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

Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2018 2:41 pm
by cdnpinballer
Acceptance is key. Especially accepting situations that you have or had no control. Possibly the Keyest of keys.

So is forgiveness, another key trait. And moving on and on.

"I don't live in the past, we're not headed that way." (some guy said that one time).

"You may not know it now son but everything happens for a reason, trust me, you'll find out why soon enough". (some other guy said that one other time)

Enjoy the heat wave guys, I'll be snowing in no time...

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

Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2018 3:35 pm
by R.A.B.
cdnpinballer wrote:Acceptance is key. Especially accepting situations that you have or had no control. Possibly the Keyest of keys.

So is forgiveness, another key trait. And moving on and on.

"I don't live in the past, we're not headed that way." (some guy said that one time)
I understand everything Lee wrote or quoted above, but man, when I see where we are headed without really knowing anything at all, living in the past sure as hell feels good to re visit when you feel that where we are headed is going to take a busload of acceptance, forgiveness and faith to just get by. The thing about the past is that you can't change it and it won't mess you up as much as the unknown since you can change its (the past) meaning and sort of control it. You can control the present to a certain extent, but the future, forget about it baby. That is the tense you have the least control or influence on, and that may be why many many people are having anxiety issues and why yoga and meditation are much more popular in the western world than hitherto, especially with women who are the first to usually detect trouble since they are the ones who keep this story going for the most part and are the guardians of the future in a way while alot of powerful men are very good at destroying it. Did l just say that ? The future is precarious, so men plow and women sow. Did you know that some animals don't reproduce if their environment isn't favorable. Well, ..... go figure. Not alot of new kids on the block these days in America.

Please read the above with a grin. I am just having fun speculating as I sit at the North Star, a comforting place for me that makes me feel like I can control part of the past and the present making me feel ok. Making this place real for shits and giggles and reasurance was important to me. I can see that people have not changed when it comes to having fun regardless of what seems to be a wacky age we are living in. We still all believe in having fun regrdless of the acknowledged past, the flux of the present or the unkown/uncertain future.

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

Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2018 3:47 pm
by WARLOCK
I'm an eternal optimist despite any cryptic posts of the past, and the future.
And I will lead towards a direction that is a sunrise or a sunset, when required.

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

Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2018 3:52 pm
by WARLOCK
And I wish and long for the "stool at the North Star" that eventually will come...
I love progression; "Sparky bro" and your enthusiasm of youth, and technical prowess...

That prowess and the love the "philosophical chair" of our eldest brother R.A.B. drive me forward.
There are many more of us, dozens, perhaps "ah" 100-200-300 of us or more that are brother's progressing, at minimum...

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

Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2018 4:03 pm
by R.A.B.
There is life. We know that.

What is the next big thing we need to do once we have accepted the above ? That is the question. What will we build and/or create that is bigger than us alone ? Are we able to take the responsibility to create beyond our own capacities now that we find ourselves alive ?

The North Star just opened, so I got to go and "be" there.

R.A.B.

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

Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2018 5:27 pm
by cdnpinballer
The only things good about the past are the good memories and learning from mistakes.

Making a mistake is fine except if you make the same mistake again in the future. 'Should have learned the first time'.

Like when you install the head of a pinball machine but the cord is still in the cabinet.

A guy with strong faith said something to me yesterday. He said when you read someone's tombstone there are usually 4 parts. The person's name, their birth date, a dash and their date of death.

The dash is the most important part. Make the most of the dash.

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

Posted: Sat Jun 30, 2018 5:21 am
by Guard
I'm more of a "start the game with the ball in your pocket" kind of guy then a "can't put the back on because I forgot to place the cord properly" one.....

And everytime i laugh at how I managed to forget again......

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

Posted: Sat Jun 30, 2018 11:11 am
by Guard
Not far from pin to pool....

