Pintastic NE Day Three Oh the People You’ll Meet

Posted: April 15, 2024 by datechguy in fun, pinball, special events
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I know I should have gotten this post up yesterday but there was simply too much pinball to play and not enough time to play it so here goes…

Pintastic NE 2024 The Map

Day 3 of Pintastic NE started late for me as I stayed up much later than I expected both uploading videos and getting in a pair of games in my 1972 Dynasty Baseball online league (getting my first series loss of the season by losing two games to the Yankees now tied for 1st in the AL Alpha division)

After a late breakfast I headed to the freeplay room and finally managed to get in line to try the Looney Tunes game.

It’s one of the best game to be waiting to play because you get to watch the old cartoons while you’re in line.

But the game in the free play room I really wanted to play wasn’t The Godfather, wasn’t James Bond or even Elton John, it was Paragon!

Paragon is one of my favorite games hands down and it’s has never been at Pintastic before at least not in the free play room, so whenever it was open (which was not often) I made it a point to play.

After a bit I checked out the homebrew room and found that Brian had fixed this Boarderlands 2 game (it turned out to be a software bug) and had it up and running and what I saw was incredible.

A game whose playfield moves in the X-Y AND Z plane during gameplay? Absolutely amazing!

After another stop in the Tycoon room where the line for the Princess Bride was out the door but the line for Batman 66 which I wanted to play the most was short I headed back toward the Extra Ball Lounge where I saw a familiar face.

Saturday is generally the kids day at Pintastic NE so of course Maggie the Clown would be there again as she has for so many years at Pintastic painting faces and making balloon animals for the tots and others.

At this point I ran into Michael who showed me something that I had never seen at a Pintastic NE a NASCAR racer and team with their car:

While what he said about people being in too much of a rush might be a tad ironic for a race car driver it mimicked what a trucker once told me about his driving philosophy: “I’d like to be 1st, I’m glad to be 2nd but I don’t want a tie.”

Incidentally Michael let me know the next day that there is an unwritten rules against mentioning crashes to a driver during interviews. Having never met a NASCAR driver or team I was unaware of this and I’ll make it a point to observe said rule when they return next year.

This was followed quickly by another sight I’ve never seen at Pintastic, the Sock Fairy:

When the booth was closed late in the evening I saw her getting serious playtime in.

BTW she occupied the space next to what usually would be the Cupcake Lady, who was scheduled to be there but alas had a personal issue pop up while required her to cancel leaving many a sweet tooth unsatisfied.

When I went back to the extra ball lounge the team that produced the Happy Gilmore game that I wrote about for day 2 was there.

And THAT’s when I realized that the lady sitting down behind me as I played Elton John with my son was Reby Hardy and this was the same team that produced the excellent Ferris Bueller Game a few years ago who where back with their new game. They kindly game me a second interview:

It astounds me that I didn’t recognize Mrs. Hardy but what really caught my attention was my conversation with Brian afterwards about the whole personal custom Pinball business. It simply had not occurred to me that the rich and famous who might be pinball fans might order specialty pinballs made for themselves. And the idea of a family having a custom pinball made of a parents life was simply astoundingly clever.

Daniel my son was very interested in playing the Labyrinth pinball game again, having not seen the movie I wasn’t all that excited about it as there were quite a few games I wanted to repeatedly play but as it had a pretty good reception I thought I should give it a try. We were waiting in line when my son noted that the creator for the new company Barrels of Fun was standing right behind me so I jumped at the chance for an interview:

David was rather proud of his game and team and when I got a chance to play as part of a four player group I enjoyed it. After my first ball I noticed them packing up the 2nd Labyrinth game as a family had just purchased it. They graciously consented to an interview was I awaited my next ball:

I admit it now I want to see the movie and I suspect that while I liked the game, I’ll like it even more once I see the picture.

We took some time for dinner and a bit of prayer at a local church that had an adoration chapel (that when I found out about the Iranian attack on Israel but I’ll blog on that later) when we came back it was some serious pinball time, but as I passed the main area I noticed that for the 2nd night there was stand up comedy another first for Pintastic NE. I caught the end of comic Trent Wells set and he gave me an interview afterwards:

It looks like the comedy might return next year as well. I played for a while longer and had intended to get upstairs before midnight but ran into a fellow named Mark who I had met the day before and we chatted an chatted and before you knew it was after 1 AM and I had to head up.

This was actually a common theme of Pintastic NE 2024 for me. Many people came up to me saying: “I’ve seen you at every pintastic but never knew who you are” and introduced themselves. It was quite a pleasure.

I had planned to crash at once but the upload speeds were solid so I uploaded all I could before I could keep the eyes open no longer. It was time for sleep perchance to dream about the final day of Pintastic NE 2024 that would follow.

Media malpractice on the Dexter Reed police shooting

Posted: April 14, 2024 by John Ruberry in crime, culture, media, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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Dexter Reed Chicago Police mugshot. Source: Chicago City Wire.

By John Ruberry

On his Prime Time show last Thursday, Jesse Watters, nailed it when he excoriated the mainstream media over headlines used to describe the deadly shooting of Dexter Reed by a Chicago Police tactical squad last month.  Reed was pulled over for not wearing a seatbelt, which in Illinois, is a legitimate reason for police to pull a driver over. 

A Chicago police officer asked Reed to roll down his front windows, which initially he did, but then he rolled them up, he ignored demands to get out of his SUV, then he fired his gun eleven times, wounding one cop.

Headlines like these, Watters reported, were used about the Reed shooting:

“Black man dead on Chicago street after cops fired nearly 100 bullets.” 

“Police fired 96 shots in 41 seconds killing Black man during traffic stop.”

