Blog Name: Andersons...
Blog URL: http://joshandkari.blogspot.com/
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Location: Bluffdale : UT : United States
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This blog has been active since: 2007, July
Post: Colton's Math Scrabble / February 27, 2008
Colton's Math Scrabble
Colton went with me to the calf call. he likes to go along and help out. Kaci and McKay would really love to go too, they beg me everytime I leave. They say they will help with the baby calves and are sad when they don't get to go. It's hard for them to understand why Colton gets to go and they have to stay home.
Anyways, on the way home Colton said he thought of a new game at school today. I asked him what the game was and he said it is like scrabble, but with "math facts" instead of words.
You can use numbers like 1+1=2 and then add onto one of those numbers with a +, -, or x. Kari, Colton, and I played one game and it is pretty cool that he thought it up. I don't know if it will ever hit the shelves of Wal Mart though.
Bridal Shower Games
Blog Name: Christmas Wedding-2008
Blog URL: http://navillus99.blogspot.com/
RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~fc/ChristmasWedding-2008
Location:
Blog Summary: Welcome to "Mickey and Minnie's" Wedding Blog. We are ordinary people who love Weddings. We offer advice and tell our story. If you are planning a Wedding, good luck. If you are Married, Congrats. If you just like reading about Weddings, Welcome.
This blog has been active since: Feb 2008
Post: Bridal Shower Games / February 28, 2008
Bridal Shower Games
The Wedding Planning process can take up a life of it own. It would be a great thing if Bridal showers were a process for relieving the pent up stress of the Planning process. With some of these simple steps it can be a fun and happy day. Make sure you include some Bridal Shower Games to loosen up the atmosphere and help the Bride relax. These are some sample game ideas, or you could do your own.
Bridal Pictionary - Give each person a paperplate, some crayons and a blindfold! Have each person make their best attempt at drawing a picture of what they think the bride will look like on her wedding day. Make the picture as detailed as possible with veil, train, jewelry, etc.
Give everyone 2 minutes or so and let the bride-to-be select which drawing is a close resemblance. Winner gets a prize. The pictures will be hilarious and the bride can keep them to look back on for years of laughter.
Bathroom Tissue Fashion Show - Select teams of 2 parties each and give each team 2 rolls of bathroom tissue. Each team is responsible for designing a wedding gown made of tissue and one person from each team must strut their stuff on the runway of sorts.
Accessories are allowed (earrings, bouquet, headpiece) but they all have to be made out of tissue. Play some lively music for the big reveal. The most creative team wins!
Who Knows Me Best - The bride-to-be can work on this one with the hostess ahead of time to choose several questions that only those in the know will have the answers to. The more outrageous the questions, the more laughter resounds. Answers can be in a multiple choice format to help participants along a bit if you like. By the end of this game, everyone will know the bride-to-be a bit more than before.
Make up your own. As you see it isn't that hard, just combine two things, The Bride and any game. If the bride likes scrabble you could do Wedding Scrabble and only Wedding words are allowed. The options are limitless.
TweetWords:
Game Guessing Game with Twitter
TweetWords is a word game combined with Twitter.
I hope you are familiar or maybe using Twitter.
And your favorite games are word games like Scrabble.
So, you have to try TweetWords.
Some facts about TweetWords:
TweetWords is a word guessing game that uses the last 24 hours of the Twitter public timeline for scoring. We parse everything that gets posted to the twitter public timeline and break each post up by words. We keep only the last 24 hours of data. So we can easily pull the number of times everyone typed the word "twitter" in a tweet. The exact rules change each round, but there are some rules that are common every round:
* Rounds begin Sunday at 12:00 AM EST
* Each round lasts 7 days, ending Saturday at 11:59 PM EST
* You have until a set cutoff hour each day to enter a number
of guesses that you think will score high for that day (usually the more popular the word, the higher the score)
* Major data not included in stored data: http links, &###; codes.
The "normal" rules for scoring are (these rules can change each round):
* Your word has to appear at least once in the public timeline (no cheating! I can find cheaters).
* Base score is calculated for each word using scrabble-like points per letter.
* You get a bonus to the base score based off how often the word appeared in the timeline. Every 100 times it appeared you get +1 point.
* Cutoff time is at 11:00 PM EST
* Must enter 5 words per day
* You can use each word only once per round
These rules can change each round. You can also submit your own rules for possible inclusion (see normal.phps for example of creating custom round rules).
Source
7 letter words and 8 card suits
Blog Name: What are the chances?
Blog URL: http://what-are-the-chances.blogspot.com/
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Location: New York, Jerusalem, and Columbia, SC
Blog Summary: When I read a newspaper, I read the numbers first. I find they're often wrong, or at least mis-leading. My training in Statistics (Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania) makes me perhaps a bit sensitive to this, but I wasn't the one who said "there are lies, damn lies, and statistics."
This blog has been active since: November, 2007
Post: 7 letter words and 8 card suits / February 24, 2008
7 letter words and 8 card suits
A recent commenter asked whether the following is true: "ETAERIO is the most likely seven-letter word to get in scrabble."
As all scrabble players know, if you use all 7 of your letters, you get a bonus. However, except for the first turn, you'd need an 8-letter word to achieve this--ETAERIO would not do. Thus, I am going to try to answer the question: "What are the chances of getting the letters ETAERIO on your initial turn in scrabble (you also have to hope you are first)?" I have no hope of finding out whether this is the most likely seven letter word, because I can't automatically check all letter combinations, but I will try to give some guidance there as well.
To find the chances of gettting ETAERIO, we need the number of combinations that produce these letters divided by the total number of combinations. In other words, we have to go back to 12-th grade math, where we all learned (or sort-of learned) permutations and combinations.
