Mahjong Scoring

Mahjong Titans scoring is an enigma. Microsoft does not even have much on it. They do state that extra points can be gained by cancelling pairs in the same row. this would explain why my scores are much higher on turtle than nay other layout - there are simply more rows!

Mahjong Spider

As with the crab, the mahjong spider layout can best be won by working the stacks on the spider's "feet" against the stacks on the spider's "body".

Mahjong Crab

In mahjong crab, working the "feet", from top down, against the center stacks on the crab's "body" clears the tiles fairly quickly.

Mahjong Fortress

Similar to the dragon layout, the mahjong fortress layout has a lot of "stacking" of the tiles. Again, same as with the dragon layout, the fastest way to clear all of the tiles is to focus on the tiles at the ends of the long horizontal rows, and the inside tiles of each square.

Mahjong Cat

In mahjong cat layout, the fastest way to win is to play the tiles on the cat's "body" against the "tail" tiles and the "head" tiles. Once all of these pairs have been eliminated, then focus on the body.

Mahjong Dragon

The best way to beat this game is by clearing the tiles at the row ends first. This seems obvious but it is not quite that simple. Rows end tiles are even more important than the top tile as in the stacks. The dragon's "mouth" has three end tiles but only two are very important to clear first - the ones at the top and bottom of the triad.

Mahjong Turtle

The turtle arrangement of computer mahjong can be best,and fastest solved by the following strategies:

• If all four matching tiles are unblocked clear them all in any order.
• If you have a choice, try to match tiles that are in the center stacked area with ones on the edges. this way, both will be decreased as you progress which is required for winning.
• If you can not clear one of the center stacked tiles with an outer edge tile, then clear the center stacked ones first and then wait to clear the outer edge tiles.

Mahjong and Wikipedia

When it comes to computer mahjong, Wikipedia simply has some things wrong! Not all layouts are equal in difficulty! Fortress and Dragon are definitely more difficult than the others. I am not even sure if they all have the same scoring scheme; but perhaps that is because I am slower at some arrangements than others.

All arrangements seem to be solvable 100% of the time if you use CTRL Z to redo until you get it solved. Redoing to a solution requires remembering the arrangement of the tiles and analyzing what is required to win.

I have also figured out that if all four related tiles are unblocked, you might as well clear them out as the order in which you clear them will not matter in reaching a solution. Following posts will cover a possible strategy for each arrangment to increase your score.

Creating Dark Green

During the summer of 2008, I took a painting class at the local community college. At the same time, I was studying the works of John Singer Sargent and noticed that he often used a very dark green background for his pieces such as "Lily, Lily, Rose". I did a bunch of paintings with this dark green background ("Study on Sargent's Poppies" is on the right.)

I am beginning a new painting, "Ketones 1" that will be done similarly to "Study on Sargent's Poppies" but I could not remember exactly what I did to create the dark green. I googled and found a recommendation to add black to the green. I practically never use black, so I was sure this was not what I did. After some thought, I remembered mid-tone green and mid-tone red make charcoal grey. So, if I add a little more green than red, would I have dark green?

It worked! And created a very rich wonderful dark green - much darker in value than each of the two original colors in fact. I will have to experiment with complimentary colors more!