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

Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2018 7:58 am
by R.A.B.
Up early today after a good work day yesterday. Client picked up his working BLY "Hocus Pocus" from the shop we set up on JamesSchid's first floor workspace in the Plateau. It is always rewarding to see the client get so excited once they play the game for the first time in years and everything is working as it should. Not only are they happy to pay, they are smiling the whole way through.

Took an early morning drive around Griffintown and drove by the Crane building and remembered a bunch of stuff. It never ceases to amaze me how the meaning of things change through time. Everything is always in flux.

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

Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2018 10:53 pm
by R.A.B.
Hot enough for ya ? It is going to get hotter, and this is good for business.

Will be going stir crazy tomorrow for sure, stuck inside I reckon. Went out today and poured sweat within 10 minutes on the way to visit my mother who still makes me nervous by the sheer energy she harbours at 87. Damn that lady is something. Hats off !!

Think I will catch a movie tomorrow with my neighbour (La chute de l’empire américain) since my Premier card from my ex-employer is still valid at any Cineplex in Canada so getting in past the ticket booth is free, but popcorn isn't, unless you can fork out a certain amount of pocket change, i.e. toonies. I think the movie theaters will be full tomorrow, and that may bring their shares up for a while.

Where the rubber meets the air or where the rubber meets the road ? Where do you want want to leave your mark ? We hopefully have learned what is hype away from what we can see as for real. Hell, there is no going back to hype and appearances for me, I am done with that. I trust myself to do what I know how to do. I do not need a new augmented reality, the one where the real work gets done suits me just fine.

RAB
Tiny & Don. For real man, go east 'cause it feels more real.
Tiny & Don. For real man, go east 'cause it feels more real.

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

Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2018 10:52 pm
by OTTOgd
Finallee compleetd my 'Tri-Speak-&' collekshun 2day with Speek & Speld ! *phew*

Game on!

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

Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2018 4:26 am
by WARLOCK
My younger brother...
And my older brother...
Are both far more clever than I am...
I'm still running around like an idiot/ant/peon...

Results pending my brothers...
More soon, heat depending...

Cheers/Salut .........

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

Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2018 7:56 pm
by R.A.B.
WARLOCK wrote:My younger brother...
And my older brother...
Are both far more clever than I am...
I'm still running around like an idiot/ant/peon...

Results pending my brothers...
More soon, heat depending...

Cheers/Salut .........
Hell, in this heat, I don't know which one of us is more clever. I reckon that we are all fools and fodder to electricity and cool water these days, especially as we cross middle age which is already making us stupid by the sheer force of things, and add to this losing our energy and gumption and testosterone. I am totally zonked from the past days of heat, and even though I am still able to function, I really would just like some cool air other than what comes out of an air conditioner, that dry and sterile coolness that holds no smell of summer and of real life. Man made crap blows. Let mother nature sit on your face instead when she isn't as angry as she is these days. Man it is hot out there and this may be a consequences of something industrial man refuses to admit. It's a good thing that Trump says it ain't so, I am really putting all my faith in that screwhead these days. Again, the heat, the heat is making me believe things out of sheer zonkiness.

There is no way I can be outside for more than an hour at a time before realizing that I am unable to make a smart decision, say the right thing, or act accordingly with something or other that asks for my help.

Fawk !!

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

Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2018 9:16 pm
by R.A.B.
All in all it was a little less humid today in Montreal than last week, but that is not what I really want to report here, it is just the usual preamble to today's news. People talk about the weather in elevators and such, but here I am mostly a weatherman in winter as some of you may have observed over the years when I am looking for an explanation as to why I feel the way I do in that season. Summer should remain for the more colourful nature of our beings, and I am chalk full of that I tell ya.

And I would also like to state that the idiom, "no news is good news" only applies to mainstream media, and this is not what we have here on The MAACA Daily News. We are of another and different inclination. I work hard at this and I hope you folks will make the attempt as well.

At work today I made serious headway at the purchasing and sales levels, and had the pleasure of seeing two great MAACA members and friends who came in to help with in house repairs.

