So it was my turn to be Quiz Master this week, after the trainwreck that was my last quiz (ok, maybe a bit of a derailment) I made a few changes, most noticeably cutting down the questions by 25% and a reducing the length of the video clips. Overall it was a much better quiz (I think!)
The theme was Back To School, there was a timetable for the week with each day having lessons (see below), each lesson was a round with 15 questions. Some topics were easy to create rounds for (English/Geography/Science etc) but some were a bit more tricky or not very interesting so I had to shoehorn some rounds in (especially as I had already done a decent round about Iceland that I wasn't about to waste!)
The irony was not lost on me that there were IT issues. Keynote is such a finickety piece of software, why can't you view your presentation in full screen without having the presenters notes on the screen? Stupidity. The 'solution' is to export the presentation as HTML and then play it in full-screen mode in a web browser. My solution was to join the meeting via an iPad so I could see everyone when the quiz was on. Damn you Apple...
English lesson was pretty straightforward, more the history of the language than a quiz testing if you knew your metaphors from your similies for example. Geography was images of countries, confusingly in blue, which made them look like lakes - something I didn't get on to until people complained - doh! I helped Miss L out with a couple of answers by saying "you have been there on holiday", turns out a lot of people used this help and guessed Iceland for countries like Spain, Greece and Mexico!!!
The Maths round that left me with a screen full of blank stares!!! Lots of maths and logic questions and an argument that people had never heard of BODMAS (Brackets, Order, Division, Multiplication, Addition, Subtraction) - this is a real thing, right? There were howls of derision from a couple of our more senior players over it, oh and Boolean Logic gates!!!
We had a P.E. round, something of a challenge for a group of people scattered across Merseyside locked in their houses, but I got around it by turning it into a music special, asking them to name the theme tune to sport-related TV shows. Good to hear the music from Junior Kickstart and the BBC's coverage of the RAC Rally again. It was also a chance for me to beam James Cordon wearing an ill-fitting rugby kit into AM's house - he was most annoyed!!!
The Science round was split into three; Biology, Chemistry and Physics. I was worried about this round being too hard but everyone seemed to do pretty well and there was less shouting at me than for the maths round. I mentioned shoehorning in rounds, Media Studies was one I squeezed in as it was our obligatory 'nonce' round. Plenty of pictures of disgraced celebrities when they were younger...which was ironic thinking about it.
I had a perfectly good round about Iceland (the stunning country, not the place yer ma buys prawn rings from) and I wasn't prepared to waste it so I reached for the shoehorn again and made it the 'class project'. I think I enjoyed this round more than the players, to be honest judging by the faces! Ah well, you can't win 'em all!!!
Next up was Music, a round featuring songs with a connection to school in some way. It was nice to hear Semisonic, Girls Aloud and Shakespeare's Sister again (Chemistry, Biology and History if you are playing along at home). There were some funny school pictures of cute kids being anything but adorable on the screen when the songs were playing (see above), some players thought they were a clue to the song, the added confusion was a bonus.
The last text round was History, with such a broad field to choose from, where do you start? 1066 obviously! The round turned into a history of Britain quiz covering things like the Henry VIII and the foundation of the Church of England, The Gunpowder Plot and the birthplace of Lady Diana (major events in the proud history of this fine nation, I'm sure you will all agree?)
The final round was AV Club (pass me that shoehorn again). AV stands for audio/visual obviously which allowed me to play some movie clips with a (very) loose connection to school/school kids. It was a chance to have a laugh after some brainteasing. Highlights include the fight near the end of Rita, Sue & Bob Too and Stiffler's dance-off in American Pie The Wedding.
So, with an eye on the clock after the last debacle, that was that. 150 questions, 90 multiple guess, 15 with an additional clue and only a few joking moans about maths and history. But wait, there was more! After asking if anyone was up for a final round amazingly everyone said yes (except for SDC who had to attend to an incident involving small humans and vomit - bless them both).
So everyone was in on 'Saturday' for The Breakfast Club. More clips, this time of videos that had something to do with school. As musical tastes vary, and I knew most people would be half-cut, I added an observation round in at the same time. Guess the artist and answer the fiendish question about the video.
All the big guns were out; Nirvana, AC/DC, Taylor Swift, Britney Spears and, erm, Jojo (right) - she was big in the 90's, I love the song 'Leave' which I included in the quiz - after the slagging I received for admitting this I think I haemorrhaged a lot of man points!!! Questions ranged from 'what was written on Pink's top' in the video for 'Don't Let Me Get Me' to 'what colour were the gym teacher's shorts' in N.E.R.D.'s 'Rock Star'.
Eventually, after 569 slides, that was definitely that. The scores were close, there were about 15 points between first and last I think (it is a bit hazy by this point, to save me getting up and down every five minutes I was on quadruple gin and tonics in the same glass - seemed a good idea at the time). DE won this week but, as I say every week, it isn't really about winning, it is about having a laugh and being entertained, hopefully, I achieved both.
After the quiz ended a few of us stayed on the video having a natter and a few drinks. Before long it was just me and RH and we had an old school session, listening to music, talking rubbish and drinking...a lot. Miss L kept texting me messages for us to shut up as, despite being upstairs in bed, she could hear RH "singing that crap song" ('I'm Sorry' by Phil Jones of Up and Running fame if you are interested! Click HERE to have a listen, don't forget to join in with the "whoh-oh's")
It was 6 AM by the time I got to bed, seemed a good idea at the time but boy, did I pay for it the next day. I was hung like a horse over, hung, drawn and quartered over, hung over and over and over. I got up at midday, stayed up for about an hour and had to go back to bed. I resurfaced from my pit at about 6:30 PM had something to eat and then had an early night! I still felt rough on Monday...
All in all a good night. I still need to work on the quiz, not the absolute hit I was hoping for but lots of nice feedback. Next time it will be boss...and I won't drink as much!!!