Reading is Fundamental!

Hey all, did you know that just READING Learn Me Good can really help me out?

If you are a member of Amazon Prime, or know someone who is, I highly encourage you to utilize the Lending Library feature. Loan out your copies of my book. Borrow copies from others if you can.

Every page read gives me a little bit more, and every little bit counts.






Here's an article from USA Today that talks about the Amazon library program.

Thank you!

A very particular set of math skills

On the first day of school, I think I'm going to put on my best Liam Neeson impersonation and deliver this speech (with apologies to the writers of Taken):

"I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for rewards, I can tell you I don't have stickers. But what I do have is a very particular set of math skills, skills I have acquired over a very long teaching career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people who don't show their work. If you try your best and do your homework, that'll be the end of it. I will not call your parents, I will not punish you. But if you don't, I will tell your parents, I will take away recess, and I will fail you."

It's too soon!!!

Just out of curiosity...

When do you start school again? 

For us, I believe it is August 24th.  I'm not sure whether to sleep the time away until that day arrives or stay awake all the time, trying to milk every minute of freedom.

Putting out feelers

Hey everyone,

I have been VERY lax about maintaining this blog in the past year, as you've probably noticed.  I have devoted most of that time to posting a saying, post, etc to the Learn Me Good Facebook page.  Hopefully, if you're on FB, you follow me there!

But I am going to try to be better about posting here, even if it's just copying what I put on FB.  I've heard from a few people through email that would like to guest post or have me post about something they're doing, so I'll try to get to some of those over the rest of the summer.

But as for putting out feelers, if anyone out there knows of anything that can really help teachers out, please let me know so I can post it here.  Things like discounts offered to teachers, freebies for teachers, product samples, sales, etc.  For instance, the Alamo Draft House theater near me lets teachers see movies for free on Wednesdays over the summer.  I just took advantage of that yesterday and saw Ant-Man.  (LOVED IT!)

So either send me a message on FB or email me and let me know what ya got!

In the meantime, here's a funny post I saw on FB today!

Summer safety tips

I was sent this link to a nice and rich infographic from Eva at Sitter City.

Nicely done, and good tips for keeping kids safe as well!

Check it out at the Complete Summer Safety Guide for Kids!

Book 3 is coming!

Good morning, FoLMeGs! I have a bit of an announcement to make...

It's official, Learn Me Goodest (or maybe Learn Me Gooderest) is in the works!! I have no set release date and I can't tell you how long it will be, but I HAVE started working on it (I'm already 20 chapters in on the rough draft), and so sooner or later, it WILL be done!

So while you wait, be sure to buy/reread/promote Learn Me Good and Learn Me Gooder!

Goodnight STAAR

As many of you know (or are even living through), the standardized testing season is upon us.  Here in the great state of Texas, the first STAAR (State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness) will be administered this Tuesday.

Obviously, as a teacher, this has been occupying much of time and weighing heavily on my mind.  And as a parent, I have been reading the story Goodnight Moon to my son a whole lot.  So I decided to combine these two aspects of my current life.

I've written a story based on Goodnight Moon, and I would LOVE for someone with talents (and free time) to volunteer to illustrate it!  And feedback is always welcome.

So without further ado, and with my thanks and acknowledgements to Margaret Wise Brown, here is...

Goodnight STAAR

In the 5th grade room

There was a smart board

And a red pen jar

And a picture of –

A book-reading Hollywood star

And there were twenty-two tests sitting on desks

And a covered up word wall

And an old soccer ball

And a small group table

And a laptop cable

And a sign with a crest and a bratty class pest

And a teacher up front whispering “Just do your best!”

Goodnight class

Goodnight STAAR

Goodnight book-reading Hollywood star

Goodnight chalk

And the red pen jar

Goodnight tests

Goodnight desks

Goodnight word wall

And goodnight ball

Goodnight bags

And goodnight flags

Goodnight group table

And goodnight cable

Goodnight sign

And goodnight crest

Goodnight scantrons

Goodnight pest

And goodnight to the teacher whispering, “Just do your best!”

Goodnight kids

Goodnight D.A.R.E.

