…with Gary Moss

Archive for May, 2009

If you were to take the 10 letters in ‘mothersday’ and use them to create as many legal scrabble words as you could find from 2′s to 10′s there would be a total of 869 different words. That’s too many to post here. But here is a list of the 7′s to 10′s. How many do you know? Feel free to share the list with all mothers and have a great day.

HEADMOST
SHAMOYED
DEARTHS
HARDEST
HARDSET
HATREDS
THREADS
TRASHED
HYDRATES
HYDRASE
HYDRATE
THREADY
RADOMES
SAMOYED
SOMEDAY
SMARTED
ROASTED
TORSADE
STRAYED
STARDOM
TSARDOM
TERAOHMS
TERAOHM
HOMESTAY
HAMSTER
EARSHOT
MAESTRO
MASTERY
STREAMY
METHODS
DEHORTS
SHORTED
STORMED
MODESTY
DESTROY
STROYED
MOTHERS
SMOTHER
THERMOS
SMOTHERY
MOTHERY

It has been said that we humans are creatures of habit. Just stop and think about the routines that are a big part of your life, each day. As it happens, routines provide us a measure of comfort. Routines release us from the burden of making decisions and we are able to drive through parts of each day on automatic. Have you experienced arriving at a frequent destination, not really remembering the details of getting there?

Some of our habits and routines empower us and others do not; those others are merely the easy way out.

Intellectually, changing a habit seems easy and straight forward, especially a negative habit. Just stop doing it! Easy for you to say, when it is not your habit.

When you’ve lived long enough, you learn the lesson: You Can Do Most Anything. For me that means: I have the power to lose that extra 20 pounds; I have the ability to learn 30 words a week; I can learn to play the guitar.

And the truth is, I will only add things or change things in my life when I make a decision to change.

That all important FIRST STEP to CHANGE is DECIDE. After that, if you are serious, it is mostly downhill. (If you notice that things aren’t changing, you really haven’t decided to change, you’re just fooling yourself.)

I am taking my first step today. While I’ve been sitting and pounding away on my computer, creating blogs and word lists, clutter has amassed in my home and the board of health might even take issue as this place being a suitable living quarter.

I’ve picked up after myself from time to time, but my overwhelming desire to keep on keeping on with other things has been my focus. I planned to hire a cleaning crew but stopped myself with the thought that ‘I can do this myself and avoid the extra expense’. And so I never hired the crew.

Finally, I got sick and tired of revisiting this issue (and every table in the house had become piled with ‘stuff’.) I took a step. I hired a cleaner.

Today is the first day of the rest of my life in this regard. The cleaner will be here at 11:00 A.M. I will have to work with her to organize and discard things. I will be surprised if we complete the job in a single day. I am prepared to stick with the chore until it is complete. Making the decision was harder than any of the clean up can possibly be.

What FIRST STEP do you need to take?

Are words fun? We know what these phrases mean, but how did anyone come up with the pairings? Check these out, then you try to create an original oxymoron. Share it with me by adding it as a comment.

Most, if not all, oxymorons are not legal scrabble words because most consist of two separate words that are only used in combination. Take a look at these:

Have Fun With It . . . . and then come on down to play scrabble at Club #350.

There aren’t enough hours in the day, or days in the year, to do everything for one’s self. So, even when I can’t do it all ‘my way’, I have learned that I have to compromise my standards and delegate some things to others. And as hard as I try to convey the outcome I expect, I have learned that I must be willing to accept a tolerance of + or – a few points from my ideal.

It’s not that I always do things that perfectly or precisely, when I do them myself. When changes are called for, while I am doing the project, I see first hand, and fully understand, the reasons for the alterations.

Some people are much better than others at working together. They must have had some special training while growing up. Maybe they came from a big family or they grew up in a communal environment.

I don’t know if my experience was so different from yours. I grew up as the oldest of 3 children. Mom and dad worked a lot, so I was fairly independent. I was instilled with a fear of terrible consequences for doing the ‘wrong’ thing, so I stayed on the straight and narrow. I was taught manners and respect for others. And somewhere I learned the notion that I could do things ‘better’.

Over time I have been very disappointed by others, when I’ve relied on their products or services or timeline. Those experiences only further reinforced my self-reliance.

As a result, I work very hard so that I never leave others disappointed with my products or services or timeline.

