At The Closing Of The Year

[austin_dern]

I'll get to the story in good order but the headline is pretty astounding. We went to a proper pinball tournament on Sunday, the last one held in Michigan for 2014, and I did shockingly well, for me: I'm one of the three people tied for fifth place, which, for International Flipper Pinball Association rules is registered as a tie for sixth place. It also gave me a stunning number of points, launching me to the 2294th player worldwide as registered by the IFPA, and the 31st in Michigan. And that's just staggering; I didn't have any IFPA existence a year ago, when we were just starting in one league and when, really, I was a vastly worst player.

But now out of nowhere ... well, as of today I'm apparently one of the four alternate players named for Michigan's state championships, which I think is in early April in a place on North Squirrel Road. If I'm reading things right. I'm not sure. It also gives me a bunch of player-versus-player standings; as of this moment there's four people I've lost to every time, one person seven times. But I must admit, I've got more head-to-head wins than losses.

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Meanwhile, my humor blog continues apace, at an article a day. Would you care to read some of them? Run the past week have been:

• Toying With Me, this week's major piece, based on not just seeing Toys two decades after everybody else didn't, but also the surprising aftermath. rapidtrabbit gets an implicit mention.
• Statistics Saturday for the New Year, or December Anyway, reviewing how the humor blog did in December 2014.
• On New Year’s Eve In The 24th Century …, there's just a little Caption This! moment.
• Mandrake Gets More So; Also, Math Comics, pointing to my mathematics blog and to a Mandrake the Magician panel with interesting-looking robots.
• Simply Having, reviewing some of what I learned about Christmas this time around.
• Statistics Saturday: What I Should Be Thinking About Versus What I Am, and yes, Malcolm McDowell is in there.
• Popeye: Crystal Ball Brawl, another example of the 1960s Popeye run, from the last of the studios that worked on that big glut of cartoon production.
• Why This Mouse Situation Doesn’t Need Controlling, last week's major piece, inspired by an advertisement which offers to kill adorable mice for us.

Trivia: Lee DeForest arranged a January 1910 wireless broadcast from New York's Metropolitan Opera House, of Cavalleria Rusticana and I Pagliacci, featuring Enrico Caruso. Source: Wondrous Contrivances: Technology at the Threshold, Merritt Ierley.

Currently Reading: Rousseau's Dog: Two Great Thinkers At War In The Age Of Enlightenment, David Edmonds, John Eidinow.