Brad's Birthday Quiz

Question one, why would someone organise and host a quiz night for their own birthday party? That one is worth zero points, because I'm not totally sure of the answer myself.

There must be something in my nature that aligns to the structure of the quiz, even if the last Bradism.com quiz night was back in 2008. As Alex reminded me last night, I've been running quizzes since I was 14 in the back seat of Mum's Camry.

And perhaps there is something in my nature that abhors the idea of standing still while friends and family sing Happy Birthday at me for thirty seconds, and would much prefer to stand in front of a crowd with a microphone for two and a half hours.

Turning 40 isn't insignificant, and I did want to mark the milestone in a meaningful way. The quiz gave me that opportunity to make the evening about my life without making my life the focus. With (nearly) every question being Brad adjacent, and over 100 slides to showcase photos and memories, I was able to lean back against the structure of the rounds, while enjoying the company of people I like.

It was also the fortieth that I would have wanted to attend myself, hopefully inspiring some of the people in their late thirties to start planning. To give them a head start I gave everyone a small lesson on the PHP...

Overall, it was definitely the best quiz I have ever hosted and it made me feel good to bring people together and make them happy.

As the 51 questions hinted, there has been a lot of history and geography and culture and sports and music in the span of human civilisation. Ultimately my existence won't mean much in the sum of all that, but after 40 years I can appreciate that life being trivial can be an enviable thing.