Hello all, my name is Robert Hentzel and I'm the president of National Academic Quiz Tournaments, a company that runs high school and college quiz bowl championships. For those of you don't know, Ken is also a member.

I was an avid player of any and all "knowledge games" in high school and college and finally made the decision in 2001 to give up software consulting and focus on trying to make a living doing something I love.

I look forward to reading the discussions here and meeting new people.

Ken, your site was on my Yahoo site of the day, so I thought I'd take a look. Nice brain!

I'm jared. I live in Salt Lake City, UT. I'm an accountant at the University of Utah and I use to live with Earl too.

Tell Mindy "hi".

Wish you all the best.


_________________
"Don't Fear the Penguin!"

Hi everyone, I just signed-on & this is my first post here.

I do not know about you poster friends, I REALLY miss Ken on Jeopardy. It was so nice to have him on for months at a time.

Maybe we will all get lucky & he will have his own quiz show.


_________________
I love any all TITANIC, Harry Potter, JD Robb(In Death)series, my puppies, gardening, etc.

I'm Paul Bailey, founder of the Game Show Congress. Full vitae at http://www.linkedin.com/pub/0/225/218

I'm participating on this board to encourage people to attend the Game Show Congress (www.gameshowcongress.com) this year July 13-16 at the Burbank Airport Hilton. I am also in constant search for resources to build or items to exhibit in the proposed Game Show Library, Hall of Fame, and Museum see http://www.gameshowcongress.com/Museum.html

Hi all,

my name is Dorjana Sirola (with a hachek over the S), I’m a Croatian who has lived in Oxford, UK for almost seven years now and been involved with buzzer quizzing (that’s what we call NAQT/QuizBowl-type competitions over here) and other sorts of quizzing all that time. I was on the Oxford University quiz team for six years, including three appearances in the NAQT ICT, and several British Student Quiz Championships (which sadly haven’t been held for a while), as well as on the Somerville College team that won University Challenge in 2002. Since last year I’ve been taking part in the World Quizzing Championships and the European Quizzing Championships, and attend the monthly British “Grand Prix” events organized by Quizzing Ltd. on a vaguely regular basis. Figuring out how to get to their venues, scattered all over the country, has proved a good way of improving my British Geography knowledge, which is still pretty awful.

Having completed an esoteric and almost certainly totally useless doctorate about obscure ancient alphabets, I currently work in a library, which I guess is a pretty good place for a quizzer. I found Ken’s blog, and these boards, through Olav Bjortomt’s blog.

My name is michele.
I am currently 17!

i spoke to ken jennings on the phone once (on his birthday last year when he was at Toys R Us for a signing. This all sounds really creepy. Anyway, Ken, remember me? Probably not, but lie to me anyway.); it is my proudest accomplishment. I found this site through my ken jennings google alerts, but i probably shouldn't admit that.

i enjoy argyle socks, spiderman, ROYGBIV, finland, culture, candy buttons, conan o'brien, napping, chocolate factories and/or charlie, and learning something new every day.

Nice to meet you.

Hey everyone

I finally got around to posting after lurking around for the past week. I'm Jason. Some of you might know me from VJ! and the J! message boards. I do recognize some names here. I love trivia though I was never on any quiz bowl teams or anything. In fact in high school and throughout most of college, I got very bad grades. I was that guy who sat in the back of the class and either doodled in my notebook all day or slept. That has pretty much all changed now. For example, when reading a magazine I'll have a highlighter in my hand to mark any interesting facts I may find and then I'll put it in my flash card database I have after I'm done. Pretty geeky, huh?

I hope to get to know those of you whom I don't already know.
Later,
Jason

While the six-week-old is napping, I have the chance to say a quick 'hello' to you all. This board and Ken's blog are great.

I'm a teacher on summer break/maternity leave [the one cancels out the other, so no extra time. Oh, well], and I found this site whilst awake at 3 am after feeding and diapering and tucking in the baby. I was too tired to sleep, if anyone can relate to that.

The students in my 9th grade Honors English class absolutely love playing Jeopardy! with the Classroom Jeopardy! machine -- I found it in a teaching catalog and begged the school to purchase one. Now it's the hit of the school.
It has Johnny Gilbert's voice-overs and the Think Music [to which the nerdier ones, myself included, often must dance or sway].

Congrats to Ken and Mindy on the upcoming arrival of your little girl. This new little girl, our first baby, is such a blessing, even though taking care of her this first few weeks has been the toughest job I've ever had [and I teach high school].

Happy 4th of July Week!

--Jeannie

Jeannie7602 wrote:

While the six-week-old is napping, I have the chance to say a quick 'hello' to you all. This board and Ken's blog are great.

I'm a teacher on summer break/maternity leave [the one cancels out the other, so no extra time. Oh, well], and I found this site whilst awake at 3 am after feeding and diapering and tucking in the baby. I was too tired to sleep, if anyone can relate to that.

The students in my 9th grade Honors English class absolutely love playing Jeopardy! with the Classroom Jeopardy! machine -- I found it in a teaching catalog and begged the school to purchase one. Now it's the hit of the school.
It has Johnny Gilbert's voice-overs and the Think Music [to which the nerdier ones, myself included, often must dance or sway].

