotel. Very good fish! And I think after filling myself up with some good food and ice-cream for dessert, my game turned for the better.

Game 19: Against Martin Rosen, I played as best as I could. I bingoed midgame with RE(A)GENTS (70) and had JAMBE (32), HATH (29), ADZ (33) and TWAIN (36). Martin bingoed with PANSIES (70), and FAX (39). It was pretty even midgame. But I got lucky with (L)IQUID (78) on J1, with the Q on double-letter towards the triple-word. This helped me pull ahead far enough to get ahead as I knew with a S and a blank in Martin’s rack, he could bingo at end-game, which he did with INTeNSE (76). Won 411-359.

Game 20: Against Esla Ewida, I bingoed with ReGIONS (73), played JINS (44) and scored consistently well through the game. Esla had SIZE (37), QUINT (45) and scored well overall too. Won 341-318.

Game 21: Against Joan Haworth, my lucky streak continued. I bingoed with NAILERS (64) and RETA(C)KLE (65). Also scored with SUQ (46), JAWED (32), BLUEY (31) and CRUDE (30). She had GOX (34), FIZ (30) and WEIGH (32). Won 429-318.

Ended third day with 3W-4L, three days in a row. Now at 9W-12L. Hope tomorrow my luck continues!!

p/s: Nigel Richards ended Day 3 in 2nd place, with 16W-5L. David Cappelleto is 1st place with 17W-4L. It will be a close one!

National Scrabble Championship 2008 - Day 2

2008-07-28T23:57:00.000-07:00

Game 8: Against Shelley Kirk, it was a close one. This is the second game that my opponent started with a bingo, this one an ELATION (64). Soon after, I caught up by REvISI(N)G (70). She then TORQUE (30) and SEX (41). But I ZAG (41) to even it out. It was towards the end game, with careful tile-tracking and careful playing, I won 374-361.

Game 9: Against Hans Oh. Got a thrashing. He was JIVIER (32) with a POOCH (40) and a WISH (30). Next, his ENT(I)TIES (62) and WARTY (38) put him more than double my score at 102-256. I could only bring NAILERS (68) ad OXY (44) to catch up a little. However, his ORIENTs (71) and ZA (36) towards the end game did me in. Lost 303-459.

Game 10: Against Marcia Wade, she InFLA(T)ED (76) her score. It was a SENATOR (75) and then a sTORIED (80) for me a few turns later on a double-double word to get ahead a little. She did challenge off my UEY# (British-only word). Sigh, SOWPODS still affects my play…. My words ARB (37) and GRAY (34) balanced out her ZORI (33) and HINTS (34). Won 413-328.

Game 11: Against Jo Anne Cohen, this was a very, very close game. My second turn, I had DEACONS (71). She answered sIZIEST (79). I had FE (30), THO (31), BULKING (30) and AQUA (34). She had REX (29), JO (36), (C)URBED (36) and SWIG (35). In this game, I drawed three ‘I’s in a bag of 25+ tiles, statistically < 1% chance. The tile gods started to dislike me. It was neck to neck and it went down to our very last play. I lost 360-361, a measly 1 point!!!

Game 12: Against Susie Page, again I got thrashed. I get to play small words mostly. Had only HE (30), DETOX (32) and ZA (28). Meanwhile, Susie SHIRKEd (70), JEU (30), REACTIVE (82) and QUIP (32) to thrash me 266-404.

Game 13: Against Diana Ittner, it was a close game. I had DEX (35) and ZOA (32). She had KETO (34) and JEER (43). We both left the triple word line open with a S hook for a long time and I think we both wanted to bingo on that line. I got lucky first with RETSiNA (8). It evened out the game a to my favor and I won with a better end-game with 339-307.

Game 14: Against Jennifer Devaney, it was a lousy rack balance for me. I had the blank and three ‘S’ at one time. I played SONS (16) just to get rid of two of them. Jennifer had BAITERS (80) on her second turn. I responded with JADES (42) with the J on double-letter onto the double-word tile on L1. She used J for JEAN to triple-word for 33. I bingoed SIeVING (69) and did EX (55) while she responded with ZOA (32) and VOIL (33). It was neck-to-neck till towards the end, she bingoed with (L)ETTERED (77) on triple-word tile. That won the game for her 387-444.

In between games, I went to meet up with Nigel Richards at Division 1. He was doing well, ended the day in the top 10 position, I believe.

Ended the day at 3W-4L again, overall 6W-8L. Woohoo!!! Off to see the Blue Man Group performance at the Sharp Aquous theatre in Universal Citywalk!!!

National Scrabble Championship 2008 - Day 1

2008-07-28T23:55:00.000-07:00

Finally, the awaited day for the NSC 2008 came. It was a torture to get to Orlando, Florida from San Jose, California the night before. But that’s another story…

Anyway, this year’s NSC 2008 is hosted in sunny, warm and humid Orlando. Kinda reminds me of Malaysian/Singaporean weather actually. I even got to experience a thunderstorm on Sunday night! The kind that is so heavy, you cannot see much in front of you while driving. Yes, the place of Disney World and Universal Studios and many other theme parks.

I am playing in Division 4 this year. Jumped up from Division 6 in NSC 2006. I just made the mark for Division 4 by winning the Silicon Valley Challenge 2008 in Division 3. The wins gave me a boost to 1122 rating to qualify.

Incidently, 2008 is the 60th anniversary of the invention of Scrabble by a Alfred Butts, back in 1948. NSC 2008 had special raffles for people born in that year.

Day 1:

Game 1: I played against Jon Demeter, from the Bay Area. Imagine that! We played a number of times in the Bay Area (nine times actually, 4W-5L record) and flew hundreds of miles to end up playing against each other. Well, bad start to this tournament. Vowels loved me to death, while he gets to play INDOLES (71), SUICIDE (75), JOE (33), FIERY (37), HAVES (45), CODA (33) and EX (41). Lost 304-432.

Game 2: Against Margaret Bee, not so good either. She got two bingoes in a row, MARRInG (76) and AGIOTa(G)E (61). I challenged the second bingo unsuccessfully. Meanwhile, I get the three S in a rack and no bingoes to show for it. Changed a rack of EEVSSUU. I did have SEX (41)…pun fully intended. She played DIAZOLE (38) later which I smartly. Lost 294-352.

Game 3: Against Kevin Sears, my luck is better. Finally, my first bingo, ReJOINS (72) and QATS (47). Won 366-270.

Game 4: Against Devonna Gee, luck turned against me again. Her very first word is GRAZERS (81). Later came DIORAMA (75). It took me two blanks and a S to get DiNNeRS (81) on the triple word. Lost 338-433.

Game 5: Against Michael Donagan, it went well. I started with ZEINS (48) and soon bingoed two in a row with DRESSER (74) and ALMONDS (69). He did ELOIGNE(D) for 64. Won 393-302.

Game 6: Against Teresa Schaeffer, it was a close game. I played EXONS (62) with X on double letter to the triple word tile. Next turn, I got IODiDES (67). Won 363-326.

Game 7: Against Dallas Johnson, it was a tough one. I was the MEaNEST (69), but he INFORMS (78) and has RAVINGS (78). So then, he has a HUGE (44) win. I lost 303-442.

Ended the day with 3W-4L.

2008 Silicon Valley Showdown Scrabble tournament -Day 2 and 3

2008-05-29T21:02:00.000-07:00

Day 2

Game 9: Salvador Sanchez, rated 1045, 3rd seed

Luck rolled on my side this morning. I actually woke up late, and drove like mad to the tourney site. Got there, with the directors making announcements. No coffee, no breakfast…. Man, I was hungry and sleepy….

On my 3rd turn, I bingoed with a non-word, rETONED. I missed out DENOTEd completely. My opponent thought for a while but decided against challenging, which he said he regretted later. I started picking up power tiles at the right time to play AX, JO, QUID at the right places for some nice points. Then, I proceeded to close up the board. He tired to open up a spot, but I responded with ELAsTIN immediately then picked up EIIONRS the very next rack. I think he had some nice tile combo, as he played off an E to make E(F) but that opened up the S hook for my IRONIES. I played REH#, a British-only word, which got challenged off. He finally got his bingo INSANER, down on the board, but I was way ahead. Won 512-342.

Game 10: Andrew Smith, rated 500, 12th seed

I thought I was going to play against the top-seed this round, but it was arranged for with the bottom-seed instead. I played a low-scoring TRAINeR, which he later hooked with his DIArIES. Later on, the vowels dried up on my rack, and I changed twice in a row! Yet, I managed to keep ahead of him and won 327-296. Ten straight wins!! My best ever streak….now, to face the top-seed…

Game 11: Kim Carver, rated 1182, 1st seed

It was a close game. Slow start at the beginning, but she bingoed with hOTDOGS to pull ahead, and kept the lead pretty much for the rest of the game. At one point, I got as close as 2 point difference 325-327, but the end game did me in. I closed out my own bingo line for my orphaned EaSIEST and could not recover. Lost 344-379. Sigh…. Lost the winning streak with 10-1 though not complaining! Still top of the table! 

Game 12: Raghuram Jonnalagedda, rated 1029, 4th seed

This was a fantastic game. I started out with a non-word bingo, TOWELER, but he did not challenge as he played HIND(E)RER to even out somewhat. He then played QUAI/HO(I)# for 58 points which I did not challenge off, unfortunately, since I was unsure if HOI was good or not. Stupid SOWPODS lingers within me. On my fourth turn, I played TURNOVER to pull ahead, with the end open for the S for double-word score. Drawn a rack of AEGIMRT. I wished for an ‘N’ and miraculously, he played VANED. I then hooked the N with REMATI(N)G. He played SOJA/TURNOVER(S) for 46 points. I was not sure if SOJA is good in US, so I placed a hold and draw my tiles. I did not challenge, as I could use the A on SOJA to play Z(A)XES, with the Z on triple-letter and S on double-word tile for a whipping 82 points! My opponent played TALA(Q)s#, another British-only word, which I also did not challenge since it was familiar to me. He next tried a non-word bingo GAUKIER, which I knew was a misspelt version of ‘gawkier’ and challenged it off. Won the game 561-415.

Game 13: Steve Brown, rated 657, 10th seed

The luck still rolled with me. On my 4th turn, I bingoed with RETsINA on a double-double word score. Two turns later, I hooked on my first bingo with STINTE(R)S. I kept the lead all the way and won comfortably with 445-288.

Game 14: Shirley E Scott, rated 908, 8th seed

This game was a close fight. Having only won her by 1 point in our previous match-up, I played cautiously. She bingoed early with TASTIEr, and pretty much held the lead through the game though I kept it around a 30 point spread throughout but failed to get a breakthrough. I challenged her unsuccessfully on DIEL, which probably costed me the game. Lost 334-353, a mere 18 point loss. Now with 12W-2L record, but still top of the table.

Game 15: Lois Oda, rated 1005, 6th seed

I got creamed in this game by sheer uneven tiles….. She got all the power tiles: the two blanks, all four ‘S’, Z, Q, X, J, K. It started slowly, and at one point on the 6th turn, I was actually ahead 170-108. She played COXa and SUQ well to keep up. Towards the end, she played her ZESTED (Z on TLS and word on the DWS) for 82 points, she pulled ahead 274-325 and kept the spread. I managed to keep up but cannot do anything against her words…. Lost 325-383, a 58 point spread, which I considered a job well-done given that she had the tile-gods on her side. Now with 13W-3L, I have two other contestants just 1 game behind me, Kim and Raghu, the 1st and 4th seeds.

.Game 16: Kim Carver, rated 1182, 1st seed

We both thought that we will be playing with no repeats today, so we were surprised to play each other. It was a closely fought game. I actually loss 2 turns by challenging her words: COMBE and BORK. She kept the lead through most of the game, and started closing up the board. I almost played RIOJA to hook the R to the YEA on the board to minimize the spread, but decided against it as it opened up the triple-word score. So I just played the J off elsewhere for just 19 points. Two turns later, that turned out to be blessing as I drew the blank along with a V, and bingoed with DRiVING to pull ahead slightly 350-316. I proceeded to lock up the game and won 398-387, a mere 11 point spread but I am certainly very happy about it!

So, I ended the second day with 13W-3L, still top of the table but with Kim and Raghu nipping at the heels with 12 wins each.

Day 3

Game 17: Betty A Toole, rated 1015, 5th seed

This was a fairly low-scoring game. No bingoes on the board. I had fairly uneven racks, missing vowels a lot…. But somehow, I managed to keep ahead and started closing up the board. She had a bingo rack REmNANT on the triple word line, which would have led to my win by just 1 point, but she did not see it, and honestly, neither did I. Won 352-286. I found out that Kim lost her game and Raghu won, so I still had Raghu at 1 game behind me only and Kim at 2 games behind.

Game 18: Salvador Sanchez, rated 1045, 3rd seed

Salvador went first but changed his first rack. I played with low-scoring tiles as I had a bingo potential. Unfortunately, he bingoed first with TONNERS, I had EASTERN, but did not see it, so I threw an E out for 6 points and drew a D to bingo with STANDER after him. I think he then had a bad luck streak, or trying for a bingo as he changed tiles again and then played low-scoring words with 1-2 tiles the next 3 turns. At that point, I hooked to his last play with a D for form COlLIDe(D) (=collided), having picked up both blanks on the rack, to pull ahead 246-151. Then, I picked up the Q, X, J and K to played well with them to score some decent points while Salvador struggled with low-scoring turns. I won handily 420-269. At this point, Raghu lost his round too, so both Kim and Raghu is 2 games behind me, with only 1 more game to go! I had won the division by the 18th game!! I was so stoked….

Game 19: Lois Oda, rated 1005, 6th seed

At this point, before the next game, we were discussing if I was going to be ‘gibsonized’, i.e. not playing Kim or Raghu. The tourney director decided it so, and so I played Oda, the 4th placed contestant instead. Kim and Raghu is to fight for the 2nd place.

And so…. Lois creamed me again with all the power tiles on her side. I somehow suspect she is using her Hawaiian tile-gods prayers/chants or something  Her first move was AnTHEMS. Three turns later, another bingo of gOOIEST, at which point, she led 78-175. Of course, she proceeded to pick up the rest of the S tiles, Z, Q, J, X to keep the lead up. I had no bingo chance whatsoever but just tried to minimize the spread. Lost the game, of course, with 317-398, which was a good effort, I think.