There are 100 tiles in scrabble and we are choosing 7. Thus, there are 100 ways to to choose the first tile, 99 ways to choose the second, and so forth down to 94. If we chose them in order, we'd have 99*98*97*96*95*94*93 permutations. However, we don't care about the order, so we have to take the above product and divide by the number of ways we can permute the 7 tiles, which is 7*6*5*4*3*2*1. The shorthand way to express this number of combinations is "100 choose 7" or
By dividing the two ratios above ((99*98*97*96*95*94*93) / (7*6*5*4*3*2*1)), we come up with 16,007,560,800. Since most letters appear multiple times, the number of possible letter combinations is far less, and to know the chances of getting ETAERIO, I need to know how many times each letter appears.
Thus, I found the letter distributions on Wikipedia (counting our own scrabble pieces would probably not do with a three-year old distributing them around the house). The most common ones as follows:
E - 12 tiles
A, I - 9 tiles
O - 8 tiles
N, R, T - 6 tiles
D, L, S, and U - 4 tiles
other letters - 3 or less, but not relevant here
To figure out the chances of getting ETAERIO, we need to know the number of combinations that produce it. We need 2 E's, 1 T, 1 A, 1 R, 1 I, and 1 O. It turns out that the number of ways is the product of each of these implied combinations. Thus, it is "12 choose 2" (E's) times "6 choose 1" (T) times "9 choose 1" (A) and so forth. This comes out to 1,539,648 ways to get the letters in ETAERIO.
If we divide this by the total number of combinations (16,007,560,800), we find that there is about a 1 in 10,000 chance of getting ETAERIO as your first 7 letters. Of course, from there, you have to know it is a word and figure out that you can make that word from those letters, since they are not likely to appear in that order.
I could not find another word with a higher probability, but I did find TREASON and TRAINED (both about 1 in 20,000). However, It's clear from the distribution of letter tiles that in order to find a word that beats ETAERIO, you can only use letters appearing in 6 or more tiles.
BRIDGE HANDS
Now that we all remember the mechanics of combinations (or at least, we are on the subject of them), let's investigate another oft-asked question around here: what's the chance of being dealt a 7 card suit in bridge? This would be 4 (number of suits) times "13 choose 7" (ways to choose 7 from a suit) times "39 choose 6" (ways to choose the other 6 from the other 3 suits) divided by "52 choose 13" (ways to choose 13 cards from 52). This comes out to about 3.5%, or 3 or 4 times in every 100 hands.
For an 8-card suit, it is 1 in about 200. For a 9-card suit, it is about 1 in 2,700. Of course, my kids are always asking about the chances of being dealt a 10 card suit or even a 13-card suit:
10-card suit: 1 in 60,738
11-card suit: 1 in 2,746,693 (less than 1 in million)
12-card suit: 1 in 313,123,057 (less than 1 in 300 million)
13-card suit: 1 in 158,753,389,900 (less than 1 in 150 billion)
The chances aren't too great, but with some really poor shuffling, they've managed the 13-card suit once or twice.
Mobile Entertainment with Palm Pilot Games
By Bill Putnam
With so many features and uses, a palm pilot does not only keep you mobile and organized, it can also keep you entertained. With convenient palm pilot games, there is no reason for you to be bored while waiting in line or for a flight, stuck in traffic or whether you simply have nothing else to do.
Like desktop games or web-based games, there are so many types of palm pilot games to suit your taste such as action games, arcade games, sports-oriented games, strategy games, puzzle games, and so much more.
Here is a quick look at some of the games you can load onto your palm pilot:
The "6th Gear" is a car-racing action game with four modes - practice, arcade, 1-on-1 racing and circuit racing. Enjoy this game as you zoom by 5 sceneries enhanced with incredible 3D graphics. You can also customize your car from its looks to the engine and other parts. Other palm pilot games with a similar racing theme are "Head2Head Street Racing" and "Raging Thunder".
If you want to play some sports-themed palm pilot games, try out a 3- dimensional tennis tournament called "3D Tennis", "Beach Volleyball", "Pool Deluxe" and the popular "Bike or Die!". If you want to have fun while testing your vocabulary skills, look for word palm pilot games like the popular "Literati", "Word Mojo", "Hangman" and "Bookworm", which are also available as PC games.
For some funny entertainment, there are a number of hilarious palm pilot games such as "Mondo Pondo", a multi-player game of truth and dare which you can enjoy with your friends. You can also discover who your celebrity look-a-like is by playing the free game "HashThySelf".
You can read more information about the features of a particular game you are interested in online. But because the list of palm pilot games is growing fast, you might not have the time to read all the detailed info of each game so you might want to read blog posts and reviews from gamers to find out which ones they recommend. Check out the graphics of the game by viewing their screen-shots, which are also provided on most sites selling or marketing palm pilot games.
You can easily find free palm pilot games online just by using any search engine. You can also purchase Palm Pilot games from various sites. Their price ranges from as little as $4 up to $20. Free or not, once you start playing these palm pilot games you will find them nice additions to your device.
Check out some of the world's fastest growing mobile palm pilot games and find only the best games, then have them delivered directly to the your palm pilot by visiting Palm Pilot Games.
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Word Games to Increase Vocabulary
Author: Celia Webb
Most of us recognize that play is an important way to learn all types of skills and knowledge. Play works as a way to learn for a couple of reasons. First, we are more motivated to do an activity if we are having fun doing it. Second, pleasurable activities get repeated and, therefore, give us more chances to practice the skill or piece of knowledge. And as the cliché says – practice makes perfect.
Word games are a great way to pick up new vocabulary and play with vocabulary that is already familiar. Each game focuses on a different set of skills related to learning words, so if enthusiasm wanes for one game, switching to another game can re-energize the learning process. All of the paperless games below can be played anywhere. They require no equipment whatsoever other than your “thinking cap”.
1. The Alphabet Game: (Ages 5 and up) This game can be played while in a house or riding in a car. Start with the first player. The player must find an object he can see that begins with the letter A. He names the object and now the play moves to player number two. This player must name an object she can see that begins with the letter B. Play continues through the alphabet and group of players. To vary the game, work backwards through the alphabet.
