The Process

Step 1: Took the online test in January. Felt pretty good about myself. Probably got 46-47 out of 50 correct.

Step 2: Wait.

Step 3. A month later got an email notifying me of the live audition at a hotel in Culver City.

Step 4: Wait.

Step 5: Attended live audition at a hotel in Culver City. The Radisson. Across the street from the Clippers training facility.

Step 5.1: Filled out some forms. Checked in. Test drove the answer and question format with moderator. Full class participation. Class size was about 30 people. Must phrase answer in the form of a question.

Step 5.2: 50 question test. Answer does not need to be in the form of a question. 50 questions asked from a video presentation. Answers written on a piece of paper with 50 blank lines on it. No cheating allowed. 10 seconds given for each answer. Felt pretty good about myself. Probably got about 45 of the answers correct.

Step 5.3: Wait. Schmoozed with neighbors while tests are graded. But they didn't give us the results of the tests!

Step 5.4: Three-at-a-time mock Jeopardy game. Complete with hand buzzers and categories and a video board.

Step 5.5: Brief interview process in front of the class to make sure you have spunk! and personality! and a big speaking voice!

Step 5.6: Done. They informed us all that we're on the call list for the next year and a half. You'll be notified if you're chosen. Taping is on Monday or Tuesday. Don't take the next online test or you'll be disqualified. Don't appear on another game show or you'll be disqualified. After a year and half goes by and you haven't been on the show, take the online test again and repeat the whole process.

Step 6: Wait. For a year and half.

Step 7: In the meanwhile, study random topics and keep up with foreign capital cities.

And now I give you the format for this blog. Each day will present the following:

1. A brief blurb about a random topic. Anything goes here. It could be a person, a place, a thing, a current event, a historic event, or even a food that begins with the letter Q.

2. A country of the world and its capital. In alphabetical order starting with A for Afghanistan. Plus two maps of the country (wide and closeup) from WolframAlpha. I believe there are 195 countries in the earth's current configuration, so this will proceed for 195 days. After that, I'll think of something else.

3. A word of the day and its definition. Like in the movie Better Luck Tomorrow, the dude was studying for the SAT and attempting to raise his verbal score by 60 points in order to get a 1600 (back in the day when the SAT only had 1600 points). He'd repeat a word throughout the day and absorb it by repetition. To start, I'll go ahead and use his words from the movie.

This is not to say that the above three topics are the only things I'm attempting to absorb during my year and a half of training. It's just a way to force myself to seek out a random topic every single day and force myself to get going on the countries and their capitals and to force myself to build vocabulary. BTW, I did memorize all of the countries and their capitals while working a mindless desk job in 2004. Ample spare time sitting in front of a computer screen resulted in knowing all 195 countries/capitals backwards and forwards. I have since forgotten most of them.

What I am doing in addition to the above is:

1. Always having three books on the bedside table and putting time in on all of them simultaneously. Random styles, random books, fiction, non-fiction, classics, lengthy Russian epics, suspense, humor, whatever. Also on bedside table: Wired magazine, the Grizzly tool catalog, and three Lee Valley catalogs (the tools, the gardening, and the hardware).

2. Newspaper. LA Times daily. I could do this online, but there's something about real paper that feels good and smells good. Sort of like the feel and smell of real books. A Kindle is something I will definitely not be getting any time in the near future. And the newspaper doubles as the base for my massive never ending sheet mulching project.

3. DVD movies. Lots of them. Preferably historical in nature, but not necessarily so. Valkyrie was the latest.

4. DVD documentaries. Lots of them. I'm in the middle of a BBC series on art history right now.

5. Trivial Pursuit, the original Genus edition from 1981. After all these years people accuse me of having all 6000 questions memorized. Probably not, but that wouldn't be a half bad goal to have. I struggle with the Pink questions. Side note: Do you remember the first time you played this game, and if so what question were you first asked? I'll go first: 1983 at a host family's home during a concert band festival; family busted out with Trivial Pursuit; they pulled a random card to give me an idea of the types of questions; result = Where is the Trevi Fountain?

6. Daily crossword puzzle.

7. Etc. You too can be in training. Just read, watch and absorb anything and everything you see. And never ever ever miss an episode of Jeopardy! And throw in some Cash Cab while you're at it.