According to news reports, Hasbro has sued the two Indian brothers who put their board game on the Internet. Clicking the link on the former scrabulous page lets you put your name on a mailing list for email updates.

More info here.

The days are so much longer without scrabulous!

The turning point was LEUCOMAS, down the left-hand side, which spans two triple word squares and is worth 167 points. Holly cow!

I wish I’d made it to 600. Thanks for the game Erin M, and for being such a good sport :)

These are some women who work at Chu Shing, across the street from my house. I like this picture because it’s brightly coloured and confusing.

Although I’m tired of leaves, and I agree that the purpose of seasons is to give photographers something new to photograph, I can’t resist a couple more. Here’s a tree like a lollipop.

And two of leaves against the sky.

Yellow

Orange

I’ve solved a mystery. On January 6, 2007 I asked, “What’s on the other end of this rope?” It was frozen into the ice on the boardwalk at Dow’s Lake.

Here’s the answer. It’s a rope to nowhere. Somehow solving this mystery wasn’t very satisfying. There must be more to it!

What else?

Leaves

7 random things meme

Maybe I’ll do the meme. Maybe not. Definitely I won’t be tagging 7 others. There aren’t 7 bloggers left to tag.

Not tagging anyone else feels a bit like breaking a chain letter, which I always do. I refuse to be held hostage by chain letters. I know the random things meme isn’t a chain letter, but it feels like one.

Zoom has resorted to tagging non-bloggers, who seem to like it. But they haven’t been blurting out random things about themselves on blogs for the last couple of years. They’ve got hundreds of random things cluttering up their brains. I think they should get them out by posting them as comments on Zoom’s blog.

Facebook Scrabble

Not that I think there’s anything wrong with playing Scrabble. It’s good for you. But it takes up time when you could be doing something else, such as watching movies and posting reviews of them on the other part of this blog.

I’ve watched four or five movies this month, but I haven’t managed to post reviews of them. I hope to do this before the end of October. And start watching more. I love movies when beastly Scrabble doesn’t get in the way.

I’m quite competitive about Scrabble. My stats for the 900 games are that I win 80% of the time. This is mostly playing against random strangers. When I play someone who is a known good player, I only expect to win around 50% of the time, which isn’t good for my stats. So I don’t play against known good players very often.

I think this is a bit sick. Maybe I need an intervention.

That’s it. I’ll try and bring back that picture. Goodbye!

The election

I’m voting Green this time. Here’s how I feel about it:

1. I vote for the party, not the candidate. I’m not interested in the personality of the candidate.

2. The mainstream parties have had their chance. I want new ideas, fresh thinking, real engagement.

3. The NDP is now an old-line party. I don’t see fresh thinking there.

That leaves the Greens. Let’s give them a chance, try to get a couple of them elected, get them into the debates, hear their voice. It’s about time.

I’ll be voting for Greg Laxton of the Green Party. You should too :)

MMP

Mixed Member Proportional. Yes, of course. It will benefit the smaller parties, and that will be good for democracy. Here’s some info about it.

Hockey

Sens all the way!

Hallowe’en

Facebook Scrabble

I’m through with complaining about how slowly people play. Now I think it’s up to each player to start as many games as they need in order to maintain the pace that they like. I find that if I play 35-45 games at once, it will quite often be my turn in one of them.

Stéphane Dion

I told you so.

Fires

None this week. An order has been issued to tear down the abandoned houses on my street within 30 days. That will be a big change, and I don’t really welcome it; but it’s too late to save the houses. We can’t keep having fires.

It’s shocking when a blogger gets blogged. Thanks for the photo Sarah Naegels.

A real gone cat

The ship of state has sailed

All for now, over and out.

But even if they haven’t actually wandered off, most people are really slow. I don’t like waiting for it to be my turn.

I’ve pretty much got it figured out now. I find if I keep about 30 games going, it will often be my turn in one or two of them. I’m a very fast Scrabble player.

Sometimes first thing in the morning it is my turn in 10 of them. I love that! Looks like a lot of online Scrabble players are early risers and insomniacs.

Now there is a feature where if your opponent hasn’t made a play in seven days, you can end the game with a win. I was able to get rid of two extreme deadbeats that way. With a mouse click I banished them into slow-Scrabble hell.

Begone Rufus B! Begone Kanem N! And never come back again. Find some slow game to play.

I don’t ask for “fast” games any more. I find there isn’t any difference between “fast” games and “moderate” games, in terms of how fast people play; but if I ask for “moderate” games, I won’t feel guilty if I myself decide to wander off and go to work or something. You know… sleeping, eating… non-Scrabble activities.

It’s important to maintain a healthy balance in life. Most experts agree that 50% scrabble, 50% all that other stuff, is a pretty good ratio. ;)

So, like I said before. If you want to play Scrabble, you know where to find me.

Fast. And don’t quit.

Right now I’m playing 18 Scrabble games. Here they are. As you can see, it’s not my turn in any of them.

Some of these games have been going on for several days. I like to play and I get tired of waiting, so what I do is, now and then I start a few new ones. I invite challengers and lately I include the note, “Fast please. Don’t quit.”

I find that if I start seven or eight games, most of the challengers will play quickly for about half the game. Then they start to fade away. Maybe three or four of the games will actually end in one sitting, and the rest join the list.

That guy Rufus B has only made three moves in two days. What’s up Rufus B? Change your mind about Scrabble? You can resign you know. I wish you would!

Anyway, I’m still having fun playing Scrabble on Facebook. But I don’t know if that long list of games will ever go away.

Want a game? Challenge me! You know where to find me. Fast please. And don’t quit.

Updated: You may also wish to read Facebook Scrabble, Part 2.