quiz nite ...

We didn't do too bad this time out — we finished fifth overall out of more than 50 teams thought we could have done better; a few simple mistakes and going against gut instinct cost us several points that would have put us up near the top.

I thought we were screwed because our scores were lower than the last two times, when we broke 30 points out of a possible 42 on both occasions. This time I think we finished with 26, so that tells you how much harder the questions were this time around.

Oh ... and I brought my camera but forgot to replace the batteries, so no pics.

Here are the questions I can provide — don't have the images for the photo round, and will leave out the Guam ones that most people won't know ... hell, most of us from Guam didn't know them.

Oh ... and spelling counts. Get the right answer and spell it wrong, and it's wrong.

Category: High, Low, Long
(One local question here)
1. What place on land has the lowest elevation in the United States?

2. Name 3 of the 5 states in the 2000 Census that had the highest populations.

3. Name 3 of the 5 states in the 2000 Census that had the lowest populations.

4. What North American city has had the longest continual habitation by Europeans?

5. What is the name of the world's longest dog sled race?

Category: Words, Words, Words
1. "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet" is a line said by which character of Shakespeare?

2. Name the type of fish caught by the "Old Man and the Sea."

3. What famous American poet was once a West Point cadet?

4. How many syllables in the second line of a haiku?

5. There are two terms that describe the repeated first sound of words. Name one of them; bonus points for both.

6. LASER is the acronym for what?

Category: Music — Classic to Top 40
1. Who composed "The Four Seasons?"

2. The Quarrymen included the nucleus of what well-known rock band?

3. Who sang the theme song to "The Dukes of Hazzard?" He was also the narrator.

4. What artist has the current Top 40 hit "Sexyback?"

5. Who wrote the lyrics for "Westside Story?"

6. According to Paul Simon, how many ways are there to leave your lover?

Category: Horror film
Correctly place the following films into the right decade: 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s.

1. The Others

2. The Exorcist

3. Psycho

4. Invasion of the Body Snatchers

5. Misery

6. Aliens

Category: Sidekicks, political and otherwise
(There were two local questions here)

1. Andrew Johnson was the vice president of what U.S. president?

2. John Adams was the vice president of what U.S. president?

3. Thomas Marshall was the vice president of what U.S. president?

4. Name one of the two vice presidents that Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has had.

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nothing again ...

... this time it's because:

1. My company has a table at the Habitat for Humanity Quiz Nite. We won last year and were like 4th or 5th 6 months ago ... so wish me luck.

2. Have some weekend work I need to finish up when I get back home.

May post after all that ... including possible pics from the event.

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too busy for anything substantial ...

... OK, so I've been playing WOW and am about to play more WOW.

Sue me.

:P

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treat or treat ...

the early HNT from Guam ....

delicious cinammon caramel apple ... mmm ...

fun with candy corn ... creepy monster teeth

To find out more about Half-Nekkid Thursday,
check out the link, baby:

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one of those days ...

Had to be up early for a meeting that was scheduled for an hour and a half before the start of my normal workday ... that was the start of my day, and set the tone for the next of the better part of it. Drove back to the office, logged into my computer and then into another meeting, which of course dragged out longer than I wanted to.

After that was done, I got to go to lunch ... a lunch meeting with a bunch of lawyers and judges at some conference. Wasn't all that bad ... the food was free, though not all that good ... but did I mention it was free?

Finally, after that, I was finally able to get to work.

Lucky me, no?

Time to go ... the chicken soup is done, so I need to make the peanut butter sammiches to dunk into it.

Don't go "ew!" ... it's fucking tasty as all hell. Trust me ... try it.

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update ...

• Is it just me, or is Blogger sucking even more ass than normal today.

• Haven't been around much, I know, mostly because I've been gaming, but also working a lot of extra shifts. The latter will end this week; the former ... who knows?

• As I can tell by the effusive outpourings wondering where I've been, what I'm up to ... I can tell I'm missed. Yeah ... that's the ticket.

• That's all you get. Shoo.

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screenshot fun and frivolity ...

So World of Warcraft is celebrating Halloween with "Hallow's End." There are big jack-o-lanterns in towns, game NPC's giving away candy, and even some trick or treating.

My Favorite Person's character acquired a wand that bestows costumes on party members when the spell is cast. She took much delight in zapping me with it several times.

Here's my human transmuted into a little green gnomish character, who skipped instead of ran.

Here's me as a will o'the wisp ... a little fuzzy ball of energy.

Here's My Favorite Person, transmuted into a bat creature by the jolly inkeeper.

And, finally, here's the two of us dancing along the roadside. Her character has a macarena-sexy-hip-grind routine, while my guy has a funky-chicken-saturday-night-fever-disco set of moves.

OK ... back to gaming!!

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Those kids these days ...

I recently read the following story on the news wires:

ATTLEBORO, Mass. - Tag, you're out! Officials at an elementary school south of Boston have banned kids from playing tag, touch football and any other unsupervised chase game during recess for fear they'll get hurt and hold the school liable.

Recess is "a time when accidents can happen," said Willett Elementary School Principal Gaylene Heppe, who approved the ban.

OK ... what the fuck?

It was bad enough when schools started banning dodgeball, because they said it allowed the bigger, more athletic kids to not only pick on smaller, weaker children, but also to strike them.

But how much more are we going to coddle our children? Are we going to set the swings so they don't go to high, or the merry-go-round so it doesn't go too fast? Are we going to start making them wear pads and helmets before they can go to recess, or bundle them up in bubble wrap?

You know what the real problem is with kids today? The adults and parents -- most of whom probably got beaned by a few dodgeballs in their day.

Kids today miss out on so much because of new rules and regulations; they miss out on valuable learning experiences, which start teaching them what life is going to be like.

Now we have games in which no score is kept, so that everyone is a winner. Every team gets trophies at the end of the season, even if they never won a game. In some instances, grades aren't given out any more so some kids won't feel dumb. There have even been college students who have sued because they weren't happy with their C's.

Guess what folks. Sometimes, you lose. Sometimes, you're a loser. Sometimes, people, kids included, ARE dumb.

If you never lose as a child, how will you cope with that when you're an adult? If you're not graded on the quality of your work but rather on your effort, or just the fact that you tried, how are you ever going to be a productive member of the work force?

Companies could give a rat's ass if you try hard. They want you to try hard and get it right. Get it wrong enough times, or even once, and you're out of a job.

Life, as we all know -- some of us more than others -- is NOT fair. It's not easy. The world is not fair or fun or easy all the time; in fact, it's none of those things most of the time.

We're raising a generation of children who will be completely unable to cope with living in the real world -- managing a household budget, getting a job and keeping it, learning how to deal with problems and bad surprises, etc.

Now I'm not talking about going back to the days of children working in mines and sweatshops, or of getting smacked with yardsticks in schools. I don't advocate bullying or kids being excessively mean and nasty to those who are different.

But for God's sake ... banning TAG because it's dangerous?

Give me a fucking break.

We've got to let kids be kids ... and to have kid experiences. We have to let them live and learn.

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