2. The Word Guessing Game: (Ages 6 and up) In this game the first player thinks of a word. We suggest starting with a four-lettered word (i.e. hope). She announces to the group of players how many letters the word has (in this example – “I’m thinking of a four letter word.”). Then the next player suggests a four-lettered word (i.e. made). The first player compares the suggested word to her word. She is looking for letters in her word that are exactly matched in position to her word (i.e. “hope” compared to “made” has the letter “e” in the exact position in both words). She announces “One Letter”.
Now all players know that the word “made” shared one letter with the guess word. The next player will try to think of a word which will test which letter is an exact match. For example, this player may want to test if the letter “m” in the first position is the matching letter and so she might suggest the word “mint”. The first player will respond “No Letters”. Play continues until the players identify the guess word. The player to correctly identify the guess word thinks of the next guess word. It is important to state how many letters are in the guess word. Games using four- and five-lettered words work best.
3. Find the Letter: (Ages 4 and up) This game can help very young readers learn their alphabet. This is a good game for players riding in a car. Have the players look for the letters in alphabetical order. The letters might be on road signs, license plates, billboards, or shop windows. You may need to prompt them with “Can you find the letter A?” Repetition will build up their command of the alphabet and help them identify each letter. You can also use the alphabet song to jog their memories of the next letter.
4. A is for…: (Ages 6 and up) To begin, name a category for the words that will be used in the game (for example: animals, transportation, general, etc). Now the first player must name an object within the category that begins with the letter A (such as anaconda for the animal category, auto for the transportation category, or apple for the general category). The next player names an object beginning with the letter B and the players proceed in order through the alphabet. For the next game try a new category and allow a different person to start the game.
Playing with words can be a fun and rewarding way for your children to learn new words while reinforcing ones they already know. These games will help cement the alphabet in their minds. They will identify letters, learn the order of the alphabet, and practice spelling – all critical skills for reading. Let the games begin!!
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Blog Name: Food and Photo
Blog URL: http://austinpie.blogspot.com/
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Location: Austin
Blog Summary: Food and Photo: (conjunction) a site marrying two passions together-food and photography- with failures and successes
This blog has been active since: February, 2007
Post: Speed Scrabble and Pizza / February 22
Speed Scrabble and Pizza
"Who wants to play speed scrabble?" My friend asked.
Me and another friend look at her quizzically. The main question was how do you play? Easy 7 letters try to make your own grid using those letters, if you can you say pick two until almost all the tiles are gone and you can make a scrabble grid, then you win. I won one and fell in love with the game.
But the night was originally about pizza. I had all the ingredients and no house to throw the celebration. Luckily a friend offered her home and there began our pizza party.
We tried watching the debate, but we all huddled in the kitchen to make the pizza. My friend had made Giada De Laurentiis dough, which was funny cause it's the dough I usually make. I didn't know which dough she had made until she started to say the ingredients and said the recipe. We both had a good laugh.
I sauteed some sausage and had a great aged provolone from Whole Foods. It was spectacular. Perfectly aged. If only I can get some more for under $5. (The Whole Foods in Alabama has a little tray of extra cheeses for under $5, which is perfect if you love cheese or just are a big foodie.) So that went with tomato sauce, red onion, and sausage. It turned out to be the BIG hit of the evening.
The other pizza of course was veggie. I had some sun-dried tomatoes and goat cheese, which we paired with pesto and spinach to make a really good pizza. Of course, there were leftovers of that.
The main question was what to do with the leftover dough? My two friends sprung to the idea of cinnamon sugar balls. So they rolled the dough into balls, covered in milk, and sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon.
They were the baked until golden brown. They were delicious and quickly devoured by the three of us. I'll keep the idea for my next pizza party.
Scrabble goes Web 2.0
Blog Name: RHetoric
Blog URL: http://www.rhstrategic.com/blog/
RSS Feed: http://www.rhstrategic.com/blog/?feed=rss2
Location:
Blog Summary: Welcome to RHetoric, the blog of RH Strategic. We are a communications firm that offers a powerful combination of strategy & planning, marketing, public relations, and design services. In this blog our team discusses the influence of communication in our lives and specifically within technology, healthcare, and the public sector.
This blog has been active since: Nov, 2007
Post: Scrabble goes Web 2.0—Sort of / 18.02.2008
Scrabble goes Web 2.0—Sort of
I have a new obsession: Scrabulous. This free online game of Scrabble is entirely addictive (so beware), and the digitalization offers some key benefits that are nearly enough to turn a card-carrying board game lover away permanently.
Just imagine, a world in which you don’t have to keep up that annoying tally of the score or multiply for your triple-word scores-Scrabulous keeps a running total for you. And there is always a rogue Scrabble player who tries to play a questionable word (”Regioned,” the supposed past-tense of dividing an area into “regions” was one of my past attempts). Scrabulous nips those quasi-words in the bud with a pop-up “invalid word.”
Of course, if you are going to play Scrabulous, you better act quickly. Hasbro, the maker of the board game Scrabble, has sent the Scrabulous inventors a “cease and desist” order for copyright infringement. But Scrabulous has earned a bevy of supporters-more than 610,000 on Facebook alone; and “Save Scrabulous” groups are popping up all over the place. There is even a highly amusing satirical version of Fergie’s “Glamorous” in support of the game on YouTube.
No matter what happens to Scrabulous, this raises an important issue for Hasbro-why didn’t they think of this? This free, digital version of Scrabble is raking in a younger audience of players, and reviving those, like me, who enjoy conjuring up memories of the board game version but love the perks of online play. The Scrabulous inventors, India-based brothers Jayant and Rajat Agarwalla, are now earning $25,000 a month from advertisers, a number that could easily increase with the popularity of the game.
Perhaps Hasbro would be best served to reach an agreement with the Agarwallas, since $19.95 for Hasbro’s online Scrabble Blast is just too much to pay when it’s available for free. Hasbro may just find it is better off getting on board with the freeware system, before users get off-board with Scrabble altogether.
