Lucky!

My lazy ass is still catching up... 100% of this post is vintage stuff.

I suppose Mrs. Entropy is very tolerant of my hobby. Financially she can't really say much because she spends a lot on sewing, knitting, et cetera, though I'm currently outspending her by almost 2 to 1. She's sort of accepted the amount of space the games take up, and was even willing to allow Quicksilver in the living room, mainly because she likes the art (as I believe I've mentioned before, she's pretty non-committal on Black Knight, Doctor Who, and EBD, but she is heavily irked with the way Mr. Barbarian is drawn on Paragon... he has the body of a dwarf and his right arm and wing are not anatomically possible). She's even sat with me a few times and watched This Old Pinball vids and Pins and Vids 2 & 3... on the last two, she even asked for more information about Wizard Blocks, and was kind of interested in the process of manufacturing Big Bang Bar. And a couple of times she's been very helpful in reading part numbers out of game manuals while I type them in to Illinois Pinball's search engine. My sense is that a lot of Pin Wives are openly antagonistic to their hubbys' hobby.

But realistically, I could probably use some actual friends who play pinball. I think the last time I had friends to play pinball with was high school and college, which is kind of pathetic... and not tele-pathetic, either. I've thought about going to one of the FSPA nights, but they don't meet local to me any more and the remaining meetings are a pretty big schlep for me, though the one in Virginia is only about a half hour from my work. And in addition my meet & greet social skills are poor at best and I worry about what to talk about when the subject of pinball has been exhausted. I think I'm
at my best when people need something from me and are forced to seek me out. Well, that sounds kind of pathetic too. -_-; Anyway, I honestly don't know what I'm going to do about it, but I supposed we'll see.

But enough about my tedious life. As previously reported, I went to the Pinball Wizards show in Allentown and had a pretty good time. I probably say this every year, but it seems like there was a lot more junk this time... games with whole flippers not working (I'm looking at you, Tom Tom!), games that were pretty much never turned on for the whole show, features not working, blah blah blah. But there were a few standouts... I enjoyed playing Gottlieb's Roller Coaster, an early 70's game with proto-habitrails. And I had a hella fun time playing Balls-a-Poppin, a 1956 game with multiball and an auto-plunger. The big surprise this show is I spent less than $100. Now, this isn't for lack of trying, I just don't have a lot to get these days that they sell at shows. Classic Playfield Reproductions came down from the forests of Eastern Canada for what I think is the first time (at a show I've been to, anyway) and they had a grab bag of repro plastics for Pin Bot that I needed... I had to force my brain to remember which plastics were missing on the playfield I had just bought (a populated one this time -- like I said, my ass is lazy, and I am behind; I ended up buying one or two that I had, but in general did pretty well and only didn't buy one). Out in the flea market I picked up a Funhouse subway ramp and a crapload of plastics (several almost complete sets) from a guy for a pretty good price... I had to run back and forth between a parts Funhouse and the ramp, trying to make sure that it was indeed the ramp I needed. I also speculated and bought a beautiful TOTAN subway ramp for $10, hoping I could sell it for more on eBay... which in fact I did, I cleaned it up Sunday, posted it, and it sold for almost $16... I probably made only $3, but small victories count, too! I also put up a few of the extra Funhouse plastics -- a set of the pointing hands -- and that sold for $3 or so, which is bonus since all the plastics together cost me $17. And, of course, I delivered the High Speed cabinet to the guy's proxy... that's a first for me, actually bringing something to a pinball show.

It was not all coolness, though. Harshness came in the form of a Doctor Who parts machine that a guy was selling for $250. I dithered about it for a while, then looked around for an ATM so I could come up with $$$, and in that time someone more decisive bought it. It was a relatively unfaded cabinet, it had the Dalek on top, but the rest was wrapped up so I couldn't see it, but I find it hard to believe that I couldn't have gotten that much and more for it on eBay. And I've had good luck with the parts DW and High Speed that I wanted to see if I had actual instincts that I could use to help pay for my purchases. So, that's this year's One That Got Away.

In an attempt at sociability I did speak to a couple of people, and played a doubles game of Maverick with a guy who I was initially beating but who proved to be a pinball savant. I don't think he totally pasted me, as my last two balls were pretty good, but he was definitely out of my league.

I think the rest of the day was pretty uneventful. Anyway, it's getting late so it's time to wrap it up.