There is Madness in Town Square

So I did go to the Virginia pinball league night sponsored by the Free State Pinball Association, and I did not turn around and go home or die or embarrass myself or say too much that I'm likely to regret. Good. For a person as notoriously lacking in social skills as I am, that's a huge win.

I showed up a few minutes before 8 and got signed up. I pretended that I actually was capable of normal social interaction and met a few people, most of whose names I forgot within seconds. I paid some dues then gravitated to the other noob for a little strained conversation, though a few guys took the initiative and talked to me, which was nice.

They started a few minutes late with a crowd of 20 or so. They explained the rules, which are more complicated than "play games, write down scores" but not overly so... certainly easier than bowling. We were cordoned off into groups of four and the games were allowed to begin. My group's first game was Strikes and Spares, and despite being distracted as always by Ms. SNS's stunningly erect areolae (curse you, Kevin O'Connor!) I was pleased to win just barely. That was followed by Skateball, then the Prominent Nipple theme was broken with Bram Stoker's Dracula, and finally Mousin' Around! I did adequately, usually a second or third place. With that we were done for the week, so I hung around for a few more minutes and then left.

I had fun. I plan to return. 'nuff said.

After quite some wait the LEDs finally arrived. I think I'll fully illuminate this subject in its own post, because it's kind of a big topic and I haven't fully investigated it yet.

And yesterday, after the Most Triumphant resolution to a client problem that's been weighing heavily on my soul for a week (who would have thought that a corrupt positive sign would prevent "0" from being converted from a string to an integer? Thanks, diligent Windows XP programmers!), I rewarded myself with a pinball game. I went to Beltway Chevron to play Funhouse -- I wanted to play a 4 player game so I could hear all of Chuckie's player nicknames -- but it was turned off. So I consoled myself with a couple of Family Guy games at the Italian restaurant. Who wants Chowdah?