Introduce Yourself Here

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BigDaddyJ
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Re: Introduce Yourself Here

Post by BigDaddyJ »

meatball wrote:Another big problem is that I start my job in July, and will be working upwards of 80 hours a week, so I don't see much studying in my near future. I think I'm going to make the leap and take Jeopardy seriously in my early 30s.
If you have a family, it will be even harder to find time when you are in your 30s. I find it hard to study even just working 40-45 hours a week along with having young children. I think one key is just to work on it a little bit each day - even if you can just carve out 15 minutes during lunch or whatever. Another is to be efficient in your studying by using spaced repetition and carefully choosing your study material to maximize the value of the time spent. If nothing else, just watching the show daily and tracking your scores can provide modest gains over time.

Welcome to the board, Justin!
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dhkendall
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Re: Introduce Yourself Here

Post by dhkendall »

BigDaddyJ wrote:
meatball wrote:Another big problem is that I start my job in July, and will be working upwards of 80 hours a week, so I don't see much studying in my near future. I think I'm going to make the leap and take Jeopardy seriously in my early 30s.
If you have a family, it will be even harder to find time when you are in your 30s. I find it hard to study even just working 40-45 hours a week along with having young children. I think one key is just to work on it a little bit each day - even if you can just carve out 15 minutes during lunch or whatever. Another is to be efficient in your studying by using spaced repetition and carefully choosing your study material to maximize the value of the time spent. If nothing else, just watching the show daily and tracking your scores can provide modest gains over time.

Welcome to the board, Justin!
I would also like to leave here one of my favourite Ken Jennings quotes (and apologies if I don't get it quite right): "The key to success on Jeopardy! is to be ravenous for information all your life." Yeah, I'm pretty sure the words are wrong, but that's the sentiment is right, always look for ways to learn, and that can be taken in as small or as big chunks as you want, but the key is to filter everything you hear in your head and sort it into trivia boxes for when the opportunity comes up. Ideally, it helps to have done it "all your life" as Ken says, and has done.
"Jeopardy! is two parts luck and one part luck" - Me

"The way to win on Jeopardy is to be a rabidly curious, information-omnivorous person your entire life." - Ken Jennings

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trainman
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Re: Introduce Yourself Here

Post by trainman »

Spaceman Spiff wrote:However, in my mind, with the advent of the Bally Fireball (the first electronic vs. electromechanical machine), the games just went south for a player after that. It seemed the machines always had the ability to adapt to the player, or tweeked the "free game" scores, or such.
There have been a couple different machines named Fireball, but I don't think any of them qualify as being the first electronic game (or, as they say in the pinball biz, "solid state"). That distinction goes to 1975's Rock On, by a manufacturer called Allied Leisure. The first solid-state game that had a wide distribution was Bally's Evel Knievel from 1977 (first released in an electromechanical version, but a lot more examples of the solid-state version were produced).

Solid-state games really can't do much to "adapt" to the player without intervention, beyond, as you mentioned, adjusting the replay score up or down depending on how many times it's been hit recently. There do tend to be difficulty settings that the operator can adjust, particularly since the machines went fully computerized in the early 1990s.
meatball
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Re: Introduce Yourself Here

Post by meatball »

dhkendall wrote:
BigDaddyJ wrote:
meatball wrote:Another big problem is that I start my job in July, and will be working upwards of 80 hours a week, so I don't see much studying in my near future. I think I'm going to make the leap and take Jeopardy seriously in my early 30s.
If you have a family, it will be even harder to find time when you are in your 30s. I find it hard to study even just working 40-45 hours a week along with having young children. I think one key is just to work on it a little bit each day - even if you can just carve out 15 minutes during lunch or whatever. Another is to be efficient in your studying by using spaced repetition and carefully choosing your study material to maximize the value of the time spent. If nothing else, just watching the show daily and tracking your scores can provide modest gains over time.

Welcome to the board, Justin!
I would also like to leave here one of my favourite Ken Jennings quotes (and apologies if I don't get it quite right): "The key to success on Jeopardy! is to be ravenous for information all your life." Yeah, I'm pretty sure the words are wrong, but that's the sentiment is right, always look for ways to learn, and that can be taken in as small or as big chunks as you want, but the key is to filter everything you hear in your head and sort it into trivia boxes for when the opportunity comes up. Ideally, it helps to have done it "all your life" as Ken says, and has done.
That's a great quote and something that I'd like to believe that I do. I could do a much better job attempting to solidify things I learn on a daily basis, but I do seek new knowledge constantly. So I got it half right I suppose. :geek:
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billy pilgrim
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Re: Introduce Yourself Here

