Who makes the best impromptu play-doh dinosaurs?

Listening to: Friendly Fires - Friendly Fires dual disc deluxe edition disc 2 (2009).

We do Beatches! Because we know shit about dinosaurs y'all!

Physical challenge at the pub quiz tonight: make the best Stegosaurus out of play-doh. My friend Di did the back plates and tail spikes and I did the body and legs. Since we are both down with our dinosaurs our little sauropod came together quickly with no muss and no fuss. About 5 inches long and ten minutes work.
Since it was the most awesome (and anatomically accurate, a point noted by at least one discerning judge) it won easily.

Prize was a box of chocolate treats. We only finished sixth out of 18 teams which considering it was only the two of us for half the quiz wasn't bad, although down from a previous 2nd place effort. The chocolate made us feel better about missing out on a placing even with a score of 80/105 (the winners got 97 or so).

So you see, knowing stuff = chocolate. Stay in school kids!

Millionaire

Saw about 15 minutes of the debut of Millionaire tonight.

Knew all the answers.

Recognised a contestant from my audition.

In the continuing absence of any kind of contact from the production company, it seems I didn't make the cut.

Buggar.

Always next time I 'spose.

Waiting in the wings

Listening to: The Rising-Bruce Springsteen

Longer than usual break from bloggage, but I have been busy.

When you get up before dawn on a cold morning in Ohakune, your car can look like this (note wipers thoughtfully raised the night before to stop them freezing to the windscreen):
Ruapehu looks like this though, which compensates a little:
I left Ohakune at 0615 on Sunday, in order to be in central Wellington by 10.

For a gameshow audition.

The things I find myself doing............

I don't know if I am fulfilling destiny or anything, but when calls went out for participants for a New Zealand edition of 'Who wants to be a Millionaire', I was compelled to go.

Years of peers saying things like 'You should so go on "millionaire"' probably had something to do with it, but forever pondering a missed opportunity also played a part. After so long watching the show and wondering, I'm not even sure if it is solely about the money. A chance to go and give a shot and see how far I got, to see if I had what it takes (whatever that is), also played a part.

Although the money doesn't hurt.

Nice to know that if I get on I will get that shot though. This edition doesn't do the fastest finger first thing, which is good because I hate it. I like 'Millionaire' because you don't have to directly compete with anyone; its just you and the questions, and you are either good enough or not. Fastest finger detracts from that ideal.

The audition itself was fairly painless, although not exactly stress free. A mock millionaire style 30 question quiz provided the first hurdle. I got 22 out of 30, with the highest in the room being 26, and apparently the highest nationally so far 28. I was a bit disappointed, since I knew the right answers to three more questions, but second guessed myself to wrong ones.

The papers marked, a round of 'hands up if you got' ensued, the number of raised hands being counted. As the numbers came down things got somewhat tense. After the hands went up for 22, the counting stopped. Everyone who got less than that was thanked, and asked to try again another time. This eliminated probably two thirds of the attendees, only one of whom I knew. We filled a lecture theatre, so there was probably a couple of hundred or so to start with.

Those of us still in contention filled out forms, and waited for a short interview to assess our telegenicness. And waited and waited. I saw all the interviews, since I was interviewed last of all. Everyone was somewhat jaded by then, I hope it didn't hurt my chances. Very short interview done, I had my photo taken holding my candidate number, and that was it.

Now we wait to hear if we have what the producers are looking for.........

errata

Listening to: Roachford-A permanent shade of blue.
Kind of a one hit wonder this guy released a couple of moderately successful singles in the mid nineties, then went the way of the obscure. Without fail the first track reminds me of a dawn drive to Palmy in late summer a few years ago, the sun rising over the Horwhenua plain, the roof down, and an empty road.

Right for those who are interested (and this can only possibly be the four of you who know what this is referring to), here is a Grumman Widgeon:
The wheels make the aircraft amphibious, meaning it can alight competently on land or water.

The wheels fold up into the adjacent recesses during flight if you're wondering.

And Tales of the Gold Monkey fans, if you're thinking this plane looks familiar, you are right. Jake Cutter flew a close cousin of this design, the Grumman Goose. The designs date from the 40's.

Other famous Grumman products include the F-14 from Top Gun, the Lunar Lander, and the chariot of the very rich and important, the Gulfstream (often referred to simply as the 'G') business jet.

My Family rocks

Listening to/viewing: Top 10 hair metal videos on C4 (!) Ah, the eighties.....
It's not just me. My family knows wierd trivia as well. Mum, Dad, my two elder sisters and I, plus Fishy and two honoured guests formed an eight strong team that beat nineteen other teams to take out the Waterloo Primary School fundraising quiz night last Saturday. For the second time running. My nephew and nieces attended, attend, will attend the school so we have a genuine reason for participating other than the glory of competition.
Last time, we endured a 9 question tiebreaker battle, followed by a solo sudden death showdown to take out the honours. For some reason I was picked as the solo combatant, and managed to answer a question about Harry Potter correctly, despite only having seen one of the films and having read none of the books.
Anyway, I'm digressing. We fronted again on Saturday, quietly confident, but with no expectations. The rival team from last time didn't show, apparently confidently expecting to win having smashed all comers in the Our Lady of the Rosary Primary School fundraising quiz, they were so piqued by their unexpected defeat they gave up quizing entirely (we have contacts who source this information for us....). Second after round one of eight, we were leading by round five, and had it so in the bag by round seven we could have not answered round eight. We answered round eight perfectly nonetheless and won the twenty team quiz by a colossal 10 points. We scored 70 out of a possible 82 (one of the rounds was worth 24 points out of which we scored 21). In short we rocked. Our guesses were educated. Our use of notes for communication faultless. Our wine, beer, and eskimos tasty. And our answers more correct than everyone elses.