28/01/2009

Happy Birthday Gorgeous

... und hier folgt der zweite Streich.. die anderen müssen warten bis meine Äuglein wieder offen sind..

Srećan rođendan Ana

Dieses ist der erste Streich...

27/01/2009

Paddy's Day Quiky

I know it's still early doors but I've been informed that the Kilkenny is closed on Thursday, 19 March. Some private do, don't know, don't care much either.
However, that means that we have a gap of two quizless weeks between Quiky #280 on 12 March and #281 on 26 March.

Our options are:
  • Skip one (which would give me the chance to go on holidays :) and do the annual Paddy's Day Quiz on 12 March (or skip that too).
  • "Borrow" the Irish Harp in Charlottenburg. The technical conditions would be basically the same, location is nice, easy access to public transport, smokers room, and the beer is cheaper :)
Let me know by a) mail, b) comment to this post, or c) whisper it in my ear next time you see me. If there are enough people interested in a trip to Charlottenburg I'll make arrangements.

The shape (& sound) of things to come

After another nigh sleepless night a plan is forming for Quiky #274. The artists can rest easy, their talent won't be tested this week.
Ready to use are 2 rounds of "Gone in 60 Seconds". And since that multi-tasking thingie was even too tough for the girls, we'll split it into a video & an audio round. The former contains 10 (slightly altered) pictures of Hollywood stars and the latter is a nice blend of 10 titles, first line only. Both last 60 seconds and you'll only hear/see them once :). Consider it a "speed" round. Attention span needed - not much longer than that of a goldfish.

One of the question rounds is going to be "Connect Nine" - 9 questions the answers to which are clues to.. well, check one of the previous posts where it is explained..

Picture round is the usual mix of BS, and we might do two shorts rounds, 5 questions each, on "Mystery Sounds" and "Order, Please".. details are still a bit sketchy but you'll find out on Thursday. Or we might do another "Cluedo" round - 5 points after the first, 4 points after the second, 3 points.. like the one with the sword in the stone in the Sixth Sense in Quiky #271 :)

That's it for now - keep practising, or guessing, and we'll find out what's what onThursday night.

BTW - last week's champs, The Foam Gets Thicker, have announced their attendance and intention to defend the title. Any challengers?!?!

Quiky 272 & 273 - Doodle Round

As promised, and because I have nothing else to do :) - here are some your artistic achievements.
Quiky #272 - your mission was to draw: the logo of Amnesty International, the Toyota logo, the yoga pose known as "tree" and the 4th sheep the narrator drew for the little Prince. This would have been correct/satisfactory answers.

And this is how some of you saw it.


In Quiky #273 you were supposed to draw: the Cuban flag (incl. colours), the symbol once used by the artist now known as Prince, a heptagram, and the laundry symbol for "do not bleach". Which look more or less like this

..and that's what you came up with:




All in all not too shabby but there's room for improvement. Just not this week.

26/01/2009

Lost points & leftovers

Yep, I'm afraid last week's score sheet somehow got misplaced. No idea how that could happen. All I remember (because I have been reminded :) is that The Foam Gets Thicker got first place (newbies nicking the title, there's a challenge!!) and Pinkies & The Brain came second. In the (unlikely) event that the score sheet miraculously turns up I will post last week's table here. If you remember your place & points, let me know, I'll tell the world.
UPDATE: Pregnant Pree-Teens came a respectable third, shared with some team whose name eludes me.. and them.

As for all those who gave points for wrong drawings in the "doodle" round, fig. a) in the picture below shows a heptagon while fig. b) is the heptagram I asked for.


In order to avoid future confusion, I'll mark the sheets myself next time we doodle. Which won't be this week :)

There were a few funny answers in the picture round, especially for the Mystery Object of the Week (which was a deer call or Lockpfeife für Hirsche).

The Pregnant Preeteens reckoned it was a whip for self-flagellation (Peitsche zur Selbst-Kasteiung), while The Cannonballs would have used it to collect sperm from a bull (Bullen-Sperma-Sammlungs-Gerät). Hypo Real Estate figured it had to be a penis pump (don't give me ideas for the next MOotW :), Reimarus had blow jobs in mind and thought it was a bagpipe (Dudelsack) and the Feid Club went wild with an elephant tampon.

And while the score sheet went missing, the drawings from the doodle round are waiting to be scanned & posted. Any volunteers?

