Sunday, January 31, 2010

No Sister Kissing!

We have a five point lead after 322 questions. In other words, we got one more answer than Trivia Pirates - Aargh! over the entire weekend. No tie. We will either win or lose with the Garrudas!

It's the final countdown

Waiting for the final scores before the Garrudas. It looks like it's going to be too close to call between us and Trivia Pirates - Aargh!

That being said the fried chicken is awesome!

What is google thinking???

How the heck did this happen. More proof the internet is about porn. You'll need to click the image to actually see it.

Yes we can!

Black people hour!

Thanks guy that sounds like Cleveland Brown!

http://www.blackpeopleloveus.com/index.html

Julia Child Hour Rocked!

No bones about it!

Nailed it!

HAHA! I just nailed the Rule 34 question.

Standings

Latest Scores




01.Food Bank of Kaukauna: Put your buns ...1240
02.Trivia Pirates Argh1225
03.The Lawrence Undead: Alumni with Noth...1096
04.Six Feet Under1090
05.Karen Carr Presents Bucky's Banastitu...1040
06.Synchronized Chaos975
07.Morgan Freeman and the north side pla...972
08.Silver Anniversary Teabagging Iowans970
09.Super Mega Soviet Gang Bang Dream Tea...969
10.Hobgoblin of Little Minds94

The sweet sweet feel

of a Thinkpad keyboard. I can't believe how much I miss my old IBM T41 Thinkpad.

Now this is gross

Richard Hall's Poop Flute.

Because nothing is better!

Best question of the year:

Q: According to Fredrick Jemeson's translation of Richard Wagner's Das Rheingold what is Albrerish dragging as the 3rd scene opens?

A: The shrieking mime


My Trivia Question:

Q: What's better than a shrieking mime?
A: Absolutely Nothing!

Viking Hour!

Kittens!

Too Bad Fiona Is Sleeping

She should be on the horn with her mom for Opera hour.

Controversy

Holland's Scroat or Hall & Scroats? We don't know?

Also, what's up with the Bank of Nerds jam team? Bastards!


Scroatie Foster is also pretty good.

Fun

In the pantheon of fun things in my life, Trombone Hour doesn't even make the bottom of the list.

The Wife is on the Interwebs

Teams lock in heated battle to win Lawrence University's Midwest Trivia Contest

Stick to the plan!

Leroy Jenkins - Never stops being funny.

Dirty Deeds

done with sheep

Nothing to report

Fiona and I are still going strong. Nothing exciting to report, but we are getting a run for our money from Trivia Pirates - Aargh!

AWESOME

Billy Scroat Scruff!

Wombatman!

I'm the only one

who doesn't give a rip about Batman hour. I'll admit, I enjoy the music and the chance to make a "Two Robins, One Batcup" joke is always appealing.

Morgan Freeman and Tom Selleck Are Dead

Let's see if that gets picked up on Twitter!

Play More Bjork. Loudly.

I love the you suck response to that.

BANK OF DEATH

WARM AND FUZZY DEATH

Run for your life

Run to the hills

Even though I don't get many of the answers

and I can't understand half of what they say. I LOVE DEATH AND DESTRUCTION HOUR!

Saturday, January 30, 2010

It Never Gets Old

Snap Flowchart

Strage

It appears The Wife has been posting as me for the last few hours. I was radio silence because I was on phone duty (haha I said duty) for a few hours then took a 90 minute nap to gear me up for the overnight. Good Times.

Great Jam Team Name

The Burlington Scroat Factory. BWAHAHAHAHAHA

Remember

The rules are: "You can clown anything. Oh. Wait, correction - don't clown anything with fire." Property services thanks you.

We love Jessica Hagy

Drag Queens and Clowns

A crying on the inside type

Can't play trivia, clowns will eat me. Yes, that's right we have an entire hour devoted to clown trivia.

Transcript

Brogan is known for his pre-trivia motivational speeches, but he's never prepared one before. Below is a first for us in Trivia. Here is the Transcript of the speech:

**********
Let me start off, as I usually do, by thanking everyone for coming. I know it’s not an easy trip to get to the middle of bumble-cuss Wisconsin in the middle of cussing winter. And that becomes more and more true every year as our geographic center starts to wobble increasingly toward the east coast and the west coast, straying far from our midwestern roots. But for whatever crazy reason, you’re all here and I’m here and we’re getting ready to do this thing again.

