Wanted: Guilty pleasure

Several nights ago, I needed something fluffy for bedtime reading, and I picked up Mercedes Lackey's By the Sword as a comfort reread. Then I ended up rereading the Mage Winds trilogy.

And now I want to reread the Mage Storms trilogy, but I don't have copies of those. (I did read the Owlknight trilogy not too long ago, so I don't think I need those.)

So -- would anyone in the Minneapolis area have a copy of Storm Warning, Storm Rising, and Storm Breaking for me to borrow?

Jeopardy! tryout

So, I survived it. And it was fun, even.

I got to the hotel about 15 minutes early, and found the obvious place because there were several people there ahead of me. We were all clutching the sheaf of papers we'd been told to bring.

After a while someone showed up at the table near us and told us to take two more forms -- a questionnaire and an answer sheet -- and a pen, took Polaroid photos of us (mine was awful, alas), and waved us into a room set up classroom-style.

There were 20 of us in all. About half of us were from the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, and the rest were from all over -- Alberta, Houston, Wyoming, and Fargo were just the ones I remembered.

We filled out the questionnaire, which was basic contact information, plus not-available dates. Then there was a brief introduction from the team selection coordinator (Glen, I think his name was), and he took questions from us. Yes, there was a random selection element in our being chosen -- 100,000 people had taken the online test and only 400 had received invitations for tryouts. (Yikes! I hadn't realized I'd been that lucky.) No, we wouldn't find out our actual scores today -- or ever. Yes, people playing the game can see the other players' totals for betting purposes. And so on. All very interesting, and not much that I already knew.

After that, we saw a brief introduction by Alec Trebek (on DVD, as were all the questions), and then Glen showed us a sample game and explained the categories. This was all old stuff to anyone who watches the show regularly, but it was a good refresher.

Then we had the written test. The questions were read out (by Johnny Gilbert) and displayed on screen the way they would be on the show. We had eight seconds to answer each question. We were allowed to go back to previous questions, which I found useful a couple of times. I don't know what a passing score was, but I know I got a few wrong. I blanked on Madeleine Albright's last name, and I don't expect the first name alone would get me any credit. And I had no idea who the first American Idol winner was. (Kelly Clarkson, my fellow applicants hastened to tell me -- and the information went into at least short-term memory, since it's now seven hours later and I didn't have to look it up to remember.)

Finally, we went up in groups of three to do play a sample game. I was in the third group. We had real buzzers, and I found out that the repeated clicking that I saw contestants doing on the show was actually the recommended technique, since there was a quarter-second lockout if you buzz in too soon. I think I managed to talk loudly and clearly enough. I don't know how I actually did on the buzzing-in part, because Glen seemed to choose people at random from any of us who buzzed in. I got one question wrong, but the rest I got correct when I was called on.

After answering about 20 questions among the three of us, Glen did the "tell us about yourself" bit. I think I managed to do okay. I mentioned that I was a technical writer by trade, a bit about what I do now working for a security guru, and that I love my 30-foot commute to work. Also that I worked on science fiction conventions, at which point Glen said that he'd gone to the first Star Trek convention in New York in 1974, and I said I'd been to the second one, in 1975. Then he asked what I'd do if I won money, and I said I'd travel, and that I'd always wanted to go on an expedition to Africa (blanked on the word "safari" for a second).

Then Glen took some more questions, and it was over. About 400 people per year get to play, and we'll only know if we passed the audition if we get called up. If we did pass, we go into the pool for a year, and then can audition all over again next year if we didn't get our chance.

They mostly film on Tuesdays through Thursdays, five games at a time. You're responsible for your own trip expenses if you get called up, but if you're a second-day champion they'll pay your airfare home. So that's a secondary incentive, though of course any actual winnings should be considerably more. On the other hand, even the third-place player gets $1,000, so that should cover most expenses.

And that was pretty much it. I would have liked to stop at Uncle Hugo's, or at the new Global Market, both of which were right in the area, but I needed to get back home to work.

If I get called up to play, you can be sure you'll hear about it.