(hat tip to Jaime Weinman for this one)

Are here, for your reading pleasure.

Are now up for your viewing pleasure here. The “best of” awards, which will generally be more positive and friendly and cuddly and encourage us all to be better, will be up tomorrow.

Today is the last day to vote in the 2012 Rec.sport.pro-wrestling Awards! So if you started a vote and did not finish it, or if you haven’t voted at all (and this assumes that you like pro wrestling, of course), get on that, because there are a number of races right now that are very close and a couple more where a last-minute strong showing by one candidate could cause a major upset. DRAMA!

(Also, we have received very few voter submissions for comments, so you all still have the opportunity to have your opinions IMMORTALIZED ON THE INTERNET along those of such luminaries as myself, Chris Sims, Brandon Stroud of Best and Worst of Raw, and Danielle Matheson of Best and Worst of Impact. Anything I find particularly insightful or funny about your votes I will probably use, so send them along to this email.)

1a. Which being created clues throughout space and time to ensure their own creation?
Bad Wolf

1b. Who saved at least one President and possibly many more?
Bad Dudes

1c. Who leads a conglomerate of villains much admired by doctors?
Bad Horse

1d. Who possesses numerous toys to compensate for their illiteracy?
Bad Religion (“21st Century Digital Boy”)

1e. Who pretended to each be the other in order to gain an informant’s trust?
Bad Boys

1f. When did a hunter suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder?
Buffy Summers in “When She Was Bad” (s1e2)

1g. Who felt they should have been born female due to their extreme beauty?
Johnny B. Badd

1h. Who dreams of helping to scrub space whales?
Strong Bad

1i. Which New Jersey food products are thirty-two ounces of in your face?
Milk and Cheese, Dairy Products Gone Bad

2a. Which alien was sentenced to spend time with cavemen as punishment for inventing a doomsday machine?
The Great Gazoo

2b. Which rich businessman detonated his livelihood to pursue a dream of performance?
Gonzo The Great

2c. Who bled so greatly that he inadvertently invented a unit of measurement for it?
The Great Muta

2d. What concept requires one to be a navigator across millions of worlds, all with too much of one and not enough of the other?
The Great River (from “Treachery, Faith and the Great River,” s7e6 of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)

2e. What is it called when elders from every stedding meet to discuss and deliberate?
The Great Stump

2f. Who shackled the chosen one to the stone of triumph?
The Stonecutters (in “Homer the Great”)

2g. The mightiest of what race had a wingspan of over thirty fathoms?
The Great Eagles

2h. What would a newspaperman utter when startled?
“Great Caesar’s Ghost!” (or, alternately, “Great Shades of Elvis!”)

2i. What was dedicated to fifty dead men?
The Great Escape

3a. Who was trapped by her brother within a diamond-hard prison?
Monet St. Croix / Penance / M

3b. Where may you control the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Senator and the Tax Man?
Saint Petersburg (the card game)

3c. Who gave his people hope in the face of a dying star?
Saint Walker

3d. Who rose to prominence from criminal beginnings after the success of their own brand of energy drink?
The Third Street Saints

3e. Who were taught German, Russian, Italian, Spanish, Gaelic, and French by their mother, and used it in their quest for justice?
The Boondock Saints

3f. What did Victor cry out on the sixteenth day?
Saint Victor exclaimed, “This…is fantastic! Oh…this is terrific!”

3g. Who spoke to the audience at the beginning of every episode?
The Saint

3h. Who created a group of assassins and named them after the angel of death?
The Order of St. Dumas

3i. Who ended up having boat drinks thanks to the actions of a man with a plan?
Jimmy The Saint

4a. Whose return led to a magical renaissance in England?
John Uskglass

4b. Which exhibitor suffered from osteogenesis imperfecta?
Mr. Glass

4c. What requires you to look into the Eye of Eternity?
The “Through A Glass, Darkly” Quest In World of Warcraft

4d. Who was responsible for introducing people to a life of thievery?
Looking Glass Studios

4e. In what work did four gunslingers arrive at Topeka?
Wizard and Glass

4f. What commences with a story about Kanubai?
The Serpent Bride by Sarah Douglass, first in the Darkglass Mountain Trilogy

4g. What is said to be effective against the walkers from the north?
Dragonglass

4h. What was the most important aspect of Castalian social life?
The Glass Bead Game

4i. What 70-ton machine was designed expressly to counter the threat of invading clans?
The Gallowglas-class heavy ‘Mech

5a. What film was a coming-out party for a dead man named Smedley?
Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things

4b. Which social butterfly found themselves forced into a difficult situation involving a super-suit?
Ms. Thing

4c. Who alternated twice between being a man, and being not a man?
Swamp Thing

4d. What killed the Norwegians first?
The Thing From Outer Space

4e. Who caused a man to find himself traveling through time, due to an anomaly which never existed?
Q in “All Good Things” (s7e22 of Star Trek: The Next Generation)