Last things last - open mike. A more than honourable mention goes to Dave from Caz & Dave who entertained us with the bestest Sinatra impression I've heard in a long time (BTW - if you're reading this Caroline, I'd still love the picture :).
Which brings us to annoying American gate-crashers. The rules for the little post-quiz singalong are quite simple.
It's not karaoke night - if you don't know the lyrics, invent new ones or don't sing. Or spend your Thursday night at the Irish Harp. I will not be ordered to "get on the damned internet and find the damned lyrics!"
Much fun as it can be (if you're drunk enough), the (sort of) singing thingie at the end is NOT part of the quiz but an added bonus (and even that's debatable) and totally depends on the good will of the person who has the microphone and the laptop. You asked politely, you might get to sing. You shout - you get FA.
If you can't live with that - leave (it).

22/01/2009

Something wicked this way comes

After a night of lost sleep, playing with media and insane giggling I have another feature to test tonight.
Let's call it "Gone in 60 Seconds" (although tonight it'll be gone in 45). It's a music & movie speed round. A slide show with 10 stills from various movies and 10 snippets from songs. All nicely blended. I'll play it twice and the (unenviable) task is to get as many song & movie titles as you can in 2 x 45 seconds.
That might replace the music round proper as I have other new stuff I want to try.
Be prepared or be afraid, be very afraid :)

21/01/2009

Quiky #273 - whazzup?

Sometimes I wonder if people would actually turn up on a Thursday night if they could see the evil grin on my face on Wednesday. Caused by the anticipation of wicked questions and even wickeder (sic) tasks.
For the few who sometimes read this page - here's what we're going to do tomorrow.
Picture round - the usual mix of BS, genetix, macros & maybe animal tracks, gossip or I haven't thought that through yet.
Since it was so much fun last week, we'll have another crack at drawing things everyone reckons they know until they find out they don't :)
A new feature that had me giggling for hours - The Mystery Sound. It's a bit like mystery object, just with noise. Yep, you ain't heard nothing yet. From sports to common household sounds to mating elks - we've got them all. If I find 10 really good ones that could be the "music" round.
And last but not least - another new feature is the "Connect Nine" round.. nine questions the answers to which are all related somehow.
So - that's the sneak preview.. almost guaranteed NO Obama/inauguration/first family/pet/hobbies questions, I've had enough of that for another four years.
See you all bright and early tomorrow.

17/01/2009

POW - Prediction of the Week 273

This week's prediction is American Football.. for obvious reasons and because Newcastle don't need any additional jinxing.

If you want to start Quiky 273 on 22 Janury with two points guess the two Superbowl finalists.
Predictions so far are

Feid Club (Reetah sez): Eagles & Steelers
Pinkies: Eagles & Steelers
Die Geyer: Eagles & Ravens
Prof. Sommer: Eagles & Steelers
Cannonballs: Eagles & Ravens

You can still leave your predictions here or send them in by mail to quiz_miz@hotmail.com... deadline is Sunday 17 January, 20:00 CET.

And the winners are... Steelers & Cardinals!!
One point each for Feid Club, Pinkies and Die Geyer.

Quiky 272 - Rankings & more

That was fun. Despite the rather number of guinea pigs, the test phase for new features went rather smooth. A few things need changing but we're definitely going to do both "arts round" and "I give you 5 guesses" again. Not next week tho, I have other evil things in mind.

In the meantime, here are last week's points. Quite close a shave, and it could have been even closer if some teams had decided to put down funny answers instead of leaving blanks.

15/01/2009

New year, new games

Sorry for the short notice but 5 hours before kick-off to #272 I'm still undecided what tonight's first "regular" Quiky of 2009 is going to look & sound like.

As mentioned somewhere here, we'll have something "old". Picture round, all assorted BS, genetic experiments, macros, mystery objects & more. We'll have a music round too, not sure yet, might be cover versions. Or colours. Or... We'll have a "general knowledge round", history, geography, science, like..
"Entertainment round" will include the former Rd 2 topics from music, TV, movie, sports, and gossip/trivia.

"Something new" round might be a "connection round" - 9 questions from a mixed bag of nuts, the answers of which are linked and point to a "Lösungswort".
We'll have an "arts round" (4 or 5 questions only) where you have to draw stuff.
We might try a "Who or what am I" round - 5 clues in descending order of difficulty... 5 points if you get it after the first clue, 4 points after 2 clues, 3 after 3... and so on. I'll explain.