Chnill came by on his day off from his square job to help with system 80 circuit board repairs and displays. We talked about lots of interesting stuff as usual. Cybercid came by in the afternoon to help with a Need for Speed computer that needed some encouragement, and also expressed some great ideas about life itself. And this is my point. There is so much talent here on MAACA that we can not afford to be segregated by any borders or quick judgments. This industry will never be as big as it was, but the diversity may compensate soemhow. We have the ability to fix machines from the 40's to the 21st century in our relatively small group of freaks. Back in the 70's and 80's when the industry was as big as Hollywood, there was no such wide spread knowledge in such a small group of people, or was there, and did they know eachother as friends ? Did they understand that everything would change faster than the climate ?

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

Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2018 10:33 pm
by cait001
always appreciate photos of bingo guts

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

Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2018 9:02 pm
by R.A.B.
Last Thrusday I brought Joanna (one of the best & latest apprentices at the North Star) to work with me at Alouette. The deal was for her to do a complete playfield clean up on a Bally "Bow & Arrow". My boss told me that this gane was a basket case and that no one there could fix it properly. Well, I fixed it two weeks ago and could never find enough time away from my duties in the parts dept to do the playfield clean up before it goes to the showroom.

I asked the service manager if I could bring in Joanna to do the playfield grunt work in exchange for parts that she needed to refurbish the WLL "Time Warp" I brought back for her from Pincon. Pierre said OK after he saw the list of stuff Joanna requested, and she did a fabulous job making Bow & Arrow look as good as it could. She got a bag of rubber rings, lamps, casters, leds, bananna flippers etc.

She also brought a young energy to this old shop and the other techs appreciated her good energy. I tell ya, I am never working for a big corporation ever again when see good synergies jive like this. Everybody profits from these types of deals, not just the greedhead shareholders and I truly believe that this is how things grow organically. I work hard at making everyone win and in the same vain I want to take this opportunity to thank all those MAACA members who are buying parts from me, - you guys are voting for something different and more real everytime you place an order, you are the ones who will keep this parts dept and knowhow alive.

HUGE THANKS - I think we may be on to something here that can not be calculated by the corporate accountants.

Hugs,

Rob

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

Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2018 8:18 pm
by cait001
that's so lovely to hear, RAB!

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

Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2018 6:21 pm
by OTTOgd
Watched Incredibles 2 (which was pretty good!) with wife-n-kids at Silvercity Brampton and then played the only pin thanks to a free credit! Game played well! ... but I didn't, darnit.

Game on!

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

Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2018 8:06 pm
by R.A.B.
Apparently air conditioning is pretty determental. It seems to increase that subtle slow rising "dumbness" that I am experiencing from this extremely hot and humid weather of late. Someone told me that recently, and I can't rememebr who right now, but they said that I should drive my car these daze with the windows down instead of the AC blaring and to turn the ac down at home. I was told this one more time after I parked my car the wrong way at work today and almost drove it into the garbage container. Like most of us, I look for places that are cooler, which these dyas are indoors, and yet, I hate staying confined inside in the Montreal summers. So I am a prime subject to becoming a fluttering dumbass who can't make a smart decision or park a car properly lately from moving into different weather zones.

So tonight you folks get to here the rambling of a heat/cooled raaaab. Isn't this what the daily news is for ? - to keep us informed about eachother and the community of errors, successes, mishaps and joys of our passions which our memories will surely incite something or other to boot in our brains ? (Fawk, did I say that or just think it?) Hell, I don't feel the deep passions of my youth about pinball anymore, yet I remember them so clearly that it hurts me and torments me to no end. It is like heroin, you know that it is bad for you, but it feels so damn good. Tricky shit.