Post by billy pilgrim »

dhkendall wrote: I would also like to leave here one of my favourite Ken Jennings quotes (and apologies if I don't get it quite right): "The key to success on Jeopardy! is to be ravenous for information all your life." Yeah, I'm pretty sure the words are wrong, but that's the sentiment is right, always look for ways to learn, and that can be taken in as small or as big chunks as you want, but the key is to filter everything you hear in your head and sort it into trivia boxes for when the opportunity comes up. Ideally, it helps to have done it "all your life" as Ken says, and has done.
I think the statement he made (as an answer to the question of how he did so well) was "A lifetime of paying attention."
She caught the Katy and left me a mule to ride.
birthritual
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Re: Introduce Yourself Here

Post by birthritual »

Hello, my name is Tom. After growing up watching Jeopardy! with my parents throughout childhood, I just recently started watching again. I've had a DVR for 5 years but only a month ago decided to add Jeopardy! My wife and I play a weekly pub quiz that we're always competitive at and I've enjoyed crossword puzzles and other sorts of trivia games throughout my life.

I just took the online sample quiz and was humbled. I got 14 right. Actually, I'm not sure that 'humbled' is right since I had expectations of it being hard going in and there are certain subjects that I'm essentially clueless about. I have a BS in Physics so anything in the science realm I'm interested in, but when it comes to literature or Shakespeare or histories of various places, it's a long odds crapshoot whether I'll know it. My favorite kind of Jeopardy! clue is one that gives a clue within a clue so that a question about say a specific movie you've never seen may still be answerable. Tonight's pub quiz final question was "In the 2009 movie "Moon", they mine what form of helium from the surface?" I didn't see the movie but I know there are people who want to mine helium-3 on the moon, so that's what we put and was right (this particular question probably should have said "mined this substance" rather than "form of helium" but the first place team by a decent margin going in did get it wrong). The quiz is Jeopardy! style with the final question, the top 3 teams point wise at the end of 2 rounds plus 2 hand-out questionnaires go on to the final question where points are wagered Jeopardy! style after a category is given.

What I would do with the money:
1-2 day winnings: take a vacation to one or more of the many places on my wife's bucket list - Machu Picchu, Bora Bora, or Easter Island.
3+ The 1-2 vacations first, then turning my current house into my dream home - it could use a few tweaks.

But I doubt I'll ever make it past the 50 question exam to worry about the more nebulous hurdles of making it to the show. It's a better dream, or at least slightly more realistic one, than winning the lottery.
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kickerofelves
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Re: Introduce Yourself Here

Post by kickerofelves »

billy pilgrim wrote:
dhkendall wrote: I would also like to leave here one of my favourite Ken Jennings quotes (and apologies if I don't get it quite right): "The key to success on Jeopardy! is to be ravenous for information all your life." Yeah, I'm pretty sure the words are wrong, but that's the sentiment is right, always look for ways to learn, and that can be taken in as small or as big chunks as you want, but the key is to filter everything you hear in your head and sort it into trivia boxes for when the opportunity comes up. Ideally, it helps to have done it "all your life" as Ken says, and has done.
I think the statement he made (as an answer to the question of how he did so well) was "A lifetime of paying attention."
That was Brad Rutter.

adh
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NYCScribbler
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Re: Introduce Yourself Here

Post by NYCScribbler »

Generation gap- I played a lot of pinball on computers, though I've played some in real life. One of my other go-to names on the web is Pinballinggrrl. I'd love to play more real-world pinball, but there aren't a lot of places with machines near me, so far as I know. :(
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Linear Gnome
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Re: Introduce Yourself Here

Post by Linear Gnome »

birthritual wrote:Hello, my name is Tom. After growing up watching Jeopardy! with my parents throughout childhood, I just recently started watching again. I've had a DVR for 5 years but only a month ago decided to add Jeopardy! My wife and I play a weekly pub quiz that we're always competitive at and I've enjoyed crossword puzzles and other sorts of trivia games throughout my life.

