Kevin Standlee: Fandom Is My Way of Life

Breakfast on Sunday lasted longer than usual because I came during a rush period (which I usually try to avoid) and my order accidentally slipped out of the queue. I wasn't troubled, given that I typically linger over breakfast while reading, but eventually I realized that I'd been forgotten. My server was aghast and apologized mightily. I told her not to worry about it.

After breakfast I walked to the local bowling center. I have not bowled in some weeks because of the hip muscle strain I developed during the last trip to the Bay Area. However, I did play pinball. The Frontier Fun Center has got a new pinball machine — Ghostbusters — replacing the KISS machine that I didn't like very much. As it happens, the local supplier who supplies the machines was there, and we spoke for a while. He also repairs and restores video games, and I mentioned that Lisa has an Asteroids machine that needs restoration. He gave me his card and we may be in touch later for him to come around and have a look and see what he might be able to do and whether we can afford it.

As I've mentioned a few times, the local bowling center, which is within walking distance of Fernley House, had a pinball machine, Medieval Madness, that I enjoy playing. When time permits, I've gone down and spent a few dollars on it. Yesterday after work, I walked over there and it was gone, replaced by a video game. The man behind the counter (the one who had been playing "Pinball Wizard" over the PA system every time I walked in) told me, "They took it away! I tried to tell them we had a regular customer who played it a lot, but they said it wasn't making any money."

That leaves me with leftover tokens that would have bought eleven games on that machine, because there are no other pinball machines or any other games there that interest me. I rarely play video games, but I love pinball. If there are other pinball machines in Fernley, I haven't found them. For that matter, the only place I've found them in Reno is a place with a bunch of mostly-broken ones.

The headline on the post is from the game itself. One of the various parts of the game is the "Revolting Peasants" ramp, where you have to shoot the ball up the ramp enough times to "Torch the Castle." The game is programmed with a bunch of shouts from the mob every time you hit the ramp, such as "They took our food!" and "They took our cows!" Every now and then something unusual comes up, such as "They took our cherished historical monuments!" and "They took our shrubbery!" and, relevant to this post, "They took our pinball machine!" I will not, however, form a torch-and-pitchfork mob to burn down the Frontier Fun Center in protest.

I have a message in to the FFC asking who their game jobber is so that I (I hope) can find out where they took that machine, and possibly even what machines they might be interested in selling. We have a space set aside in the family room for a pinball machine if we ever find the right one and can find the resources to buy it.

I am so predictable in some ways. This morning I once again walked down to the Wigwam to have breakfast, which I enjoyed even more because I paid for it with the money I won from their casino the previous morning off a free-play coupon. Then I walked to the Frontier Fun Center and bought five games of pinball, proceeding to play a total of twelve, which is a pretty good win rate even by my standards.

Around the time I got home, Lisa was ready to start work on today's bout of home projects, which involved her putting herself in harm's way up on the roof on a necessary project that will make things better when it was done. My job was to fetch supplies and tools to her and to call 911 if she fell off the roof, which fortunately she did not. The roof work is perhaps 25% complete, and we'll do more as time, weather, and energy permit.

When we quit for the day, we had an early dinner and then went out for a walk. This is one of the best times of the year for that. The days aren't too short, but the weather is comfortable.

I can understand small children not understanding that you shouldn't lean against or touch a pinball machine, or for that matter talk to the player while they're trying to concentrate. But I'm less forgiving of adults who think it's just fine to reach across the playfield and block tha player's vision on the middle of the game. And who take offense when you beg them to please not do that.

I didn't have time to engage them further — I was trying to play the game! — but I came up with an analogy that might have worked in this semi-rural area. "If you were out hunting and trying to aim at something, would you think it good for me to talk to you or wave my hands in front of your eyes while you were trying to concentrate on bringing down that big buck?"

A couple of evenings ago, I walked down to the Frontier Fun Center to play pinball. I've been enjoying playing Medieval Madness, and the machine has been responding by upping the minimum score needed for a free game. (It was 9 million when I first encountered it. It now starts at 12 million.) There are certain shots on the machine that I've learned require putting a bit of "English" on the machine, being careful not to tilt it. At one point, the right flipper felt a bit sticky, and I initially figured that someone had been playing the machine after eating candy. At the end of the ball, I looked more closely, and found that my hand and part of the machine were covered in blood. My blood. I'd nicked my finger on the metal trim of the machine while encouraging the ball to go where I wanted rather than where it was heading, and the cut had been bleeding rather freely, although it did not hurt that I noticed.

I felt fortunate that there were not a bunch of people hanging around the machine waiting to pounce on games left on it. I trotted over to the restroom, washed the blood off my hand and wrapped a paper towel around it, and then went back and cleaned off the affected part of the machine as well. After a while, I could continue playing. Fortunately, no harm was done.

I went for a short walk from the hotel after dinner. I know this area pretty well -- when I look out the back window of my hotel room, I'm looking at the Atrium Gardens Apartments where I lived for a year. Looping around the block, I was waylaid by a Lord of the Rings pinball machine at the bowling lanes. $2 and 2 1/2 hours later, I was finally on my way back to the hotel. If the machine hadn't been partially broken (several of the machine's pinballs are trapped in a broken section of the playfield; worse, the trapped balls can trap the remaining balls in the machine, and when that happens, all you can do is slam-tilt it in order to free one or two of the four of the balls), I might still be there.

