Adventurous Life

Spoiler alert: This post will reveal the results of my time on Jeopardy! If you don't want to know, don't read on. The worst part of the show was at the very beginning when each contestant was announced. We had to simply stand there and smile at the camera while the announcer talked. It was only 15 seconds but it felt like 15 hours. The next 25ish minutes were a bit of a blur. I was in game mode and came to play and win. I was focused on the game board, the indicator lights, and Alex's voice. I didn't really pay attention to anything else. Rock and roll! ROUND 1 Categories: Curry Dishes, Looney Tunes Characters, The 1920s, National Labs, Bible Book Names, Complete the Proverb As the categories are revealed I am thinking: Curry--ok, Looney Tunes--definitely got this, 1920s-meh, National Labs--what is this category about? i'm not going to know anything, Bible Names--oh yeah! it's time seminary paid off, Proverb--this could go wither way. Sean as champion get...

It's the afternoon of 12 August and I am driving home from doing errands. The phone rings, but I don't recognize the number. Usually, I don't answer these types of calls, but my intuition told me to answer this one. It was one of the producers of Jeopardy, and he began the conversation by reviewing the info on my application. At the end he asked if everything was correct, and I mentioned that I would be moving in a month. Who do I contact in order to update my information? He said, "Well, you made the show! You're going to be on Jeopardy!" I let out a whoop of excitement. He told me the basics and then later emailed me a whole bunch of forms and more info. It was time to plan a trip to Los Angeles in a month. I now began hitting the Trivial Pursuit cards pretty hard and a few crossword puzzles too.  I flew in on Monday, 14 September, and got there close to 2. The beach was a car ride from the hotel, and my friend and I wanted to go out some place fun on Tue...

This post was originally written Monday, 14 September 2015. Confession: I hear voices inside my head. Sometimes they are quiet, sometimes loud, sometimes talking all at once, sometimes singing. I am in the midst of achieving a life dream, and the big day is tomorrow. As the day has approached, one voice has been whispering. A little here. A little there.Now whispering more and more as I think about tomorrow, and getting bolder and a little louder each time. This is what the voice says, "You can  win and succeed but you shouldn't. If you do you will be seen. People will look at you, scrutinize you, see your faults, and find you lacking, undeserving. Fail. It's easier." I am afraid of my own success. I am afraid of what that success will require, and I am afraid of the inevitable failure. I don't want to be seen in success because that might allow my failures to be seen as well. I am not perfect and never claimed to be, but neither do I want to be laid bare and ...

The audition was 2.5 hours long. There were 40 of us during this time slot and we were all in a room together at the beginning. There was a mix of men and women, and it seemed like people were in the 30-50 age bracket. A few of the producers came in and while one took attendance the others took polaroids of each of us. We were then divided into two groups and taken to different rooms. The audition portion was about to begin. First they explained a little how the show works.  Did you know that contestants cannot signal/ring in to answer until Alex has finished reading the answer and the signal indicator lights turn on? If you ring in too early, the system freezes you out for 1/4 of a second, which is plenty of time for someone else in the Jeopardy! world.  In order to get used to not answering too early we had a little practice. On a big screen at the front of the room a question would flash up, the producer would read it, but we could not raise our hands to answer un...

I am a trivia brainiac, and it has been a life dream of mine to appear on Jeopardy! (The exclamation point is part of the title--I'm not adding it just for fun.) I watched the show all the time as a kid, and I would read through Trivial Pursuit cards and take online trivia quizzes in my spare time, read websites that would give me tidbits of information. Clearly, I am known as a nerd to all my friends. Every year, Jeopardy! has an online test available to all adults in order to select show contestants. If you pass the test (and you are not told the results), you are then  eligible  to travel from the audition, and from the audition to the show. Last year, I participated in the online test but never heard anything back.  The online test is 50 questions from random categories. You don't have to answer in the form of a question, wrong answers are not counted against you, and spelling doesn't matter too much as long as it is close.  I took the test again in April,...