The geek critic

random thoughts of a four-eyed genius

Pacquiao won again

And I'm so angry.

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posted by: mvching at 08:04 | link | comments |

posted by: mvching at 07:32 | link | comments (1) |

Of Age and Wisdom

They say that with old age comes wisdom.
 However, if that’s true, why don’t they have the knowledge of the statement’s fallacy?
 Let me get that straight.
 First, it should be obvious that it is not necessarily true that a 50-year old aunt is smarter than a 17-year old teenager. Wisdom depends on everyone’s persona and individuality. Knowledge comes to an individual in the form of his/her interests and his/her environment. Sure, the 40-year old may what the cure for hay fever is, but does she know the names of all the players of LA Lakers?
 Second, the knowledge that some old people know is very incorrect. I know one old woman who says that the way to get head lice is to stand under the sun for two hours, then take a bath. There’s also these cultures headed by old people who say that their traditions cannot be changed because all of it are real old. Yep, and they continue to circumcise women in Kenya to remove unwanted sexuality, and pull all hair out of a girl’s scalp in Brazil to initiate womanhood.
 I just hate those people around me who are older who tell me things that they think are universal truths. I’m tired of arguing with these old people who supposedly correct my actions and statements with standpoints totally different from mine and really is out of context. Tell them that, and they force you to shut up.
 Accept it. Wisdom doesn’t really come with old age. Experience, maybe... but not wisdom.

