Recap
Sunday, February 17th 2002
We had an amazing team effort this year. Everyone worked hard to help us get into the top 10, but we only placed 11th (seven places above our score last year) and we only got 58% of the total points (seven percent more than last year). But seriously, we were thrilled to make it that high in the standings and we know in our hearts that we deserved 9th place, don’t we Tommy. (See Worst phone bank workers below.) Even if your name is not on this list, we know you put your heart into these 3285 points. It was a tight contest this year and we needed everyone’s help to place as high as we did. It’s not always what you know, it’s what you COULD know (if you know where to look or who to ask). Not to mention all the prep work, food and cleanup that goes into a successful trivia weekend.
A BIG THANK YOU must go out to everyone who brought computers, lent computers, brought hubs, lent hubs, lent cables, brought power strips, helped network computers, etc to give us the absolute best trivia network of all time! It's amazing what you can find on the internet. Some of the contributers were Aaron Murphy and his friend Scott, Jerry Icasas, the Lanz family, Pam Weber/Grandma Weber, Kathy Woods, Bjorn Piltingsrud, Dawn McKeever, Bob Craven and all the others who brought laptops. There were too many to keep track. Thanks to everyone who came out and those who played from remote locations. We had the best year yet! We hope you come again next year so we can officially break the top 10!
We hope to see all of you soon, but if not, plan on the first weekend in February, 2003.
This has been:
Your Pull-Start Diesel Captains
Stats
Sunday, February 17th 2002
TEAM: 3285
Sara: 1025
Tommy: 825
Tonya: 725
Jerry: 645
Scott: 545
Murphy: 415
Mike S: 415
Bob: 415
Cory: 410
Tom K: 360
Jeff F: 310
Sara I: 275
Josh H: 195
Joe: 190
Brent P: 160
Chris: 155
Scott P: 150
Danielle: 135
Darren: 125
Loren : 125
Peter: 115
CJ: 110
Jim B:80
Sandy L: 60
Adam L: 45
Michelle: 40
Josh B: 40
Ben B: 30
Theresa I: 15
Brian: 10
Memorable Moments
Sunday, February 17th 2002
*Zoophilia trying to jack up Tonya’s car in our driveway and put it up on blocks. Should’ve picked a lighter car.
*The 3-ton jack that was brought to Zoophilia’s headquarters to jack-up one of their cars and put it on blocks. That’ll teach them to mess with Pull-start Diesel.
*Mike and Ben and Cory babbling incoherently already on Friday night. You’ve got a long way to go guys, pull yourselves together.
*Seran wrapping 4 of Zoophilia’s cars.
*Stealing Zoophilia and Pink and Noid’s team numbers. “Yes, this is the points line calling and we were having some problems with our computers. How many points do you have? What is your team number?”
*Our phone lines were disconnected by a rival team (Zoophilia?). We struggled by with our 9 cell phones for 30 seconds while we plugged them back in.
*What was up with that pickle eating contest?!?!?!
*Don’t Tofu Is People shower during trivia weekend?
*Mike and Ben and Cory babbling incoherently already on Friday night. You’ve got a long way to go guys, pull yourselves together.
*Animal House’s comment to Pink & Noid that Pull-start Diesel is an up-and-coming team they need to watch out for.
*The Stay Awake Club of Sara, Tommy, Loren and Jerry. Although none of us made it the entire weekend, it was a valliant effort. Tommy fell out first, followed by Jerry, Sara and Loren in close succession.
*Blue painters’ tape!
*The lovely doors covered with hourly printouts of our score totals - impressive to look at for the newcomers.
*Projector pinball, penguin dance and solitaire (or not-so-solitaire).
*Jerry’s digital camera. We’ll let you know when and where the pictures are posted.
*All those really great, funny things that we did all weekend that we’re too tired to think of with our heads, but we remember in our hearts.
*The time when Mike Szafranski fell asleep on the couch and while in and out of sleep must have heard a question over the radio and started typing on his pillow to get the answer
*Driving all over town to get answers... The China Star, the Waite Park strip mall where there was once a laundromat, Patton's house, etc. Did we even GET the answers?
*Hero, the cat, chasing the laser pointer, the mouse pointer and the dancing hamsters when she wasn't dangling her feet or tail in the monitor or walking across a keyboard. She has an awful lot of photos on that camera.