Blog Name: Elite Choice
Blog URL: http://www.elitechoice.org/
RSS Feed: http://www.elitechoice.org/feed/
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Blog Summary: Just go to luxurious world
This blog has been active since: Jan, 2007
Post: Swarovski Encrusted Scrabble Board for $20,000 / 18 Feb 2008
Swarovski Encrusted Scrabble Board for $20,000
Featured above is an exclusive glass Scrabble board coated with around 30,000 Swarovski crystals exhibited at the American International Toy Fair in New York.
Designed by Hasbro, the board marks the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the game. Priced at $20,000, the game is anticipated to be auctioned coming summer with all the proceedings donated to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital.
Via ABCNews
friend to all oses
Blog Name: Josh Baker discovers the universe
Blog URL: http://supremeedible.blogspot.com/
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Blog Summary: Details of my adventures through the universe; including posts on things such as science and mathematics, music, and (shock!) life on Earth. Enjoy, or, if you prefer, don't.
This blog has been active since:
Post: friend to all oses / Jan, 2007
friend to all oses
To be good at Scrabble, it's necessary to know all legal two-letter words, because as anyone who has played Scrabble will know, they can work wonders for getting your word in exactly the right place. One obscure such is "os", which is a medical term for "bone". I have seen a list of all of them, and it includes names of letters (like "ar"), and this makes me feel sort of cheated. Those aren't words! No one ever spells them!
This article, however, is not meant to be about amicability towards bones, but rather towards operating systems. I can now claim to have all three major OSes installed: OS X on my MacBook, Windows XP through Boot Camp on my MacBook, and Linux on my .
Yes, we have all heard stories about how Linux can be ported to anything (I am told it has even been installed on a digital watch), and most of them are true. There's the GameCube, the DS and the Wii (for some reason Nintendo is particularly susceptible?), the XBox and, er... an electronic stethoscope. But most importantly, a version of the uClinux kernel has been available for the iPod for a few years now. Behold iPod Linux.
For some reason the second time I came across the website it struck me as the most brilliant idea ever, so I immediately installed it. It's actually a lot easier than it sounds, it doesn't void any warranties, and if your iPod is Mac formatted it does not even involve any partitioning or loss of data already on the iPod, so if you're curious you might as well give it a go. The Linux side as of yet has no stable release of a music player that can decode in real time (!), but for the novelty value it's a must. There is the terminal we all know and love, along with a bunch of silly little games (including Othello and Hunt The Wumpus, mind) and a simple writing program. Text entry in cumbersome, but there are about 20 text input methods to choose from, my favourite of which is tapping morse code on the centre button.
I've cranked out the C book in the hopes that I might be able to write modules for podzilla, the default GUI, but that's probably a dream. I have at least got Hello World working in the terminal. If I do figure it out though, I think I will finally start to feel like a programmer.
Blog Name: Monochrome
Blog URL: http://byroncase.blogspot.com/
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Location: Jefferson City
Blog Summary: The personal musings of Byron Case
As of January 25, 2008, the maintainer of this blog has obtained permission in writing from the State of Missouri Department of Corrections' headquarters in Jefferson City to publicly post the personal musings of Byron Case.
This blog has been active since: August, 2007
Post: Bare Necessities / February 16, 2008
Bare Necessities
The prison canteen doesn't sell SCRABBLE sets, so we made our own. Tiles, stenciled and meticulously cut, came from the backing of a forty-two-cent writing tablet. A grid, drawn on a legal-size file folder, glued to the reverse of a checkers board and shaded with colored pencils became a passable simulacrum of Hasbro's. The process took days – me lettering and coloring, my cellmate, Jay, gluing and cutting. The thought crossed our minds, but we stopped short of coating the tiles with floor wax to make them smoother and appealingly shiny.
We got a copy of The Official SCRABBLE Players' Dictionary, Third Edition to settle challenges. The Official Word List, that SCRABBLE aficionado's bible, was beyond our ability to acquire, owing to the prison's restrictive mail policies. We made lists for ourselves of every playable two-, three-, and four-letter word. We did drills. We anagrammed relentlessly, often unconsciously. We read about fanatical tournament players in the compelling Stefan Fastis book, Word Freak, and were less mortified than we should have been to identify so much with its insane subjects. We were, it's safe to say, obsessed.
For two years a nonsmoker, I started again. Locked down in a nine-by-twelve space for twenty-one hours a day, wits and creativity will take you only so far before options seem to run dry, before vice starts looking like a virtue. Besides that, our two-man marathon tournaments demanded we have something to do with our hands as we played into the gray hours of dawn. Filterless, hand-rolled cigarettes of cheap tobacco stained our fingers. Freeze-dried coffee bittered our palates. Once in a while we would venture to ingest solids, too, usually in the form of breakfast—served here at five-thirty in the morning.
Even with the best books and a voracious appetite for literature, one can only read so many hours a day. SCRABBLE left us with none of the numb-headed guilt of watching television; though, most nights our TVs stayed on, muted. They were for visual stimulus while formatting plays and, aside from occasionally distracting us with the antics of an impossibly adorable kitten on The Planet's Funniest Animals, they served well for that purpose. For aural input we had our many eclectic mix tapes, recorded with care from a fantastic nearby independent radio station.
We became word-crunching, chain-smoking, over-caffeinated, kitten-loving machines.
As involved as we were, it feels like a personal failing that I'm not unable to cite specific plays. Neither can I retrieve from memory exact scores. True SCRABBLE enthusiasts remember these things as second nature. Jay did once challenge a Bingo (a single play that uses all seven of a player's tiles) of mine that involved putting an S at the end of his BLOODLETTING and crossed a Triple Word Score premium square. Why that single instance stands out in my mind has more to with his disgusted reaction to losing the challenge (and his next turn) than with any cleverness of the play itself.