Now, for those of you who have been at this for a while, you’ll probably think its odd that I have gone to the trouble to prepare these remarks, as my tradition is to hop up and spout a few rousing remarks; a cuss this or that and send us barreling into this 50 hour slog. And while I have certainly always fallen back on that approach in times of desperation, I have to admit to you all that every year I think to myself that this is going to be the year when I actually take the time to really think through what this weekend, this contest, and—most of all—what all of you really mean to me.

Most years, I just can’t get up enough enthusiasm to pull that off.

But this year is different. This is 2010. A chance for a record tenth win in a row. And I figured if that’s not sufficient motivation, then I just don’t have it in me.

I have to stop here for some facts to set this up right. By my count, we have 28 people playing trivia this year. Those 28 people represent 12 states (Wisconsin, Florida, Minnesota, Iowa, Washington, Illinois, Massachussetts, Tennessee, Texas, California, New York, New Jersey) and the district of Columbia. Using my, admittedly rough math skills, that’s better than 20% of the country’s states represented. We have won 9 in a row. 11 of the last 13, with 2 second place finishes sprinkled in there. By my count, this is the 14th consecutive year that the Bank of Kaukauna has fielded a trivia team. It’s our fifteenth consecutive year if you count Sam, Jason, Shannon and I playing the contest out of my bedroom, and it’s my 17th total year if you count the year I played with some folks at Lawrence and the sophomore debacle whereby Jason Maxham was introduced to my sister whilst dancing on my dad’s sub-woofer. This from the man who styles himself an audiophile.

Seventeen years. Holy cuss. I just turned 34 years old. I have been playing this game half my life. Let me put that in perspective. I did not know—but just looked up—the average length of first marriages in this country. It’s 7.8 years. And we’ve all been together twice that long. Which I think is definitive proof that married people should only be allowed to spend 50 hours together once a year. Preferably playing trivia.

When you think about it, it’s pretty remarkable that we all get together to do this thing. As we get older, our lives are increasingly full of stress and commitments. Vacation time is at a premium, and in the midst of the Great Recession, spending limited resources to go play a stupid game is crazy. Another fun fact: there are 8,765 and change hours in a year. We bill about 1800 of those to clients, which leaves 6,965 hours to do with as we please. Factor out an optimistic 8 hours of sleep a night (or, in Maxham’s case, 12 hours a night) and you have a little over 4,000 hours left. You’re about to devote 1.25% of your non-work, non-sleep life to trivia. The good news is that you’re going to make it up by not sleeping.

But it is remarkable that we keep doing this, and I am always surprised that we manage to convince as many folks as we do to play. Because contrary to popular opinion, this whole playing trivia all night thing actually sucks when you have jobs and kids and other cuss to deal with. I spend 8,715 hours a year dreading trivia. But I spend 50 hours a year loving it. Unfortunately, it’s the first 50 hours after it’s over. In all seriousness, though, you don’t play trivia for 50 hours of sheer fun. You play it for those handful of moments throughout the contest where you happen to know the answer to a question off the top of your head, or where you find a website that makes you lose it, or when you’re singing Africa at the top of your lungs.

I am at the point in my life where I now forget more things than I remember, but I can recall with vivid clarity the moments when I knew that some of you would be trivia lifers –

Joel – Chuck Norris

Mark – the top score on Pac Man

Kyle – smashed to pieces in the still of the night

Patty – the moment you said, “I do.”

And whether this is your first trivia contest or your 14th, that’s what this contest is all about. The little moments where we forget ourselves, our lives, our jobs and focus on something so small, so minute, so trivial that we change profoundly, if imperceptibly. The next 50 hours are a free pass to slow down, answer a question every 5 minutes, meet some new people, bathe a little less, sleep a lot less and forget about Monday morning.

Now, if I’ve lured you all in with this quasi-new-age-love-thy-trivia-team cuss, snap out of it. Because I don’t want a single person in this room to forget this next bit. As much as we all love the kumbayas, it’s no accident that we’ve won this thing 9 times in a row. We don’t win through sheer force of goodness. We win by working harder, faster, smarter than every other team. Some years, that has translated into a hundred point or more advantage over the second place team. But last year we won by three questions.

