Stevens Point, Wisconsin.
In one week, this sleepy college town will become a haven for trivia buffs and geeks the world over. Hold on to your pants, everyone: It's Trivia Weekend:
Fifty-four hours of music and trivia like the rest of the world can only imagine.
I have a story to tell about the last time I went to trivia weekend, but to tell it, I have to share a little bit of information.
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I don't watch network television. I don't like watching the news, because I think it's depressing, and I think that game shows are part of what's wrong with society. I don't make plans to join any specific team, because I don't like the idea of wrecking my life by carrying a notebook and watching hours of television, movies and commercials and taking notes ( I only wish I were joking about the levels to which some groups will go to.) for Trivia, a mere fifty-one weeks away.
My friend Tandy took me to Trivia that year, as she knew some people who would be right off the square, where we could do the rounds of Trivia AND drink to within an inch of our livers. Sounded like a win-win to me. Anyway, Tandy took me to the HQ for "Dyslexics of the World Untie", where Chris Oliva (wife of Jim Oliva, one of Trivia's original instigators) runs a team.
There was a question. I'm not sure when during the game it was, being that I was busy either pickling myself, recovering from the pickling I gave myself, or talking most of the time. But a question was posed which gave a license plate number, asking what television character it referenced. I put the information into the search engine (because, yes, there were computers there) and got an instant answer: "My Mother the Car".
Some strange guy came up from the back, asking me how I got that answer, and I explained that I just put it in the "search" box and hit enter. "I did that too, and I didn't get anything. What did you do? Show me." So I put in the license plate number again. (When you put a license plate number in a search engine, you separate the digits/numbers with a dash. For instance: ABC-123, or for a double letter (truck, etc), you would enter ABCD-123.)
Yes. Genius. I know.
The guy was very excited and said, "I never knew that that was how a license plate was entered! I did NOT know that! That's amazing!"
He kind of creeped me out, and I just said that everyone should know that, and blew him off. He did, however, leave an impression.
Last year, I was looking through the book store, and came across something in the "Of Local Interest" section; a book by that guy who won all that money on Jeopardy.
Apparently, he was in Stevens Point for Trivia Weekend, playing for the team "Dyslexics of the World Untie", which is where I happened to be that year. Which would explain the strangely parochial way that he was congratulating me. I should have totally gotten a gold star.
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Tandy called, and they are playing the trivia movie this weekend. It's called "Live Free of Die", and written by the people who brought us Seinfeld. Or at least, that's how they are promoting it on 89.9 UWSP.
She and I will be going to the midnight showing tonight, and yes, I will be bringing a notebook.
This year will be different, in that this will be the first year that she and I will be doing Trivia weekend outside of Stevens Point. This makes me very sad. If you're not in Point, you won't be able to do the Trivia Stone questions, which have long been my favorite. (Trivia Stone is a vehicular scavenger hunt, where you get allusions to area landmarks, and drive to the final destination to get a stamp in your trivia booklet. Yes, it's even more fun than it sounds. And yes, I'm a geek. You're welcome.)
Anyone who wishes to become a part of the cultural revolution that is Trivia can use this link: http://www.90fmtrivia.org/ .
If you would like to listen to Trivia WHILE IT HAPPENS, use this link, and click "listen live" on the Main Menu: http://www.uwsp.edu/stuorg/wwsp/ . Try not to masturbate all at once. It starts at 5 pm on Friday. Yes, it will be 4/20. I wonder how that managed to happen?
And I'll give you guys a freebie. The Answer to Question #1 will have something to do with Robert Redford.
4.13.2007
I put the *bing* in bingo
For the first time in about ten years, I went to Bingo.
I feel deeply regretful that I let this hobby slip to the wayside in my life, because really, there are few things which compare to the thrill of watching sweet little old ladies swear like sailors at the end of a three day furlough when someone else calls "Bingo!".
You know that someone is getting rolled in the parking lot after winning the blackout prize on game one hundred thirty-seven. You will know the victim by the blue hair and scent of Geritol. That is also how you will know the perpetrator(s).
When did bingo start taking so damn long, anyway? The last time I played it, I thought, "Well, that was about as much Bingo as I can take for a while."
Now, some ten years later, I have had enough Bingo for even longer than that.
