Game Time

TACOMA TRIP: Once a year, for a few years running now, we head down to the expo center in Tacoma for an annual big pinball and arcade show.

This Sunday, that was #1 on our to do list. We had a great time as usual. More games than ever before, and lots that were new to us. I'll have CJ tell you a bit more about it.

One pinball game I'd never seen before was Alien Poker. Interesting theme. The playfield was super busy.

It was made by the Williams company, in 1980. I kind of love the font they used.

And what was this?! How was it we've never seen an Elvis pinball machine before?!

Made in 2004 by Stern, it has all sorts of sweet little details.

You can't really see it very well in the photo below, but in the chute where your ball disappears back into the machine, it has a little medallion that says "Elvis has left the building."

The machine has a soundtrack of "See See Rider," "Blue Suede Shoes," All Shook Up," "Hound Dog," "Jailhouse Rock," "Heartbreak Hotel," and "Burning Love," all of them actual recordings from either Elvis' famed "68 Comeback" television special or his fabulous "Aloha from Hawaii" television special.

The only thing I didn't like about the pin was the face on the dancing Elvis. Kinda creepy, definitely not Elvis like.

Fresh off the heels of the disco party we helped host last weekend, this machine caught my eye.

Loved the illuminated mirror ball atop it!

It was a party in a pinball machine.

While I certainly know of "The Hustle," I did not know there variants, like the Tango Hustle and a Boston Hustle. Hmm. ... 

A few of the pinball machines were next gen, with playfields that were just large computer monitors.

I played this Battlestar Galactica-themed one.

It would take some getting used to. The machine 'moves' when you hit flippers and as the (virtual) ball bounces off bumpers and stuff, but there was a lag between pressing the buttons and the flippers working that was problematic to me.

Likewise, this machine Christian played Jaws on was really just a big computer, with dozens of different games. He didn't like the way the playfield was animated, said it was distracting.

We spent a lot more time checking out the vintage machines than the new ones. 

My photo is terrible, but I found the graphics on this Capersville pin intriguing - so very '60s.

Midcentury modern meets the Jetsons, to my eye. The machine was made by Bally in 1966.  According to Internet Pinball Database, Jerry Kelley was Capersville's artist. He reportedly shared that the inspiration for the art for the game was a 1965 French detective movie 'Alphaville,' starring American actor-singer Eddie Constantine. 

We also played a number of stand up consoles. Here, CJ, wearing a Centipede shirt, plays Centipede. 

Below the kids play an old favorite, Bubble Bobble.

For whatever reason, there are in inordinate number of clown-themed pinball machines. 

I don't know who Gigi is, or why she's hanging out with clowns, but I think she should find some new friends. (The game is by the D. Gottlieb company, from 1963.)

There were some driving games, of course, including a fun Super Bug console.

And then there were random old games that were, IMHO, just pretty terrible. This game seemed to have an apt name. How many quarters has it gobbled for so little fun?

Sad graphics from Rip Off.

This old arcade game, Space Encounters, by Midway was pretty fun. The plane-style steering wheel moved in an out to decrease speed and it was surprisingly responsive.

There was always a line at Stern's The Pabst Can Crusher pin, just a couple of years old.

And, of course, we had to play the classic Flash Gordon pin, complete with a soundtrack by Queen.

 Ming was as merciless as ever.

 This  newish-1965 Mustang pin was in the tournament players' only section. 

 We also checked out a cool Houdini-themed machine. Loved the Ouija board 'speller' they included.

 This "Hot Doggin' " machine just screamed '70s. 

The worst game I played all day was something called Trog. It involved a T-Rex who punches its enemies. Um, everyone knows a T-Rex isn't built for boxing.  

Here's what CJ had to say about the show. ...

On 10 June 2018, I went to the Northwest Pinball & Arcade Show at the Greater Tacoma Convention Center, south of us in Tacoma. The NP&AS is an annual event, and 2018 is the event's eleventh year, according to its website. The event featured over 400 pinball and arcade games, dating from the 1950s to this year's releases.

There was a jarring difference in atmosphere between the outside of the room and the inside of the room. Outside, the sun was shining through the windows, and some of the only sounds were coming from a small (think the size of a living room, at most) pinball and arcade section. According to the main page of the event's website (linked above), the NP&AS draws over 4,000 different pinball and arcade collectors annually. Judging by my perception at the event, I believe the "over 4,000 people attending" claim to be true. The event was held in theTacoma Convention Center's 13,400 sq. ft. ballroom on the third floor.

While most of the pinball machines were on the left side of the convention room, most of the arcade games were on the right side. I spent more time in the arcade section, and my favorite arcade game at the event was R-Type II. At one point, Annabelle and I made it to Stage 26 in the original Bubble Bobble. This is the furthest we've ever gotten in the game (100 stages).

At a later point, Annabelle and I attempted to succeed on a Dance Dance Revolution game. Both of us failed terribly due to the fast pace of the required inputs.

Up I-5

FERRY NICE: Last Thursday, we made our way north of Seattle city limits to visit Mukilteo. It had been way too long since we've ventured to that pretty little city.

One of our stops was the Mukileo lighthouse. Granted, it's not the tallest lighthouse ever, but it's an attractive structure nonetheless.

