In English language there are many phrases that use animals and birds to express or emphasize specific qualities. For example, lionhearted is used to describe someone brave and determined, “chicken feed” is used for suggesting insignificant amount of money, “white elephant” refers to something very expensive to maintain. There are other expressions too like “toothless tiger”, “monkey business”, “eagle-eyed” etc.
Has anyone heard the expression “Paper Turtle”? Whaaatttt? Did I hear no? No worries. “Paper Turtle” means what it says! It’s a piece of paper towel which when crumpled ends up looking like a turtle! 😂 You don’t believe me? By the time you finish reading this post just look at the attached picture! The box turtle has turned into a paper turtle! 😊 There you go, you have now not only heard of paper turtle, you have seen one too! 😉
Zaidy and tractile war requiring troops, fighting with pease-shooter, to perform jete brought out bullhorns to end the conflict! If you are wondering WTF was that that’s the same feeling I get when I play scrabble against the computer and see a word I never knew existed. Don’t worry, it’s not my covfefe moment! 😂 Hell, I can’t afford a covfefe moment, I don’t have an army of supporters trying to infer sense if I spout or write gibberish 🙏 Just trying to use words from one of my recent scrabble game against the computer for fun. Was meant to convey “Growing and stretching war requiring troops, fighting with peashooters, to move from one front to another resulted in growing calls to end the conflict”
I play the computer at grandmaster level, Which means I lose more often than I win. The win loss ratio is ~ 5:1 in favor of the computer. Why do I still play at that level? Maybe I am a glutton for punishment 😉 No, just kidding 🙏 Increasingly getting instrospective and withdrawn, I try to find activities I can do by myself. In addition to vast repertoire of words (originating from many languages) the “scrabble engine” must also be employing AI/ML. Must also be building up a database of a player’s profile based on previous games played. That translates into incredible difficulty winning against the computer at the highest level. To add to the misery there appears to be some kind of inequity built in too. I am not sure how much actual randomness is there in the alphabet tiles for the human player. So many times I end up pulling my hair in frustration on ending with all vowels or all consonants. Canceling a game before playing the first word does not result in the game counted as loss for the human player. Very few times I have actually canceled a game as I generally believe in playing the cards I am dealt with, at work or play. The idea is to see what I can do to make a positive difference. Obviously that’s not a strategic play but I am not consumed by thoughts of winning. Majority of times that means losing the game, that’s ok with me. Losing is never fun but if it’s a loss after playing hard and fair and the other player plays better they deserve the win. That’s how I look at the result of the sports teams I support too. It is what it is. Anyways, the scrabble game today had a happy ending 😊 It seeemed that the computer struck a death blow by placing “ing” next to the word “annex” (bottom right of image) and reaping the benefits of huge points by way of triple word score to zoom to ~ 440 points taking a 90-point lead almost at the end of the game. With prayer on my lips I played the word “tractile” (top left of image). Lo and behold, I got the benefit 2 triple-word scores (9x multiplication factor) + 50 point bonus for using all 7 letters! It was nice to turn the tables on the computer for a change 👏 One game won! 👍 As they say “You live to die another day” 🙏
Dictionary meaning of today’s words below
Tractile: capable of being drawn out in length; ductile. 2. capable of being drawn. Zaidy: means abundance or one who grows; yiddish for grandfather Jete: a jump in which a dancer springs from one foot to land on the other with one leg extended outward from the body while in the air. bullhorn: an electronic device for amplifying the sound of the voice so it can be heard at a distance; a megaphone. pease: nounplural pease. an archaic or dialect word for pea
Splitting the meaning of the word conscience into two.
For those who believe in conscience it’s a guiding force that influences their behavior and choices.
For those who don’t believe, conscience = con+science. Meaning there is no scientific basis for it, no rationale to have one. In other words, it’s an unnecessary impediment to achieving a person’s goals.
