Archive for the ‘fun’ Category

The Agony of Choice Dynasty Protected Player Edition

Posted: September 4, 2021 by datechguy in dynasty baseball, fun, gaming, Sable Baseball, Uncategorized
Tags: , ,

My Dynasty face to face 2019 face to face league season is over as my Washington Nationals fell to St. Louis in the wild card game 8-5.

So now comes the decision making time. As the Wild Card team that lost the play-in game I am allowed to retain 10 players on my roster who are not subject to next years draft.

That number does not include any new rookies for the Washington Nationals ( my franchise) who have their 1st card this year. All of those players are protected automatically although I do have the right to release them to make room on my 35 man roster or if they are fringe players (% players or limited AB vs LH or RH) can be put on my five man AAA roster)

Any man who was on my roster last year who is a fringe player (as described above) can be retained even if they can’t be used in play. Any player who did not have a card last year due to injury or the COVID opt out who is currently on my roster CAN be retained but again I would have to commit a roster spot to them.

This season is a tad odd in one respoect. Because of the COVID the league was put on hold for a while so we will be starting our 2020 season at a point were we are deep into the actual 2021 season so we know if a player is having a good (or bad) year which will of course affect our decision to keep players.

As of this moment here are the players that will absolutely make my protected list:

Abreu 1b: Clutch Rating Incredible power both sides improved range over the previous season and having a strong year for a team heading to the playoffs

Othani: DH While he had a bad card last year his stats this year plus the potential of filling both a pitching and a batting slot next season demands I keep him here.

Lindor SS While he is having a disappointing season this year his numbers last year combined with excellent defense ratings at a key position guarantee his roster spot

Scherzer RHSP Jam Rating While his 2020 season was below avg he’s still better than a lot out there combine this with a jam rating and a strong 2021 and Scherzer makes the team

Molina C (H & R rating) A -3 arm behind the plate forgives a lot of sins among pitchers combine that with a H & R rating and you’ve got a key position covered.

Hand LHRP Hand led the league in saves last year with a 7-1 K-BB ratio and no HR’s given up he’s a keeper without a jam+ rating which he had the year before.

Rendon 3B Clutch rating: Rendon has a big dropoff over his Washington numbers and led the AL in double plays last year but his defense is still strong and that clutch rating still makes him worth a spot.

Devers 3B: Clutch rating With Rendon at 3B & Devers defense not existent one might think he was worth risking in the draft but his powerful bat at DH will complement Abreu & Rendon in a lineup and if Rendon’s decline continues he might even get the starting job next year.

That leaves me two spots left and here are the players who are fighting for them:

Whit Merrifield 2B. While is 2019 states particularly on defense are down his 2020 starts are still pretty good. the real question is: Do I want to spend a draft pick on a second baseman or would I rather keep Merrifield and save the pick for someone else.

Eddie Rosario OF Rosario was one of the heroes of the team last season after the Mookie Betts trade and it was his bat that put the team into the playoffs. His bat is not as impressive this year and the clutch rating is gone but he still has plenty of pop to play with.

Edwin Diaz RHRP Diaz is a pretty solid reliver but not at Hand’s level. Again his stats were down from 2018 but this year they are back up and running.

Eric Hosmer 1b: Clutch rating. Hosmer as always has solid numbers and if it wasn’t for Abreu he would likely have a spot sewn up. He certainly could make a RH DH to platoon with Devers

Javier Baez SS Baez was my #1 pick last season but while is defense shines his power numbers are down for 2020 even if they have recovered in 2021. He is unlikely to take the SS spot from Lindor in 2020 but if kept might be the man in 2021, but is that worth a roster spot.

Anthony Rizzo 1B A mainstay of my team, Abreu’s improved range means he has no chance to start and the degree of depth at 1st makes keeping him a luxury.

Deshields OF: Speed, defense and the ability to bunt (a rare gift these days) are all in his favor but I’m almost certainly going to find a better outfield in the draft even as last as the 7th or 8th round.

Longshots include Josh Reddick, Sergio Romo Adam Plutko and Wade Miley

I’ve got several weeks to make up my mind as to who to keep and who to toss. If you have any suggestions I’ll be happy to entertain them.= in comments.

Five Reasons Why Jersey’s Jack’s Next Machine Should be The Chosen

Posted: August 25, 2021 by datechguy in business, culture, entertainment, fun, pinball
Tags: , , ,
Christ about to deliver the Sermon on the Mount from the Chosen Season 2 finale

One of the great bits of fun about Pintastic each year is to see the new machines that are being released. Some are original, some are licensed. The question is to find a game that would not only make a good machine, but would have a good customer base to start with.

