THE MAACA DAILY NEWS! Your daily read about YOU,the members!

[cait001]

It never ceases to blow my mind how many other gravity type games of chance and skill there are besides pinball as we know it here. Especially the gambling type ones, my personal favorites indeed

when the pandemic is over you'll have to come check my collection of those

[uberhare]

Guys I think I'm done for now. It's been a long haul, and a lot of fun. However I realize even over the past year even with covid lockdowns, I've barely touched my machines. I have 2 in torn down state of repair that have been this way for years now. Just too many other things on the go in life right now. I'm sure I'll return at some point. Got my 4 keepers I'll never sell, but I've got 3 projects to unload at some point. I may finish them just to sell. Who knows, started a new job in November.

Cheers, it's been fun times! So long and thanks for all the fish.

[R.A.B.]

@ cait001 - thanks for the invite. I know JameSchid would enjoy seeing that eclectic collection of yours as well. In fact, we are also due to visit the Pindude come springtime since his collection is always in flux in the up direction. I am hoping for a springtime visit, but will likely be later during the summer of 2021 when it will be a time for all of us to breathe a little eaiser.

@ uberhare - gonna miss your posts and all the cool stuff you dig up and fix.


Just to re-itterate, because I am getting lots of communications as to whether people can buy parts from Alouette and/or Montreal Pinball these days. The answer is buried in a "parts wanted" post here on MAACA, so I think many people may have missed the relevant info. I have extracted what needs to be appropriately posted here in the Daily News.

In Quebec, we were all suppose to go back to work and school after the holiday break on Jan.11th, but instead were informed of an extended lockdown for non-essential business until Feb 8th in la Belle Province (no not the hot dog place)

So here is what is really going on in the amusement parts business and also about the Alouette end of the line machine sales, if any -

For those who have been e-mailing and calling for parts, and wondering why no one is answering the god-damn phone at Alouette, well, you will be releived to know that we had ourselves an old fashion meeting yesterday, (Jan.11th) in that 70's looking conference room with the nice fake flowers on the table and decided that we will be coming into work as usual for the next month of confinement and we now promise to answer the phone going forward (except Mondays when it is touch and go for who gets to pick up before the dead end/cul de sac answering service kicks in) and will continue to fix shit no matter what it is. I think the point is to stay busy, it always has been, especially since this may be the end of civilization as we have known it. These are at least exceptionally nasty days and keeping busy helps to keep us sane.

(we are down to the real bottom of the barrel now as far as machines are concerned) but we are still shipping parts by Canada Post and keeping busy as per usual, but no counter sales since our doors will remain closed & locked to that rabble of the noobies and the general public who has no idea what is going on when they walk into this time warped space.

Since I don't like the term "curb side pick up", (sounds like a dog defecating on the edge of a sidewalk and/or then just looking for a good time), so yes, please continue to curb your dog, and know that I certainly won't deal with that scene. Yet I can definitely & willingly leave your prepaid well packaged parts order at our front door during business hours when you tell me to. Woof woof.

[Sparky]

Guys I think I'm done for now. It's been a long haul, and a lot of fun. However I realize even over the past year even with covid lockdowns, I've barely touched my machines. I have 2 in torn down state of repair that have been this way for years now. Just too many other things on the go in life right now. I'm sure I'll return at some point. Got my 4 keepers I'll never sell, but I've got 3 projects to unload at some point. I may finish them just to sell. Who knows, started a new job in November.

Cheers, it's been fun times! So long and thanks for all the fish.

I hear you. Not easy. I have sold 9 machines in the last while. Not as fun without having people over.

I used to laugh at the old motto... "It's more fun to compete".... I am not a tourney-oriented person. But I would love to just be around more people. I find that the machines are a grim reminder of what I am missing, and tend to avoid them now.

Stay positive, keep the keepers, and look forward. That's all we have right now.

[cait001]

@ cait001 - thanks for the invite. I know JameSchid would enjoy seeing that eclectic collection of yours as well. In fact, we are also due to visit the Pindude come springtime since his collection is always in flux in the up direction. I am hoping for a springtime visit, but will likely be later during the summer of 2021 when it will be a time for all of us to breathe a little eaiser.

Yeah we could probably offer tours and have people wanting to travel in for a tour of our dual collections LOL

So sad those EM arcade machines are considered bottom of the barrel, someone rescue them!

[R.A.B.]

English will follow.

