Farmville vs Scrabble
Scrabble and its online versions are most known games among others. However, each and every day a new online game comes in front of online users.
Farmville, a real-time farm simulation game developed by Zynga, available as an application on the social networking website Facebook, is the new competitor to Scrabble and also to the other word games. 
Farmville's popularity increases rapidly as shown below against Scrabble. You can find below Google trends results Scrabble vs Farmville:
As you realize, there is an uncontrollable rise of Farmville. Even if you compare Farmville with the keyword" New Year" which should be the most popular word nowadays, you see the power of Farmville:
scrabble etiketine sahip kayıtlar gösteriliyor. Tüm kayıtları göster
scrabble etiketine sahip kayıtlar gösteriliyor. Tüm kayıtları göster
Scrabble Photos
Below are photos about Scrabble gathered from different blogs for your enjoyment.
SCRABBLE PHOTOS
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SCRABBLE PHOTOS - 2 -
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SCRABBLE PHOTOS - 5 -
Scrabble Anagrams
Below are anagrams of "Scrabble"
Direct Anagrams: clabbers. | |
| Words within the letters "a-b-b-c-e-l-r-s" | |
-1 letter: barbels, clabber, rabbles, scabble, slabber. | |
-2 letters: babels, balers, barbel, barbes, blares, blears, braces, cabers, cables, carles, clears, lacers, rabble, scaler, sclera. | |
-3 letters: abbes, abler, ables, acerb, acres, alecs, arles, babel, babes, baler, bales, barbe, barbs, bares, baser, bears, blabs, blare, blase, blear, blebs, brace, braes, caber, cable, carbs, cares, carle, carls, carse, clear, crabs, earls, escar, lacer, laces, lares, laser, lears, races, rales, reals, saber, sable, sabre, scale, scare, serac, seral. | |
-4 letters: abbe, able, aces, acre, albs, alec, ales, arbs, arcs, ares, arse, babe, bale, bals, barb, bare, bars, base, bear, bels, blab, blae, bleb, brae, bras, cabs, carb, care, carl, cars, case, cels, crab, earl, ears, ebbs, eras, labs, lace, lacs, lars, lase, lear, leas, race, rale, rase, real, rebs, recs, sabe, sale, scab, scar, seal, sear, sera, slab. | |
-5 letters: abs, ace, alb, ale, als, arb, arc, are, ars, bal, bar, bas, bel, bra, cab, car, cel, ear, ebb, els, era, ers, lab, lac, lar, las, lea, ras, reb, rec, res, sab, sac, sae, sal, sea, sec, sel, ser. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-b-b-c-e-l-r-s" | |
+1 letter: barbicels, scrabbled, scrabbler, scrabbles. | |
+2 letters: ascribable, scrabblers, scrabblier, scrubbable. | |
+3 letters: describable, scrabbliest. | |
+4 letters: abstractable, blackberries, blackbirders, hardscrabble, secobarbital. | |
+5 letters: bonnyclabbers, indescribable, indescribably, psychobabbler, secobarbitals, undescribable |
Best Online Scrabble Helper
There are several tools online which aim to help you during playing Scrabble game online or not.
But Scrabble Help seems the best one among the others.
You just write your letters, it gives you possible best official words with highest scores, with two letters, with three letters, with four letters, with five, six, seven letters if any.
Scrabble Help links also to major reference sites about Scrabble rules and Scrabble Letter Values and Scrabble History.
Blog Name: Slippery Brick
Blog URL: http://www.slipperybrick.com
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Blog Summary: Prolly the awesomest tech site
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Post: Homemade Scrabble keyboard / January 18th, 2009
Homemade Scrabble keyboard
Someone loves Scrabble a whole bunch and by creating this awesomely nerdy keyboard, they must have scored themselves a quadruple word score.
It’s a wood and brushed aluminum keyboard that features real Scrabble tiles. The points score is slightly edited to show each key’s secondary function.
Everyone knows Scrabble and this is an awesome mod that looks like it could have come straight out of the game box. It’s a USB keyboard and the aluminum accents will very nicely match the Mac that it will be paired with.
When Grandma finds out, she’s gonna be pissed. Her Scrabble Championship tournament is in a week.
Blog Name: Fritinancy
Blog URL: http://nancyfriedman.typepad.com/away_with_words/
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Post: Why Writers Like Scrabble / 19.01.08
Why Writers Like Scrabble
Judith Thurman writes in this week's New Yorker:
Scrabble is both mindless and cerebral, which may account for its appeal to writers—it gives you a chance to push words around without having to make them mean something.
Exactly.
Thurman's article, "Spreading the Word," is available online only to subscribers (the link above is to a summary, and doesn't at all convey the flavor of Thurman's writing).
There's a certain aptness there (or is it irony?), because the story is mostly about Scrabble's online revival and the copyright battle over Scrabulous, recently reborn as Lexulous.
So you'll have to buy or borrow a copy of the magazine, or subscribe to the digital edition, to read it. Not such a bad idea. Meanwhile, here's a passage I liked so much I copied it for you:
Scrabble is enjoying a second heyday. The first was in the early nineteen-fifties, when demand for sets outstripped production. (In 1954, an advertisement in this magazine showed a wedding party stampeding from a church; the bride explains to the baffled clergyman that the toy shop next door has a new shipment.)