Goodnight testing everywhere

Unexpected Snow Days!

The school districts in my area have been out of school for the past two weekdays, thanks to some bad weather.  We woke up yesterday morning to find a sheet of dangerous ice on the roads and sidewalks, then since it didn't all melt off, we stayed home again today.

Ironically, the weather people are predicting 1-3 inches of snow to fall sometime during the morning tomorrow, but plans are NOT being made to cancel school tomorrow.  Maybe we'll be building snowmen on the playground!

What have YOU been doing the past couple of days?

Quotes of the day

For some reason, today was full of strange and hilarious quotes, many of them in the form of a question to me.

First, one of my kids came up and asked me, "Um, is it ok if you get hand sanitizer on your face?"

Seeing that this was not an exercise in theoretical wondering -- he truly HAD gotten hand sanitizer on his face -- I replied, "Well, it's not going to kill you... but they do call it HAND sanitizer and not FACE sanitizer for a reason..."

This is the same kid who later came up and told me he had somehow gotten water on himself, and could he go to the restroom to clean it off.  I handed him a paper towel and told him to sit down.

Later on in the day, I was walking around observing the kids playing a math game.  I say that in the most generous terms, because while they were supposed to be playing the math game, some of them were mostly just chatting, and as I walked by, I got pulled into the randomness.

"Have you ever almost been in a coma??  I have!"

I find that sometimes it's best to just look away, pretend to see Ghengis Khan, and wander over to the doorway.

It's all about the units

Maybe it's the engineer in me, but I'm a real stickler when it comes to units on measurement problems. On ALL math problems, really – but especially measurement problems.

I mean, after all, in the real world, there is a HUGE difference between 4 inches and 4 feet. Even more so between 4 feet and 4 miles!

It's been a fight throughout the years to get a lot of the kids to understand this. The mentality seems to be that as long as the number is correct, that's all you really need. They're shocked (and often angered/annoyed) when I tell them that an answer of 12, 35, or 2,453 is flat out wrong and that the number means nothing without the unit.  (And now throw in squared and cubic to change the "flavor" of the unit)

I'll admit, I do take a kind of devious pleasure in walking around the room and telling kids who have the right number but no unit, "Sorry... You're close, but that's not it."   Then giving a thumbs up to a kid at the same table who has the right number and unit. It's kind of fun to see the first kid glance at the other child's paper, see the same number, and go from confused to indignant, to understanding. 

I'm just afraid that some of these kids, when the grow up, are going to be very upset when they design their dream home and go to find a very lovely doghouse. 

Color Me Surprised

Today was the first day back to school after the holiday break, and as far as first days back go, it wasn't too shabby.  Sure, I wasn't able to sleep last night -- as usual, right before returning from a long break.  And sure, it was cold enough to freeze a dragon's tooth when I left the house this morning.  But the kids were pretty well behaved, no one's brain seemed to have turned to total mush (at least not visibly), and we had a little fun.

One of the things I did with my classes was read this wonderful little book that my son got for Christmas.  I told the kids up front that this was not a book about math, or even a book written specifically for 5th graders.  I told them that my son really enjoyed it, and that I thought it was really excellent myself.

Several of the kids had heard of or read it, and they gasped with excitement when I told them the title.  The book is called The Day the Crayons Quit, and it's just a very cute, entertaining little story.

The story is a series of letters (wow, sound familiar?) to a boy from each of his crayons.  Most are complaining about some aspect of their life -- overuse, underuse, nakedness -- and the letters are humorous and colorful.

We also shared some stories of ways the kids used math over the break.  Many stuck to counting stories -- I counted my presents, I counted cars on the street, I counted the number of times I kicked my brother -- but others put some thought into it, telling us they had estimated the distance to grandma's house, or measured fractions of cups and pounds to make recipes, or measured the length and width of a kitchen before a renovation project.

Tomorrow should be a good day also, but for Pete's sake, let's hope I can sleep tonight!

Top Ten things about Winter Break

Here at the end of this Winter Break/Christmas Break/Holiday Break/Whatever you want to call it -- I thought I'd take a moment to put forward my own top ten things about the break.  Don't agree?  Put your own favorite things in the comments below!

