86 Countries In 5 Minutes

No, my dear Sundries readers, I am not announcing a forthcoming travel book: I am not giving Fodor's a run for their money.

But after checking my blog rating, I took this quiz.

86

Created by OnePlusYou - Free Dating Site

I'm not happy. First of all, I led off with "Canada" (!), then "United Kingdom", but I didn't get to "United States of America" until 2 minutes into the marathon quiz, and I got in "Germany" only as time was expiring. For some reason, it wouldn't accept "Philippines" no matter how I spelt it.

Sure I named 86 countries, but I left 184 on the board.

These were the ones I typed, and believe me, I got head cramp by minute 3:50.

Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Austria, Belarus, Belize, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Chad, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Cuba, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Gabon, Germany, Greece, Grenada, Guinea, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Laos, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Namibia, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, North Korea, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sudan, Switzerland, Syria, Togo, Tonga, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam,

I missed most of the Commonwealth, like Australia, South Africa, and Trinidad and Tobago! Good God. What a travesty.

Your Mental Age

Having seen the following quiz on an online forum some time ago, I decided just now to take it.

...now, you know I'm an only child.

...what's more, my parents always said I was 13-going-on-59 when I was growing up.

...even more worrying, I have always felt much more at home with people WAY older than I, than with my contemporaries.

So I never expected to get this score!


YOUR MENTAL AGE


"[X] I know how to make a pot of coffee
[X] I do my own laundry
[] I can cook for myself
[] I think politics are interesting
[X] My parents and grandparents have better things to say than my friends

Total: 3

[] I show up for school/college/work every day
[X] I always carry a pen in my pocket/purse.
[X] I've never gotten a detention
[X] I've watched talk shows
[X] I know what credibility means without looking it up
[X] I drink coffee at least once a week

Total So Far: 8

[X] I know how to run the dish washer
[X]I can count to 10 in Italian/Spanish/French/Ger
man and Japanese and Portuguese!
[X] Normally When I say I'm going to do something I do it
[X] Both parents trust me.
[] I can mow the lawn.
[] I can make adults laugh without being stupid.
[] I remember to water my plants.
[] I study when I have to
[X] I pay attention at school/college
[X] I remembered to feed my pets

Total So Far: 14

[X] I can spell experience without looking it up
[X] I clean up my own mess.
[ ] The first thing I do when I wake up is get Diet Coke
[X] I can go to the store without getting something I don't need
[X] I understand jokes the first time they are said
[X] I can type fast

Total So Far: 19

[X] I have realized that the weather forecast changes every hour.
[X] I have realized that no one will take you seriously unless you are over the age of 25 and have a job.
[X] I can read a book and actually finish it

Total So Far: 22

Add the numbers difference between your age and your total above. Your combined total is your mental age. "

My mental age is plugged at 32. Crikey! Correct!

That couldn't be right, surely, so I tried another quiz. See if you get a more correct result yourselves.

Another badass quiz from eSPIN-the-Bottle... What’s Your Mental Age? MY RESULT:Old Soul You’re a great person to know ‘cause you’re so wise and mature. Plus you’re probably good at shuffleboard. The good news is, you're fearless, and you've got a healthy outlook on life. The bad news is, you've got one foot in the grave. Hey, that's okay - we're sure you'll be partying it up in the afterlife, too. Take This Quiz!

Ah, yes. "Old Soul". That's more like it. There's nothing I like more than a nice lay.

Eco-Footprint

Years ago, when I was attending high school here in the US for the 11th grade, we took the kind of class for which American education is famously known, that of the "elective" variety, namely:

Environmental Studies

Back in England, my classmates at my old school were busy taking mandatory classes in Latin, Classical English Lit, Physics and Rhetoric, but me, I was knee-deep in the Everglades with my Ecology teacher and class, studying the natural habitat of the Florida mosquito.

(Do you know that man actually made us get off the school bus, roll up our trousers, and WADE INTO the Everglades swamp, at the mercy of gators and spiders alike...just so that we could be in closer communion with nature? God, I hated that man)





Since it was an "honours" class, we didn't have a final exam.

Rather, he made us make a careful tally throughout our class time, of exactly how many flushes and toilet paper consumption we used in our daily lives at home, including trying to keep tabs of our parents' loo usage (!), handing that in as a term paper for our class grade.

Do you know how embarrassing it is to ask one's parent if he or she just took a tinkle, and how many times they flushed afterwards?

Not to mention having to inquire if it was Number Oneseys, or Twoseys, to predict the amount of paper wasted in the process.............

Of course, at the end when I handed in my term paper, I gave my teacher all these flash cards with my notes about our recycling, our flushing, our paper consumption, the better to impress him, which was TOTAL TOTAL B.S.

I actually appended an epilogue where I thanked the teacher for his concern with the environment, which I claimed had motivated me to better conserve our precious resources, yadda yadda.

