Achievements and Accomplishments Thread

[Naboka]

I agree that 4x4 boards were the greatest benefactor for long words. Since the update I found 3 25 new letter words in 5x5. But there was a lot of slogging through hoards of boards with a ton of ultra-rare words and nothing worth >24 pts in order to get them.

I started the day well in 4x4 yesterday so kept going. Took meal breaks... tidied the kitchen ...didn't play for half an hour. I began to think maybe this was a special day in the afternoon. Found lots of 15, 16 ltr words in <30 secs. So I kept at it, no screenshots, no checking stats. At 5:30, I checked my stats for the day and found I was at 110 records. My previous high for 1 day was 130 records set in 5x5. So the wife came home and I didn't play again until 12:15 a.m. It was unreal; my mind felt like a top fuel dragster. It was 1 record after another after another. I had a stretch when every time I looked at time remaining, it was >1:40. Some words I saw immediately. I usually go to sleep at 1:00 but this was too good to quit so went at it til 1:35. I wound up setting 153 records for the day.

Once I saw that I thought, "Why didn't you play more through day and the evening?! You might have made 200." So then I had a talk with myself, "Calm down you dufus. This is an important milestone for you but it won't matter a bit to the vast, wide majority of players. Just savor the moment and stop the self-recriminations." So today I popped the parachute open on the dragster and am just coasting. This game keeps taking my mind to places I never thought it would go.

Double wowzer!

Supercongratulationnesses on the records. 153 is mindboggling.

You were definitely In The Zone. It's a state of mind that's meaningless to anyone who hasn't experienced it.

So happy that your post expressing such disappointment trying to find something new and worthwhile on 5x5 didn't dissuade you from playing 4x4.

In so many ways, this is a lonely game. The successes are mostly for one's self. Reminds me of the Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner. In the end, you're not doing any of this for anyone else. It's just the challenge and the personal reward.

Playing for me is a Zen experience. Beautiful music in the background. Hitting the zone. It's magical. It's spiritual. It's a meditatiion.

To the uninformed, that probably makes no sense. But, the mind is the mind, and productive mental engagement brings satisfaction to us all. Doesn't matter if we're trying to discover the secrets of earthworms or finally getting consistent with 3-pointers. You can get in the zone doing anything.

Anything.

When I get off the bike after a long hard ride, there's such a physical joy. Makes no sense to most people. Maybe it's the endorphins. Working yourself to absolute exhaustion, to the limits of endurance would theoretically leave you spent and hurting. It does, but...

Pushing your mind to its limits has the same effect. Finding the zone and settling in...?

Priceless.

Never bought a drug that's better.

It's addictive.

Though.

Opportunity costs exists for everything we do.

ps: it would be interesting to see how many people are benefitting from the new dictionary--and to what degree. A very, very uniformed guess: less than a dozen are having a dramatic shift in their games. But, what do I know? May be dozens.

[lalatan]

After just getting your 16/30 lithochemistries, think I'm gonna start a new notebook. Looking at admin's post of newly added word lengths, it seems that the 4x4 boards were gifted the most at the high end. Enough that a new notebook is warranted. 3,422 new 16 letter words. 5,352 new 15 letter ones. And they're most likely rare or ultrarare.

I agree that 4x4 boards were the greatest benefactor for long words. Since the update I found 3 25 new letter words in 5x5. But there was a lot of slogging through hordes of boards with a ton of ultra-rare words and nothing worth >24 pts in order to get them.

I started the day well in 4x4 yesterday so kept going. Took meal breaks... tidied the kitchen ...didn't play for half an hour. I began to think maybe this was a special day in the afternoon. Found lots of 15, 16 ltr words in <30 secs. So I kept at it, no screenshots, no checking stats. At 5:30, I checked my stats for the day and found I was at 110 records. My previous high for 1 day was 130 records set in 5x5. So the wife came home and I didn't play again until 12:15 a.m. It was unreal; my mind felt like a top fuel dragster. It was 1 record after another after another. I had a stretch when every time I looked at time remaining, it was >1:40. Some words I saw immediately. I usually go to sleep at 1:00 but this was too good to quit so went at it til 1:35. I wound up setting 153 records for the day.

Once I saw that I thought, "Why didn't you play more through day and the evening?! You might have made 200." So then I had a talk with myself, "Calm down you dufus. This is an important milestone for you but it won't matter a bit to the vast, wide majority of players. Just savor the moment and stop the self-recriminations." So today I popped the parachute open on the dragster and am just coasting. This game keeps taking my mind to places I never thought it would go.

[Naboka]

Lol, I'm glad you're having a good time with it. I am too!