10)  No homework/tests to grade -- or if you DID bring some home, you had over 2 weeks to get them all done!

9)  You can totally indulge in your basest vices -- for me, they are movies, tv shows, and books, but hey, Bombay Gin and knitting can totally make the list as well.

8)  You get to sleep in!!  -- at least until your son starts singing the alphabet song and "Let it Go" at 37 dB.

7)  No cafeteria food -- unless you happen to be a frequent flier at Luby's or Furr's... Not that there's anything wrong with that.

6)  Christmas movies!!!  -- Die Hard, Enemy of the State, and Iron Man 3, just to name a few!

5)   No dress code at the house -- or at least, a very lightly enforced one.

4)  You have a couple of days grace period when it comes to forgetting to write the new year -- Get all of those 2014s out of your system now!

3)  You can use the bathroom whenever you want -- no schedule to stick to, no need to maintain a stainless steel bladder!

2) You can gain a few pounds, get a bad haircut, superglue your nostrils together, and no one is going to remind you of it every 5 seconds.

1)  Missing the kids -- it's true, absence DOES make the heart grow fonder, and I find myself missing even the biggest stinkers by the time break is done.

2014 Year in Review

Happy New Year, everyone!  As I have done for the past several years, I have put together a Year in Review for the year 2014.  Mostly true, a bit exaggerated, all tongue-in-cheek.

Enjoy, and have a great 2015!

January

We started off our year by having friends over to celebrate New Year's Eve and play games. I have to say, Canasta and Baccarat are NOT as cool as they sound.  Even after drinking.

On the 7th, we celebrated Tamara's birthday in style, at Chuck E Cheese with 40 of her closest friends. Wait, that's just how I envision birthday parties in my near future.

February

Early in the month, our bathroom sinks were backing up, so my dad and I did a little home repair, installing a cleanout panel in the closet behind the bathroom. We estimated it would take us about 45 minutes, and we were finished right at the 10 hour mark. In hindsight, a handheld power saw would have made cutting the two by four a lot easier and quicker, but we managed with the screwdriver and chisel.

I got a lot of birthday wishes on the 21st, as I hit the Big 4–1. Rather than tell my students how old I was, I told them I was born in 1973 and let them do them math. I did have a few who guessed I was 3987 years old.

I nearly got permission to go to Sochi to compete in the Luge competition, but two things help me back. One – I was not a valid citizen of Albania and therefore could not represent them, and two – I don't know what a luge is.

March

It took roughly 2 hours over the course of four days, but with the help of some Leapfrog letter blocks and a fanatical father, Drew made his very first bracket picks for March Madness! Though very few of his picks proved accurate, his bracket has nonetheless been framed and hung in his bedroom. We will always be able to fondly remember his bold pick of Baylor versus Villanova in the championship game!

Tamara found out that the cast of NBC's Revolution (now canceled) was shooting some scenes in her hometown of Blanco. She got pictures of Andrew and her with several stars of the show. Now that certain events have come to light, the one with a leering Stephen Collins in the background seems even creepier.

April

The culmination of this year's basketball tournament was in Arlington, so my dad, my brother, my buddy Ted, and I all went to the Final Four. Unfortunately, Duke could not join us there, but with the distance our seats were away from the floor, we could pretend it was anybody we wanted it to be.

At a local church where Tamara's mommy group meets, we took Andrew for an Easter egg hunt, and he got to meet the Easter Bunny. I don't think any other kids got to meet the Easter Bunny that day, though, because once Andrew got him in a hug, he refused to let go.

I finally finished my screenplay! I had been stuck for the longest time, unsure how to end my ethnic pre-Civil War zombie superhero rom-com.  But then the answer slapped me in the face – mirrors!

May

We celebrated Andrew's second birthday with a bunch of wild animals. There were lots of other toddlers, but also a backyard petting zoo and pony rides. Sorry to say, the pony didn't go very fast with me on it.

It was finally time, so we turned Drew's car seat around to forward-facing. He appreciated the better view, the increase in leg room, and the more direct path to hit us in the front seat with flying projectiles.

