…with Gary Moss

Archive for September, 2010

Did you ever have nothin’? I’ve been there.

Having nothin’ does not necessarily mean that you have ’0′ (zero); it just means that you feel like a big ZERO.

Some people who have nothin’ become overwhelmed and frightened. They don’t know where their next somethin’ is going to come from or if it will ever come. They shrink away from life and eke out an existence.

Some people who have nothin’ look to their faith and simply believe that things will get better, by the grace of BRUCE.

It was in 1968 when I first began to live my life with humanistic principles. I never planned it or thought about it much. It all happened as a result of our experiencing a ‘significant emotional event’. I lost my first born to SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). At times like that we find ourselves at that unwanted cross-roads. Some turn to BRUCE. Others pick themselves up and take personal responsibility to move on in life in some meaningful direction.

I had less than Nothin’ at that point in time. My sadness and anger was overwhelming. I grieved in my own fashion. And out of my grief and thoughts of my daughter grew an idea to create something meaningful in her memory.

Even months before her death, I would have never considered risking the little that I had, to create a project out of an idea, without any professional training.

With a bank account of literally $50 and an idea to create a preschool, I founded Bloomfield Nursery School and Kindergarten (later came The Moss School, grades 1 thru 8). At one point we sat on 9 acres of prime land in West Bloomfield, Michigan. We served thousands of children and families, fostering an I CAN attitude, watching children blossom.

Years later, after my success, some people applauded me for my vision and foresight. They admonished me for being too modest when I’d tell them:

It’s easy to risk when you have NOTHIN’; You have Nothin’ at all to lose. ~ Gary Moss

The notion of The Nothin’ Principle applies to everything in life. You don’t have to suffer a tragedy in order to employ its basics. All that you have to do is:

-Take Responsibility

-Just Do It

Becoming a great scrabble player works the same way. It begins with the decision to become really good. (It is much scarier being really good and having all the word-slingers in the West come gunning for you.)

To begin your scrabble journey toward ‘EXPERT’, CLICK HERE

Have you purchased anything recently that included the warning! ‘SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED’ ? My ‘honey’ and I purchased two items yesterday from BED BATH AND BEYOND. Each required assembly. Each of these items came with instruction booklets, tools, and the necessary nuts and bolts to put the items together. I usually hate these projects because those people who wrote those manuals seem to speak a different language and their diagrams are normally unintelligible to me.

The first item was a shelf that fits in a bathroom (over and behind a toilet). There were a lot of pre-drilled holes and several different sized threaded screws/bolts/thingies. The arrow on the schematic wasn’t very helpful to me as I put things in the wrong place at first and had to remove parts and replace them into other holes.

That where the frustration begins for me.

I pride myself for giving clear instructions. I always anticipate that others will do the same for me. I become annoyed and disappointed when poor instructions cause me to lose my way or spend more time than is necessary to complete a project.

After becoming lost trying to find market, I called the friend who had given me the directions, as I sat in my car on the side of the highway. I had driven up and down the road a number of times. She had clearly said between the 405 and 5 freeways. I finally got through to her and she begged my pardon saying, “Ooops. It is on the West side of the 405.” I hung up the phone and screamed.

Some people ask for directions and then don’t listen to the answers.

A friend was in LA and was coming to my 1st Sunday Scrabble Tournament in Orange County. I knew that she lived near the 405. I told her to get onto the 405 and travel ‘SOUTH’ for 55 minutes. I was checking off the players arriving at the tournament when my cell phone rang. “Hello, Gary?,” said my friend. ” I’m lost. I’m in Ventura.” She had traveled 55 minutes NORTH before stopping and calling for help.

I don’t get it.

I watch newbies come to club and latch onto someone who is a friendly type. They ask that someone to provide scrabble knowledge and settle for the answers received. Would you ask anyone who simply knows how to drive a car for details about the mechanics of a car?

I am one of those scrabble directors who is a teacher, by profession. I have invented and developed learning tools aimed specifically at scrabble skills. I have prepared an entire curriculum and class, SCRABBLE 101, to guide players from their current skill level toward expert. All it requires is your time and enrollment.

