(no subject)

Thanks to the unhealthy influence of vschanoes , I've developed an addiction to Scrabble.  Woe, woe, woe is me.  I have also discovered that I SUCK at said Scrabble: vschanoes  beats me every time, usually by 100 points or more.  However, by downloading MAVIS, the artificially intelligent Scrabble opponent, I have discovered that I am not entirely inept: I can beat the damned thing at the first level, though not the second.  I also have to say that I suspect MAVIS of being a malignant entity on the level of HAL, due to "her" propensity to play words like "LOSER," "WENCH," and "QUIT."

My personal favorite, though, was when "she" spelled "DIE" and "NAZI" on the same line.  I approve, in a very general way. 

In more general terms, the Official Scrabble Dictionary is a goddamn weird thing: it will accept most Latin terms, but not colloqial or foreign words which have entered the common vernacular (I mean, it'll take "QAT" but not "QI"?  What gives?), which, to me, implies the probability that most Scrabble afficianados are, in fact, either  a) of first world Western extraction, b) ethnocentric in the extreme, or c) tremendously frustrated.  Scrabble links accepted here ... (for one thing, vschanoes  and I have yet to find a good site to play on ...).

In other news: alice_ayers and fairymelusine  suffered a very unfortunate event, which gave me the brief pleasure of the former's company yesterday, but which also left them bereft of immediate creature comforts: go to their livejournals to offer love and support.  IMMEDIATELY!  And, should anyone cat-friendly and NYC-based be on my list who doesn't overlap with theirs?  You might offer succor to an innocent feline ...

Orals?  T-minus two weeks.  ::shudder::

(no subject)

Thanks to the unhealthy influence of vschanoes , I've developed an addiction to Scrabble.  Woe, woe, woe is me.  I have also discovered that I SUCK at said Scrabble: vschanoes  beats me every time, usually by 100 points or more.  However, by downloading MAVIS, the artificially intelligent Scrabble opponent, I have discovered that I am not entirely inept: I can beat the damned thing at the first level, though not the second.  I also have to say that I suspect MAVIS of being a malignant entity on the level of HAL, due to "her" propensity to play words like "LOSER," "WENCH," and "QUIT."

My personal favorite, though, was when "she" spelled "DIE" and "NAZI" on the same line.  I approve, in a very general way. 

In more general terms, the Official Scrabble Dictionary is a goddamn weird thing: it will accept most Latin terms, but not colloqial or foreign words which have entered the common vernacular (I mean, it'll take "QAT" but not "QI"?  What gives?), which, to me, implies the probability that most Scrabble afficianados are, in fact, either  a) of first world Western extraction, b) ethnocentric in the extreme, or c) tremendously frustrated.  Scrabble links accepted here ... (for one thing, vschanoes  and I have yet to find a good site to play on ...).

In other news: alice_ayers and fairymelusine  suffered a very unfortunate event, which gave me the brief pleasure of the former's company yesterday, but which also left them bereft of immediate creature comforts: go to their livejournals to offer love and support.  IMMEDIATELY!  And, should anyone cat-friendly and NYC-based be on my list who doesn't overlap with theirs?  You might offer succor to an innocent feline ...

Orals?  T-minus two weeks.  ::shudder::