And so, I won the first multi-day tournament in the US, albeit not a major ‘major’ but still!! Finally, I think I am sowing the last of my SOWPODS mind to rest and is able to concentrate to play TWL2 only….. So, next in sight, the 2008 US Nationals in Orlando, Florida!!!

Link to official results

2008 Silicon Valley Showdown Scrabble tournament - Day 1

2008-05-28T18:54:00.000-07:00

After about two months of absence from Scrabble tourneys, I was somewhat out of touch. Wan, my dearest wife, granted me a birthday pass to attend the 2008 US Nationals in Orlando, Florida in July.

I played in Division 6 two years ago, currently qualify for Division 5 and need only thirteen rating points to hit 1200 to qualify for Division 4. I have been hovering just below 1200 for a year and never had a breakthrough at tournaments. With the birthday pass comes with the opportunity to play in local tournaments in an effort to boost my rating points, as I really do want to qualify for Division 4. I played in a 1-day tourney last week, and managed to raise the ratings to 1091, just nine points short!

The Memorial Weekend, remembrance for US war veterans, gave me a nice 4-day weekend and is also the time for the annual Silicon Valley Challenge! I finished third in the Division 3 last year, and hoped to do better this year.

Twelve players this year in Division 3, average rating of 900. I am second seed based on my ratings, with expected wins of 13.6 wins out of 19 games over three days (8-8-3 games).

And I won!! This was an amazing tournament and of course, it certainly feels great to finally win a major tournament, albeit in Division 3. Was undefeated for the first day, in fact, undefeated for the first 10 games, my longest winning streak ever! Won the tournament on the 18th round, overall 15 wins, 4 losses. Yes, I had fun and lots of luck on my side. Yes, there were some ‘newbies’ in the mix, but they were decent players.

Game 1: JD Rosenberg, rated 628, 11th seed

First 11 games was round robin. I played from the 11th seed upwards. JD gave me a run for the money and I was trying to catch up the whole game. I started, but his first move was DEF(O)RMed across my CLOUD!! With two blanks!! He led the game for 15 turns. I caught up a little with INERTI(A)S on turn 3 but he pretty much led the whole way. Towards the endgame, he gambled with TRINGLE# (a British-only word), at N6 across. I knew RINGLET, did not know of TINGLER but definitely was about to challenge TRINGLE. However, he played the ‘I’ was over the middle bottom triple word score and I had WZ on hand. I took my time to track all the tiles, and realized that he will empty the bag and have the Q tile which cannot be played. At that point, it was 313-352 with his non-word bingo. Played WIZ for 45 points, and caught up 358-352. Knowing that he cannot play out, I played my remaining tiles to maximize my score and won 405-372. Makes tracking tiles worth all the while! Oh, and I faked out with BRASSE 

Game 2: Steve Brown, rated 657, 10th seed

Had the luck for this game. Steve changed his tiles the first two turns. On my 5th turn, I played TRAW(L)ING and towards the end, played DEPICtS. Won convincingly 460-249.

Game 3: Miriam Kasdan, rate 791, 9th seed

Luck on the roll. Played RAWNESS on 3rd turn and played oX for 35 and a natural RITZY for 42. Won 390-289.

Game 4: Shirley E Scott, rated 908, 8th seed

This is such a close game! Won by 1 point! Played UNSTATE on 5 turn, but she caught up with HALTERS and shortly sHORING. We leveled at 323-323 after a good play of my JO for 51 and he KAYO over my JO on the triple word for 38. It was a close fight to the end. End game, won 382-381.

Game 5: Jim Barker, rated 966, 7th seed

This game was a slow start, with normal scoring plays until I bingoed with TESTING on the triple word corner on the 7th turn. Played BANIA#, another British-only word, which got challenged off. Later on, followed with R(E)ALISED. Won 383-340.

Game 6: Lois Oda, rated 1005, 6th seed

This was another slow low-scoring game. Bingoed with PANDeRS. Won 349-304. She ate me alive later….

Game 7: Betty A Toole, rated 1015, 5th seed

She started off with DAZES, and my initial rack was EEIOOUS. Wished EUOI was good here, but just played off (Z)OO for 14 points. Picked up ?R!! Next turn, bingoed REISsUE(S) into the top middle triple word score. I kept a small lead through this game. She tried a non-word bingo SAUTIEr which I challenged off, but I knew she had SInUATE/AUnTIES plus many more. She later played MAR(R)IeRS, which I challenged unsuccessfully. Yet, with careful end-game moves, I won 357-327.

Game 8: Raghuram Jonnalagedda, rated 1029, 4th seed

This was certainly an interesting game. Raghu was a SOWPODS player, like I was. So, he plays certain words which I knew were no good in the US. On his 2nd turn, he bingoed with SNiCKED, which I did not know but decided not to challenge. I bingoed two turns later with PERSONA to even out the score at 139-139. Got crappy vowels for the next three turns, but finally got the blank and bingoed with TENAILS (blank=L). After that, I kept the small but comfortable lead and started closing off the board. I challenged off this TYRE/EVET because I knew EVET is a British-only word. I also challenged off FERET, a non-word. Won 413-345.

Hence, end of Day 1 of the tournament, with an 8W-0L record! The only person across 3 divisions to have an undefeated streak. I was pretty stoked!

Vote!

2008-02-25T21:26:00.000-08:00

VOTE FOR THE FUTURE OF MALAYSIA!

Update on 2007 Silicon Valley tournament

2007-08-28T14:48:00.000-07:00

Update 28 August 2007:

I realized that I did not complete my blog for this tournament.....trouble is, I cannot find my scoresheets, and hence cannot reconstruct the event.

Anyhow, I ended in 3rd position of division group of 10. Pretty nice.... got a good bump up in ratings, 1049 to 1097. So close to 1100...... did not do as well in the next 2 1-day tournaments, so my rating toy is 1065.

Link to results.

Red Moon Rising

2007-08-28T03:50:00.001-07:00

Watched the lunar eclipse tonight. Stayed up past 3am to get a good look. Saw the shadow casting over the moon from about 1.50am. Setting up my camera with 300mm lenses to get as close as possible. After figuring out that I need to compensate by -2.0 to -5.0 on my SLR for the light conditions, I got a clear face of the moon. This photo is when it was almost fully eclipsed. The reddish part is dark with the naked eye, but turns out real nice on photo.

2007 Silicon Valley Showdown Tournament

2007-06-07T23:47:00.000-07:00

Pruneyard Plaza Hotel, May 26-28, 2007

It was the Memorial Day Weekend, a US Federal holiday in remembrance of the US military persons who died at war. As usual, a Scrabble tournament is planned for the long weekends, and we have Monday, May 28 as the holiday.

I started of with rating of 1049 and am seeded 5th in a small Division C of 10 players only. With 20 games, we played double round-robin, with 2 KOTH (I think).

Game 1 – Opponent: BA Toole, seeded 6th, rated 1011

It was a good start for this tournament. Got 2 ‘S’ and a blank on the first draw, with a rack of ?ILLRSS. I did not know the bingos (ShRILLS and SILLeRS), so I started small with ILL, drawing CIM and playing my first bingo SCRIMpS. In the next few turns, I played PARTIED and PLANETS, building a lead that Betty could not catch up with. I won 487-323. Nice start. 1-0.

Game 2 – Opponent: Alison Hotten, seeded 4th, rated 1085

This was a tough game. I was trying to keep up with Alison for most of the game, by 20-30 points. On my 8th move, I thought I caught up with OILIESt to lead 251-180, but she responded with (L)AVENDER to get the lead back. I was trailing again, and towards my last rack, was trailing 309 to 370 after she played a nice IXIA. I bingoed out with RETINAE under her IXIA to form RETINAE/IT/XI/IN/AA to win 411-370. And I nearly did not see it!!! Have not played for so long that I was figuring out how to put down TRAINEE on a closed up board, not seeing RETINAE for a few minutes. 2-0.

Game 3 – Opponent: David Carlson, seeded 2nd, rated 1167.

This was a really tough game. I bingoed ENTRIeS and ALATION in succession in move 4 and 5, but David took a niner with ENTICI(N)G at A15 for 158 points, with me trailing 193-242 after the 5th move. I only caught up to win later as I drew SS? towards to end-game. Won 421-348. 3-0.

Game 4 – Opponent: Bharat Sampath, seeded 9th, rated 834.

Lost this game badly, which was mainly my mistake in challenging AGITA and WORSTEd, both good, in 2 consecutive moves. Could not recover after that. Lost 328-385. 3-1.

Game 5 – Opponent: Vicky Julian, seeded 7th, rated 1001.

Vicky was one of two players who dominated this division for most of the tournament. I was luckier though. Bingoed DISEASE and RO(T)UNdER. Played JUVES# (a British only word) in error, which got challenged off. She played GALLANT, but was not sufficient to win. I had most of the big tiles. Won 407-306. 4-1

Game 6 – Opponent: Mariana Villena, seeded 1st, rated 1168.

Tough game. I played Mariana a number of times before, and my record against her was not too good. Bingoed with RETILES to catch up to her, and she immediately replied with EDIBLES to pull away to lead 181-119. With bad rack balance for most of the game, even with another bingo of BANShIE(S), I lost 310-385. 4-2

Game 7 – Opponent: Helen Gendler, seeded 3rd, rated 1103.

Tough game too. Had bad racks. Had no vowels for several turns, with one rack of DNRSVYY, which I then changed. She phoneyed with with STOOGIe, which I thought was good. Turned out, the word I thought was actually spelt STOGIE, a word for cigar. So, later on, I had a bingo to hook the S on my dECANTS, to her STOOGIeS, she challenged it off! I was soooooo upset….. Next turn bingoed with SCANTEr, but was not enough. Lost 313-388. 4-3.

Game 8 – Opponent: Miriam Kasdan, seeded 10th, rated 789.

Miriam seemed to be like a newbie, but so I took the chance to take advantage to build a bigger spread. Sometimes, when they play small words, it is hard to actually make bigger points yourself. Had one bingo, ReGENTS. Won 408-241. 5-3.

End of day 1, with a 5-3 record, I was in 3rd position. It was not a bad start…

More to follow in next blog entry.

Update 28 August 2007: I realized that I did not complete my blog for this tournament.....trouble is, I cannot find my scoresheets, and hence cannot reconstruct the event. Anyhow, I ended in 3rd position of the group. Pretty nice.... got a good bump up in ratings, 1049 to 1097. So close to 1100...... did not do as well in the next 2 1-day tournaments, so my rating toy is 1065.

Finally! 1000!!!!

2007-03-28T16:33:00.000-07:00

Sunday, March 25 2007

My first foray into competitive Scrabble after an absence of about 7 months! Have been busy in my search for a new home, purchase of the home, dressing up the home, exams, family visits from Malaysia and Singapore, etc. etc. etc.

Finally, stepped back into Tomato Thyme pizza parlour at Los Gatos for a weekend tournament. Somewhat uncertain of how I’ll do. Rusty, rusty. Ratings at 960 since the Nationals in August 2006. Seeded 5th in the Division 5 for this tournament.

Game 1: Lynn Johnson, rated 989, seeded 4th

Oh no….. first game and I get her….. Not a good start, with starting rack IILOOOR. Threw off OLIO for a measly 8 point start. But second draft was good, and bingoed next with DIViSOR. Immediately drew COLLIER for the next rack, but could not go down. Sixth move, bingoed with RE(T)AINED, and immediately drew out RETA?NS, which goes down next. Won 477-281 easily. Lucky…..

Game 2: Marina Villena, rated 1164, ranked 3rd

Started fairly equal, with Marina pulling ahead 20-30 points until I first bingoed with ERMINES to equalize it again. Had a few good plays, with DEX for 41 points immediately followed by JOLTS for 48 points. One play later, bingoed with ENDEARs and started closing off the board. Marina fought back well to catch up. Very close ending. Won 397-393. Phew…..

Game 3: Amanda Bonds, rated 856, seeded 7th

This was somewhat of a fishing game, making small plays till mid game where I bingoed with EROSIoN and she replied immediately with ETESIAN. The game remained pretty close but I gain some lead to win 347-317.

Game 4: David Carlson, rated 1187, seeded 1st

Both of us started with small plays. I first bingoed with SLINTER# (British only). David held the play for a moment, and let it go. Why? Because he played QI/QI over my bingo for triple-triple letter! So, still a close game till later when I bingoed with LICKeRS. Held the lead until the very end. At the very end, he bingoed out with TAVeRNS but was not sufficient to overtake. Won by slight lead of 407-404. A boo-boo happened next. When checking tiles after the end, there was a tile left in the bag! Was to be mine, but just a 1-pointer which would not change the results…. Man, I better check the bag at end games next time! He was a good sport about it though.

Game 5: Helen Gendler, rated 1167, seeded 2nd

She had a good start. Bingoed with OVEReAT with her first move! The spread went up with me trailing 85 points in mid-game until I bingoed with PIAStER to even out a little. Continued to catch up, with a good play of PAX for 40 points to even out the score somewhat. In the end game, I calculated and made sure she could not win. Win 372-368. Won 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th seeds! I think I’m gonna see a ratings increase!

Game 6: Marina Villena, rated 1164, ranked 3rd

Back to Marina, and she’s out for vengeance! I think the tile-gods finally thinks I’ve been too lucky…. Had lots of unplayable racks, changed tiles twice this game. Was trailing badly for most part until I bingoed with ReTAINE(R) to catch up somewhat. Had LADDERs as my last rack with nowhere to go…. Lost 352-395.

Sigh…. well, I turned out second in this tournament….. Should have been first as I was the only one with 5 real wins. But Marina was placed first as she had a bye in her first round to equalize with me on wins, and she had a higher spread. With my close wins, spread was not my friend.

But I’m happy! Found out that my ratings shot up to 1,049!!! I am finally above 1,000! Darn, I tried so hard last year to try for division 5 in the Nationals but missed by 1-point. Now, with a 7 month hiatus, I come back and got results like this! Man….

But I’m still happy :)

Our first ice hockey game

2007-02-03T17:18:00.000-08:00

Feb 3, 2007

Went for our first live ice hockey game today. The San Jose Sharks against the Chicago Blackhawks. My firm got a private box in the HP Pavilion stadium, and we were hosting an event with my main client. Really nice set up, on the penthouse level. Food & drinks, stocked bar, the works...