June

My first year in the Coppell school district ended, and shockingly, I was asked to return for the next school year.  Even more surprisingly, I learned that I’d be moving up to 5th grade along with the kids.  Some kids cheered, while some used vocabulary words that are not to be found on any spelling list.

T and her mom took their annual Corpus trip, and unfortunately Andrew was not a big fan of the beach this time around. Instead of lounging on the sand, he wanted to spend all his time at the swimming pool, reading CNN online.

Our attempt to run a restaurant failed after less than a month. In hindsight, I guess "Raisin the Bar" was doomed to fail for two big reasons. One – the name lead some people to think we only served alcohol, and two – people really didn't like hamburgers, pizzas, and yogurt made out of raisins.

July

Tamara and I celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary with a nice romantic weekend in San Antonio on the River Walk. We didn't see Jack Flack or a six- fingered grandma, but I did come home with a longing to rewatch the 80s movie Cloak and Dagger.

The whole family took a weeklong vacation to Destin, Florida and man, did we have fun! The weather was gorgeous, the waves were mild, and it was so awesome to see Drew really take to swimming around in his little floaties. I could have done without the hairy dude walking around in his lime green Borat mankini, though.

August

A new school year began, and most of my kids were kids I had taught last year as well.  However, the district theme was no longer Super Heroes, so I got a whole lot of very strange looks cast my way when I showed up at convocation wearing the Batman outfit.

The new fantasy football season arrived, and I once again drafted a team that looked good on paper but would outstandingly underperform in real life. I also had my PayPal account frozen for a brief time and found out their policy prohibits transfers related to "fantasy football" or "sensual bun massage."

Late in the month, I became one of the select few who accepted the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Stylishly clad in sunglasses and a pair of underwear on my head, I dumped a Home Depot All Purpose bucket’s worth of ice water on my head, in the name of charity. A few days later, Andrew and I also completed the inaugural Pearson Tickle Challenge. It didn't catch on quite as well as the ice bucket challenge.

September

Mother's Day Out started up again on Tuesdays, and this year, there was a lot less crying involved. Drew started to learn the names of his school friends, but we have yet to figure out who the mysterious "Benjamin" is that he always mentions.  As long as he doesn't start muttering "REDRUM" in his sleep, I'm willing to let him have this imaginary friend.

At the very end of the month, I flew out to Hollywood to film the Jeopardy Tournament of Champions. As it turns out, I shouldn't have wasted all those months studying, because nothing I studied actually showed up! But I did at least get a really cool picture with Alex Trebek, and I met a nice family from Australia who probably went home and told all their friends and family that they had met someone from Wheel of Fortune.

October

I flew back home from California just a few days after the Dallas Ebola scare began.  It was fun to see Cheech Marin on the same flight; it was not so fun to have to wear a full body condom while walking through the concourse.

Our neighborhood was pretty quiet on Halloween night, so after answering the door a couple of times, Drew and I went trick-or-treating. Drew dressed as a spider while I was very convincing in my "Middle-Aged Daddy" get up. We only hit five houses, but Drew was able to charm an Elmo's head’s worth of candy out of the deal.

Dirty hackers broke into the cloud and stole several sensitive pictures off my phone. I've asked everyone to please not look at these pictures, but if you do, don't judge me. Catch up, nacho cheese Doritos, and Mountain Dew seemed like a good idea at the time.

November

At the beginning of the month, we went to a truck show at a local church and found our idea for Drew's next birthday party. Sitting in a police car or honking the horn on a tractor was fun and all, but apparently there is nothing more fun than 30 foot long delivery truck with room to run up and down.

The Tournament of Champions aired, and once again, I got bounced on the first day. On subsequent viewings, Andrew stopped pointing at the TV and saying, "Dada!" Instead, he pointed and said, "Ben!" 

December

At the school admin Christmas bash, I was only five away from the correct answer of 1574 in the "Guess How Many M&Ms are in the Jar" contest. I won the glass jar, AND all 1574 M&Ms! So take THAT, Ben Ingram!