posted by: mvching at 08:27 | link | comments (1) |

The Scrabble Competition
Kudos to all!
Now I will tell everyone about that fateful day when I, together with my University of the Philippines’ (UP) teammates, lorded over the NASCAP College Scrabble competition. (Talk about humility and being a braggadocio… hmm; let me be this braggart once in a while.)
OK. The fateful day was a Sunday, Oct. 19 2006, to be exact. I was the first to arrive at the venue (SM North, a mall chain popular in the Philippines) but a while later, our ever trustful training head Harold came and we talked about the most probable stems list that we both have. They are both incomplete because they’re just derived from the “Official Scrabble Players Dictionary,” which is, if you don’t know, very incomplete as compared to the “Official Scrabble Words.”
    Anyway, not too much later, our group was completed before 9 AM competition time, with Ryan, Whammy, (and all together) Roan, Roby, Tria, Arthur, and Dado. Then Jericho came, then after him was Marky. They were both late, but no matter… the organizers were more late.
    We waited for utmost an hour for the organizers whom we needed so we can enter the still closed mall. While waiting, we scattered our sights for our opponents, but to no avail. We then just chatted with Ma’am Rhea (the University of the Philippines’ Integrated School coach for elementary) and her students.
At 10 AM, the mall opened so we just hunted for the organizers. They were at the third floor, and they were still preparing the venue (talk about the 9 AM call time).
Our team then talked about our opponents then and I thought of how the pressure was upon us because of the UP myth. Is it a myth, or is UP really the best University in the Philippines, bar none?
Much later, we found out that we only have three opponent teams: the Far Eastern University (FEU), the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Pasig (PLP or the University of Pasig City), and the Technological Institute of the Philippines-Manila (TIP-Manila). Sadly, the Ateneo de Manila University (our neighbor school, not just in the literal sense) was a no-show, as we were hoping to play with them.
A round robin competition was to ensue, with each team from each school pitting five players against each other. The team with the most accumulated wins will earn the gold.
Our first fight was with the PLP and we won no sweat, 5-0.
I was not a part of that team. My first fight was with the FEU. I can’t forget that fight because at first, my hands were shaking (I was nervous) and the tiles were flying all over the place. This prompted my opponent, a guy wearing a green polo shirt and geeky glasses, to ask if it was my first time to play in a tournament. I answered a no (actually it was a yes, but I didn’t want him to have the pleasure of knowing that).
At the start, he was leading with 50 points or so. Then, I played a bingo (SHORTEN), and he instantly wiped that smile off his face that he had put on to spite me, I suppose. After that, almost all words he played were phonies (Unacceptable words) so I challenged them each time, to his horror. Imagine spending a turn with a 0 point gain.
How did I know that they were phonies? Well, besides the obvious (one time he played UAE, which as everybody knows, is an abbreviation of a country), he kept on asking if I would challenge a word he has played that I may be unsure of. Talk about hinting the opponent…
Towards the end, he played FU. I then wondered if he knew that it isn’t in the 124 two-letter word list but he played it just to swear on me safely. Anyway, I won with a 124 (or so) point spread (the difference between your point and his’/her’s). Our team got 5-0 in that round.
Then I rested for one match, while the best in our team fought our toughest competitor, TIP-Manila. ‘Twas sad though, as they lost, 2-3.
Our coach, the great Ms. Marie Filio, then told us that we need to win the next fight with TIP-Manila, and that we need to beat them with a 4-1 or a 5-0. We were thinking that it was impossible. TIP-Manila was doing better. They also had the 5-0 streak, like us, and they beat us. Anyway, we just concentrated on the two rounds before them, because we still need the 5-0s.
I then battled against the PLP. It was a better fight, too. I nearly lost there.
I battled against a guy named Jerwin (who was wearing a navy blue polo shirt and not-so-geeky-glasses). He instantly shook me up. His first play was a bingo so I was quite terrified because he instantly dumped a 50 point lead on me. Luckily, I also played a bingo not later on (BAILERS) so I caught up with his score.
In the middle of the game, I noticed how his face lit up (being able to notice each of your opponent’s gestures is a valuable technique in Scrabble). I deduced that he had formed a Scrabble in his rack. That’s why I abandoned all my point-making advances (our scores were very close) and decided that each of my plays must block that bingo, because the board was really open for bingos and a bingo will surely kill me.
Luckily, I succeeded in blocking his bingo. Then, in the end game, I was left with a QMPHLRS in my rack, and he only had two tiles left. I kinda panicked because if I don’t dispose of these high-pointing tiles, he would win the game. He only had two tiles left and our scores was really close, so if he played the two tiles early, the tiles on my rack would be added to his score, and I would cry all the way home.
My mind raced to find a solution. I couldn’t play any word that would dispose the Q because I had no vowel, and besides I closed the board, right? I decided that I should outtalk him, to end the gaming time (there was no penalty timer of any kind) but the assigned gaming time left was too long (there were still 10 minutes in the game). Besides, when I apologized for the long time it took to play my turn, he answered that its only OK but he should have his last turn.
So I panicked still. Really luckily, like all the wishing stars falling out of the heaven just to heed my wish, I saw a U that is on the board. I saw that I could, at least, lessen the big tiles on my rack by playing UMPH, which I was unsure of. So I talked him out of the challenge, saying something like “Luckily, I found this acceptable word,” I played it. He didn’t challenge it, to my delight. Yahoo! I won with a mere five-point spread. (By the way, after the game, I checked UMPH, and it’s acceptable…) We had another 5-0.
I rested in the next round (my heart was still pumping like crazy). Anyway, my teammates won FEU, 5-0.
    Next was the anticipated hit-or-miss round with TIP-Manila. I was with the fight then, and I was very unlucky. Obviously, I lost.
    I was against this guy named Harold Atienza, and he played two bingos. One of them was DARRING, which I challenged, of course. The adjudicators said the play was acceptable. However, I checked later, and I didn’t see any trace of that word in the Lexpert. I should have asked for a second opinion!
    I might have won if that word was judged unacceptable. I made up for one of his bingos by playing a non-bingo that costed 60 points, mind you. (It was CODS, played parallel with SHED on the triple word score.)
    However, could I? I told you how unlucky I was that time. Every time I drew tiles, I would draw four “I” letters, or my rack would contain all vowels, or all consonants.
    On a twist of fate, our team won 3-2.
    You ask how we won if we needed 4-1 or 5-0, right? We managed it because one guy from PLP beat TIP-Manila the time round before ours, so their score there was 4-1. At that, we were so happy that Roby, Roan, and I approached the guy and thanked him really sincerely.
    We were so happy of our win. The final scores were 24 (UP), 23 (TIP-Manila), 8 (PLP) and 3 (FEU).
    Now, we need to train very hard for the next competition.
     We need members. Please join our team. Be part of our victory.

posted by: mvching at 04:36 | link | comments (1) |

Thank you!

to mgrhetos2:

Thank you...

More later.

Actually, my team won the gold!

posted by: mvching at 07:07 | link | comments (1) |

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