Being a Scrabbler

It's the first day of March and I've yet to finish Study 1. This worries me but not enough to send me to a state of panic. I don't know. I'm just too laid back right now and when I do get worried, my subconscious mind tells me that I'd be able to do it at the last minute. I've been glued to the net for the past few weeks, playing Scrabble all day long. Other than getting my first Brazilian wax, I've done nothing major nor productive in February. Shameful, I know.

Having said that, I plan to start anew tomorrow. I will go to the office fired up, rejuvenated and  focused.  Yes, tomorrow will be my first day of March. Today's a warm-up so I can stick to being unproductive and will relish in this temporary state of luxury with this self-indulgent post. You got to understand something.  I really have no one else to talk to right now. My 3 year old who sometimes acts as my counselor is asleep and hubby is not amused by my addiction to a board game so that leaves me with you :)

Right. What do I want to talk about? SCRABBLE. I know, how boring. Told ya this is self-indulgent. Anyway, I've been playing a lot of SCRABBLE on Facebook lately and  like most online games, I find it  very addictive. I always choose the 2-minute per move version cos it's thrilling and the game ends fairly quickly. However I sometimes get carried away with the greed to strike jackpot and in my attempt to form a 7-letter word, I exceed the time limit by a few seconds. When this happens, I normally pass a turn and try to get it right the next time around. It's either that or getting 'forced forfeit'  from your opponent. However,  if you have given your opponent some extra time without skipping their turn, or sending them a forced forfeit, you should expect them to return the favour and thus give you some extra seconds during your turn. Isn't that fair? Well, this is an unspoken code of conduct that I've established with most of my opponents.

Not all of them abide by this rule, unfortunately.

Forced forfeit is by far the harshest thing a Scrabbler could ever do to his opponent. I almost got a heart attack  a few hours ago when a sore loser did this to me. I just sat there in disbelief, paralysed with shock. I so wanted to type GOOD JOB PATHETIC LOSER! on the chat box just to tell her how I felt but the game has ended  so chat box was no longer active. It really sucks to lose in such a way when you're already leading by 65 points. The nerve!!! Earlier in the game, on more than one occasion, she had gone way beyond the time limit but I had waited and waited and waited for her, patiently. I could have ended the game or skipped her turn but I didn't cos I just didn't have the heart to. But at the last minute of our game, with only 3 tiles to go, I exceeded the time limit by 3 seconds and before I knew it, the game was over. Boohoo. The pain that came with the forced forfeit was so unbearable I needed two bolws of boisenberry ice cream to recover.

Point is I've learnt my lesson. The road to victory in SCRABBLE is speed, intensity and ruthlessness. You beg to differ? Well, after getting forced forfeit, I'm sure you'll agree with me.

* I did some digging and found these useful tips. Click on the link if you're interested :)

Scrabble Hints By Jeff Grant