This is Jeopardy

I am a fan of Jeopardy!  Thanks to TIVO, I watch it every day.  In college we used to have a few guys get together in the afternoons to watch and "compete" against each other.  One year I even had a friend tape (yes tape) the tournament of champions for me as I was going to be off selling books in Atlanta during the tournament. I remember Eddie Timanus (a blind sports writer for USA Today) being an incredible player and emphatically trying to click in on every single answer.  He was my favorite.  How can you not root for a blind guy?  Sadly, he didn't make the finals that year as he wagered too much on a Daily Double in the second round.  This led to a tournament victory for Jeremy, a writer from California.  I write this to prove that I am a nerd fan.

As time has gone on I have started to feel that I have a fairly good chance at answering a lot of the questions correctly each show.  I used to marvel at watching Jeopardy with my dad as a kid because he knew a lot of the answers. I think if they had teams for the show, he would be one my top picks to team up with.

Just this past week Jeopardy opened up for auditions online.  This is the first time they have done it in a couple of years so I jumped at the chance.  I know I still have a long way to go before I truly consider myself to have a legitimate chance of qualifying to be on the show, but I had to see where I stood.  I actually considered putting this on my next list (Try out for Jeopardy), but they only open up for new candidates on sporadic schedules so I couldn't count on it working into my time frame.

The verdict: I did alright. I enjoyed it! The test is online and is a collection of 50 questions. For each question you were given 15 seconds to read the category, the question and to type in your answer (spelling doesn't count).  It was a frantic 12 minutes trying to figure out just how unprepared I was.
I would say I am pretty confident that I got 20 right and 20 wrong, with the remaining 10 going either way. Anything related to literacy is my downfall.  I do not know classics too well.  If a question is every about poetry I usually say Emily Dickenson and hope it is right.  That is an area I am not good at, and probably never will.

Unfortunately, I will never know how I did.  They don't reveal your score. Ever.  You just have to wait for a letter or a call telling you that you have made it to the next round.  This letter or call can take up to two years.
I am not sitting waiting by the phone.  I don't expect a call back, but at least I can say I have given it a chance.  This won't be my last.