VB's Two Cents

Vern's 3rd Annual Advent Calendar Quiz - Q#10

2010-12-10T21:00:00.000-08:00

For today's question, I had to switch back to Blogger for a video post. The good news is that today's question will be easy because, ...... ................wait for it .....tomorrow's will not be :).

All you have to do is watch the video, and answer the question. Clearly there will be no Academy Awards for me, but the scene was most awkward. A crowd was gathering, people were taking pictures of me, and I was trying to think of good clues based on a 4 minute movie that I had just seen.

Anyway, enjoy!

And if you have no clue, throw out a WAG

Do Stephen Harper and Barrack Obama Get Paid Fairly?

2010-03-07T20:50:00.001-08:00

Hi All,

I want your opinion!

Recently, the money paid to Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper was disclosed in the media. In total, he makes $315,462, split evenly between a Basic Sessional Indemnity + his salary.

The supporting reference can be found here: http://money.ca.msn.com/savings-debt/gallery/gallery.aspx?cp-documentid=23577097&page=1

Similarly, Barrack Obama appears to make $400,000 with a $50,000 expense account.

The supporting reference for this figure is as follows: http://www.zimbio.com/India/articles/1078/Salary+President+Obama+Lesser+corporate+Executives

So, my learned friends, my question for you is as follows. Do you think that this level of compensation is fair for what they are expected to do - namely lead countries with populations on the order of ~33 million and ~310 million, respectively.

The question brings into play many factors including, public/private sector parity, careers before and after office, etc., so feel free to use whatever rationale you feel relevant to form your opinion.

To best collect the information, I will be pointing you to a survey so that I can easily compile the results and share them with the group at large afterward. So, please visit the following URL and answer the questions you will find there - thanks kindly in advance.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BW6WVHB

The link will be active until the end of March and soon thereafter I will compile the results.

Drinks Redeemed - Jan / Feb 2010

2010-03-07T20:06:00.000-08:00

Hi All,

Well, 2010 is in full effect and so far, so very good. Things have been quite busy for me so I have been a little slow on the blogging - my apologies.

The 2010 Olympics have come and gone, and rest assured, I will be penning my thoughts on that spectable in the near term. Right now, though, I would like to update the status of the drinks owed from the 2009 Advent Calendar Quiz. For the uninitated, I run an online advent calendar quiz every December and award daily prizes (drinks) for every correct entry (see historic posts for all the questions used this year). It then becomes my goal to pay back these drinks over the course of the following 11 months, ideally visiting the winners in their home city. Last year, drinks were redeemed in Toronto, Vancouver, Las Vegas, and San Franciso. This year, who knows! If you wanna sign up this year and haven't played before, just let me know.

The Olympics presented the perfect opportunity to redeem drinks for those in town, as well as for any people visiting. In this case, Rob, Chris H., Kim, and Andy each redeemed a drink. For Andy and Rob, sadly, the drink was at an Olympic hockey game and the shortest drink line was one offering up Molson Canadian. Sorry boys, it still counts! Chris and Kim got the better end of the deal as Yaletown Earl's accomodated a more discerning beer palate. I am off to a poor start with the photo, however, as I only snapped one photo from of the two opportunities. Nonetheless, see below for the photo marking the occassion. With these drinks redeemed, Andy and Kim have been fully paid out, Chris H. is due another, and Rob, this year's winner, is still owed a very discouraging 9 drinks.

With a trip booked out east this summer, I hope to knock off some of the eastern folk, and with Cali/Vegas never far the US folks should be good, but those in Germany will require some special arrangements to be sure.

At any time throughout the year, see the image to the right for a snapshot of how many drinks each player is owed. It will be updated each and every time a drink is awarded.

2009 Advent Caledar Quiz Wrap Up

2009-12-27T21:12:00.001-08:00

Hi All,

Well, it's official - the 2009 Advent Calendar Quiz has wrapped.

Thanks for playing!

2009 Advent Calendar Quiz - Day 25

2009-12-25T01:16:00.000-08:00

Hi All,

Merry Christmas and welcome to the last question! Hope you are all enjoying your time with your family!