4f. From where do you return to find the hot supper your mother made waiting for you?
Where The Wild Things Are

4g. Whose secret rings of power were only known to his best friend’s little sister?
Benjy Grimm, Owner of The Thing Rings

4h. Who played a convict on death row who was able to escape his sentence thanks to an extremely unusual medical procedure?
Rosey Grier in The Thing With Two Heads

4i. What was the name of the Znutar‘s mascot?
The Ook / “dat Ook t’ing” in The Awful Green Things From Outer Space

6a. What was the ultimate goal of the research centre in Sprodj?
To send a rocket to the moon

6b. Who refused to wait for Eliza?
Sam Bell in Moon

6c. Who went to Las Vegas and returned alive?
Tom Cullen (M-O-O-N, that spells Tom Cullen)

6d. Who befriended and managed a collection of curious oddities?
Luna Vachon

6e. What was the last act of Circadia Senius before he was killed?
To launch a gravity module to replace the destroyed moon

6f. Who pursued two hunters through Heaven to satisfy his own agenda?
Zachariah in “Dark Side Of The Moon” (s5e16 of Supernatural)

6g. What company specializes in the construction of artificial memories for the dying?
The Sigmund Corporation (in To The Moon)

6h. Who created the hit TV show “Legends of the Khonshu”?
Marc Spector (Moon Knight)

6i. Who always had trouble finding work due to a problematic medical condition that was largely his father’s fault?
Remus Lupin (AKA “Moony”)

7a. What adventurer found that her secrets were preventing her from speaking clearly?
Haley Starshine

7b. Which ship was both the largest traditional capital warship ever when it was built, and an expression of tyrannical might?
The Super Star Destroyer Executor

7c. Whose would-be nemesis wished to raise their son as his enemy?
The Mist (in Starman)

7d. Who did not recognize his sentient ship when she took human form?
Peter Quill, the Star-Lord

7e. In the foretellings of a dead god, what was the instrument of prophecy to contain within her flesh?
“All the starry universe”

7f. Who was eventually revealed to be an angel, even though she denied it fiercely?
Starbuck

7g. Who swore to fight the Instrumentality for as long as he lived?
Vanth Dreadstar

7h. Who eventually became the immortal ruler of her husband’s kingdom?
Yvaine (in Stardust)

7i. Which ship cannabalized the fleet it was guarding for supplies?
The Battlestar Pegasus

—

So, this was a fun exercise, and I do believe I’ll repeat it again next year. (Now that I have an idea of how difficult this one was – expect next year to be much harder.)

Voting is now open for the 2012 rec.sport.pro-wrestling awards.

Following the nominations period, we have compiled all of the nominations into pulldown menus to make voting faster and easier (since the pulldown menus should include most, if not all, of the most popular candidates for each award), while still allowing for write-in votes for those who don’t see their favorite choices as nominees. (Write-in votes are equal in value to nominated votes, for those wondering.) We’ve also used TECHNOLOGY to let you save your ballot and return to it later, if need be. We’ve also given fans the opportunity to include their own commentary on their voting choices for each award or just The State of Wrestling in General in 2012, if you like: those comments can be sent to rspw@mightygodking.com.

(Also we did images because it is 2013 and maybe we should have pictures on our internet, how about that.)

The deadline for getting votes in is January 23, 2013. We’ll hope to have the results up before the end of January.

All thanks are due to :

• James “The MGKDotCom Tech Guy” Young for helping set this up
• Justin Henry and Mad Conservative Crimefighter for keeping the RSPW Awards alive as well as helping us set up the nominations process this year
• Herb Kunze, Christopher Robin Zimmerman, and everybody else who ran the Awards in previous years
• Scott Keith, Brandon Stroud, Chris Sims, Pudie from Wreddit, and everybody else who was eager to assist in getting the word out on this year’s Awards
• and you! Because you’re special.

So, the King William’s College Quiz has come and gone another year, and as always, I was barely able to answer anything, but then again the real point of the Quiz is to go on a knowledge scavenger hunt. And it seems a shame that there is only one per year. So here is a – doubtless easier – quiz of similar mindset. And I know it is easier, because this Quiz is expressly nerd-themed, if you will. Cooperation and collaboration are, of course, encouraged. Googling is not, because come on, it’s not like you win a prize for this.

ONE

a. Which being created clues throughout space and time to ensure their own creation?

b. Who saved at least one President and possibly many more?

c. Who leads a conglomerate of villains much admired by doctors?

d. Who possesses numerous toys to compensate for their illiteracy?

e. Who pretended to each be the other in order to gain an informant’s trust?

f. When did a hunter suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder?

g. Who felt they should have been born female due to their extreme beauty?

h. Who dreams of helping to scrub space whales?

i. Which New Jersey food products are thirty-two ounces of in your face?