Conscience is one of those things which is experiential as it doesn’t have a physical manifestation 🙏
It’s been a while since I last posted on word of the day. Keeping in mind time is money, today’s word is numismatic. The dictionary definition of numismatic is “relating to or consisting of coins, paper currency, and medals”. When I went shopping recently, I got a Wheat Penny as change, among other coins. This penny grabbed my attention as it looked different from more recent coins. It’s a 1953 Wheat Penny. “Wheat” is a reference to two ears of wheat on one face of the coin. Out of curiosity I googled and learned that wheat pennies, also known as Lincoln Wheat Cents or the Lincoln Penny, were first minted in 1909 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. They were minted up until 1958 and feature a portrait of Abraham Lincoln on the front and wheat on the reverse.
My interest in coins piqued again after many years, I looked at the pile of coins accumulated at home over the years and also searched online for information on coin collection and what kind of coins/currency serious numismatics look for. The value of an individual coin depends on a few factors: vintage (how old it is), rarity (supply), quality (coin condition – uncirculated, mint, fair etc.), metals used (quarters minted 1964 or earlier command higher value due to their high silver content), special occasions (A bicentennial quarter, minted to celebrate 200 years of American Independence, may be valued higher than face value by folks who would love to have a physical representation of that event celebration in the form of a coin), specific defects in limited batch/batches of minted coins (For example, some 2004 Wisconsin State Quarters are valued high by collectors because of a defect that resulted in extra husk/leaf in the corn cob that’s on the quarter). Hey, I am Wisconsin-based, so it’s got to figure in this post one way or the other, right? 😂 Any coin value may also depend on another X-factor: determination of a serious coin collector to get a specific type of coin (It could be something like desire to have a complete collection, like coins of specific denomination minted in a particular decade).
Back in the last millennium (Man, I sound ancient now 🤣) when I was based in California, I bought some coins from The Littleton Coin Company. I guess I must have been interested in getting some loose change at that time 😉 I knew I had those coins somewhere in my home, but I did not remember where those coins were. I started on a quest to locate where those coins were after 25 years in my possession. 😊 After going through multiple boxes with documents I managed to find those coins. I had also bought some South Korean coins and paper currency (possibly because they were packaged well in the form of a scroll 📜) when I traveled over the Pacific to India from California with a layover at Seoul airport. A fringe benefit accrued in that process. Quite a few documents dating back up to couple of decades ago that were no longer required found their way to the paper shredder at last ✅ Among the coins I had bought were a 1900 Liberty Nickel, a 1905 Indian Head Penny, a 1937 Buffalo Nickel, a Susan B Anthony gold plated $, a Kennedy half dollar. There were couple of $ coins too, I think those coins feature Eisenhower. I then casually checked online the value of the coins that I bought or those that I retained because they were not common. Found that they were not valued much higher than their face value. I did kind of expect that. My reasoning was that if I bought a coin that was relatively easily available and did not cost me the moon there is a good chance it wouldn’t command lot of premium. That’s fine too. 👍
Moving on to other discoveries in my quest. The coins of old seem to age much better and more gracefully 👌than recent coins. Similar to well-built old homes that appear to have more character than a newer home that might have been built using cheaper materials. The quality of coins going down is to some extent understandable in the sense one of the factors in producing a coin must be the cost of producing compared to its face value. For example, a penny of today costs more to produce and buys lesser than days of yore. So, metal mix of coins are changed from time to time. State quarters started getting minted circa 1999. At that point in time, out of mild interest, I set aside a quarter of any new State aside in an attempt to have one of each State, if possible. Had not cared to follow much the changes in quarters in recent years. Imagine my surprise as I looked at the coins that were lying unused in my home to find that quarters in the past decade or so have been featuring historically significant events like George Washington crossing the Delaware river, people of significance and achievement in different fields of human endeavor like writing, improving race relations, war heroes and places of interest in different States of the country. 👏 I was surprised to discover a quarter featuring the US Virgin Islands because I had not noticed it earlier even though it’s not that rare. One of the fringe benefits of studying the coins has been discovering places of interest that have been featured in the coins and add them to potential places to visit in future. 😊
An important consideration for engaging in an activity for me, be it building or fixing things or pursuing as a hobby like growing plants or collecting coins, is being able to do it on my own. Meaning, with no little or no external dependency or needing another person. Of course, for building something I would still depend on the instructions. For fixing something I may still look for a youtube video. Activities indoors also have the added advantage of being able to do on a bad weather day at home when outdoor activity may not be possible. My rummaging through coins accumulated over years may not have yielded a million dollars but I got more than $50 when I got those deposited in the bank where I used the coin sorter. 👍 Hey, one extra penny is 100 x one million times closer to a million dollars 😊 By getting back those coins in circulation I might have contributed my little bit to reduced mining for metals as more supply = lesser new production. That matters too! 🙏
English is a funny language. Sometimes a particular word can either be positive or negative depending on the context or usage. One such word is conviction. A person with conviction is someone with firmly held beliefs or opinions. On the other hand, a person with conviction in their record is someone who is found guilty by a jury of peers! Below is an attempt to use the word both ways in a single sentence. Lacking in conviction and honesty the fraudster went on a crime spree that eventually resulted in his conviction!