Before we toss out the last question, we have to tidy up two small details … question #19 and #24.

-------------------------------- Question #19 ---------------------------------------------------

After a bit of comparison, Hannah wins question #19. It was close, but Hannah offered up the most extensive list of words, with over 50 words.

--------------------------------- Question #24 --------------------------------------------------

So with last night’s question, I made a bit of an error in that my time ranges were not correct. I meant to have the final housekeeper stay until just shy of 1am.

Anyway, the time of death was actually 12:35am, and th

e rationale is in the attached document. In a nutshell, we have to use Newton's Law of Cooling (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton%27s_law_of_cooling#Newton.27s_law_of_cooling). It is a bit of math, but I couldn’t resist the Santa / CSI angle J.

So, given my error, Aaron gets a drink for guessing the last housekeeper and Chris F. gets three drinks for getting the exact answer with a provided proof.

With the win, Chris pulls dead even with Rob for overall win and the gift certificate.

----------------------------------- Question #25 ----------------------------------------------

As everyone is spending time with his or her family, today’

s question will be most easy. Tell me what the most common response is to the attached Greeting.

Winner gets a drink and the first of Rob or Chris to answer correctly will win the overall quiz challenge and the gift certificate.

Best of luck all!

2009 Advent Calendar Quiz - Day 24

2009-12-24T00:53:00.000-08:00

Hi All,

Hope you enjoyed the video last night! The winner was Rob who guessed all the songs correctly. They were as follows:

· Rihanna - Shut Up and Drive

· Sisqo featuring Lil Kim - How Many Licks

· Quiet Riot - Bang Your Head

· Neil Diamond - September Morn

· Goo Goo Dolls - Iris

· Cat Stevens - Peace Train

· The Police - Message in a bottle

· Nelly Furtado - On the Radio

--------------------------- Question #23 ---------------------------------------------

As promised, a brief bio for Teresa, last night's winner and attached is a pic as well.

Wow, Can't believe I actually beat out Rob on a question. I'm local to the Vancouver area, I grew up in Richmond and made the big move to Delta (it's 12 minutes away for those you who don't know the area) this past summer. I have known Vern for quite a few years now and was very excited to see he was doing his advent calendar again this year. Accountant by day, learning to be a salsa dancer by night. I'm looking forward to have a Christmas duck tonight, and Christmas turkey on the 26th - is that wrong? Merry Christmas to all!

Now, for the second to last question……..

--------------------------------------- Question #24 --------------------------------

Folks, tragedy has struck tonight!

Little Johnny returned home at 1am (after a crazy Christmas Eve elementary school party) to find Santa Claus laying in a pool of his own blood. Protruding from his back, a transformer toy no doubt destined to be Johnny’s favourite toy of the year.

An avid CSI fan, Johnny immediately took Santa’s temperature and found it to be 85 degrees Fahrenheit. One hour later, he again took the temperature and found it to be 73 degrees Fahrenheit. The living room thermostat had been set at 70 degrees Fahrenheit since Johnny left his house at 7am the day before.

Being a wealthy boy, Johnny has three housekeepers, Elizabeth, Judy, and Emma. Their work schedule for the day was as follows:

· Elizabeth: 6pm – 8pm

· Judy: 8pm – 10pm

· Emma: 10pm – 12pm

One of them is responsible for Santa’s demise, which one?

A drink will be awarded for the first correct guess, however, any answer with a full solution will be worth three drinks. There are no tricks to this, just a bit of math.

Enjoy!!!!

2009 Advent Calendar Quiz - Day 23 Video

2009-12-24T00:28:00.000-08:00

Hi all,

Please watch the video below to get today's challenge. Enjoy....

2009 Advent Calendar Quiz - Day 23

2009-12-23T00:54:00.000-08:00

Hi All,

Hope some of you got a chance to play with Google Wave. In short, it is highly touted tool that melds messenger, email, blogging, etc. into one shared space designed to facilitate collaboration.

Read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Wave

And for fun, try YouTubing “Google Wave Pulp Fiction” to see Pulp Fiction a la Google Wave. A good overview of the features but be forewarned, it is Pulp Fiction!