The Pearson Christmas Movie Marathon on the 23rd was a fun night with family and friends and hours and hours of Yuletide-themed feature films. Drew managed the double feat of not taking a nap that day AND eating several cookies and sweets. We are just happy he didn't start quoting the "sh!tter’s full!" line from Christmas Vacation.

After Midnight Mass, we found out the hard way – homemade eggnog is NOT a good idea.

Get Learn Me Good for free!

Today and tomorrow (12/29 and 12/30), get the Kindle edition of Learn Me Good for free from Amazon!

Click here to get Learn Me Good free!

If you can't count on your sweater...

So after losing in the Tournament of Champions, I felt I needed to point the blame somewhere.  So I looked no further than Lands' End.  Yes, THAT Lands' End, maker of fine quality upper wear.

Here's the scathing review I left on their FaceBook page:

The following is a review for a recently purchased Lands’ End product.

When I was invited to participate in this year’s Jeopardy Tournament of Champions, I knew I would need to study hard, and I knew I would need to look good. With those two goals in mind, I hit the library during the day and online shopping sites by night. While my knowledge base grew with each book I devoured, my curiosity for one of your sweaters grew with each page view. The Men’s Performance Half-Zip Mock Sweater piqued my interest more than anything else. Here was a great looking article of clothing that also, by its very name, purported to improve performance? This was exactly what I was looking for!

Or so I thought…

My Quarterfinal game of the tournament aired Monday, November 10, and as the world now knows, I did not win. Sure, I looked great in the black Lands’ End Men’s Performance Half-Zip Mock Sweater I had worn. Sure, I received many compliments on how stylish it looked over a dress shirt and tie. People even asked if it was comfortable, to which I had no choice but to honestly reply, “Indeed.”

However, the Men’s Performance Half-Zip Mock Sweater failed to help me win the Jeopardy Tournament of Champions, and for that reason, I cannot give this product anything over 2 stars.

The studio was a bit chilly that day, and the Men’s Performance Half-Zip Mock Sweater kept me warm, but it didn’t prevent my competitors from getting the first several clues in the game. It provided the outerwear for a fantastic, cinema-worthy photo taken with host Alex Trebek, but it did not stop brain farts from happening at crucial moments. Even with copious amounts of palm sweat rubbed on it, the Men’s Performance Half-Zip Mock Sweater was no help whatsoever in correctly responding to a very difficult, and ultimately fatal, Final Jeopardy clue.

For potential buyers out there – if you are looking for a piece of clothing that keeps you warm, looks good, feels good, and is reasonably priced, then I highly recommend the Lands’ End Men’s Performance Half-Zip Mock Sweater.

However - and I cannot stress this enough – if you are planning on appearing on Jeopardy and WINNING … Avoid this product at all costs!!!

If I am ever invited back to appear on Jeopardy, I may wear the Men’s Performance Half-Zip Mock Sweater while studying. I may wear it on the flight out to Culver City. I may even wear it in the evenings after taping while enjoying dinner and/or drinks with family and friends. But I can promise you, I will most certainly NOT be wearing it while competing!

Sincerely (and with tongue planted firmly in cheek),

John Pearson, Jeopardy champion and author of Learn Me Good and Learn Me Gooder

Blaine from Maine (now has my disdain)

First things first, here's a SPOILER tag...  If you haven't yet watched the first game of the Jeopardy Tournament of Champions and don't want the results ruined, read no further until you've caught up.

At least I'll always have this awesome pic!

Now then, moving on!  Once again, I had the wonderful experience of flying out to sunny California to compete on the greatest game show in history!  Only this time, it wouldn't be 15 fans of the show who had never played before.  This time, it would be 3 of us who had one tournament under our belts and 12 others who had won at least 5 games (and in one case, 20!).  One of the first things we were told was that the 15 of us had already won a combined total of over $2.2 million.

Obviously, I was there because things had worked out for me last time.  I don't consider myself very superstitious, but I did try to do as much the same as possible.  I carried around the Superman backpack my kids had given me last year.  I ate dinner at the same place on Sunday and lunch at the same place on Monday as last time.  I ordered room service for dinner on Monday night, just like last time.  I hit the hot tub and got to bed early each night, like last time.

I didn't meet up with Weird Al Yankovic in the airport this time around, but I really couldn't control that one.

When Tuesday finally rolled around, and all of the preliminary work was over, I was SUPER happy to play in the Monday game.  That meant I did not have to wait in the green room, anxiously awaiting my turn.  Because of the wild card spots in the Quarterfinals round, players don't get to watch any games before the one they play in.  Since the four top non-winners get to advance to the next round, it wouldn't be fair if players in later games already knew what mark they needed to reach in order to move on.

Last year, I played in the Thursday game, which meant I had to wait through three games AND the lunch break before finally getting to enter the studio.  This time around, I was out there for every game.

The thing I was NOT super happy about was who I had been matched up with in the first round.  I wasn't going to say anything at the time, but now that it's over, I can freely admit that Ben Ingram scared me more than any of the other tournament players.  I knew going in they'd all be fierce, but Ben struck me as super-intelligent, fast on the buzzer, and quick with a correct answer.  Oh, and he had never missed a Final Jeopardy response.

The really strange thing is that Ben and Rebecca and I had all played cards downstairs in the hotel lobby for a few hours on Monday afternoon.  Someone had joked about how funny it would be if the three of us wound up playing in the same Quarterfinal match.  You know when somebody asks you,
"Hey, wouldn't it be cool to pee on an electric fence?" - and you nod and grin crazily, but inside your head, you're thinking, "NO, that would NOT be cool, not at ALL!!"  Yeah, that.


Anyway, as you now know, the three of us DID get put into the same game.  At least it was the very first game, so I didn't have to deal with the Green Room sequestering like I did last year.  I'd say we all played a pretty darn good game, albeit some of us better than others.  Those boards were NOT easy.  And not to spoil anything, but nothing about this whole tournament was easy.  Several fellow contestants mentioned to me that they thought this was harder than anything they had ever seen on the show (excepting the recent Battle of the Decades), and I definitely agreed with them.  I spent a LOT of time studying over the past year, and I really feel that hardly anything I studied came up -- not just in my game, but in the whole tourney!  I don't think I'm alone in that thought, either!

I want to talk a little about two of the crucial moments of the match for me.  The first being the Book to Movie Daily Double.

This is the one that I will always kick myself about.  Of COURSE I know that Apocalypse Now is based on Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad.  In fact, about 3 weeks before we taped the tournament, I was at a pub trivia night with some buddies, and the category "Documentaries about Movies" came up.  Before a question had even been asked, I said to my friend, "If Hearts of Darkness is one of the questions, the answer is Apocalypse Now, because it's based on Heart of Darkness."

But a couple of things kept me from getting it on Jeopardy, at that crucial moment.

First, it's true what they say, there's a HUGE difference between answering questions on your couch or at a pub and answering clues under the bright lights in an actual game of Jeopardy.  I felt like a deer in the headlights (and probably looked that way too) when that clue came up, and the response didn't occur to me right away.

Second, my train of thought was WAY off track.  We had already seen one clue from that category, and it was about The Fault in Our Stars.  The movie was based on the book by John Green.  (I knew that one, but once again, Buzzer Ben beat me to the punch.)  So my mind was absolutely fixated on the thought that they will name a movie, and I will say the author who wrote a book by that title.  The whole "based on" concept was completely out of my mind.  When Apocalypse Now came up, I immediately panicked because I had no idea who had written a book called Apocalypse Now.  It wasn't on my books and authors list that I had spent so much time studying!  I had never heard of a book titled Apocalypse Now, and I sure as heck couldn't think who would have authored it.

When Alex began to say that the movie was based on Heart of Darkness, I felt miserable, because if I had taken half a second to actually picture Marlon Brando from the movie and think about the riverboat cruise Sheen took to reach him, I could have put two and two together.

Oh, and lastly, I should mention that it took nearly 15 minutes to complete that Daily Double.  Thanks to the magic of television and editing, my complete mental collapse appeared to happen in real time, in under 30 seconds, but in actuality, it was much, much longer than that.  I have a new empathy for field goal kickers who get iced now.