And yes, I got an 95, apple polishing paying immediate dividends, as ever.

I thus preserved my perfect 4.0 average, with the outrageous cynicism that only a high school student can have about the process, of having pulled one over on the dumb-as-nails teacher.

But you know, the fact of the matter is that ever since that class which I found a complete waste of time, and a laughingstock compared to my intellectually-challenging classes back in England, I HAVE been more aware of our environment.

Hardly an eco-warrior, I am however, always happy to recycle everything in my house, such as what it is, considering we rarely throw away tins, glass, and barely newspapers since only dad reads them now (I read papers online, exclusively).

In this, I quite lead my parents by example, since neither are particularly eco-conscious -- even given my father's penchant for turning off lights, even when you're in the room, reading.

But that's because he's cheap, not a Greenpeacenik.

I will hold off one more day, before this post becomes truly relevant tomorrow. You'll see. Until then, here is another fun quiz which I found, which you may like to take.

Quick, easy, no registration, and possibly educative. Find out your...

ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT

Having tooted my own horn about my eco-awareness, it still came as no shock to find out I'm one wasteful, spoilt, uncaring Westerner.

My results:





The world is going to hell in a handbasket, my friends.

And, apparently, I'm gift-wrapping it.

P.S.: Oh yeah. I guess, thanks Mr. Cunningham for making me aware of our environment.

I suppose your class wasn't as ridiculous now, as I remember it. Although I blame you for having to take remedial Physics in the 6th form.

IN THE COMMENTS: Elko, my blogger colleague, suggests you take this quiz if you have lived in other areas, to see if your results vary from location to location. His certainly showed a wide margin of difference!

My point being, that the eco-footprint is determined to a greater extent by where you live, and the lifestyle it imposes on you, than by the lifestyle of you being you.

An excellent point.

Snob Test

God knows, I'm an awful snob.

I am horrified when someone doesn't know the difference between a cravat or an ascot, serves sauterne instead of a Tokaj with the cardamom crème brulée, and shows up wearing Air Jordans instead of Uggs for a champagne breakfast. The hell is wrong with you.

Quick! What do you call this?





If you said corset, you need your mouth washed out with soap, and God knows what you need, if you dared to call it a girdle. *shiver*

Politeness requires one to call them stays, and don't you forget it (if indeed, you did).

So when I was tooling around for a proper, but quick and fun post for Friday which sadly I had missed due to overcommitment duties, but for which I apologise, I found the perfect online quiz -- the kind Sundries readers know so well.

Yes. The Snob Test.

UPDATE: Boo. The direct link isn't working. Try to go here, and "view all" under Personality Tests. You'll find the Snob Test there. 10 questions only!

Knowing all this about myself, I took it, fearing the absolute, jolly worst. And guess what?



I scored a rather wet 55%. Dear God, that's barely Jade Goody levels!

And yes, I do judge a book by its cover. I make damn sure my cover is peachy king, so I expect the same courtesy from others.

But...and it kills me to admit this, just kills me...I am not a proper, bona fide, nose-in-the-air member of the rahs.

I have:

- Happily taken rides in my friends jalopies, and hoopdies, some held up with little more than that silver adhesive thingie which I think is called duct tape.

- Visited a boyfriend in his mother's trailer park home, and didn't say boo to her re-applying my make-up to her liking (lots and lots of baby blues).

- Picked up the tab when a boyfriend was embarrassingly out of dosh.

Mind, I do that once per boyfriend. Twice, and he's out on his duff to search for Wal-Mart bait.

So, yeah, I'm a snob.

But a rather depressingly nice one, I'm afraid.

Take Me To Your Leader

More politics! Well, kinda.

Here is a simple, 15-question quiz which will test your knowledge of world leaders.

You can play it without registering, in both HTML and Flash.

Don't worry -- it shouldn't be too difficult for blog readers, since polls indicate that people who read blogs are just as likely to read newspapers, and therefore, to be au courant of world affairs.


Play Quiz: World Leader 2006 now!


(Do not click on the comments section, until you've finished)


MY SCORE: 12 / 15

In the interests of full disclosure, I got the 3, 5, 8 questions wrong. Argh, I'm really angry about that Japan one -- that's inexcusable.

And for a girl who blogged about female world leaders under the title, "Heroine Chic" (see Sidebar) back in 2005, I really stunk up the joint with my dismal knowledge of two current female world leader milestones.

And that's after I almost blogged about Laura Bush representing the US at one of these ladies' inauguration!

UPDATE: Can you believe these people also have a How Much Do You Know About Fidel Castro Quiz?


Play Quiz: Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution now!


Yeah, I got 100%, but number 9 is a trick question, which anyone who KNOWS about Cuba, will probably get wrong.

Ugh. Just remember, don't listen to Lucia Newman.