Last night’s winner was Teresa who dug out an invite to Google Wave and joined me in a new wave (conversation sort of).

Stay tuned for a bio for Teresa, and if anyone wants an invite to try Google Wave, let me know as I have several left.

Now, for the third to last question…

------------------------------------------------ Question #23 -------------------------------

So, every year the Men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament concludes with a video montage of tournament highlights played to the song “One Shining Moment”. Tonight you get Vern’s low budget equivalent.

The difference tonight is that your job is tell me what songs are playing in the background. There are a total of 8 songs, so name the artist and the song.

Apologies in advance for abrupt transitions and poor quality recording, but that is what 1am on a weeknight will get ya ;)

Watch the video here:

http://vbstwocents.blogspot.com/

2009 Advent Calendar Quiz - Day 22

2009-12-22T00:56:00.000-08:00

Hi all,

So last night’s quiz was a bit rough it seems. I guess it might have helped had you seen the entire picture in each case – that is, the one with the significant monument left in place.

Take a look at the newest album … you might fair a little better J

http://picasaweb.google.com/vernsadventcalendarquiz/WhereInTheWorldsCompletePicture#

I will provide answers tomorrow night, but Rob managed to win the quiz with all answers save one – well done!

With this win, Rob takes a commanding lead in this year’s quiz heading into the final three days…. but fear not, there is still time!

------------------------------ Challenge #22 ------------------------------------

Tonight’s challenge is about embracing new technology and the task at hand is simply to invite me to my first collaborative Wave. Please use “vernsadventcalendarquiz@gmail.com” for the invite.

2009 Advent Calendar Quiz - Day 21

2009-12-21T00:57:00.000-08:00

Hey All,

The answer to last night’s question was ‘F’. Here is the logic:

· Big squares become small squares in moving from one pattern to the next.

· Similarly, small squares become big squares.

· The exception involves triangles (damn triangles!). If a triangle is attached to a small square in the original, the triangle disappears and the square does not change size.

· If the triangle is attached to a large square, the triangle stays in place, and the square shrinks as expected.

The quick hand last night was Chris F, which moves him into a tie with Rob for the overall lead in the quiz.

Still working on Q#19….

--------------------------------------- Question #21 ----------------------------------

Okay, so today’s question comes to you as an idea from Chris Fares. As such, Chris, you are out of tonight’s competition J - but don’t let that stop any of you from throwing ideas my way ;).

So, as many of you are world travelers, I thought I would test your abilities to recognize certain places.

http://picasaweb.google.com/vernsadventcalendarquiz/WhereInTheWorld#

Have a gander at the following images, and tell me where they are. Standard rules apply – first one with all correct wins, otherwise the one with the most correct wins. The tiebreak, as always, will be the timestamp.

To make things interesting, tonight is a Daily Double -- winner gets two drinks!

2009 Advent Calendar Quiz - Day 20

2009-12-20T00:58:00.000-08:00

Hi All,

Tiger survey results are finally tallied! 33% of the votes submitted went to the TiPhone option (#1), so our winner is Der

ek. Well done buddy, that was an extensive submission – worthy of an MBA assignment any day! See the attached image for a breakdown of the survey results.

Attached is the latest leaderboard. With only 5 days left, and the potential for a daily double this week, it really is anyone' s game!

I am still stepping through Q#19 answers, but should have something for th

e group tomorrow in terms of a winner.

And now, for Question #20........

------------------------------- Question #20 -------------------------------

Tonight’s question, quite shamefully, is not

my own – it has bee

n lifted directly from a book I stumbled upon. The question is outlined in the attached image.

Ciao all,

2009 Advent Calendar Quiz - Day 19

2009-12-19T12:57:00.000-08:00

Hey All,

Just a quick reminder to vote on the best Tiger Woods question at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/YSWC7RQ

------------------------------------------------- Question #18 --------------------------------------------------

So I hope you all consider A Whole New Mind, it really is a wicked read. In terms of design mags recommended by Pink, he lists the following:

· Ambidextrous

· Dwell

· HOW

· iD

· Metropolis

· O Magazine

· Print

· Real Simple

Last night’s quiz was won by Rob with it, he takes one step closer to clinching his victory this year.

