Wednesday, January 02, 2008

I've Cracked the Half-Millenium!

The onset of writer's block last year provoked me to come up with what might seem to be a rather counter-productive New Year's Resolution. Quite simply, I wished to blog at least once day, so I decided that I would start to indulge far more heavily in the mundane on this blog. Of course, if any inspiration from the heavens should strike me, then I would be perfectly content to attempt to write with some degree of profundity. In fact, it just so happened that I have some good material at the moment, but I lack the patience and energy to put it together tonight. With this in mind my insights shall have to wait until at least tomorrow night and you will have to endure my pointless meanderings for now.

Okay, back to the point. Where was I? That's right ...

I tend to get fairly easily absorbed in things that interest me. You might suggest that I have an obsessive personality. Being the spin doctor I am, I'd prefer to call it "being focussed". I've inherited this character trait from my mother, so she's the one I shall choose to blame or thank depending upon your perspective. For now I'll just say "Thanks a lot, Mum". I'll work out whether I'm being sincere on sarcastic later on.

One of my latest obsesssions, err, "areas of focus" has been playing Scrabble, or as the Facebook equivalent is known, "Scrabulous". Again, I have certain friends to either thank or blame for this newly found passion - you know who you are. And now that I've become engrossed in this game, I've had to contemplate upon how to improve my score. It seems to have worked, since I have regularly been scoring above 400 in my games.

Once again, I chose to step up to the plate and indulge in the linguistic labyrinth. More through good luck than good management, my tiles allowed me to play "abetter", scoring 70 points on the first move. This was followed by "snackers" and "casinos" worth 78 and 75 points respectively. After a few much lower scoring moves (18 and 14 points respectively), I was able to play "darning", worth another 78 points. I had made four bingos in six moves. I was beginning to feel like Brad Hogg heading towards a maiden Test century (good to see that my delusions of grandeur have not been dented by my writer's block). Just how many points would I score?

It was a close call, but on the final move of the game I played "ava", dispensing with my final two letters and securing a score of 508. Needless to say, I was absolutely thrilled. Humankind has done many incredible things over the millenia, but I had just broken the 500 barrier. Such greatness had not before been achieved, except of course for those Scrabble professionals (yes, I've discovered they do exist) who quite frequently score above this mark.

I must say that it's been an eventful day. I may have to get around to getting a life one of these days to prevent myself from internally combusting as a result of sensory overload ...

No comments: