IT'S FINALLY HERE!!!!!

Exactly at 6:30 PM on Sunday, January 16, 2005, the quiz season on 1 Kings, 2 Kings and Judges began. I have long awaited this day for 7 months, 3 weeks, 5 days, 6 hours, 12 minutes.

Quizzing started out as usual. We got there, and we met friends from other teams. Deanna was the first to notice me, then came the rest of Zion. Then I saw Tim and Mrs. Moss, followed by Jake. Of course, being me, I told Josh and Tim I would "quiz out on their errors". We met up with Bethany and Seth. The team went into the auditorium. There was worship, offering, rulings, then Merv's corny joke. Then, with a mass exodus, the quizzers went off to their quiz matches.

My match wasn't until the third round of matches, so I got to watch two matches. So what better to do than scout out the competition? So I went to watch Goods 1 vs. Petra 4. Petra 4 looked all like first time quizzers. Easy, right? Wrong. On the last quiz questions, they got team bonus and won by 5. This may be a problem. Then I saw Good Shepherd 2 vs. E-Town 1. Good Shepherd won, giving me more confidence.

Then I head off to the my first quiz match. Spring City vs. Petra 4 with quizmaster Jamie Detweiler. I sat on the outside seat. The first question, I buzzed in and answered "Solomon's". That was correct. More confidence. But confidence kills the cat (actually, it's "curiosity" that kills the cat, but confidence works as well). I then got 2 errors. I didn't want to error out, so I slowed down my buzzing. My over-cautiousness caused me to miss 5 questions I could have gotten. Around question number 13, I decided to take a risk and go for it. I only got one more question. I earned 20 points and and didn't quiz out. My team had tied Petra 4, due to seven errors (ouch!). Now that I look back at it, I should have contested my second error. I also realized that the cheering of Josh Moss never helped.

A little shooken up, I headed off to my quizmatch. My buzzing began slow, but then I sped up. I quizzed out to two buzzes and one bonus. My team won greatly against E-Town 1. It seemed like everyone was watching me, especially Fred. (Funny how I remember loses better than wins?)

I finished up by watching two other matches. Maple Grove 1 vs. Paradise 1 was intereting. At the end of question 9, the score was 10-0. But by the time the match ended, Maple Grove got team bonus. The won 80-20. There was a lot of missed bonuses. I also went to the fogged up LMH windows and dissed my school (Christopher Dock) and wrote a personal ad.

Reflections: I know I could have done better. I had two quiz outs last year by this time and should have done it again. I partially blame Fred for not throwing in Situation questions. That could have helped. I will also study harder. The way I quizzed was no excuse for the amount of practicing I did. So much for being a perfect quizzer for 3 weeks. I just hope an average of 27.5 is enough to get me to be a Top 50 Quizzers List.

Quizzing Question of the post:
When may the Lord’s eyes be opened towards the temple?