If you are one of my regular readers, you must have been wondering why I haven’t been posting of late. No, I’m not ill. No, I haven’t been away on vacation. No, I haven’t lost my interest in blogging.

The simple truth is: Change Leads To Change. No matter what the activity or routine, when a significant change occurs in our lives, there is an immediate ripple effect that effects all the other pieces of out lives.

Sometimes when change occurs, we are so consumed by the change that we are easily distracted and don’t even notice the pieces that we have been overlooking.

My change in life centers around my recent marriage. For instance: I’ve lived at Laguna Woods Village for more than 10 years and until last evening I had never attended one of their outdoor concerts. The concert was delightful, featuring the music of Cole Porter. For instance: Adrienne is new to California and still very timid about driving the freeways. I’ve been driving with her and showing her all the markets and malls. During the process I’ve discovered some great places, recommended by friends.

The time that I’ve been spending on new behaviors is the time that I formerly spent doing other things.

This morning I realized that I didn’t know who won yesterday’s football games; I missed watching 60 Minutes; I hadn’t a clue what the weatherman predicted for the temperature for today; and I gasped when I realized that I have been remiss in writing my daily blogs. When I looked at my the last blog posted, I couldn’t believe that it was more than a week ago. I was shocked.

It helps me better understand the ways that people drift away from attending scrabble clubs and even studying scrabble word lists.

You and all know that if and when we stop doing something, anything, we become weaker and less proficient at doing that thing. Stop reviewing the scrabble words and soon you will have forgotten some of the 2′s.

There is a swimming pool at LWV. I’ve used it sparingly. Adrienne like to do water exercises. When I’ve accompanied her to the pool I’ve swum a few lengths, having not been in the pool for months. My unused muscles ached and I found myself quickly out of breath trying to swim more a few laps.

Today, I’ve have taken a personal inventory anew. I plan to merge the changes in my life with the other important parts in my history. Blogging is one of my priorities. If you notice that I am not being true to my blog . . . email me and give me a nudge.

Meanwhile, let’s all make a renewed commitment to empowering our word-power by studying 10, 15, 20 minutes every day, and then strutting our stuff at our local scrabble club (CLUB #350 if you are in the environs of Orange County, CA.)

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Now I know what Letterman must feel like when he reaches a milestone and appears in his 10,000th show. My number may not be as impressive, but this is my 401st post on WORD PRESS at scrabblesense.com I began this string of posts back in April 2009. Before that I had a long string of 300+ posts on just4thespellofit.com, under the title ‘Gary’s SLANT On Things’.

I really enjoy writing. Some things are very serious; some things sort of corny; some posts are instructive; other posts are purely commentary. I hope that I’ve made you smile and/or think along the way.

My intention is to continue to write my blogs. In addition, I am planning to produce a series of scrabble lessons in a YouTube format (that’s still about a month away).

I love the internet. I love my MAC. They provide an opportunity for me and you to express ourselves, share the things that we love, and earn the notoriety which is well deserved. I invite you to share my links with your scrabble friends.

Who’d a thought that there was so much to say about Scrabble? Who’d a thought that I would have exhausted the subject by now?

There are more than 155,000 words in the OWL2. Every word has a story, including ‘silicula’

It was last Saturday morning. It was like every other Saturday morning. Any scrabble player who has plans to attend Bruce D’Ambrosio’s club in West LA, knows that they are in for some fierce competition, especially if they play in the ‘A’ group. Before venturing north on the 405 Freeway, I make sure that I am well rested and have had a hearty breakfast. Even the lowest ranked player in group ‘A’ can test one’s grit.
As luck would have it, I was paired for the first game, right out of the gate, with Ms. Judy Levitt. If you don’t know Judy you have avoided a scrabble ‘buzz-saw’. Judy is one of the very best of the best scrabble players in California and in NASPA. I have beaten Judy in the past. I can count the times on about 3 fingers.
It only took judy 3 plays to play her first bingo (84 pts) and on the very next play a second bingo (82 pts). If I hadn’t had my own bingo on my 5th turn (chooser for 73 pts) I may have given up. But after 5 turns each, I trailed in the score by only 33 points: Judy 229 vs. Gary 196). Judy then had a 30 pt. play and I earned 18. The score was J-261 vs. G-214 when I spotted a place for a bingo on my next turn (leadiest – 70 pts), if she didn’t block the spot.
The good news is she didn’t block my bingo spot. The bad news (for me) was she played a triple/triple bingo on the top line (‘silicula’ for 146 pts).

