Brain Freeze 2018

I just returned from Edmonton's Corporate Challenge Brain Freeze, an annual trivia contest held at Schank's sports bar. Pete, Mike, Paul and I scored 69 out of a possible 100 points, good enough for a 15th place finish out of 52 teams. Respectable, but disappointing given our third place finish two or three years ago. The first place team wound up with 80 points, a very high score for this particular event (at least in my experience).

We performed very well in history and science, moderately well in the sports and "winter" categories, and surprisingly poorly (9 out of 20 possible points) in movies and television.

Thanks to Paul, though, Pete, Mike and I came away with fun little door prizes, and it's always nice to chat with the guys, so the evening was anything but a loss. Thanks for organizing this again, Mike! 

Brain Freeze 2015

Fifth place with 78 points! Not as good as last year's third-place finish, but not bad at all. Our team, "Totco" (so named because of the two Totman brothers, Paul and Mike, and two ATCO employees, Jeff and myself) did quite well on the Literature, Sports & Leisure and Potpourri rounds; not quite as well on the Cold Stuff round. Thanks for inviting us, Mike! 

Brains, Brawn and Bronze

Peter Harris has organized an Intuit trivia team for Corporate Challenge for several years. This year, Dustin couldn't make it and Pete asked me to substitute for Dustin. But today Pete got sick, so Mike's brother Paul was reigned in at the last possible second. Changing things up worked out pretty well; we wound up with 72 out of 100 possible points, enough to earn third place. (The winning teams had 74 and 78 points.)

I'm ashamed that I couldn't remember Major Don West from Lost in Space and that I put Chariots of Fire in 1980 instead of 1981. (To be fair, I did a lot of "ARGH! Was it 1980 or 1981?" Should have second-guessed myself.)

Thanks for inviting me out, guys! 

The Original Boy Running Down a Mountain

Paul Totman asked me to post the original photo I used to create yesterday's faux painting, so here it is. I shot this with my first camera in Grade 6. All of the photos from this trip have that same ribbon of red light at the top; I think some light must have leaked into the camera and slightly exposed the film. Or maybe it was a flaw in the lens. Either way, Mom and Dad gave me a better camera a couple of years later.