Congratulations, Pull-start Diesel! Way to pull off a 2nd place finish! I know many of you didn't make it to trivia this year and we missed you. Thanks to those who played online. Your participation was crucial, especially in those dark hours when I know it's even harder to play remotely. Thanks to our hosts, Tom and Sandy - you make the weekend great for all of us. Believe me when I say you can host trivia as long as you want :) But we may have a new house that would serve us well by next year's contest, so stay tuned and mark your calendars for Feb. 7-9, 2014.
Thank Yous
* Thanks to Murphy whose router we used this year and whose words I stole for much of this post. We appreciate your work phoning in answers. Your well worded guesses turned into partials that turned into points. That is a partial on Ding-A-Ling.
* Thanks to all of our remote players! The team wouldn't have been successful without all of your help, especially the Network crew (whom we don't thank enough).
* A special thank you to all of the parents and friends who stop by HQ to supply us with food, drink, and moral support. Marty with pizza & ice cream, Arlys with malts, Grandma Weber with butterscotch brownies, Mrs. Murphy with cookies, Barb with egg bake, the lunch lady at SEAS, and many more who will come to mind after we've gotten a little more sleep.
* Thanks to all the grandparents and parents who watch children and grandchildren during the weekend so their geeky parents can, in the words of the great TK, "join in one of the most exciting things a nerd can ever be part of: a perfect fusion of computer-intensive clue sniffing into meaningless minutiae and a wealth of welcoming human warmth that makes every last one of us geeks a part of a meaningful community."
* And seriously. Where would we be without Tom and Sandy? Every year they let their home be invaded by a bunch of unruly nerds. Their tireless efforts and unparalleled patience are unbelievable. Thank you.
Memorable Moments
* Ben and Danielle keeping the online chat room warm with the other remote players. Trivia headquarters was much quieter this year without you. I can see where you would miss the excitement of getting the CORRECT from the phone bank that we experience at headquarters and look forward to having you and all the others MIA back next year!
* Tom Kain playing on his smartphone from the doctors office IN JAPAN.
* The phone bank phones ringing...and ringing...and ringing...is anyone there?
* How hard Darren and Joe worked to get us Internet this year. It wasn't up and running until 15 mins before Trivia started!! Whew!
* Trivia team ESP. Robot Roll Call in the chat room and ten minutes later we are in Robot Speed Round. Then a few hours later, Murphy gave the "Geography Quiz" that included Liechtenstein in it. He informed the team that the capital of Liechtenstein was Vaduz. 4 hours later there was a question in which the answer was Vaduz. Creepy!
* All the great team mergers and none could top us!
* The great trivia weekend blizzard which left few of us to brave the roads and trudge through the snow on SCSU campus to the awards ceremony. Many abandoned ship early to make it home safely and others got snowed in after going home to sleep. Thankfully everyone had a safe and fun weekend despite it all!
* Those fun food hours: burrito hour, edamame hour, malt hour (X2 this year!), caramel roll hour, virtual mystery muffin hour, and all the other great food we enjoyed as well.
* A second consecutive year of partials on "My Ding A Ling" and Murphy was wearing his shirt while calling in the answer.
* The question about the hour last year where the answers spelled out a message. We finally scored on that one!
* We're going to guess, "Spacey Space Space." Incomplete.
* Jennie rocking the visual trivia and the team scores without ever being present at trivia this year.
* The wonderful insights we gained by losing a team member to the phone bank this year. Hopefully it's just for this year. And no, by insights I do not mean answers. He was frustratingly well behaved. "Did you try google?"
* The things we come up with in our sleep deprived delirium. Like this: Dude, Jerry's totally SUNG. Just yesterday I was singing this song, it was all like, "HEY JERRY.... don't make it BAAAAADD. Take a bad hour, and make it betterrrrr. Remember, to record all those questions in the database, then we can keep.... playing TRRRIIVVVIIIAAA!!!!"
* Those occasional annoying DJs. "This guy needs to stop saying 'Right on, Right on.'"
* New rules created mid contest. "Unless specified all answers must be in English." Who knew that if they ask a question about a German film that we would need to give our answer in English? As Joe said, "Information that would have been helpful yesterday!"
* Posting on Facebook at 4:52pm Friday, "And there are 8 of us." Then again at the awards ceremony, there were 8 of us.
Team Stats
TEAM 5890
Jennie 1090
Tommy 895
AstroCheez 715
Paul S 590
Mike S 550
Tom K 520
Joe 470
Jake 440
Barry 370
Ryce 350
Jodi 305
Joe S 255
Bob 255
Jerry 215
Ray 210
Murphy 205
Ben 195
Danielle 190
Dylan 175
Deb 165
Josh H 155
Wardenclyffe 145
Cory 135
Sara 135
BrianInDC 95
Darren 90
Adam 90
John M 60
Alex 50
Ivy 50
Charlie 50
Larry 50
Brent 45
Scott 40
Scott Poster 20
Sandy 15