(no subject)

[cblj_backup]

TODAY WAS A BUSY DAY. Aside from the hilarious drama I'm about to chronicle below, I had a full day of work and then ran home to take the JEOPARDY ENTRANCE EXAM. Fifty questions, fifteen seconds to answer each, and I probably got 45 right. Took me eight minutes. :D

Apparently if I a) passed the test and b) get randomly selected from the applicant pool, I have the chance to audition for a spot, which they will contact me about "sometime in the coming year". They do a PERSONALITY INTERVIEW. I may be doomed.

Also, there's this wacky memory dream I had...

I've been having odd dreams, one of the reasons I've not felt too well lately; I'm constantly running on about an hour less sleep than I need. Not nightmares or anything, just very strange dreams that I tend to wake up from feeling tense and have trouble sleeping after. And this was certainly one of those, but it was very...narrative. Almost completely ordinary, too, in terms of no weird dream elements coming in.

The entire story of the dream was that I was looking at some found-photography blog or other when I realised I recognised the photographs, because they'd been taken on a camping trip my parents took me on when I was a child. There were a few of me on the site. So I got in touch with the blogger, who was asking people who knew about the photos to provide more info, and we met up at his workplace where he showed me the actualfacts photographs and I explained who was in each one, from my parents to the people they were pictured with to me and another kid. So he said I could have the photos and he'd like to print the story, and I said yes, and we went our separate ways.

Here's the weird part: that camping trip where the photos were taken -- that actually happened in real life. I hadn't remembered it before now but when I woke up I was positive those photos were documenting a real event and the photos themselves existed. I was four years old at most, but my parents were there with another couple they were friends with, their couple's young son whom I was friends with, and a third couple that had been camping nearby. My parents camped a lot when I was tiny, and I remembered there had been something slightly off about that trip.

So I emailed Mum and said "This is a bit of an odd question, do you remember a camping trip like this? Did something weird happen?" and she wrote back that yes, that trip was memorable as the time they met a couple who shared their campsite for a few days and then one night over dinner suggested all six adults participate in an orgy. My parents and their friends declined and apparently broke camp when the other couple "got pushy".

My parents in an orgy. Disturbing as their child, hilarious as someone who knows how they would have reacted. I can picture my mother's face. Oh god, my father's face.

Anyway, she confirmed I was about four, and was impressed I remembered the trip.

What the hell did my brain expect me to do with that initial information? And why on earth bring it up now?

Comments

[derien.livejournal.com]

Maybe you've read too many "The Avengers have an orgy" fics...?

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

I only ever read the one!

[ncp.livejournal.com]

Every time Sam posts some bizarre story about his life, I think "Wow, Sam's a really good writer". Then I realize that you can't make this shit up. No, not even someone as talented as Sam.

[nutmeg3.livejournal.com]

The subconscious, it is a strange and foreign land. Good luck with Jeopardy, though.

[sanura.livejournal.com]

This post is made of interesting. All unexpected, all interesting. Brains, man. Good luck with Jeopardy; if your online personality shows in person at all, you're a shoo-in.

[carbonel]

Good luck with the Jeopardy thing. I'll take my test tomorrow. I've had three in-person tryouts, but no invitation to the show yet. They keep saying that they interview a lot more people than they can possibly use, so I try not to take it personally. (I'm sure I aced the last one, both on questions and personality. But whatever.)

[sandrayln.livejournal.com]

I always kind of envy people who dream ordinary things. The most ordinary dream I can recall having, ever, was the one the night before my wedding - which featured getting lost in a building about the size of your average restaurant and finally getting un-lost only to discover that it was now somebody else's wedding. And then somehow I ended up in this creepy mansion somewhere in southeast Asia from a ghost story program I'd watched 2 weeks before, and I refused to leave for the exorcism because I still had to find a needle and thread to fix the maid of honor's dress.

Good luck with the Jeopardy thing. :)

[reebchan.livejournal.com]

Good luck on the interview! I had the in-person interview a few years back, and oddly enough, made it on almost immediately. (I ended up losing miserably, but I have good stories about Alex Trebek being a ninja, so -- yay!)

Should you make it to the interview which is generally in a hotel in downtown Chicago, be relaxed, cheerful, and give good show: they found me very memorable because I told them I was a security guard at a museum (which was true), didn't screw up in the buzzer rounds (which I'd done during my tryout for college Jeopardy), and I had some kind of amusing story about myself prepared. A lot of people in the interviews were very shy and a little desperate to get on Jeopardy! to earn the money (this was 2009), and someone connected with the show told me they hate that -- they don't like building up people's hopes that they'll earn a lot of money, since at least one person on every show goes home with $2000 or less.

[reebchan.livejournal.com]

Also, practice using a video game controller. I never played, and I was miserable at the buzzer. Hence the losing miserably. ;)

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

I can't imagine thinking Jeopardy was my ticket to big money. Man.