Congrats to Ken and Mindy on the upcoming arrival of your little girl. This new little girl, our first baby, is such a blessing, even though taking care of her this first few weeks has been the toughest job I've ever had [and I teach high school].

Happy 4th of July Week!

--Jeannie

Jeanie, congrats on your new baby girl & the Jennings too !!!

I remember when I had my son, the first three months he had colic, every night from 6:00 PM till aroud 10:00 PM !!! No rest, nothing.

PLUS, he didn't sleep thru the night very well. AND I was going knutz ( this from a director of a major corporation ) !!!

Imagine, my suprize when Mick finally had his full night sleep, when he turned 4-months of age. Gosh, was I well rested for the fisrt time in months !!!

Well, all of you K J Posters, have a very safe & happy INDEPENDENCE DAY !!!


_________________
I love any all TITANIC, Harry Potter, JD Robb(In Death)series, my puppies, gardening, etc.

Hi! My husband and I have regular jobs, but also publish works by H. P. Lovecraft so we were thrilled when Ken got his Love_ question correct for Lovecraft. I am a nerd, but would never be able to be a contestant on Jeopardy! Please know that the last Lovecraft question on Jeopardy was a triple-stumper. Lovecraft is my dream category.

Hi all~

I'm Jennifer and I'm a work at home mom and trivia junkie in Stevens Point, WI. Yes, THAT Stevens Point- home of the 54 hour trivia contest that Ken has so kindly mentioned. Growing up in this town, you either love trivia or hate it, and I'm a lover! I'm a pretty strong player, but do have my weak spots~ mostly sports... ugh. The Friday kickoff of WWSP Trivia is my new Christmas morning; the best day of the year!

I have to say that in the last couple of years, the contest has become more Google-proof. Some of the questions are so obscure that unless you have a starting point (tv show, movie, actor, product, etc) tucked away in your notes or a corner of your brain, Google won't help a bit. And for the record, shouting profanities at Google does NOT make it more effective either.

Anyways, I'm looking forward to the witty banter of this board and hopefully contributing a little of my own.


_________________
Jennifer

Howdy all,

I have to admit I was quite shocked to see "that Jeopardy dude" was such a funny guy. I caught a few blog posts linked from waxy.org and really enjoyed them. Ken's Jeopardy run really hit home as I'm a software dev guy from a heavily Mormon area of the Mountain timezone too.

I do take offense to Wyoming (full disclosure: I grew up in Jackson, WY) being pegged as the ugliest state in the Union. Sure, 75% of Wyoming is flat sagebrush country, but Yellowstone, the Tetons and Jackson Hole have to offset some of that.

Hi All,
I'm Shauna in Nova Scotia. Big trivia buff and like at least one other poster here, a "go to" person for settling disputes. And coincidentally, Ken, you and I have a Korea connection. I'm an alum of SFS. Surprised that there aren't more SFS kids on the board.
Can't wait for the book!
Shauna

sedgemonkey wrote:

Howdy all,

I have to admit I was quite shocked to see "that Jeopardy dude" was such a funny guy. I caught a few blog posts linked from waxy.org and really enjoyed them. Ken's Jeopardy run really hit home as I'm a software dev guy from a heavily Mormon area of the Mountain timezone too.

I do take offense to Wyoming (full disclosure: I grew up in Jackson, WY) being pegged as the ugliest state in the Union. Sure, 75% of Wyoming is flat sagebrush country, but Yellowstone, the Tetons and Jackson Hole have to offset some of that.

Jackson is one of my dream places to move. I've always been a huge Tetons/Rockies fan. If I won the lottery the first place I would be is in the Tetons or the Montana Rockies buying a ranch.

It's beautiful country up there.

Hi, I'm Guy Tabachnick, a 14-year-old high school freshman and 2004 J! Kids Week contestant. Some of you may know my name from other forums (or I'm just being really naïve, but that's neither here nor there), but for those who don't, I'm a J! Archivist, and I recently started a quiz bowl team at my high school. Look for us (Hunter) to flounder in tournaments throughout the northeast next year!

Like most others who have posted in this thread, I am a triviaholic. I'm definitely not in the upper reaches yet, but hopefully I'll flourish through high school through study and play: right now getting really good is high on my list of things to do.

Hello all, I found my way here in my occasional browsing of the Jeopardy! forums. My name is Tom, and I'm a 14-year old high school freshman to-be. I live in Denver, and I'm a trivia/academiaholic, and a J! fan to the core. So, I guess, that's it.

Hi Ken and everyone,
My name is Jenny and I found your blog through my husband who noticed your Volokh Conspiracy connection. He runs a law school student blog (shameless plug!) and also reads the VC. Anyway, thanks for the slow-day-at-work entertainment!

Jenny ;p
Former "It's Academic" matriarch

Hello. I'm Reva Sharp (at least as far as the Internet is concerned), a 20-year-old Jeopardy fanatic and provider of useless information.

