I Deserve This Piece of Cake

Shock Horror - I am no longer cardboxing.

In fact I haven't touched it since I got back from Malaysia. I did open it up today and see 13000+ questions waiting...

I am hoping to have learned a lesson. When you are physically and mentally tired you find out if you really know the high probability bonuses beyond a glimmer, nay a nano-glimmer, of a doubt.

The problem with using the cardbox for studying is that after you have got it right enough times you won't see the anagram again for about a year and a half.

So for the last month I have been repeatedly going over the top 10000 7s and 8s. Once I am happy that I know them well enough (around 99% at a rate of 10 a minute) I will have a change.

So today I did the single solution 8s 2501-5000 (1486 questions) in 132 minutes missing 15 answers. I probably would have got those missing answers if I knew I had 16 minutes or so to spare at the time but I need to set some sort of time limit per answer. I did try setting the timer on the questions but this was counter-productive. If I didn't get the answer in the first 10 seconds I found myself watching the timer and not trying to solve the anagram!

Anyway, target met and it was time to take the dogs out for their afternoon pee break.

I don't care what the BBC weather site says - it was not 8C and thawing. There was no torrent of water from melting snow and ice down the path and steps at north facing Todheugh. The thermometer read 2C. And our path and steps are getting icier and more slippery every time we go out now.

So I decided on return to make an attempt to clear the steps. I managed to fight the shed door open and emerged with Paul's beautiful birthday present spade.

I was half successful. The ice on two of the steps decided to come away in one enormous slab after a lot of prising with the spade. The only problem was that they were so heavy I could hardly lift them to throw them onto the drive. The bottom step was less successful but I did manage to clear a small area - certainly enough to get my feet on. The top of the steps was a complete failure.

I then started just attacking the path to at least make it rough so you could get some grip on it. And then lo and behold in one place a big slab of ice broke away. This was enough to give me a weak point to keep going towards the front door. By the time I finished it was getting dark, but now there is only a small section from where it goes along the bottom of the high bank to the steps that still needs doing.

I hadn't looked at my watch until I got back inside. Nearly 5 p.m. - I had been out there over an hour and a half and felt absolutely knackered.

So now I am having a cup of coffee and eating a slice of cake that must be less calories than I have burned off :)

Cardbox 47082

Six days until I go.

I am now on a regime of

1) clear anagrams cardbox

2) clear hooks and anagrams cardbox

3) add in next set to hooks and anagrams cardbox

4) clear anagrams cardbox

5) revise high probability 7s and 8s, 500 of each a day

6) add any interesting hooks of the 8s into the hooks cardbox

7) clear anagrams cardbox

8) clear hooks cardbox

9) add in a random small set of bonus words to anagrams cardbox

10) clear anagrams cardbox

I lost a good couple of hours today. I thought I had it all under control and was congratulating myself that I had achieved 1 and 2, taken the dogs for their walk and fed them and it still wasn't quite 11 a.m. And then I remembered that I had a dental hygienist appointment at 11.20 and ran out of the house in a panic. Back on track in the afternoon. And then the concentration escaped totally when Margaret's dogs started their incessant barking. After three quarters of an hour I had had enough and went around to complain...

Still, I made it through to step 10, adding in all the 7 letter words that end [aeiou]g. And some quite nice ones in that bunch to boot, but not as interesting as yesterday's 8s with 2 Us only as vowels...

Countdown to KL - 12 Days to Go

So I have 12 days until I fly out to KL. I have started thinking about what to take - as little as possible. I do not need a light sweater or jacket. I do need one or two nice dresses for the receptions. One pair of jeans is enough... And I can utilise the hotel laundry services... And I must find my earplugs...

The Mattel publicity machine has started. Yesterday I had a phone call from the Berwickshire news. The girl sounded particularly uninterested in the scrabble, focusing more on where I may be doing some shopping and sightseeing. ITV Borders phoned later in the afternoon and have arranged to come here to do some filming on Tuesday. Could I have a board out and 'anything visual'. So I may hunt out some of my trophies...

I have stopped adding things into my anagrams cardbox like a madwoman. That is not to say nothing more is going in - just more like a slightly deranged woman. I am feeling a lot better for this reduction in cramming.

I am continuing on my anagrams and hooks for the 4 letter words.

And I am going back over the higher probability bonus words from the 6 and 7 letter stems. I am recreating my beautiful coloured spreadsheets that were never updated following the switch to Collins - maybe I can get a couple on show for the ITV crew. They are very visual :)

I have also found some time on the nicer days to get the veggie patch in order. All weeded now and paths made to create smaller beds. I am seconding Paul and Penny is coming to help this afternoon to get the muck on.