Make no mistake. Three questions is not a victory. It’s a margin of error. If you aim for a three question advantage, you risk losing nine years of hard work not because somebody managed to find an answer to a Garuda, but because you were talking through a question. Or because nobody listened for our name and they won’t give us credit. With a margin that small, there is no error for mistake. We have to be 50 hours of perfect. We have to treat each and every question like a Garuda, like it is the question that will make the difference between winning and losing.

And that is my challenge to you this year. Can you answer every question as though it’s the one that makes the difference? Can each of you commit to answering, somehow, some way, the impossible question? Because if you can find a way to do that, we are going to win this thing. And better than that, we’re going to make it look like it wasn’t even close.

They are going to come at us hard. There is nothing they want more in the whole world than to end our streak right here. There is nothing they want more than to have me walk up for that second place trophy. And they think they have us figured out because all they need to do is answer three more questions right. Don’t give them that satisfaction. Don’t give them that satisfaction.

You are my friends, and you are my team, and for the next 50 hours we will live and eat and breathe and play as one unit. If you do that, we will make history. Now, let’s go do it.
***************

Shut Out

All teams were shut out on question 114. Last time we missed a question was #85. That was quite a streak.

The answer had something to do with a bad Jersey accent and registering for the Selective Service.

In other news, I am now fired up! Thanks Trivia!

Semicolons and Illusions

Semicolons

Illusions

Pigs Are Awesome!

Pigs, Bitches! You just aren't as cool.

I'm Back

I managed to get about 4 hours of bad sleep. Fiona's out right now and I really hope she's getting better sleep than me. I am very sad that I missed bear hour!

Things Bears Love

Girl scouts. Boomboxes. Slip and Slides. Trust Exercises. The list goes on. Don't believe me? Check it out for yourself: www.thingsbearslove.com

What Bear is Best?


I guess we're going to find out now that it's "Bear Hour!"

Joel has gone to bed

I'm getting a second wind now that the sun has come up. We seem to be a little light on people, so I'm going to try to brute through until we get reinforcements.

Having a hoot reading "finds" at href="http://www.foundmagazine.com".

24 Hours

I've now been up for 24 straight hours... 2 more until I can get some sleep (hopefully).

Question

What do we want?

Braaaaaiiiiiiins!

When do we want them?

Braaaaaiiiiiiiiiiinss!

It is Zombie hour!

Why Yes

One did get fat! In Hell!

Bad Monkeys!

FYI

Nobody can understand the WELSH INQUSITION!

Great Jam Team Name!!!

That's not rain, that's god crying for NBC.

S-L-O-W

It's going so slowly right now, and while it's fun to hear descriptions of inanimate objects having sex, it's killing us not having questions!

Not Quite Sure How This Is Going To Work

I am already beat, but we are looking at another 6 hours or so before Fiona and I can crash out. At least we have unicorn hour to entertain us. On another note, the Trivia Master really sounds like Cleveland Brown. I'd love to hear him say, "Awwwww Peter."

Scapple Jacks FTW.

Kyle just called someone on redial that wasn't a trivia phone person. Good Comedy!

!acirfa

Special still not is it. It's like Yoda speak.

Still not getting this one.

Maybe I am tired, but this question still doesn't make sense:

20. On Gremlin's movie list what two films feature the actor who is the self-proclaimed nephew of the host of a japanese cooking show?

Cradle to the Grave. Brotherhood of the Wolf

Before I play the piano, I like to feed a goat

My name is Denis Matsuev. God bless Dana's ability to click on random Russian Youtube links.

Friday, January 29, 2010

Africa!!!

In addition to listening to the magical musical stylings of Toto on the way to Kaukauna, we just had our first Africa 'sighting.' I guess that should be listening, but you get what I mean.

Hurry Boy! They're Waiting There For You!

If you go to the Toto "Africa" well too much, it stops being special.

Already

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Impressive

They managed to get out team name wrong on the very first question. Food Bank of Kaukanua: Put Your Brains in Our Hands instead of Put Your Buns In Our Hands. It's a fine distinction, I know. Will be great for Zombie hour if we are so lucky.

Braaaaaiiiiiiiiinnns!

Soooo close

They are reading the rules. We don't need no stinkin' rules.

Geek Test

So let's see how annoying it is to type with the iPod Touch. Yes it is annoying but it works! So we have that going for us.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Links of Interest

If you want to listen to the contest you can at WLFM's website

I got to write about the contest on my work blog this week.

Some of the other teams:
Trivia Pirates
Skull Squadron
Too Much Trivia In The Pants
Iowans
We Need More Cowbell, Martha!