[marilla82.livejournal.com]

Oh ho! Much luck on the Jeopardy! entrance thingy. My other half and I both did that tonight. I, in my cold-meds-induced haze did not do as well as I would have liked. He did. So, fingers crossed for you!

P.S. Parents. Camping. Orgy. Baaaaaaaaa haaaaaaaa! *iz ded*

[maeritrae.livejournal.com]

My brother's gf has also applied for that, although possibly not in this round. Jeopardy never really made it in Ireland; when I was on holidays as a kid, I could watch it in the mornings, but I think it was pretty much just daytime TV and not particularly popular daytime TV at that.

[veritas6-5.livejournal.com]

Wishing you good luck with Jeopardy! Peter and I did the test together in San Francisco, did pretty well, but never heard from them in the ensuing year. Ah, well. We figured a couple might be interesting to them, but no luck. Would have been fun!

[veritas6-5.livejournal.com]

Oh, and what part of the dream was weird?

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Well, mostly the fact that it was so linear, and that it uncovered a memory I didn't have before...

[stgreyhounds.livejournal.com]

It probably says something about me that "found-photo blog" struck me more than "orgy" did, but check out ifoundyourcamera.net.

(Feel free to RFM the link if it turns out to be something you like. They don't update often, but it's a neat site and a good service)

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Ah, I love that site :) Haven't been in ages, thanks for reminding me.

[strange-selkie.livejournal.com]

The Jeopardy! in-person auditions are the most fun ever (you get a pen, too). It's a herd of nerds in a room taking a timed trivia test and being appealing. It's like a glitterball comes down from the ceiling and angels chorus "HERE ARE YOUR PEOPLE!" Usually there are Hilarious Producer Anecdotes... and both times I've gone, they've had Alex Trebek on video exhorting us to "Keep a good thought!" regarding the audition process. Apparently they need ~ 400 people per season for tapings; they must audition oodles more. (So, yes, in other words, if you do get called in, it is totally worth going just for kicks. Although... brush up on football and rap music first. Both times, there have been questions about football people and rappers. I think they were ringers....)

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Hahaha. NERD PARTY!

[nycscribbler.livejournal.com]

I think it's about 8:1 odds any given person gets called; they audition about 3000 people, I was told in NY.

And yes! You get a pen! It is the awesomest!

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Man, people are REALLY EXCITED about that pen...

[nycscribbler.livejournal.com]

It's concrete proof that you were awesome enough to be considered.

[illian.livejournal.com]

Good luck!

And I saw Chicago has gone a record 360 days without snow.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

That can't be right -- there's snow on the ground right now, it snowed while I was in Austin. Perhaps in the suburbs, though?

[blushingflower.livejournal.com]

The Jeopardy! audition's no big thing - they have you take the test again, and then you play a mock game and answer questions. It's just so they can get a sense of how you might be on TV. Of course, I was working as a tour guide at that time, and thus had very little fear of public speaking, but the contestant coordinators are super nice people.

[carmy-w.livejournal.com]

I've got to give your mom props.

My mother would have DIED before she told me if something had ever happened like that. And I'm 50. She'd still fail to tell me now, let alone when I was younger.

When I was in my 20s, she let it slip that she and her sister used to sneak out of the college dorms, and is embarrassed about it to this day. And she was miffed when a family friend looking at pictures from a vacation said "You girls were so hung over that morning!" She scolded him & told him he wasn't supposed to tell secrets like that! :D

[vamysteryfan.livejournal.com]

I loved doing the in-person interview for Jeopardy. I treasure my pen.

I'm still in the contestant pool - my eligibility runs out in June, so I could only take the test for fun and practice. Mostly I treat it as an excuse to read more books on any and all topics. I did the math. They interviewed ~400 in six cities and there are only ~400 on the show each year. So bad odds.

[bonnie131313.livejournal.com]

Memory is a funny thing. I can remember the apartment we lived in when I was two years old but not the name of someone I met two minutes ago.

[ysabet.livejournal.com]

I love dreams (most of the time)-- it's like your brain without any active brakes. I remember coming back from Japan and dreaming every freaking night for three solid weeks that I was traveling there-- walking, riding buses, on trains, on subways, in taxis or vans, on boats... They'd be mixed-up and detailed and include a lot of language mixtures, but I loved them so much that I actively looked forward to dreaming every night and was disappointed when they finally stopped. Guess I must've finally got to where I was going to? Dunno.

Good luck with the Jeopardy thing! Hope you make it; I've always wondered about the interview process. I admit, this makes me want to write a Guest-Starring-The-Avengers-On-Jeopardy fic, but noooo, not (feel free to, though-- can you see Thor at it? "Mythology for fifty, my host!" "Um, sure. And the answer is: Mjolner. .....okay, who rigged this? Mister Stark, WHY are you grinning like that?"