FYI: Silicula is a noun. It take an ‘E’ as an end hook: siliculae.
Definition: a silicle (a short, flat silique)
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I went on in the game to play a 3rd bingo (replies for 72 pts) and I played ‘jenny’ for 62 pts.

I scored a total of 465 and still lost to Judy’s 553.

And that’s the rest of the story about silicula.

I was up in LA on 9/18, playing scrabble at Bruce D’Ambrosio’s club. (It is a great club that attracts 40 or more players each Saturday at 10AM.) One of the club regulars approached me, she has approached me with the same comment in the past. She suggested that I run my 1st Sunday Tournament in LA instead of Orange County. She pointed out that there are so many players in LA who would attend. I listened as I had on at least one past occasion. I ask her if she and others would guarantee to show up and pay the tournament fee.
“Oh, there’s a charge?” she muttered. Duh.

Everyone Wants What’s Best For Themselves.

What do you think it costs to rent a meeting room for a few hours in a hotel? In a community center? Even in the clubhouse where you live? $10? $25? $50? $100? $250?

When players attend a tournament, where does the money come from to pay for the room rental? the chairs? the paper for score sheets? contestant score cards? challenge slips? what about the computer that is used for word judging . . . who supplies that, and has to maintain it and repair it if it breaks? Where do the funds come from that go to pay the licensing fee to NASPA to sanction the event?

What about the snack food? Who goes shopping? Who sets up the room and the food? Who cleans up when the event is over?

Should the director of scrabble tournaments shoulder all of the above and do it for nothing? just out of the goodness of his/her heart? If not, how much should they be allowed to earn? A dollar an hour? Minimum Wage ($8 / hr in CA.)? Free market?

What is a director loses money? Who should reimburse him/her?

I told the lady that after directing more than 250 sanctioned scrabble tournaments that I have developed a comfortable system that insures me and the participants that everything will come off just right. The longer one stays at a venue and works with the same team, things do become more predictable. Why would I want to conduct a tournament 50 miles away from home when I can create it flawlessly just around the corner from my home?

The lady didn’t understand my logic.

Here my offer to that lady or anyone of you who want me to direct a tournament in your backyard: I will come and run your event, up to 56 players (including doing the several hours of data entry and paperwork required to sanction the tournament, at its conclusion). For that I will receive a rate of $25/hr plus a travel allowance of 55 cents per mile, plus lodging when appropriate. You do and fund everything else. (I will coach you, upon request, on how to do the other necessary things, at a rate of $25/hr.

I require a guaranteed payment of $200 (non-refundable) upon signing a contract with you for a specific date.

I probably won’t have any takers on the above offer, even though it is very generous.

Everyone wants something for nothing.

The best deal of all is getting into the car one every month, with a group of friends to share the cost of gasoline, and drive for a little more than an hour and play at the 1st Sunday Tournament. You could even plan to have dinner together on the way home.

The next 1st Sunday Tournament is The October Overdraw. It will take place on Sunday, October 3
for more information CLICK HERE
sign up early and often.

For many Jews, tonight marks the most holy 25-hour period of year. Tonight is Yom Kippur, a time for repentance and atonement. Those who attend synagogue will fast during this period and pray. According to Jewish tradition, beginning on Rosh HaShanah until Yom Kippur, God sits in judgement on every person. On Yom Kippur a determination is made and the ‘Book Of Life’ is sealed. God decides who shall live and who shall die; who by fire and who by illness, who by water and who by a broken heart.

In the hope that my Jewish friends do not take my expanded version offensive, I’ve been thinking and wondering if God spends any amount of time at all considering some of the specifics and relatively mundane items that are not referred to in the prayers in the Machzor.

