The strange, the bizarre and the unexpected

[DrPlacebo]

ZYGODACTYLISMS. 29 points, 14 letters. I strung together the word parts based on having seen them all in human anatomy. Turns out it's not a human anatomical term, but refers to one of the possible configurations of the digits in birds' feet.

[RussDNails]

Yeah, I think you are Just kidding of course--I can see from your avatar that you're a youngster compared to me.........

One indication that I'm spending way too much time here--look at my spot on the 5 x 5 all time list--I'm catching people that have been playing 10+ years more than I have.........maybe I should just go watch some Netflix once in a while

[Brisul]

Hey Russ,

It's funny; I was thinking you were some cagy veteran here. It turns out I've been here over three more years than you! Am I turning into one of Wortwist's graybeards?

[RussDNails]

Hey Brian,

I keep an eye out for your games too since you play for high average--I know if I find one of your boards I can usually kick some butt! Hard to find because you play fewer games but I do see one of your boards from time to time. You're correct, playing the minimum number of games to see how high I can average just isn't fun for me--I like to play a lot more boards and don't worry too much about my average. I also don't type that well so I don't think I'll ever get to the fasteddie or Megaword level even though my vocabulary is relatively strong.

The 5 x 5 winning streak is more a by-product of my obsession with the game more than a desire to keep winning but it's been a nice run and it looks like I have some work to do this month if I want to keep it going, man some of these people play a lot of games, don't know how they find the time.........thanks for writing, it's fun to see how we tend to influence each other during our WordTwisting..........

Cheers,

Russ

[Brisul]

Hi Russ,

I like to look at your scores as sort of a "pace car" for me. I also know that you have a different style of play because you are always in the running for top overall points accrued per month. I'm guessing this means that, while you're still pulling in high scores, you're not dumping games if you don't think you'll get to a 900 point threshold the way I would. If you score 870 on a board, you'll keep it because you play a higher volume of games, and making the top three in average score per game every month isn't your top priority. When I come across a game where you score in the high 800's, I think "if I just keep my eye out for a few more words, I can get to 900" and some times I do.

[RussDNails]

That big of a difference is a bit out of the ordinary but my thought is that I don't type very well but I've memorized a lot of oddball words and letter combinations so perhaps that explains the discrepancy.........that's why I can typically maintain a decent average with a lower word count than some of the stronger players..........if you look closely at my numbers my average points/word usually puts me on the top 50 list every month, again because the more unusual words have a higher point value........

Best,

Russ

[bwt1213]

I have been playing RussDNails (games on which he has the highest score), hoping to outscore him again. I haven't succeeded, but one recent game struck me as absolutely amazing. He got 850 something, and I got 650 something, so we both did well. He found about 150 words, and I found about 120, which is also usual for that score for each of us. BUT, of all the words we both played, we played only 28 in common. I still can't believe it, and I've been mulling it over for a few days.

[crazykate]

I finally found WHATCHAMACALLITS in a 4x4.

[Brisul]

This time, I was ready: Game Results

YOUR STATS:
Total points: 600 New record!
Total words: 92 (41 common,18 wide,9 rare,24 ultra rare) New record!
Best word: INCONTROVERTIBLENESSES (42 pts.) New record!
Longest word: INCONTROVERTIBLENESSES (22 letters) New record!


PUZZLE STATS:

Played: 3 times
Average Score: 491.3 points
Average Words: 80.5 words
High Score: 533 points by bwt1213
Most Words: 90 words by bwt1213
Best Word: CONVERTIBLENESSES (32 pts) by bwt1213
Longest Word: CONVERTIBLENESSES (17 letters) by bwt1213

Nice work!

In other news of strange, bizarre and unexpected; it took me one game to go from 920 to 849, and it's taken me 36 games since that fiasco to get to 909...still 11 points below what it was.

[bwt1213]

This time, I was ready: Game Results

YOUR STATS:
Total points: 600 New record!
Total words: 92 (41 common,18 wide,9 rare,24 ultra rare) New record!
Best word: INCONTROVERTIBLENESSES (42 pts.) New record!
Longest word: INCONTROVERTIBLENESSES (22 letters) New record!


PUZZLE STATS:

Played: 3 times
Average Score: 491.3 points
Average Words: 80.5 words
High Score: 533 points by bwt1213
Most Words: 90 words by bwt1213
Best Word: CONVERTIBLENESSES (32 pts) by bwt1213
Longest Word: CONVERTIBLENESSES (17 letters) by bwt1213

[quyxyz]

HYPEREXCITED is a word, but HYPEREXCITE is two words, not one.

[Spike1007]

That may have been the -ZINC- word I found before (or not). However, I remember doing the same thing you did. I found the ends & had to fill in the middle somehow. Anyway, good job!

[DrPlacebo]

I've found some -ZINC- words before that probably also counts in the Frankenstein category. (I don't remember what they were.) Since then, I've seen -ZINC-, but never managed to do anything good with it. Good job!

And speaking of -ZINC- words, I just smashed a board record with PHOTOZINCOGRAPH. I saw both PHOTO and GRAPH, and couldn't find anything to connect the two, then remembered the talk about ZINC in the forum.

[lalatan]

Spike, I didn't see your edit until today. Thanks for the congrats. Congrats to you on your silver trophy and your ongoing excellence! I saw a really good word you came up with on 1 board but forgot it now. lol, just way too many words swirling around in my head.

I'm still tracking my daily stats. I quite like it; seems to motivate me when I see the daily totals. At first I hesitated to do it since I thought I could get obsessed with it but that hasn't happened. The elves are pretty crazy with my long word totals since I'm setting up to 30 long word records/day. The most dramatic so far is a loss of 28 for 2 days, a gain of 44 the next day and then a loss of 19 the day after. Strangely it balances out with a few extra credits every month.

Today I played STIRPICULTURES. I saw the word somewhere and actually remembered to play it!

[Spike1007]

lalatan, thanks for the elf update. I haven't kept track in a while, certainly not since the migration. Maybe now that they're working days, we have a chance to catch them in the act.

By the way, a belated congrats for your (not unexpected) 1st place last month (as thinkbig)!

For those not familiar with the elf problem, a while back I started keeping track of my current lifetime stats for best & longest words. These should of course go up when you set a record and go down when someone beats your record on that board. I've pretty much confirmed that the counts do go up as I set records. Going down is to be expected, but I realized that the longest words record count would often increase overnight, and then decrease some the next day. I assumed that elves were playing for me.