2010 - Two Angry Tivia Bears

Raarrw! It is really hard to believe that Fiona and
trekked out to Sunny Kaukauna for another year of the Great Midwest Trivia Contest. Another 50 hours of sleeping on the floor or drinking massively dehydrating volumes of coffee. Our second littlest trivia guru is also a dangerous bear. She's also the second coolest bear next to our good friend Lily up in Ely, Minnesota. I'll start with some updates soon since we are still looking at nearly 2 hours before Trivia starts. I am about the have my third cup of coffee and am looking forward to the joys of caffeine shakes. W00T. Since I have nothing better to do right now than harass the wife. Note the early 90's called and want my clothes back. I did trade my red chucks for my disintegrating MONKEY SLIPPERS. More on that later....

Monday, January 26, 2009

Heading Home

Well, we survived. I think we got to bed around 2:30 last night and everything is a cloud of fog this morning. I made with through the weekend with about 10 hours of sleep total. This will make the drive back to the airport seem to last longer than watching Dances With Wolves.

Anna just had her Green Card approved! Finally! After a long and mind-numbing process, she has learned that if you are persistant enough they will let just about anyone into this country! Eventually! It is great news.

Throughout the week, I'll flesh out some of the smaller posts and add some additional feedback on the "placeholder" posts from the middle of Friday and Saturday night. I will also fix spelling and typos from posts I didn't edit closely.

I've got a broomball game in St. Paul at 6 PM and then a long and deep sleep--this signals the return to the mundane normalcy of my life.

Cheers!

Joel

Victory

By 15 points.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Update on the trifle

*Soon To Have A Tummy Ache*

Garrudas Time @ 10:30

We wrapped up the regular 5 point trivia questions with a slim lead over Trivia Pirates Aargh and a slightly bigger lead over Six Feet Under Inter-office Memoranda. However, both teams are in reach of us in the Garruda rounds coming up at 10:30.

Garrudas are significantly more difficult that they standard questions and are worth anywhere from 25-75 points. We also get more time to solve them. For example, we got one Garruda last year for 25 points. "What was Jim Morrison's Passport Number?" We were able to find a copy of his death certificate online and get the number from there.

After the Garrudas, we have one Super Garruda which is typically worth 100 points and honestly are virtually unanswerable. The last time someone officially got a super garruda was the Bank in 2001. If all goes well, we call random strangers and wake them up in bed.

Our Littlest Trivia Master

Little Brogan will be running the show in a few years!



You know what he did?

From Questions #337

Thank you Blue Cross Blue Shield

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1OOyZ_YAZ0

All Mine!


Look at the amazing desert we have coming later. Just LOOK at it! I know the perspective is odd, but it is actually BIGGER than it looks.
I just want to stick my head in the giant bowl for a few minutes. I won't, but it's going to be a challenge. Quick! Grab the wrist restraints!

This looks awesome!


I Done Wet My Britches!

Star Wars Hour!

Last question of the non-Star Wars hour.... Here's the answer

http://www.pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF089-Caring_for_Your_Turtle.gif


Another great one from the same website http://www.pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF050-An_End_to_Gopher_Trouble.gif

If only she was real!

Fictional myspace pages are good comedy

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=73410940

"Introducing Dahsheeka (pronounced Dar-shee-car) the feisty, straight-talking object of the infamously buttas MC Gremlins unwanted affections. Born Dahsheeka Monisha Elisha Rhiena Beyonce Ashanti Brown in Peckham it was clear from a young age that Dahsheeka had a definitive taste for the high life, her first words to her parents being Moschino and I want. A round-the-way-girl with the clich attitude to match, Dahsheeka, or Sheek as shes fondly called by her peers, enjoyed growing up in Peckham as it taught her many valuable life lessons such as: the California yakky at Deepaks wholesale on the high street tangles too quickly, or Chantels mums boyfriend can get designer D&G bags much cheaper than Tyrone and Bavin behind the flats! 19-year-old Dahsheeka is one of the founding members of TFC which stands for the Too Fine Crew 04, alongside her best friend and fellow hot gal Maneetah (every pretty girls ugly best friend), their main ethos being to look buff come rain or shine. Maneetah ironically has a deep crush on Dahsheekas gruesome chief pesterer MC gremlin, COULD YOU BELIEVE IT!? But hes not amused and continually spurns her advances of lust! For more on Dahsheeka and the gangs hilarious animated capers visit www.buttas.com "

Kremlins or Gremlins Hour

I got nuthin' Fiona and I are tired. We have 10 hours to go and are running on a skeleten crew. We just missed a question that brings the Trivia Pirates Arrr! very close to us.