However, I won a five dollar gift certificate, so I will go back. Probably next week. Maybe someone will swallow their tongue this time.
I feel deeply regretful that I let this hobby slip to the wayside in my life, because really, there are few things which compare to the thrill of watching sweet little old ladies swear like sailors at the end of a three day furlough when someone else calls "Bingo!".
You know that someone is getting rolled in the parking lot after winning the blackout prize on game one hundred thirty-seven. You will know the victim by the blue hair and scent of Geritol. That is also how you will know the perpetrator(s).
When did bingo start taking so damn long, anyway? The last time I played it, I thought, "Well, that was about as much Bingo as I can take for a while."
Now, some ten years later, I have had enough Bingo for even longer than that.
However, I won a five dollar gift certificate, so I will go back. Probably next week. Maybe someone will swallow their tongue this time.
4.12.2007
Inner Peace
There is that whole school of thought, the one about positive thinking, which I have been trying to explore in my life.
I have been trying to do away with the things which make me less than completely happy, joyful, complete. This has been a long process for me, because I have been learning some fascinating things about myself, and more than how fascinating I am, because, really, I think we all knew that already.
For instance, I seldom feel happy or fulfilled unless I am saying really mean things while stabbing puppies with a rusty nail.
Few things make me sparkle with happiness like talking about particular cartoon character being sodomized by a dog, and laughing at the misfortunes of others is what puts the bounce in my stride and the sparkle in my eyes.
Once, while pointing out the shortcomings of others, I was quite honestly so overcome with joy, bliss and jubulance that I started to tear up. Something about making sarcastic comments are what help me get out of bed in the morning.
The books I have been reading have been reading on the subject have ben very helpful, actually, and I recommend them freely. Without those books, I would still be pretending to be nice.
I have been able to find the manners which society has shackled me with, and dispatch them readily. Now I am a more focused, concentrated and distilled villainess. I have kicked my "naughty" quotient off the charts, from Mister Roger's spinster sister, the one with all the cats and the books all over the place, to something more like Sheri Moon Zombie in The Devil's Rejects, only with more bathing, a bigger ass, and a smidgen more common sense.
Oh. And I'm a brunette right now.
I guess the upshot of this posting is to suggest that by reading self-help books, you can truly become what you have always wanted to be. The thing is that I always wanted to be Ava Braun or the Bride of Frankenstein. Without the suicide and horrible death. I guess, more like that one chick who killed all those guys on the highway, that they had that movie about, but without the killing, the Death Row sentencing, the prostitution, or the lesbianism. Or the dying at the end.
You get the idea.
I have been trying to do away with the things which make me less than completely happy, joyful, complete. This has been a long process for me, because I have been learning some fascinating things about myself, and more than how fascinating I am, because, really, I think we all knew that already.
For instance, I seldom feel happy or fulfilled unless I am saying really mean things while stabbing puppies with a rusty nail.
Few things make me sparkle with happiness like talking about particular cartoon character being sodomized by a dog, and laughing at the misfortunes of others is what puts the bounce in my stride and the sparkle in my eyes.
Once, while pointing out the shortcomings of others, I was quite honestly so overcome with joy, bliss and jubulance that I started to tear up. Something about making sarcastic comments are what help me get out of bed in the morning.
The books I have been reading have been reading on the subject have ben very helpful, actually, and I recommend them freely. Without those books, I would still be pretending to be nice.
I have been able to find the manners which society has shackled me with, and dispatch them readily. Now I am a more focused, concentrated and distilled villainess. I have kicked my "naughty" quotient off the charts, from Mister Roger's spinster sister, the one with all the cats and the books all over the place, to something more like Sheri Moon Zombie in The Devil's Rejects, only with more bathing, a bigger ass, and a smidgen more common sense.
Oh. And I'm a brunette right now.
I guess the upshot of this posting is to suggest that by reading self-help books, you can truly become what you have always wanted to be. The thing is that I always wanted to be Ava Braun or the Bride of Frankenstein. Without the suicide and horrible death. I guess, more like that one chick who killed all those guys on the highway, that they had that movie about, but without the killing, the Death Row sentencing, the prostitution, or the lesbianism. Or the dying at the end.
You get the idea.
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