Jay went home, in December of 2003, on probation. We've kept in touch. To this day he is still the best cellmate I've had. After him came a string of individuals I'll charitably describe as less-than literate. There was simply no one able or willing to play. My handmade SCRABBLE set was retired. I quit smoking almost immediately. For nearly two years, through institution-wide shakedowns and monthly cell searches alike, it sat at the bottom of my footlocker despite its contraband status as an altered item. In the end, I gave the entire bundle—board, tiles, book, everything—to old Mr. B, with whom I'd played many games in the county jail, the two of us awaiting trial. I knew he would get more enjoyment from it at that point than I. And, sure enough, the following day he let me know how funny it had been to look over the old score sheets I'd left in the box, and to see the plastic bag of checkers still sealed from the factory.
That was the spring of 2006—two years ago, now. Too many times to have kept track, I've seen Mr. B since then. Somehow, it's never occurred to me to ask him if he still has the board, or if he's played any particularly good games on it. I'd like to think, after all, that it helped someone other than Jay and myself pass the time, even if it was with decidedly less fanaticism.
Blog Name: www.associatedcontent.com
Blog URL: www.associatedcontent.com
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Post: Scrabble - the Intense Word Game / Feb 16, 2008
Scrabble - the Intense Word Game
Some people like to play checkers,
Other people like to play chest.
But when it comes to intense excitement,
Scrabble is the best.
Just take those little letters
And figure out a way
To make big scoring words
From the letters in your tray.
Be cautious and not cocky
When you see what you can do
To make a crushing word
By using your letter Q.
Put your letter tile on double-letter,
Watch out for double-score.
You just made a triple-letter
As you dance across the floor.
The competition is heating up,
The tiles are disappearing.
You're leading by a little bit,
But you know the end is nearing.
With one last turn you find a way
To put down the word "hawk."
You've won the game, you smile with glee,
Now you no longer need to squawk.
DOWNLOADABLE WORD GAMES No.3
DOWNLOADABLE WORD GAMES
Super Text Twist
Requirements:
Celeron 400, 32 mb RAM, Windows 95,98,ME,XP,2000
Word game. You are given six or seven letters, the task is to make as more words as you can within three and a half minutes. Use all the letters to make words and you go to the next level. Track your scores and time. The game helps to enrich vocabulary, spelling skills and develop visual memory. Super Text Twist can be used as a subsidiary method in studying English as a foreign language.
Source for download and further information.
Bookworm Deluxe!
Requirements:
OS: Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Me Memory: 128 MB DirectX: 7.0 or later CPU: P500
Word game. Link letters and create as more words as you can to feed the hungry Bookworm. Be on the watch because fiery red letters can burn your library! The more words Bookworm eats the more points you get. Spell special bonus words to earn big bonuses. But remember if you feed him too many short words he sends you burning letters, which may spoil your library. Don't forget to save your progress in the Hall of Fame.
Source for download and further information.
Word Juice
Requirements:
DirectX8 (included with XP) , Windows2000,WinXP
Slide letters. Form words. Make a juice ! WordJuice is an absorbing word game in which you slide letter tiles around a grid to form words. 'Word juice' is extracted from these words. Longer words make more juice ! The game is powered by 'word juice' so the more juice you make the longer you play. Arcade mode features various methods for eliminating those awkward letters. In strategy mode you play with specific sets of letters, allowing you to challenge friends and family. Features : - Two game modes, arcade and strategy. - Quick and challenging game play. - Challenge your friends in strategy mode. - Online high score table. - Free support and updates. - 30 day money back guarantee.
Source for download and further information.
The Great Wall of Words
Requirements:
Windows 2000/XP/Vista,Processor: 500 MHz,DirectX 9.0,128 MB RAM,Free hard drive space: 10 MB
Word game. Assume a role of the Emperor.s architect and protect China from invading Mongol army by repairing the Great Wall. You can do that by linking adjacent letter tiles in order to create a word consisting of three or more letters. Numerous special tiles, bombs, and coins appear to help you making game play interesting and diverse. There are three game modes: Classic, Battle and Conquest. Classic Mode challenges you to create words in order to uncover all the stones of the pathway before fuse burns down and detonate explosive barrels. Battle Mode offers players to create words to back the invading Mongol army. Conquest Mode invites players to conquer the board by turning all the tiles on the game board into red ones within time limit.
Source for download and further information.
DOWNLOADABLE WORD GAMES No.2
DOWNLOADABLE CROSSWORD GAMES
Griddlers Deluxe
Requirements:
32Mb Ram , Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP
Logic puzzle. Turn on your brain and use logics playing Griddlers Deluxe. With the help of the given numbers you are to paint the grid in such a way that the hidden picture becomes visible. You may create your own puzzle with your own image on the background. You can save your game for others to try it. Special hints help to play the game. You mustn't know any definite language for the game.
Source for download and further information.
Word Mojo Gold
Requirements:
CPU 400 MHz, 64 Mb RAM, 4 MB Video , Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP
Word Mojo Gold is a simple, crossword-style word game that is both challenging and fun! Word Mojo Gold's unique play style engages the player with unlimited word variations played against the clock or with no time limit. Score BIG by placing letters strategically to create a MEGA MOJO word! Think you've got WORD? Let Word Mojo Gold rate your MOJO, and you'll see if you've got WORD!
Source for download and further information.
Word Emperor
Requirements:
Memory: 32MB CPU: 200Mhz , Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Me
Whether or not you're a fan of crossword games, you will love Word Emperor! Not only does it have unique game play and an unlimited variety of different crosswords, but it also has beautiful Roman inspired graphics and music. There are 100 levels and 3 different gaming modes waiting for you to conquer!
Source for download and further information.
Mega Flexicon
Requirements:
Memory: 32MB CPU: 500Mhz , Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Me, Windows NT
Mega Flexicon is a unique word game that plays much faster than a standard crossword, and has several twists that make for great game play. Answers are only 4, 5 and 6 letters long so the action is fast, and you can play a single puzzle against the clock, or play the progressive Mega game that adds a "bomb" timer for each answer that gets shorter with each successive puzzle. Can you solve all 6 puzzles in a row?!
