There’s a Championship for Excel Spreadsheets, and a 17-Year-Old Just Won

Ahhh, good ol’ Microsoft Excel! It’s that program we all lie about how well we know on our resumes, and then just spend half a day Googling it when someone actually asks us to do something slightly advanced on it.  But, there are some folks out there who aren’t exaggerating their Excel mastery at all.

An international competition for Excel spreadsheets took place in Anaheim, California, recently. The competition is limited to participants from ages 12 to 22.

The top prize went to John Dumoulin, a 17-year-old from northern Virginia. He’s never worked in an office — he’s in high school, and he works at Chick-fil-A part-time.

John first learned about the competition through an IT class at school. He scored the highest score on the Microsoft Excel 16 certification exam in Virginia, leading him to a national competition and then the international competition, where he won $10,000 in prize money.

John says he was surprised to learn that people actually take these competitions very seriously.

“Some of the foreign countries, they’ve been training for hours and hours and hours on end,” he said.

Photo Credit: Excel Easy

“When you first meet the international students, everyone’s friendly, but when they find out you’re competing against them in the same category, they get this fire in their eyes. They want to win.”

“Most of us in an office think that we know how to use Excel. These kids really know,” said Aaron Osmond, general manager of Certiport, the company that runs the competition.

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America’s Longest Pedestrian Suspension Bridge is Set to Open Soon

Still planning on where to take your summer vacation? You might want to consider heading to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, where the longest suspension bridge in the United States is set to open soon.

The Gatlinburg SkyBridge is located in that town’s SkyLift Park, and, from photos and videos of it, it looks like it’ll be incredible.

The bridge offers amazing views of the Smoky Mountains, is 680 feet across and 140 feet high.

The SkyLift takes tourists from the center of Gatlinburg to the top of Crockett Mountain and back, where they can enjoy a restaurant, a bar, and a gift shop.

It looks amazing! Unless you’re afraid of heights…

Posted by Gatlinburg SkyLift Park on Thursday, January 10, 2019

Judging by social media posts, it looks like the SkyBridge will open in either April or May. Just in time for tourist season!

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In 1840’s New York, a man would…

In 1840’s New York, a man would walk up to strangers, acting as an old acquaintance. Gaining their trust, he asked, “Have you the confidence to trust me with your watch until tomorrow?” He would never return. When arrested, he was dubbed the “Confidence Man”, the origin of the term “Con Man”.

According to Stanford psychologists…

According to Stanford psychologists, the the advice “find your passion” could have negative affect on people because it implies that the number of interests a person has is limited. That causes people to narrow their focus and neglect other areas.

For around 6 months following…

For around 6 months following its opening, Disneyland had a lingerie store on Main Street USA. Guests could buy intimate apparel and watch a presentation on the history of women’s underwear, hosted by an animatronic known as the “Wizard of Bras”.

It’s common for Dentists to have…

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In the 1880s, the Harvard Observatory…

In the 1880s, the Harvard Observatory director was frustrated with his staff, and would say “My Scottish maid could do better!” So, he hired his Scottish maid. Williamina Fleming ran a team for decades, classified tens of thousands of stars, & discovered white dwarfs and the Horsehead Nebula.

Hemingway Cats

Ernest Hemmingway was gifted a 6-toed cat named Snow White. Snow White’s 40-50 descendants still live at his Florida home. Over half of them also have 6 toes. Which is why polydactyls are often known as Hemingway Cats.