Archive for September, 2023

Gabe D’Annunzio at Pintastic 2023 and taking the rest of the weekend off

Posted: September 8, 2023 by datechguy in Uncategorized
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1st Romana: Look, we haven’t got time for you to practice anything. We’ve got to find the fourth segment.
4th Doctor: You find it. I’m taking the day off.
1st Romana: The day off?
4th Doctor: Yes. After a journey of four hundred years and twelve parsecs, I’m allowed a rest of fifty years.
1st Romana: Where does it say that?
4th Doctor: Section ninety three, paragraph two, laws governing Time Lords. You look it up

Doctor Who The Androids of Tara Episode 1 1978

Well as you all know by now I’m at Pintastic NE 2023 at their new location at the Best Western Hotel in Marlborough Ma and as you might have guessed I have shot a bit of video today and yesterday like this:

And This:

So far I find I like this location better than the other one not only because of the close proximity of Linguini’s Italian eatery my favorite restaurant but because of new formats that will be made plain in other videos.

The biggest drawback however is the net which is considerably slower than our previous location which slows down uploads a bit and Rumble’s upload style which I’m still not used to.

But beyond all of that I find that I’m about as relaxed as I’ve been in many many months. For reasons I won’t go into things have been very tense for me and the complete lack of tension for me here was been a delight and a half.

And that why, dear readers I have decided I’m taking the next two days off. The nets too slow for the uploads and I don’t want to deal with the left, the Biden admin, the culture wars or anything else, This weekend belongs to my pinball with a good chunk of Rosaries and prayers in between because there are some things that trump even pinball.

Rest assured I’ll shoot and post some nice video but for now I’m going to spend the rest of today and tomorrow with my son and a bunch of pinball machines.

I might sneak in a post when my wrists need a rest (I have a particular way of playing that puts some strain on them) but after nearly 15 years of regular blogging it time for a day or two off.

The worries and the outrages of the world will still be there on Monday & Tuesday.

The needs of the individual always outweigh the needs of the many

Posted: September 7, 2023 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
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The Wrath of Kahn has always been my favorite Star Trek movie.  I’ve enjoyed everything about that movie, except for that one scene where Spock states emphatically that “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of few”

That quote has always bothered me, even the first time I saw the movie back in the early 1980s.  This was well before my political enlightenment that led me to becoming a Libertarian.  I had read enough history then to know that totalitarian regimes always sacrificed the few and the individual, all in the name of the common good of the majority.

After my great political awakening, which consisted of reading a couple hundred books on all types of political philosophies, I now understand the evils and horrors of collectivism.  I know Spock’s quote reeks of collectivism.  That is not surprising since Gene Roddenberry was very much to the left politically.  Mr. Roddenberry should have read Ayn Rand, especially these two quotes about collectivism:

“Collectivism means the subjugation of the individual to a group—whether to a race, class or state does not matter. Collectivism holds that man must be chained to collective action and collective thought for the sake of what is called “the common good.”

I got the idea [for Anthem’s theme] in my school days, in Soviet Russia, when I heard all the vicious attacks on individualism, and asked myself what the world would be like if men lost the word ‘I.’

If Mr. Roddenberry had encountered this Ayn Rand quote, maybe Spock’s quote would not have marred an otherwise fantastic movie.

Individualism regards man – every man – as an independent, sovereign entity who possesses an inalienable right to his own life, a right derived from his nature as a rational being. Individualism holds that a civilized society, or any form of association, cooperation or peaceful co-existence among men, can be achieved only on the basis of the recognition of individual rights – and that a group, as such, has no rights other than the individual rights of its members.

Pintastic NE Starts in 12 Hours Why You Should Go

Posted: September 7, 2023 by datechguy in fun, pinball, special events
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I have spent the last week reposting videos from previous Pintastic visits to not only highlight the Rumble account that I am now using instead of Youtube but to illustrate why you should consider Pinball in general as a hobby and Pintastic NE in particular as your introduction to it.

The modern pinball machine is an incredible marriage of mechanical, electrical, programing and artistic skill both in image and in plot as there is usually a story or path to take, in order to create a game experience and you can see the evolution of that marriage in the from the time the first computer boards entered machines to today. It’s a thing to be admired.

Even the old purely mechanical machines without the programing driven by physics and gravity and the mechanical limits of the day are wonders to behold.

And what do those highly skilled people produce with their time and effort? A hobby and a gaming system whose gameplay is the perfect combination of skill and luck and depending on the game and design will have features that enhance the gameplay in terms of an actual quest or goal to complete.

And while I can’t speak for anyone else, I find that if I’ve had a particularly bad day a pinball machine is a perfect place to vent the day’s frustrations.

Furthermore as almost every game has the capacity for four players at a time it becomes a social event, something to do together, with family and friends and even acquaintances ,anyone interested in a game.

It’s not a thing of the left, or a thing of the right. I don’t care what your political, religious or gender beliefs are, because once your hands are at those flipper buttons we are all the same, a pinball player trying to keep the ball alive as we aim at our targets.

It’s something to be enjoyed by anyone of any age or mindset for what it is: A good clean hobby that celebrates all those skills that I mentioned, it unites rather than divides.

So if you think there are 8473 genders or if like me you say there are two, if you love or hate Trump or Biden or DeSantis or RFK, if you think open borders are wonderful or a disaster, if you think God isn’t real or if you’ll be attending mass nearby, in fact even if you’re a Yankees fan I say you should come and join me in Marlborough MA because I submit and suggest you will not find a better use of your recreational time for you and/or your family this weekend then a visit to Pintastic NE 2023.

Come on down, you’ll have fun.

It’s Good to be in the NFL Particularly if you break Gun Laws in Massachusetts

Posted: September 6, 2023 by datechguy in News/opinion, nfl
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Massachusetts does not have much of a reputation when it comes to respecting the rights of gun owners in their own state and has even less of a reputation of respecting the 2nd amendment rights of gun owners who pass through Massachusetts.

However there are apparently exceptions:

 New England Patriots cornerback Jack Jones had gun charges against him dropped Tuesday in exchange for agreeing to serve one year of pre-trial probation and 48 hours of community service on other counts, according to court documents.

Jones had been arrested June 16 after authorities at Boston’s Logan Airport said they found a Glock box with two guns and ammunition inside a bag with Jones’ name on it. He was charged with two counts each of unlawful possession of a firearm, carrying a loaded firearm, possession of a large capacity feeding device and possession of ammunition without a firearm identification card. He also was charged with two counts of an airport security violation, possession of a concealed weapon in a secure area of the airport. Jones had pleaded not guilty.

Fortunately there was , to my knowledge, no evidence presented during the negotiations that suggested that Mr. Jones had either voted for Donald Trump, protested against abortion or liked a tweet unapproved by the left, or such a deal would not be possible.

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