Check out my line of scrabble related items. CLICK HERE!

custom scrabble boards

If anything here moves or inspires you to compose a ‘scrabbleku’ of your own, post it as a comment. I can’t be the only one who is crazy enough to write these kind of things.
(1)
An opening bingo
A feeling of power
U U I I lose.

(2)
Wood tiles and sand timers
Packed in a box.
Memories of Butts.

(3)
Germs on hands
Hands in bags
Challenge the thoughtlessness.

(4)
The count down clock
lacks the drama
of fallen flags.

(5)
Sure can spell,
sure can’t add,
Hold.

(6)
Grungy tile bags
May be the source:
Swine Flu.
~Gary Moss 5.5.09

Jeff Bertolucci from PC World recently published the article below. My Slant on Things is a bit different. I joined Twitter to specifically meet up with people who are Scrabble enthusiasts. Twitter seems to be working for me.

Why Most Twitter Users Give Up
Apr 29, 2009 3:22 pm
(Editors note: For the opposing argument on Twitter quitters, take a look at Twitter Quitters Just Don’t Get It.)

“A study by Nielsen Online states that more than 60 percent of new Twitter users give up on the service a month after signing up. This doesn’t surprise me. The more I use Twitter, the more I realize it isn’t for everyone. Why? Because most people really don’t care what you’re doing. And you don’t care what they’re doing, either.

Twitter has gotten oodles of media attention lately, and I’m guessing that many users are signing up just to see what the ruckus is about. If Oprah and Ashton Kutcher use Twitter, it must be worth checking out, right? But once the newbies spend a few days telling the world what they’re doing in 140-character bursts — or reading mind-numbing “I’m-at-the-market” updates from friends and family — the novelty wears off in a hurry.

I signed up a few weeks ago, and so far my reactions are mixed. I’ve been following an eclectic mix of people and publications, including colleagues, friends, magazines, and even a few celebrities. I’ve discovered that Twitter is a good way to learn about new things, such as interesting articles and potential story topics. On the down side, I’m getting links to more articles than I could ever read. It’s another case of information overload. (Could it be that I just don’t get it? My colleague Robert Strohmeyer thinks so.)

Celebrity tweets? I’ve learned the movie director Kevin Smith had sex with his wife last weekend, that Kim Kardashian (why is she famous again?) has launched a lookalike contest, and that Jack Dorsey, the guy who invented Twitter, travels a lot. I’m really jealous about that last one.

But after browsing these hourly updates from the rich and famous, I’ve found that I really don’t care what they’re doing. Even if I enjoy their work (e.g. Kevin Smith), I neither want nor need to know the minutiae of their daily lives.

Friends? A similar story. One female friend of mine posted a series of updates about her menstrual cycles. “Aunt Flow has arrived,” one read. The others were more graphic.

If there’s such a thing as sharing too much information, that was it.

Yes, I know that all I have to do is remove the annoying, narcissistic, and dull from the list of people I follow. And I’ve done a little of that.

I’m not trying to trash Twitter, which I think is valuable social networking tool for personal and professional use. But I get why Twitter’s retention rate is below 40 percent, while Facebook and MySpace have retention rates near 70 percent, according to Nielsen.”

Sometimes ‘Less’ is ‘More’. Every poet knows it. The ‘sloganist’ knows it too.
Try these on for size. Then, if so moved, create some of you own ‘just for the fun of it’.

Any Time, Any Place, Bingo

Does You Does, or Does You Don’t Take Bingo?

I’m not just the Bingo, I’m a Member

We’ll leave the Bingo On for you

Got A Bingo? You’re in luck.

More Bingo Please

Say it with Bingo

Life Should Taste As Good As A Bingo

They’re Yummy For Your Bingo

Dial Down the Bingo

The Real Smell Of Bingo

The Future’s Bright. The Future’s Bingo.

We bring the good bingo to life.

Any of the above could be the slogan to promote the wonderful learning tools that help serious scrabble players expand their vocabularies at JFTSOI. http://web.mac.com/jftsoi/www.wordgifts.net/BOOKMARKS.html

There are friends and there are friends, but there are no friends like Scrabble friends.

Mitch Bayersdorfer was the big winner today, taking 1st Place, Hi Game & Hi Play

The next tournament scheduled will be a 2-Day Event on May 16-17; 13 Games.

After that, the next 1st Sunday Tournament will be on Sunday, June 7th.

Your participation is welcome. We play in Laguna Woods, California, in Orange County (mid way between LA and San Diego). For detailed information about our scrabble clubs and events go to: http://www.just4thespellofit.com

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