The Quizbowl Resource Center

STPickrell

Miscellany is required to go in there and that includes driver's education. That is a required part of the distro. I fail to see why CDL is not a valid concept to ask about if you have to include driver's education in a match. As for classic and current pop culture, there were 1.33 tossups and 0.87 ...

STPickrell

so if you find a strong circuit in some exotic locale, we’d be happy to go there! :wink: :wink: Heh heh, Canada. Those Montreal CEGEPs (who have a league) need to realize that they shouldn't be playing against high schools in Reach, and I figure the NAQT Community College eligibility definition is ...

STPickrell

Thanks to Dan Goff's excellent legwork, I have a list of activities contacts for CCs in Virginia, but I have been waiting to finish my spring term final grades and some personal stuff to begin contacting them all; I hope to do that later this week, though. A faculty friend at Northern Virginia did ...

STPickrell

Yeah seriously someone (probably me, I've been saying I'm going to do this for a long time) needs to write a good randomization program that spreads categories out in a reasonable manner and is way faster than doing it by hand. As trivial as it seems, hand randomizing a tournament can take as long ...

STPickrell

It seems Rochester, New Mexico, Minnesota, then Ohio State. Wash U finished 5th with a 3-man squad. Florida State bailed, presumably going to ACF.

STPickrell

Those of us keeping score at home. Orange County (VA) was a step behind Charlottesville and Western Albemarle all season long. Not sure if they appeared on It's Ac; they made the quarterfinals of Battle of the Brains (from which, presumably, they qualified.) They *beat* Western (who made VHSL states...

STPickrell

Your definition of "non-unique" seems to imply that a question must begin with a clue that sets specific parameters that only one answer can fulfill. If this is the case, then you are asking way too much. No tournament set has questions only like that. It depends on what you define as a l...

STPickrell

segregold wrote:"Worst of the Late '80s" soundtrack.

There was bad music in the late 1980s? Unpossible.

STPickrell

Raleigh Charter?

STPickrell

Did you notice that that rule is a lie Bill Stallard made up in his head? i was told not to include Missouri-based personnel in my "official" MSHSAA questions. (regular season was ok) There is a chance I might have misconstrued something, but that is the message I walked off with this fall.

STPickrell

When I showed up as a 9th grader, the team had heard about me, so the two senior co-captains tracked down a couple of my classmates to ensure that I didn't miss the practice and the meets. All Warren County did back then was a local league, we didn't really get involved in tournaments, etc., until 1...

STPickrell

In Virginia, it's also called by the name of the regional competition/TV show. Scholastic Bowl is the name of VHSL activity but in some parts of the state I've asked for a Scholastic Bowl coach and gotten a blank look over the phone until I gave the more familiar name. Northern Virginia: It's Academ...

STPickrell

We offered $50 a round and were rejected. Wow. I won't state specifics, but we offered more than that and were accepted for our two years. For all the trouble it was, though, it almost wasn't worth it, and we could easily have lost money on the whole thing. granted, we were going to use VHSL tossup...

STPickrell

That's a lot of questions. Anybody willing share an approximate amount of money somebody might get paid for writing all of them? Avery and I joined forces three years ago -- basically, I would produce lots of VHSL tossups, he would pare them to 3 lines (or was that my job? I forget) and add bonuses...

STPickrell

Still, the frustration regarding requirements like these that end up forcing the creation of what we generally consider to be bad questions is one of many reasons why AI is out of the question writing business and will pretty much be out of existence entirely by the end of this season. This doesn't...

STPickrell

"Tournament questions should be PRISTINE – not having previously been used in Arkansas or surrounding states. AGQBA will retain the rights to the questions at the end of the season. These tournament questions shall not be sold by the question writer to other states until one (1) year after purc...

STPickrell

Apparently, they want Virginia to attend and from my reading of her email Panasonic will subsidize the entry fee. (Don't quote me on that though.) Any entities in Virginia that might be interested in forming the nucleus of a Panasonic team please let me know as soon as possible so we can get connect...