Source for download and further information.
DOWNLOADABLE WORD GAMES No.1
DOWNLOADABLE SCRABBLE GAMES
Scrabble 2
Requirements:
Pentium 133 MHz, 32MB RAM, 2MB video card, DirectX 6.1, sound card , Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP
The ultimate interactive word game is now better than ever with colorful 3D graphics that will delight any Scrabble enthusiast. Get your free full Scrabble download now and see for yourself why this is the best Scrabble game for the PC! Mini Scrabble games, anagrams, rackagrams, and tournaments help users hone their Scrabble skills. Play Speed Scrabble for a quick fix, or customize your board look for differently-styled game.
Source for download and further information.
SCRABBLE Rack Attack
Requirements:
Windows 98/98SE/Me/2000 2003/XP/NT2004 IBM Compatible CPU 300 Mhz or higher 64 MB RAM Hard Disk S , Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP
The newest way to play your favorite word game. Based on SCRABBLE you get a Rack of 7 letters how many words get you make from them? Features definitions for all words the official SCRABBLE dictionary a progressive hint system 3 ways to play and player cards to save your best words and scores.
Source for download and further information.
SCRABBLE Blast!
Requirements:
Windows 98/2000/Me/XP,Processor: PII 266 MHz,DirectX 7.0,64 MB RAM,Free hard drive space: 10 MB,SVGA
Word game. SCRABBLE Blast! is a fascinating sequel of original game. The game board consists of tiles with letters. Your task is to form words from the given letters by connecting three or more tiles in any direction and get points for this. You can multiply your score by forming long words or using special bonus tiles. There are three exciting game modes: One Bag, Puzzle and Action. One Bag Mode challenges you to create as many words as you can, using 100 tiles. Puzzle Mode invites players to pass through set of different levels, where you must form ten words to proceed to the next stage. Play very fast in Action Mode since bombs fall faster and faster in this mode. Your task is to create a word over a bomb to explode it.
Source for download and further information.
Blog Name: Scrabble Adventures
Blog URL: http://doubleblanks.wordpress.com
RSS Feed: http://doubleblanks.wordpress.com/feed/
Location: Mississauga-Toronto
Blog Summary: The adventures of a tournament Scrabble player
This blog has been active since: November,2006
Post: A study strategy
A study strategy
A few weeks ago, I attended a Scrabble session led by our club director, Craig Rowland. Craig dubbed the session “Scrabble School” and reviewed some basic strategies (i.e., don’t close the board up with two and three letter words), reviewed when to open up the triple word score lane (using a presentation originally made by Adam Logan at the Toronto Scrabble Club), opening rack strategies, and when to trade tiles. Overall, the session was very helpful - although I would have preferred if people listenedto what Craig had to say (since he is an expert) rather than interjecting what they *like/prefer* to do.
One point that really stuck to me was Craig’s advice on how to study. He recommended the following strategy:
- learn the 2 letter words
- learn the U-less Q words
- learn the 3 letter words
- learn the 5 letter words with J, X, Z, or Q (most of the “power” tiles)
- learn the 6 letter “high-probability” stems to make 7 letter words (e.g., SATIRE?, TISANE?)
This strategy was recommended for those who are starting from “scratch”. I’m sure the strategy could be useful to players of varying levels of experience.
My Study Strategy
I’ve learned the 2 letter words and know most (if not all) of the U-less Q words. I’m trying to get the 3 letter words down, but a handful still escape me (like ALB or FOU or IFF to name a few). Right now, I’ve finished learning the TISANE? stem and am trying to learn TISANE??. My plan is to work through the top 100 high probability stems (as listed by Lexpert) but also study the 8 letter word when learning the stem. I remember Craig mentioned that better players tend to play more 8 letter bingos compared with beginning players. His reasoning is that you don’t always have an opportunity to overlay a tile or to hook off of another existing word. As such, learning to play through a word is very important. Thus I’m trying to learn the stem plus ??. I’ve finished TISANE? and now am tackling TISANE??. I expect learning the TISANE?? will take about a month as there are 247 words.
I originally anticipated learning the SATIRE? stem, but I think I’m going to go for STANED? instead. I came across this situation during the Toronto Open tournament but could only see the TISANE? words. STANED? is a bit lower on the probability list, but it’s something I want to tackle. As I’m learning these stems (say one a month for the full list of 7 and 8 letter words) I’ll try and master the 3 letter words and then start on the 5 letter words (and not just the ones with the Z, X, J, or Q). I’ll probably go after the 6 letter words next, as Tony Leah said that not too many players study those.
I’m also going to start simulating some games using Quackle to evaluate my board play. Based on the simulations that I’ve run so far, my greatest weakness seems to be my poor word knowledge, specifically not knowing the bingos. I’m using both Lexpert and Zyzzyva to generate word lists and for quizzing. Both are excellent study aids.
If you have any other suggestions, I’d love to hear from you (you can find my contact info in the About Me section).
Blog Name: The reynolds fam
Blog URL: http://reynoldsfam.wordpress.com
RSS Feed: http://reynoldsfam.wordpress.com/2008/02/14/scrabble-spirituality/feed/
Location:
Blog Summary:
This blog has been active since: September 2005
Post: scrabble spirituality /February 14, 2008
scrabble spirituality
I used a word today while playing scrabble. As I placed the tiles for my 15 point word, I pondered. Maybe this is what we are, where we are? After years of serving in the church, years of being transformed by Christ and His word living in us…
rill or rille: (noun) 1. a small stream 2. a small channel (as one formed by soil erosion)
…a small channel carved out by the living water of Jesus Christ - designed to flow out into the world that is unreachable to the church - as in the “organized religious instituition” sense of the word.
