today, and Sir Moola de Jeopardy
May. 13th, 2006 07:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elenbarathiAll day it has been raining on and off. Literally a few seconds ago it was raining and now it's not. Eh.
Right, this morning, all excited for the TV tourney, woot woot. I got up both earlier and later than I'd have liked to, but we got there on time and Aaron/Moses-the-not-coach had tickets, so everything was good. Laura, Arlene, Chris, and I ended up having to squish ourselves in the back seat of Aaron's car; Mike P. sat up front. Did I mention how much I hate Chris? Yes, I did. Anyway, we got there, and then we basically hung around in a dark corner and waited. I started doing my Cobra Event study guide; other people did other stuff. I'm saying that because I don't remember and I don't care.
We learned there were sixteen teams divided into two brackets; each of the teams would participate in a preliminary round, not on TV, and all at the same time. Then there would be the TV rounds, which were (in our half of the bracket) at 8:30 and 3:30 for quarter- and semifinals respectively.
Then the A team only got called to go do something (we found out later they got a speech from Ken Jennings, who I found out today is OMGWTFBBQ!!!!1111!!!! Sir Moola de Jeopardy) and after somewhere between fifteen and thirty minutes--during which I recounted to the rest of the team the adventures of those afflicted with the Cobra virus--the rest of us got called to witness the first round (again, not on TV). It was a nail-biter of a finish, as they say--we ended up winning by only ten points, on the final question, guessing computer language terms. Scary-fun.
Between rounds we went back to our dark corner (actually, it was a back corner of the lunch room, and it was only dark because there was a plant hanging in front of the light). All the guys were making remarks about how the girls should say something to Ken Jennings on how we wanted to have his babies. I threw my copy of The Cobra Event at Bob, who was making most of these comments; in retrospect, I probably should have thrown it at Johnson, who started it. They made a big deal about it hitting him in the crotch, though God knows I can't throw very hard at all, especially when I'm not in optimum throwing position, and that I can't aim at all. It may as well have hit his feet, because that was obviously where it fell (as he was standing). So Bob and Johnson and the others kept my book for a few minutes and made a big deal about how I was teh uber-evil. Whatever. I withdrew from the conversation and started staring off into the distance and thinking; they thought I was acting all depressed (or at least Laura and Sam did), and I did get my book back without having to ask for it more than once. It did take far less time than I expected: I expected them to toss it back when we were leaving.
The next round was in TEH STOODIO! which was all spiffy and such and not really as spiffy as it looks on TV. Sitting in the audience was everybody except the A team. And Aaron/Moses-the-not-coach who doesn't really count. The entire affair was a load of hurry-up-and-wait. The camera panned over the studio audience between questions, so I was on TV a bunch, as was nearly everyone else. However, the camera seemed to gravitate towards me somehow, especially in the later rounds. The second round we won only by five points, again on the last question. The entire getting-into-the-semifinals-as-a-13th-seeded-team bit earned them the title "The Cinderella Team".
We went out to eat at Applebee's after that; it opened at 11:00 today and we got there at 11:06, so there was literally nobody there except us and the employees. I ended up getting cajun-lime tilapia with rice and vegetables. The fish and rice were way spicier than I'd expected, but they were still good. The vegetables (broccoli) tasted almost buttery, and I used them to get rid of the spice still in my mouth. The bill (for the eleven of us: me, Laura, Arlene, Bob, Johnson, CJ, Sam, Mike, Chandler, Chris, and Aaron) came out to a hundred thirteen dollars or so; I was all "woot" on paying my own bill for once. Weird weird weird.
Bugger it's cold.
Anyway, we went to the Best Buy in West Saint Paul then, and Arlene and I spent most of the time walking around and looking for Laura, who had disappeared; the rest of the team (minus Laura, who had disappeared) spent the time looking at different games and then playing or watching Johnson play some demo boxing game. There were purple vacuum cleaners and 16-packs of AA batteries, along with headphones and walkie-talkies under a "Furniture" label. Arlene and I discussed broken printers as we were walking around; some store person told us to come to her if we needed help. Lady, we're freshman. In bloody high school. Do you really think we'd be walking around buying printers? It took too long to leave.