---------------------------------------------- Question #17 --------------------------------------------------------------

I finally compiled the results from Question #17, and it was very close between Hannah and Chris, but in the end, Chris wins out by a nose. The correct answers are as follows:

Arabic

Bulgarian

Mandarin Chinese

Cantonese

Czech

Danish

Dutch

Estonian

Farsi

Finni

French

German

Hindi

Hungarian

Italian

Japanese

Korean

Lao

Lebanese

Lithuanian

Norwegian

Filipino

Polish

Portuguese

Punjabi

Russian

Rumanian

Sierra Leone

Singhalese

Slovenian

Spanish

Turkish

Vietnamese

Yiddish

------------------------------------------------- Question #19 ----------------------------------------------------------

Hey there word lovers, time to have some fun! How many other English words can you make using letters in the following word:

Logophile

Note: Each new word needn’t necessarily use all the letters in logophile.

2009 Advent Calendar Quiz - Day 18

2009-12-18T13:08:00.000-08:00

Hi All,

I have compiled the Tiger Woods marketing question at the following URL:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/YSWC7RQ

Please take the survey, and the one with most votes wins! Good luck all.

I will have to defer a winner on last night’s question until tomorrow as the legend is not on my person.

-------------------------------- Question #18 --------------------------

Question:

Daniel Pink wrote a great book called “A Whole New Mind” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Whole_New_Mind) that I personally found to be very insightful and one that caused me to question my overreliance on left-brained, logical thinking. This question will no doubt infuriate, but I want to mix it up a bit.

Pink recommends reading eight different publications on Design. Send me an image of any one of them (either that you took, or you lifted off the net), and you win.

2009 Advent Calendar Quiz - Day 17

2009-12-17T13:04:00.000-08:00

Hi Quizzees,

Some VERY creative answers submitted for the Tiger challenge, some complete with images and detailed descriptions! Given the breadth of the submission descriptions, I will have to figure out the best way to soliciting voting input. Initially, I was thinking about Survey Monkey, but don’t know how easy it will be to upload imagery within a multiple choice question ….. Anyway, leave it with me and I will advise as soon as something is posted for voting....

Now, on to today’s question…

---------------------------------- Question #17 ----------------------------------

Alright kids, time for a language test! Last year I had you translate a sentence mixed with words from different languages. This year, I am asking you to identify the languages shown in the attached document.

As always, the greatest number correct wins. I would be highly impressed if anyone gets them all, but should that happen, the tie breaker will be the timeline, with the first one in winning. .

Note: I did not create the attached text, so in some cases it may be a bit off if you are fluent in the language, but it should still be close enough to give you an idea.

2009 Advent Calendar Quiz - Day 16

2009-12-16T12:53:00.000-08:00

Hey All,

So, the old man pictured seems to have proven challenging. Funny thing is that I can almost guarantee that every one of you knows his work very well.

For example:

I would not, could not, in a box.

I could not, would not, with a fox.

I will not eat them with a mouse.

I will not eat them in a house.

I will not eat them here or there.

I will not eat them anywhere.

I do not eat green eggs and ham.

I do not like them, Sam-I-am.

That’s right, Dr. Seuss!

I saw his Christmas special the other night and realized that despite knowing many of his books, I had zero clue what he looked like.

The only correct answer was offered up by Chris F., who inches closes to taking the overall lead!

---------------------------------- Question #16 ----------------------------

So tonight, I want to see everyone put on their business hats and let their creativity bust free. The theme for tonight’s question was provided by Advent calendar participant Derek.

The Challenge:

You are an entrepreneur and you have a product/service that you think would benefit immensely from having it endorsed byTiger Woods.

The question is, what is your product/service? Please outline the following:

· Product Service Name:

· Product/Service Description:

· Target Market:

· Slogan:

Complicating factor: his family troubles have rocked his ability to focus so much that his golf skills have plummeted. As such, any golf related product/service will be a no go.

Since there is no correct answer to this question, I will compile all the answers submitted and will ask the group to vote for their favourite tomorrow by way of survey.