When we moved to La Crosse 10 years ago we began a journey with the Church -as in “the hope of the world, the hands and feet of Jesus sense of the word. It’s been a wild, beautiful, treacherous journey. Over the past four years it’s almost been like playing that game where you are blindfolded and you have to listen to the voices of your team to guide you.
Some of the voices we have listened to have caused us to bump into things and get hurt. Part of the game though, is that you keep going, so we have. Some voices have caused confusion, and at times we have felt a strong sense of confidence in the direction we are going.
Today, we are trying to sort out the voice that we can trust.ANYWAY…a rill - years of moving, living water and eventually a stream appears that now can pour that living water into places that were not reached before. Maybe.Of course “rille” is also defined as a narrow channel of the surface of the moon.
Blog Name: Marketing in the Digital Age
Blog URL: http://teqtonic.blogspot.com/
RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/TeqtonicBlog
Location: London, United Kingdom
Blog Summary: The Teqtonic Blog
This blog has been active since: 2007, Feb
Post: Scrabble, Scrabulous and Facebook /15 February 2008
Scrabble, Scrabulous and Facebook
It has amazed me that Hasbro and Mattel have demanded the removal of Scrabulous, the online Scrabble application, from Facebook. Scrabulous was a social marketer's dream; many agencies spend endless hours developing Facebook applications hoping to catch a big social media wave, but very few ever make it. The "stars" reach more than 500,000 active users. Scrabulous was one of that elite group; it reached over 650,000.
So, given that Scrabulous was effectively a social marketing campaign to die for, why did Hasbro and Mattel ban it? Their lawyers have argued copyright was being infringed. Executives at these leading toy companies probably felt that players playing Scrabulous would dent or damage sales of the original Scrabble board game.
Let's not forget that before all this happened, Scrabble was a tired brand. It was a fifties product owned by an over fifties audience. It needed a shot in the arm. I can just imagine the agency brainstorm convened to resurrect the brand. It might go something like this:
Q. What's the business problem?
A. Sales are going down
Q. Why?
A. Scrabble is getting old. The players who bought it in the 60's and 70's are either dead or in retirement.
Q. What shall we do?
A. Let's attract a new, younger audience and show them what fun Scrabble can be.
Q. How do we do that?
A. Well younger and educated audiences are piling into social networking sites like Facebook. Ideally we'd have an effective social marketing campaign on Facebook.
Playing the Facebook application would raise both awareness and consideration of the traditional board game amongst those consumers who'd either forgotten about it and even those who'd never heard of it. There's a very good chance that with the game back on peoples' radar screens and shopping lists, sales would have increased.
It's worth observing that Scrabble has been the beneficiary of outstanding good fortune before. Launch sales back in the 1950's were initially sluggish until the Chairman of Macy's noticed that the store didn't stock the game and placed a bulk order in 1952. Sales then took off. Scrabulous was a chance of similar magnitude.
The Scrabulous Facebook application was one of the best free gifts ever given to a brand. After all, what other ways are there to reach that highly elusive younger and educated target audience free of charge and with such potent credibility? It could have been Scrabble's second coming.
Blog Name: Grants Blog
Blog URL: http://groundside.com/blog/GrantRonald
RSS Feed: http://groundside.com/blog/xmlsrv/rss2.php?blog=5
Location:
Blog Summary: News from the SOA, JEE, ADF, JDeveloper and Oracle Forms World
This blog has been active since: April 2005
Post: Forms, SOA, Scrabble and War in Finland / 14/02/08
Forms, SOA, Scrabble and War in Finland
Wednesday saw me in Finland running the Forms/SOA event. A turnout of about 40 people filled about 3/4 of the room so again, not a bad turnout.
The event was mostly attended by Oracle partners so my goal is that each of these partners will be able to carry our strategic message to their customers as well. So, as in pyramid selling, we should get the message out to everyone in Finland in about a week! ;o)
One interesting point came up in one of the slides that one of the partners presented (in Finnish). "Kyvykkyys " which I think means "ability" (correct me if I'm wrong)...Now, that has got to be a winner on a triple word score in Scrabble!. What is the scoring of scrabble in Finland?
Final fact that I heard (not sure how true) but the UK and Finland are the only two democracies to have declared war on each other!
Printout Games To Make The Occasion More Fun
By: Craig Thornburrow
December 16, 2007
Printout games are great resources for the entire family to enjoy, many of which can be downloaded for free on the Web. In this article, we'll cover some of the most popular types of printout games to be found on online.
Printout games are resources you can find online and print-out using your own home printer for hours of home or party fun. There are all different types of printout games available, including traditional games such as Scrabble, Word Find and word searche puzzles. Many of these can be found on the Web and are available for free.
But you can also find more complex and exotic games. For example, there are a wide variety of children's party games. Bridal shower games can also be found online, though the best of these are usually not free. However, the cost of printout games tends to be very reasonable, and it can be well worth your while to create your own collection of printable games on your computer that you can print and use over and over again.
Question-and-answer games are one of the most popular types, and these are often used at bridal or baby showers. In these games, individuals will partner up as a team and answer questions about each other either for points or to move forward on a printed-out game board. There is also the capability to customize many of these types of printable games, so that you can ask exact questions about family and friends.
Children will also of the games, and they can be perfect for those rainy days during the summer when there's nothing much to do inside the House. Of course, you could just stick the children in front of television for hours on end, but a far better solution is to play printable games that will exercise your child's mind, as well as being a lot of fun.
Print out children's games come in hundreds of types, including puzzles, board games, trivia, question and answer, and Jeopardy style educational games that help your kids to learn while they play. It's also a great way to bring the whole family together to spend some quality time.
It's good to know that in this age of satellite TV, the Internet and video games, a family can still come together as a group and enjoy playing simple games that are decidedly low-tech, but still just as much fun as they were ages ago.
In fact, one of the great things about the Internet is having free and instant access to so many wonderful games and educational resources. Schoolteachers can find specific learning games online available for download, which will fit perfectly with many lesson plans. All of the grammar school subjects are represented in these games, including mathematics, history, social studies, English and even physical education.
