I realize it's been over a month since the last update, and while I can place part of the blame for that on the potent cocktail of school, work, and music, the rest lies squarely on NaNo.
For the blissfully unaware (and I mean that in the sincerest way possible), NaNo is National Novel Writing Month; less an annual event than it is an evil sponge that soaks up time, sanity, and the ability to enjoy any kind of unrelated activity. The goal is to commit 50,000 words to paper before the end of November. Whoever picked this month is an idiot; for Portland participants, this basically means holing up by yourself during one of the gloomiest times of the year and hacking out a disjointed, typo-prone chunk of hooseguff you're in all likelihood going to have to rewrite as soon as you're done, anyway.
I decided my NaNo project wouldn't be done from scratch, but I used it as an excuse to develop a 25,000-world story that's been on the back burner for awhile. I was super excited for all of the first two days. I was roughly meeting the 1,667-word per day goal at a steady clip while putting my characters through some exciting things, and then Google Docs failed me. Like an underwater earthquake, this event unleashed a tsunami of anti-Web 2.0 sentiment that's been building within me, partly due to my inherent technological paranoia, and partly to Jaron Lanier's brilliant manifesto, You Are Not A Gadget. Either way, I surfed this wave well into brunch at Kenny & Zuke's the next day. Somehow, I explained to our brunching companions over delicious, delicious latkes, my Google account had glitched and the Internet robbed me of 1,000 words. I refreshed the page, I closed the document and reopened it, I even walked in and out of the room a couple of times, but nothing could bring those words back. I should have known something was up from the yellow 'Saving...' marquee that never quite left the top of the page... that damn yellow marquee of LIES.
Sigh. I've gone from "my laptop and I might as well jump off the St. Johns Bridge" to "maybe I'll feel better if I rant about it on the trivia blog," and you know what? I do. Some of the best trivia teams in Portland come into the Cheerful Tortoise week after week and make it an awesome gig.
Here are your rankings and the complete set of questions and answers from last night, guys:
Gonnaherpasyphilitic: The Ladykillers - 1st
Mentally Hilarious - 2nd
Fennessy's House of Pepperoni - 3rd
ROUND ONE
Q1 (Animals) What is the only cat in the world that cannot retract its claws? A: Cheetah
Q2 (History) What perceived global threat was the U.S. Information and Readiness Disclosure Act of 2000 a response to? A: Y2K
Q3 (Weather) An “animal shower” occurs when animals drop from the sky after severe storms such as tornadoes and waterspouts. What type of animal is most frequently reported falling? A: fish
Q4 (State Capitols) The Winooski River runs through this cityl, which at 7,700 people is the smallest state capitol in the country. A: Montpelier, Vermont
ROUND TWO
Q1 (Beer) What corporation produces 1 out of every 2 beers sold in America? A: Anheuser-Busch
Q2 (Geography) Disko Island, the 85th largest island in the world, contains over 2,000 hot springs and is located off the coast of what country? A: Greenland
Q3 (Food) What fast food chain was started in 1964 by the Raffel Brothers of Ohio? A: Arby’s (R.B.’s)
Q4 (Music) Pieced together in 2009 by archaelogists, what 35,000-year-old musical instrument is the world’s oldest? A: flute
ROUND THREE
Q1 (Biology) In what physical trait will any set of identical twins ALWAYS differ from each other? A: fingerprints
Q2 (Military) What nation, with its 134-man force established in 1506, has the oldest and one of the smallest militaries in the world? A: Vatican City
Q3 (US Presidents) Who is the only US President to have served in both world wars? A: Eisenhower
Q4 (Business) McDonalds, American Express, and Boeing are three of how many total companies that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average stock index? A: 30
ROUND FOUR
Q1 (Books) Every 4 minutes, someone in the U.S. buys a book by this female author, the first to be inducted into the Romance Writers’ Hall of Fame. A: Nora Roberts
Q2 (Coins) Prior to the start of the State Quarters Program in 1999, the “tails” side of the U.S. quarter featured an eagle holding the leaves of what kind of tree? A: olive tree
Q3 (Words) The word “deicide” refers to the act of killing what? A: a god/goddess/deity
Q4 (Sports) What sport are you playing if you strike a shuttlecock? A: badminton
STUMPED IN STUMPTOWN
Q1 According to Weird Oregon, which of the eleven bridges crossing the Willamette River is reportedly haunted by the ghost of a teenage girl murdered under its east end in 1949? A: St. Johns (15-year-old Thelma Taylor, her murderer was caught and executed)
Q2 In addition to the City of Books on Burnside, at what other three Portland locations does Powell’s operate a physical store? A: Cedar Hills Crossing (Beaverton), SE Hawthorne, PDX (airport)
Q1 (Animals) What is the only cat in the world that cannot retract its claws? A: Cheetah
Q2 (History) What perceived global threat was the U.S. Information and Readiness Disclosure Act of 2000 a response to? A: Y2K
Q3 (Weather) An “animal shower” occurs when animals drop from the sky after severe storms such as tornadoes and waterspouts. What type of animal is most frequently reported falling? A: fish
Q4 (State Capitols) The Winooski River runs through this cityl, which at 7,700 people is the smallest state capitol in the country. A: Montpelier, Vermont
ROUND TWO
Q1 (Beer) What corporation produces 1 out of every 2 beers sold in America? A: Anheuser-Busch
Q2 (Geography) Disko Island, the 85th largest island in the world, contains over 2,000 hot springs and is located off the coast of what country? A: Greenland
Q3 (Food) What fast food chain was started in 1964 by the Raffel Brothers of Ohio? A: Arby’s (R.B.’s)
Q4 (Music) Pieced together in 2009 by archaelogists, what 35,000-year-old musical instrument is the world’s oldest? A: flute
ROUND THREE
Q1 (Biology) In what physical trait will any set of identical twins ALWAYS differ from each other? A: fingerprints
Q2 (Military) What nation, with its 134-man force established in 1506, has the oldest and one of the smallest militaries in the world? A: Vatican City
Q3 (US Presidents) Who is the only US President to have served in both world wars? A: Eisenhower
Q4 (Business) McDonalds, American Express, and Boeing are three of how many total companies that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average stock index? A: 30
ROUND FOUR
Q1 (Books) Every 4 minutes, someone in the U.S. buys a book by this female author, the first to be inducted into the Romance Writers’ Hall of Fame. A: Nora Roberts
Q2 (Coins) Prior to the start of the State Quarters Program in 1999, the “tails” side of the U.S. quarter featured an eagle holding the leaves of what kind of tree? A: olive tree
Q3 (Words) The word “deicide” refers to the act of killing what? A: a god/goddess/deity
Q4 (Sports) What sport are you playing if you strike a shuttlecock? A: badminton
STUMPED IN STUMPTOWN
Q1 According to Weird Oregon, which of the eleven bridges crossing the Willamette River is reportedly haunted by the ghost of a teenage girl murdered under its east end in 1949? A: St. Johns (15-year-old Thelma Taylor, her murderer was caught and executed)
Q2 In addition to the City of Books on Burnside, at what other three Portland locations does Powell’s operate a physical store? A: Cedar Hills Crossing (Beaverton), SE Hawthorne, PDX (airport)