To give your creative juices tonnes of time, tomorrow’s question will not go out for 24 hours.

Feel free to submit multiple answers, and be enjoy

2009 Advent Calendar Quiz - Day 15

2009-12-15T12:13:00.000-08:00

Hey All,

I thought I would send out today's challenge a might bit early, as we have an ad maniac in the group. Hannah got every single ad correct, not only the product, but also the company in nearly all cases.

The answers are as follows:

1. The towel is to promote the use of sunscreen and was created for skin cancer awareness

2. A tire ad for Goodyear tires. Your car will be towed away but your tires will stick...

3. FedEx Kinkos saying that "Office Products now at fedexkinkos.com" promoting their website where you can make on-line purchases.

4. Security Glass Advertisement by 3M.

5. Dettol Instant Hand Sanitizer Advertisement
6. Clorets ad for gum.
7. Burger King promoting really big burgers.
8. Monster.com ad, to help people find th

e right job. Ie, "We help you find the best place for your job."
9. Martial Arts School Advertisement.
10. Bose noise reduction headphones.

In other news, has anyone heard from last year's champion Chris H ... I'm sensing that 2008 was but a flash in the pan....a rare moment of elevated performance?

---------------------- Question #9 ---------------------------------------------------------------

We also got a winner for Question #9 last night. X=6 and X=243. Chris F. came through to secure his position in second place.

The x position is always achieved by taking the Factorial (!) of the top number in the square. ! of a number is the number sequentially multipilied by every positive integer smaller than itself. So for 3, 3! = 3*2*1 = 6. The y is achieved by taking the top number and raising it to the power of the lower number.

----------------------------------------------------Question #15 -------------------------------

I have been asking a lot of you all lately, so today will be simple as can be. Who is pictured in the attached image?

2009 Advent Calendar Quiz - Day 14 Leaderboard

2009-12-14T21:49:00.000-08:00

Hi All,

As of today, here is the Quiz leader board. Rob is certainly leading the charge, but with a dozen questions left, everything remains very much up for grabs.

2009 Advent Calendar Quiz - Day 14

2009-12-14T12:28:00.000-08:00

Hi All,

Can you believe it, we are more than halfway done this year’s quiz! A mere twelve more days and we will be wrapped!

At the end of the day, anyone can still win!

------------- Question #12 – still up for grabs! -----------------------

I have yet to get a completely correct answer for question #12. To help things along I want to clarify one point. The numbers within one square do not connect to the numbers in any other square, and so the way the squares are laid out matters not at all.

Also there is no requirement for all numbers within a square to connect to each other through a relationship.

As a general hint, most people are hitting the mark on y, but x is proving troublesome.

This question will remain open until further notice ……..

--------------------------- Question #13 Winner ---------------------

Answering within 30 minutes of the question going out was Hannah! It seems Hannah was at work and had a bit of time to kill ;).

The sum of the three symbols in the vertical column was 16, and the symbols were valued at 5, 4, and 7 respectively for the square, the star, and the triangle. If you want a copy of a possible solution, let me know and I will forward it along.

Below is a brief bio for Hannah.

I moonlight at the clock shop enjoying Vern's quiz as the whole store ticks away. My attached picture is me wishing for warmer weather!

---------------------------------------- Question #9 --------------------------------

I finally stepped through all the Question #9 answers, and we have a new winner yet again, in Winnie. Missing only a single entry and providing full names for all entries, Winnie cleaned house, although special mention goes to Varina who was a very, very close second.

Couple of funnies worth noting --- the quiz was based on pairs, so “sugar cubes”, “bow” , “tusk” weren’t winning entries ;) Also, snakes have heads, chutes do not ;).

Here is a bio for Winnie.

Winnie is a Canadian transplant in California, dutifully spreading the exotic Canadian language of aboots, passta and soarys to our Southern neighbours J Winnie was an Edmonton girl who hated the cold and mutinied for warm(er) San Francisco. Chris H added Winnie when he couldn’t steal her answers as his own anymore. Winnie joined the advent calendar mid-way last year and tied for 3rd place; she hopes to leverage her quirky mix of engineering brawn and creative wit to better her standing this year with a strong showing!