Ice hockey, really fast paced. Could hardly follow the puck most of the time. Lots of crashes between players, and even saw one of the hockey stick broke into 2! The SJ Sharks won 4-2, and they are currently ranked 2nd in their division, so it was a good game.

Our first American football game!

2006-12-25T23:37:00.000-08:00

December 24, 2006

Won a raffle from work, during a charity drive. 4 tickets to the SF 49ers vs. the Arizona Cardinals! Woohoo, our first football game, live in Monster Park! Vicki and Raymond joined us, providing transport and food! Showed us the culture of tailgate parties at the parking lot, and lesson on how the game works! Too bad the 49ers lost 20-26, but we saw a few good plays. Now I understand the game a little!

Housewarming party

2006-12-25T23:31:00.000-08:00

December 16, 2006

Housewarming party at our new home! We had some friends, family and colleagues join us for a Malaysian style lunch, with nasi lemak, satay, lontong, rendang, roti jala.... many contributions to the table! Yummy!

Thank you for all the gifts! We love them!

Click here for more photos!

Tai Chi

2006-11-02T16:13:00.000-08:00

Had been going for tai-chi classes at the gym... imagine that?

One big watermelon
Cut into two
One for you
One for me

I always remember this from young..... see if you know those moves!!

Actually, it's not that easy.... doing things slowly takes its toll on your balance and muscular strength when lifting and moving your arms and legs slowly.

I am learning the 'Yang' style of tai-chi, supposedly the most popular form. There's 3 parts, and I am learning part 1 now, at 'playing guitar' #10. When I can move the winds around like Jet Li in 'Tai Chi Master', I'll let you know. We'll spar in slow motion... and eat watermelon after that....

Here are the postures:
1 Preparatory posture

2 Taijiquan commencing

3 Stroke peacock's tail
Ward (right, left, front)
Divert and draw
Squeeze
Press

4 Single whip

5 Close arms and lift

6 White crane exposes wings

7 Brush left thigh and press forth right palm

8 Play the guitar

9 Brush thigh and press forth palm
Brush left thigh and press forth right palm
Brush right thigh and press forth left palm
Brush left thigh and press forth right palm

10 Play the guitar

11 Brush left thigh and press forth right palm

12 Circle foot and carry the hammer forward

13 Serpent slides back and seal with both palms

14 Cross wrists (end of part 1)

Light a million candles

2006-10-24T23:57:00.000-07:00

Hello friends, please take part.

The innocent victims of Internet child abuse cannot speak for themselves.

But you can.

With your help, we can eradicate this evil trade.

We do not need your money.

We need you to light a candle of support.

We're aiming to light at least One Million Candles by December 31, 2006.
This petition will be used to encourage governments, politicians, financial institutions, payment organisations, Internet service providers, technology companies and law enforcement agencies to eradicate the commercial viability of online child abuse.

They have the power to work together. You have the power to get them to take action.
Please light your candle at lightamillioncandles.com or send an email of support to light@lightamillioncandles.com.

Together, we can destroy the commercial viability of Internet child abuse sites that are destroying the lives of innocent children.

Kindly forward this email to your friends, relatives and work colleagues so that they can light a candle too.

Happy Eid!!

2006-10-24T16:27:00.000-07:00

Selamat Hari Raya!! In the US, yet we can still celebrate Hari Raya in style... a group of friends got together and cooked up a storm of Malay food....rendang, satay, begedel, ayam percik, lontong, sago pudding etc. etc.

Photo, courtesy of Sam.

Vote for your new 7 Wonders of the World!

2006-10-18T10:05:00.000-07:00

Of the 7 ancient wonders, only 1 is left standing, the Pyramids of Giza.

Read about this in the news. Go check it out! Vote for the new 7 wonders!

I'm voting for the Giza pyramids to remain, and going for the Great Wall of China (one for the Chinese!), the Acropolis in Athens, the Angkor Wat of the Khmer, Chichen Itza of the Maya, Machu Pichu of the Inca and the Petra palace tomb in Jordan (Indiana Jones' temple of doom!).

The finals of US Open 2006 Division 1, Game 1

2006-08-09T11:15:00.000-07:00

See the commentary official here.

I just came to the room, just after Round 1 of the finals for Division 1, between Jim Kramer and Geoff Thevenot. Guess what, even the top players play British words! The official commentary said it was a 'phoney', which in the sense it was, but it is an acceptable British word. Jim played 'ZOOEA', which is good for SOWPODS. Better yet, Geoff responded later by playing 'GENIE', hooking the E to make 'ZOOEAE', another British word. And none of them challenged each other!

Sidenote: I saw Marlon Hill ranting about them playing that word to everyone.

Jim won 390-374. Good luck to both of them. I am back in my room, packing to leave for the airport. Sayonara Arizona Biltmore!

Final Day of US Scrabble Open 2006

2006-08-09T00:44:00.000-07:00

Day 4, final day of US Scrabble Open 2006. I feel nervous in the morning, like something is not right.... yes, I screwed up.... Something I did angered the tile-gods and they punished me left and right....

Round 22 - Opponent: Robert Collins, rated 905, seeded 31st

I meet Robert Collins again, whom I lost to by -11 points in Round 11. My first rack is FGHLMRX. I played 'F(I)G', and Robert immediately bingoed with 'VENDoRS'. For the next five racks, I get only 1 vowel each. Yet, amazingly, I managed to score 33, 26, 32, 31, 20 points, so I did not change my tiles. On my 7th rack, my rack became DLLRSSV, and with no where to play well, I changed LLVD to get AYII in return. Yeah, like AIIRSSY is any better. And in the end-game, I failed to catch the Q in his rack, because I missed the play-out of AIRIES(T). Anyway, I lost 305-384. And promptly dropped from 7th to 12th position. And Robert ended 2nd overall.

Round 23 - Opponent: Ben Lam, rated 1137, seeded 1st!

Now, if he is rated 1137, why is he playing in under 1000 raters? I guess he improved his rating after the cut-off date. Anyway, I lost to Ben by -11 points in Round 9, just like I lost to Robert Collins. I actually played pretty well this round, playing 'ZIL(L)s' for 66 points, and bingoed with 'TENNERS' later. Yet, Ben played a better game, maximing with 'J(OB)/JO' for 42 points, bingoed with '(JO)E/ErASION' for 74 points, (A)XIS for 33 points, 'VI(N)Y' across my TENNERS for 42 points. So, I lost 365-404. He played well. Ben ended 9th overall.

Round 24 - Opponent: Matt Canik, rated 906, seeded 28th

This is a young boy, who won several school championships. And he hoodwinked me thrice.... my own fault. He bingoed early with a phoney 'SLEETER' which is no good as well. It should be 'SLEETIER' but since it sounded feasible to me, I let it go. He later phoneyed with 'BEDY' which I did not challenge, since he opened up the triple-word lane. I replied with my own bingo of 'PADDieS' using 2 blanks, which is a waste. I also played 'OXEN/(JIN)X' for 40 points. Later, I had 'SATIRE+M' and he blocked my 'SMARTIE' bingo place with 'ORK' which I should have known is no good. But I did not challenge it. Worse, I totally missed another spot which I could have played 'MI(G)RATES' or 'MA(G)ISTER'. I played 'AM', and drew 2 tiles.... the 'A' and the 'M', the very same tiles I just played. What are the odds of that? So, I missed my all-important bingo. No doubt, Matt played well, with 'QUOINS' for 43 points and (Q)UIVER for 36 points late in the game. I could have won with the bingo. Lost 362-373, a mere -11 points. Guess what? Three of those players who beaten me by 11 points sat on the same table!!! Robert, Ben and Matt! Anyway, Matt ended 8th overall.

So, I lost the first 3 games in the morning! And dropped all the way to 20th position in 3 games!

Round 25 - Opponent: KC Frodyma, rated 931, seeded 48th

My luck finally turned here. I had some lucky breaks, playing 'Zo(O)/Z(A)' for 64 points, KEX for 36 points. I challenged 'CAJON' which was good, so I lost a turn. Later, my rack was 'AEEEEII', which I changed. 2 turns later, I bingoed with 'AWAITED' but I hooked A to a D, making 'DA', a British-only word! But she did not see it until too late, so the bingo stayed. She played a phoney bingo 'INCLOs(I)NG(S)' towards the endgame but I let it go, since I will win without challenging and playing '(C)UBE' at H12 to hit the triple word for 21 points to get ahead and possibly losing by challenging if INCLOSINGS turns out to be good. Well, I found out later that INCLOSING does NOT take the S hook. But I won 393-366, and got up to 17th position. From here, if I win my next 3 games, I can still have the chance to get to Top 10! Still hopeful. Anyway, KC ended in 6th position overall.

Round 26 - Opponent: Richard Hamilton, rated 880, seeded 39th

This was a close game, but I had the luck this time. I bingoed with 'RECITES', later played 'EXES/(JOB)S' for 50 points, and bingoed again with 'ENRAgED'. Richard bingoed also, with 'UnCLOGS' but was not enough. I won 411-377.

Round 27 - Opponent: Chris Nelson, rated 895, seeded 63rd

Another close game. Chris bingoed early with 'CASTINg', and I replied soon with 'SHOVERS'. He scored big with 'JEW(S)' for 30 points, 'FIZ/(I)F' for 42 points and 'oXE(N)/X(I)' for 38 points. And yet, I played close to lose by only 12 points, 320-332. Very very sad for me. Dropped to 18th position. And Chris ended 10th overall.

Round 28 - Opponent: Jeremy Hall, rated 820, seeded 61st

Now, this turned out weird. I wanted to play a good game to win 1 more game to remain in the top 20. If I lose, I know for sure I will go below 20th. And of all my luck, Jeremy was 'gibsonized' [note: not a good Scrabble word], and I am the 'gibsonee' [note: also not good in Scrabble]. Jeremy is from the Bay Area in California, so we knew each other. And he had already won 21 games to win the tournament in Round 27, so this game means nothing to his standing. Due to some rule in US, they don't play King-of-the-hill, but he is 'gibsonized' to play someone who, at best case scenario, will be the 11th position if he/she wins the final round. And that person happens to be ME!!! Man, how fair is that? Just so happens, there are a number of people at 16 wins and I have the highest spread, and for that, I get penalized to play with the champion? I don't understand Americans and their thinking. So, instead of me having a chance to get to the 11th position by playing others with 16 wins, I get to play the best player in the tournament with 21 wins!

The only good thing is, for the 28th and final game, I get to play in Table 1!!

Anyway, I have beaten Jeremy in club game in Palo Alto before, so our standards are not that far off from each other, I think. But I made my mistakes. We were scoring neck-to-neck. He started with 'ZETAS' for 48 points and in his 3rd move, bingoed early with '(T)ITTERED' but I played well to keep up to him. Then, I made my mistake. I bingoed with 'SOL(T)ICES', which he thought for a while, and then challenged it off. But he left the T-spot open, so I bingoed again with 'SOLS(T)ICE', the correct spelling. THis time, he did not challenge. At this point, at the 10th move, we were tied at 296-296. At the 11th move, we both scored 22 and tied again at 318-318. Then, he bingoed with '(BE)S/ STINGED'. STINGED sounds good right? That's because it is a British-only word!!! I thought about it and let it go, coz I have played it before. Turns out, it was not good in TWL2 and I let it stay. Sigh.... There goes the game. It ended in 13 plays, and I lost 352-402, a -50 point difference, coming exactly from the bingo bonus!!! Sigh.....

Dropped like a stone to 22nd position. Not in Top 10, not even in the top 20. And I have a cumulative spread of +1060! If I had won 1 more game, I'd be 15th, and if I had won 2 more games, I would have been 7th! And I really could have done it. My mistakes costed me. So, for today, I have 2 wins - 5 losses, ending the tournament with 16W-12L. Quite bad. Quite pissed, and quite disappointed. Sad. Sad. Sad. Maybe I should just retire from Scrabble.

Hey guys, from Singapore and Malaysia. I know some of you were rooting for me to be in Top 10, and I did actually thought I could do it too. But I screwed up. Sorry to disappoint you guys.

For the round by round standings, please see here.

Day 3 of the US Open

2006-08-07T22:24:00.000-07:00

Day 3 of the US Open. Surprisingly, I slept pretty well last night, and was quite refreshed. Guess it must be my workout at the gym plus a good soak in the hot tub.

I met GI Joel in elevator going down, and saw his funny T-shirt. The back of the T-shirt reads 'I HAVE BEATEN NIGEL RICHARDS BEFORE'. I guess Nigel's fame spread far and wide.

Game 1 - Opponent: Cheryl Francis, rated 909, seeded 27th

Met this interesting lady, who turns out to be of a native american origin. Tough fight too, on the Scrabble board, that is. I bingoed early with 'FIShIER' and later screwed up playing a A hook to NULLED, thinking ANNULLED was spelt with a single 'N'. Of course, she challenged it off. Later I lost another turn because I challenged 'OYES', which turned out to be good while 'OYE' is not! Man, TWL2 ticks me off. It was neck-to-neck till the end, and on my last move, it was me 328, she leading with 339. I had IRON? on my rack, but could not go out. Spent a couple of minutes looking around, and saw an opening! Using ?N, I hooked to the front of 'ZIP' to play 'uN(ZIP)' and ? hook to 'N' for 'Nu' for a 31 points to lead 359-339. She ended the game with another 6 points, take my 'IRO' for 6 points. I won a very close game, 359-351. +8 point spread! Whew.....

Game 16 - Opponent: Chris Nelson, rated 810, seeded 63th

This was a heartbreaking game. I was leading for a long time, through half the game and playing a very closed board that my oppponent cannot play (due to lack of vowels), but made the mistake of opening up the board later. I was leading 223-160, so I opened up the board because I fished out one of the blank tile. But he caught up almost soon and bingoed with a simple 'SEALING' with the S hook. And instead of playing 'Jo(I)N' from the I in SEALING to hit the triple-word from H12 on the board, worth 54 points, I just played J(I)N for 30 points. And he hooked ODD to 'D(JIN)' for more points too!!! Lost badly, 310-405 for a -95 spread. Stupid mistakes!

