Badge 2: Super Bowl

Katy Perry performing with the Left Shark at Super Bowl XLIX (Getty Images)

This week’s post was initially going to be about a different badge, but I noticed I had an unearned Super Bowl Badge. Given that the Super Bowl was a few days ago (and what a BORING game that was), I decided to go after the Super Bowl badge this week. The badge required me to receive 50% or better on three quizzes:

1. Name the Super Bowl Winners

2. Name the Super Bowl MVPs

3. Name the Super Bowl Halftime Shows

2016 Halftime Show
(AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

When it comes to my knowledge of sports, football ranks somewhere in the middle of the hierarchy. That being said, I had little trouble with the Winners and MVPs quizzes. I've watched enough games and have seen enough highlights that I cleared 50% on both quizzes fairly easily.

Carol Channing 
at Super Bowl V 
(AP Photo)

The Super Bowl Halftime quiz was an entirely different animal! For the most part, I don’t watch the halftime shows. I use the time between halves for conversation and refilling my snacks. As a result, I STRUGGLED recalling any performers past the last few years. The only performer from an early Super Bowl that I knew was Carol Channing (Who interestingly was the first big name to appear at a Super Bowl, find out more here).

The Vince Lombadgi Badge

I found myself ten answers short of the 50% mark with two minutes left in the quiz, so I had to take a drastic measure. I asked my dad (Colin) for some help. My dad came through in the clutch and helped me get to the halfway point before the time expired. I ended up with 25/50 on that quiz, but that was good enough to get a new badge! 

It’s an Immaculate Badge-ception!

Badge 1: Disney Animated Movies

Me with my favourite Disney Character, Donald Duck

I wanted my first badge to be something interesting and popular to get the blog rolling. After some deliberation, I ended up choosing the “From the Vault” badge, which requires the user to get 100% on the Disney Animated Movies quiz. I felt confident going into the quiz for two reasons:

Beauty and the Beast,  
Walt Disney Animation Studios

1. Most of my childhood was spent watching Disney VHS tapes with my sister Karly.

2. I had recently read a great article on Buzzfeed that ranked all the Disney films. 

I opened the quiz and was immediately taken aback by the fact that there were 54 Disney films I needed to name.  I started easy with all the films from my wheelhouse. As a millennial, films like Aladdin, The Lion King, and Beauty and the Beast came to mind immediately.(Did you know that Beauty and the Beast was the first Animatedfilm nominated for Best Picture?)

Home on the Range, 
Walt Disney Animation Studios

Surprisingly, I knew all the obscure package films from the 1940s, like Make Mine Music and Fun and Fancy Free, but I struggled recalling the films from 2002-2008 (Essentially the films that came out during my teen years, when I was too “cool” to care about Disney movies). With much effort, I narrowed my remaining answers down to one and as the clock wound down, my mind locked in on the final answer (Home on the Range —arguably one of the worst films Disney ever made). I immediately heard the notification sound on my phone, signaling that I had received my email confirming my new badge.

I love the smell of Sporcle Badge in the morning! Smells like….Victory!

From the Vault Badge

What is Sporcle?

A blog picture of me blogging

Upon first glance of my blog, many of you may ask:

"What does Sporcle mean? Is that a spork for barnacles?”  

Mean Girls, 
Paramount/Netflix

In actuality, Sporcle doesn't mean anything. Sporcle is an online quiz website founded in 2007. New quizzes on a variety of topics are published on the main page by the Sporcle staff each day. Published quizzes can vary greatly in their difficulty. There are easy quizzes like, "Name thethings Meat Loaf won't do for love?”, and there are difficult quizzes like, "Name all of countries of the world."

Sporcle members can gain achievement badges when they play certain quizzes at certain times. Some badges are day-dependent (playing 10 Mean Girls quizzes on October 3rd gains you a badge) and some badges are time-dependent (15 games between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. to gain another badge). For example, here is the badge you attain when you join Sporcle.

The Newbie Badge given to all new members 

I spend a lot of my free time playing quizzes as a way to relax. Since I started playing at university, I have attained many badges but there are still over 100 that I haven`t unlocked! I am starting this blog to chronicle my attempts to gain every badge the site has to offer.

Each week I will set a target badge and give a play-by-play of all the quizzes I played to reach my target. I will do my best to spread out the genre of my quizzes, so you aren't reading exclusively about my favourite types of quizzes (Sports and Geography FYI).Hopefully you`ll have as much fun reading my blog as I know I will have writing it. Time to start our adventure!