STPickrell

In 2008-09, I will no longer provide academic competition questions in Missouri. Simply put, I overextended myself and wish to spend more time focusing on my family, my day job, and potential interests outside of quizbowl. People interested in writing for the Missouri state series may contact Stacy ...

STPickrell

I really think they seriously suffer from mass-producing such a huge quantity of questions without any regard for quality. These particular sets are labeled in the 120’s & 180’s, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re spewing out at least 200 rounds of 30/20 a year. My own questions have suffere...

STPickrell

What on earth do you mean? I assume Shawn means questions with factually correct content. Yes. 5. Sally Ride was beaten by some twenty years by what Russian who was the first woman in space? ANSWER: Valentina Tereshkova While this is not a good question by any means (for Missouri I'd put in a clue ...

STPickrell

It depends. If an area is 5-6 good schools and 20 schools that play Chip, a league played on good questions would be an improvement. The potential downside is that a few of the weaker tournament teams start playing league only.

STPickrell

Questions Galore does our ASCA Middle School questions. They are the worst EVER. The guy running the company was at our coach's conference and basically told us that people who preferred pyramidal questions took the game too seriously... I don't know why in God's name our board continues to patroni...

STPickrell

It being two weeks before the tournament, and knowing that many of the usual suspects to attend tournaments in Virginia use this board, I figured this was an apropos question to ask. Now, maybe I've just been left out of the loop but there did seem to be some uncertainty in the RichMo thread as to w...

STPickrell

intothenegs wrote:
Ford08 wrote:40,000 shawn pickrell questions from the last 9 years.
Where can you get those?

Your coach should have those. If your coach doesn't, ask your AD. Then, ask me.

Actually since your assistant coach was the contact for the Battlefield, you should have those.

STPickrell

Actually, the reason I wanted shorter questions is to cover more material during our practices. I figure it will be a more efficient waste of our time. :grin: Hmm, if your team is starting out unaware that Henrik Ibsen is the only known Norwegian playwright, Jean Sibelius the only known composer fr...

STPickrell

It's fine to place 'watching football' ahead of 'playing quizbowl.'

Just don't get too annoyed when people who prefer to 'play quizbowl' clean your clock more often than not.

Other than that, what Seth said. His title of nicest guy on the circuit is well-earned.

STPickrell

Why bother? It seems he is from Arkansas, where 5% of coaches want full-blown pyramidal, 30% of coaches want 2-3 line tossups, and the rest want 'Who wrote Paradise Lost?' We also assume the OP is uninterested in success at a national level. On the other hand, a pyramidal question would provide sev...

STPickrell

Halldór Laxness wrote:
leftsaidfred wrote:token "I wonder if they have other playwrights they ask about than Ibsen" joke here.
IBSEN IS NOT FROM ICELAND

DON'T MAKE ME RISE FROM MY GRAVE AGAIN

Hey, tell Snorri I say hello!

STPickrell

Well, one of my random acquaintances on Facebook (met via Eurovision group) tells me there are 'fast questions' that both teams get (I'm guessing it's like Final Jeopardy), 'clue questions' (maybe like 30-20-10 bonuses?) and 'bell questions' (these are like tossups). If she knows someone who plays o...

STPickrell

It appears for the past 20 years, Iceland has been holding an annual competition called Gettu Betur, which means 'Make a better guess.' The competitors are the Icelandic gymnasiums, which have students between 16-19 and correspond to grades 11 through sophomore year of college. http://www.gettubetur...

STPickrell

This may also be counting 'stipend to coach,' 'transportation costs,' etc.

Is this school system also cutting games from non-revenue sports (e.g. wrestling, soccer, track, etc.) Cutting boys' basketball and football wouldn't work because most of the money comes from home games in those two.

STPickrell

Many teams simply do not want more than 5-6 games, even among the better of the sub-elite teams.

On the other hand, if coaches didn't get back to you, saying something along the lines of, 'Well, we'd rather just play 6 games and go home,' it's on them.