Let me tell ya about a Bally machine from 1958 that I thought I owned in 1991. The cabinet stood in storage position on the right side of the cement wall of my grandmother's garage, it was the first one in that row. And when you opened that wooden green door with an illco key, there it was at first sight upright and headless. The garage door was very heavy, even for a younger man since it was made of solid wood when the house was built back in 1969. Once opened in 1991, it revelaed 16 woodrails plus some partials that I had bought for approx. 135 bones each from Rattelle Amusmenets in Joliette through Paul Campeau, an old time operator - god rest his soul since he was a real bastard. There were 32 woodrails and some 1960's machines in the lot which I split with a collector buddy at the time, Ron Gratton, god rest his soul cause he was also a bit of a bastard as well. I was young and eager and full of dreams about what I would do next once I got these 16 pins and partials under my roof, and I sort of knew that I would become a bastard as well near the end of my life.

I looked up my files and these were the games -

GTB Dancing Dolls
GTB Silver
WLL Ten Spot (still have this one somewhere)
WLL Sattelite
GTB Rainbow
WLL 1957 Deluxe Baseball (got stolen)
WLL Fast Ball
GTB High Diver
CCM All Stars
GTB Wild West 1951 (to Steve Young)
GTB Niagara 1951 (to Steve Young)
WLL Skill Pool 1952
WLL Skill Pool 1963
GTB Universe
WLL 4 Bagger
GTB Super Jumbo
WLL Top Hat (cabinet only)
GTB Super Circus (head only)
BLY All Star Deluxe Bowling (cabinet only)

This story I want to tell is really about the last item on this list. She came back into my life on Sunday, and I am too stupid from the heat and the cold right now to tell the story properly, so it will have to wait. Life is a circle jerk.

Air conditioner off tonight, windows open desipte the over night rain and a day to sleep in tomorrow should set me striaght. Also a date with my neighbour on the 9th floor tomorrow night. She is the one I was discussing the winter blues with during the last endless winter in the elevators. Be careful what you wish for, make sure it is good, cause if it ain't it will happen anyway by the sheer will of your disposition.

Hugs,

Rab

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

Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2018 7:55 pm
by R.A.B.
So now that it is cooler outside and inside, I can tell the story of the 1958 Bally Allstar Deluxe Bowler without sounding like a whack job.

So I had the cabinet, only the cabinet for this game back in 1992-3 or so, and I needed the backbox. I thought this think was shithouse, just baller.

Every summer a fellow collector and woodrail nut job named Steve from Toronto would rent a 16 foot truck and drive to the Maritimes to fill it up. He always would make a stop in Montreal and come to see me, hang out and shoot the shit. This is before the internet invaded our lives and things were more real and less misunderstood when you could look someone in the eyes when they spoke. Otherwise we would communicate by phone and snail mail when we had lists of stuff we were looking for from eachother, but when we talked in person it was the best. So one summer in the early 90's I asked him to look for a backbox for that bowler on his yearly trip to the east coast. And when he drove back through Montreal on his way to Hog Town his truck was loaded with woodrails and crates & crates of old parts, and sure enough he had a backbox for a Bally 1958 Deluxe Allstar bowler for me. I gave him the 50 bucks he asked for and also bought a some old parts I needed from his truck. Those were the days when things were easy peasy. I really yearn for those times.

So jump forward to to 2018. I am at the MPL at P1AG and talking to Pat01. Told him that I was looking for some cool oddball & older machines that I can operate at the North Star for the young hipsters who feel intimidated by pinball machines as too complicated to play and understand. Well, Pat had been sitting on a Bally bowler for the past four years that he got from a liquidation estate deal. I asked him for more details about it and he said that it looked great and that the cabinet repaint was perfectly executed. Even though he couldn't come up with pics or the name of the machine he owned, I had a sneaking suspicion that we were talking about a Bally bowler with the balls enclosed under a glass. These are not common, most ball bowlers do not have the balls under a playfield glass. So I start reeling in the years and remembered that the one I had decades ago was sold to a collector in St. Eustache named Rollie years prior. Rollie had gotten into collecting coin-op stuff because he fixed air conditioners for a living and had Wildtron Amusements as a client. Hence, this caused him to fill his family home with all sorts of amusement and gambling equipment. I sold him the complete unrepaired/unrestored Bally Allstar Deluxe Bowler (replay version) for 300 bones, and a couple of years later when I visited him before moving to Toronto for Laniel Automatic, I was totally blown away with the job he had done in bringing this beauty back to snuff. It was perfect and I was very much impressed with his restoration skills. Later, as fate would have it, his wife divorced him and got all his stuff, cleaning out all his passions, including the bowler.