Between one and two million sets are sold yearly; one in every three American households is reported to own one; and thirty thousand new games are said to begin, somewhere in the world, ever hour.
Players of note are a heterogeneous confraternity that includes Barack Obama, the Queen of England, Madonna, Igor Stravinsky, Rosie O'Donnell, Duke Ellington, Nora Ephron, Meadow Soprano, Dustin Hoffman, Justin Timberlake, Chris Martin, Maya Angelou, Carol Burnett, Richard Nixon, and Ludacris, who plays "hip-hop" Scrabble, using words like "crunk," "hizzo," and "pajawa"—a version of the "dirty" Scrabble that was popular with Hollywood swingers fifty years ago.
(I heard one of their ancient jokes at the tournament: "'Cervix' is my favorite opening.'")
Three-quarters of that paragraph is quintessential New Yorker: the scholarly use of statistics, the arcane vocabulary ("confraternity"), the long list, the lavish use of commas and semicolons.
(In his marvelous book The Sound on the Page: Style and Voice in Writing, Ben Yagoda quotes E.B. White, who said the New Yorker was the publication in which "commas ... fall with the precision of knives in a circus act, outlining the victim.")
Then, in the final two sentences, Thurman winks, cracks her knuckles, and talks dirty. Bingo.
Expanding Vocabulary the Play Way
Etiketler:
crossword,
crossword puzzles,
grammar,
idioms,
scrabble,
vocabulary,
word game,
word games
|
0
yorum
Blog Name: VANTIKA
Blog URL: http://vantikagupta.wordpress.com/
RSS Feed: http://vantikagupta.wordpress.com/feed/
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This blog has been active since: August,2008
Post: Expanding Vocabulary the Play Way / 10 November 2008
Expanding Vocabulary the Play Way
Lately my game fever is back. It is that phase carrying on in which I feel like getting hooked to playing word games – my favourite brain booster.
I think they are a brilliant change from the usual learning tips to improve our vocabulary. Word games such as crosswords, quizzes, puzzles, or text twist are interesting, different and enjoyable. Not only do these games provide entertainment, they help us apply what we have learnt thus far. And playing these games is not restricted to computer or Internet.
Reader’s Digest’s Word Power section is one of the best vocabulary builder exercises I have read so far. It is a monthly bite. For each answer they provide detailed meaning, origin, and explanation, and that’s their unique style. In fact now there are millions of books and ways in which you can access such games. On Internet, my favourite is East of the Web website’s Eight Letter word game. Wanna play? Visit: http://www.eastoftheweb.com/games/Eight1.html
The Eight Letter game helps you build as many words as you can out of a set of letters, precisely out of eight letters. The sets keep changing as you proceed through different levels. This is exciting! Scrabble just goes a little further by helping you form words by connecting them with each other. If you play it with ‘only dictionary words allowed’ rule, it is a great brain booster.
Another fascinating game is the Text Twister, which makes you race against time, play with a set of letters, shuffle them, and guess more, more, and more.
Some of my friends agree that word games are vocabulary builders. “Of course word games help, how could they not? Crossword puzzles are a favorite of mine. Try easy ones first,” advises Bob, a friend in an online forum of English language, adding, “Read a lot and you’ll eventually pick it up. More important are vocabulary, grammar, and idioms. Read, read, read. Listen, listen, listen. And talk to native speakers as much as you can.”
Another member of the forum says, “Scrabble would probably be most helpful when played with others with a similar command of the language (and skill level). In cryptic crosswords the answers are usually pretty commonplace, obscurity being confined to the clues, but a solver without large knowledge of idioms and phrases will be rather handicapped.”
That is right. But that’s what adds to your knowledge when you try and find out more about what you don’t know. Solving crosswords, puzzles and quizzes with people who have better vocabulary than yours is especially helpful because that is when you get to learn the most. Next time using the newly learnt words in their correct places helps in remembering them forever.
Considering this, social networking websites such as Facebook and Orkut are popular platforms for people from all over the globe to play word games together and learn together. And having played many such, I can say – it is really helpful and loads of fun.
Try some and gain score – in life and in game.
Blog Name: Indie Sista's
Blog URL: http://indiesistas.blogspot.com/
RSS Feed: http://indiesistas.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
Blog Summary: Independent Handmade Arts Crafts -- Supplies for the Artist
This blog has been active since: September,2008
Post: How to Scrabble Tile and Glas Pendants / October 30, 2008
How to Scrabble Tile and Glas Pendants
Complete Scrabble Tile Pendant Kit
Sun and Moon Craft Kits offers loads of kits just like these.
If you ever wanted to learn how to make scrabble tile pendants, glass pendant or magnets check out this shop. Everything is included in the kit at a very reasonable price. There are also extra tile and glass pieces that you can order if you find yourself wanting to make more and more and more -- we all know how addicting crafting can get!