Great Jam Team: In Mother Russia trivia jams you!

Fubar Hour

This may be a darwin hour..

**Update, It's a Fail Hour**

We just got an insane question featuring the awesome band Galatic. We didn't get the answer, but neither did the Pirates.... Whew!

Shout out to the Stevens Point Contest.

Pwned Noob Hour

In honor of the hour....

http://icanhascheezburger.com/2008/01/01/funny-pictures-pwned/

The Interwebs is Fixed

We've been down for 90 minutes or so when the Lawrence Servers weren't transmitting data--in case all two of you listening from home were wondering what was wrong. Our handy network guru Jason headed down there to help get things rolling again! So, hopefully you'll get some new updates from the wife and I on how the contest is going very soon! This is the guy Jason defeated to get things taken care of:


My Belly

We have a pause in the contest because the Trivia Master's don't have enough volunteer phone answererererererss. So, with a warm glow of eggs and BACON in my stomach, I want to take a second to say thank you to everyone that has cooked and cleaned for our team this weekend.

It isn't an easy task since we've had a significant number of folks come through the doors since Friday night. We've been well fed with nice home cooked meals--rather than the pizza and Chinese takeout one might expect. Some of the highlights were the beef, bean or pork enchiladas for dinner last night and Friday's homemade macaroni and cheese with brocoli. I have absolutly no recollection about breakfast yesterday but I am sure it was awesome.

The folks that feed us are amazing and selfless people. And I must admit, that it's better than gorging on Cool Ranch Doritos, Cheetos and other junk food and getting MSG remains all over my keyboard.

My well shaped belly says "THANKS!"

49 In A Row....

That was the streak before we just missed a question...

The question that tripped us up refered to who currently lives in the home of Glenn and Annie Greenwood from Free Willy.

Any Whale You Want It, That's The Whale You Need It

I am really enjoying whale hour. I wonder if there will be a question about NICK'S Maggie?


264. IN ONE OF HIS BIZARRE SIGHTS CARTOONS MARK LYNCH DEPICTS AN ANIMAL ON TOP OF A WHALE, WHAT TYPE OF ANIMAL
AND WHAT IS IT INSERTING INTO THE WHALE'S BLOWHOLE

** Whale's In The Sky Keep On Turnin' **

#260. On Nov. 12, 1970 the passenger side roof of Walter Umenhofer's Buick was crushed by something falling from the sky. What was the object?

Genius Idea Oregon!

http://www.winglitch.com/articles/dynawhale.htm

Random Thoughts

The bacon smells so good right now. We've go five pounds of the world's most wonderful pig product cooking in the kitchen. The wife, being Canadian, wishes it was back bacon wrapping a Tim Horton's donut. Not really, but it sounds like a good idea.

I wish we had a cat cam back home right now. To be honest, our cat doesn't do much. It would just be hours of a live feed pointing at a wall or the couch cushions. We refer to her ability to stare at the green cushions as watching "CouchTV, always on!" She can stare for hours. I suppose it would be more effective to put a mirror under her nose and a cam on that to track if she's alive and kicking.

Where are the Shriners?

We have a parade of duct tape from the ceiling between the lower trivia room and the kitchen. This tradition tracks consecutive correct responses from our team--ignoring off-campus shut outs. We’ve been going on quite a streak.

Time for Some Zzzzzs

Joel is grabbing some floor for some zzzzs. My head in spinning, and I'm ready for the sun to come up!

Jam Team: So this seal walks into a club...

Ba-chicka-baw-baw

Sex Hour!

I don't get it...

More Toto - Africa.

Started over to cover some dead air.


If you thought your life sucked, but was better than John Carney's, this might also make you feel better. http://danstheman.com/Jenny.htm Dude had too much free time.

Crunch Time

We are now gearing up for the most important hours of Trivia. I managed to grab a few hours of sleep, and I'm feeling okay. This is crunch time, so I hope we manage to brute through now with some strong hours.

Observations, it's hard to sound 'metal' while saying "catfish sandwiches"

Death and Destruction Hour!

Let's blow some crap up!

