Wednesday, January 7, 2009

T-H-A-N-K- Y-O-U


Before I get on to the rant of the day, I have two things to say.


Number One - I heard you all loud and clear on yesterday's post. And to pull out my oft-used When Harry Met Sally line


You're right. You're right. I know you're right.


So now I've revised my New Year's Resolutions to these:


Don't worry.

Be Happy.

Practice Reciprocal Commenting.

Find out what the hell a Show Pony is.


I don't promise that you'll all notice the difference overnight, but you will notice it. I love the give and take aspect of blogging, and I think that I'm ready to stop using my last year's upheaval as an excuse to not take part in both.


Oh, and also? Thank you. I appreciate the honesty, even when it was a little rough to read. I'm being absolutely truthful when I say that there are days lately where I feel like a big, huge, grumpy whiner. And I need to know that if I do it too often here, someone will slap me. I guess I can take it if people think I'm a comment whore. But I sure would hate to be boring.



And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming...



I hesitate to start throwing the F-word around, but I'm going to have to. Facebook. There. I've done it. One of the (far too many) things I'm really enjoying about Facebook is the word games that you can play. I like the solo ones well enough, but the best games are the Scrabble games I play on-line with people. I love Scrabble, you see. And, if I do say so myself, I'm not a bad Scrabble player. At least I never have been before. I can't seem to beat my mother, but I hold my own with everyone else.



But something very strange has been happening. One of my co-workers challenged me to a game and then proceeded to hand me my shorts. I mean he destroyed me. At the same time, he and I were involved in a three person game with yet another co-worker. He killed both of us. (I finished second - I lost by a lot - but I beat out the person in the number three slot by a nice spread). At the same time still, this third person and I were involved in a two person game and I beat her quite handily. Still with me?


When all three games were over, we started rematches. And before I knew it, after just two moves, this damn guy had me down 100 points. In two moves. To add insult to injury, the third person all of a sudden had a dramatic improvement in her game and was beating me as well.


WTF?


Today at work I cattily asked him if he played the game with a dictionary on his lap. He said, "Here. I'm going to show you a little secret." Then he pulled up some website called something like wineverygame.com (or close. I blocked it out on principle). Well, you put in the letters you have tiles for and it makes words for you. IT MAKES THE WORDS FOR YOU. Then he tried to tell me that it was still a skill game because you still had to find a place to put the words. Evidently, the third player in our trio had been filled in on his little secret right before our rematch, which explained why she was all of a sudden stomping on me. And then he said


"I thought everybody played that way."


Not me, brother. I'm a purist. So then I challenged him to play me with no dictionary and no website - the old-fashioned way. Think of it as Missionary Scrabble, I suggested. And to prove he could beat me anyway, he took me up on it.


We'll just see about that.

25 comments:

Susan said...

If he is used to cheating, you'll beat him hands down. I am certain of it. Have fun!! (Even if you ever get me onto Facebook, I am not playing Scrabble with you. I am sure you'd kill me.)

the rotten correspondent said...

He doesn't think he's cheating. That's the weird thing. He was like...doesn't everyone play this way??

Um...no.

willowtree said...

I used to play a friend online, he always seemed to take ages when it was his turn. Turns out he was cheating too, and yes, it's most definitely cheating. I no longer play him.

Maggie May said...

No way you can tell if he's cheating really.
Some people are just brilliant at it.
If he takes a long time to answer, he could be!

willowtree said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
willowtree said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
willowtree said...

Did I mention that I asked if he was looking up words and he confirmed he was? But thanks anyway for disputing what I said.

Aoj and The Lurchers said...

See, that's plain cheating and I hate cheating! What does it achieve? So you beat people but it doesn't give you any sense of achievement. At least, it wouldn't give me a sense of achievement anyway.

I'm always up for a word game challenge btw!

laurie said...

i think a lot of people do play that way. but that doesn't mean it's not cheating.

Rose said...

I love Scrabble; MB got me a new one this Christmas. Glad you're going to hang in there blogging; I would really miss your posts. You're never boring, don't worry.

Balou said...

I was an online Scrabble junkie one summer. I started out purist until I got frustrated with being miles behind everyone else in points. Then I started using the anagram websites too. The first time I won a game against one of the regulars, I quit. How unrewarding to cheat, but I can understand.

Katy said...

I'm not a scrabble player because I suck at spelling so I can never come up with words.

That said, I agree that using a website to show you what words you have is cheating. What's the point of playing the game if you are going to have a web-site play for you?

Devon said...

Be humble when you hand him his shorts!

Altaglow said...

WTF kind of way is that to play any game mush less Scrabble? Don't just hand him his shorts,my dear, also hand him what they used to cover up.

Kim said...

Cheating. Totally cheating. I can't believe anyone would actually play that way.

Yeah, I'm naive sometimes.

Dumdad said...

That's fine to use that website but ONLY if everyone else is; otherwise, it's not a level playing field. I still prefer to play Scrabble on a board in real life, so to speak.

lebanesa said...

haha! I love it.
I love that competitiveness, his for cheating and yours for caring who wins. I play all kinds of things - there is one game where crowds of people play at speed and it's obvious some cheat because they find 200 words in a minute! some people complain but most just like playing and don't really mind.
How will you know if he cheats now?
As for the time thing, I play against people all round the world and sometimes they won't play their move for a few days - or even more, but I don't think they are trying to find words all that time...

Anonymous said...

so it's not cheating eh ? reminds me of a buddy and I going to another guys house (h.s. age) armed with our own monopoly money from our sets...it was brutal when our "victum" discovered our deception...

the planet of janet said...

you.

me.

scrabble.

facebook.

now.

Pam said...

i'm sorry but i call that cheating! he may not think so (hich a lot of GUYS see the emphasize on guys NEVER thinks they do. i suck at scrabble, you could hand me my shorts in 2 seconds lol i bet it was HE who told HER the secret.

anyways, i think if you need help of a website, then maybe should paid attention in school a bit better. better yet, read a dictionary cos at least you're learning the word AND the definition AND how to use one. :)

Anonymous said...

whenever you walk by him, you should whisper "cheater" and hiss.

Anonymous said...

cheating definately cheating....whats the name of the web site...just joking.

Anonymous said...

Cheating/ cheating /cheating.

Unknown said...

oooooh...I do so love the hissing idea, perhaps even when it's not warranted. Perhaps more so when it's not warranted.

Akelamalu said...

He's cheating! :0