I was active in Academic Bowl in high school, and probably miss that more than just about any other part of high school. I'm now a Junior at York College of PA, and were I not so prone to organizational disasters, I would try to start up some sort college bowl team there (but that is not, however, stopping me from attempting to organize "Geek Week" the week before the frats' annual "Greek Week" next year).

Anyhow, most of my life currently revolves around webcomics. My own comic is Synchronism (shameless plug of my own ... images are all family-friendly, but there's a bit of adult language here and there). I actually found this site today from a link in Scott McCloud's blog.

And~ that's about all there is.


_________________
-reva-

I drifted over here from the J! website, where hardly anybody responded to my posts (no, I am not that poll guy!). That's okay, newbies get that for a while. It's just as much fun to lurk.

Anyway, I am a 46 yr old mom of four and very recent grandmom of one from a teeny town in West Texas, about three hours south of your Great-aunt Betty. I like slow-dancing, walks on the beach and am looking for....oh, sorry. Wrong website. I'm an artist working contract out of a t-shirt shop, so if you want a shirt airbrushed you just let me know. I've been at that for twenty five years.

I passed my Jeopardy! audition in Indianapolis in April and am waiting for the call. I grew up in Indiana and hadn't been back in a very long time, so it was oddly familiar and I kept seeing people who looked like someone I knew. Sort of.

Great website, Ken! Love the humor, the obscure references and the film lists in your blog. Sorry about the goofy suggestion for your baby's name, but gee whiz, what an opportunity!

I originally found out about Ken's site through the Volokh Conspiracy reference.

I was in NAQT from 2000-04 and was on a team that went to LA in 2003 (17th place). My biggest claim to quiz fame is probably that I played quiz bowl at Iowa State with recent Tournament of Champions winner Michael Falk. (Hi Mike!)

Beside my interest in general trivia, here's another shameless plug: I'm a "road geek" and one of those guys (there's more than one! God bless the Internet!) that has a website dedicated to ends of highways in a particular state:
http://www.angelfire.com/ia/jdmorrison/ends/iaends.html

Just kidding, but I must be one of the few folks here who never saw a single Ken Jennings appearance on Jeopardy. Heard all about them, of course, and I was once a big Jeopardy fan, but I had recently disconnected my cable TV, deciding to subsist on Netflix alone for just 1/4 the monthly fee of cable.

I'm a software engineer (like Ken!) for Danger, the company that makes the Sidekick (a.k.a. Hiptop) series of phones. I've also been an author (like Ken!) for O'Reilly and Associates, a co-founder of the Internet Movie Database, where I was also briefly an unofficial quizmaster (like Ken!), a pilot, an entrepreneur, and probably some other stuff too.

I was once at a taping of Win Ben Stein's Money when my friend was a contestant, and got a (somewhat bitter) firsthand account of the vagaries of the Jeopardy-like buzzer.

I found this blog via a mention on the website of comic artist Scott McCloud (www.scottmccloud.com).

Cheers,
- Bob

My name is Gerald Song and I live in New York. Great website, Ken! Looking forward to Brainiac. Has it already been mentioned here that Kenneth looks (and thinks) a bit like Brainiac 5 of the Legion of Super-Heroes (http://members.shaw.ca/legion_roll_call/legionnaires/brainiac_5/)?

Better late than never, eh?

I'm Michael O'Neill, originally from Bartlett, TN but now residing with my lovely wife in Indianapolis, IN. Throughout high school I was a member of our Academic Team, eventually becoming captain as a senior as we floundered in various nearby tournaments, including one held at Vanderbilt, where I eventually enrolled. While being far too involved in marching band kept me away from the Quiz Bowl team, I was still able to moderate the biannual ABC Tournament to keep my buzzer quiz juices flowing. Sadly, since finishing my degree in computer science a few years ago, it's been hard to get back into that hobby. I'd love to find ways to get more involved in quiz tournaments (as a volunteer or participant) around the Indy area, so if anyone has any general ideas, they'd be greatly appreciated.

Congrats on the Jeopardy! run, Ken, as well as this site. When are you coming to Indy for the book tour?

I might as well be polite.

I'm Jaclyn Whitehorn, currently from Tuscaloosa, AL. I work, teach, and study at The University of Alabama. (I recently started my quest for the elusive PhuD.) I'm in IT, but in the documentation and training side. While I can program, I tend to like to work with people more.

I am a trivia dabbler, meaning that I'm very interested in it, but I'm not that great at it, especially compared to many of the people here! I'm a Jeopardy! loser of the 2001 vintage, and I found my way here from the Jeopardy! boards. I did a bit of Quiz Bowl in high school and have volunteered as a moderator for a few years in our local College Bowl.

I'm married to a British citizen, and we have seven wonderful furry children: 3 basset hounds and 4 cats. Prior to going back to school, I was active in a spay/neuter charity (providing financial assistance so that people can have their pets altered) and animal rescue. Remember, even purebred dogs need rescuing, so check rescues and shelters instead of buying a puppy!

Hello!

I'm Tricia Southard... I'm 26 and a Library Circulation Manager. I currently live in Silver Spring, MD...I've played quizbowl/ been on academic teams for quite a while, and I'm currently the faculty/staff advisor to GWU's QB team.

*friendly wave*
Tricia