Game 17 - Opponent: Edmond Wilson, rated 888, seeded 38th

Another sad game. I bingoed on my second turn with 'DILATeD'. He responded later with 'DOmAINS'. We were neck-to-neck, at one point late in the game, 301-308. Then, I made one mistake, playing WORE, hooking my E to THE for 'E(THE)'#, another British-only word!! Lost 323-351, probably due to my stupid ETHE. Stupid TWL2!!!!

Game 18 - Opponent: Khim Clarke, rated 684, seeded 92nd

Found out the Khim is Malaysian, from KL too! She has married locally, I am guessing, having adopted Clarke as her last name. She has settled in the US for about 13 years now, and have just started playing Scrabble in local clubs. We played a ladder-step board, ending up with a very closed-up board. At one point, we were playing 1 tile at a time. I bingoed early with 'SUNDIAL' and later on with 'SEATErS'. Won 412-323.

Game 19 - Opponent: Carol Jones, rated 955, seeded 7th

I ran away with this one. I had most of the power tiles, including the 2 blanks. Playing QI for 44 points, bingoed with 'AnIMATE' for 90 points, MAXES for 42 points, another bingo of 'ENLARgE, ZOO for 41 on the triple word at A1, and finished off with my end-rack bingo, 'REPOSED' for 74. She did get a bingo of '(S)TARTING' but did not hit 300 points. I won 520-295, with a +241 spread.

Game 20 - Opponent: Joyce Stock, rated 782, seeded 69th

Joyce won our earlier game in round 6, day 1. This game, the luck remained with me. Plus, she was really tired too. Played QAT for 42 points. I tried a bingo of 'LeNDORS', which she challenged off. (Yes, I do not know RONDELS works!!) # moves later, I bingoed with 'UNRUST(E)d', which I was pretty proud off, bingoing with 2 'U's. Later on, I played 'Z'AI(R)e' at J14 down, which she challenged unsuccessfully. Phew, I thought I played another British-only word! She, on the other hand, must really have bad racks. I won 387-219 for a +168 spread.

Game 21 - Opponent: Neva Slater, rated 857, seeded 51st.

This old lady had a neck brace on. But Joyce, who played her earlier, said she is a sneaky one! She tends to overdraw, and just drops off the extra tile back into the back. She also draw tiles with the bag below the table. I had to spend time watching her while she draws. Once, I caught her with overdrawing too. Man, old lady!!

Anyhow, it was a tough game. She is a pretty good player. She bingoed with 'RUNTIEr', leading me 146-183. I closed the gap, playing another very closed-up board. Later, I played 'ZAIRe' again for 42 points at O-8. In the end game, I vaulted in front slightly, winning 348-326. Hard fought.

Surprisingly, after today's games, I feel pretty good. Went to the gym again, had a session in the hot-tub and lazed in the pool for a while.... this is the life, playing Scrabble in a top-rate hotel.... (well, I DO have to pay for it....so might as well enjoy the facilities).

Found out after dinner that I am ranked 7th after 21 games!!! In top 10 again! Tomorrow, I am slated to play in tables 3 and 4 in the first 4 games, so it's gonna be a tough fight. I am meeting Robert Collins and Ben Lam again, whom I had lost to both by -11 points earlier. I have a shot in this!! Hope I don't screw it up....

OM SATINE OM RETINA OM SATIRE OM blank OM blank OM
OM SATINE OM RETINA OM SATIRE OM blank OM blank OM
OM SATINE OM RETINA OM SATIRE OM blank OM blank OM
OM SATINE OM RETINA OM SATIRE OM blank OM blank OM
OM SATINE OM RETINA OM SATIRE OM blank OM blank OM

p/s: See the my standing here

Ding Ding, Day 2 of US Open 2006

2006-08-06T23:15:00.000-07:00

Day 2 started with me in a daze.... sleepy.... yawn......

Just found out today that I am rated 13th in Division 6.

Round 8 - Opponent: Susan Bertoni, rated 954, seeded 8th

Was sleepy, but managed to phoney with a believable 'DANcABLE', which should be 'DANCEABLE' to be good. Won 332-305.

Round 9 - Opponent: Ben Lam, rated 971, seeded 4th

Man, this was a tough one. He had both blanks, 3x 'S', the Q,X,Z. I challenged off his phoney 'OuTWINE(S)' and closed up the board, leaving him bingoless, and of course, me too. Made a bad mistake, playing VOL#, a British only word, and lost by a mere 11 points, 296-307. If I played right, could have won by 2 points by playing out first!!! Man, I am so cheesed with myself.

Round 10 - Opponent: Susan Watrous, rated 698, seeded 94th

Change of luck from previous game. This time, I got the good tiles. She bingoed with 'REmO(V)ING' early, and I replied immediately with 'LORRIES' and later on, with 'GRADINES'. Played the 'X' and 'Z' well. Won 445-328, with a +117 spread.

Round 11 - Opponent: Robert Collins, rated 919, seeded 25th

Man, luck changes like the tide, and Robert got the lion share of it. He bingoed with 'STaRERS', and later phoneyed me with 'OUTG(L)IDE', which I did not challenge after thinking over a minute. I put in all I could to catch up, playing well overall but lost 331-342, another loss by -11 spread, like Round 9!! By the way, Robert ended the day on top of Division 6, with a 12-2 record.

Round 12 - Opponent: Ronald Millard, rated 844, seeded 54th

After lunch, I developed this splitting headache, probably from overuse playing Ben Lam and Robert Collins earlier. Tried to sleep it off during lunch break, and took a 'Extra Strength Panadol' but didn't work. Anyhow, still have to play. Bingoed with 'MUSTIER' and led most of the way. He bingoed with 'REPUgNE(D)', which I challenged but lost. At this point, I was still leading. Won the game 395-311.

Round 13 - Opponent: Jack Allard, rated 906, seeded 31st

Still with a splitting headache, and the noise in the room doesn't help. Learnt a new 'Z' word, 'FURZE', which my opponent played. I bingoed with 'MONStER' and later, 'TOWNIES', leading through to win 395-296, a +99 spread.

Round 14 - Opponent: Angela Dancho, rated 687, seeded 96th

Now, the headache is quite unbearable, but the game goes on. No luck this time. My opponent bingoed 2 times consecutively with 'STUNNER' and 'MaLIGNS'. I played 'ZA' for 55, and tried bingo with 'REF(I)LERS' which got challenged off. Lost 339-406.

Ended the day with a 9 win - 5 loss record, and at 17th position. Since I am ranked 13th, my rating will actually drop. Leading the pack is 4 leaders with 12 wins-2 losses, 1 with 11W-3L, and 11 people with 10W-4L. I am the first of the 9W-5L, with my spread of +785, is way ahead of the next person at only +177. Actually, I am ahead in spread compared to most of the people 10W-4L. So, I still have a chance to jump ahead of the pack if I do well tomorrow.

Time to bed, prepare for tomorrow!!

Day 1 of US Open

2006-08-05T23:46:00.000-07:00

Day 1 of the US Open!! Something interesting happened in the morning. I was getting my coffee, and saw G.I. Joel in front of me. While getting sugar and cream for the coffee, he turned to me and actually called me by my name!! I was stunned. How did he know me? I am in Division 6! (Later, he told me he checks out all tournament results. He actually recognizes my face!)

I am player #121, due to my last name. And incidently, we have 114 players in Division 6, as some got bumped up into Division 5 and some no-shows.

Game 1 - Opponent: Edna Perry, rated 470.

Edna is a sweet old lady, who just recently started in the tournament scene. Brave soul, to take part in the US Open. I won 466-123, a whopping +343 spread! This puts me in #1 position after round 1! I feel sorry for her though. I started off with a bingo 'WAGERED'. Turn 6, I bingoed with 'sUI(C)IDES'. I challenged off her bingo, 'EnVIOUS' because she hooked off the U to a B, making BU. So sorry....

Game 2 - Opponent: Dan Doerrfeld, rated 500.

Dan is a young teenage kid, playing in the tournament because his grand-dad is playing too and had wanted him to take part. Again, a real rookie in tournaments, this being his second ever tournament. I bingoed 'LAzIEST' early, and scored another 75 points playing QAId at L1 down, hooking I to VIED at N2. I won 396-319, with a spread of +77. With a cumulative spread of +420, I still stand at #1. Pole position!

Game 3 - Opponent: Paul Rickhoff, rated 644.

Man, my luck turned for the worse. I started, and drew this lousy rack, BDHIUUV. I traded BDOUUV, and got back ADGUW!!! Damn it, got a third U, and the D!!! Throughout the game, I kept getting the I's. Loss 316-411. Lose my pole position.... ah well.

Game 4 - Opponent: Cecille Betts, rated 665.

Tough game! Cecille is legally blind, and was entitled to an additional 5 minutes. And she is a tough one too! Was pretty close through the game. She bingoed with double blanks, REsIGNs. However, I was able to pull through at the end game, and won 326-295, without any bingoes to reply. Phew....

After game 4, I dropped to 17th position.

Game 5 - Opponent: Ruth Brower, rated 771.

No bingoes again, but I won 388-295. Ruth managed to bingo with '(C)ENSURES'.

Game 6 - Opponent: Joyce Stock, rated 795.

Sigh... my second loss here. 306-367. She managed to block 3 of my bingoes by playing exactly where I needed. She blocked 'W(I)TCHIER', UNWRITE#(OSW only), and OUtRI(D)ER. My last rack was 'BEARING', with no place to go... Sigh... She even bingoed on her first move, 'DECLiN(E)D'.

Game 7 - Opponent: Don Ball, rated 868.

Don hails from Toronto, Canada. I played well on this one. Don was fishing for a bingo early on, so I tried to score as much as possible. He tried '(R)AIdABLE', which I challenged off, and he tried again with '(R)AIsABLE' which I challenged but it was good. I lost a turn and he led for the first time 227-229. However, I caught up and bingoed later with 'HALTERS' to pull ahead and win 476-317.

I ended the first day with a 5 wins - 2 losses, and a healthy 547 spread, the highest amongst the 5-2s. This placed me in the 13th spot. Tomorrow, I will be playing against opponents closer to my rating. It'll be tough, but I hope to keep to the top 15, if possible.

On to US Open 2006!!

2006-08-05T00:02:00.000-07:00

Sorry, have not blogged for a while. I am now writing from the Arizona Biltmore, a luxury hotel in Phoenix Arizona designed by the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright. I am participating in the Scrabble US Open 2006!! It is held in this hotel.

For the past months, up till 1st July, I was trying hard to hit the 1000 mark in US ratings... unfortunately, I failed. I got real close too! I hit 999!!! Damn it! Now, I have to play in the lowest division, Division 6, for those rated below 1000.

Anyway, I am looking forward to this tournament. This will give me a taste of what level I really am. Most of the tournaments I have took part so far in the US were small ones, and with 6 games, luck played a big part.

So far, I have met Sam Kantimathi, whom I played against (and lost) in Brands Kings Cup 2005. I have met Jason Katz-Brown, whom I had played a friendly game against in Osaka Japan when we were both visiting a local Scrabble club (he forgot who I am though). I have met Carol of the Carol & Ravi fame, the creators of Lexpert. I have also come across the famous Marlon Hill, the Division 1 player who ranted and raved in movie/documentary 'Word Wars: Tiles and Tribulations in the Scrabble Circuit'. Oh, and I just watched another Scrabble documentary called Scrabylon last night, which featured our very own Malaysian, Ganesh.

Looking forward to tomorrow!! Will update as I go along.

May the blanks and 'S' flow my way....
OM RETINA OM SATIRE OM SATINE
OM RETINA OM SATIRE OM SATINE
OM RETINA OM SATIRE OM SATINE
OM RETINA OM SATIRE OM SATINE

Implicit Associations Test

2006-05-18T11:09:00.000-07:00

In the highly 'politically-correct' world in the US, we have many trainings here for 'diversity' and 'inclusiveness' issues. My firm does this, not just for compliance with regulations, but also the management recognizes that in our evolving world, our workplace IS becoming more diverse, especially in the melting pot of California.

At the latest firm-sponsored training I attended, Dr. Tony Greenwald, the creator of the Implicit Associations Tests (IATs) spoke to us. Check out the Harvard website to do the IATs!! The results may surprise you.

=================================================================================
Quoted from website:
It is well known that people don't always 'speak their minds', and it is suspected that people don't always 'know their minds'. Understanding such divergences is important to scientific psychology.

This web site presents a method that demonstrates the conscious-unconscious divergences much more convincingly than has been possible with previous methods. This new method is called the Implicit Association Test, or IAT for short.
=================================================================================

Metrosexual experiences

2006-05-18T10:44:00.000-07:00

Hmm, have been trying new experiences recently...

I got a haircut on Monday. Back in KL, it was always Toni & Guy for me, since I've got cousins working there. In the US, it was a challenge to find a suitable place, since I did not want to go to a quick-chop-shop like Super*Cuts or something. Too spoilt for too long.

Found this place online called American Male! Well, this is actually my 3rd visit there, and given that I have been here for about 6 months now. Generally, my hair has been too long for too long. Making up in advance for the inevitable genetically-programmed thinning pate in the future.

I had signed up for the 'Quality Grooming Experience'
From their 'menu':
Custom Hair Services
Men’s Quality Grooming Experience ........................$49
Series of 5 QGEs’ (Save $20) ..................................$225
Our hair services are performed by master hair stylist & colorists.
Included in your 45 minute custom haircut are several free grooming
treatments to ensure you leave looking and feeling GREAT!
• Energizing Shampoo • Warm Paraffin Hand Dip • Mini Face Massage
• Warm Towel Face Wrap • Mini Scalp Massage • Haircut
• Re-Shampoo • Conditioning • Splash • Styling

Eh, I know, not cheap if converted to RM, but in US$ terms, it's alright, I think. RM for US$, I pay more back in KL!

Ever tried a paraffin hand dip? Well, I tried it here! Interesting, dipping your hands 5-6 times into a warm liquid wax container and have it dry up and peeled off later. Supposed to 'smooth' the hands. Nice feelings, but not sure if it really works. The mini face massage is ok, given that they use massage oil, which adds to my already oily face. The warm towel face-wrap is great though. Hard to keep awake with that on! The haircut is quite good as they only use the electric trimmers towards the end of the session to clean up. I dislike those chop-shops that uses the trimmer for most of the cutting.