Aussi bien de l'annoncer ici't puisque je recoit pas mal de demandes pour des pieces via les memebres de MAACA aussi, merci !!

Alouette est fermer j'usqua au moins le 22 Fev. - re: cas de covid a l'interne, tous le monde est correcte en ce moment. Nous avons etait fermer au publique depuis Noel, alors ca vien pas du comptoir ou du showroom.

Vous pouvez me rejoindre pareil ici, ou info(at)montrealpinball.com et bien sur via telephone ou texte (5)3305555

May as well post it in the daily news since I get alot of requests for parts from MAACA members, thanks for that !

Alouette is closed until at least the 22 of Feb, covid case at the staff level. Everyone is doing fine so far. Haven't had any walk in clients since before Christmas, so not from the counter or showroom.

You can still reach me here or via Montreal Pinball - contact email and phone # on website.

Rab

[R.A.B.]

Comic book section without drawings. (True story, ask MrHide, he was there when I was talking to the client on the blower)

This lady calls me for a service call at work. She was referred to me by another industry guy who had said that he was sending me a client that was out of his territory and that I now owed him 20 bucks. LoL.

The first thing I ask the potential client is for the name of the machine, and even though she has had it for over 30 years she has to go downstairs to find it. She finally says that the name of the machine is North Lake. She must have been looking at the apron, so ok. (That's the burb in Illinois where the Gottlieb factory was for a good long time). I then decide to make her look to the backbox explaining in French that this is where the player's points are shown. Do the numbers turn when you start a game or light up like your alarm clock when you turn the machine on ?" By the way, both early solid state and late electromechanical games have "digital" scoring, so I stay away from that term in order to make a clear distinction between the two technologies. Hell, clarity is the path to inner peace.

She said that the numbers turn when the bells ring. OK, that's good. Now that I have her attention on the backbox I ask her to look at the colourful drawing on the glass and again ask her to tell me what the machine is called. I assure her that the name is there, usually written in a stylish font. She answers, "Gottlieb" - OK, damn we know that, so I start to give up and ask her what the drawing on the backglass depicts and hope to get lucky from memory. What are the people in the colourful glass doing ? She said that they are playing pool.

Out of some stupid instinct I ask if one of the guys playing pool is wearing yellow pants. She exclaims "OUI!!"

Needless to say I gladly took on grinning Bob & his yellow square pants.

[cap]

@R.A.B

[R.A.B.]

English will follow

LES PORTES SONT MAINTENANT OUVERTES CHEZ ALOUETTE

Je suis de retour a mon poste ce matin au dept. des piêces et assez occuper avec les commandes et les questions des deux dernières semaines. Pas grave, deja vecu ca plusiuers fois mais je vous demande un peu de patience j'usqua que je me ratrappe cette semaine dans ce qui c'est accumuler en manquant les deux derniers semaines d’ouvrage a cause du covid.


THE DOORS ARE NOW OPEN AT ALOUETTE

Back at my post this morning and overwhelmed with orders and requests from the past two weeks. I have been there before, but I will ask for some patience on the part of the good MAACA members here who have orders and questions pending with me. I should be up to speed by friday from missing the last two weeks of work because of covid.

Merci/Thanks

Robert (Rab)

[mrmikeman]

Bon retour!

[R.A.B.]

Bon retour!

Merci Michel.

Catching up with the pending orders and will be back up to speed by end of day I am sure. Covid sucks, and I relaize how lucky I have been, especially after hearing about Danny. God dam bug, no sense to it at all, some get a cold, some die.

Ordering at Marco and PBR by Friday if anyone needs a part or two.

Please provide part number and qty and price from the supplier, makes it eaiser and faster for me to get the info onto my purchase orders.

Robert (Rab)

[R.A.B.]

So,......all is not well.

https://twitter.com/drmwarner/status/13 ... 21/photo/1

And we can not pray (or maybe we can for the hell of it) to have this context to go away, nor can we totally "aahomm" it under the meditation pillow. Plus, there is no real hiding within the beauty of the moment now is there ? Mostly because this moment is and remains just plain bad. Oh yeah, and mindfulness & acceptance just won't do it either, especially for those of us who believe that we can still have say in the future which lies beyond this virus.

So I made the decision last night to maintain a lower level of wellness in order to remain "in tune" with this nasty context of late. You may ask, "Why would one do that if one is more or less content and settled into their own place of refuge away from the viral storms of the wider world ?" Because remaining in tune with what touches my being and those I care about is more important to me than floating above it all like some spiritual dingbat.

