Before continuing I need to say, this weekend marks 20 years since I started this little blog, which I began because I was in Singapore and everyone I knew was not and they all had Livejournals too so this seemed like an easy way to keep in contact. And now, everyone else has moved on, but I've carried on and now have the longest continuing kind-of public-ish daily performance thing I could imagine doing. Haven't missed a day yet, have had just the one day (the 30th of June, 2012) with two postings, and one deleted post (accidentally scheduled something for the wrong day and didn't notice before it posted). At some point when I noticed I wasn't missing a day I got to thinking, well, when would I break my publication streak? Occasionally I wonder what the circumstances will be for that; will it be illness, injury, old age, worse? Or will I just one day decide I've said all I have to say and don't care for a public diary any longer? Stick with me long enough and we'll find out, though I can't rule out that I won't know.
Back to the run-up to the International Flipper Pinball Association Michigan State Women's Pinball Championship, if the text on the trophy plaque is authoritative. ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyhugger also had to prepare as a player, of course, since she wasn't just running it. (And, someday, the number of people who both play in and officiate tournaments --- and, in some cases, own the venues, and in a handful of cases even design the pinball tables used --- will someday mix with the money involved to explosive effect. Probably not from something bunnyhugger does, though.) Picking out the games she'd want to focus on was one thing. IFPA rules this year said that the games had to be divided into old, middle, and new-game banks, and each round in play competitors would have to pick one game from each bank. So what of the tables at RLM Amusements did she feel good about, either because she had particular skill (or luck) on it, or because she thought other people weren't likely to?
The last-minute scramble of withdrawals wrecked what slight guessing could be done about what tables bunnyhugger's scheduled first-round opponent might be weak on. Her ultimate first-round opponent turns out to have a home venue with a good number of games from eras matching RLM's, if not having the exact same games. One of bunnyhugger's usual strengths is that she's got the vibe of electromechanical games, the ones made up to the mid-70s, and people who've only ever played modern games usually don't. Couldn't count on this here.
Then there's getting rules experience. A game from before about 1990 is easy enough; shoot the ball to the most distant part of the playfield, and if there's a ramp, try to shoot it repeatedly. A modern game has ever-more-dizzying rulesets and bunnyhugger tried reading the explanations TiltForums offers for, like, what all the things you can do on Foo Fighters mean. There's no figuring out all these things. Especially since many of them are important only at the highest levels of play which a tournament game like this isn't likely to reach. Not a mark against the women in the tournament, any of whom I think would have a fair chance of beating me in a best-of-seven match, but just there's different levels of play.
Playing on the actual tables in the venue is the best experience, certainly, and bunnyhugger had some experience from the Grand Rapids Belles and Chimes tournaments held at it. She missed an open practice session the weekend before, as she'd scheduled her own, local, women's tournament. These used to be held on Tuesdays, but she was trying them on Saturdays to make it easier for Grand Rapids women to come play and here was a weekend that nobody would leave Grand Rapids for Lansing.
The week leading up to the tournament RLM had his place open as usual Thursday and Friday nights, and bunnyhugger drove over herself to get practice in. Thursday night she even joined the (coed) tournament, playing alongside many of the people who were going for the state coed tournament on Saturday. She finished mid-pack, which is not bad considering people who got first-round byes in the state open tournament were also playing, and she was only one or two wins away from making it to finals. She finished like eight positions ahead of MWS, too, who would go on to 16th in state finals, and DOM, who'd finish tenth, and TJD, who'd take 24th.
Saturday there would be no practice. RLM Amusements would be closed for the private event of the State Coed Pinball Championship, and only those playing in the championship would be allowed to start a game. We didn't even go to hang out, instead watching the live stream of people playing inhumanly well on the tables. Among other things bunnyhugger needed to get her preparations for class Monday done, so she wouldn't be trying to run a tournament, compete in a tournament, and get four classes ready to go at once. She made it, but it was a close thing.
That's her preparation as a player. How did it go?
So no more Ghostwood Estate. What were we up to at KennyKon at this point in my photo reel, and let me remind you, as of this time we have still not gotten to the park opening for the day? Hope you like Kennywood, because you should, and you're going to be seeing all of it. Not really.
On line for Steel Curtain, which someone overheard the lemon chill guy saying would be up and running soon! It would, too. Here we huddled in what shade there was an picked up a couple items for the Bingo card.
Would you believe that a couple years ago this was Log Jammer, a log flume from the 70s?
And there's everyone's favorite sight in the world: a test train!
More of the test train proving that they could run the ride after all!
We advanced, getting to the part of the queue underneath the netting for catching loose articles.
And here's the view from the Steel Curtain ride of the turnaround for Racer, one of two wooden M&oum;bius-strip roller coasters still in the world.
Trivia: After the first teleconference between engineers and managers from Morton Thiokol, Marshall Space Flight Center, and the Kennedy Space Center at 5:45 pm (Eastern) the 27th of January, 1986, a brief data discussion session was held. In this conference the telephone connections were bad, with people on non-NASA phones (particularly two Marshall Space Flight Center managers who were at home or at a hotel at Cape Canaveral) unable to hear at all. A second teleconference with people at designated facilities was scheduled for a couple hours later. Source: The Challenger Launch Decision: Risky Technology, Culture, and Deviance at NASA, Diane Vaughan.
Currently Reading: The Six: The Untold Story of America's First Women Astronauts, Loren Grush.
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Date: 2024-01-28 04:45 pm (UTC)