And now for today’s question……

-------------------------------------------- Question #14 -----------------------------

Have you ever seen an advertisement that, for whatever reason, really hits home? Something that makes you appreciate the art of advertising? Well, that is the theme of tonight’s question.

Pictured in the attached file are a series of images. Your goal is to guess what is being sold and/or what message is being conveyed. Although no additional prizes are to be awarded, take a stab at the companies behind the ads.

Rules are as standard, guess the product /theme and you’ll get a point for each correct image. In the event that a tiebreaker is needed, first one in wins.

Cheers!

2009 Advent Calendar Quiz - Day 12 + 13

2009-12-12T12:44:00.000-08:00

Hey Everybody,

Another great round of answers yesterday.

In terms of a solution, in short, A and B can’t solve the riddle as they know too little. D could solve it if B and C had the same coloured hats as he would then conclude that his was a different colour. But, in this case, B and C have different coloured hats. So, C ultimately steps up and saves the group from frying and is able to do so specifically because D says nothing. It takes C a bit to step through the reasoning,

so that is why two minutes sneak by before he says anything.

---------------------------------------------------- Question #11 Winner --------------------------------------------

Question #11 was won by Aaron, whose bio is found below.

Aaron, a prominent business man and entrepreneur who dabbles in the solar industry in between jet setting to exotic locals to meet beautiful women and dine on exquisite dishes. This Christmas and new years, you can find Aaron amongst the wallabees, bbqing shrimp, golfing, and fishing off the southern coast of Australia for 6 weeks where his brother and family live. Although he is single and looking for someone special to share his days in Toronto with, women particularly from Virginia seem to find him alluring (even though they lead double lives). He is known to participate in many international advent quizzes but has yet to pull off an extraordinary performance. This year promises to be his best yet and he assures he will be able to take Rob down....

---------------------------------------------------- Old Business -----------------------------------------------------

The images in Question #9 have been posted to the photo album located here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=vernsadventcalendarquiz&target=ALBUM&id=5413490170352236225&authkey=Gv1sRgCOO-naT6wKqMUg&feat=email

The winner will be announced later today … still have a few sheets to review.

----------------------------------------------------Question #12 + 13 -------------------------------------------------

A combination of b-day activities and a volleyball tournament has me one day behind in quiz questions, so today you get two at once, both of which can be found in the attached jpg.

Note: Question #12 asks for the values of x and y

Note #2: Question #13 asks for the value of the question mark, that is the sum of the three symbols shown.

Happy puzzling!

2009 Advent Calendar Quiz - Day 11

2009-12-11T01:02:00.000-08:00

Hi All,

Hopefully you enjoyed the Google test last night! In the end, Rob submitted an entry that was both topical and exceedingly close (5440) to the 5420 value being aimed for. See attached for the winning search string. With this win, Rob clearly vaults into the lead, so it is time for everyone else to step up!

So, for some reason, I am reminded of th

e following video today: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3VJgkL

SFws

Kidding!

But as I will be celebrating the anniversary of my arrival into this world, I will officially abstain from thinking this afternoon and evening. See the way I see, you all can think on my behalf by tinkering with the puzzle below…… enjoy. While amusing, it is sadly not as tough as the Vernistanian question thrown out on the 11th of last year ;)

By the way, if anyone in Van i

s up for a drink, send me a txt as I will be having a couple post Christmas party drinks in town.

Lastly, answers and the winner for Q#9 will be coming shortly .......

--------------------------------- Question #11 -----------------------

The image attached shows four prisoners stuck in body-sized pylons, each wearing g a hat. Let’s call them A, B, C, and D. Each man is functionally paralyzed by the pylons so they cannot turn their heads or otherwise move their bodies. Between A and B is a wall that none of the men can see through, around, or over. Each is wearing a black or white hat, but none of them know the colour of their hat. They do know, however, that there are four of them and that two are wearing white hats and two are wearing black hats. They are also aware that they are separated by the wall in the way pictured below. All men are hooked to an electric grid and the warden is making his way from the local pub to throw the switch and “toast” the group upon arrival. The warden, being a passionate sort, has said the following: “if any one of you can correctly yell out the colour of your hat with 100% certainty, I will free you all”. “If you get it wrong, however, you will all perish”.