Wow, I just found a huge number word that crossed over from 5x5! (Maybe regular 4x4 players have seen them here before. I dunno.) Way to go, Stephen!! Didn't expect that. Saw decillions right away, septen- a few seconds later. Done and dusted in 12 secs. I get a kick out of the definitions for these meganumbers.
SEPTENDECILLION:
1. Cardinal numeral. (rare US modern British & Australian, short scale) 10⁵⁴. ¹

2. Cardinal numeral. (rare dated British & Australian, long scale) 10¹⁰². ¹

Only a difference of 10⁴⁸ Lol

30 PTS SEPTENDECILLIONS.jpg
The colors you chose in your last post had a Christmaslightlikeness to them.

Gonna have to study those crazy number words. They leave me...uh...uh...uh..

After just getting your 16/30 lithochemistries, think I'm gonna start a new notebook. Looking at admin's post of newly added word lengths, it seems that the 4x4 boards were gifted the most at the high end. Enough that a new notebook is warranted. 3,422 new 16 letter words. 5,352 new 15 letter ones. And they're most likely rare or ultrarare.


Vaguely remember doing some lithochemisty word form before. Ended up being so "obvious" with the chemitries jumping out and the litho hanging on the edges it took less than 15 seconds, so I probably should have played the entire board early instead of dumping it.

Oh well, fine-tune adjustments to strategies are part of the process.

Admin posted the following number of new words by length:

Screen Shot 2022-12-22 at 2.41.51 PM.png

[lalatan]

You've provided a new game within the game. Finding lalatan's longest word.

thought I'd try the color feature. Never knew how people did it before. fancy

Lol, I'm glad you're having a good time with it. I am too!

Wow, I just found a huge number word that crossed over from 5x5! (Maybe regular 4x4 players have seen them here before. I dunno.) Way to go, Stephen!! Didn't expect that. Saw decillions right away, septen- a few seconds later. Done and dusted in 12 secs. I get a kick out of the definitions for these meganumbers.
SEPTENDECILLION:
1. Cardinal numeral. (rare US modern British & Australian, short scale) 10⁵⁴. ¹

2. Cardinal numeral. (rare dated British & Australian, long scale) 10¹⁰². ¹

Only a difference of 10⁴⁸ Lol

30 PTS SEPTENDECILLIONS.jpg
The colors you chose in your last post had a Christmaslightlikeness to them.

[Naboka]

No background in chemistry, just 3 semesters of high school chemistry. I thought it was cool how it all worked. I memorized the periodic table in grade 10, which impressed the teacher. I think thereafter he gave me better marks.

I wound up with 82 records for the day yesterday. Of course, it had a lot to do with the new games being presented in shorter time periods than usual to give me an opportunity to play those words. I've been playing the long word game for 8 years now. A lot of things come automatically w/o thinking, just like speed players. My vocabulary has burgeoned beyond what I ever thought it could. The speed with which I spot different components of words seems to keep increasing. I also see which paths of letters will work more quickly. For instance, I played a board before I wrote this: I saw over-, para-meter-ize. Looked at the timer, 2:51 left.[/QUOTE]

Wowzer, lalatan! 9 seconds to find it.

You've provided a new game withing the game. Finding lalatan's longest word.

Just played a board I normally wouldn't just because you had a 16/30. Was really scratching my head on it. Had the -ness, but... nothing else popped out. Saw the tough- and had seen what went between it and figured it had to be that eventhough I thought it was two words normally. It worked--but I barely had enough time to dump the game. It was like sliding under the closing door at the last second in an adventure movie.

Yesterday, wasn't so lucky. Time ran out while still looking for your word. Guess I'll never know what it was. Plus the insult of adding another zero-points game to the accumulating zero games from distractions like messing with the music feed and forgetting that a game is counting down. The ASPG takes a kidney punch each time.

Crazy how fast you can recognize and string together word components with enough practice. Some games it's like a time warp, where all that stuff comes together before your brain has time to logically process it. Words appear in your mind and you check, and sure enough, those words are there.

thought I'd try the color feature. Never knew how people did it before. fancy

[Brisul]

I almost didn't even compete this month. I had a change of heart and have so far scored higher than ever and have done so faster than I had ever previously. It took me only 20 days to reach the number of games needed to qualify for competition. Normally it takes me until the last day of the month!

[lalatan]

lalatan,

Just encountered another 16/33 to your credit.

Most of us are lucky to find one in a month. But, you're steamrolling them.

How in the world do you find some of these esoteric words? This one was a chemical term ending in -azines and beginning with b.

