Golden State Flippin'

Next week is the Golden State Pinball Expo in Lodi, California. This is my third year attending, I’ve considered it can’t miss since the first. Three days of free-play pinball for a 60-dollar pass on the Lodi grape fields. It’s a chill time and there will be 300-350 machines to play, plenty of them harder to find. All of the new games are there as well, this year Stern will have King Kong available and I P3 will have Portal. I’m interested in how P3 tables feel now that they have more modular attachments available for their machines. This will be Vani’s first year going! Our friend Kevin will be joining us as well and we’ll fly up and meet our friend Schuyler. I’m looking forward to it!

I started painting the Battlemech miniatures I picked up last week. It’s a fun learning process. Some are turning out better than others. I’m trying to find that sweet spot when it comes to thinning my paints. The good news is that mechs are dirty, beat-up machines and look fine with a less-than-perfect paint job. I often have a mental block with hobbies where “if it isn’t perfect the first time I will be awful forever”. I’ve been doing a lot of work to get over that and this miniature painting is a help.

As far as video games go I’ve started to cool down a little on Monster Hunter after the Blossom Festival. Still love it, but I’ve got ~200 hours in it and I’ve got other things I want to play and do so I’ll be on there sporadically until the next event or update. Trampoline Tales, the developer of Luck Be a Landlord, put out a new game this past week called Maze Mice and it has been a time sink. Vampire Survivors mixed with Pac-Man CEDX(...II?) for those that like comparisons. I’ve also started playing The Nonary Games port on Steam. They’re a nice way to play something passive.

OK! Happy Birthday, Patrick! Go Warriors, for his sake.   

- Ian