My recent vacation was supposed to be dedicated to R&R.
Instead it was dedicated to H&Q. As in HQ Trivia, the wildly popular live game show app that hosts real-time trivia quizzes for real cash. I'm obsessed.
Here, I'll send you the same invitation I texted to all my friends (who thought it was spam and totally ignored it, ahem) so you can join the cult, I mean craze, too.
"Hey I'm playing a game called HQ Trivia. You should play too. Use my code 'jmchistman' to sign up https://get.hqtrivia.com."
Wait, Chistman?
Um yes, in my haste to jump on yet another fad, I, Jennifer M. Christman managed to bungle my name during sign-up. I know, thanks to HQ, that the guinea pig is native to South America -- well, rats, I guessed that rat is from Asia -- but I don't know how to spell my own name. And HQ can't help me there (from HQ's FAQs: "Changing your username on HQ is currently not supported.") Well, guinea pigs.
You signed up right? I want you to be included. Also, I'll get an Extra Life. Thanks!
After one downloads the free app, which was developed by those Vine folks, to an Apple or Android device, one waits.
Most days at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. with occasional additional bonus games scheduled, the app goes live. It sends handy reminders. But if you're in the office, out at a restaurant or in a house with millennials, you'll notice people around you grabbing for their phones at the appointed time. (The millennials already had their phones in hand of course, but they'll temporarily cease Snapchatting.)
Speaking of grabbing for phones, grab your earphones before playing if you're somewhere quiet. Frenzied music and a countdown signal the game is about to begin while hundreds of thousands of users type fast-scrolling gibberish at the bottom: Eggplant and octopus emjoi mingle with Star Wars spoilers, "Trump is uncool!" obscenity, religious hate speech and the occasional message that a user was kicked out due to obscenity or religious hate speech.
A host -- usually wisecracking comedian Scott Rogowsky -- asks 12 multiple choice questions (three possible answers and a 10-second limit). Well, when the app is working. Glitches are routine. So is griping about said glitches ("your app just used my extra life then knocked me out on the next question when I had the right answer!") and harass Scott ("#BoycottScott #BoycottScott #BoycottScott"). Last week Scott disappeared for a couple days and everyone panicked; how we've come to depend on his love-hate saltiness. Speaking of salt, Salt-n-Pepa did not perform as a rap duo (how could you forgot DJ Spinderella?), nor did Fugees; the answer to that HQ question was Mobb Deep.
Answer a question incorrectly, and you're out of the game (unless you have an Extra Life). Answer all questions correctly and you share the pot, usually $2,000, with the rest of the winners. Depending on how many people win, victors might get $59 or $121 (paid via PayPal). Or a lot less. A woman went viral for her manic bawling, screaming and rolling on the ground when she recently won a round of HQ ... a shared jackpot of a whopping $12.
I'd convulse too. My best score has been eight out of 12. And even then, I didn't really know that "subatomic muons" were what scientists mapping deeper into the Great Pyramid of Giza were measuring with detectors (other choices: "planar harmonics" and "gravitational waves"). And I didn't know that according to Ericsson, people are now most likely to allow AI -- artificial intelligence, not American Idol -- to "Take over their body" (other choices: "Lead their country" and "Be their manager"). I just got luckyish.
Maybe you'll get luckyish too. Did you sign up? Did you correctly spell my misspelled name as your referral? Luckyish is good, but getting Extra Lives is great.
I will continue to play, and eventually I will slay.
If my name isn't Jennifer M. Chistman.
Cue the HQ and email:
What's in a Dame is a weekly report from the woman 'hood.
Style on 01/09/2018