I just took the online sample quiz and was humbled. I got 14 right. Actually, I'm not sure that 'humbled' is right since I had expectations of it being hard going in and there are certain subjects that I'm essentially clueless about. I have a BS in Physics so anything in the science realm I'm interested in, but when it comes to literature or Shakespeare or histories of various places, it's a long odds crapshoot whether I'll know it. My favorite kind of Jeopardy! clue is one that gives a clue within a clue so that a question about say a specific movie you've never seen may still be answerable.
Welcome, Tom. I'm a math geek who just happens to have a brain like flypaper--random facts stick to it. My amount of knowledge on subjects such as art and literature is dwarfed by many of the people here, but I've been a Jeopardy! fan (and occasional quiz bowl coach) long enough that now I know things such as who painted Blue Boy and which title character had a bad experience with a train (sigh). There seem to be recurring topics and themes, so you will probably improve your scores as a byproduct of watching regularly.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the show and the board.
Realdeo
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Re: Introduce Yourself Here

Post by Realdeo »

Hi I'm deo. 14 from Indonesia. Ussualy watch J! From YT. I love math and novels.
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Woof
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Re: Introduce Yourself Here

Post by Woof »

ElendilPickle wrote:
TryphonTournesol wrote:One other possibility: millions of people have seen those movies, most of them are nerds, and there's a decent chance that two such nerds who would actually want to go to New Zealand to nerd out on location would also be into Jeopardy!
My husband won a trip to New Zealand from a Lord of the Rings promotion. I was in the grocery store, saw a display with the sweepstakes info, filled a form for him and one for me, and voila!

We visited several LotR sites on the North Island, and even bumped into Richard Taylor of Weta Workshop when we were in Wellington looking for a couple of the filming sites. They had just swept the Oscars with Return of the King, so it was a real super-nerd moment for me. :D
One thing that makes LotR tourism in NZ so challenging is that they filmed it at locations scattered over both islands (with the majority of sites on the more scenic S island). Fortunately for the interested, there is a book written (~ 200 pp.) for LotR tourists listing all the various sites, their use in the films and advice on visiting them. During our 3 months there last year, we inadvertently visited over a dozen of the sites, usually with a moment of sudden recognitiion occurring.
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jeff6286
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Re: Introduce Yourself Here

Post by jeff6286 »

After the recent discussion of pinball in this thread, I just stumbled a something related on Alex Trebek's Wikpedia page, that in 1975, he guest-starred on The Magnificent Marble Machine. I don't think I had ever heard of this show before, but there is one episode on YouTube, with Florence Henderson and Roddy McDowall as the celebrity guests, and it actually didn't look half bad, easily surpassing my expectations for how entertaining I thought I would find a short-lived (one season) game show from before I was born. Obviously the video quality was quite poor due to being nearly 40 years old, but it wasn't bad enough to make it unwatchable.

Any relative old-timers or pinball fans here remember this show? Here is Part 1 of the episode I watched on YouTube.

The centerpiece of the show was a giant pinball machine — measuring 20 feet high and 12 feet long — that sat in the middle of the set. The winning contestant, along with their celebrity partner, would work the flippers in an effort to keep the ball alive for as long as possible, up to 60 seconds, in order to rack up cash and prizes. Hitting a designated score would trigger an additional play with the Gold Money Ball, where the player could earn even more cash.

I can see why the show didn't last long, as watching someone else play pinball, even for 60 second bursts, is not exactly the pinnacle of compelling television. My main question was why would they have used "Marble Machine" in the title, rather than something more obviously pinball-related? Could pinball have been a copyrighted term that they would have had to pay for? I know that various companies made pinball machines, as mentioned in the discussion in this thread, but did they actually use the word pinball itself to market them?
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silverscreentest
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Re: Introduce Yourself Here

Post by silverscreentest »

I'm guessing that pinball was considered a form of gambling in certain areas of the country so they didn't want that stigma to keep people from watching.
Silver Screen Test, my movie trivia game show. Watch some of the episodes On-Demand.
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MarkBarrett
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Re: Introduce Yourself Here

Post by MarkBarrett »

jeff6286 wrote:After the recent discussion of pinball in this thread, I just stumbled a something related on Alex Trebek's Wikpedia page, that in 1975, he guest-starred on The Magnificent Marble Machine. I don't think I had ever heard of this show before, but there is one episode on YouTube, with Florence Henderson and Roddy McDowall as the celebrity guests, and it actually didn't look half bad, easily surpassing my expectations for how entertaining I thought I would find a short-lived (one season) game show from before I was born. Obviously the video quality was quite poor due to being nearly 40 years old, but it wasn't bad enough to make it unwatchable.

Any relative old-timers or pinball fans here remember this show?
Eh, speak up sonny. Oh that show? Sure, I'm old enough to have seen it on original runs. Another one with a big set piece was "The Moneymaze" on ABC from Dec. 1974 - July 1975.

The host has a world famous son:

jepjunkie
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Re: Introduce Yourself Here

Post by jepjunkie »

Hi everybody. My name is Artay, I'm a longtime observer of these boards, first time user. Never been a contestant nor do I believe I'm smart enough though I am a big fan of the show. I've been in the audience 3 times. Most recently I was in the audience at the end of November for shows airing the week of April 8th. Lucky for us since a massive group didn't show up we got to stay for all 5 shows, I even won the door prize. This time around I was even able to have quite a long chat with Alex too.