After making our final stop at the Sea-Pac convention to see if we had won any of the 10:30 AM door prizes (we hadn't), we stopped downtown so I could have my annual elephant ear at We're All Ears, then we walked back to the hotel and drove up to Astoria, over the bridge into Washington, and on to Long Beach heading for the Dodge City Shooting Gallery and Pinball Palace. Last year, we were disappointed to find the place temporarily closed due to a fire in the adjacent store, but they were back in business this year. Lisa had been saving her quarters, and we set to playing. I was particularly successful playing Ripley's Believe It Or Not so well that Lisa decided to play other games rather than wait for me to end my (rather long) turns. After a while, she came back over and I gave her the remaining four games on the machine while I played Medieval Madness. She then went to play Lord of the Rings, but the normally excellent maintenance of the games at this place was off this weekend. The right flipper of the machine was terribly soft, and the Dotmation display (which is part of the game play) out of order, so she gave up after one game.

About two hours, but less than $10 worth of quarters after we started, we walked down the street to use the restroom. Both of us commented that we were footsore and having some difficulty staying standing behind the machines. As we walked back to the Gallery just after 3 PM, the question of whether to play any longer was decided for us, as the owner decided to close up early and was locking the door. Oh, well, we hadn't had lunch and were tired anyway.

On the way back south, we stopped at a local grocery store to buy some drinks, and I spotted that they still had some of the reportedly-discontinued Screaming Dill Pickle Pringles on the shelf. A lot of them; so many, in fact, that Lisa had to go get a shopping cart as I decided to buy every one they had, given that I'm apt to never see them again. I bought all sixteen cans, which is more than I've ever seen at one store.

Well, the weekend wasn't a complete waste. I got the Match Game boxes repacked and the heavy box (and the poster tube and the question stand-up) are already packed in the van. Everything not going north is finally packed away in the closet where it will stay until I need to get it out and get the small stuff out for OryCon. I managed to get in three 5km walks around Quarry Lakes in three days, which was good for my health. And I went and washed the van, which hasn't been washed in months and was looking pretty dirty to me. (It's just not as noticeable on a brown van as it would be on a lighter-colored one.)

As I did not go to California Extreme, I did go play one pinball machine that is within walking distance. If I'd gone CE and played every possible moment, it works out to $2.40/hour. My "burn rate" on CSI was, by my recollection, less than that, so I don't feel at all cheated.

Otherwise, I stayed home and rested. Indeed, I nearly didn't get a walk this afternoon because right after lunch, when I was getting kitted up to go for a walk, I was hit with an overwhelming wave of sleepy and fell asleep for about two hours. But thanks to long summer days, it was still light when I woke up and I got that walk in anyhow.

This will be my last quiet weekend for a while. I have travel and plenty of work to do ahead of me in Oregon, and there's also the Oregon Steam Up in Brooks (north of Salem on I-5) to attend. If you're in the area and would like to see a huge collection of steam-powered equipment, vintage tractors, and electric trolleys, come on down to Brooks.

Sunday morning Lisa and I made a trip over to the convention center for the 10:30 prize drawings (we didn't win anything this year) and for Lisa to make last-pass-through-the-hall purchases. We then walked back over the bridge to start packing out of our hotel room. While we were doing that, Lisa realized that the antenna she'd bought was missing a piece. Since her bags were ready to go while I was still putting stuff away, I suggested I continue packing while she went back over and see if she could get the part from the dealer. (Given the flea-market arrangement of the place, this isn't guaranteed.) I got most of our stuff into the van and was ready to go when she got back. Fortunately, the dealer had another antenna with the correct parts and swapped her even-up for it.

We then headed north to Seaside, passing through Astoria and then Ilwaco (we did wave hello as we went through town, as requested; the photo behind that link is from last year's trip) before arriving at the Dodge City Shooting Gallery and pinball palace around 12:30. This hall is mostly new pinball machines, but the key thing for us is that they're all well-maintained and they have enough room around them. The arcade at Seaside has the machines jammed together so that there is no room to play them properly, and most of them are out of order anyway.

As a sign of how attentive they are, the attendant was wiping down all of the machines' glass main plates with Windex because a group of grubby-fingered kids had just passed through. We like this place. It's probably just as well it's too far away for us to go more often, or it could get really expensive.

We were all set for 4 1/2 hours of pinball -- they're normally open until 5 PM -- but around 3 PM or so, the manager came and put up the "closed" sign because there wasn't enough traffic at the mini-amusement park next door (it's all one facility). So our day was cut short. Darn! We were having a good time; unfortunately, two people with a bucket of quarters isn't enough to pay the bills, so we had to leave when we finished playing out our current games.

We got a small snack across the street: the place that makes elephant ears in Long Beach has reopened, so we indulged again. Incredibly, Lisa reported the maple-coated elephant ear was too sweet even for her, and she's someone who adds sugar to her Sugar-Frosted Sugar Bombs. We then went and played miniature golf at the course located behind Stormin' Norman's gift shop. Lisa once again thrashed me on this 18-hole course, beating me by 12 strokes. I wasn't helped by a hole where I went out of bounds twice and ended up taking an 8.

We then considered our next move. It turned out that we both had had the same idea, which required us to head back south through Seaside and back to US-26. I'll write more about that later, but I need to take Lisa to the dentist now.

Yesterday evening around 6:30 PM, I decided to walk over to a nearby pizza place and play the Lord of the Rings pinball machine they have there. Four hours later, I left because they were closing, and was obliged to leave behind one credit on the machine. Total expenditure for the four hours: $1.50. And I hadn't put any money in the machine since 8:30. I simply kept winning games. Not bad.

This isn't the first time that I've forfeited credits on a pinball machine because the venue was closing. It's mildly annoying, but I can't say that I haven't gotten my money's worth. I was really "on" last night, and the machine was feeling pretty generous, too, giving me four post-game match free games as well.