The Voracious Loan

I had a fun time at the club tourney today. After 5 games with one loss (to Mike), I was up against Mike again. The 4-1s battled it out for the club tournament, and we played an exciting game for the title (don't laugh too much at my play!):
http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=4614#0

Dave
dave
dAvE

In this position:
http://www.scrabble-assoc.com/games/nsc2009/4/016.html
Would anyone play F(I)Z?? I like what it does to the board a lot, leaving one bingo lane open (and not a very high-scoring one) and making it really hard to open. ZINN(I)A is a lot of points though...

Just wishing all you Dayton players a good time. I hope you guys all play well and have exciting matches, but, most importantly, have TONS AND TONS of fun!! I hope I can join all of you next year (but I also hope that we won't be joining in Dayton). Go team!

On Saturday, Conrad, Jesse, Carl, and I got together for some scrabble in the park. Besides getting stung by a wasp, it was quite fun. This is a game I played against the pre-endgame pimp that I thought had at least one interesting position. Here is the game:
http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=4270#0
And here is the position in question:
http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=4270#20
What would others play??

nsc 0000, div 0:
day 1 (0-0): N/A
day 2 (0-0): N/A
day 3 (0-0): N/A
day 4 (0-0): N/A
0-0 +0
100% bitches!!! Beat that!

Yeah it's really hot here. And speaking of hotness, I was wondering if EXOTHERM was good today. It turns out it is not, and I discovered so funny stuff:
EXOTHERM* EXOTHERMY* EXOTHERMAL EXOTHERMIC
ENDOTHERM ENDOTHERMY ENDOTHERMAL ENDOTHERMIC*
Is there a good reason for this, or is it just the OWL being silly?
Dindin time!

When I was in 6th grade, I wrote an acrostic poem. N was Nice. I don't remember A and H, but I clearly remember O. So I have a challenge for all readers. Send me an e-mail or LJ message with 20 O-words that you think it might be. If you get the O word in any of the twenty, I will give you a dollar next time I see you. And don't ask people, as that is cheating, and it is no fun. At the beginning of August, I will post the answer to LJ. (Well, if I remember...) My e-mail is rocrider5000@gmail.com. Have fun!!
P.S. My hint is that this challenge might put me in debt, but I HIGHLY doubt it.

Conrad and I played a game today. It was very close, but it shouldn't have been. I blew this game from about 20 directions.
http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=4045#0
Also, does anyone see a win for me here (Quackle did not)? http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=4045#21

After failing to watch Ocean's Eleven last night, (I always fall asleep during night movies!) we decided to do something else. We lazed around, and I showed Conrad my Tetris skillz. Stayed up 'til about 2:00.

I woke up at 9:30 or so, after a dream about Reno, in which Reno was a very frustrating tournament. I posted one loss on the first day, to Kenji, who had gotten a buzzcut. Conrad won all 8, against these really short kids with blonde hair. At about twelve, we decided to go to Half Moon Bay.

So we started up the car and left. After awhile, we encountered severe traffic, and realized we weren't going to get to go to the beach. Conrad and I were both pissed, needless to say. So we stopped at a gas station and thought about what we could do. We ended up deciding to go to a park and just relax and do crossword puzzles. After a couple of puzzles, we thought we would go to San Francisco.

On the way to the city, we noticed that there was another way to get to Half Moon Bay. We figured we would try it. Sure enough, we were led to the beach, and proceeded to go into the water. At first, I almost didn't want to go in, but I was sure glad I did! Conrad taught me how to body surf, and we just had a ball! After much water, we dried out and decided to go to the big city for dinner. We went to Amici's East Coast Pizzeria and had some superb New York pizza, as well as another crossword puzzle.

After a long day of many emotions, boredom, aggravation, enjoyment..., we looked at a beautiful view of San Francisco, Conrad pointing out all the places we had been. When it was all said and done, we had quite a rollicking time.

I had a few fascinating positions in this game against Lou Miller today. I would love some ideas about them, but I want to do an analysis of one or two plays here because the commentary on the game doesn't do the position justice. The game:
http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=4013#0
( What )

Which of the following are good?
ATE
BREAKFASTED
DINNERED
LUNCHED
SUPPERED

My take on the tiredness running through the Scrabble community:

http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=3903#16

Here's an interesting game from club against Carl:
http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=3878#0
Although I got clobbered, I think I played alright. Some insight on decisions after (T)OWERY would be awesome. Does anybody have a really good play on turn 21? Also, what would you play on my opening rack? Does anybody support GROWL or JEW, or even LIQUOR?

I came on Monday morning prepared to play. I figured if I could win my first game, the rest of the tournament would be a cruise as long as I didn't hemorrhage spread. Then I lost my first game against Peter Dolgenos. At this point, I was a little flustered, and was next up against Henry Yeung, who I had messed up the endgame against earlier in the tourney. He also beat me, and got really lucky, double blanking me AND letting me get away with APEXING* for 98 and BATTE. So I came into the final game really afraid, as I was going to have to win the last game to win the tournament. Fortunately, I got the tiles when I needed them and beat Henry handily.
The awards ceremony was great. I got to finish singing Bohemian Rhapsody and we had a great time. The town hall meeting was informative and interesting (Rick's CGP post is a must-read). Finally, we headed to Conrad's, stopping at In 'n Out on the way. We played in the pool and then went to his house for final hangout time. When it was finally time for him to go, it was sad, but we hope to see each other in July.
In any case, an amazing trip!!'
Here is an interesting annotated game:
http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=3860#0

囊囔攮曩馕
That is all.

In today's club session, I went 0-5. I think I maybe played okay, but sofar I have Quackled one game, against Carl, and I didn't really play well in that game. One weeeird play in that game though. I played WHOLIsT*. We discussed the play after the game, and suitable alternatives, and I'm pretty sure both of us had no doubt in our minds that that was good. WHOLISM, HOLISM, HOLISTIC, WHOLISTIC(!), and HOLIST, but no WHOLIST! Wow.

I make some weird plays in this game. I am still missing all kinds of obvious stuff in games. Is it because I need to look longer? Maybe so. I think I played this game pretty fast, especially decisions like ANGORAS (which I laid down almost immediately) which probably would have been reasoned through well if I had spent a little more time. My board vision is actually pretty good, and I think that I spend too much time on some plays. Rather, I should spread out my time a little more evenly, as I'll skip over plays that should be using more thought than they are given. I also find I can't seem to resist fishing. On turn 10, I play something that is wrong, and I thought of the best options, even feeling unsure of my play when I set it down. I thought too long, and should have gone with my instinct, rather than just trying for bingos overmuch. Here it is:
http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=3780#1
Slews of comments welcome and hoped for, as I think there are a lot of really interesting strategic places in this game.

 i own all of you

Props to all those who can find all the sevens in this.