“Deadly Chicago traffic stop where police fired 96 shots raises serious questions about use of force.”

Watters points out that deep in the story the “journalists” mention that Reed shot as the cops first. 

But the media knows that often users only look at headlines of stories as they appear on their smartphones. They don’t bother to read the stores that accompany these headlines, or they are blocked by paywalls. 

The mainstream media doesn’t want to report the news–it wants to advance a left-wing agenda. Foremost on their agenda is to re-elect Joe Biden so the man who sends mean Tweets, Donald Trump, doesn’t return to the White House. The uproar over the police killing of George Floyd pushed the frail Joe Biden past the finish line in 2020. The media is hoping, with Reed, that history repeats and a new backlash can drag an ever-frailer Biden to victory.

The media, both local and national, is borrowing a page from the Trayvon Martin shooting, by using old photographs of him, of when he was younger and well, cuter. The Chicago media, in their stories, used high school photos of Reed, who was 26 when he was killed.

Chicago’s most-read newspapers, the Tribune and the Sun-Times, have a general policy, instituted in 2021 against using mugshots in stories. Of course, they both made an exception in the case of Donald Trump. The Chicago City Wire, derided as a “fake” newspaper by Chicago’s self-appointed media elite, has no such rule, so it published Reed’s mug shot.

That’s not all. The City Wire reports that was Reed arrested twice in 2023. The first bust was for retail theft, the second was for aggravated unlawful use of a weapon.

The City Wire also revealed that Reed, who once worked as a security guard, received a Paycheck Protection Plan (PPP) loan of $20,832 for his business that consisted of “all other support activities for transportation.”

Thousands of very suspicious PPP loans were issued to Chicagoans during the COVID pandemic, particularly in impoverished areas not known as hubs for business activity, including West Garfield Park, where Reed lived.

Sam Charles of the Trib managed to do some insightful reporting today when he revealed that Reed was shot in 2021.

“I’m physically disabled and mentally unstable with PTSD, short-term memory loss, slurred speech, drop foot in one of my legs, blindness in one eye, shoulder/arm hard to move, weakness and/or sensitivity,” Reed, who was 26 when he was killed last month, wrote in an August 2023 court filing. “With all these medical conditions it has been hard for me to work and/or do certain things.”

Well, if Reed was truthful in that filing, then I have a question: Why did Reed–and as we know, he was arrested for aggravated unlawful use of a weapon last year–have a gun? And where did he get the firearm?

Chicago has among the toughest gun laws in America.

And of course, Reed, despite his troubles, should have known want what to do when police officers pulled him over.

On Thursday’s Chicago’s Morning Answer show with Dan Proft and Amy Jacobson on WIND-AM, John Garrido, a former CPD lieutenant, told the hosts, “This incident, like so many other ones, could have easily been avoided,” Garrido explained, “all [Reed] had to do was comply. All he had to do was roll the window down, open the door, get out of the car, and he would live another day to tell stories about how the police somehow violated his rights.”

Garrido had more to say about Reed. “He was in court–or supposed to be in court–two weeks prior to this incident.” The former cop theorized that Reed possibly was afraid if he was caught by the CPD tactical squad with a weapon, one that he was not supposed to have, that he could have been sent to jail.

Clearly, there is more to learn–and report–about the Reed death. But it appears that the mainstream media cares more about one thing–advancing their left-wing narrative.

As for the Tribune and the Sun-Times–as well as national outlets–why not reach out to someone like Garrido when reporting on Reed and similar police stories?

Note: Proft says he is a principal of Local Government Information Services, which publishes the Chicago City Wire and other local publications.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

Todd Tuckey and Dave Marsden Day two of Pintastic NE

Posted: April 14, 2024 by datechguy in pinball, special events
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For some reason these interviews won’t embed in my 1st post so I’m running them solo here

First Todd

Then Dave even though I talked to Dave first

I have no idea why they’re working here and not there but as long as they work that’s what counts

Style vs Substance in the Navy

Posted: April 13, 2024 by navygrade36bureaucrat in Blame Biden Administration
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When I reported to my first submarine, the torpedo division was responsible for the maintenance of all the small arms onboard. Despite having grown up in a hunting and shooting family, they took me to the range to show me how to shoot both pistols and shotguns in their style, since they needed small arms qualified people to stand watch. A few years later on shore detail, a group of us would regularly visit the nearby rifle range on “Warrior Wednesday” to keep our shooting skills sharp.

Since then it’s become harder and harder to find ranges where you can practice shooting, and there is less “gun culture” in the military now then even 5 to 10 years ago. That’s why this headline didn’t surprise me one bit:

My torpedomen would have never let me do this, at least not without cracking a joke at my expense. There’s even a rumor that the shell casings are photoshopped in, although at a minimum the scope and handguard are mounted incorrectly, plus he’s holding the weapon really high, like uncomfortably high, in his shoulder. Plus, why is there a hand on his shoulder? I don’t normally touch people that are firing automatic weapons.

Sadly, here’s the bigger problem: he’s probably my age. The folks like me that grew up with guns, love our country and care about being technically competent at their jobs have been run out of the Navy, replaced by those that care about climbing a corporate ladder and looking good. This picture captures this beautifully. We see a Navy DDG Commanding Officer, someone who should be technically savvy and have our respect, firing a weapon in what should be an awesome picture, but the minute we look deeper we see someone who has no clue about weapons posing for a cool photo, likely to move on to something else a few seconds later. Those that can do are replaced by those that look good doing and toe the party line.

The next time the DoD cries about money, remember this and start demanding that our Admirals get replaced by real warfighters.

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.

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