Oh, we just had a firm-sponsored training event, after which we had social activities. Real fun! All free! Had my shoes shined, got a back massage, played Daytona with colleagues, ate loads of fresh oysters and cocktail jumbo shrimps, and guess what? I made some sterling silver jewelry for Wan (to score brownie points, you know?) AND for the first time in my life, got a manicure!! How about that? Apparently, the manicurists told me that for this particular event, HALF of those in line were MEN!!!

Getting too vain here, people....

Jinxed

2006-05-09T17:47:00.000-07:00

I've met my jinx. A real life jinx...

Ever got one of those moments? I've met mine in Scrabble. Purple hair, purple glasses, full of hand and ankle bangles, one bad attitude, rude and irritating, all packaged into a old lady who will look just right as one of Macbeth's witches brewing their potion.....

Yes, I've met my Scrabble jinx. When I am paired to play, I feel drained. Drained of enthusiasm. If you see the tiles I get, you'll know why... Just lost another game this weekend to her. My last three tiles? I, I and I....

Johari and Nohari: Self-reflection

2006-05-02T10:18:00.000-07:00

Got this cool website from sonic. Must be brave to try....

Ya, since I just turned a year older recently, I wonder what the world thinks of me, and what I can do to be a better person.

I would appreciate if you could look into my Johari and Nohari windows: my good and bad.

It will help me accentuate my good, and work on my bad...

Prosper thyself!

2006-04-14T13:18:00.000-07:00

Just discovered a cool new website, Prosper!

Uses the ancient Chinese way of lending and borrowing money among small groups of people. Prosper takes that ancient concept, merged it with eBay-style bidding to make it into a new business model!

I just started a borrowing group called 'New to the USA' as a way for newcomers to build credit history in the US, as well as getting access to funds for future investments.

Cool concept! Check it out.

Playing golf again....

2006-04-14T13:10:00.001-07:00

Started to golf again. One thing good being in the US. Golf equipment are relatively cheap, and golf green frees are cheap too!

Got my golf set of eBay. Full set of Wilson Matrix golf clubs (without putter) for less than $100! Got a carry-bag from Target for $30. Got a Wilson putter for $30. And golf shoes for $80. With miscellaneous stuff (balls, tees, etc.), all in, about $250 in equipment costs.

Started playing with colleagues from work. 4 of us, Malaysian and Singaporean. Just right. Playing at the Santa Clara Municipal golf course. Open to public, fees only $26 per 9-holes.

I love playing golf here. You step out into the sun, and no sweat!! I perspire like a pig when I am playing back in Malaysia. Not even before hitting the first ball off the first tee, I am basically wet with perspiration. Here, cool and breezy. Makes a more relaxing game.

But I still suck at it.....

Last TWL1, First TWL2

2006-03-02T09:01:00.000-08:00

My last post was about the last TWL1 tournament. Officially, it still is the last NSA listed tournament. But during then, it was announced that the Palo Alto club will hold a club tournament. Last day of TWL1 on February 28, and first day of TWL2 on March 1. Could not pass up on that!

Had a great time! I am seeded 6th in this group.

February 28, 2006

Game 1:
Opponent: Mitch Bayersdorfer, rated 1575, seeded 2nd

Wow! I am playing with a 600+ rating differential!! Not unexpected. He bingoed with NORMALs first, which I replied with ZoNE with the Z on a double letter and E on the triple word for 66 points. The board closed up then, but he hooked through my P to bingo with S(P)RINTED. TINDERS would have no place to go, if not for my P. Lost 2 turns because of S hooks that were no good, ILKAS* and PIUS*. Sigh….. Not much else to say, but got thrashed 311-453.

Game 2:
Opponent: Jeremy Hall, rated 776, seeded 7th

This was a close fight till towards the end. I bingoed with NEROLIS. He tried RETHREw*/(VAU)R* for his last rack, but I challenged them off. He might have won if that was good. Won 397-307.

Game 3:
Opponent: Richard Stein, rated 1561, seeded 4th

My first triple-triple in a tournament!!! My opponent played DANGED, and I laid down MIN(D)lESs, having 2 blanks (to make L and S). 131 points!!! Sweet…. Had another bingo NASTIER (with RETINAS, the possibilities are great!!!) for 82 points. My opponent probably had bad tiles or bad balance. But to beat a 1,500+ player!! Nice feeling. Won 413-316

March 1, 2006

Game 4:
Opponent: Felix Kwok, rated 1570, seeded 3rd

Another 1,500+ opponent…. I got to bingo late in the game with SOARINg across the right centre triple word for 80 points. My opponent probably had bad tiles too. Won this 375-314. I think my ratings may improve well this time, having won against much higher rated players.

Game 5:
Opponent: Paula Catalanese, rated 1353, seeded 5th

My luck turned. I had nice tiles, but in wrong combinations. And I played DA#!!!! Again!!! Lost that to a challenge, of course. I lost this game 273-397. Ouch. But congratulations to Paula, coz she won 5 of 6 games to win the overall tournament.

Game 6:
Opponent: Richard Stein, rated 1561, seeded 4th

Richard is out for revenge for his lost yesterday!! I had crappy tiles too. I had RAIS? and I could not draw to bingo for a few rounds!!! Drew ID, GA, FA, which I played off. Drew IT and got AIRIeST, but was not sure I could play AIT (front hook to IT), which was a good word. Passed on that. Threw an I for just 2 points to draw an S, to play SAtIRES for a meastly 61 points. Richard played well. No bingos but scored consistently while I fished…. Lost 252-416…. Sigh…..

But overall, this tournament was fun!! I played the new allowable words such as QI, OI and VID (which were good OSW words before anyway) and a new word NEG.

Looking forward to more games!

TWL2: Interesting new words

2006-02-28T13:33:00.000-08:00

TWL2 is starting tomorrow!!!

New words:
DUH!!!!! Finally, this is in use.....
ZZZ: an unlikely word to be played, having to use 2 blanks with the Z!!!
AHI: I guess it's the Ahi Tuna fish, a favourite dish here.
ZA: the short form of pizza....what is the world coming to....

More usable 2 & 3-letter SOWPODS words now, for e.g.:
OI, QI, AHS, CIG, CRU, DAN, DEF, FAB, GOS, HOS, KYE, LES, MEG, OBA, ODA, POO, PST, QIS, RAI, SUK, UTE, VID, VUM, ZUZ

New 4-letter words that are interesting:
BLOG!! This new fangled word, what I am doing now... (BLOGGING is good, but not BLOGGED? Why? WEBLOG/WEBLOGS are good too)
MEME: Another new one!! meme me!!
CHAI: My favourite CBTL drink, Chai Latte
HAKU, JUKU, KOJI: Japanese words?
KUFI: Islamic skull-cap

More usable 4-letter SOWPODS words: QADI, ZINE, ZONA, ZOUK

New 5-letter words that are interesting:
AZUKI: Japanese red beans
BENTO: Japanese lunch box
BICEP: arm muscle... why wouldn't it be in?
BURKA/BURQA: Whole-body covers for Middle-eastern ladies
CUVEE: a wine word?
CYBER: another high-tech word
DROID: may the force be with you...
DUMBO: haha! you!!
EBOOK: another high-tech word
EMAIL: finally, those guys get it
EMMYS: an award?
FEDEX: another brand got generic
FOLIC: that's a nutrient for you
FUBAR: F-up beyond all recognition!!!
GAZOO: no idea what, but it was SOWPODS usable
GYOZA: Japanese dumpling
HAKUS: Japanese poetry
HALAL: permissable in Islam
HIJAB: Islamic veil
JELLO: they invented it, but never used it, another brand to generic use
KOMBU: Japanese seaweed, good for health
KORMA: Indian spice
LASSI: Indian yogurt drink, mango lassi is my favourite!
LOGON/LOGIN: more high-tech words
LYCRA: another brand to generic
MANGA: Japanese comics
MEMES: memememememe
MYLAR: another brand
PYREX: another brand
QADIS: usable in SOWPODS
SKANK: men don't want to be called this
SPAMS: unwanted emails, or mashed pork?
SPAZZ: spastic, I think
TANGA: sexy briefs
TECHS: ya, ya, another tech word
TELCO: short for telecommunications company, or telecom company, or telco...
UDONS: Japanese noodles
UMAMI: Japanese, the taste of MSG, not sweet, not salty, not sour, not bitter
VENUS: huh? a planet? or to describe a woman?
VOCAB: English is on the decline.... vocabulary became vocab
WANKS: you do that?
WICCA: the ancient religion of worshipping mother earth and nature, for witches
WUSHU: Chinese martial arts!!
ZINES: no idea, but good for SOWPODS
ZONAE: no idea, but good for SOWPODS

and.....
WEBSITE/WEBSITES: New to TWL2. How backward was TWL1??? WEBCAST is new. No PODCAST yet!! TWL3 perhaps.

Japanese, Islamic and IT words made a big impact to the dictionaries. Chinese words only had WUSHU, and QI, I suppose.

Hope to go through all the new words soon... tough..... according to LAMPWORDS that I use, there are:

5 x 2-letter words (3 to OSW)
44 x 3-letter words (21 to OSW)
128 x 4-letter words (66 to OSW)
303 x 5-letter words (160 to OSW)
556 x 6-letter words (384 to OSW)
920 x 7-letter words (649 to OSW)
1,349 x 8-letter words (985 to OSW)

Looks like a lot to learn. Lesser for me, if with SOWPODS, but I've still got to sort out those that cannot be used still!!! Damn TWL....

The Last TWL1 Tournament

2006-02-26T18:32:00.000-08:00

Sunday, March 26, 2006

I am rated 8th of 8 players in division C, the third division. This is the last TWL1 tournament, and TWL2 officially goes into tournament use in March 2006.

Game 1
Opponent: Henry Yeung, rated 1249, seeded 1st

No luck, no luck!!! My 1st rack was GILORTT, and I played LOG, leaving IRTT. Guess what I drew? I+I+I!!! In a full bag? Man, the tile gods sure were against me this game. Henry bingoed twice in a row, first with ASTERIA, next with REMINdS.

I actually challenged REMINdS, because he announced the blank as an ‘M’ first. I challenged immediately and then he said, no ‘N’, then ‘D’. I called the tournament director, JC Green. Henry insisted he said ‘D’ first despite me not hearing it at all. How can a ‘D’ sounds like an ‘M’. Plus his second confirmation, he said ‘N’. John said I can withdraw my challenge, because the blank was not written down. I lost my respect for Henry immediately. He is a good player, and will climb the ranks. But he gets zero from me for honesty.

Well, lost this first game 270-442. Negative spread of 172 points. Not a good start. And lost faith in both Henry and John.

Game 2
Opponent: David Carlson, rated 1169, seeded 3rd

It was close at the beginning. I first challenged off his early non-word bingo, BEEPINGS* and built up a small lead. But he bingoed later with ROTATES.

SOWPODS undid me in this game. Later, I played QUAIRS#, an OSW word only for 48 points onto the top middle triple word space. It got challenged off. Played QUIRES next, again for 48 points, but my opponent hooked RE to make REQUIRES into the top left triple word space for 54 points. He then played BLANkEST, which I challenged and lost a turn. 2 mistakes. I bingoed RELEARNs towards the end, but lost this game 397-413. If I did not play QUAIRS# and not challenged BLANkest, I might have won.

Game 3
Opponent: Martin Mondragon, rated 1095, seeded 5th

I played Martin several times before, but never got to win him before. I had some luck to balance out my rack. Got one bingo, OUTLIE(R)S and he bingoed with GLAnCErS. Had both blanks in a rack!! Man…..and I started accumulating vowels in my rack. But that was a blessing in disguise, as in the end game, he had no vowels to play with, and I won 410-359. Finally get 1 win against him!

Game 4
Opponent: Marilyn Gage, rated 1185, seeded 2nd

Ahh…. I played a OSW word again…. Played OARIEST#, and got it challenged off. (OTARIES is not good too) Threw the O for 5 points and drew B and played BARITES next. Then, the curse of the vowels hit me again. At one point, I had 5 ‘E’ on my rack and I could not change due to the board openings. My opponent bingoed with DIASTEr. She led the end game and I lost 308-377.

Game 5
Opponent: Helen Gendler, rated 1150, seeded 4th.

Played ZINGA(R)E!! My first time too. For 54 points. I almost played ZINGA(R)ES coz I had the S. But luckily, I did not coz ZINGARES* is no good. My opponent bingoed REMOTesT. 2 blanks!! Second time today that my opponents had that. Played SINNERS in the late game and won 418-329. Funny, 2 games with opponent bingoed with 2 blanks and I won?!?

Game 6
Opponent: David Carlson, rated 1169, seeded 3rd

Playing David again. No luck again. I think the tile gods want me to quit or something. Had one rack with EEEIINR and towards the end, a rack with ANNNNOU. So annoying! Plus, David took all 4 ‘S’ and 2 blanks! I only caught up slightly playing Q, Z and X nicely. Lost 341-423.

Got 2 games. As I am seeded last in this division, I might get some increase in ratings with 2 games. Well, this is the last of TWL1 for me. TWL2 starts in March 2006. Woe to me!! First, already have 2 list to remember (second one being OSW-only words), and now I’ve got to learn new TWL2 words!!

Santa Monica

2006-02-24T18:58:00.000-08:00

Sunday, February 19, 2006

Visited Santa Monica. This place really looks nice with all those palm trees, the beach, the boardwalk & saw an installation to commemorate US soldiers in Iraq on the beach.

FUBAR - allowed in Scrabble!!

2006-02-24T18:48:00.000-08:00

Just found out about this word. You know what it means? Will try to use it from March 2006, when this new word is legal for Scrabble tournaments!

Wong Kar Mun at Von Karman

2006-02-20T22:05:00.000-08:00

Hey hey, staying at a hotel along Von Karman Street!!

Very close phonetically to my name, yah?

2 notebooks = danger?

2006-02-19T23:13:00.000-08:00

Wednesday, February 15

Had a business trip to Irvine, California. Flew from San Jose airport to Santa Ana airport. Airport security... you wonder what they are thinking...