We watched the 1:30 and 2:30 rounds; they were both blowouts going to Chaska and STA respectively. In the 1:30 round, Arlene and I sat right behind the judges' table, and consequently got filmed a lot. In the 2:30 round, I had to sit on the floor because there weren't enough chairs, and I didn't want to sit in the back row with Mike and Chandler (I ended up sitting on the end of a row containing Laura, Arlene, Bob, and me, in that order). After the 2:30 round Arlene went to get an autograph from Sir Moola de Jeopardy (not intended to be offensive, really, I just like the title). Bob and Johnson followed, and soon the entire team was swarming around him. Nearly everyone got autographs, except me; Laura got a whole bunch of pictures, which she has promised to send to both me and Mrs. Johnson (who is actually Johnson's mom).
In our 3:30 round we played against Chaska, which had trounced the other team it played. It continued to trounce. We lost 515-115. That has got to be some sort of record. I think by the end the team was just totally demoralized and didn't even try; then again, I probably wouldn't have had I been in their shoes (which likely don't fit me anyway). I don't want to describe this anymore.
We had the usual flurry of leaving, except it wasn't much of a flurry, since some people's parents had come too. Johnson and Bob went with Johnson's parents, Chandler and Mike P. went with Chandler's parents, and CJ and Sam were the only people left to ride in the Team A car. Both CJ's and Bob's parents had come as well. Arlene confided that she'd wanted us to lose this round partially because she was sick of it and partially because Bob had told her he could take her to some dance; now he said something had come up and he couldn't do so. So she stayed at the studio because she had a ride coming. Laura and Chris and I were the only ones to be in Aaron's car: fun. It was pouring when we left; I huddled under Laura's umbrella and so could catch snippets of her conversation with her parental unit: Erin and Keegan had gone to some movie without her, apparently, and she was pissed.
The windows (especially the windshield) kept fogging up on the drive back. We tried experimenting with hot/cold air and open/closed windows; hot and open seemed to work best. The rain was on and off the entire time we drove back, and as we pulled into the CDH parking lot it was sprinkling. Mom was there, and she wanted to go and pick up John Paul at the Barths' (cousins), but he ended up not being there. I had soup when we got home, and then some cookies that Mom and Angela (sister) had made.
I notice total lack of emotion in those last few paragraphs.
Right, this morning, all excited for the TV tourney, woot woot. I got up both earlier and later than I'd have liked to, but we got there on time and Aaron/Moses-the-not-coach had tickets, so everything was good. Laura, Arlene, Chris, and I ended up having to squish ourselves in the back seat of Aaron's car; Mike P. sat up front. Did I mention how much I hate Chris? Yes, I did. Anyway, we got there, and then we basically hung around in a dark corner and waited. I started doing my Cobra Event study guide; other people did other stuff. I'm saying that because I don't remember and I don't care.
We learned there were sixteen teams divided into two brackets; each of the teams would participate in a preliminary round, not on TV, and all at the same time. Then there would be the TV rounds, which were (in our half of the bracket) at 8:30 and 3:30 for quarter- and semifinals respectively.
Then the A team only got called to go do something (we found out later they got a speech from Ken Jennings, who I found out today is OMGWTFBBQ!!!!1111!!!! Sir Moola de Jeopardy) and after somewhere between fifteen and thirty minutes--during which I recounted to the rest of the team the adventures of those afflicted with the Cobra virus--the rest of us got called to witness the first round (again, not on TV). It was a nail-biter of a finish, as they say--we ended up winning by only ten points, on the final question, guessing computer language terms. Scary-fun.
Between rounds we went back to our dark corner (actually, it was a back corner of the lunch room, and it was only dark because there was a plant hanging in front of the light). All the guys were making remarks about how the girls should say something to Ken Jennings on how we wanted to have his babies. I threw my copy of The Cobra Event at Bob, who was making most of these comments; in retrospect, I probably should have thrown it at Johnson, who started it. They made a big deal about it hitting him in the crotch, though God knows I can't throw very hard at all, especially when I'm not in optimum throwing position, and that I can't aim at all. It may as well have hit his feet, because that was obviously where it fell (as he was standing). So Bob and Johnson and the others kept my book for a few minutes and made a big deal about how I was teh uber-evil. Whatever. I withdrew from the conversation and started staring off into the distance and thinking; they thought I was acting all depressed (or at least Laura and Sam did), and I did get my book back without having to ask for it more than once. It did take far less time than I expected: I expected them to toss it back when we were leaving.
