Sunday, January 22, 2006

Chinese New Year Open house

On top of the CNY tournament that I am organizing next month, I now have to play host to my Rotaract club this chinese new year at my home on Monday.

Let's all the chaos break loose.

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Travel: Scrabble & Life



create your own visited country map

Missed a chance to add India in January.
Will wait until next year.
Hope the Vietnam Open comes on later this year.

Let's see when can I add North America, since there are three countries for the price of one trip

Henry

Ticket to ride

Been playing this game online more often than Scrabble (unless Yen Nee is available for the marathon, which sadly is no longer the case).

How well am I doing? rated around 1420, ranked 771 on online play.
Have yet to see the top players and how they play, wish there was a ranking list to purvey.
Anyway, I am normally one of the better players around because I don't see a lot of 1400s in the playing room unless you want to go through everyone of their profiles just to find out.

A few tips and trick for advanced gameplay

America Map:
Build Coast to Coast and get those long distance ticket ASAP.
New York, Montreal, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Seattle and Chicago are the key cities to link up since they appear most often on the 20+ point cards. I once scored 199 linking all six of these cities while hoarding the destination cards that linked these 6 cities (which is quite lucky)

Europe Map:
Keep the Long Distance map and any short route within building distance of either end or in the middle. Be prepared to reroute our tracks creatively (and I do mean creatively). Identify weak spots in your chain and build those first.

More players (4 or 5 players):
Whether on the American or European map, just keep 2 cards (3 or 4 if they are all in close proximity) and build one long line up until the end, this is more productive than drawing new destination and building new tracks because you get to end the game quicker and penalize the slower players.

Less players (3 or less):
Draw new destination tickets for 1 or 2 turns, then build like crazy until the end. Try to finish all your trains on your second to last turn so that you can review all details before deciding if you need a last turn gamble on the unseen destination ticket.

Am I that important?

The insurance company came in today to interview 'key' personnels involves in the company's operation to assess the risk to the company should something happen to one of them. And I got called in for one of those interviews an hour before we clock out.

A few question here and there about my contributions.

Don't know how much I will cost the company in added premiums but the company is paying, not me.

btw, why haven't I gotten enough response to my Olympic Sports survey posted a few weeks ago. Am probably going to start getting involved soon.

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Bored at work

but finally managed to pass my board over to the foreman to package for shipment to UK. Personal business.

Maybe I should go into trading of illegally produce Scrabble boards.
Will the trademark owners sue me?

Still dittering over this.

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Someone got struck down by dengue

It wasn't me, just the Rotaract Club President who has been sick since last Tuesday.

And guess what, I got bitten three times this morning by an Aedes mosquito this morning.
Must be my lucky stars that it wasn't carrying the virus.

Friday, January 13, 2006

Candidate Sport to pick up

Have narrowed down the list of sports that I want to pick up this year. Opinions welcome.

1. Archery
Now that Malaysia has a few decent archery ranges, it may be worthwhile to invest in some gear and time to become proficient. Probably handy too if someone crosses you.

2. Weighlifting/Powerlifting
Not bodybuilding mind you, just free weights plain and simple.

3. Triathlon
Ricky's influence. go figure.

4. Shooting
Like archery, only more expensive gear.

5. Judo/Wrestling
Hoisting and throwing Ganesh around like a doll has some appeal for me.

Thursday, January 12, 2006

Got my clubmates addicted to board games

Tuesday evening at one of the clubmate's housewarming party, I bought along Modern Art and Ticket to Ride: Europe. Didn't take too long for them to start playing it and they love it.

Will keep them in my car for now until the next session.

Monday, January 09, 2006

To study or not to study

Working on the OSPD additions right now, still not touching the CSD yet but am compiling things slowly.

Should I get a copy of CED 7 and join the hunt alongside the WESPA Dictionary Committee?

a quick scan of lexpert showed several new words, especially the new 5v8s like auditee(s), acquiree, acoelous, peekapoo, etc

Will post additions and deletion here when I finish a section.

Friday, January 06, 2006

Monday, January 02, 2006

2006 things to do

1. Pick up an Olympic Sport.
2. Win a Scrabble Tournament (anyone will do)
3. Clean up the rating system
4. Master the new lexicon

SECRET WISH
5. Beat Ganesh 10 times
6. Make the Final 10 in Malaysian Idol
7. Make 10 M$
8. Get Yen Nee a boyfriend

That's all I can think of for now