The prisoners are not permitted to talk to one another and no other form of communication is allowed. They have 5 minutes to figure it out. After two minutes, one of the prisoners correctly calls out the colour of his hat and saves the group.

Which one saved the day, and how did he do it?

2009 Advent Calendar Quiz - Day 10 Leaderboard

2009-12-10T18:44:00.000-08:00

Hey All,

Although not yet referenced in the quiz, this will be the site of the most recent leader board for the 2009 quiz.

As of the 10th, this is where we stand.

2009 Advent Calendar Quiz - Day 10

2009-12-10T00:46:00.000-08:00

Hey All,

Amazing effort on last night’s quiz – thanks all! It will take me a bit to step through the submissions and figure out who won. It will be close as there were many nearly complete submissions!

Now, for some old business

------------------------------------ Old Business - Question #8 ---------------------------------------------------

So, in response the Santa challenge, I have now received four photos. An oversight on my end was not mention that the photos were to be taken after the challenge was issued. So, three of the photos fall into this category in that they were taken this year, but not in advance of the challenge. The fourth, however, was a bonafide post-challenge shot. So, what to do?

After consulting with the quiz judging panel (a most difficult lot consisting of me, myself, and I), I have opted to do the following. Rob wins the challenge outright and gets three drinks because he sat on Santa’s lap following the challenge being issued. But, each of Chris F., Simon, and Alicia get a drink for getting in the Christmas spirit in 2009. Special note to Chris F., as he is posing with the original St. Nick, his inspiration for Santa Claus.

Alicia’s Bio:

· I am alicia and from Toronto and my friend Chris added me to this crazy challenge. A Toronto girl who hates the cold but lives here anyways.

· Love my high heals but hate winter boots so i make sure I travel lots to places with no snow.

· A bishops university and U of T grad. I am proud to be fishing with Santa.

· Happy holidays!

Simon’s Bio:

During some wacky adventures in New Zealand back in 04, Simon met Vern as he plunged 180 meters into Mokai Canyon, at 160 km/h in a death arm lock. During the days, Sven plies his trade at good old Vancity, where he helps to mold the minds of new employees and locks into Johari conversations with his internal clients. He also enjoys spending lots of time with Rotary, watching re-runs of South Park and trying to discover his youthful body through a rigorous workout schedule. No luck yet. He is proud that he was able to get one answer right, even if he had taken a picture with Santa during a very rowdy Christmas work party!

And now, for today’s question/challenge……

------------------------------------------------------- Question #10 -----------------------------------------------------

Okay, so most of the time, I am trying to steer you all away from Google as it generally undermines my efforts to come up with a decent challenge. Today, I embrace Google! You see the advent quiz is what we call a 5420. That is to say, a search for “vern’s advent calendar quiz” yields 5400 hits (as pictured).

Your challenge today is to search for something else that returns as close to that many search results as possible. So, the search string that comes closest to 5420 wins for today. As the number of pages on the web changes every second, I will need a screenshot to show the number of hits, like the one shown attached with the string and the number of results. In the unlikely event of a tie, the first one in wins.

2009 Advent Calendar Quiz - Day 9

2009-12-09T00:44:00.000-08:00

Hey All,

Thanks for another night of very interesting submissions! I will take one more day to decide on a winner for last night’s challenge as I have to pull out the rulebook ;).

In the meantime, a big welcome to Showtime joining us from Ontario!

And now, tonight’s question ….

----------------------------------------- Question #8 --------------------------------------------------

The other day, for reasons unknown, I started to think about famous pairings, be they people, animals, expressions, etc. So, I thought I would compile a list of pairs for you to run through and identify.

To do so, I have uploaded a bunch of photos, and have created a simple spreadsheet template for you to fill in your guesses (attached). In terms of filing out the information, if the people are playing characters on film/TV, use their character names.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=vernsadventcalendarquiz&target=ALBUM&id=5413490170352236225&authkey=Gv1sRgCOO-naT6wKqMUg&feat=email

The winner will be the first person with everything correct. If nobody gets them all correct, it will be the person who answers the most correctly that wins. If tiebreakers are needed, the most full names used will win .....