I do not live in the safety of the refuge all of the time, nor can I, very few people do. My decision to lower the bar sort of speak came after talking with a few friends during the past week or so who are having a tough time, mostly because of the pandemic and the nasty array of consequences spewing from it. As for the consequences that the future holds and which will eventually come down the pipe, we have various opinions as to the impact or meaning they will have on what is left of us. It will necessitate a good dose of courage to overcome this period in history, and many are so beaten down in the courage dept. right now that anger, frustration and revolt will likely become the tools of choice.

I figured that since this unhealthy context surrounding our lives can not be written off and/or ignored, the variant levels of our personal well being are just much more subject to the overall context rather than to what individual refuge we decide to embrace and maintain. In other words, trying to create a private heaven is now much more difficult to uphold, especially for the common folks, their "heaven" is not well supported in this nasty context, not for them it isn't. When the context is well, it is easier for most of us to be well, when the context is not good, it is more difficult to be well within it. At best it will demand much more effort and many shielding resources to maintain personal well being when things are not going well around you. Only those who can be disconnected or ignorant of other people's suffering can a private heaven be maintained by sheer turning you head the other way to how painful things have gotten for so many. This is not about blaming anyone for this virus, it is now about calling those who don't care about despair accountable for their often voluntary ignorance. And it should also be about exposing those who are not taking the difficult steps to get to a better context for a larger majority of our populations which good government is suppose to represent. Yeah, right !

And I am tired of hearing about a type of refuge some of the beaten down have found and resigned themselves to via the yoga/yogurt/prayer and/or that meditation fix in order to get the monkeys out of their brains (which is OK), but then claiming mindfulness and acceptance. I have been mostly dealing with some of my lady friends who are gradually turning into philosophical zombies out of deep fears, anxieties and painful uncertainty about the future instead of just taking action. Yes, they are all beaten down to some extent and tired and overworked like never before, paralyzed if you like and put in charge of keeping things together by the man etc. However, the common misuse of the terms, (mindfulness & acceptance) are being held up as the answers to the great woes and difficulties that most all of us are confronted with now. These terms are losing their deeper meaning as we hold them up as a solution to our very real problems that simply demand responsible action. But then again, as someone once said, "whatever gets you through the night."

Still, some of us don't find acceptance to be a solution for everything that just plainly freakin' stinks, it (acceptance) may be necessary for the deeper things like death and sickness and crazy love or even hate, but it is not a cure, nor is it the answer to deep injustices towards others, violence and especially lies that are fashioned to quell what really needs to be done.

As for those who have a handle on their lives, don't let go of it no matter what is offered to you in exchange. Be as compassionate and responsible as you can manage and don't hurt anyone out of anger. We are at our dumbest when angry. Not a lot of people have a handle sort of speak on their freedom these days, lives have become overly complicated because of the pandemic and what it has taken from us, but also because of the piling on of the tasks that were usually done by the businesses & employees you dealt with. Now new jobs, (i.e. the rehiring taking place to replace those that have fallen sort of speak) are called co-vid jobs and are available preferably to the down and trotted and often the young & incompetent, by no real fault of theirs. Big business and greed heads have naturally taken advantage of social distancing fallout and using convenience and health measures as an excuse for many new ways of maintaining revenue and sometimes increasing it by cutting back. Good for them you say, well the cost of living and the inflation that is looming will take away the fucked notion of a living wage for many more than who were struggling just before the pandemic hit on the ides of March 2020.

But thank god that there is the convenience of buying all the things you think you really need on line in order to survive during a lockdown as you wait for the virus to pass, (it may not), but hell let's make sure we keep costs down, retail space is not cheap you know. But in reality, we really don't need anything at all, very little in fact to be well except a peaceful and healthy context for people who understand that they do not stand alone and that they inevitably live in connection with an environment that sustains us for now and that we do make choices every fucking day that affect the system we have learned to endure as normal. Consumerism inhabiting a capitalistic society eventually runs amok on the seemingly limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities.

Deconstruction is too advanced a concept for most human dumb dumbs who like to say "it is what it is, what can I do." And our bullshit consumerism is well seated and is keeping this man made system moving along, while the women weep and meditate and stick their legs behind their necks in hopes to show us the way to a new and better future and pray to a god who has left the scene long ago in hopes that men will come to their senses and stop walking their cocks in defiance of each other with their vile enlarged egos gone astray. How will we ever claim any of what we knew as close to a good normal if we can ever find a way out of this big bag of shit we have gradually been coaxed to slip into.