Cardbox 46465 - My Brain Hurts

I think I got a little overambitious with my word learning strategy.

Trying to keep my cardbox under control and go through another 500 'new' words every day. And a cardbox for anagrams and hooks - still seeding that with the 4 letter words.

It lasted about a week.

I could cope with the 7s but the 8s were killing me.

I decided to cut back to 250 new words a day, alternating between 7s and 8s.

And yesterday I had a day with nothing new added at all.

Just about to go through the next 250 8s to hit the 23000 mark.

I may stop there. Or I may not...

On a different but related note I have just had Marisa phone to arrange John coming to film me again. You are in for a thrilling treat of seeing me clearing my cardbox while lounging on the sofa. Hmm... I wonder if they will be allowed to show me rolling and then smoking a cigarette :)

Words, Words and More Words

Apart from a brief interlude to transfer the plants that haven't made it into the garden yet into sturdier pots before winter sets in it has been studying all the way this week.

Too much I think. My head feels as if it is about to explode.

I have got through the next 1000 7s and 8s by quizzing from list and only adding in to the cardbox the ones I wasn't 100% sure of. Although some have been leapfrogged straight into cardbox 3, 4 or 5 depending on how uncomfortable about them I was.

I started an anagrams and hooks cardbox last week, just seeding it with the 4s at the moment.

Yesterday I started revising/retesting myself on the 7-8 INGS. I hope to finish that off today.

But my brain doesn't seem to want to engage. Struggling to clear my cardbox.

It is off to the Four Nations tourney tomorrow. This year England is hosting - Allan is planning to pick me up at 7.15 a.m. for our journey down to Chester. An early night tonight methinks.

Cardbox 44444

Work has been progressing on the 6 blockers/not hooks. I have been going through these in a straight quiz from list, and adding in to the cardbox selectively - not just the ones I miss but also the non-everyday words that are easy to get as anagrams but are not totally familiar. I have now completed all words containing 3 pointers or higher.

I have stopped systematically adding in more 7/8s in probability order for the moment That is not to say no 7s or 8s are getting added but as a trickle-feed rather than a steady flow.

I am still hoping to get my 4s and their hooks rock solid - I should theoretically know them all as I have all the 5s in the cardbox, but theory and reality under pressure are two quite different things. I still haven't determined the best way of doing this. So far I have been breaking them into small groups and doing word list recall quizzes. If anyone has any better ideas on this let me know...

Cardbox 42123

Top 19500 7s and 8s reached this morning. Plodding onwards slow and steady.

Causeway team is coming together. Paul Allan, me and Mikki Nicholson are definites. The rest of the team will be two out of Mark Nyman (rated 196) and Ed Martin and Neil Scott (tied on 193). I don't know if that will mean a play-off of some sort between Ed and Neil if Mark takes his place - which he says he cannot confirm until September. It is a little unfair on them having to wait...

Elsewhere many congratulations to Vannitha on winning the Malaysian nationals. This gives her a spot in the Malaysian WSC squad alongside Suanne. The women are coming :)

Cardbox 41180

I hit the 19000 mark for 7s and 8s this morning. Should be on track for the top 20000 in time for the BMSC. Unlike Henry I am adding them in at a rate that I can keep on top of, especially with the grotty weather at the moment stopping me even contemplating working in the garden...

Cardbox 37575

Despite the time I have spent gardening I have also been keeping up with and adding to my cardbox.

I reached the milestone of 20000+ questions in cardbox 10 today. 

My next tourney will be my defence of the Scottish Open over the weekend of 16/17 May. Should easily have got the top 18000 7s and 8s in by then if not the end of this month.

Cardbox 36152

So my target of the top 16500 7s and 8s was hit today. That is over 50% of all 7 allowable letter words (32909). Still a fair way off the 50% mark for 8s though - 40161 of those. My current thoughts are that I will have a break when I get to 20000 of both.

I had a sort of day off yesterday, in as much as I only kept the box cleared. I was playing bridge in both the afternoon and evening with varying degrees of success.

I will not add much more in over the next few days leading up to the Scottish Masters. Maybe a few random odds and sods that come up as I am clearing the box. These tend to be variations of words that are already in - I am finding that this is helping to reinforce them in my memory. 

Cardbox 35739

Today marked a major milestone in my cardbox study. 

I now have more questions in box 10 than any other - 13989 to 13978 in box 9.

