Well, I lied. I didn’t continue to update my blog over Christmas break. But in my defense, I just got so wrapped up in the last challenge (take advantage of holiday specials) that I forgot. I mean I did it all. Ate a gingerbread bagel at Panera, went ice skating at Crown Center, and I even saw these dancing gingerbread men when I was in Disney World.
With the end of the holiday season comes the new year, and with that New Year’s resolutions. I recently saw a list of the most common resolutions. Besides the typical ones like losing weight, eating healthier and quitting smoking, an unexpected one was increasing brain function and memory. This sounded like a boring resolution until I thought of Sporcle. You might be wondering what Sporcle is, in which case you are living under a rock. Well, before I tell you what it is, let me tell you that this week’s challenge is to play Sporcle everyday.
Sporcle.com is a website solely devoted to providing ‘mentally stimulating diversions’Â. In other words, procrastination with a purpose. The website is filled with quizzes that test your knowledge on a variety of subjects that include sports, holidays, entertainment, and many more. The quizzes typically work like this: you are presented with a general topic or question (i.e. Can you name the songs that made the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2010?). You are then provided different clues (i.e. Katy Perry) and must come up with the response to those clues. For this particular quiz, Katy Perry’s top 10 hits in 2010 were ‘California Gurls’Â, ‘Teenage Dream’Â and ‘Firework’Â. Oh yeah. There’s a time limit.
Now that you know how Sporcle works, here are some extra challenges:
- do all of the daily quizzes. Each day, three or four new quizzes are posted on the homepage. Give each of them a try, even if you don’t completely know the Chicago Cubs’ 1984 roster.
- search for quizzes. There is a search bar on the website which allows you to find topics you may want to learn more about. Or you could search topics you know like the back of your hand to give you a confidence boost.
- create your own quiz. This would mean you have to create an account, but it’s easy and gives you the chance to create a quiz about anything you’d like.
The point of this challenge is to learn quirky knowledge that might be helpful if you’re ever on Jeopardy. However, Sporcle can provide practical knowledge, too (try the 50 states quiz). So let’s go out this week, test our knowledge on a variety of fun topics, and conquer this challenge!
*A word of caution: I don’t want Sporcle to become the new Tetris, but if you’re going to play one of them, make it Sporcle.*