I wonder if an all caring, omnipresent creator might somehow be giving consideration to issues like:
who shall win and who shall lose
who shall bingo and who shall draw vowels
who shall get away with phonies and who shall be challenged
who shall overdraw and if so, will the blank be drawn from the tiles in the mix and be returned to the bag
who shall double-double and who shall triple-triple
who shall lose a tile and who shall find a tile under the table
who shall study and who shall just be lucky
who shall arrive late to tournaments and who will be timely
who shall purchase new equipment from WORDGIFTS and who will use the same old tiles.
who shall study with WHIZ CARDS and who will study randomly
who shall attend the 1st Sunday Tournaments and who will watch footfall

And if everything is predetermined anyway, there is no reason at all to worry or fret. Just go out there and have some fun. Play just for the spell of it.

P.S. The most solemn pray of Yom Kippur is chanted near the beginning of the evening service. For you enjoyment, here is a version of Kol Nidre, sung by Johnny Mathis (CLICK HERE).

A lot of life different experiences teach the one same lesson over and over again. Things will go along great for a while and then, when you least expect it, a little rain falls on your parade, or there can even be a flash-flood.

What do you do? What is your response?

Some people just give up and drown in the muddy waters and are swept away in the waters from the torrent.

Others just ‘pick themselves up, brush themselves off, and start allover again.” CLICK HERE

Talk to any surviver of Katrina, 9/11, or Columbine.

What do you do? How do you react?

If you want to be a competitive scrabble player, or competitive at anything else, the actuality is that there will be some times when it seems as the ’tile gods’ are all against you. There are going to be some days when you are going to be plagued by the 9 ‘I’s in the bag. The other day I had a great rack like this, but it had 2 ‘I’s. It was the end of game and there was only a single bingo lane open. The word had to end with the letters T then E, in that order. If I had known the word ‘diorite’ and played it I would have won. Oh, well. Maybe the next time I have letters that can create ‘diorite’ I will think of that word.

Then there are me and Adrienne. (Here we are pictured on our wedding day. The great photo was taken by Terri-Lynn Pellegri, photographer-extraordinaire.) Friends and relatives cautioned each of us not to rush to get married with only a 62 day engagement. But would we listen? No! As those of you out there in relationships well know, there is a lot of adjusting to do in any relationship. As the two partners grow and change over time there is a never-ending dance. This old dog (I mean me) had been single for the last 28 years. Poor Adrienne. But today is our 1 month anniversary and we’re still together, ticking away.

Happy anniversary, Honey.

Life is like a scrabble game: think, plan, play, take the defense, trade, take the offense, bingo, play a hook, play off a few tiles, set yourself up, oops- your opponent took your spot, challenge, overdraw, draw a SATINE stem + D, nowhere to play . . . . . . and so it goes.

I’ve been writing about scrabble for a long time now. Today I am extra curious about what scrabble means to you.

I am inviting you to write something for me. Keep it down to 200 Words or less.

I will award one of my SCRABBLE name-list wall plaques (see at this link) to the winner and will publish all entries on a web page, providing the link in one of my future blogs.

Send your entry to: Gary.Adrienne.Moss@gmail.com
Provide your name and street address.

Deadline for entries is SUNDAY, September 17 at 9:13 PM (Pacific Standard Time), 2010.

Happy writing.

What is the one thing that you do ‘better’ that anyone else? Think about it. What is the one thing that defines you? What do other people want you to do for them? Teach them?

For me, that one thing has varied over the years. I took great pride in my leadership abilities as a teenage. In my twenties and thirties I saw myself as a creative and inspirational teacher and educator. In my 40s I saw myself as a survivor and a motivational speaker. In my 50s and 60s I’ve developed my expertise in scrabble. I run clubs and tournaments and speak to groups large and small.

Nowadays, as a senior, I see the way that many seniors are discounted by the younger set, when they notice grey hair (or no hair), wrinkles, or a shuffle in ones’ walk.

But I have learned better. Living in the senior community at Laguna Woods Village, I have met a large number of seniors with a rich variety of talents: writers; singers; musicians; business people; analysts; sportsmen/women; and scrabble players. Oh the stories they can tell: about trips around the world; about serving in the legislature; about settling Alaska; about serving in the military; and about raising their families.

From listening to others and from my own experiences I have expunged a formula that says it all, a recipe for ‘BETTER’:

Any (A)ctivity + (T)imes x (R)epeated = (B)etter

We become ‘better’ via mastery. We ‘master’ via repetition. It all begins with choosing.