You didn't play the singular, so I don't know if it was tried and not accepted.

With a background in chemistry, I was able to find terms on this board ending in -iridine(s) and -azine(s) but not the 16. Just curious if you also have a background in chemistry or if your success is simpy the result of lots of vocabulary study in different fields--or the serendipity of stringing together word elements and seeing what happens.

Not going to give away too much info on the word--to avoid the piggybacking

For that particular word I spotted BROMO- which I know is the combo form of bromine. So I started looking for a chemistry word. I then spotted -azines, which I know is an ending for some chemical compounds. Then I examined the letters between the 2 and determined which order of those letters might be feasible to join them. I think I succeeded on the second attempt. I never saw the word before. I then submitted the game with over a minute left on the timer. I didn't play the singular because of some carryover from playing 5x5. 33 pts is a very good score in 4x4 but it's middle of the road in 5x5. I thought afterward I could've played the singular but I'm not concerned about pts tallied, just records and then APPW somewhat.

No background in chemistry, just 3 semesters of high school chemistry. I thought it was cool how it all worked. I memorized the periodic table in grade 10, which impressed the teacher. I think thereafter he gave me better marks.

I wound up with 82 records for the day yesterday. Of course, it had a lot to do with the new games being presented in shorter time periods than usual to give me an opportunity to play those words. I've been playing the long word game for 8 years now. A lot of things come automatically w/o thinking, just like speed players. My vocabulary has burgeoned beyond what I ever thought it could. The speed with which I spot different components of words seems to keep increasing. I also see which paths of letters will work more quickly. For instance, I played a board before I wrote this: I saw over-, para-meter-ize. Looked at the timer, 1:51 left.

[bwt1213]

I scored above 800 the other day for the first time, with a score of 807. It wasn't the high score for the board, but I was still pretty happy.

Congratulations! I may never reach that level myself, but I did set my own all-time high of 781 a few days ago, so maybe it's not quite as impossible as I'd always thought. So you have bragging rights, and deserve them!

[Naboka]

lalatan,

Just encountered another 16/33 to your credit.

Most of us are lucky to find one in a month. But, you're steamrolling them.

How in the world do you find some of these esoteric words? This one was a chemical term ending in -azines and beginning with b.

You didn't play the singular, so I don't know if it was tried and not accepted.

With a background in chemistry, I was able to find terms on this board ending in -iridine(s) and -azine(s) but not the 16. Just curious if you also have a background in chemistry or if your success is simpy the result of lots of vocabulary study in different fields--or the serendipity of stringing together word elements and seeing what happens.

Not going to give away too much info on the word--to avoid the piggybacking

[John13verse34]

I scored above 800 the other day for the first time, with a score of 807. It wasn't the high score for the board, but I was still pretty happy.

Well done! :-D

[bionicflutist]

I scored above 800 the other day for the first time, with a score of 807. It wasn't the high score for the board, but I was still pretty happy.

[Naboka]

You posted your question while I was typing my previous one. Haha
I'm not really sure if I've done that before. I never took screenshots of records set in 4x4. I remember I did well on the PHOTOSENSITIZERS string of words but don't recall their pt values. Surprisingly, the brain retool to play 4x4 long words I wrote about isn't applicable now.

Well, I'm glad you're playing 4x4. You were the only play on that board.

If I hadn't seen that you had a 16/33 I wouldn't have been hyperalert to finding it. Caught it just as it sailed over the fence.

The downside: that search slowed finding other words,

but sometimes the sacrifice/reward makes it worth it.

It'll still be back in circulation in a few days, so you can add to your record collection.

ps: sure wish I had my record collection from the 60's and 70's. But, who would have thunk.

[lalatan]

lalatan,

124 points with 4 words in 4x4!

You posted your question while I was typing my previous one. Haha
I'm not really sure if I've done that before. I never took screenshots of records set in 4x4. I remember I did well on the PHOTOSENSITIZERS string of words but don't recall their pt values. Surprisingly, the brain retool to play 4x4 long words I wrote about isn't applicable now.

[lalatan]

I think the difference on the 4x4 side has been more noticeable. I've been finding a much higher percentage of boards with words of 14, 15, or 16 letters than I'm used to seeing.

I tried out 4x4 and you are correct! I collected 70 best/longest word records since yesterday afternoon, solving some new words in under 10 secs. I guess 4x4 now has long words I'm used to seeing in 5x5. Having a blast. Thanks for the intel.

[Naboka]

lalatan,

124 points with 4 words in 4x4!

Wow!

You ever gotten more?

Screen Shot 2022-12-19 at 5.21.29 PM.png