Jam Team: Phallus In Chains

NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA

Batman Hour!

FYI according to question 201, "planting a timebomb in a local library is a felony."

Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVhqcMIF8H4


2 Robins, 1 Batcup

Saturday, January 24, 2009

More Choad Humor

Jam Team Choads:

The Long and Winding Choad
Country Choads Take Me Home
Cotton Eyed Choad
Goodbye Yellow Brick Choad
Every Rose Has It's Choad

Only Halfway There

It is hard to believe but we've only crossed the halfway mark for this contest. We've got a long way to go and a shot time to get there."

The good news is there's beer in Texarcana.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnRwQjTYfGI

Wow!

I just can't come up with witty comments for this one. I am sure they are there, but the article says it all.

http://www.darwinawards.com/personal/personal1999-15.html

Stop! Hammer Time!

Shake it like a Polariod picture! The Party Hour theme is one of the most fun. First question has to do with the bottle opener in Cool Hand Luke.

Yuck!

Jam Team: 10 Guys, 1 Bucket
11 Guys, 2 Cups
I Have A Package For You *Wink*

Dog Fight

Looks like we are in a dog fight with Trivia Pirates Arrgh! Offical scores have us trailing, we'll need to refocus overnight so we can try to overtake them in the middle night for the final Sunday afternoon push.

Death To All Flying Things

183. Rapid pressure drop has caused the death of a large amount of what type of animal without any physical contact?


Just like the Red Baron (except when battling Snoopy), it appears that Canadian wind turbines destory everything that dare to come to near.

According to Discovery, bats have been dying in large numbers do to rapid pressure changes when they get near the turbines.

"Here's the science" http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/08/25/wind-turbine-bats.html

"You say tomato, I say pimp"

Apologies to Burn Notice for that title. Just learned that a tomato has also been know as love apple and wolf peach. Both of those names sound like a euphamism used by a gangster in an old black and white movie to sneak past the censors. Like, "hey lady! How's the old wolf peach?"

Yuck!

Trivia Hour Is Over

The most self-reflexive hour is over.... The Trivia Trivia Hour is complete. It is my least favorite hour because I can't try to at least reason the answers. It's pure blind googling luck and brute force guessing.

On another note, the trivia geniuses requesting Sweet Caroline by "Elvis" should really recheck their music collection.

*Update* I stand corrected. There's a reason I've never heard the Elvis version, because frankly it sucks. No joy in listening to the King destroy a wonderful song with the dulcet tones of a man who is trying to pass a kidney stone.

I just broke my own heart

By remembering many of the lyrics to the Fishheads songs... Now don't lie to yourself and deny you knowledge of this... even if you think it is stupid today, you still remember it from when you were 8. Don't make me ask Dr. Demento to pop a cap in your a$$.

Here's a remixed reminder http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks5zxOxR97U

Moose

Is Algonquin that roughly means "twig-eater."

Yum! Twigs.

That's a big difference from today's meaning of "Dude with a big butt that works really hard on the sports field."

The wife has left the building....

Actually she hasn't, instead she is finally going to bed! I think she's been up since 6:45 AM yesterday morning. I am to wake her up around 9 PM. We'll see how it goes, while she sleeps. She's done a yoeman's job so far!

Choad sighting: Choado Baggins

The Wife is Indeed in Heaven

Questions on The O.C., Gossip Girl & Clueless. Whatev.

It's an hour of TV shows I will never watch

The wife, however, may be in heaven.

No Matter How Much You Think Your Life Sucks

You aren't John Carney!


Question 120: Which four NFL positions possess the football during a miraculous lateral field time expiring only to have their kicker miss the field goal?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Od9C2dKiCI

Not 10 Minutes Later

We got a question about what animal has 10 sex chromosomes....

The answer? Part 2 of the post below. Random!

I guess it pays to discuss Wikipedia articles on a long car ride.

Jam Team Name: Wii-Not Fit

More on Random Animals

Lobsters can't get any bigger without molting their shells... so they have that going for them.

Also, the duck-billed platypus is a misnomer since there are no other types of living platypuses (or platypodes if you are funky-Greek) to distinguish the duck-billed from. Go figure.

Yes, I am a geek

Well, I am rested, caffeinated and have cleaned out the eye goblins after a brief and restless two hour nap.

