2009 Advent Calendar Quiz - Day 14

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.