Mee Siam Mai Hum

Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Always nice to head home on public transport if you haven't anything better to do. There's also the feel-good factor of not troubling Mum, which admittedly shouldn't be feel-good hurhur. Not the case if you take it in the daytime, but evening rides can be very reflective in the short ten or so minutes that I'm not asleep in. So this's an account of some of it. Incoherent yes.

I remember pretty clearly the intimidating circumstances of my first meeting with a bunch of really dedicated Scrabble seniors. Chance had it that one of them sported a rather loud 'hwachong' as his ign for ISC, and we were kind of introduced later on. Very scary seniors in Long Pants. We played a game in which I tried to phony LAUDIER* for a handful of points. Quickly came off, and I was quickly told in a slightly drawly tone that the right anagram was UREDIAL. Being generally lackluster with bingo-spotting outside the RETINA/SATIRE/SATINE/ARSINE stems, I was quite astounded. But then their 1700-1800 ratings online would have made it rather expected, hrm. But yeah, there was a substantial difference between the impersonal point exchanges online and the sheer brilliance of the moment, as I'm sure there still is.

[Come to think of it I never really had the leisure to make such appointments this whole Sec4 year. Given how profoundly I was affected by the whole incident I should have tried to pay it forward in some way. Sigh.]

In Scrabble one works by instinct for bingo-spotting. Most words of the English language are etymologically reducible. That understanding yields a lot in terms of bingo-spotting. Common prefixes and suffixes work very efficiently in yielding bingos. Other mid-word letter combinations also exist. Assuming a suffix like -ING reduces the search scope from 5040 (7!) to 24 (4!), which helps very much. Especially in extremely short games, which I've a penchant for playing :)

So like, LAUDIER was a guess based on -IER, and UREDIAL was -IAL. Yeah okay, lots of probable reasons why I didn't guess UREDIAL. The general rarity of U-bingos outside UN- prefixes, ER being more common a draw than AL, my lack of familiarity with stems including L. But thinking about it on the bus I drew a rather tenuous link.

-IER is a comparative suffix, not unlike -IEST. -IAL words instead serve to ascribe characteristics. Famil-IAL warmth, or Part-IAL feelings. Inclination towards -IER over -IAL might reflects my innate tendency to compare objects over understanding them through their characteristics.

K I told you it was tenuous. But yeah, went for highschool training for today. Felt the warmth and general loony behavior that still goes on. There are things that can be compared, but I figure that it's better not to. Appreciating both as separate, incomparable experiences with lessons in and of themselves might be a better approach I guess. Felt slightly guilty for all the judgments and disappointment at the VJCs result. (doesn't make sense, but it makes some sort of sense to me. so in a rather ris low way, who cares :P)

People tend to question the motivation of Scrabblers more than they fairly would, for instance, a chess player (whom, may I add, after being around people like GG, DH, AK, TS, seems equally no-life). When I play Quackle on my trusty mac, 'Omg what's the use of knowing that word la please!', and 'Why do you even do this' quickly crop up. Being constantly dismissive of those questions didn't work after awhile, so I tried. My standard response these days include 'a finer appreciation of the structure of words' and 'mathematical and logical evaluation', as well as 'aiya I have no life, don't ask so much'.

It is true that Scrabble is so much honed instinct that there's not often much room for intelligent evaluation. I'm an effective endgame player because I can make sense out of complicated situations easily, and also because I've a solid wordbank where it comes to short words. But persisting at the hobby at best keeps my skills sharp, it doesn't take me anywhere further. So to continue doing it at the 1.5/1.6 level indefinitely, there should be a draw factor.

But say, some people like flying kites. I mean, they just do. Sometimes they go further to justify it by saying they like the feeling of seeing things fly, that it brings them closer to nature, that they like pretty and colourful objects floating about with the sole aim of avoiding tree boughs. Or maybe its just the dreamlike, childlike association that comes with kite-flying. And its general pointlessness offers an escape from the pointedness of the world.

I mean, probing deeper one can probably find justifications for why you like what you like, and I'm glad I was made to. Though there's probably no specific need to. With many of these things the usefulness is of an autosurfacing nature. It's been a very innocent habit/hobby that rewards the bored mind. Wordsmithry, as demonstrated two sentences earlier. Playing around with words, which gives you the occasional eureka. Like 'nope' being a corruption of 'no hope' (it works, try.) It makes you feel Very Smart, more so than when you score an A1 for an exam. It helps with spelling (yeah right.), etcetera.

This whole post didn't make much sense did it.

2L @ 1:05 AM
"Sorry also must exprain"
------------

Hello Uncle...Bah Chor Mee one. I want chilli plus tur Kwa plus can I watch your CCTV playback of Jeff Lopez...=D