Risking that I might just appear a little geekier than I did one day ago, trivia might be the intellectual equivalent of the BSG episode 33. In the first episode after the miniseries, the Galactica and surviving members of the fleet have to execute a jump every 33 minutes for over five consecutive days. Instead of starting a jump clock, every three minutes multiple players on our team holler out “QUESTION!” To get all the chatty folks to shut up so we can hear the next, well… question. We shut off all the cooking devices and everyone refocuses—no matter how tired you are—to hear it and start the search for an answer. Every three minutes, until late Sunday night.

I didn’t get much sleep from 8 to 10:30 because every few minutes I would be awoken by someone screaming “question.” Speaking of which, we just had an on-campus and off-campus shut out… So it’s time for the hoot of “Question!”

*Hey Gaeta, I seem to have lost something on New Caprica. Perhaps, you Cylon buddies know where it it*

Lob-stah!


Apparently lobsters are great test subjects for experiments because of their post-experiment edibility. Who knew? Perhaps that's where the McDonald's in Maine get the lobster for their McLobster.

If Celebrities Were From the Midwest

Wow, quite impressive. If Celebrities Were From the Midwest

I believe this may be funny even after trivia is complete.

Hopefully Our Breakfast Won't Include Scrotato Pancakes

Joel has gone to take a nap, but I'm still going strong (?) 10 hours since we got to Kaukauna. We're in the midst of saturday-morning cartoon hour. Turns out the Bush administration didn't need to resort to waterboarding - a more effective method of torture would have included repeatedly playing the theme song to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

For a while, it looked like we had broken the interweb. I'm actually serious. The cable went out and we were scrambling, losing the feed and only hearing parts of questions, which sucked. Luckily, the interweb fairies have fixed it and we're back to full strength.

Things I've learned in the past few hours of trivia...

- Illinois once thought that "American" was a language...

- The first Olympian born in China was actually Scottish

- Apparently it is possible to paint a life-like image of Charlie Chaplin onto a cat's butt

- You should never tattoo someone's name on your thigh because you might regret it at a later date

Africa - Toto

We are getting out first Toto Africa sighting (hearing) right now. For some reason this song has a mystical energizing quality at trivia. I am watching the wife dance in the reflection of the window right now with what is a combination of finals studying madness and caffeine jitters.

I wasn't around the year this became a trivia meme, but it is a good one. Much better than being Rick Rolled....

If you'd like to join in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPT_3PEjnsE

Another good Jam team name: Global Missonary Positioning System

6:42 AM - The Great Depression is now in HD

So far so good.

After the first 50 questions, it looks like we are doing well. The early AM is also a good time for a us to make a push (since a lot of teams go to sleep for a few hours). If the wife and I can make it for a few more hours, we can take a nap while the fresh folks that slep through the night take over.

Stephen Hawking's Karaoke Machine

Another great Jam team name.

Just a quick explanation of what a Jam team is....


This is a call in trivia contest, and teams rely on people to answer phone banks. Since each team is only supposed to call in with one person to answer the question, there’s a gamble that multiple callers will get in to the answerers at the same time. The resolution to this dilemma is to have the second person in with the correct answer give a fake (usually humorous) team name. This practice is frowned upon by the trivia masters and of course the BoK would never stoop to such low practices.

Zombie Photos

Be sure to check out the Zombie photos form the on campus Zombie Challenge. Inspired red jelly work by the on campus folks!

http://blogs.lawrence.edu/trivia/

Woot!

Got my first question without having to google it! I can't believe I remembered this off this off the top of my head.

#50 In the movie half-baked a group of friends is revealed to have given names to two treasured possessions. What are these names?

Billy Bong Thorton and Wesley Pipes

Another Jam Team Name

Choad to Perdition
Rocky Choad Ice Cream
Left-handed midget - blah


Not a Jam Team
!!Skull Squadron!!

No one sleeps at trivia.


Team mascot, Phinneas is trying to grab a few winks, but we are waaaaay to loud!

Yum!

On July 2 2008 a man was found in a WI home basement was found whistling to himself he was wearing what was described as urban camo. What was he wearing?

OMGWFTBBQ!

Yes, Barbeque Sauce.

Random things...

Great jam team names...
Solid as Barak
Honey Bunches o' Scroats

Was just introduced to the Starz Bunny Promotional Videos... Link goes to Twilight in 48 seconds, but I have to recommend 16 candles if you aren't easily offended. http://www.starz.com/Promotions/bunnies

This doesn't trump the absolute comedy of Turtle v. Wok from last year. Then again, that probably was only situational humor. If you want to youtube it, I will have to let you know that it's NSFW--if you can actually tell what's going on.

