You're Invited... to a Spreadsheet Oscar Pool!

You’re Invited… to a Spreadsheet Oscar Pool!

It’s almost Oscar time, and hopefully at this stage you have seen more of the nominated flicks than me (one). Never the less… back by popular demand is the Excel Rain Man OSCulator (OSCAR + Calculator = OSCulator)… which is yet another Allyssa Tzavlakis creation! If your office, book club or hippy commune has not used the OSCulator before, here’s your chance to be a commish and bring this amazing spreadsheet-based pool to the cube, farm or cube farm.

So earn your stripes in the OSCulator office pool… and before you know it will be March Madness time.
The FREE Excel Rain Man 2012 OSCulator can be found in the Tips & Tricks page of www.ExcelRainMan.com.

Get the skinny on how to use the 2012 OSCulator below, but first…

I clearly have not seen any of the nominated flicks, other than Moneyball (which ruled), due to my crippling fear of Bed Bugs and general issues sitting still (“Shark-itis”). Therefore, in honor of the 2012 Oscars, I have created my own awards (think Oscars meets Emmys meets Elizabeth Shue singing into a hairbrush).
Ladies & Gentlemen, I am proud to present the first annual Excel Rain Awards:

Category: Best Brat Pack Flick
Nominees:

1. Breakfast Club
2. Pretty in Pink
3. St. Elmo’s Fire
4. About Last Night
5. Sixteen Candles

And the winner is… Sorry Breakfast Club, but the award goes to St. Elmo’s Fire. While the vote tally on this was very close, John Parr’s music video for Man in Motion nudged St Elmo’s Fire over the line.

Category: Best Villain
Nominees:

And the winner is… Hannibal Lecter (obvi). “I do wish we could chat longer, but… I’m having an old friend for dinner”
Category: Best Julia Roberts Flick
Nominees:

1. Pretty Woman
2. Flatliners
3. Steel Magnolias
4. Erin Brockovich
5. Notting Hill
6. Mystic Pizza
7. Sleeping with the Enemy

And the winner is… This is obviously a trick question as it is impossible to pick a “best” when every Julia Roberts film is amazing (yes… I am a loser). Only that smile could make a nine year old pray that one day she too could accept money in exchange for sex.
Category: Best Flick Filmed in the ‘Burgh
Nominees:

1. Striking Distance
2. Wonder boys
3. Silence of the Lambs
4. Flashdance
5. The Mothman Prophecies

And the winner is… While my husband lobbied for Striking Distance, due mostly to the hot “bone scene” (not my choice of words) with Sarah Jessica Parker and Bruce Willis, the winner is obviously Flashdance, because it reminds me of my upbringing… Welder by day, dancing spreadsheeter by night.
Category: Hottest Animated Chick
Nominees:

And the winner is… Ariel from the Little Mermaid. It should be noted that my Husband chose to boycott the Excel Rain Awards following this decision, as “there is no question that Jessica Rabbit takes this category in a land slide. You didn’t say prettiest animated fish-human, you said hottest!”
Category: Best “Tween” Show
Nominees:

1. Gossip Girl
2. Dawson’s Creek
3. Secret Circle
4. My So Called Life
5. One Tree Hill

And the winner is… Gotta go with the sleeper on this one. Secret Circle on the CW is the best “Tween” show of all time. Hormonal witches in high school? Was there ever a question??

OK… now back to OSCulator business…

To use the free Excel Rain Man 2012 OSCulator:
Go to the Tips & Tricks page of www.ExcelRainMan.com and download the file called 2012 OSCulator.

A pop-up window will appear asking you to Open or Save this file. We recommend saving the file in a memorable directory on your PC (Desktop or My Documents).

Now find the 2012 Osculator.zip file that you saved, right click on it and select “Extract All…”. Once this is complete (note the Wizard is happy to walk you through this), we suggest opening the 2012 OSCulator Guide to walk you through your brand new 2012 OSCulator.

Direct the pool entrants to download the 2012 Oscar Ballots for free from the Tips & Tricks page of www.ExcelRainMan.com. Ask all participants to enter their Name where indicated on the form and make a selection for each Award Category using the available dropdown menus.

Your crew sends back their completed Ballots.
You (aka the Pool Manager) will keep track of their selections via the 2012 OSCulator. Let our OSCulator do the work of tallying up the results on OSCAR night so you can get back to your white zin an enjoy the rest of your evening.

Please note that both our PC and Mac friends can participate in the OSCAR Pool by filling out the ballots, but the 2012 OSCulator has to be run by a PC.