The answer of course is the Chosen. Here are five reasons why Jersey Jack Pinball should consider making a Chosen Machine.

5. Mutually beneficial to both parties

One of the goals of the folks at the Chosen is to expose this series and the message of Christ to as many people as possible, particularly those who might not be exposed to it. As a pinball company one of the goals at Jersey Jack is to expand the hobby exposing it to others. A Chosen Pinball machine would accomplish both. The message of Christ would be spread to a hobby base that while having some Christians like myself in it is not known as a faith base, while Jersey Jack with it’s line of G-PG machines would be an excellent entre to the hobby for those who would like the game.

4. Inexpensive licensing:

One of the biggest expenses for a game based on a movie or TV series is the licensing cost. The Wizard of OZ, the Hobbit and Pirates of the Caribbean all involved licensing costs.

The folks at the Chosen have been giving away the show in order to spread it to as many people as possible, that being the case it is likely that the license cost will likely be nominal for the very same reason.

3. Consistent with Jersey Jack Personal Beliefs:

Jack is known as a solid Catholic and a Knight of Columbus. In speeches at Pintastic NE he has talked about how his wife reminded him of this when deciding what games to make and use. You can’t find a product more in tune with those religious believes than a Chosen Pinball machines.

2. Ready Made Customer Base:

The first thing to consider when making a commercial product is “will it sell” “Is there a customer base for it?”

According to the Chosen website 75,346 people raised $10,000,000 to fund season one and 125,346 people (including 86% of those who funded season one) raised the ten million for season two. On the “Pay it forward” page as of this writing the first five episodes of season three are funded while 21,000+ people have kicked in to fund episode six so far. The chosen has managed to crowd fund $11.85 Million of the 18 million they’ve budgeted toward paying for season three. Over 257,000,000 people have watched the series so far and over 2000 fans showed up from all over the country to be part of the “Sermon on the Mount” scene that ended season 2 and will begin season three.

That’s what I call a customer base.

and finally the #1 reason why the Chosen should be Jersey Jack’s next machine.

  1. It’s practically designed for a Pinball machine!

Pinball machines these days are all about progress toward goals. The chosen is made for it.

Imagine a goal of collecting 12 apostles plus Mary Magdalene (most with video clips for them).

Progressive increases for bumpers are there like the size of crowds in Sychar or for the sermon on the mount, the lines in Syria, the fish in Simon’s boat) and we they haven’t even gotten to the potential stuff in season three like multiplication of the loaves and the fishes Those are made for the bumpers to increase.

Point to point goals. From miracles (Driving the demons from Mary, Simon getting the fish, curing the leper, healing Simon the Zealots’ brother) to meetings (Nicodemus meeting Jesus, getting through the crowd to the roof) traveling from city to city Capernaum, Cana, Syria, Caesar Philippi etc etc etc

Several potential mini-games (making Abagail’s toys,, Simon in a fight, preparing Shabbat dinner, finding Jesus in the crowd at Sychar or as a child in Jerusalem, escorting the taxes, plowing the field, even fixing the axel or fishing for food in season two ).

There’s even potential penalties (Roman taxes that subtract point) or arrests (John the Baptist or Jesus) and ducking the Pharisees.

Moreover there is potential for growth. A game that encompasses the first three seasons can potentially be followed by a 2nd doing seasons four and five as the really heavy stuff that might be tougher for such a game (the final arrest, scourging and Crucifixion are many year away.

The chosen is , as of now, the finest example of an excellent television with small non-cooperate control, combine that with Jersey Jack, the best new pinball makers also with the same small non-cooperate model and you have potential for a winner that will sell long after both men are gone.

It would be educational, inspiring, and most of all for a pinball game, fun!

The business of writing

Posted: August 14, 2021 by ng36b in fun
Tags: , , , , ,
My new book! Get it on Amazon (currently on Kindle and soon to be on paperback)

I’ve written all my life. As a young kid, I would often write letters to the editor for our local paper, typically to fight over points made by some previous idiot other citizen (which hasn’t changed all that much). I wrote plenty of essays and articles in high school and then college. I had to write plenty of manuals, white papers and technical descriptions for work in the Navy. I wrote over 200 pages for my thesis (which the Naval Postgraduate School controls, otherwise I’d give you a link).

It wasn’t until a few years ago I tried my hand at writing for actual money. I went ahead and published a book on Amazon talking about how to travel in the military. I knew it would never be a best seller, since it had a pretty narrow audience. The point in writing it was not to make a lot of money, rather, it was to learn about how to take an idea and compose it into a book that people other than my friends would be interested in reading and actually pay money to read. It did pretty well for being a simple eBook (and its still available if you want to read it).

