Saturday, November 17, became a regular working day for me and my team due to the fear inspiring phone call from The Boss. Saturday is suppose to be my bonding day, with my daughter but due to the circumstances, she has to come with me to the office. At least, coming to the office is a welcome thing to her because she can surf the internet and view her favorite sites. Then after lunch, I have to bring her to her Kumon class at Shangrila and then returned to the office to oversee my team. Two and a half hours later, I picked Arphie at Kumon.
Today’s the November leg of the monthly InQUIZition, A monthly gathering of quizzers who are mainly from PUP. The venue is as EDSA Central mall which is just across Shangrila. I have to drop by to get the book my friend Chito borrowed two years ago. The book’s title is “The Order of Things”, a book on how things in this world are organized into hierarchies and pecking order. Around the closing months of 2005 was the last time I competed in InQUIZition, in that year, I won in 8 of the 12 monthly gatherings. And on those 4 months that I lost, its because I didn’t attend the quiz. I’m not bragging, but anybody can check Richard Pante’s record. I still love doing quiz bees, but events, responsibilities and a change in interest (mixed martial arts) have veered me away from the thing that gave me my 15 minutes of fame.
Arphie and I went to Megamall to have some quality time. She wanted to have the High School Musical 2 freebies given away by Timezone so I have no choice but to load Php550 in my card. I chanced upon a group playing on the Super Trivia game and I thought of joining to test my skills and to gain some powertickets. Of course, I won round after round after round of the game. When there’s nobody playing but me, I would go back and play with my daughter, constantly checking if somebody will sit and play the SuperTrivia. During medieval times, knights would often stand guard at cross roads or bridges waiting for another knight whom he can challenge and have a duel. At that moment, I felt like a knight waiting for a challenger who can add powertickets to my Timezone Card. Sounds, petty, but quiz for me is a serious matter, and so is the bragging rights that comes with winning.
I have lost track of how many rounds I played the game and how many swipes I made on my Timezone Card, as long as powertickets are added to my card. But sad to say, I lost one round. To a group of students who would confer among themselves first before giving an answer. The turning point in the loss is when I incorrectly answered this question, “What city in the Philippines, is dubbed as the Rome of the Philippines due to the number of its seminaries and its popular cathedral?” My first thought is Lipa City, but in a nanosecond, changed my mind and pressed Cebu. Well, guess what, its Lipa City. I violated the Quizzer’s Law of First Thought, the first answer to cross your mind is usually the right answer. This law, was formulated by me when I was coaching Claret High school for their BOTB grand finals. I have other laws about quiz bee and I think I have to made another article about it.
The Super Trivia doesn’t really give you a good measure of your knowledge because its a multiple choice format. And choosing the right answer from just 3 choices gives you 30% being of being correct, which means you can guess your way to the game. Choosing is different from giving the correct answer without the assistance of multiple choices.
That win gave these students some sort of bragging rights because they’ve been observing me play and finally, they beat me. But that win also became costly for them because they played several more rounds in trying to replicate their victory but as they say, lighting doesn’t strike the same place twice. They ended up losing more load in their card. Call me a braggart, conceited or arrogant. But when it comes to quiz bees and trivia, I know where I stand.
My family and I had our dinner at Iggy’s Grill. Their TV set is tuned it at Channel 7 with the show “Kakasa Ka Ba sa Grade 5?”, the Philippine version of “Are You Smarter than a Grade 5?”. The contestant for that night’s episode is Atty. Enrique Dela Cruz, he reached the Php500,000 level but have to drop off because he can’t answer the question for that level. The host, Janno Gibbs mentioned that the highest level so far attained by a contestant. I told Beck that I beat Enrique Dela Cruz 14 years ago when we squared at Channel 9’s Battle of the Brains. Its my first time to join the said show but it’s already his second. In that episode, I bested Enrique dela Cruz and another UST boy, Jose Rizal Coteng. Joey Coteng eventually became the Battle of the Brains Grand Champion in 1996. I became the grand champion the following year. Years later, my wife and Joey became colleagues at Eli Lilly and nobody believed my wife that I’ve beaten Joey Coteng at BOTB. I just told her to tell them to ask Joey who gave him his only taste of defeat at BOTB. Joey and I are good friends by the way but we sort of lost touch as we went through with our lives.
Now, the bigger question, will I join the Channel 7 show? Yes, if I find the time away from office and my sport.