Forgive me once more, I have been in touch with too many friends who have given up, or are simply getting ready to do so. They are starting to give up on what they have been previously. Some will face up to the changes looming, some will become docile and calm and railroaded. In fact, I shouldn't guess at their outcome, I don't know who they will be as they come out the other end of this thing. Thus, I have decided to face the fucking music. Many have given up already by ignoring what this is period in history is really about, some know what time it is, some don't. We have been here before in many ways and many times.

I am all done writing for tonight on this good Friday, may have to do a morning edit due to the wine easing the thoughts out of my being so please don't bother to respond at this time, unless it is life affirming. I ain't looking for anything anymore, maybe just what is life affirming and if you have anything to say other than that you can.......well, just go and help yourselves to the buffet of lies & the mounds of blame that lie ahead of us if, and when we ever quashed this bug. Either way, it will be messy and a time of great change, many will not be able to accept it.

Robert (rab)

Easter Monday mourning edit complete.

[World_of_Warships]

Just in case you haven't heard, Pinside offline this weekend due to fire. https://youtu.be/yKTa31NAnm0

[frosken]

Just in case you haven't heard, Pinside offline this weekend due to fire. https://youtu.be/yKTa31NAnm0

Those are never fun...

I tried to find additional info, but no luck. I am very interested on this incident as this is my field of work (DC's). There was a huge one (DC fire) in France about a month ago, which was devastating and they're still not back 100%. I guess we will need to scrounge around MAACA a bit more for the next few days...

[World_of_Warships]

Just in case you haven't heard, Pinside offline this weekend due to fire. https://youtu.be/yKTa31NAnm0

Those are never fun...

I tried to find additional info, but no luck. I am very interested on this incident as this is my field of work (DC's). There was a huge one (DC fire) in France about a month ago, which was devastating and they're still not back 100%. I guess we will need to scrounge around MAACA a bit more for the next few days...

Pinside still on the fry..! Someone should contact Robin to see what's up, but huge site with lots of different modules - must be a handful to have everything back up and running.

[World_of_Warships]

Some bit of news on the Pinside landing page, including the fact they ordered a new replacement server..

[mrmikeman]

Also if you check the FB page of the hosting service they state that the servers that are still out will likely be out for several weeks.

Hopefully the replacement server will be adequate in the meantime!

[frosken]

Also if you check the FB page of the hosting service they state that the servers that are still out will likely be out for several weeks.

Hopefully the replacement server will be adequate in the meantime!

And I am fairly confident I know where they are hosted...and what happened...

https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/n ... r-in-utah/

Now as "tragic" as the OVH fiasco from last month (Any Rust players here would know what i'm talking about )

...it sux

[mrmikeman]

The funny thing is the service level agreement states that for every 15 mins of outage they compensate with 1 day of hosting. So every 24 hours is essentially 3 month of free server hosting. We're on day 4 (already 1 free year tallied) and they are stating many weeks still to go. Pinside may get hosted free for quite a few years!

[World_of_Warships]

The funny thing is the service level agreement states that for every 15 mins of outage they compensate with 1 day of hosting. So every 24 hours is essentially 3 month of free server hosting. We're on day 4 (already 1 free year tallied) and they are stating many weeks still to go. Pinside may get hosted free for quite a few years!

There's always some fine script at the bottom..
Plus, just can't imagine how many games Dan won't get to sell now that Pinside is sidelined!

[mrmikeman]

The funny thing is the service level agreement states that for every 15 mins of outage they compensate with 1 day of hosting. So every 24 hours is essentially 3 month of free server hosting. We're on day 4 (already 1 free year tallied) and they are stating many weeks still to go. Pinside may get hosted free for quite a few years!

There's always some fine script at the bottom..

Well if there wasn't before there will be now!

I'm sure there's a limit.

[Sparky]

... to all our Pinside friends...

join us.jpg (28.6 KiB) Viewed 302 times

... and a working server.

[World_of_Warships]

We also have a Bieber and some Mounties!!

justin-bieber-juno-awards.jpg (60.47 KiB) Viewed 288 times

[Azatotht]

... and a working server.

I'm not sure it can support the load

Pretty sure it can't actually

[Sparky]

Well, the ice has melted in the pool. Time to get the pool plaza cleaned up and open for bizzniss.