Looking forward to interacting with all of you!
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Linear Gnome
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Re: Introduce Yourself Here

Post by Linear Gnome »

jepjunkie wrote:Hi everybody. My name is Artay, I'm a longtime observer of these boards, first time user. Never been a contestant nor do I believe I'm smart enough though I am a big fan of the show. I've been in the audience 3 times. Most recently I was in the audience at the end of November for shows airing the week of April 8th. Lucky for us since a massive group didn't show up we got to stay for all 5 shows, I even won the door prize. This time around I was even able to have quite a long chat with Alex too.

Looking forward to interacting with all of you!
Welcome, Artay. Assuming that you live in the LA area, have you watched tapings of other shows (game or otherwise)?

So it appears that the weeks of April 1 and 8 were taped after Thanksgiving, which means the weeks of March 18 and 25 were taped the first or second week in November (assuming they took Thanksgiving week off). I wonder if the Teen Tournament was taped in November?
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ElendilPickle
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Re: Introduce Yourself Here

Post by ElendilPickle »

Woof wrote:
ElendilPickle wrote:
TryphonTournesol wrote:One other possibility: millions of people have seen those movies, most of them are nerds, and there's a decent chance that two such nerds who would actually want to go to New Zealand to nerd out on location would also be into Jeopardy!
My husband won a trip to New Zealand from a Lord of the Rings promotion. I was in the grocery store, saw a display with the sweepstakes info, filled a form for him and one for me, and voila!

We visited several LotR sites on the North Island, and even bumped into Richard Taylor of Weta Workshop when we were in Wellington looking for a couple of the filming sites. They had just swept the Oscars with Return of the King, so it was a real super-nerd moment for me. :D
One thing that makes LotR tourism in NZ so challenging is that they filmed it at locations scattered over both islands (with the majority of sites on the more scenic S island). Fortunately for the interested, there is a book written (~ 200 pp.) for LotR tourists listing all the various sites, their use in the films and advice on visiting them. During our 3 months there last year, we inadvertently visited over a dozen of the sites, usually with a moment of sudden recognitiion occurring.
It's The Lord of the Rings Location Guide by Ian Brodie. We bought a copy and used it extensively while we were on the North Island, but had gotten turned around with his directions when we were up on Mt. Victoria in Wellington. Thankfully, Richard Taylor happened along at just the right moment.
jepjunkie
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Re: Introduce Yourself Here

Post by jepjunkie »

Linear Gnome wrote: Welcome, Artay. Assuming that you live in the LA area, have you watched tapings of other shows (game or otherwise)?

So it appears that the weeks of April 1 and 8 were taped after Thanksgiving, which means the weeks of March 18 and 25 were taped the first or second week in November (assuming they took Thanksgiving week off). I wonder if the Teen Tournament was taped in November?
I actually live about 30 minutes southwest of Toronto, Canada in a city called Burlington. I go down to Los Angeles every year for holidays and am in the audience for several different TV shows. In November we did The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, 2 episodes of The Price Is Right, 5 episodes of Jeopardy, 2 episodes of The Talk, 1 episode of Malibu Country (new sitcom with Reba McEntire), and 3 episodes of Wheel of Fortune. We also managed to check out Space Shuttle Endeavor at the California Science Centre and then drove over to Las Vegas to see Shania Twain perform. The exact date we were at Jeopardy was November 28, 2012.

I don't know whether or not we'll go back down this year because I'm on 1 year contract for the Canadian government and am doing a lot of traveling for work so when I take my holidays I think I'll probably end up staying home. But I'll definitely go back next year!
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dhkendall
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Re: Introduce Yourself Here

Post by dhkendall »

jepjunkie wrote:I actually live about 30 minutes southwest of Toronto, Canada in a city called Burlington.
Well, you've proved you're authentically a Canadian by citing your proximity to Toronto in terms of time rather than distance. :)

Glad to see another Canuck here, welcome aboard.
"Jeopardy! is two parts luck and one part luck" - Me

"The way to win on Jeopardy is to be a rabidly curious, information-omnivorous person your entire life." - Ken Jennings

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jepjunkie
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Re: Introduce Yourself Here

Post by jepjunkie »

dhkendall wrote: Well, you've proved you're authentically a Canadian by citing your proximity to Toronto in terms of time rather than distance. :)

Glad to see another Canuck here, welcome aboard.
Well Toronto is the centre of Canada, or at least that's what some people think. I see you're from the Peg, that's where the feds are sending me off to next :)
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