Misc.
Trivial Matters
Last week was our first-ever victory at trivia. (I guess this spares me the trouble of mentioning our tie-for-first, second-based-on-the tiebreak-question result of a few weeks ago.) We were fortunate to be the only team to get a perfect score in the "Name That Tune" round, though I don't recall us doing particularly well in the "Name the Ten Largest Bodies of Water" round. (In the latter, I was sufficiently satisfied by my guessing an answer based on the [slightly ambiguous] song hint "Caribbean Queen.") Since our victory was by exactly one point, we can attribute it to anything, but our preferences were for either the answer of Cézanne to the art question (we were the only team to get this right, even with two guesses) or the only wagering of four on the "Number of Gallons in a Barrel of Oil" question (all teams but one got this wrong, but we used Barry's lucky die to choose our wager and probably lost less than other teams). Having the nerve to wager the maximum on the final two questions (and getting them right!) also helped, and we're beginning to think that such a strategy is almost always necessary, at least when we have a reasonable guess.
This week is "Ladies' Night," whatever that means, though it's supposed to counterbalance the previous "Sports Night;" it's certainly unclear which theme is really better for our team.
Catching "Up"
I hadn't originally planned to see "Up," but Jared was getting a group together so I figured "Why not?" If the movie was good, we'd all be happy, and if not, we'd all enjoy bashing it together. Unfortunately, scheduling conflicts prevented us from seeing it on the IMAX screen or in 3-D, but it turned out to not be a disaster. Honestly, I thought the movie was amazing. Despite having possibly the saddest beginning of any Pixar movie that I've actually seen, the movie was quite funny and even touching, at least once I got past the utter absurdity of it all (or maybe that made the movie more enjoyable). No spoilers here; just go see it!
Handiwork
Tonight I was fortunate to win the regular Monday night Texas hold'em tournament! It's maybe a bit harder to "blame" this result on luck, though I will point to my multiple (decent) pocket pairs while at the final table. In fact, there were multiple hands in which three players had pocket pairs. There was also a hand with A-K vs. A-Q vs. A-J and another hand where my opponent's Q paired on the flop, my A paired on the river, but the board made a flush rendering both our hands irrelevant. Other amusing hands included the one where the board made a straight and the one where the 3-3, facing two overcards, made quads (apparently that player's second of the night). I'm fairly certain I didn't extract the maximum on my good hands in heads-up play, but then I don't have much experience with that situation. My result earned me a $100 Visa gift card and 50 playoff points, seeming guaranteeing my entry into the final week's game.
History Does Rhyme
Is it just me, or does it seem that a lot of (relatively) recent songs are borrowing aspects from older songs? These aren't covers, just samples, but for some reason I've been noticing more of them lately. How many of the originals do you remember?
Last week was our first-ever victory at trivia. (I guess this spares me the trouble of mentioning our tie-for-first, second-based-on-the tiebreak-question result of a few weeks ago.) We were fortunate to be the only team to get a perfect score in the "Name That Tune" round, though I don't recall us doing particularly well in the "Name the Ten Largest Bodies of Water" round. (In the latter, I was sufficiently satisfied by my guessing an answer based on the [slightly ambiguous] song hint "Caribbean Queen.") Since our victory was by exactly one point, we can attribute it to anything, but our preferences were for either the answer of Cézanne to the art question (we were the only team to get this right, even with two guesses) or the only wagering of four on the "Number of Gallons in a Barrel of Oil" question (all teams but one got this wrong, but we used Barry's lucky die to choose our wager and probably lost less than other teams). Having the nerve to wager the maximum on the final two questions (and getting them right!) also helped, and we're beginning to think that such a strategy is almost always necessary, at least when we have a reasonable guess.
This week is "Ladies' Night," whatever that means, though it's supposed to counterbalance the previous "Sports Night;" it's certainly unclear which theme is really better for our team.
Catching "Up"
I hadn't originally planned to see "Up," but Jared was getting a group together so I figured "Why not?" If the movie was good, we'd all be happy, and if not, we'd all enjoy bashing it together. Unfortunately, scheduling conflicts prevented us from seeing it on the IMAX screen or in 3-D, but it turned out to not be a disaster. Honestly, I thought the movie was amazing. Despite having possibly the saddest beginning of any Pixar movie that I've actually seen, the movie was quite funny and even touching, at least once I got past the utter absurdity of it all (or maybe that made the movie more enjoyable). No spoilers here; just go see it!
Handiwork
Tonight I was fortunate to win the regular Monday night Texas hold'em tournament! It's maybe a bit harder to "blame" this result on luck, though I will point to my multiple (decent) pocket pairs while at the final table. In fact, there were multiple hands in which three players had pocket pairs. There was also a hand with A-K vs. A-Q vs. A-J and another hand where my opponent's Q paired on the flop, my A paired on the river, but the board made a flush rendering both our hands irrelevant. Other amusing hands included the one where the board made a straight and the one where the 3-3, facing two overcards, made quads (apparently that player's second of the night). I'm fairly certain I didn't extract the maximum on my good hands in heads-up play, but then I don't have much experience with that situation. My result earned me a $100 Visa gift card and 50 playoff points, seeming guaranteeing my entry into the final week's game.
History Does Rhyme
Is it just me, or does it seem that a lot of (relatively) recent songs are borrowing aspects from older songs? These aren't covers, just samples, but for some reason I've been noticing more of them lately. How many of the originals do you remember?
- "Don't Stop the Music" by Rihanna
- "Right Round" by Flo Rida, featuring Kesha
- "Sugar" by Flo Rida, featuring Wynter Gordon
- "Goodbye" by Kristinia DeBarge
- "Hush Hush; Hush Hush" by the Pussycat Dolls
- "Give It To Me Right" by Melanie Fiona