I have 2 notebook computers. Yes, 2. One is firm-issued and one is client-issued. Notebooks have to be removed from the bag, and placed in trays for screening. So, I took them out, and put them together into one tray, one on top of another. Guess what? They had to be 'scrutinized' again because of that. The security screener told me I cannot put them together, but they should be in separate bins. But why?

Anyhow, they got swabbed and the swab was put into some scanner. Took a few more minutes, but what nonsense!

V-day

2006-02-14T15:15:00.000-08:00

Ah, another hole in my pocket, another win for commercialism...

CNY parade in SF

2006-02-13T20:49:00.000-08:00

Saturday, Feb 11

Went to SF to watch the CNY parade. Those who had experienced the Singapore Chingay parade was sorely disappointed. The parade was political, for one. Car after car of political figures (unknown to me) went first. Marshall this, Marshall that, Supervisor this, Supervisor that. Don't even know what they are for. Saw the SF Mayor live for the first time. He has the looks of an movie star, according to some.

Finally, the parade floats and contingents starts. And stops. And starts. And stops. The timing of the flow really sucked. I heard later that it is because all the contingents stopped at Union Square, where we saw the bright lights. The TV crew were there to film, so all the contingents actually stopped there to perform, causing the rest to back-up.

After a while, even the contingents got boring. Not many of the better sounding marching bands (of course, nothing to do with the Chinese). Lots of martial art schools parading their lions, but the lions weren't exactly dancing either. More like walking. The first golden dragon was somewhat impressive, but later on, more to come. Less and less impressive ones, that is. Then, the kids from various schools came. Had their lion heads and little dragons too. From then on, it got boring.

Ah well. We had an Indonesian dinner, at a restaurant called Borobudor. Not too bad. The rendang was good. Saving grace.

Soccer: USA vs. Japan

2006-02-13T15:56:00.000-08:00

Friday night, Feb 10, 8pm

Watched a live soccer match. Friendly game, USA vs. Japan. As those who know me well, I was never really into soccer. Well, a partner of the firm part-sponsored the tickets, so I went for it! A group of us (not unexpectedly, mostly foreigners) went for it.

Was kinda fun, actually. We went to the SBC Park, up in San Francisco. There was a record turn-out of more than 37,000 in attendance. The USA team had not been in to SF in 26 years. I was surprised that they even had a soccer team for 26 years. And even more surprised that there are that many supporters of the game. I mostly thought it was more a women's game here in the US.

The match itself was pretty one-sided. By end of first half, the score was 2-0 in favour of USA. Most of the time, the ball was in Japan's half of the field. Very slow response of the strikers, and they could not pass well. Second half was more exciting, and the match ended 3-2 in favour of USA. At least the Japanese fought back well in the 2nd half. I suspect that the Japanese team actually fielded their second team. The Nakata fella was not there. There was a bunch of Japanese teens sitting near us, cheering "Nippon, nippon" but mostly drown out by the US supporters.

The weather was kinda weird in SF. It was unusually warm and sunny for this whole week, very uncharacteristically of the winter season. Must be the global warming... anyhow, as we drove up to SF, the fog came in and at the stadium itself, the wind of chillingly cold.... brrr....

But this was a fun outing. Hope the partner will sponsor more events like these!

Books to read

2006-02-02T09:47:00.000-08:00

Via jadeite and sonic, here are the current top 50 books from What I Should Read Next. Bold the books you have read. Italicise the books you might read. Cross out the books you probably won’t read. Pass it on:

The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown (for all those book bashers, this is fiction!! Fiction!! I love conspiracy theories...)
The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy - Douglas Adams (the funniest book I’ve read! the movie sucked bad though)
The Great Gatsby - F.Scott Fitzgerald
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter 6) - J.K. Rowling
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Animal Farm: A Fairy Story - George Orwell (a great satirical piece on communism. did this for my ‘O’ levels, used to be able to quote whole paragraphs!! ‘All Animals Are Created Equal’ became ‘All Animals Are Created Equal, But Some Are More Equal Than Others’)

Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

1984 - George Orwell
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Book 3) - J.K. Rowling
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
Angels and Demons - Dan Brown
Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk
Neuromancer - William Gibson

Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

American Gods - Neil Gaiman
Ender’s Game (The Ender Saga) - Orson Scott Card
Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson
A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis (after watching the movie, this piqued my interest. I read the prequel ‘Magician’s Nephew’, which explains the formation of Narnia)

Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien (I grew up loving D&D stuff)
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
Good Omens - Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman

Atonement - Ian McEwan
The Shadow Of The Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Dune - Frank Herbert

Hmm, don't seem to have read a lot on this list. And I usually read whatever I get my hands on. Guess I have been reading more business books, investment books and self-improvement books lately...

CNY Scrabble

2006-02-02T00:33:00.000-08:00

Sunday Jan 29, 2006
Chinese New Year
Scrabble!!!

Ya, I know. First day of Chinese New Year, and I do the most untraditional thing.... played Scrabble. What to do? Los Gatos tournaments happens once a month, usually last Sunday of the month. If I don't go, I'll suffer withdrawal symptoms, I think.

Wearing a red underwear outside my pants.... just kidding lah, not Superman... want a bit more luck, a little more balanced racks only.

Game 1
Opponent: David Stewart, rated 830

Nice guy, pretty good player. Bingoed on his second rack, with UnSWEPT for 74 points and I replied immediately with EX for 55 points, with the 'X' tile on the triple letter score. Then, with my fourth rack, I laid down RINGLET. He, in turn, had another bingo, with LENDING. I kept behind him closely and towards the end-game, I picked up the 'Q'! Luckily, I was holding on to a 'U' tile. This would never have upset me if it was SOWPODS, but with TWL right now, having the Q at the end usually is not good. On our last racks, I was barely leading with 346-343, but had the Q. The board was pretty closed up too. I was gonna give up and eat the Q, when I spied an open 'A' tile. My last chance to play out the Q, so I played AQUA for 15 points, exposing the 'A' on J15 on the triple word score line. I knew he may have bingo-able tiles, but hoped for the best. He played ST(A)IRS for just 21 points to bring him to lead 361-364, but I played out (G)'OING' for just 8 points, but enough to beat him by 5 points, and took his 2 points extra to boot. Turns out he was holding the 'E' as his last tiles. He could have played out with S(A)TIRES to win the game. Phew.

Game 2
Opponent: Jon Demeter, rated 778

Nice guy, Jon. Played him before. Not much to say on this game, except for lousy tiles. Lost badly with 269-404. He phoneyed me with a bingo SUPINED*.

Game 3
Opponent: Lynn Joseph, rated 855

She is a very pushy lady. Interruptive too. Not liking her personally too much, but she plays well. Started out well, and bingoed twice, with RISKIeR and REStAGE, but the 'I's clung to me at the end game. Proceeded to close up the board, but she bingoed with BANGLES, hooking the 'S' to FOND. Challenged FONDS and lost a turn. Big mistake, as she then played ZITI on the triple word for another 47 points. Lost 357-410.

Game 4
Opponent: David Carlson, rated 1131, first seed

Good player. He bingoed with s(Q)UIRTED and I replied with DelET(I)NG immediately. But lost towards the end with racks like AIIOURS. But close game. Lost 334-372.

Game 5
Opponent: Gloriosa Agdeppa, rated 904

This was a good game. I bingoed early with DRAiNER and she replied later on with sOLDIER. I then started to had bad tiles, and changed one rack for all 7 tiles. Immediately, she played SUQS for 54 points on the bottom triple word line to lead 323-265. I started to track every move, and ended with my second last play of AIDS to hook D on BATHE for 22 points to edge a lead of 377-360. I held my 'I' tile, and she had to play out 3 tiles with 15 points to draw. But she could only score 14 points! I got another 3 points for my end game and took 2 points from her to win 382-374. Great end game play for me! Learning my lessons well....

Game 6
Opponent: David Stewart, rated 830.

I faced Stewart again! I knew I had to play carefully with him, since he will be out for revenge. I drew a blank tile on first rack, and bingoed with TACTI(l)E. Later on, I bingoed with LAIRISE#, a OSW-only word. I think since I played it down so confidently, he did not challenge the word. I had HORNETs on my last rack, but unfortunately blocked by his move. I knew he had the JO on his last rack, and there was an exposed triple letter square with an 'O' beside it. Thank goodness, I track tiles in all my games! I blocked it, and won 351-323. Phew again!! My end-game moves are getting better.

So, met just 1 target. Won 3 games, that's half the games. Had a negative spread, so I failed that. And I was not in the top half. Was 5th of 8. Oh well.

Happy seeing the dentist?

2006-01-30T14:03:00.000-08:00

Sat 01/28/06, Chinese New Year eve. Dentist appointment. Happy?

Actually, I started off a bit annoyed. I am not afraid of the dentist, just never thought it to be necessary. The last time I visited one was back in….wait, I forgot.

Anyhow, as you know, in the US, you get insurance for every little thing, including dental coverage. Since I am already paying for it, why not use it, right? Actually, Wan was the one pushing me for it, and made the appointments for both of us. She heard of the Cerulean Dental Spa which was ravely reviewed by colleagues. Hah, dental spa?!?

Anyhow, we went to this upmarket area called Rivermark, a masterplann development, where townhouses costs USD700k upwards. That’s where the dental spa is located. Before seeing the dentist, of course, there are 4 different forms to sign-off, with contact details, medical history, allergies etc, plus waiver if you die on the chair. Actually, no lah. No waiver like that.

That’s when the fun begins. Really.

First, I was brought to a nice leather reclining lounge seat and they had a 40” flat screen TV mounted in front of it, on the wall. Then, the dental assistant came by, introduced herself, and told me what she was going to do next. Took blood pressure (why does that affect my teeth?), took digital x-rays and a panaroma x-ray, both digitally. Then, they played a video that explains what will happen next, and why.

The dentist then came by, introduced himself, and explained step-by-step, what they will do, and why. Does your dentist ever tell you why they are doing stuff they do? This is a brand new experience!

Then, he did a periodontal probe, measuring the distance between my gums from my teeth. They even have a scale for it. 1, 2 or 3mm is good and 4 onwards is bad. Next, he did a cavity scan, using a laser probe! Something called a Kavoscan or something like that. Any readings higher than 15 on the scanner is not good.

Next, this is incredible…. He showed my on the TV, the x-rays of my teeth, with the associated periodontal probe readings and Kavoscan readings imposed on each individual tooth. I wish I had photos to show you, but I don’t. Then the dentist proceeed to explain what it all means, which tooth needs work, etc.etc. All that does not happen now, but is scheduled over my next 4 visits. I need some fillings done. They will remove my old silver fillings (made with mercury, dangerous stuff) and replace them with new ceramic plastic types.

Then, he introduced another dentist, who would be doing the actual cleaning.. You know what the dental assistant brought me? A menu selection of DVDs to watch while the cleaning goes on!! They had like 2 full menus of movies and TV series to watch!

I chose ‘Scrubs’, the very very funny TV sitcom. Was laughing while the dentist was cleaning and polishing my teeth!! And I had to laugh during that time. Swallowed some minty polishing agent, but that’s alright. She even flossed my teeth after the polish. Have you ever had this kind of service?

Of course, when the bill came, that’s a shocker. The first trip was fully covered by my dental insurance, but the next 4 trips will cost me slightly over $1k, coz I would have fully utilized my insurance coverage. I think I will split it into 2 years to do those work……

Man, this is one dental trip I don’t mind going again. I know more about my teeth than my last 30 years!! What technology can do……

Bad start to a morning

2006-01-25T10:39:00.000-08:00

Sigh.... walked to my car this morning to go to work... and saw a big dent in the left side of my car. And the parking spot beside me is empty. That driver simply drove off without even writing a note! What a lousy neighbour. I wish upon him/her endless car breakdowns, tire punctures, stones against windscreen etc.....

Sigh....

World traveller

2006-01-19T08:51:00.000-08:00

I've been to 23 countries so far, which only covers only 10% of the world. I guess I've been more widely travelled than most. Have been lucky that my parents love to travel, and I get to tag along when younger. Now that I am in the US, perhaps I can hit South America sometime. (oh yeah, I've got my travelogue photos in my website, if anyone is interested.)

I'd love to see the world, but I doubt many people actually gets to visit all countries in the world in one lifetime. And many times, one city does not represent the whole country anyway.

When you visit on a tour, you just see the pretty sites, not the real life of the local people. I found my backpack tours brings me more intimate with local life, and staying locally gets you even closer, of course.

How about you? Where do you want to go today?

p/s: thanks to jadeite for this cool website!

create your own visited country map
or write about it on the open travel guide

Micasa

2006-01-16T00:12:00.000-08:00

Home sweet home....

Finally got it all set up... ahhhh.....

New Year tourney, part 2

2006-01-04T00:52:00.000-08:00

Scrabble Daze…

This morning, I woke up very early…. just after 6am. Not sure why, but cannot go back to sleep… very well, I woke up to get ready for the 2nd day of the New Year Scrabble tournament at Los Gatos lodge. I sure hope they have power today.

Even after breakfast, still too early to go to the venue, so I played a little Civilization IV to pass time. It is a great game! Surely will get addicted to this…

Ok, time to go…

Game 7
Opponent: Martin Mondragon, rated 1053, seeded 26th of 28.

I have matched with Martin in my last tourney, and lost. I hope to exact my revenge here. And what do I do? I played DA#!! Bloody hell…. Had LANATES, LAMENTS, CANDIES, SHOEING. But all orphaned…. total frustration… Lost 299-419, my largest negative spread so far…

Game 8
Opponent: Jeannie Wilson, rated 1185, seeded 24th of 28.

This was a close fight. You first bingoed with NEATENS, and I immediately replied with BRaISED. But I made a stupid error later on. The board rapidly closed up, leaving an exposed N on the bottom triple line. I had ARISTAE with nowhere to go, and considered playing the A on top of an E (to form AE) for only 2 points, but gives me a second open line above and yet keep SATIRE on my rack. However, I chose to play off the A on top of PE in a closed-off area in the board just to get 7 points, an additional measly 5 points. Big mistake. She bingoed using the exposed N to form ROaSTI(N)G, and the board closed up. I subsequently held racks with VERITAS (which S can hook AE to play SAE), EROSION (N to hook AE to play NAE), OESTRIN and NAILERS. All orphaned for a measly 5 points…. *kick* *kick* *kick* own butt. Lost 325-358. Oh, and this game is the first time I played the F**K word in a tournament play!! So embarrassing to play it against a lady opponent, but those 4 tiles in the rack, what else can I do?