The next round was in TEH STOODIO! which was all spiffy and such and not really as spiffy as it looks on TV. Sitting in the audience was everybody except the A team. And Aaron/Moses-the-not-coach who doesn't really count. The entire affair was a load of hurry-up-and-wait. The camera panned over the studio audience between questions, so I was on TV a bunch, as was nearly everyone else. However, the camera seemed to gravitate towards me somehow, especially in the later rounds. The second round we won only by five points, again on the last question. The entire getting-into-the-semifinals-as-a-13th-seeded-team bit earned them the title "The Cinderella Team".
We went out to eat at Applebee's after that; it opened at 11:00 today and we got there at 11:06, so there was literally nobody there except us and the employees. I ended up getting cajun-lime tilapia with rice and vegetables. The fish and rice were way spicier than I'd expected, but they were still good. The vegetables (broccoli) tasted almost buttery, and I used them to get rid of the spice still in my mouth. The bill (for the eleven of us: me, Laura, Arlene, Bob, Johnson, CJ, Sam, Mike, Chandler, Chris, and Aaron) came out to a hundred thirteen dollars or so; I was all "woot" on paying my own bill for once. Weird weird weird.
Bugger it's cold.
Anyway, we went to the Best Buy in West Saint Paul then, and Arlene and I spent most of the time walking around and looking for Laura, who had disappeared; the rest of the team (minus Laura, who had disappeared) spent the time looking at different games and then playing or watching Johnson play some demo boxing game. There were purple vacuum cleaners and 16-packs of AA batteries, along with headphones and walkie-talkies under a "Furniture" label. Arlene and I discussed broken printers as we were walking around; some store person told us to come to her if we needed help. Lady, we're freshman. In bloody high school. Do you really think we'd be walking around buying printers? It took too long to leave.
We watched the 1:30 and 2:30 rounds; they were both blowouts going to Chaska and STA respectively. In the 1:30 round, Arlene and I sat right behind the judges' table, and consequently got filmed a lot. In the 2:30 round, I had to sit on the floor because there weren't enough chairs, and I didn't want to sit in the back row with Mike and Chandler (I ended up sitting on the end of a row containing Laura, Arlene, Bob, and me, in that order). After the 2:30 round Arlene went to get an autograph from Sir Moola de Jeopardy (not intended to be offensive, really, I just like the title). Bob and Johnson followed, and soon the entire team was swarming around him. Nearly everyone got autographs, except me; Laura got a whole bunch of pictures, which she has promised to send to both me and Mrs. Johnson (who is actually Johnson's mom).
In our 3:30 round we played against Chaska, which had trounced the other team it played. It continued to trounce. We lost 515-115. That has got to be some sort of record. I think by the end the team was just totally demoralized and didn't even try; then again, I probably wouldn't have had I been in their shoes (which likely don't fit me anyway). I don't want to describe this anymore.
We had the usual flurry of leaving, except it wasn't much of a flurry, since some people's parents had come too. Johnson and Bob went with Johnson's parents, Chandler and Mike P. went with Chandler's parents, and CJ and Sam were the only people left to ride in the Team A car. Both CJ's and Bob's parents had come as well. Arlene confided that she'd wanted us to lose this round partially because she was sick of it and partially because Bob had told her he could take her to some dance; now he said something had come up and he couldn't do so. So she stayed at the studio because she had a ride coming. Laura and Chris and I were the only ones to be in Aaron's car: fun. It was pouring when we left; I huddled under Laura's umbrella and so could catch snippets of her conversation with her parental unit: Erin and Keegan had gone to some movie without her, apparently, and she was pissed.
The windows (especially the windshield) kept fogging up on the drive back. We tried experimenting with hot/cold air and open/closed windows; hot and open seemed to work best. The rain was on and off the entire time we drove back, and as we pulled into the CDH parking lot it was sprinkling. Mom was there, and she wanted to go and pick up John Paul at the Barths' (cousins), but he ended up not being there. I had soup when we got home, and then some cookies that Mom and Angela (sister) had made.
I notice total lack of emotion in those last few paragraphs.
