Trivial Matters

I’ve noticed that many of my hits on this site are from searches for “pub quiz” and the like. So, in an attempt to pander to my audience, I’m going to expand on the original Pub Quiz FAQ in a special series. If you got here first, you may want to start with the original FAQ .

Why start with a bingo round?

The bingo round is probably the longest round in a pub quiz, both because it has more questions than other rounds and it takes longer to read back the answers.

How is a bingo round played?

A bingo round is 25 questions. Each team has two answer sheets. The first is just a page to record all of your answers on, in the order that the questions are asked. The second is a 5×5 grid with question numbers randomly placed. At Oregon Pub Quizzes, they have a specialty transfer-paper answer sheet, so that you actually fill out two “cards,” one for the quizmaster to grade and one for the team to use when playing the “bingo” game itself. At our pub quizzes, we just use a 5×5 grid and rely on teams to *not* cheat and change their answers to get a bingo.

More specific, please?

Ok, since you insisted… The quizmaster asks 25 questions. Each team fills out both sheets with their answers, making sure they put the right answer with the right question on the 5×5 sheet.

Wait, what if I get bingo while the quizmaster is reading questions?

Good for you! You get a gold star! What you don’t get, however, are any points. The “bingo” part of the round is not played until the correct answers are read back by the quizmaster. Can I continue now?

Please.

Thank you. Now, as I was saying, make sure you have the right answer in the right spot. And by “right,” I mean correct. You answer must be correct (according to the quizmaster) in order for it to count in the bingo round.

After all of the questions have been read, it is a good idea to ask for repeats just in case a team missed a question. I can’t count how many times a team had stalled on a particular question and then gotten off track and started putting answers in the wrong spot… you get the idea. Or, more often, the quizmaster has to deal with an obnoxious player, and gets offtrack themself.

Once everone is ready, they turn in their first answer sheet and one fo the 5×5 sheets. When it’s just our small group, each team holds onto the single 5×5 sheet. The quizmaster grades the main answer sheet, giving 5 points for each correct answer.

Now it is time to read back the answers. The answers are read back randomly, so it is a good idea for the quizmaster to reread the question too. Each team checks their answer and circles it if they got it right or “X” through it if they got it wrong.

What constitutes a “bingo”?

The standard five-in-a-row or four corners.

What do I do when I get a “bingo”?

Stand up and shout “bingo!” This will almost immediately be followed by groans and hissing fromt he other teams who were only one right answer away from getting it themselves. Turn in your 5×5 card to the quizmaster, who will them compare it to both his answer sheet and your other 5×5 card to make sure you didn’t change any answers.

What does a “bingo” get me?

Twenty bonus points or whatever the quizmaster decides for his/her game.

What if two (or more) teams get “bingo” at the same time?

The most attractive woman from each team has to compete in a special “jello wrestling” round… just kidding. Normally, each team splits the bonus points (so 10 apiece in this case). But, really, it is up to the quizmaster.

Is there a “free space”?

No. If you had been paying attention, there are 25 questions and 25 (5 times 5) spaces, so no free space.

Doesn’t that make the the center square more important?

Yep. So you better make sure you have that one correct.

How hard are the questions?

They shouldn’t be extremely hard (like some of mine were in the Music Pub Quiz). They also should not have really long answers, as these are hard to fit in the tiny square on the 5×5 sheet.

What if I want to dispute a question?

Good luck. Distputing a question in bingo is very tricky. The quizmaster is less likely to stop the game midway to address your grievance. Instead, they’ll wait until the end, which lets another team get to the “bingo” first. Then, once you have been vindicated and show that you would have also gotten a “bingo” (albeit, first) you’ll probaly split the bonus with them.

That’s not fair. We would have had it first!

Be aware, though, that other teams may have also put your answer down and now they too are correct and could have gotten “bingo” before you would have. So in the interest of fairness, everyone gets a bonus. (Including the other teams, in away, because the bonus is worth less as more teams claim it.)

Is there any other way to get bonus points in this round?

In the Oregon Pub Quizzes, the quizmaster usually has a movie clip as one of the questions. The movie is the answer they are looking for, and the actor speaking is usually 3 bonus points. I’ve used followup questions in my bingo round for the 3 bonus points. It is really up to the quizmaster.

So what comes after the Bingo Round?

That’s a FAQ for another day.

So now we know what Papa Petrelli’s actual power is. (How many different ways are they going to manifest this power-stealing ability?) I wonder where he was when Adam was doing all of his bad deeds, virus concocting and all. I also wonder why he would take Peter’s abilities instead of Sylar’s. Was he after some individual ones, or Peter’s ability to glean them without making physical contact? So many questions, so few answers.

Furthermore, is anyone else creeped out by Parkman and Daphnie. He’s got to be, what, 10 years or more her senior. Wouldn’t the smart move have been to play it cool, knowing that you’ll hook up, and then give her the dire warnings about the company.