And once a printout game has been downloaded to your computer, it will be available to use any time you want to print it out. This can be incredibly convenient for teachers who can use the same games over and over just by reprinting them.
When it comes to printing out the games themselves, there are different ways you can go. Many people will simply print out the games on standard -- cheap -- printer paper. But in order to make your printout game as professional as possible, it is preferable to use thicker card stock, rather than regular paper.
Printout games are tons of fun for children and adults, are easy to print and use, and can be found on many different web sites online.
Post-Retirement Activity -
5 Tips for Making the Most Out of Each Day
By Charlotte Demontigny
Imagine waking up to the sound of an alarm clock only to realize you don't have anywhere to go. The first day of retirement can be wonderful and confusing at the same time. While getting up at 4 am has now become a thing of the past, the question you may ask is: Now what? Here are five tips for making the most out of each day in post-retirement.
Avoid the rut. For the first few days you will have to acclimate yourself to a new kind of freedom. Instead of getting up at the crack of dawn, turning over in bed becomes quite attractive, at least for the first week. Afterward, make a list of activities you have always wanted to engage in. It doesn't matter what it is, as long as it gets you up and out of the house.
Exercise and nutrition. Now that you are retired, you may want to start an exercise regimen or rev up the one you may have been on for some time. Join a gym or call a friend and make a commitment to walk at least three days a week. Choose a diet plan, if appropriate, and in combination with an exercise program you can revitalize your mental, emotional, and physical well-being.
Redefine your interests. What have you always wanted to do, but never had the opportunity or the time? Traveling, painting, writing, and gardening are just some of the hobbies you would like to turn in to full time skills.
Perhaps you've wanted to attend classes on history, sociology, or the arts. Now you can. Or perhaps you wish to start a home-based business in your area of expertise. Now you can.
Relocate to another city. If you have spent your life visiting different cities in the US or around the world, you may wish to retire to another city. Research, plan, and fulfill the dream of either living in a small college town, a bustling metropolis, or an exotic country. Find the Ideal place to retire; it is within your power to do so.
Exercise the brain. Studies have shown that brain exercises can add 10 years to your cognitive capacity and increase stimulation through such activities as scrabble, puzzles, or focusing on problems that require critical thinking. Just as you continue to exercise the body; it is just as important to exercise the brain.
Retirement poses several options. You can live a sedentary life because, after all, you've worked very hard and deserve the rest; or you can choose to engage in activities which not only improve your lifestyle, but afford you the opportunity to fully explore all of those things you have been interested in during your lifetime.
The latter sounds more exciting, doesn't it? Make the most out of each day - now that you can.
Charlotte Demontigny
Web Master
Ideal Places to Retire - Inexpensive to Exotic
http://www.ideal-places-to-retire.com
Wedding Reception Games
Wedding Reception Games - More Unique Ideas
by Mindy Makuta
There doesn't seem to be any end to the number of games that can be invented or borrowed, to play at a wedding reception. Here are a few more ideas for the bride, groom or their attendants looking to add a bit of extra fun to the upcoming event.
What's my line? - This is a variation of the TV game show where you try to guess what the contestant does for a living. We're not really pitting your family against your friends in this game but you do need to have 2 sets of players where one set does not know much about the other set. Pre-select one friend and one family member as volunteers. These persons should each have an unusual job or profession.
For the first round, have the volunteer friend come up front or on stage. Have the rest of your guests, who don't know him/her, ask up to 10 questions to determine what that person does. If possible, don't let the same guest ask more than one eliminating question. If this round ends without the right answer, then have the friend explain what they do.
For the next round, have the volunteer family member come up and the guests that don't know him/her get to participate. If this round ends without the right answer, then have the family member explain what they do.
If someone does guess the occupation, then an appropriate prize might be a wizard's hat or a Ouija board game.
Name that tune - the DJ or orchestra plays a few bars of a song that is fairly common but not on the official reception play list. Be sure to play some tunes for the younger guests and some for the older guests. The winner of each round dances with the bride or groom.
Guess the ingredients - You will need your caterer's permission and assistance for this game. Pick 1, 2, or 3 menu items that are being served at the reception. Have the caterer write down the ingredient list for them. Hand out paper and pencils to your guests and instruct them to write what they think is in each of the foods.
Guests with the closest guesses for each item win an appropriate prize like a set of gourmet spices, sauces, etc. Your DJ or someone in the wedding party can act as the judge/announcer.
Does the band know this song? - like "stump the band" on David Letterman - a good DJ can make this very funny. Your guests volunteer obscure song titles to the band or DJ. The band/DJ can either attempt to play the real song by that name or fake it. If the band doesn't get it right, the guest has to sing at least a few bars of the real song.
How Many Words? - Give a paper and pencil to each guest. Take the names of the bride and groom and write them in large letters on an easel or white board. See how many words the guests can create from the letters in their names in a set time limit.
For example MelissaJohn gives the words: mesa, josh, missal, noses.... Score based on the number of words, or use Boggle scoring where 4 letter words are 1 point, 5 letter words are 2 points, etc. If children are playing then you may allow 3 letter words at ½ point, etc.
If there is a wordsmith in the wedding party, that person can check the guests' word lists for non-words and tally the scores. Otherwise, guests can score themselves. In the case of a tie, offer "we're married" with a 2 minute time limit as the tie breaker. Present an appropriate prize to the winner like a Boggle or Scrabble game with a hand written note of accomplishment from the bride and groom.
Copyright 2008 by Mindy Makuta. Mindy and her husband own a small resort in Lyons, Colorado where they host outdoor weddings and family reunions. For more ideas on what to do at a wedding reception, see weddingsandromance.com/wedding-reception-activities on her web-site which covers topics of concern for before, during and after the wedding. They also publish http://www.168colorado.com, a site that helps plan Colorado vacations, including referrals for where to stay and what to do when you get there.
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