Blog Name: 2000 Dollar Wedding
Blog URL: http://2000dollarwedding.com/
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Blog Summary: Our quest to wrest our wedding from the hands of the Wedding Industrial Complex and make it our own (in a budget-minded, hand-crafted, eco-friendly way)
This blog has been active since: December, 2007
Post: October 27, 2008 / Knowing When to Say When
Knowing When to Say When
So I'm crazily trying to finish my Scrabble Halloween costume by this Friday, and I'm realizing that I'm firmly in Stage 5 of the DIY process: Regret and Frustration.
What exactly made me think that quilting an entire dress was a good idea? I mean, seriously, I'm not much of a seamstress. Following a simple dress pattern (even quasi-successfully) is enough of a stretch. But then to quilt the fabric first? It takes f-o-r-e-v-e-r!
Last night I had to make a decision about the white lines between the squares. On the one hand, I need to have them. They are clearly a necessary part of creating an authentic Scrabble board. On the other hand, they are a major pain in the ass. Seriously! I have to sew a little piece of white fabric between each square and then sew long lines of white fabric between the rows.
And, in my quest to make a more authentic Scrabble board, I'm actually making it more messed up because it's much more difficult to get the squares to match up from row to row. Argh!
As you can see from the photo, I erred on the side of making it more difficult on myself (although more authentic!).
When engrossed in DIY projects, we are inevitably faced with these kinds of decisions. Do we deviate from our original grandiose plans and settle for less than perfect in order to make the project a little easier? Or do we suffer through, confident that the pride we feel at the end (in Stage 6) will outweigh all the frustration of Stage 5?
It's a tough call. Sometimes I make the decision to stick to my original vision (as with the white lines) and other times I opt for a less-than-ideal-but-easier option.
Case in point: I originally wanted to sew plastic over the dress to create little pockets that would hold the Scrabble tiles, so I could be an interactive board. People could make new words. Very cool, but not necessary and certainly not time-efficient.
Sometimes, there comes a time in the middle of DIY projects when you just have to say enough is enough.
I'm reminded of Kristina over at A Lovely Morning. She had sweet visions of making homemade jam as favors for her wedding. She knew when to say enough is enough and instead decided to make individual jars for the smaller group of people attending her rehearsal dinner.
Do you have any examples of saying enough is enough when it comes to DIY wedding projects?
Blog Name: Classic Board Games
Blog URL: http://www.classicboardgames.netrazine.com/
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Blog Summary: Gather the Family Around for a Family Game Night
This blog has been active since: September 2008
Post: Winning at Scrabble / October 27th, 2008
Winning at Scrabble
Many people lose because they have the wrong idea about Scrabble. A word game it is NOT. If you want to win at Scrabble you’ll have to look at this popular board game in whole new way.
First - look at a Scrabble board. What do you see? Squares and colors. Double letter and word squares. Triple letter and word squares. Think about this: space is more important than words.
Next - consider the letters. You have high value letters and low value letters. If you use all seven letters and they are the lowest scoring letters, you can still score 15 points on a triple word square. (but you’ll get 50 points for a “Bingo” - using all 7 letters.
Two important tiles to pay special attention two are “S” and “Blank”. It’s still valuable and should be used with care. While it carries no value, you can use it to make very high scoring words.
Your goal then should be to play as many bonus squares as you can. Better to settle for a smaller word and grab the bonus square than play a large word while leaving the bonus square for someone else.
Know when to swap your letters. If you simply can’t do anything with your rack (the term for all the letters you’ve drawn), then you need to trade them in. Waiting won’t make things any better. Never trade your “s” tiles or your blank tiles.
Keep an eye out for prefixes and suffixes. Prefixes go on the the beginning of the word - un + known = unknown. Suffexes are tacked on to the end. “s” hobbit + s = hobbits
Better yet is the ings and ers - ring + ings = ringings and ring + ers = ringers.
Watch what you leave behind. While it’s great to score big on a turn, sometimes you need to look ahead to the next play before jumping in. If the word you want to make is going to leave you with a huge mess to clean up, you may want to settle for a lessor word so you have more to work with in the next round.
Also, sometimes you need to get rid of some letters. At times like this, don’t worry about a high score for once. Just make room to resupply. It’s sometimes just easier to
take a small hit and move on.
Next time we’ll take a look at some more ways two win at Scrabble. Meanwhile…
Wanna Play?
Andy
Blog Name: As The Crow Flies
Blog URL:http://mike-crow.blogspot.com/
RSS Feed: http://mike-crow.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
Location: Lovington : NM : United States
Blog Summary: Ponderings of a follower of Christ...
This blog has been active since: Agu, 2007
Post: A Great Word for Scrabble
A Great Word for Scrabble
I've never been much of a Scrabble fan. But I do understand the concept. Of course, the more letters one uses to form words, the more points are rewarded. I have a suggestion for those of you who play...SUPRALAPSARIAN. Sure you would have to have some luck. But you never know.
This could be a winner. Of course, before using this word, you might obtain a good theological dictionary. As thorough as Noah Webster was, his editors didn't include this word in the edition I have.
For those of you intent on using the word in a conversation, supralapsarian is defined as "the view that God, contemplating man as yet unfallen, chose some to recieve eternal life and rejected all others." This according to Theopedia.