The Hiro and Ando saga is getting a little stale. You killed me… You killed me too… Now we’re even!?! Seriously, someone find a way to give Ando a power because he’s just become useless. At first I figured he was there to teach Hiro how to think outside of his ability, and for a while it worked, and then it didn’t, and it took a couple knocks to the head with a shovel to put Hiro back in perspective. So now it’s time to give Ando those cool red lightning powers (and the inevitable showdown with Elle, Sylar, Peter, or Papa Petrelli - those who weild the blue lightning powers).

Don’t get me started on Mohinder… WTF, man, WTF.

Finally, there’s Claire. I have no idea why she stormed off when Noah gave her kudos for taking out the puppetmaster. Speaking of which, if you had that kind of power over a woman, would a tea party be at the top of the “to do” list. I know this is trying to be a family-friendly show, but he just looked pathetic.They could have implied so much more, which would have made the confrontation that much more compelling.

I don’t think “Choose a side” is going to catch on quite like “Save the cheerleader…”

About two weeks ago I got a Blockbuster Online account to help with my “classic” movie catch-up. I used to have a Netflix account, but let it end before my last deployment. I went with Blockbuster this time because of the recommendation of friends, but so far I’m not feeling the love.

Netflix was very fast. The one-day turn around they advertise is pretty accurate. I had heard that Blockbust was just as fast, logging your movies back into the system the moment they hit the post office. As of now, though, it’s taking up to four days to receieve, process, and send a new movie, and an additional two days to recieve the new movie. That’s up to six days! In two weeks I’ve only received seven discs, and one of those was an in-store exchange. And it’s not like these discs are traveling far either. The address listed on the return envelope is a Portland PO box. They must have a processing center in town.

This isn’t to say that it is all bad. The in-store exchange feature is nice. I wanted something to watch Saturday, so I took in one of the discs and traded it for a new release, saving me $5 in the process.  I also noticed that they are currently processing a disc that doesn’t come out until tomorrow. I don’t know yet if it will ship today, to arrive on or after the release date, or if they’ll wait till tomorrow to ship it (adding another day to the wait). Update: According to the site, the disc shipped today with an “estimated” arrival date of Thursday.

I also don’t like the fact that their download feature only works on Windows (and only in IE or Firefox with an IE plugin). Where’s the Mac love? You know we can handle it. (And it’ll compete with iTunes, which can only be a good thing.)

I’ll hold onto the account for another month and see if there’s any improvement. After that, I may just go back to Netflix (and lose the in-store trade-in ability).

The candidates certainly got their laugh on in the last few days. Last night, Sarah Palin made her Saturday Night Live debut. I was surprised she didn’t get more into the act, especially since she was in two segments. Though, the quip about her liking Stephen Baldwin over Alec was pretty clever.

On the main stage, the two presidential candidates took the stage at the Alfred E. Smith dinner and proceeded to roast each other to a crisp. Goind back to my earlier post on the nature of the three debates, I think that something like this would have gone over much better. People find honesty in laughter because most things are only funny if they’re true.

Both candidates were able to make their points and accusations in a good natured way, and nobody got offended. So, again, I renew my point that the next set of debates in 2012 should be moderated by John Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Dave Letterman.

I rented War, Inc yesterday. I was hoping to trade Disc 1 of The Unit (Season 3) for Disc 2, but my local Blockbuster didn’t have it in stock. I should have gone with something on my “classics” list, but this movie caught my attention. I remember reading about it months ago on AICN, where someone described it as a “sequel” to Grosse Pointe Blank (which is in my top 10 of all time). It must have been in theaters for all of an hour because I certainly don’t remember seeing it there. Perhaps it was released during one of my training exercises, but who knows.

To say that this is a “sequel” is to really be stretching it. Yeah, John Cusack plays a high-demand assassin, and he even has his sister as his assistant again, but this is really more like a Bizzaro-World version of GPB. Cusack plays Hauser, a hit-man hired by a giant corporation to assassinate the leader of a third-world country. His cover is to be running a corporate expo-slash-wedding. He meets a reporter, discovers a family secret, and flies off into the sunset.

Overall, it was an ok movie. I think it tried too hard in the corporate-future department. (The scene where he goes into Popeye’s to meet with the Viceroy makes no sense to me.) The twist at the end was as surprising as it was unbelievable. I’d say the one good thing about it was Hillary Duff as the bride/pop star. I didn’t even realize it was her, until the credits, between the dark hair and the accent. But even she gets a little over the top at times.

I have to wonder if the similarities were intentional. Cusack has a writing credit on both movies, but that’s the only similarity there. Here’s the rest of the similarities I found (spoilers)…

The only change really is in the setting and Cusack’s past. Grosse Pointe Blank is by far the better movie, though.