2009 Advent Caledar Quiz Wrap Up

Hi All,

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

Thanks for playing!

2009 Advent Calendar Quiz - Day 25

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

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

Hi all,

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

2009 Advent Calendar Quiz - Day 23

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

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

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!