Continuing our study through election in Perspectives on Election, we now turn to an essay by Dr. Robert Reymond, Professor Emeritus of Systematic Theology at Bob Jones University.
Dr. Jones begins by sharing from the Westminster Confession of Faith. "...for the manifestation his own glory, some men and angels are predestinated unto everlatsting life, and others foreordained to everlasting death" (III/iii) (153). He continues to quote from the WCOF (1646) time and time again. Because of space, you can find the document here.
The WCOF states that Adam was placed in the Garden and had the ability to obey God or rebel and sin. However, because of mankind's (Adam's) choice to rebel against God in the Garden, the offspring of Adam (all mankind except Jesus) no longer has the same ability.
Man is dead in sin (Rom 3:23, 5:12). The WCOF then makes mention of an "effectual call" (Chapter X), stating that only those God has elected (prior to creation) will be saved. The rest of mankind is doomed to damnation (Chapter XXXIII).
This post is not intended to be a treatise on the Westminster Confession of Faith. However, Dr. Reymond continues to move point by point through the document, while staking his claim. I intend to hear more from Dr. Reymond next time, rather than hearing again from the WCOF.
By the way, when making his arguments, Dr. Reymond continues to preface his statements with the phrase "the bibically informed Christian will conclude..." Does this bother anyone except me?
What are your thoughts?
Blog Name: The Real Justin Chandler
Blog URL: http://realjustinchandler.blogspot.com/
RSS Feed:http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheRealJustinChandler
Location: Springfield : MO : United States
Blog Summary: My thoughts, concerns, issues and everything else that comes with living my life.
This blog has been active since: April, 2008
Post: WHEN SCRABBLE BECOMES PHILOSOPHICAL / June 10, 2008
WHEN SCRABBLE BECOMES PHILOSOPHICAL
Tonight, Scrabble at a competitive level took another turn. You may be asking yourself, since when did Scrabble become competitive. I would reference Word Wars as a reference. Jack (my roommate) and I just got into a discussion about a challenge that I had with one of his words. If this isn't boring you already, then it most likely will if I get into what the challenge was.
One of the statements I made was to go "to the fullest extent of the law" and I echo a statement I heard George Wood make on a video he released as the Assemblies of God response to the revival that is happening in Lakeland, FL. He used a quote from a guy at Azusa street and said "We are measuring everything by the Word, every experience must measure up with the Bible.
Some say that is going too far, but if we have lived too close to the Word, we will settle that with the Lord when we meet Him in the air." I thought that was a rather intriguing statement and so I used it in Scrabble.
We will follow the rules and if we are too stringint, better to be that, than to be too loose with the rules. Jack proceeded to call me a Pharisee. Once you start keeping track of wins, friends go out the window.
GAME ON!
Blog Name: Andy's Global View
Blog URL: http://amglobal.blogspot.com/
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Location: Washington, DC, United States
Blog Summary: Andrew Mack is the founder and Principal of AMGlobal Consulting. A seasoned, innovative professional with over 20 years experience in international business and international development. Andrew has worked in some 70 countries around the world with special emphasis on Emerging Markets in Africa, Latin America and Asia.
This blog has been active since: June,2006
Post: Scrabulous, Scrabble, and Economic Development in South Asia /Friday, 25 April
Scrabulous, Scrabble, and Economic Development in South Asia
In February I made my first visit to the Subcontinent, in Delhi, for the regional meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, ICANN. In the main hall there were business and government leaders from around the region. At one of the side events an innovative new registry, dot asia, was launched.
Everything about the event spoke of economic dynamism and to me, of the benefit of an economic system – and longer term economic growth – built on a strong foundation of Intellectual Property (IP) rights. But most entrepreneurs in South Asia and other Emerging Markets (EMs) are still not fundamentally interested in the IP debate. They do see themselves as authors, or artists, or techies, but they don’t see themselves as IP entrepreneurs.
Personally I think this is a tremendous missed opportunity, with long-term implications for economic development.
The rolled eyes phenomenon
Of course if you get into a discussion of IP protection, many people will roll their eyes. Issues of IP are seen in the negative, largely defined by our nearly universal dislike – and this seems to be a global phenomenon – of lawyers. Add to this the general skepticism about the functioning of the courts in South Asia – and most people back away from IP.
However, to my eyes the IP protection debate is not about lawyers at all, but about the very entrepreneurs on whom so much hope is placed. I take as an almost frivolous example the case of the brothers from Calcutta that produced Scrabulous...
The Calcutta brothers who made Scrabulous
Now in the interest of full disclosure, I am a big Scrabble fan. I love playing. I have the computer game on my PC, and I play a lot. I know enough of the two letter words and obscure words beginning with Q that few of my friends will even play with me any more.
So you’d think that something like Scrabulous would have real appeal for me. But I think they should close down the program, and the sooner the better.
There are a number of reasons, of course, starting most obviously with the idea the brothers are hawking, which isn’t theirs to sell. The fact that Scrabulous is for fun and not for profit is irrelevant. It’s no different than piracy of any sort. If I write a book, it’s mine to sell, or license, or give away as I see fit.
