I recently made my second Sporcle quiz. This one is dedicated to the excellent dark fantasy books written by Anne Bishop. You can take the quiz here: http://www.sporcle.com/games/valerina_chan/anne_bishop
Can you name them all?
Anne Bishop Sporcle Quiz!
May 19th, 2010
May Playlist… 90s Edition!
May 18th, 2010I did a lot of growing up in the 90s, and the music of the decade still features prominently in my iTunes library. So I present you with a tribute to the music of my youth:
Ten Random Songs from the 90s… With Video!
1. The World is Not Enough, Garbage (1999)
2. Possession, Sarah McLachlan (1993)
3. Black Balloon, Goo Goo Dolls (1999)
4. Who Will Save Your Soul? Jewel (1995)
5. I Will Buy You a New Life, Everclear (1997)
6. You and Me Song, The Wannadies (1994)
7. Genie in a Bottle, Christina Aguilera (1999)
8. All Star, Smash Mouth (1999)
9. Smoke, Natalie Imbruglia (1997)
10. Closing Time, Semisonic (1999)
All About Curling
May 17th, 2010Months after the Winter Olympics have passed, I still think often of Curling, that bizarre sport in which athletes slide an over-sized puck down the ice and sweep the track ahead of it to control the trajectory, yelling in screeching voices as they go. As I was browsing the web for infographs, I stumbled upon this one:
At last, Curling explained! I’m pleased to say that I pretty much figured out all of this just by watching the sport and going, “Huh. Weird.” Meanwhile, a right-handed artist provides his own Curling explanation while drawing with his left-hand.
And best of all, Stephen Colbert created a sing-a-long training montage featuring outtakes from his time spent with the U.S. Curling Team.
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Exclusive – Curling Team Tryouts Outtakes Pt. 2 | ||||
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Alas, the next Winter Olympics can’t come soon enough.
Things that make me sad
May 13th, 2010#246
AT&T.
I work in mid-town Manhattan, and every evening on my walk to the subway for my commute home, I like to make phone calls to let family and friends know where I’m headed and what my plans are for the evening. And every evening my calls drop repeatedly and fail to connect – over and over and over again.
On my way home on Tuesday, I called my sister to wish her a happy birthday, and during our five minute phone call, we were disconnected three times. After the third time, I sent her a text message with more birthday wishes and an apology that “I give up”.
I love my iPhone, but I am extremely frustrated by AT&Ts terrible service, especially given the $90 I pay every month for the privilege of what? Not being able to hold up my half of a phone conversation? Back in 2008, AT&T admitted that their 3G service was flawed and that they were unprepared to handle the deluge of iPhone 3G subscribers, and clearly, two years later, nothing has changed.
Briefly, I allowed myself to indulge the thought that Apple would end its exclusive contract with AT&T and open the iPhone to other service providers, but my dreams have been dashed. Apple has just confirmed that AT&T has locked up exclusive rights through 2012. Motherf*ckers. Maybe I should give up and get an Android.
Test Your Buffy Knowledge!
May 11th, 2010I hate to say it, but I’ve been growing bored of Sporcle lately. I can alphabetize the 195 countries of the world in 13 minutes and I’ve exhausted many of the other country-centric quizzes. There aren’t enough newly published quizzes that interest me, and too many of the already-existing quizzes are too filled with minutiae for me to be very successful.
So today, I tried my hand at making a Sporcle quiz for the first time. The challenge of my quiz is to name all 144 episodes of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series. I provide episode numbers and summaries… Care to give it a try?
Sporcle Quiz: http://www.sporcle.com/games/valerina_chan/buffy_eps
I’m a huge Buffy fan, and I’ve gotta admit that this quiz is a real challenge. I watched so many reruns in the early years that I can name the episodes from the first three seasons with no problem, it’s only when I get half-way through season four that things get tricky. The first player to try my quiz was only one answer away from a perfect score, missing “Primeval”, episode 4.21.
The next Buffy quiz I make will feature a list of Joss Whedon’s favorite episodes (not written by him), and for later quizzes, I’ll come up with some real trivia questions!
EDIT: Okay, I feel kind of stupid. After spending [X] hours writing one-line episode summaries for Buffy (x 144), I realized today that there are already dozens of user created Buffy quizzes on Sporcle. I thought there was only one quiz for the series, and I was wrong. There is only one Sporcle-approved, official Buffy quiz… and a bunch of unofficial ones to which mine has joined the ranks. SIGH! I hope people still find it… and love it.