When I hit that Daily Double, the show's producer walked on stage and halted the filming.  The three of us playing had to turn around (in case something popped up on the board that we weren't supposed to see), while the judges debated some issue or the production team fixed some glitch (we don't really know; they never told us).  Maggie, the contestant coordinator, talked with us the whole time, while we all went through various states of hyperventilating.

After 10-15 minutes, they asked us to turn around and get ready to start again.  When they break in the middle of a round like that, they always cue the audio back a few seconds and replay it over the loudspeaker so Alex can come in at the correct point and make it as seamless a transition as possible.  So as I stood nervously behind my podium, I heard myself select the clue again, then the Daily Double sound effect, then recorded audience clapping, then REAL audience clapping, as the show caught up with itself.  Alex looked over at me and (again) asked how much I wanted to wager, and I once again started to say, "I'll bet it all!" -- but then production was halted AGAIN!

Something hadn't synced up correctly, so we didn't have to turn around for a long delay this time, but we did go through the whole recue the audio bit again.  For a third time (and second  out-of-body audio), I heard myself select the clue, the sound effect, the canned clapping, then the REAL clapping.  By this time, I was as close to LITERALLY champing at the bit as can be imagined, I knew I needed to bet it all, and, quite frankly, I could hardly hear Alex over the canned and real clapping together.  So if it appeared that I shouted, "BET IT ALL!" at him in the middle of his sentence, well, now you know why.

That's the one I should have known and just flat out blew.  That will haunt me for some time.  The other turning point was the Final Jeopardy.  And that was just plain bad luck, pure and simple.  The bad luck of getting a wide-open category and a clue that you don't know the answer to.

I got to see all five Quarter Final games that were filmed that day (they'll air over the course of the week), and of the five Final Jeopardy clues, I knew the response to FOUR of them.  It was just bad luck that the one I did NOT know happened to be the one I was on stage for.

Just a bit about my thinking process.  When the clue came up about Secretaries of State, I tried to think of the early guys.  I knew that a lot of them were from Virginia.  I was born in Virginia and have friends and family who still live there, and I was pretty sure I had never heard of a holiday named after those guys (many of whom went on to be president).  I wandered the country for a bit while thinking of Sec States, and I finally fixated on James Blaine.  His presidential slogan, "Blaine from Maine," went through my head on a loop until the Final Jeopardy think music stopped.  I knew that in addition to presidential wannabe, Blaine had been Sec State for TWO different presidents, AND I thought that Maine was a small enough and sparsely enough populated state to have a state holiday named after him.
Seemed like a good enough guess, until Alex said the correct answer had made a significant purchase. At that point, I knew it was over for me.

Later, Keith Williams (A former champion who runs the Jeopardy-centric site The Final Wager) told me that he had been sitting with several other top Jeopardy champions from years past, including Brad Rutter, who did not know Alaska was the correct response.  I owe a small debt to Keith, because our talk really helped me feel better about my game and less like a complete moron who flamed out.  He told me that my fatal all-in bet was the right move and not an idiotic blunder of epic proportions, and he even used nicer words than that.

I really did have a good time in California.  As was the case with the Teachers Tournament, I got to meet 15 great competitors who have a love of trivia and information (I say 15, because there was an alternate as well, Mike Lewis, and he was great to talk to).  We were all genuinely happy for the person who won the whole thing (no spoilers), and a large group of us even went out to O'Brien's in Santa Monica after the final game for their epic pub trivia night.

Still, it took me quite some time to get over the feelings of not living up to expectations.  I was super bummed that I had lost, and in the first round at that, especially by missing a big clue I should have known.  In recent days, though, I've started looking at the tournament like the big March Madness tournament. There can only be one winner each year, but the other 67 teams are no less awesome for having made the tournament.

So in that regards, I now view myself as the "Duke" of Jeopardy.  It's only fitting, right?  Like Duke, I've won at least one tournament, and I've been bounced from the first round of at least one tourney.  If I ever get the chance to play in another, who knows what might happen?

In the meantime, I'm laying the blame for my loss completely at the feet of Weird Al.


(Go Ben and Rebecca!!)