I guess next major milestone will be when I have more in there than in all the others in total. 

Will be a moving mark though as I am back to adding new words every day. 

Should hit the top 16500 7s and 8s before the Scottish Masters in just over a week's time.

Cardbox 35181

I have just added in and done pass number one of 15901-16000 8s.

One word of interest that came up was BARLEDUC - a fruit jam. This appears to be no ordinary fruit jam and having done a little research on the web I am afraid to announce that I will be sticking with plain redcurrant jelly. I don't own a goose quill for a start...

An email this morning announcing that the International ratings have now been updated - woohoo. I may well be the first female to have featured in the top ten. Phil Robertshaw has also cracked it for the first time, currently in ninth. The UK also has five more players - Craig Beevers, Harshan, Brett Smitheram, Mikki Nicholson and Austin Shin - in the top twenty. This is probably our best ever showing. Let's hope we can live up to it in the World Scrabble Championships that are still to be announced.

Cardbox 34227

I reached my target of the top 15500 7s and 8s this afternoon. I had also added a few more suffixes - WOOD, WORT, LAND.

I have met the criteria to qualify for the Scotland team for the 2009 WSC along with Allan Simmons and Neil Scott, Scotland gaining an extra place after their performance in the previous WSC.

I end the year on a highlight having also regained my top internationally rated female spot due to a poor showing by Suanne in the WYSC rather than by my own doing. It is good for me that Suanne is providing me with more motivation to keep studying :)

Cardbox 33000

I passed the 33000 question post this morning - 33036 to be precise.

I decided to concentrate on suffixes. OID, AGE, ATE, ITE... Some may be quite low probability but it feels like tying up loose ends (excuse the pun).

I have also, as a separate exercise, spent some time on a very weak area - 6 letter blockers. This area still needs a lot more work but I have now created my own subset of 'non-obvious' blockers so it looks a lot more manageable.

Target Reached

So today is a double red letter day for my zyzzyva cardbox.

15000 top 7s and 8s are now all in and my first question has hit cardbox 10.

Now I have to decide what to do with the spare two weeks before I depart for Bangkok :)

Cardbox 32000

I have continued my steady progress and today passed the 32000 question mark. 

14700 top 7s and 14600 top 8s. 

Should hit my Causeway target with ease...

Cardbox 31000

It is the 4 Nations scrabble match this coming weekend in Glasgow. My preparation has been going well. I set myself the target of the top 14000 7s and 8s into the cardbox and this has been achieved. I seem to be going through a phase where my brain is soaking them up so I have been taking advantage of this, adding in a hundred or more most days. I did have a bit of a set back this morning when I did a general sweep up and found I had managed to skip 12251-12500 of the 7s but they have now been mopped up. This has now taken my total of questions over the 31000 mark.

Allan and I had another practice session in match 5 of our series yesterday and I continued my winning ways against him - currently 6-2 ahead.

Michael Tang, the organiser of the Causeway Challenge, phoned this morning to check my arrangements. It is now about five weeks away before I fly out to spend a few days with Gerry in Bangkok before continuing on to Malaysia with team Thailand. My next study goal is to get the next 1000 7s and 8s under my belt before I go.

Cardbox 30000

I broke the 30000 alphagram barrier in my cardbox today. Woohoo!

The next milestone I should pass in the next week or so is to have the majority of questions in cardbox 9 - as long as I don't go too mad in adding more in. 

After much experimenting I have settled into adding a hundred or so anagrams every 2-3 days. This steady flow is much more manageable than adding in larger chunks less frequently - it was quite daunting when I could see I had several days coming up with 400+, whereas now I seem to have a more balanced 200-250 being scheduled each day. If I want to do more I just reschedule the database...

I am off to Allan's tomorrow to continue match number 5. My bottle of wine for winning match 4 by a very flattering 13-4 may be waiting :)

Cardbox 9

A major milestone was reached in my zyzzyva cardbox studying today - the number of alphagrams in cardbox 9 (10805) now exceeds cardbox 8 (10798). There are a mere 7686 in total in boxes 0-7.

A new area of study, prompted by Gerry, has been 4-vowel six letter words. I am doing these as straight recall study. I have almost got them under control. As is typical in my first game since doing these I averaged a mere single vowel per rack against Allan in our current best of 25 match and was slaughtered. I did get my revenge in the next three games. Score currently 11-4 in my favour :)

I am also revising (yet again) all the fours before the British Matchplay Scrabble Championship (BMSC) this coming weekend. Better get back to it...