Writing that book made me learn how to edit. My wife savagely removed every possible passive sentence from my written words. I learned how to edit out the boring parts, shaving sentences until it was all meat and no fat. I realized that readers don’t want long, incoherent run-on sentences (yes, William Faulkner, that means most of your novels suck), they wanted something interesting and meaningful.

But writing took a back seat for a while. In 2016 I spent 54 days in the NICU with our daughter, Rebecca, who struggled to survive from an early emergency birth, multiple heart defects and Down Syndrome. During that time, I found this blog, and since Peter was advertising for new writers, he said I could compete for a spot. So I wrote a piece about breastfeeding in public, which he was surprised hit a strong note with people. Eventually I made the cut and was able to regularly blog about things outside the Navy.

And then tragedy hit. Rebecca died. To add insult to injury, I was supposed to leave in a week to start house hunting for forever home, since the Navy would allow me to homestead to provide consistent medical care for Rebecca. Despite the agony, I went from planning a funeral to hunting for land to build a home. That journey became surprisingly epic in its own right. I learned some hard lessons about home building, the VA loan process, and city government. I nearly lost my house two or three times, yet somehow I was able to overcome those adversities and succeed.

So I decided to get back to my roots and write a book. By now, I realized people wanted to read stories. They wanted a hero to root for, someone who would overcome harrowing obstacles. But they also wanted this person to be relatable, which meant they had flaws that made it hard to succeed in their quest. People that face no challenges are boring and unrealistic.

That’s exactly what you get with my new book, “To Build a House: My surprisingly epic saga in custom home building.” It’s my tale about navigating the world of true custom home building: from picking a blank piece of land to signing forms, fighting the VA, signing builder contracts, sparring with the local city government, nearly pulling all my hair out, and yet in the end making it all work. Like a good movie, it has highs and lows. It doesn’t dwell too long in sad spots, but neither does it celebrate for long before new challenges appear.

The best part is that its all true. I couldn’t have made it up if I tried. I went back and checked timelines and emails to establish when things really happened. I don’t have to exaggerate, because it really was an epic saga to make it all work. Even better, it’ll be part of a series, because I had to stop the book at some point before it got too long. More “To Build” books will be coming.

Writing “To Build a House” taught me much about myself. I’m hoping the finished product will do the same for you.

This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency. “To Build a House” is available now on Amazon Kindle and will soon have a paper and audio-book version.

A Quick Trip to the Western Massachusetts Pinball Club Three Rivers (Palmer) MA

Posted: August 7, 2021 by datechguy in fun, pinball
Tags: ,

Was very busy yesterday but the day ended with a drive to the Western Massachusetts Pinball club located in the Village of Three Rivers in Palmer MA. and when I say “three rivers” I mean that literally the old factory in which the club is located is precisely at the point where the three rivers meet.

Like many old factories they have sub-leted sections to various business, the WMPC is one of them and as you enter by the side door of the factory you will see signs like this one directing you to the club within

Several such signs lead yo to the door

This was my 2nd visit to the club on the occasion of my 1st visit when they just re-opened when COVID restrictions were lifted I talked to the man in charge.

At the time I did this interview we did a 2nd highlighting the machines but alas I had some equipment issues so the 2nd part was done on my son’s phone but the video never got back to me for upload for some reason. My thought was to do the interior interview again but on this second visit the joint was really jumping so I left the men in charge to do their work while I did a quick look see at the machines myself.

The there were a few more games then the last time but several like the Indiana Jones game were in the back under repair. There was also a Virtual Pinball (the family guy game) which allows you to choose from many existing tables. (I put some high scores on the Doctor Who virtual table).

The club is now open two days a week (Thurs & Friday) and asks for a donation for unlimited play. Additionally they have tournaments during the evening so you can get some competition in along with friendly play. The players are entered in the computer which set up random three’s and foursomes on random games to play each other. The bottom two finishers on each game get a “strike”. Three strikes eliminates you so if you enter you are guaranteed three rounds of play (I finished 5th eliminated in round six). It’s lots of fun.

The only drawback to the place is the bathroom, because of the factory layout you have to go out a back door of the club and follow a set of signs to get to it. It’s a bit of a stroll so I would rethink any plan of downing a six pack just before entering the club.

The nominal hours are 6-10 but if a tournament goes beyond closing time (as last night’s did) the hours will extend until the tourney is over.

All in all this is an inexpensive and child friendly environment for a night out. I highly recommend the Western Mass Pinball Club. Their web site is here and their facebook here.

it.

Older Entries
Newer Entries