In most of the cases, both objects/people in the pair are shown, but if only one object/person is shown, I am looking for an expression that involves the picture subject and something else.

Incidentally, this quiz should be one that eliminates BBY/Iphone advantages as doing it on the phone would be very challenging.....

Happy puzzling.....

2009 Advent Calendar Quiz - Day 8

2009-12-08T00:38:00.000-08:00

Hey All,

So, clearly there is an appetite for a “pure guess” type of question on occasion. Not only did the answers flood in, but people took it upon themselves to rescind their initial guess in favour of a more accurate submission.

It didn’t matter in the end, as the closest guess (350) came in within 7 minutes of the question going out. The actual number of M&M’s was 365. Ya, that’s right people, one piece of chocolate goodness for Vern each and every day for a year, booyah!

The correct answer was “hoisted aboard” by Derek, who’s bio is found below.

-------------------------------------------- Question #7 Winner ------------------------------------------------------

I guess I would say as a general description 'born to fish, forced to work'

Livin' the dream, and apparently have a skill counting M&M's which I may attempt to forge into a retirement gig when I reach 'retirement' age in a couple years :). Keep the easy ones comin'!

-------------------------------------------------- Question #6 Winner ------------------------------------------------

Although it pains me to no end, Question #6’s winner is the first repeat winner of this year’s quiz. Despite early signs suggesting the amswer would be wrapped up yesterday, a correct answer only found its way into my inbox a couple of hours ago.

In the end, last year’s winner, Chris H., correctly answered the value of “Life” as 47. To do so, he took the alphabetical position of each letter in the word (i.e., 1-26) and added it to the value of the same letter on the number pad of a phone (i.e. 2-9).

And so, with that behind us, a new riddle….

------------------------------------------------- Question #8 ------------------------------------------------------------

Okay, tonight’s question is actually a challenge, and to reflect that, tonight’s prize is worth two drinks, with a possible bonus drink. Not only would winning give you the satisfaction of successfully competing, but in this case, it would also give you full on lead in the game.

So, here it goes:

Last weekend, I was Santa for about 300 kids at a local school. It was truly an experience, like when one responded to my “what do you want for Christmas” with “I already emailed you!”, while throwing me the stink eye! Nice!

Anyway, I think you all could use some holiday spirit, so your mission, quite simply, is to take a picture with a Santa. Sit on his lap, and you get a bonus drink!

And by Santa, I mean a fully costumed Santa Claus, not a Salvation Army bell jingler with a Santa hat on. And no, your significant other in costume does NOT count.

First photo in wins, simple. This question stays alive until claimed.

2009 Advent Calendar Quiz - Day 7

2009-12-07T00:36:00.000-08:00

Hey All,

Okay, so yesterday’s quiz has yet to be solved. As there are some people really close to getting it, I will hold out for another day on the answer. By way of a hint, there are two steps to figure out the value for each word, but no special knowledge is needed to figure it out. All you need is two ways to connect letters to a number system and you are good to go……

Now, some old business….

---------------------------------------------- Question #5 Winner -----------------------------------------------------

As promised, here is Andy’s bio and attached is a pic.

· I met Vern at U of Guelph where he quickly took me under his wing and taught me the finer points of volleyball such as:

o No matter how hard it is hit, any ball spike into to the net is worth no points to my team

o Serving over the net is key to winning a point

o Setting to the other team isn’t the best strategy

· My Likes: Advent quizzes sent earlier than 3am (Ontario time), puppies, bikini girls, sarging, and volleyball.

· My Dislikes: having to write bio's, AFC’s

· My fav song of 2009: Sexy Bitch by David Guetta and Akon

And, now for today’s question….

------------------------------------------------ Question #7 -------------------------------------------------------------

Being as today is Monday for man of you, and still early in the week for the rest of ya, I have opted for a super simple question that puts everyone on equal footing. Based on the two images attached, guess the number of M+Ms in the container.

Enjoy your Monday/Tuesday……