Awards
Sunday, February 17th 2002
Biggest Question: 460 points which we didn't get. We were only 5 tv or radio shows away from the answer to this audio trivia asking the names of the 23 tv or radio shows in the sound clips. We had a lot of fun seeing how many we could get. Biggest Question answered by one person: 200 points "What is the Roy Rodgers Pledge to Parents as found on the package of the Roy Rogers Big Game Rifle?" Thanks to Cory Storm's major internet searching skills, this was an easy 200 points for Pull-start Diesel!
Biggest Question by TEAM effort: 200 points for the names of the 6 weapons and 9 rooms in the Simpson's edition of Clue. Too bad this was easily found on the internet because we had also placed a phone call to a friend of Murphy's who actually had the game.
Best internet searcher: This was definitely Scott. We missed him when he had to leave. Thanks Aaron, for bringing him. What sites did he use to find those answers?
Best book searcher: Lisa Imholte was very dedicated to the book efforts. We definitely need to get more points out of those books. They're heavy! : Too bad computers are so fast.
Best DVD collection: Jim Bifaro Thanks for having Toy Story 2 in your DVD library! For those of you who were wondering, Mrs. Potato Head made Mr. Potato Head pack blue playdoh, monkey chow, and a plastic steak among other things, but he drew the line at a barrel of monkeys.
Best remote player: Josh Hengemuele played from Bismark, North Dakota. We're sorry you couldn't make it this year, but glad you played with us. And you too Theresa! We enjoyed seeing your Chicago skyline. We did take a picture of the Sauk Rapids skyline and put it on the internet as you challenged.
Biggest know-it-all: Bob Craven knew the names of the two airships with the Visual Trivia 13 insignia.
Best guesser: Jerry guessed that Roseanne was the sitcom that was played on the audio trivia overdubbed in GERMAN for 145 points! As a team we were excellent guessers this year. Word-by-word we guessed the rest of this 12-word slogan on an Oregon ballot "Anyone who thinks in 12-word slogans…" Could we get a partial on "should?" We're looking for a partial on "not." We guessed so many things we're not even sure anymore, but we think it was "should not be in office."
Best phoner: Loren Ament - "You read me the names you have and I'll tell you if we have them." "Can't you just give me ONE name? We're dead last!" It worked too! They told us Hampton was one of the 24 Porkchesters figurines.
Best on the dispute line: Tonya called to dispute the answer to one question after we got the wrong answer from several sources and the dispute line told her the correct answer. We called it in for 80 points!
Worst phone bank workers: Me and Crabby both marked our team down wrong for 50 and 60 point questions. Those points would have put us in 9th place!
Best phone bank workers: Bubbles and Jenny Talia both gave us a lot of points.
Work that database: Jerry did an awesome job working the new access database that Darren created. Darren's already planning improvements he's going to make for next year.
Worst question: Why? Our answer: "Because Rick Springfield told us so." It earned us 45 points.
Best answer: To the 25 point question "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kick your ass." Because your cat's under my car tire. Because I've got a line land mine up my butt and if you kick me we'll both go. Because I've got a bad case of hemmoroids.
Worst answers: "If something goes out of whack, how do you get it back into whack?" Whack it was wrong, but they gave us credit when we said "Whack it multiple times." The official answer was "Whack it back."
Most sleep: Adam Lanz We don't know how much he slept, but chances are it was much longer than any of us. Don't they have siestas in Costa Rica?
Least sleep: Sara McKeever with a grand total of 2 hours all weekend. Sorry Jerry, you need to tell someone trustworthy to wake you up.
Best sleeping position: Three way tie between Jerry - we've got a nice picture of him in a very tight fetal position, Tonya - Ooooh, her neck's going to be sore, Tommy - hugging Darren's alarm clock.
Longest distance traveled to come to trivia: Bob and Jerry from North Dakota.
Best team improvement: The projector was SO awesome to have. We can credit it with at least 5 places. We've got to thank Cory Storms and Kathy Kockler at Cathedral for letting us borrow it. We hope we can get it again next year!
Best meal: Terry and Patty Storms for the two huge, delicious hotdishes and those desserts! With an assist by Juletta Weber with fruit skewers.
Best host: Joe Even though he doesn't live at trivia headquarters, he made the house his home for several weeks helping to get set up and to take down. He helped organize things. He also helped keep everyone comfortable thanks to "Poptart Hour." Thanks for all your efforts, Joe.