Next, you have to consider the Scrabulous phenomenon and ask yourself – is Scrabulous really creating any real value for India? True, in the short term there might be some work for a few lawyers and a PR firm or two. But a few billable hours do not an economic powerhouse make…
Plain fun vs economic value
Compare Scrabulous with the original board game. Scrabble (the idea, using IP protection) has provided value for 50 years. The developers licensed the name to Hasbro, and again to Mattel. Money made, taxes paid, employment provided—the seeds of economic growth. From there the game spread around the world, long before the existence of the Internet. Again, people were hired in manufacturing and promotion in different countries. The game entered into the world’s consciousness. It was a good idea, made possible in part because of IP protection.
Scrabulous, on the other hand, will likely be gone within the year. Not much economic value there for India or the world.
There are many in Emerging Markets that get caught up in arguments around the high cost of IP. And its true, some IP – whether music, or film, or software, or whatever – can be costly. However, if we are really focused on building long-term opportunity in Emerging Markets, a short-term focus on the cost of IP misses the point.
I often hear that Bill Gates or Madonna (or in the case of Scrabulous, Hasbro) won't miss a few rupees if their IP is pirated. Maybe so. However, there is something much larger at stake. Emerging Markets entrepreneurs and government officials talk frequently about their desire to promote investment and growth and protect their own IP and CP (cultural property). They decry the lack of available finance for growth, and complain that they don’t get the best and latest goods and products.
From value to development
South Asia, as well as other Emerging Markets, can't seek to create an environment that will promote rapid, information-based, high-skill economic growth while tolerating loose IP standards. Experience shows that you simply can't have it both ways.
Why? They simply won’t attract as much investment in the long term. They won’t have the same ability to retain good talent. They won’t be able to build wealth. They won’t build competitiveness. And they won’t be able to and create alliances with companies that can give them access to global markets.
So, Emerging Markets need to recognize the role that IP protection can play in economic development, from creating employment, to strengthening the middle class, to ensuring economic independence and cultural preservation.
Requisite for the next IP entrepreneur
South Asians need to demand the kind of business environment that will help them thrive, and the improvements to the courts that will help them protect and leverage their country’s good ideas. In the words of Sourabh Gupta, a Washington, DC-based Indian trade and development analyst, they need to build “a body of case law that is pro-innovation and pro-IP protection to help underpin their aspirations of upward mobility.”
It’s not about today’s Bill Gates. It’s about tomorrow’s Bill Gates, the one who might come from India or Bangladesh or any other Emerging Market.
And as Gupta says, the opportunity “will only be as strong as the energies invested by those most materially affected – the vast multitude of small entrepreneurs.”
In the end, if we are truly serious about what we claim to want so badly – investment, jobs, to be taken seriously on the world economic stage, to become economic drivers, not just followers – then we need IP protection.
Because unlike Scrabble, economic development is no game.
Blog Name: Meditations of the Heart
Blog URL: http://engagetheculture.blogspot.com/
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Location: Raleigh
Blog Summary: These are thoughts, meditations, ponderings, or realizations that have pressed upon my mind and heart through my daily Bible devotions, sermons I have heard, or class/social discussions. I hope that you might be encouraged and blessed from them.
This blog has been active since:
Post: The Wedding Planner and being Missional / May 8, 2008
The Wedding Planner and being Missional
Lately I've been reading a great book called "Breaking the Missional Code" by Ed Stetzer and David Putman. The point the authors are trying to make is that we here in America need to live in our communities as missionaries do overseas. No, you don't have to build a grass hut in suburbia and go without running water or toiletries. (That's not how most missionaries live either). The point is to live with intentionality.
When missionaries go overseas they are placed into a whole new context of living, a whole new culture. They learn the customs, language, and culture of the people they are trying to reach with the Gospel. They build purposeful relationships with those in that culture and find ways to present the Gospel to them within their context. They make connections that draw them to Christ.
When I left my little town in GA to move to seminary I contemplated the questions that Stetzer and Putman raise in their book. Why don't I live like missionaries do? Why is there a difference between the way they live for Christ and the way I live for Christ? Simply put, I think it is because we are in our comfort zones. We live in the same town we grew up in (or something similar to it), know most of the people around us, only associate with those who go to our church, it is all about ME.
Most do not live outside of their comfort zone. Missionaries have no choices. If they don't like the food, they starve. If they don't connect with people, they don't spread the Gospel. They live mostly out of their comfort familiarities for the sake of the Gospel. If we don't like the food, we don't go to that restaurant. If we don't connect with our city, we seclude ourselves to our "church friends".
I was watching The Wedding Planner recently(yes, I'm a guy, yes, I watched it, and yes, I liked it) and was convicted by a part of the movie. Can you believe it?! I was convicted by a secular movie!! Jennifer Lopez's character loves to play scrabble. She is even apart of a scrabble club. Later in the movie she reveals that she loves scrabble because her parents moved to America and didn't know how to speak English and so they joined a scrabble club to learn the language.