So now, 20 + years later I think this may be the one Pat has and which I am looking to operated at the North Star. If the serial numbers for the cabinet and the backbox don't match, this could likely be the one I had in the 90's.

So I went up to see Pat on Sunday to check the game out since it had stopped working when he had brought it home 4 years ago and I wanted to know if all the parts for the complex turret launcher where there. It is a real piece of engineering from Bally, very unique and I knew it. When I finally got it to fire the 3 inch balls out of the catapult, I decided to close the deal. It will make a fine addition to the North Star line up this fall.

By the by, Rollie had done such a good job on the cabinet repaint and texturing that the serial numbers normally stamped on the front side of the cab and backbox were non visible when I tried to find them at Pat's place. They had been filled in and painted over so well, that there was no trace of either one of them.

This mystery remains unsolved and this game continues to amaze me.




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

Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2018 9:06 pm
by cait001
Wow! Never seen one quite like that, thanks for sharing. How heavy are the balls? Must be one heavy-duty turret to fling them like that.
Can't wait to see it on location!

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

Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2018 9:52 pm
by R.A.B.
Not feeling so shit hot these days due to catching a summer cold. Shitty feeling, but what ya gonna do. And since this is a temporary hassle I don't even know why I mention it.

Lots of interesting stuff coming up this week and lots of work to go along with it.

Monday - work at Alouette
Monday night - finalize the WLL "Baraccora" as the 8th machine for the upcoming weekend event at Heavy Metal Montreal.
Tuesday - service call on the south shore
Wednesday - work at at Alouette along with Joanna so she can clean up and refresh the GTB "Atlantis" wedgehead I set up on Friday
Wednesday night - meeting with Josh at the North Star to discuss the OPGS 2018
Thrusday - install Heavy Metal Montreal's 6 container pins at Parc-Jean Drapeau for the public, and two pins for the bands backstage. Hell, I get to drive the big truck, not.
Friday - work at Alouette and see my small family off on vacation.
Weekend line up check at the North Star in the A.M. and on call for any issues at the Heavy Metal fest that runs until Sunday
Sunday - tear down and haul the 8 machines back to the North Star shop.

Monday - back to Alouette and some rest.

That is all.

Rob

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

Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2018 8:18 am
by redketchup
Hey Robert

Dis moi si tu es au Heavy Montreal... je serai la tout le week-end et je passerai dire bonjour!

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

Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2018 8:50 am
by R.A.B.
redketchup wrote:Hey Robert

Dis moi si tu es au Heavy Montreal... je serai la tout le week-end et je passerai dire bonjour!
Je vais etre la pour l'installation demain (Jeudi) et sur appel pour le reste de la fds. Tu sais que je t'aime bien red, mais j'éspere ne pas avoir a y aller a moins d'un probleme de machines que mes apprentis ne peuvent pas régler, pas la sorte de place pour moi, trop de bruit, trop chaud, trop de monde débile, excepter toi bien sur. :lol: :FP:

Le container de 20 pieds du North Star - Machines à Piastres va avoir -

Monday Night Football
Jungle Queen
World Cup Soccer
PinBot
Upper Deck (baseball)
Baracorra
et une machine a change.

Robert

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

Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2018 9:08 am
by redketchup
Je comprend... c'est ma sortie métal annuel depuis 6 ans maintenant... si tu m'avais dit quand j'avais 16 ans que j’écouterais encore autant de métal a 45 ans... je t'aurais jamais cru! LOL

Alors en espérant ne pas te voir ce weekend!