The strange, the bizarre and the unexpected

[bwt1213]

I've run Ubuntu and it's pretty good. You can run Firefox and get into wordtwist; I ran that a lot of times, so I know it works. Please download the Open Office suite; I used to use that a lot when I was a quant (for those who don't know, that's short for "quantitative analyst", a term used to describe mathematicians/wizards who predict the stock market in real time, sometimes at nanosecond scales). Once you have a word processor and spreadsheet, all you need is a language. I recommend Python, which I used with R to do statistical analysis and modeling. Python can be used for almost anything. As far as "long in the tooth" is concerned, you're not there until you're facing the grim reaper, IMHO. I've done that. He doesn't scare me any more. If you see I haven't been here for a really long time, you can assume that I'm gone. Raise a glass -- not to me, to life -- and play some of my favorite songs. I'll let you guess which ones, since it won't matter a whit to me any more!

[RussDNails]

40 is definitely not what I would consider long in the tooth! I'm happy your daughter has made you proud and thanks for the words of encouragement.

I've been dabbling with Linux lately and it's making me nuts. I just wiped a perfectly good Win 10 laptop and installed Ubuntu and then Linux Lite--now the laptop is pretty much useless until I figure out some of the basics.

Ironically my work laptop is my favorite for Wordtwist and I've now been blocked by an admin from playing games on it, even at home. Now I'm plunking away on another old Win 7 laptop that was collecting dust in my closet. My typing speed is definitely taking a hit since the keyboard on this thing is the older "island" style that requires a lot more force than my newer laptop with "chicklet" keys.

Anyhow, back to plunking away before it gets too late.........nice chatting with you.......

[bwt1213]

When my daughter made the move, she was 40. Maybe that's not "long in the tooth" and maybe it is, but I had my own doubts about whether that was a good move. But she is my daughter, and she can do anything so I told her to go for it and crossed my fingers. And she was as good as she thought she was, as good as I hoped she was, and in the end she was better than either of us thought. I take no credit for her accomplishments but you can bet I am proud of her. Perhaps you can surprise yourself and make yourself and some other people proud, too. "Long in the tooth" is just a state of mind. It's not a sentence.

[RussDNails]

Definitely a smart move, more money and opportunity in computer science.............I've made some good friends in the IT department at my hospital and have enough experience with software and operating systems that I could probably find something in this area but I'm getting a little long in the tooth now and change doesn't come as easy as it used to

[bwt1213]

I talk to my daughters almost every day. My younger one gets the vocabulary lesson most of the time, and I don't know why. The most recent "odd" word was desquamation, which came up when we were discussing world record attempts that Guinness would no longer sanction. I like taking long showers, and I said there would not be a record for that because of (cue the trumpets) desquamation. So she looked it up on her smartphone and told me the definition was in French, which she had had one year of in high school (she's nearly 50) so she had a little trouble with it. I looked it up on my computer, and it meant what I thought it meant and what I'd earlier told her -- and my definition came up first in French, too. But it's such a PERFECT word! It's basically "the removal of the top layer of skin" and it can come mechanically by abrasion or by exposure to harsh chemicals or prolonged exposure to water. Here's the thing: English is great at borrowing words from other languages, and evidently "desquamation" is one such word. But I have NEVER had a word where the primary definition was given in French. I'd thought it was entirely an English word. Are there any other such? BTW, RussDNails, her degree is in laboratory science and she began her career as a lab tech, later moving more into the programming/CS end of things but staying entirely within hospitals and health care.

[Naboka]

Screen Shot 2020-09-21 at 9.08.04 AM.png

The difference between learning a lot of weird new words worth more points: 88 more points despite one less word.

I imagine the really good players would easily have scored well over 750 on this.

Looking at the board, I should have scored 500 with a couple dozen words I'd normally see, but I just woke up and...

[leabhar]

I knew the rhino- had a use! Screenshot 2020-07-25 at 11.56.58 AM.png
I like how it simply means "ear, nose and throat doctor."

Where do you get those boards? I never see one like that. I already have to click over 10 times to get a playable one, let alone a dream board like that

[rosedraws]

Rollerbladings!

[flops]

there's no need for the jury to retire.

[bwt1213]

I think I'm beginning to recognize this word when I see it. For the second time so far this month (and this time on a "new" board that I thought I recognized):
Game Results

YOUR STATS:Total points: 590 New record!
Total words: 89 (40 common,13 wide,7 rare,29 ultra rare) New record!
Best word: INCONTROVERTIBLENESSES (42 pts.) New record!
Longest word: INCONTROVERTIBLENESSES (22 letters) New record!

This time, I also entered "convertibleness(es)" and "convertible(s)". I'm not sure I entered "controvertibleness(es)", though; I thought I remembered those weren't allowed. Perhaps I was wrong and could have had more points.

[DrPlacebo]

The dictionary is surprisingly up to date. RETWEET and RETWEETS count.

[bwt1213]

I almost duplicated the impossible feat of three years ago: the famous "invisible game". If I had scored precisely 499 points instead of 517, I would have tied for everything and my game would have been completely invisible. As it was, I tied for the word total, best word, and longest word.
Game Results

YOUR STATS:Total points: 517 New record!
Total words: 99 (51 common,15 wide,10 rare,23 ultra rare)
Best word: WEANERS (12 pts.)
Longest word: LEARNERS (8 letters)

PUZZLE STATS:
Played: 5 times
Average Score: 344.7 points
Average Words: 69 words
High Score: 499 points by ktschnider
Most Words: 99 words by ktschnider
Best Word: WEANERS (12 pts) by Troglodyte
Longest Word: LEARNERS (8 letters) by Troglodyte

[lalatan]

I stitched together what I thought were some interesting Frankenstein words this month for new best and longest word records:

SELENOMORPHICALLY (30/16, I learned the word SELENOGRAPHY a couple years ago so I thought, "Why not?")
TUMORIGENICITY (26/14, I didn't think the combo form tumori- would be valid.)
ARCHAEOMETRIST (26/14)
METAGENETICALLY (28/15)
ANTHROPOPATHIES (28/15)

I like how it simply means "ear, nose and throat doctor."

Yeah, that word is a beaut. I learned it from ThunderRock 3 years ago. It took another year or so to play it on a board that had it. I've always loved convoluted words like that. I'm glad I can fully indulge my sesquipedalian appetite on this website.

[walden123]

I knew the rhino- had a use! Screenshot 2020-07-25 at 11.56.58 AM.png
I like how it simply means "ear, nose and throat doctor."

[davidlamb12]

It seems you misread the game results. Megaword actually played 200 words during that game. He is the only person who has ever played 300 words in a game. How does he do it? It think it has something to do with his playing over 96,000 games, learning thousands and thousands of words, constantly striving to improve his typing speed and having a talent for it. If you don't believe that could ever be done, then watch his videos and see for yourself.

I looked at last month's 5x5 avg words/game competition results and there were 14 different people who averaged over 108 words/game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wf9HW8mg8z0&list=PL6UdZLw3YKXH4Vn2uRqB5rK9F-eIJwQTY