In the past few years chess engines have gotten so much better that it’s now well-nigh impossible for even top-level human grand masters (GM) to beat the most advanced chess engines. Processing power, AI and quick risk calculation all combine to make it a much more difficult job to take on the machines and emerge victorious. Having played Grand Master rated computer opponent in Scrabble I can now understand, to some extent, the frustration and empathize with the feelings of experts who get crushed by computer overlords. Below is my experience playing GM rated computer opponent in Scrabble. 1) My win loss ratio hovers between 1:6 and 1:7. Meaning, on an average I win once for every 7 or 8 games I play against the computer grand master. I am glad I am just an enthusiast playing for fun and not an expert playing for a living 😀 2) It’s been a very humbling experience, at times even humiliating 😢 when the virtual opponent goes on double-digit game winning spree, for sure. It’s like taking on a very powerful and talented opponent with instant access to the best resources 🙁 The idea is to test oneself against the best and savor the occasional victory 👍 3) I am not sure if the alphabet tiles for a player get selected randomly as it should be. Too many times I have ended up with all 7 tiles being vowels or all 7 tiles being consonants making me wonder if the intent is to load the dice even more against the humans intentionally. 🤔 4) Even when the opportunity presents itself to use all 7 tiles (and get 50 bonus points for that) the value of the tiles themselves are minimal reducing the benefits of 2/3 letter/word multipliers. In the left picture of this post, in one of the games, I managed to hit two 3 x Word multipliers (effectively 9 x word value) with the word ‘ORIENTAL’. Apart from the fact I had to use one blank piece (which can be used as substitute for any alphabet that fits a word) which does not have any value the rest of the tiles also had minimal value. Even if couple of tiles had more than minimal value the final outcome (right picture) might have been different 🤔 5) The computer opponent (of Grand Master rating) plays quite a negative game 👎in the sense it’s always on the lookout for drying up opportunity for opponent to place on a value multiplier square. Maybe an extension of “Best defense wins championship” thinking on the board
Most times, when I am playing or the player/teams I support are playing, I believe that the player/team that plays better wins and the losing side just have to take it on the chin and get back stronger. There are times though when the virtual opponent sneaks in a high scoring word at the end and wins after trailing the entire game and leaving me shaking my head 🤦♀️in disbelief and mutter a word that rhymes with itch but starts with a ‘b’ 😡 No sexism there though, if the virtual opponent had been Joey instead of Zoey I probably would mutter a word that rhymes with dastard but starts with a ‘b’ 😂. Actually dastard wouldn’t be a bad choice either. 😅
Bottom line: Biggest lesson learned is “It ain’t over till the petite lady stings!” 😊🙏
Playing Scrabble against a Grand Master rated computer opponent, after couple of consecutive wins I tried to make it a hat trick. At one point trailing 264-309 I found the perfect opportunity to take the lead when I hit the jackpot! Or, should I say I found paradise? 😊 With the word “paradise” I hit both the TWs (Triple Word score) at the right top. The result: I got 158 points (12 * 3 * 3 + 50) to zoom to 422 and take a handy 110+ point lead! Generally the computer blocks opportunities to score big by somehow finding words to place in squares with point multipliers. The reason I got an opportunity this time was because the computer struck the dagger first by playing “soulmate” and scoring a 50+ point word in its previous turn! We were both trading haymakers rest of the game. Things appeared to be going swimmingly for me as my score reached 487 with 5 pieces remaining for me to play and I had a 80+ lead till right before computer’s last turn (as it turned out). Astonishingly the computer not only managed to strike a dagger it managed to twist it for good. Using all the 7 pieces it had left it scored 83+ points to take the game 491-487. The win was also aided by the fact computer got credit for all the points in the 5 pieces I still had left to play. Another high scoring thriller turned into a heartbreaker. Such is a game and such is life! 