This convicted me for two reasons. 1. There are social avenues to meet the lost and connect with the culture around me that I don't even know exist because I'm too caught up in my own little world and comfort zone to even seek them out. 2. I have a friend from India that has been in America for a little over a year. He is involved in many social networks and events to try to make friends. I've been in Raleigh for almost 4 years and probably don't know half of the places and people he does only being in Raleigh for 6 months.
This is the reason I named my blog Engage the Culture. No, we don't live in a 3rd world nation, but our culture in America is vast and ever changing and we need to realize that in order to reach our cities for the Gospel we need to quit living for ourselves and begin living for Christ and engaging the culture so that many might come to know Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior.
I definitely do not do things right but this is where my heart burns. I desperately want to see people come to Christ. The way I've been living has not been the most fruitful way. It might be time for a change. Time to begin living as a missionary among my own country. This is being Missional, this is engaging the culture.
Are you up for a change too?!
Blog Name: West Virginia Scrabble
Blog URL: http://wvscrabble.blogspot.com/
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Location: West Virginia. Charleston
Blog Summary: This is a group blog about Scrabble in West Virginia. The Scrabble club (National Scrabble Association Club #620) is based in Charleston. We meet on a regular basis and play lots of Scrabble!! For some of us it is becoming (or already is) a deep-rooted obsession. Our skill levels range from "I play pretty often" to some of the highest-rated players in the state. We are an informal group and we all enjoy a good game. We welcome anyone who would like to play.
This blog has been active since: April,2008
Post: Scrabble obsessive? ... well check these out / April 30, 2008
Scrabble obsessive? ... well check these out
Are you ever accused of being obsessed with Scrabble or anything else? If so then you should direct them to a new documentary called The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters that details a level of obsession that is mind boggling.
I have posted a review of this film on my blog along with my usual savvy commentary and wit (click here for it). If classic arcade games aren't your style though you should check out the bevy of word-related documentaries that are out there (that also deal with obsessive people actually). I've recently re-watched Word Wars (Scrabble) and Spellbound (spelling bees) and then I've also recently discovered Scrabylon (Scrabble) and Wordplay (crossword puzzles).
All of these are excellent films that are available through Netflix. Also in the category of documentary films about words and language is The Aristocrats ... but that's not for everyone ... watch The Matrix too ... it rocks!
Blog Name: nooneofimport
Blog URL: http://nooneofimport.wordpress.com/
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Location: Portland, Oregon
Blog Summary: My name is Erica. I live in Portland, Oregon at present-which is a beautiful city. I’m absolutely in love with it. I’m a full-time Teacher’s Slave Aide at a snooty private school and a part-time college student. I’m looking to get a degree in Doing Nothing. I’m very much looking forward to the day when I won’t have to work or pay bills any longer, just sit there… Doing Nothing.
I have three house plants; Galveston, Gracie, and Milton. I have a silver Corolla named Stella and an imaginary brain tumor named Jack. They are my friends.
This blog has been active since: January 2008
Post: I’m Not A -Scrabble- Virgin Anymore / April 2, 2008
I’m Not A -Scrabble- Virgin Anymore
I can just hear Poe in the background…
I played Scrabble for the first time today! Isn’t that just horribly exciting? I think so! It’s not the points that matter to me, it’s the excitement of the words. I turned one of the other player’s words into PANTS, and then on my next turn I put down YETI. Pretty awesome. I had to leave before I found out the scores, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t lose.
I don’t know why I had never played Scrabble before. My family was more of a Monopoly family, or a Skip-bo family. Now that was a good game. Skip-bo. It’s been so long. I don’t even remember how to play anymore.
Today I’m finally feeling better. Oh, I’m still hacking phlegm, but the space of time in between each hack is getting longer and longer. And most importantly, I can BREATHE through my nose! That for me is the most frustrating thing about being sick, not being about to breathe through the nostrils. Oh, and now I can eat without desperately wanting to vomit, that’s always a plus.
And on top of everything else, today was a magnificently beautiful spring day! Take that, you stupid winter! Ha! No more snow! The sun was shining, there was a light breeze but it was still warm. I saw a bee for the first time this season. That made me happy. Life was surprisingly beautiful today.
I got to come home to a crisp, fresh copy of Bon Appétit which I’m very much looking forward to ripping into. Last month they had a stupid picture of cupcakes on the cover, which really disappointed me. The cover is one of the most important things about a cooking magazine. If the cover itself instantly makes you start to salivate, you just instinctively know it’s going to be a good issue. Last month, sure there were a couple good recipes in there, but on the whole it wasn’t too great.
Blog Name: Slapdash Jargon
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This blog has been active since: March 2008
Post: Of Surprise Parties and Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches / April 2, 2008
Of Surprise Parties and Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches
This fantastic day of April the second was in fact a marvelous day. Today’s holidays were Children’s Book Day and National Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich day, and the chosen word of the day was lackluster, which means ‘dull.’
Normally, I would be going on about how boring Wednesdays such as today are, but today was most definitely not boring.
You all remember the after school Scrabble party planned for my friend Laura’s house, right? Well, I fooled not only her but all of you guys as well- the get-together was actually a belated birthday surprise party! I baked her a pacman monster cookie with ‘nerdfighter= you’ on the top in orange icing. She was immensely shocked and pleased about the surprise party, and I was as well, though I really can’t believe she didn’t notice that something was up- especially when I called the group of friends waiting at her house to pop out and yell, ‘surprise!’ in the midst of her presence, claiming I was calling my own phone to see if it was in my backpack; really, would I be talking to myself like that?