TWO

a. Which alien was sentenced to spend time with cavemen as punishment for inventing a doomsday machine?

b. Which rich businessman detonated his livelihood to pursue a dream of performance?

c. Who bled so greatly that he inadvertently invented a unit of measurement for it?

d. What concept requires one to be a navigator across millions of worlds, all with too much of one and not enough of the other?

e. What is it called when elders from every stedding meet to discuss and deliberate?

f. Who shackled the chosen one to the stone of triumph?

g. The mightiest of what race had a wingspan of over thirty fathoms?

h. What would a newspaperman utter when startled?

i. What was dedicated to fifty dead men?

THREE

a. Who was trapped by her brother within a diamond-hard prison?

b. Where may you control the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Senator and the Tax Man?

c. Who gave his people hope in the face of a dying star?

d. Who rose to prominence from criminal beginnings after the success of their own brand of energy drink?

e. Who were taught German, Russian, Italian, Spanish, Gaelic, and French by their mother, and used it in their quest for justice?

f. What did Victor cry out on the sixteenth day?

g. Who spoke to the audience at the beginning of every episode?

h. Who created a group of assassins and named them after the angel of death?

i. Who ended up having boat drinks thanks to the actions of a man with a plan?

FOUR

a. Whose return led to a magical renaissance in England?

b. Which exhibitor suffered from osteogenesis imperfecta?

c. What requires you to look into the Eye of Eternity?

d. Who was responsible for introducing people to a life of thievery?

e. In what work did four gunslingers arrive at Topeka?

f. What commences with a story about Kanubai?

g. What is said to be effective against the walkers from the north?

h. What was the most important aspect of Castalian social life?

i. What 70-ton machine was designed expressly to counter the threat of invading clans?

FIVE

a. What film was a coming-out party for a dead man named Smedley?

b. Which social butterfly found themselves forced into a difficult situation involving a super-suit?

c. Who alternated twice between being a man, and being not a man?

d. What killed the Norwegians first?

e. Who caused a man to find himself traveling through time, due to an anomaly which never existed?

f. From where do you return to find the hot supper your mother made waiting for you?

g. Whose secret rings of power were only known to his best friend’s little sister?

h. Who played a convict on death row who was able to escape his sentence thanks to an extremely unusual medical procedure?

i. What was the name of the Znutar‘s mascot?

SIX

a. What was the ultimate goal of the research centre in Sprodj?

b. Who refused to wait for Eliza?

c. Who went to Las Vegas and returned alive?

d. Who befriended and managed a collection of curious oddities?

e. What was the last act of Circadia Senius before he was killed?

f. Who pursued two hunters through Heaven to satisfy his own agenda?

g. What company specializes in the construction of artificial memories for the dying?

h. Who created the hit TV show “Legends of the Khonshu”?

i. Who always had trouble finding work due to a problematic medical condition that was largely his father’s fault?

SEVEN

a. What adventurer found that her secrets were preventing her from speaking clearly?

b. Which ship was both the largest traditional capital warship ever when it was built, and an expression of tyrannical might?

c. Whose would-be nemesis wished to raise their son as his enemy?

d. Who did not recognize his sentient ship when she took human form?

e. In the foretellings of a dead god, what was the instrument of prophecy to contain within her flesh?

f. Who was eventually revealed to be an angel, even though she denied it fiercely?

g. Who swore to fight the Instrumentality for as long as he lived?

h. Who eventually became the immortal ruler of her husband’s kingdom?

i. Which ship cannabalized the fleet it was guarding for supplies?

EDIT: of course I typo the image URL the day I’m in court for five hours. Fixed.

This is my second year playing fantasy basketball and it hits the sweet spot for me in terms of fantasy sports – less rigorous and attention-demanding than fantasy baseball1 (where everybody plays almost every day and roster decisions tend to be insane in terms of amount of attention required), and less annoying than fantasy football (both because I don’t like football, and because fantasy football people have a tendency to be really, really irritating about fantasy football, whereas fantasy B-ballers in my experience tend to recognize the essential absurdity of what they are doing and are willing to make riskier choices in the name of fun).

Anyway, this is to say that the one MetaFilter-based league I’m in right now is, I think, not quite enough to whet my fantasy B-ball appetite. Therefore, I have created a second league for MGK readers (and well, whoever really). I’ve capped it at 16 teams but we can go with as few as 8. Head-to-head weekly matchups, scoring by categories (free throw percentage, field goal percentages, points, threes, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, and turnovers), live draft (tentatively for Saturday at noon EST).

League is here. To join go here – league number is 157832, password is “mgkisthebestest”. So… come on! Lots of room!

UPDATE 11:00 A.M. EST: Half full already!

UPDATE #2, 4:00 P.M. EST: We’re at twelve teams and I have locked it so as to make sure we don’t have an uneven number of teams going into the draft. If you want to play and aren’t in yet, email me (mgk@mightygodking.com), and when I have a set of two people who want to play I will send both of you invites.

1. Discussion of the apathetic failure of the previous MGK-based fantasy baseball league is OFFICIALLY DISCOURAGED. [↩]