Introduction

I'm a 29 year old graduate student in applied mathematics at University of Maryland. I started playing Scrabble on regular basis in the spring of 2005. My infatuation with words and word games started with solving and creating crossword puzzles several years before that. During a two year period I published approximately 40 crossword puzzles mostly in daily newspapers (NY Times, NY Sun, USA Today, LA Times, etc.) My crowning achievement in crossword puzzle creating came on January 16, 2005 when my puzzle "Pledge of Allegiance" appeared in the NY Times Sunday edition. Although I still enjoy solving puzzles when I get the chance, Scrabble has almost entirely replaced crosswords as my number one hobby.

I started playing Scrabble on-line (isc.ro) with my friend Eric Ufferman. Our handles are mcscatqat and ufferman, respectively. We started out pretty much equal and at some point he got markedly better than me -- I'm not sure when or how that happened, but a goal of mine is to catch up to him. I became familiar with the existence of competitive Scrabble through the excellent documentary "Word Wars." It took me about a year and a half of playing on-line, and at an on-again-off-again UMD club, before I played in my first tournament. I'm writing this blog primarily as a diary of my Scrabble playing. If somebody reads it, I appreciate the audience. If nobody reads it then that's okay also, I'll write in it anyway.