Either way, it was a roaring success. We are actually now in the process (or at least, I am) of planning a club where we all meet after school on Wednesdays and walk around the neighborhoods doing odd things, such as using umbrellas when it is not raining, and recording people’s reactions. We will then hopefully end up posting them on YouTube. Awesome idea, right? You know it!
So yes, I am very happy and am currently feeling very fulfilled in life, even if the party is over and I still have to take out the trash, making the rest of today quickly turn into the average, boring Wednesday evening.
Make your mark!
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Post: ANAGRAMS / Mar 13
ANAGRAMS
This has got to be one of the cleverest I've seen in awhile.
Someone out there is deadly at Scrabble.
(Wait till you see the last one)!
DORMITORY:
When you rearrange the letters:
DIRTY ROOM
PRESBYTERIAN:
When you rearrange the letters:
BEST IN PRAYER
ASTRONOMER:
When you rearrange the letters:
MOON STARER
DESPERATION:
When you rearrange the letters:
A ROPE ENDS IT
THE EYES:
When you rearrange the letters:
THEY SEE
GEORGE BUSH:
When you rearrange the letters:
HE BUGS GORE
THE MORSE CODE :
When you rearrange the letters:
HERE COME DOTS
SLOT MACHINES:
When you rearrange the letters:
CASH LOST IN ME
ANIMOSITY:
When you rearrange the letters:
IS NO AMITY
ELECTION RESULTS:
When you rearrange the letters:
LIES - LET'S RECOUNT
SNOOZE ALARMS:
When you rearrange the letters:
ALAS! NO MORE Z 'S
A DECIMAL POINT:
When you rearrange the letters:
IM A DOT IN PLACE
THE EARTHQUAKES:
When you rearrange the letters:
THAT QUEER SHAKE
ELEVEN PLUS TWO:
When you rearrange the letters:
TWELVE PLUS ONE
AND FOR THE GRAND FINALE:
MOTHER-IN-LAW:
When you rearrange the letters:
WOMAN HITLER
Yep! Someone with waaaaaaaaaaay
too much time on their hands! (Probably a son-in-law)
Blog Name: Quaint Little Head
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Post: Career Choices / 14 March 2008
Career Choices
It so happens that not one but two linguistics professors are married to jazz musicians, and it so happens that they usually play together (I suppose it wouldn't do for them to compete, would it?), so when Alex suggested we go see them play last night, I went.
One of the two is her advisor's husband, and one of the two is my advisor's husband. Unfortunately, the latter was out of town, so I am hoping he won't think I snubbed him by coming to see his band the one time he wasn't there. I paid $2.25 for a Coke just so the bar would think they were getting some business out of having this band there (although I did get two free refills, so that actually wasn't too horrible). Then I sat and wondered about how exactly it works, and how much the band gets paid, and how amazing it is that regular average people in this regular average town can actually make a living playing jazz music, and reconsidering whether, given the fact that I've only made about $14,000 a year since completing my super-fancy triple-major B.A. with all sorts of honours, having stuck to music might not actually have been a more profitable occupation.
One of Alex's friends showed up and inquired as to whether our Linguistics Association "band" (also known as our linguistics association pipe dream) actually rehearses, and what kind of music we play, and why we don't actually perform somewhere (how cute, we have a fan!). It was thus established that, since two of us play recorder, we must do the progressive rock stuff (this came out of the other guy's mouth, not mine!), and lo and behold I discovered that I have met three people under 30 "in this sleepy bedroom town" who have actually heard of Emerson, Lake & Palmer, whereas, during my former life in the supposed "Live Music Capital of the World," I met not one single person of any age who had ever heard of Emerson, Lake & Palmer (although, to be fair, I did meet one 22-year-old in the music department who owned "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway," although he later betrayed his progressive rock ignorance, or else a gross overestimation of my age, by asking whether I had seen Peter Gabriel perform with Genesis).
Apparently, then, by some magic unexplained stretch of the imagination, Lafayette is actually a haven for all four of the world's known progressive rock fans under 30; so, would it not be wise at this point for me to wonder whether a career in the local bars would be more profitable than the Ph.D.? Don't all the other linguists think it's much more cool that I always beat them at music trivia than that my conversational data appear to show differences between schisming patterns in English and German? Was I a fool to give up my music major when there's clearly a niche for me here?
I tried to put the thought aside as I went to bed, knowing that I would have to get up early to come to school and edit another student's dissertation. But it is very hard to put all thoughts aside at 2:00 a.m. with three glasses of Coke's worth of caffeine coursing through your veins. So my mind started wandering, Joycean style. First I thought of how funny it is that people always assume that since I'm a Christian and I don't drink, I must not drink because I'm a Christian, when really I just don't drink because I think most alcohol tastes nasty, and costs far too much to taste so nasty, when, if I wanted to taste something nasty, I could go eat White Castle for a fraction of the price.