Game 9
Opponent: Thomas Conrad, rated 1126, seeded 25th of 28.

This game started well. I bingoed with ETHIONS on my 3 turn, but he replied immediately with sOLANiNS immediately (which I thought better not to challenge). It was pretty close after that. I actually layed down the word JENNY with J on the double letter and Y on the double word to give me 42 points, but chickened out because I was not sure. Played JUICY elsewhere for just 23 points. Bad mistake. Firstly, the word was good and the points were good. Secondly, not playing JENNY allowed him to bingo EGESTED, which JENNY would have blocked. *kick* *kick* *kick* own butt. Lost 367-397.

Game 10
Opponent: Emily Weissman, rated 1665, seeded 10th of 28.

I don’t know how the pairing works, but I am playing the 10th seed?!? Anyhow, I picked up a very nice first rack, with CEEST?? She started with WAXEN for 38 points. I took some time, and laid down rEC(A)STEd* across the A to hit double-double word. But chickened out and played C(A)SsEtTE instead, just in case I am wrong, which I was. (Side note: Auditors will know this word in real life as ‘recasted’ is regularly used in audit lingo, meaning to have recalculated the total of a column of numbers)

I proceeded to close up the board, and at the end of the 10th turn, I was ahead 256-186 with a pretty closed up board. Then, my mistakes began. First, I played GOS#, which is a OSW-only word, which she challenged off. I had held GGOORTT which I should have exchanged. Then, she opened up with ZEROS, with the Z just five space above the bottom center triple word space. I tried to block by playing ZOO. Major mistake! She placed TY to form ZOOTY for 54 points. I challenged, not knowing this word and lost my next turn too. I had crappy 1 to 2 point tiles while she picked up the big scoring tiles and the remaining ‘S’, and the J which she used well with JAMB. I lost 301-353.

Game 11
Opponent: Martin Mondragon, rated 1053, seeded 26th of 28.

Ok, now playing with repeats, and meeting Martin again. He bingoed LANDInG and I replied later with the phony BARNIES*, which he did not challenge off. But he had better tiles while I collected crappy unbalanced racks despite having the other blank tile. Lost 341-383, with a 0-3 record against Martin. Sigh….

Game 12
Opponent: B.A. Toole, rated 987, seeded 27th of 28.

I meet B.A. again for the final round of tournament. She has 3-8 wins and a negative 900+ spread, while I have 2-9 wins with a negative 400+ spread. So, this game was the game to determine who becomes last in the tournament!

First rack, BFHINTV…. Played BIN for a measly 10 points. Second rack, FHRRTV?. What the ?&$@#^!…. Changed 4 tiles on my 2nd turn, kept the ?RT. Happy! Bingoed with RiVETED next turn. Imagine, I threw the V and picked up the other V from a almost full bag!! And later on, I bingoed SMARTIE. Also played JO, QUIT and NAZI consecutively for high scoring words, with Q and Z on the triple letter spaces. Wrapped this game up, winning 401-353. Yay!! I am not last!!! Well, came in second last, but still good coz I am seeded last… oh well.

The tournament officially ended after the 12th game, due to the lighting problem yesterday. But there were originally 14 games scheduled, so the tournament directors allowed us to play another 2 rated games, but will not count towards the tournament results.

Game 13
Opponent: Paula Catalanese, rated 1386, seeded 18th of 28.

I was off to a good started, with second rack for a bingo TERTiAN. I kept scoring consistently good scores while she struggled a bit with her words. She picked up 3 of the 4 ‘S’s and the other blank but failed to capitalize on them. I won 345-310. Woohoo! 4-9 record!!

Game 14 (final game)
Opponent: Pat Diener

Started well, and I bingoed cR(I)TTERS on a double-double word tiles. Suffered after that with bad tiles, at one point and EQUID on my rack with no place for the Q anywhere. So, I exchanged it off..….. towards the end, I picked up EENRRTT with a closed-up board. Played off an e for a measly 3 points, and picked up…. what else? Another E. Played off the new E for another measly 3 points, and hey!! Got the blank! NETTERs!!! But no place to play. So, off goes another E for 4 points… guess what…. Q came visiting again…. desperately played QaTS later to hook AE with an S, but of course, AES is no good and was challenged off. Lost 256-412, my worst spread in this tournament. Final count: 4-10 record. Ok, not too bad, I guess.

There. That’s it. Done. Just got back the ratings…. I did ok, gaining 85 points to go to rating of 921. Sigh….. started off at 922 after the first tournament, dropped steadily ever since, and now not even back to my original rating!!! Oh well, more words to learn…

Summary of bingos played:
Game
1: CeMENtS
2: -none-
3: -none-
4: PLaSTER
5: HIsSERS, WINIESt
6: -none-
7: -none-
8: BRaISED
9: ETHIONS
10: CASsEtTE
11: -none-
12: RiVETED, SMARTIE
13: TERTIaN
14: cRITTERS

Candlelit Scrabble

2006-01-01T18:36:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everybody!! May 2006 be a grand new beginning for you to achieve even more success in every area of life!!

So, what does an avid Scrabbler do on New Year’s Day? Play Scrabble, of course! Los Gatos organized a 2-day tournament this weekend to take advantage of the long weekend. Held in the Los Gatos Lodge, the first day has been interesting…

I took up the Division 1 challenge and, as expected, I am seeded 28thof 28, ie. last. Actually, no shame in that, since I won’t lose too much rating points even if I had lost all my games, but will have more to gain if I win any games at all. I am rated 836 and the rest are rated from 900+ to 1900+!

So, here is a brief outline of my experience, heh heh…

Game 1
Opponent: TC Houlgate-West, rated 1366, seeded 19th of 28.

I picked up the 2 blanks together for this game, so a bingo should be easy enough. Unfortunately, the board was not that open but left a space on the left KA, to hook an ‘O’ or ‘S’ as the last tile on the bingo. I stupidly played GlaICES*, with the SKA hook, and was challenged off. I really though it was good… actually, on checking Lampwords later, I had 9 playable words (or 18, if using SOWPODS) on that combination but only CrInGES, CaGIESt and InCaGES could go down the board. And I never saw any of it. Anyhow, after 2 turns, I bingoed with CeMeNTS.

Meanwhile, my opponent played phoneys such as DORA, RIBE and DELIST, which I did not challenge. Still self-doubting, I am.

Won this game though, 365-351. Had better tiles overall. Next time I play against her, I know to challenge phoney looking words.

Game 2
Opponent: John Ortman, rated 1593, seeded 11th of 28.

I had a good start on this game. On the 5th round I was 139-58 ahead. But he recovered pretty fast, with his bingo of SONsIER and started catching up. I had an orphaned bingo VETOING on my rack on the 8th turn, and the orphaned bingo TORSION as my last rack. By then, he was way ahead and I lost 315-391. Not too bad, I guess.

Game 3
Opponent: Chris Patrick Morgan, rated 1310, seeded 22nd of 28.

Ok, the vowel gods stuck to me again…. had racks such as EEEIIMR, EEGIILR, EEIIILU, EEIOULY (where once again, EUOI# would be so good!) and EEEEIIL for my last few racks… in a row!!! And, made my first mistake with PO* too…. Lost 302-393.

Game 4
Opponent: B.A. Toole, rated 987, seeded 27th of 28.

She is the closest rated to me, and I began thinking that I have a good chance against her. Started of well, and halfway through the game, the lodge suffered a brown-out (called black-out back home) due to the rain. We continued playing with light from the windows, but being a rainy day, it was pretty dim. I put down PLASTer on the 7th turn but the game turned against me after that. Towards the end-game, all I had was 1-pointers, and she caught up. Losing 328-339. Painful lost. I could have done better, but she played well. And I stupidly played PO* for a second time in a tournament!! Major *kick* *kick* in the butt.

After this game, we broke for lunch. Finding a restaurant that opened on New Year’s Day is difficult, and finding one that does not have a long, long queue was doubly difficult.

Game 5
Opponent: Alan Whitman, rated 1529, seeded 14th of 28.

This was a tough fight! I had QUAILED in my first rack, which is a good word, but I chickened out. Played QUAIL for 48 and was satisfied. Of course, 104 points to start with would be mighty good! By the 2nd round, the board was closed up, with me leading 63-43. If no one opens, we will be done after 6 passes! Anyhow, I changed my tiles and got HISsERS with S hook on the QUAIL for a measly 76 points, but he caught up a bit playing REX immediately for 44 points on the triple-word on top of by HI. Later on, I played SENIORS, hooking S on AFF, but AFFS* was no good and was challenged off. He tried a phoney GRUNTLER which I challenged off. I was behind quite a bit still, trailing at 239-299. But a breakthrough came at the end. I got WINIESt, hooking to the right of BRIEF (which I played in my last turn on top of AFF), to form BI, RE, IS and Et concurrently. I leapt ahead to 336-332. Then, I knew it has to be a strategic end game to win. He dropped his time to give me 10 points, and I won 369-350.

Funnily enough, when I introduced myself to him before the tournament got started, I told him I was rated 836 and he said I was ‘ambitious’. He did not know I had been playing for a good 5 years or so, I guess.

Game 6
Opponent: Ellis Wyer, rated 1449, seeded 15th of 28.

It was getting dark at about 4pm, being winter and been a rainy day. The lodge’s staff put on candles and tiny lights to help light the tables. Romantic? Nah…. one thing I noticed, you don’t have many pretty girls in Scrabble (other than those Thai sisters I saw in Bangkok’s Kings Cup last year, which had most of the guys losing concentration playing with them!!!).

I had poor tiles on this game. Not much to say except she played well, with a bingo of AMmONIA. Lost 267-352. Darn, I hate playing sub-300 point games….

By now, the room was getting too dark and the tournament directors decided to cut it short today, and to have the rest of the games tomorrow. Sigh…. playing till late again… Definitely not looking forward to work on Tuesday…

Hey, someone snitched my nice tile-bag! A ‘Royal Salute’ 21-year old whiskey bag… Not easy to get, you know! Anyhow, found it later on another table. Someone has switched it with a lousy Travel Scrabble bag without asking.

For today, I guess a 2-4 record is not too bad! My ratings should go up as I win more, and should no go down anymore if I do not do too well later. Anyhow, more to report

Googled am I

2005-12-29T16:35:00.000-08:00

A thought came to me today... Google is so pervasive in our internet life, I am sure most of you agree. On a whim, I googled .... me. (by the way, yes, google has become a verb, but not accepted in TWL/OSW or SOWPODS, haha!)

Wow, there are many pages with my name on it! But not all is me. My name is not as unique as I once thought. I knew my name is unisex, but mostly used by girls. Ok ok, it IS UNISEX coz I am using it!

Back to the subject.... I googled my full name, and guess what? The most hits on google relates to a really scary, scary movie 'The Eye'. The name is used by the lead character, acted by our very own famous Malaysian-born actress, Angelica Lee Sin-Je, who plays the blind girl who got someone else's donated corneas. I highly recommend this for scary-movie-buffs. This movie is a multi-country production, by Hongkong/Thailand/Singapore/Malaysia actors/actresses.

Anyway, I tried just googling my first name, and found some webpages actually relates to me!

As of today, I got this websites from Google:
1. Page 2: I appeared on jadeite's blog, about our conversation in Bangkok King's Cup 2005. Pink!?!

2. Page 3: I appeared on the now-defunct website of the Malaysian Scrabble Association, which is a dead-link anyway(504 Timeout, whatever that means). Basically, Scrabble results.

3. Page 9: I am still on meetup.com! I used to be the organiser for the Singapore Scrabble meetup, but resigned when they wanted to charge fees for using it. But I am still linked to their Scrabble sites.

4. Page 10: Got 2 hits here, from the US National Scrabble Association website. Another Scrabble result.

Ok, no more pages....mostly 'The Eye' anyway. I am just a Scrabble statistic in the online world... except for jadeite's blog, where I actually exist as a person in an interaction. When I used my online name, I actually get my website on #1!!! Ding ding ding!!!

What about you?

My Scrabble stats!!

2005-12-28T00:33:00.000-08:00

Wah.... I got my US Scrabble stats online... so paiseh, my ratings dropping like a heavy stone in water... didn't even knew this site existed... my meanderings through blogs lead me to it.

I was kinda reading through some blogs... went to Scratchpad, written by Ricki. He is one friendly Singapore Grandmaster, who was most encouraging when I started my competitive Scrabble life again, 5 years back. He almost seems normal by Scrabble standards, notwithstanding his word power.

Then found out about Scrabblestats, written by Hubert. Hubert is one Scrabble-savant. He kinda started off Scrabble about when I started playing. Both of us were written up in the Singapore SA News as upcoming players, but he way surpassed me already. I had challenges communicating with him, as he had with most others. But he certainly made strides in mixing with the Scrabble community, and brought out the best in his talents in Scrabble. So surprised that he even blogs. And he had a link to Cross-tables, the US ratings site. So, I went to look for my stats, and there I was. So paiseh.... my records really is sucky. As of today, I have a peak rank of 2070th in the US! I guess that's alright, considering US has such a big pool of players. As of today, in Singapore, I am 30th of 81 members and in Malaysia, 84th out of 290 players, so it is humbling to be in the US rankings...

One tournament coming up this weekend. Hope I do better this time!! I only wish for balanced racks. Time to kick ass!

Scrabble in the USA: PEE or POO?

2005-12-20T11:23:00.000-08:00

Being in the USA now, I feel the difference and the pain in adjusting to a TWL (Tournament Word List) environment. Coming from a SOWPODS background, where I have been playing regularly for about 5 years, the change in dictionary really affected my game. I have been down-rated from 922 to 900 to 859 over 3 tournaments!

In case you are wondering (like I did) why TWL instead of OSPD that makes up the SOWPODS anagram with OSW, TWL includes words that are deemed ‘offensive’ to the family playing environment but allowed in tournament play.