Become a better scrabble player. CLICK HERE

Most people who love scrabble have no patience to spend time learning the rules and investigating the workings of tournaments, THEY just want to find words among their tiles and place the words onto the board for big scores.

Know the rules and understanding the way that pairings are determined in a competition may sometimes give you an edge. The more you know the LUCKIER you become.

You’d spare a few minutes and try to learn something that might benefit you in the future, wouldn’t you?

If not, you may want to skip reading today’s blog because I am going to attempt to explain how screabble tournaments work.

First I want to clarify why competitive players might want to play some tournaments. You earn your official rating number by playing in a NASPA sanctioned tournament. That number allows you to compare your skills with other competitive scrabble players. Your rating number is determined by your wins during tournament play and are factored in accordance with the ratings of the players you beat. Your number will go up or down at each tournament in accordance with your performance. Some large tournaments will divide players into divisions for the purpose of grouping players with similar ratings. Other tournament are called OPENS and have all players competing in a single division.

Tournaments are generally run using one of two formats: Round-Robin or Swiss-Pairing.

Tournaments work best when there are an even number of players; but as things go . . . more than 50% of the time the number of players will be odd. Since all tournament games are played 1:1, when the number of total players is an odd number, one player receives a ‘bye’ in every round.

The player receiving the ‘bye’ does not play in an assigned round; for accounting purposes the play who gets a ‘bye’ receives a WIN and a cumulative score of +50 points for that round.

Directors try not to have any single player receive more than 1 ‘bye’ during the course of a tournament. The ultimate decider is determined by the number of rounds and the number of players.

THE ROUND-ROBIN
In an ideal 7-Round, round-robin tournament, there will be 8 players in each division. Each player will play every other player 1 time. When more or less than 8 players are present, a director should announce, prior to the start of play, how rotations will be determined. Once a tournament begins, it should follow the prescribed formula.

In an ideal 9-Round, round-robin tournament, there will be 10 players in each division.
In an ideal 11-Round, round-robin tournament, there will be 12 players in each division.
In an ideal 19-Round, round-robin tournament, there will be 20 players in each division.

At times a director will want to have the last round of the tournament be a KOTH (King-Of-The-Hill) round, to determine the ultimate winner. This increases the number of rounds by 1.

After the last round of the round-robin the director identifies the standings of all the players up to that point, in the tournament, and lists them in order from 1st Place to Last Place.

Standings are determined by two factor: number of WINS and the CUMULATIVE DIFFERENTIAL SCORE.

For the KOTH Round, in an 8 person tournament, the person in 1st Place will play the person in 2nd Place, 3rd Place vs. 4th Place, 5th Place vs. 6th Place, 7th Place vs. 8th Place.

The SWISS-PAIR SYSTEM

At the start of the event all players are listed from top to bottom by their current NASPA rating.

Swiss-Pairing can be done with both even or odd number of players.

Ex: For a group of 20 players, playing a 7 game tournament.

I will generally declare that the final round will be a KOTH

I will also declare that the final round will be ‘GIBSONIZED’ (If the player in 1st Place, after 6 rounds of play has an insurmountable lead that insures a WIN, that player will be matched against the player in the 19th position, allowing #2 and #3 to battle it out for 2nd Place.)

Pairing for round #1.
1 vs 11; 2 vs 12; 3 vs 13; 4 vs 14; 5 vs 15;
6 vs 16; 7 vs 17; 8 vs 18; 9 vs 19; 10 vs 20

After round #1 all future pairing is determined by the standings, not the players’ ratings.

After round #1 there will most likely be 10 winner and 10 losers; any ties could alter this.

The winners will be ranked according to their + cumulative scores. 1st vs 6th; 2nd vs 7th; etc.
The losers will be ranked according to their – cumulative scores. 1st vs 6th; 2nd vs 7th; etc.

After round #2 some players will have 2 wins; some will have 1 win and 1 loss; some will have 2 losses

An identical system of matching is used by the director.

There are no arbitrary matches in a sanctioned tournament. All pairings are determined by systems that have been used for many years.

All systems used are chosen for fairness.

The More You Know The Luckier You Become