Then I thought that I've been guilty of the same sort of thoughts, because I remember being shocked when Barbara's sister said that she used to work at a bar in Salt Lake City (they have bars in Salt Lake City? And Mormons work at them?). Then I thought about that time Barbara absolutely could not beat me in Jenga. Then I thought about how Bob said Scrabble was her absolute favourite game and how she actually plays, and wins small amounts of money, in Scrabble tournaments. And then I thought about how much I hate Scrabble.
You would think a linguist would enjoy Scrabble, but I think the reason I don't is that it's not necessarily a reflection of your linguistic ability. There's no right answer to figure out. You can know tons and tons of words, but if you pick a bunch of tiles that you can't make good words out of, you still won't get many points. I spent one summer with my brother spending hours at a time playing "Text Twist" on Yahoo, which is where you have to unscramble a word before a timer runs out. I like that, because I get points for being smart and fast. In Scrabble, neither necessarily matters.
And then I thought about that first Simpsons episode (or, probably more precisely, the first Simpsons episode to air outside the confines of the Tracey Ullman Show). Remember it? Where Bart's unfortuitous seven tiles are "kwijybo," so he puts them all down and makes up a fake definition for the supposed word "kwijybo?" So then I lay in bed and decided to see if I could think of the longest word you could make with the tiles in "kwijybo."
Boy
Job
Koi
Joy
Bow
I wasn't doing so well. I tried really hard to think of whether there were any four-letter words I could make out of "kwijybo." I thought again that this must be why I hate Scrabble. And then I had an epiphany.
You don't have to use all your tiles at once. So, assuming there's a good chance that somewhere on that Scrabble board is a free "a" with nothing attached to it, you could use all but the "k" to spell "Ojibway." If you had to wait a turn for the free "a" to show up somewhere, you could always waste a turn by getting rid of that "k" by sticking it onto Lisa's "id" to form "kid." And then, when that "a" came around, you could get a lot of points.
Which brought me back to my original line of thinking: where did I get this fabulous word-knowledge that allowed me to think of "Ojibway?" Thank you, linguistics? No. Thank you, Shania Twain. Once again the profit appears to lie not in the career I have chosen, but in the knowledge gained from the one I abandoned. Linguistics, have you taught me nothing that I hadn't already learned from Vh-1?
Then, sadly, just before succumbing to mental exhaustion and sleep, I thought of something else. The rules of Scrabble. No proper nouns. And THAT is why I hate Scrabble so much.
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Post: Word Games (Sunday Scribblings) / March 7, 2008
Word Games (Sunday Scribblings)
MULTIPLICATIONS
I’ll admit it. I’m a word junkie. My favorite games are Scrabble and Boggle. I work and even create crossword puzzles. Beyond that, I love to play with individual words, twist them, slap them into new forms, wring them out for new meanings.
Whereas others may put themselves to sleep by counting sheep, I do so by counting the number of words that I can make from the letters of a single word chosen at random. I do mean at random. Sometimes I choose it by focusing on the spine of a book in my bookcase. Sometimes it just pops into my head. Sometimes I am frustrated, as when the word that popped into my head was Mississippi. Try as I might, I could only come up with the following words: sip, pips, pip, miss, sips, piss, pimp, pimps, imps, imp, simp (slang) and simps. When, as I sometimes do when I run out of other possibilities, I tried to compose something from these, it turned out to be indecent.
Last night the word for courting slumber was multiplications. I should explain my self-imposed rules. I only use letters to the extent that they occur in the original word. Therefore, from the word above, I could make action but not inaction, since the latter has two ns and multiplication has only one.
It put me to sleep last night, but not before the richness of its harvest imprinted itself on my mind to the extent that I expanded my word search into today. Then I tried to use the new words to compose a piece. What is it? Poem? Lecture? Diatribe? You decide.
Call up an atoll,
a tall atomic mist,
as small mutations cast a pall on millions.
Mull on impact , on implications
as an oil scion claims soil to tap for oil,
as compliant oilist toils to plant
panic imputations,
put out an illicit call-up to all,
to a son to sail into action
to implant on locals an unlocal plan,
to still complaints --
son lost at an action station
in pain to taint a soul,
slain in oil silt,
lain so still!
So still!
Oust a scamp!
Opt to call a recall poll!
A plain stipulation:
Stamp out atomic multiplication,
its toll on trust!
Cast out oil pacts!
Split past oil until
sun, not oil, can act!
Stop oil action,
its oil spill, oil spoil.
And to think that all this was found in that one word multiplications!
Yes, as you might guess from this, I have other obsessions: peace on earth, protection of the environment, world health and others. I’m sorry I couldn’t show my support of women by including a daughter as well as a son in this little piece. But she was not to be found in multiplications. Could it be that she prefers mathematics? If so, perhaps it’s because it has team items as its meat.
Yes, words can say things about themselves! I don’t know what this might mean in the case of Mississippi. I’ll skip New Orleans and the possible miss with a pimp. But I do remember a night in a motel on the Mississippi River when my husband and I bought bottled water so that, given the color of the water that flowed from our faucet, we didn’t have to sip piss from upstream!
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