😭 How did I feel afterwards? What I felt must have been akin to what Smokin’ Joe Frazier might have felt after his “Thrilla in Manila” battle with Muhammad Ali! Battered and bruised, fighting a bigger and more fancied opponent, an opponent with a bigger reach (in Scrabble terms more expansive dictionary) as Smokin’ Joe was getting ready to fight the last round his corner threw in the towel as both his eyes were shut with the blows taken earlier in the fight and he had been fighting practically blind the earlier rounds (He did not have vision in one eye in his fighting career, in this fight the other eye was swollen and shut with the blows taken). A practical move that ultimately might not have been needed! If Joe had been allowed to fight the last round he would have won the fight as Ali collapsed with exhaustion as he as he got up from his stool ready to fight the last round. Did not matter. Joe’s corner had already thrown in the towel. 😢 Yes, like Joe, I felt a bit robbed 👎and it felt like “Paradise Lost!”. Would be poetic justice if I could the word “paradise” again in another game and win. That would make it my own version of “Paradise Regained!”. 😃 Sorry, John Milton ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Milton ) , did not mean to appropriate your work in any way and you can rest assured the chance my version of “Paradise Regained!” working out is slim to none! 😊 Life lesson: Results may not always match effort, expectation or seem fair. Doesn’t matter if one is able to get up with determination to fight after being down. 👍🙏
Let’s take a look at the meaning of words of the day. beerier: 1. smelling or tasting of beer. 2. given to drinking beer sorptive: 1. The process of sorbing 2. The state of being sorbed [Back-formation from absorption and adsorption.] vivat: A cry wishing someone long life and prosperity
I am not going to try to use beerier, sorptive or vivat in a sentence. Those words are not part of my regular vocabulary and will not make for interesting read. A story is more interesting though! Here we go! What is life without a challenge? Dull and uninteresting, right? That was my thinking when I decided to take on grandmaster rated computer opponent in Scrabble word game. How has the experience been? I have been getting schooled pretty much every game 😃 Good old fashioned country ass whooping would be a fair and more colorful description. 😂 Akin to a chess enthusiast playing a chess grandmaster. Let’s take a look at one of the games (picture attached to the post). It started promisingly when I started with a 50+ score for the word, ralline (which means of, relating to, or resembling the rails), a word I was not aware of but tried in desperate way to start strong and apply pressure. How did the computer respond? With back to back 50+ scores playing the words “wargamer” and “ukuleles”, sending me staggering back. The coup de grace came when the computer played “yatching” for a triple word score with a 50 point bonus thrown in for all using 7 seven letters in a turn. Against lesser rated opponents one or two 50 point bonus scores and final score of over 300 is good enough for a win by a comfortable margin. Playing against the grandmaster it’s just good for a crushing defeat. Some games after scoring over 400 I have found myself losing by over 100 points! Overall it’s been a humbling and learning experience for sure. In one game finding myself trailing by quite a bit spotted an opportunity to play the eff word. No luck, the word used to express a wide range of emotions was not recognized by the game even though it’s a valid word and supposed to be a Scrabble word 👎 WTHeck doesn’t pack the same power as WTF. Sounds unfun, eh? Sorry, mate, we are out of luck there too. 😡 Unfun may be a valid word in urban dictionary, meaning lack of fun, but it’s not a valid scrabble word.
With just a lone win and dozens of losses to show why do I still play against grandmaster rated computer opponent? That’s a valid question as it seems like a lost cause. Few reasons. Playing against stronger opponent is a way to measure one’s level, improve and stay humble. It’s just a game and unlike real life where at times all may appear to be lost when one’s words may get twisted, one’s intentions may be doubted, one’s actions may be questioned. By people who should know better. For no good reason. In real life perception and emotions reign supreme, right or wrong. Life still goes on. 👍 You play hard but fair, you win some, you lose some. There is something to be said about losing with dignity. Nothing is lost if dignity stays intact IMHO. That’s a great life lesson and worth learning 🙏
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