And we might try ... to cram as much into 3 hours as we can. The rest will have to wait till next week. Or later..

Looking forward to seeing old & new faces tonight. Two fings are guaranteed - fun & alcohol. what more could you wish for?

Oh, and the "Prediction of the Week" returns :)

09/01/2009

NYQ - rankings & riddles solved


For the Cannonballs - here's the story behind Ginger the Goldfish and how they could pretty exactly tell how many hours he was out in the cold... if you do believe the Daily Telegraph. But then, it was a BS question and we all need some "miracle" stories now and then.

Other questions, answers & pictures here over the weekend. Have a good one.

New Year's Quiky - come again?!

See - told you it'd work :)

Was actually a great night. Well-behaved quizzers, more or less answers to all questions (her full name was Sophia Petrillo) and new friends (or rivals, depending on which side of the fence you're on).
For the doubting Tommys (and just to prove my reasoning that the one on the right could only have been Sarko because old Phil would never wear high heels), here's the picture that shows the order of feet 2008, both home and away team.

The rest of the pictures, some of the questions (and answers) as well as points & stuff will be up here before the end of the week as we know it.

Next Quiky is a "regular" one, a few leftovers, the usual BS and maybe one of the new features. Schaun' mer mal..

Oh, and for les cordons bleus - here's the website of the annual world bollocks cooking championships.... Mahlzeit!

02/01/2009

New Year's Quiky - the second

The way the new year has started I can't wait to get it over with. Roll on 2010.
The one resolution I made was not to be anyone's doormat anymore. People who can only take but are not prepared to give - eff off. And I had only to wait 20 hours to put it to the test. Apologies again to all the quizzers who were caught in the fall out last night but that's what it's gonna be like this year.
I don't find the proper working conditions, I go home.
You are late, you lose your ciggie break (which, at least while it's minus effing freezing outside, won't be much of a loss).
You need to exchange news while I read out questions, I'll only repeat them once.
That's the new rules - implemented ruthlessly and without exception.

Now for the good news.
I've worked too hard on the New Year's Quiky to chuck it in the bin. So we'll try again on Thursday. Time to round up your old team (or assemble a new one) and read up on all things 2008. Dates, names, faces, trivia, gossip...

Another thing I want to try is breaking up the format a bit and create a new round. Arts and literature have not had many friends so the few things worth asking about books and paintings can be included in round two. Which might be called culture & sports. Former round 3 could then be changed to bullshit, gossip & games. Another option would be a "lottery" round - 10 questions on one topic, to be chosen / voted for from 3 sealed envelopes (e.g. everything about camels, or Karl May, or stamps, or fashion, or wine, or....)

And if I ever get the hang of the many media players I have on the laptop I would like to change the music round to create my own mixes or versions. But that'll take some learning new things I don't have the time for at the moment.

And then there's the plan to re-start the Champions League. Points collected over a certain period of time could get some extra prizes. Which, obviously, depends on the willingness of the Kilkenny managment to make them available. Which, as things stand at the moment, I consider rather unlikely. So we'll have to think up another solution. Suggestions, as always, are welcome.

So - that's some of the plans for 2009. Whether they will work, only time can tell. In the meantime we'll give it another go for the 2008 leftover Quiky on Thursday 8 January at 20:00...

And here is a wee sneak preview in pictures



01/01/2009

Das fängt ja gut an...

The new year is not even a day old and already it has started with trouble. And annoyance. And shouting. And Newcastle haven't even kicked a ball yet.
Profoundest apologies to the faithful few who made the trek to the Kilkenny in vain. I had slaved all day to prepare the bestest New Year's Quiz we'd ever had and when I got down to the place it was chaos. Reservations had not been heeded and even my little quiz corner was taken by some 20 guys who had decided it was a nice place to have dinner. And since I had no desire whatsoever to start the new year with shouting, kicking people (out) and arguing with staff clearly out of their depth I decided to do a Keegan.
I promise we will have a New Year's Quiz, I promise I will make up for the inconvenience and disappointment and I promise I'll do my best to make sure it won't happen again.
Sorry for ruining your first day of 2009, hopefully the rest will be better.