Zombie Hour

It's a little early in the weekend for Zombie hour, but who cares? It's Zombie Hour! This is probably the most enjoyable hour of trivia that doesn't occur at 4 AM on Sunday.

Sample Zombie Question: #25 According to the Zombie Sex Guide what stomach turning sexual act is great foreplay for eating brains.


Speaking of Zombies, I know this will come as a shock to most of you, but we don't drink the entire weekend. Yes, I do this sober. *Gasp* However, if there is a high level of incoherency in anything I might type this weekend it is from exhaustion and not booze. Scout’s Honor! Even if I was never a scout nor, do I support their political policies.

More likely the wife and I will be talking like Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America the day after the inauguration. Link to the video with commentary on Gawker http://gawker.com/5136396/diane-sawyer-still-obviously-intoxicated

Finally Got Here!

After stops at both Milwaukee and Appleton airport, we walked into the mayhem of question 15. After a quick hello, and super-long boot of my trusty old T41, I am thrust into the begging, pleading and yelling of our leader John Brogan (more on him later).

It’s already 12:46 in the morning and I’ve been in a car since 3 PM, but we’ll have to get going for a while.

Team Name:
Bank of Kaukauna: Is That A Stimulus Package in Your pocket, Or Are You Just Happy To See Us?

Previous team names:
Federal Bank of Kaukauna: Well Past Our Subprime
Bank of Kaukauna: This One Goes To Eleven

Friday, January 23, 2009

Freaking Telemarketer Scam

So this has nothing to do with Trivia, but I am so annoyed. We got another telemarketer call from Card Member Services just a few minutes ago. Every day we get an unknown caller from either Card Member Services or Warranty Services. Getting on the phone to yell at them has become a hobby for me and the wife. I think it is absolutely shameful how they are trying to scam people.

Fiona and I are on the do not call list. We have had several “discussions” with them about not calling us anymore. Today’s conversation was the best though.

I get the recorded “urgent” action needed on your credit cards before Visa or MasterCard raises your rates. I hit #6 to speak to an agent. When he asks me if I called to lower my interest rates, I reply “no, I hit six so you would stop calling me. I want to be taken off your phone list.”

He tells me there is no phone list. What kind of crap is that? I tell him that we are on the Federal Do Not Call list and they need to stop calling us. Even though we’ve gone this route three or four times already, it can’t hurt to try again. My head exploded when he says, “there is no do not call list.” All rational thought went out the window. He then asks me if I’ve ever seen the list. Does he mean the list of phone numbers of people who don’t want telemarketers calling them all day long? Actually, I don’t know what he’s talking about. I muster a touch of calm and say, “no, I haven’t looked at the list, but I have read the federal regulations on it.” He’s not swayed. Since, neither of us has viewed the do not call list—evidently it must not exist.

Pictures or it didn’t happen. My bad!

When I get back from Wisconsin, I am going to figure out who these people really are, and find someone I can call every single day until they stop. There does seem to be quite a bit of information about them here http://honeypot.net/scam-calls-card-services


Grrrrrrr.

The Monkey Slippers Are Packed!

Honestly, that is a lie. They are on my feet right now, and will probably be the last thing thrown in the suitcase this afternoon. At which time, they will infect all the clean clothes extra hats, gloves and mittens (for those travelers from warmer climates who forget how freakin’ cold Wisconsin is in the winter) for the five to six hours it takes for the wife and I to get from Saint Paul, to Milwaukee Airport to pick up some of her friends and then down to Appleton for The Great Midwest Trivia Contest XLIV.

Besides my winter addictions to outdoor broomball, summer kickball and year round Rock Band playing, the thing that gets the most quizzically polite laughs is my mention of The Great Midwest Trivia Contest. I know. I participate in a lot of weird crap. For anyone that would like a basic overview of the contest you can go here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Midwest_Trivia_Contest. If you want to listen in starting shortly after 10 on Friday, the contest is played over the wide-wide world of web on WLFM http://www.lawrence.edu/sorg/wlfm/
Over the next few days and hours, I will be updating this blog with talk about the contest, random stuff happening to our team, general impressions or whatever else is going through my head as I get no sleep or booze through Sunday at midnight.