The Scrabble scene is pretty dynamic in the USA, as there are many more clubs and tournaments available almost every week. Near my home in the city of San Jose, the 2 closest tournament venues are in Los Gatos (15 minutes away) and Hayward (45 minutes away). There are also regular Scrabble playing sessions scheduled in Los Gatos, San Jose and Palo Alto, normally in a restaurant or a bookstore.

I have never considered myself as a super-expert-master-Jedi Scrabble player, merely an advanced intermediate so-so type, who occasionally win better players due to mere luck. My aim in each tournament has always been:
1. Don’t be last
2. Win half my games
3. Be top half

The clubs near my place organize tournaments monthly, and are usually short 6-games tournament. I just participated in one yesterday, on Dec 17, in Los Gatos. Below is an excerpt on my play (terribly, of course). And I show how it might have been better if it was SOWPODS was used instead.

Game 1:
Opponent: Ms. Grace Hersh, rated 846.

The curse of the vowels is on me, with having tiles in my rack such as AEEIILP, EEEEIIL & IIIJRTU. Of course, I had to make it worse by challenging PEE, and lost my turn, because I confused it with POO#, Yes, I know it is stupid to confuse urine with faeces. POO# is currently OSW only, but good in OSPD-2005 and perhaps will be adopted into TWL-2006. Plus, my opponent had the 2 blanks and 3 of the ‘S’, with a bingo of RIGGeRS along the way. Lost badly, 253-399. I hate getting sub-300 point games.

Game 2:
Opponent: JC Green, rated 834.

Mr. JC Green is a regular fixture in the tournaments, being a director of the Los Gatos club. He is a stickler for the Scrabble rules, which usually draw smiles from other regular players whenever he brusquely ask people to keep the noise down, opponents to stop fiddling with tiles on his turn, and when playing with me, to stop announcing my total after my score for my turn. He said it was not legal for me to speak after announcing my score and pressing the clock, as it is his turn and his time and I should not disturb him. We have matched twice, with a 1-1 record.

I started first, with FROTHY (I love it when I get to play coffee-related words, especially having bingoed CAFFEINE once before) for 38 as my opening move, and AgONIES following that, building up a strong lead. I had a 97 point lead by the 4th move, but it all went downhill from there on.

Later in the game, he challenged off my BRINY due to a DI# hook, which I had stupidly forgotten. If I cannot even get my 2-letters right, how am I going to get the 3 or more letters right? I played DA# later as a hook too, but he missed that one. I had simple bingos like PAINTeR and ORATiNG and PaINTER in 3 different racks, but they cannot go down due to a rapidly closed board. Lost this game 294-301, a mere 7 points!! If I only I get my 2-letters right…

Game 3:
Opponent: Martin Mondragon, rated 1034.

This guy is pretty good, and lucky too. He got bingos such as LEANInG and SpANNED (both the blanks!) and played well. I, on the other hand, loved me. ‘I’, as in the letter ‘I’. I had racks like EEIIRTY, AEIIIFR, IIIIRED. Had BEASTIE, but hesitated to play it. Lost 289-419. Martin won this division today with a 5 wins.

Game 4:
Opponent: Ms. Trix Kout, rated 837

Ah, the vowels love me still, with racks like AAAEMUU, AIINOOY, AEIIOUR (where EUOI# would be so, so, so useful). But I got lucky with RETAINS on my 3rd rack, and faked a HaRRIET* (non-word) late in the game, which was not challenged. But got RIVO# challenged off. Luckily, this time, it did not dent my lead, and I won 449-305.

Game 5:
Opponent: Barry Leung, rated 819

Now, this is one game where SOWPODS is a double-edged sword. Barry is a newcomer to the Scrabble scene, but I believe he will continue to climb the ratings pretty quickly. I bingoed with ALeVINS and INSANER, and he SALUTED. But I lost 2 turns in a row to him, for playing OXER#/WEX# (X hook on WE, with R on the triple-word) for a 55 pointer, and HOX#/AX for a 51 pointer. He promptly blocked those spots with relatively low-pointers. Sigh…. anyhow, I won the game by catching him with the Q, E and N with all the ‘U’s already played and inaccessible. There were plenty of exposed ‘I’s, where QI# would have gone in a SOWPODS world, but I won this game 418-408 after adding 24 points from his rack. Will not be so lucky when QI gets official in March 2006, I think.

Game 6:
Opponent: Gloriosa Agdeppa, rated 918

This was a relatively close fought game. I had played Gloriosa before, which I had lost due to playing EE#. This time, the vowels returned, with racks like AEEDUUW and AEEEUUO. Towards the end, she pulled away with a closed board while I had orphaned bingos such as ASHAmED, nAIADES (no, ARAISED# will not work…) and ABUSIvE. Lost 317-345.

Results: 2 wins, 4 losses. Rated 4th in the group of 8 in the lowest division, and ended up 6th, so drop in ratings again! 859 to 836. Oh well. I met 1 out of 3 of my targets, not being last.

Full results available at: http://www.yak.net/kablooey/scrabble/LosGatosDec05results.html

Next challenge! I will be taking part in a 2-day tournament on January 1-2, 2006 in Los Gatos, where I bravely decided to up myself to play in Division 1 (for players with ratings > 1,600 and people who wants to play up). Crazy, I know, but what the heck! I just want to know what level those guys are playing at. With opponents with double my ratings, I am up for a uphill battle!

I guess I really need to sit down and study my word lists. I am playing at less than 100% because I have been second-guessing myself during play, on words I know to be good but perhaps is OSW-only words. PEE or POO!!

Ice-skating & inline-blading: Not the same!!

2005-12-19T18:20:00.000-08:00

Wan & I went ice-skating on Saturday. San Jose Town Centre sets up an outdoor ice-skating rink in the town centre during the winter season every year. This year, for the first time, our firm booked the rink for a private party, entrance fees & skate rentals, snacks and hot drinks, all included. Nice, isn't it? You'd never find your firm doing such things in Singapore nor Malaysia.

It's been a long, long time since I last ice-skated. Probably remember that converted cinema (forgot the name) in Singapore, and Jurong Point. In KL, probably a couple of times at the Pyramids Shopping Centre. Even inline-skating, which I did enjoy for a time, was a memory.

But surprisingly, I adapted to the ice pretty quickly. Wan started tentatively, but by the end of the session, she can skate pretty easily. Stopping, that is another matter! Fun, fun, fun! With pastries for breakfast, coffee, hot chocolate & hot cider available... nice!!

One thing though, I cannot skate backwards... I used to be able to inline-skate backwards pretty easily, but on ice, it's quite different. Once I do a turn, I stop. Lose the momentum almost immediately. Oh well, it's been a long time. Perhaps I'll get it with more practice. But have to pay next time!

Cabling nightmare

2005-12-14T18:39:00.000-08:00

This is how I feel today.... tired, but have to work...

Been tinkering with my home theatre set-up the past few nights. I am not an audiophile in anyway, but would just like to have some A/V stuff to complement my movie watching and enjoy music in general. And D-I-Y is NOT my forte...

Got the Accoutimass Bose 6 Series III speakers (coz I am in a pretty small apartment), and later found out online that most audiophiles bash Bose products... hooked it up to a Sony A/V receiver, a pretty basic model, STR-DE598. Got a pretty good deal on a Sony Grand Wega 42" LCD projector TV earlier, and a simple Samsung DVD/VCR combo.

The nightmare begins... first, cabling. Have anyone tried figuring out which cable goes where? Or even what cable to get, to begin with? First, I found out that audio cables and video cables are separate ones (after the first night). And they come in different standards. Audio has 'RCA', 'coaxial' and 'digital' (in increasing order of quality), and video has 'composite video', 'S-video' and 'component video'. Then, I found out that the manuals were so misleading, the diagrams indicating that I needed 'cable A' AND 'cable B', when it is 'A' OR 'B', so I got extra cables I don't need (after the 2nd night). So, I had to return some extra video cables to the shop, and exchange for some audio ones. And the fella in the shops were no help too... they don't know what they are talking about....

Finally, hooked it all up last night (3rd night) .... and the sound is disappointing.... sounds like (*pun intended*) the Bose-bashing audiophiles online were right....
(their chant is: 'no high, no low, must be Bose' or that
BOSE stands for '
Buy
Other
Sound
Equipment')

Now, I am considering to return the Bose speakers and get the recommended Polk RM6800 speaker set for newbies. Or maybe I just hook them up wrong... getting help is expensive, about $200 just to set up. Feel like screaming.....

So, that's my face up there last night... not really lah! I took this shot in San Diego, in the facade of a beautiful building complex, part of the historical California Tower, now used as the Musuem of Man. There is a saint stepping on his head in the facade, so I am guessing his headache is probably worse than mine. So, I am not that bad off...

Caffeine dreams

2005-12-10T17:36:00.000-08:00

Got my espresso machine set up last weekend, but had little time to test it. Too much to do, things to settle....

But this Saturday is a relaxing one. And gave me time to work on my barista skills. Ok, the description below is for people with barista experience...

The Gaggia Classic is a beautiful little machine. Made in Italy, the machine is one of the best reviewed on www.wholelattelove.com, the website I bought it from. It is a one-group high pressure espresso machine, not those cheapo steam ones.

Accompanying the Gaggia, I got a Solis Maestro Plus burr grinder, for a consistent espresso grind. Along with it, got the shot glasses, tamper, milk frothing jug, milk thermometer.... the works!!

Turn out pretty well! Made a good latte for myself, and a mocha for Wan.

Ingredients:
- Peets Espresso Forte blend (Peets has one of the best beans in US, almost comparable to San Francisco Coffee , ahem...)
- Silk organic soy milk, instead of cow milk (trying to avoid dairy products). Made a pretty good latte!!

The espresso shot was sweet, with good crema during a 25-second shot. The Silk soy milk was sweeten, so the latte tasted somewhat like a vanilla latte. Must try unsweeten soy milk next time.

Made a mocha for Wan too, with additional ingredient:
- organic Abuela hot chocolate powder from Chuao Chocolatier (yummy, yummy) . She liked it!

More to experiment later.... now I can have all the coffee I want!! Caffeine overload!

My cool ride

2005-11-30T22:40:00.000-08:00

Here's my spiffy blue beemer!! Love the ride man!

Look at the reflection on the bonnet. I stayed there for a while, Wan's sister's place. Nice huh?

TWL Scrabble, why oh why??

2005-11-20T18:11:00.000-08:00

Played in my 3rd tournament in USA. Not faring too well. Won 2, loss 4 today. I'd say I can do better than that, and that's not just coz I am big-headed. The rules here are different, and different enough that I am playing at probably 60% capability.

One thing is the TWL dictionary. It is so typically American that they don't accept OSW, where English actually originated from, the UK. As per a seasoned veteran, it is not likely to change anytime, when most Americans don't even have a passport, and could care less about the world at large. I played UEY# today, and of course, got it challenged off. (# - OSW only words, not acceptable in TWL). I almost played KAGO# too, but of course, was not sure, and played a safer INKER somewhere else.

Second difference is the double challenge rule, where you lose a turn if a challenge a good word. This makes people really think about challenging, which is good in some case, I suppose. But 5-point challenge rule is definitely more forgiving. Sometimes, the 5-points loses you the game. But in double challenge, you give the opponent 2 turns in a row! I think you will probably lose about 20-points on average because of that. Of course, if your word power is good, that is to your advantage. For newbies (and not so newbie like me, a SOWPODS player), that is tough. But you can also fake it a bit more, if you establish yourself as a word power player.

Well, I got my first rating at 922 in October 2005. So, having on 2-4 in Hayward 2 weeks ago, and 2-4 today, I'd probably drop down to sub-900, I think. Sigh.... hope I can break the 1,000 rating point soon.

Looking forward to 2006!! The new word list will come into play, and with it QI#. And a lot more 2-letter and 3-letter words will come in play, words that I already know. And a new word too, ZA (short for pizza). Yes, the Americans think some words in UK English is not good, and they add ZA!!

Goyang Kaki

2005-11-19T00:57:00.000-08:00

It is interesting to note how drugs fill the TV ads in USA. And not the narcotic types, but drugs for illnesses.They advertise for every type of illnesses: eg. diebetes, heart disease, mental illness. No V*iagra or C*ialis though. After all, it is family TV. I only get those in my email spams.

But I saw one tonight that takes the cake!! Imagine..... there is a drug for..... ***drum roll*** the "Restless Leg Syndrome"!!!! No kidding.... saw it live on TV is my own 2 eyes! It is defined as, if you sit down and yet your legs feel like moving... what has the world come to! For us back home, it is simply 'shake leg', or 'goyang kaki' or whatever lah! If only I get to do that every day.... sigh...

Morning person? Oh please....

2005-11-10T09:52:00.000-08:00

Guess what? I have been waking up at 6.30am every morning for the past 3 weeks!! Not by choice, really. Staying in San Jose, and getting assigned to a client in San Francisco, about 55 miles away (that's about 80km). Dragging myself from bed every morning is not fun... those who know me well enough knows that I am a late, late, late person.... (I can sleep at about 2-3am, and wake up at 3pm....built into my body system since uni days...)

Been driving up daily, which is a 1-hour drive up, and then an hour back home in the evening. It can be a pretty nice drive in the morning, going past lakes and hills beside Highway 280, but very dark at night. Oh, it is getting dark by 5pm now, being autumn now. And we are on daylight savings time now.

So, I was thinking, maybe public transport is the way to go. At least I get to sleep on the train, right? And save some miles on my spiffy Beemer. So, I braced myself last night to take the Caltrain, which leaves the nearest station to my home at 7.13am! So, I wake up earlier than usual, left my apartment earlier than usual, and guess what?!? Missed the darn train by 3 mins. And the next one arrives an hour later!! Darn, wake up earlier, and yet still have to drive up to SF... not a good start to my day.... *Sigh* will try again tomorrow, and wake up even earlier....

How to start?

2005-11-09T18:12:00.000-08:00

Hmm, how do i start this blog.... wondering for a while for something smart to say..... and finding out i had none, haha!

So, went clicking on to random blogs (you know, the little button at the top right corner?). I was surprised to see quite a number of Malay-language blogs.... learn something new everyday.

Anyway, it was a beautiful day in San Francisco today, as I see it from the 29th floor of my client's place. Nice view of the city and the bay. But gonna rain soon, so gotta run... end of the day, and a looooong commute home....

Have to find something to write about... darn, I am so boring...