STPickrell

SwissBoy wrote:
Gonzagapuma1 wrote:
Youse Da Force wrote:My first lyric related Facebook status was actually from Rocky Raccoon yesterday.
Mine was from Miley Cyrus a couple of days ago.
Your Man License is officially revoked.

Give this man 10' of Manowar, STAT!

STPickrell

Segregold, can you email me your name (I don't have everyone down pat)

I want to get this put on the VHSL's list but ... want a name to go along with that email. :)

Thanks,
Shawn

STPickrell

[quote="styxman"]Here's a better position on official state fluff. It fails the "HS Curriculum" test because there isn't a "History of Illinois 101" class at any high school. /quote] Be careful as this might boomerang. A large percentage of the QB literature is not stud...

STPickrell

If it's a 3-line tossup that fails to mention major characters/works/plot elements/etc., the problem is not that they have a criticism clue, it's that the tossup is bad and the writer just grabbed a random clue with no thought to how it would play. Anecdotes, such as 'the Globe Theater burned down ...

STPickrell

I believe 4-part bonuses would be great for question writers, as they could then sell sets to both Missouri and Illinois. This would be a 100% win for Aegis, I know. NAQT may also have more of an incentive to produce sets for those two states, too. I don't think state of Illinois fluff is so terribl...

STPickrell

I forgot the exact rules regarding out of state travel but there are a few tournaments on the Missouri side of the river. You and/or your coach can email me (shawn_pickrell at yahoo dot com) if you want the info I know. Illinois teams are free and clear to travel, so long as they miss no more than ...

STPickrell

I'm jealous of the northern schools ability to attend tournaments. we were in the O'Fallon tourney and the masonic, but other than that there wasn't a tourney within an hour and a half drive of us. actually the wash u. tourney was and we were going to go to it, but WYSE regionals were on the same d...

STPickrell

Okay ... after a few e-mails, we are looking at May 17 at White Plains High School. (Weekend after AP exams and weekend before NAQT Nationals.) This will conflict with Chatham's tournament. Any other NY teams reading this board should chime-in. Details to follow. I thought White Plains was like Chi...

STPickrell

Yeah, back in the day, the reason TJ A did pseudonyms was so they could be rotated amongst the players and individual stats could be rendered meaningless. Pseudonyms jumped the shark a while ago, and I no longer endorse their use. As for being on topic, I'm pretty sure that ties and jackets do not ...

STPickrell

As for NY championships ... isn't there a smallish NAQT playing area around Dolgeville? I also thought the folks on the other side of Lake Champlain occasionally went to VT tournaments, too.

STPickrell

Have issues changed much since my attempts to start up programs at Randolph-Macon and George Mason? While my attempts to form college teams were in the late 1990s, I would be glad to share my "wisdom" with anyone who asks. One was at a small liberal arts school, the other at a large public...

STPickrell

Learned and verified this today:

Lee High (who finished third in Group A) had not won an quizbowl contest of any sort since 1992 (you have to go back to the old STAR competition.)

STPickrell

Norms vary by region. Some states might have their serious teams be in three-piece suits, while the 'gimmicky' teams are those in random t-shirts. Other states are the other way around.

STPickrell

GW tournament in 1997: In the game against Georgetown Gray, Randolph-Macon team managed to blow a 100 point halftime lead with a stellar -25 performance in the second half, losing by 25. Now, fast-forward to Georgetown Blue, the last game of the day. Randolph-Macon gets a tossup and is up by 10 poin...

STPickrell

BTW, VHSL States are cleared for discussion. I know a few of the vocabulary questions were somewhat ambiguous, and there were a couple of questions with typoes.

STPickrell

A huge thank you to everyone that helped out, most of all my group coordinators and question reviewers were Marian Suter (A), Dan Goff (AA), and Adam Fine (AAA). Group A West Point 190, Rappahannock County 120 Radford 175, Honaker 95 George Mason 235, King & Queen 125 Lee 140, Auburn 95 Radford ...

STPickrell

Cool! I'll try and let everyone whose email I have know.

STPickrell

I assume most of the Virginia teams that would want to play here already know about this. :)

If a non-regular makes a splash @ VHSL states, I will let them know.

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