We also wanted to check out the grounds around the lighthouse, as that's where Eric & Judy (Grandma and Grandpa) spend many hours tending to the gardens.

 The orange lilies were spectacular. 

 It looks like Eric and Judy are a volunteer army of two around the grounds.

 We saw ferries coming and going.

 And for a few moments, we fretted about this crow, whose left wing looked weird. 

Fortunately, turned out he was OK. 

A Little History

GETTING CENTERED: On Wednesday after Annabelle's art class, we headed to Seattle Center to supposedly meet a group of classmates to climb around on the cool play structure by MoPop.

As it turned out, only one other student showed up, but CJ, Annabelle and the other kid had fun climbing and swinging and eating syrupy, sugary frozen concoctions.  We hadn't been to this park in too long, so it was a fun visit.

Earlier in the afternoon, CJ and I had a little history lesson atop of Queen Anne Hill. We were visiting the new-ish Trader Joe's there, and noticed this poster on the outside of the building. 

Some of the spots mentioned were familiar to us (QA High School, the library, the bridge, the Farmer's Market, Seven Hills), but others were not. It made us want to check out the Pow Wow Tree, the Presbyterian church, and more.

Inside the store, near the bathrooms, there were some painted posters on the wall about Queen Anne and Seattle history.

Nice touch, Trader Joe's!

VINYL COLLECTION: Recently, during a trip to a Goodwill, we discovered Janice B. had apparently cleared out her record collection (that was the name written on dozens and dozens of albums, mostly from the '70s).

CJ came home with several.

Before that day, he'd not heard of either company. I told him that as a kid, I remember ads for those albums so well. I was so impressed that so many (AM radio!) hits could be on one single album!

Below, CJ tells you a bit about what he learned about the compilation companies. 

In the 1970s (and, to a lesser extent, the 60s and 80s), K-Tel and Ronco were popular distributors of compilation albums featuring several hit songs from varying artists. K-Tel released their first compilation album, 25 Country Hits, in 1966, while Ronco released their first, 20 Star Tracks, in 1972. Throughout the rest of the 70s, K-Tel and Ronco would continue to be rival record labels.

Earlier on in K-Tel and Ronco's time compiling songs for records, songs would often be cut down to 2:30 in length in order to fit all the songs. Later, at the expense of the number of songs, both companies would eventually trim less and less of the songs included on the compilations.

In 1979, Ronco ceased to release compilations, in favor of creating household appliances. Today, K-Tel still releases records (chronicled on the website Discogs).

EVERY ONCE IN AWHILE ... : I need some affirmation of why we're taking this windy road toward CJ and Annabelle's education. Today, this was my inspiration. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

Projects Aplenty

CHECKERED PAST: We're still trying to play catch up from last week's activities.

One of the things the kids did was sew an oversized chess board out of felt squares. Sixty four squares, to be exact.

It was really a great math exercise. Every measurement had to be precise, or else the lines wouldn't, well, line up!

They sewed eight rows together first, and then sewed the rows together. They only had to rip out three rows or partial rows to make it work. ;)

SCENES FROM LAST WEEK: A few leftover shots found on my phone while trying to free up storage space. We were super not proud of our pile on the grocery belt. Enough gelatin to make hundreds of 'Jigglers," ...

and SO much banana pudding (for the Nilla Wafer desert), as well as multi pounds worth of orange drink. 

All of the above was for our " '70s taste sensations" concession stand at the "Saturday Afternoon Fever" event. 

Another item on the 'to do' list last week was updating the calendar at the transitional residence where we volunteer.

We went with a bee theme for June.

I loved all of Annabelle's cute little creations!

IS THERE LIFE ON MARS? News from the Red Planet! NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has identified a variety of organic molecules, the carbon-based building blocks of life as we know it, in 3.5-billion-year-old Martian rocks.

While the results "do not give us any evidence of life," according to Jennifer Eigenbrode, a scientist at the Solar System Exploration Division at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, "but there is a possibility that [the organics] are from an ancient life source; we just don't know," Eigenbrode said in a Space.com article. Eigenbrode added an intriguing thought, "Even if life was never around, they [the molecules] tell us there was at least something around for organisms to eat." 

Another major find by Mars Science Laboratory is that methane concentrations in Mars' atmosphere cycle seasonally. According to the Space.com article, "the discovery suggests that this gas, which here on Earth is produced primarily by living organisms, is seeping out from underground reservoirs."

More info can be gleaned from the online journal "Science."

In Bloom

PRETTY THINGS: This is MPA's first spring in our new-to-us house, and we're enjoying watching our yard come to life. 

The home's previous residents must have loved flowers, because they are all over our yard, in great volume and variety.

These crazy looking things have started popping up all over.

We had no idea what they're called, but fortunately my Facebook friend Jason is a landscape designer, and he let us know they're Kniphofia or "red hot poker."

Jason reports "they're a pretty common plant," and I believe him, as I've seen them all over the neighborhood.

There are also there crazy yellow, multi-tiered flowers everywhere.

Another Facebook friend of mine shared my photo to a plant identification group and learned they're hlomis russeliana, also known as Turkish or Jerusalem sage. 

Yet another friend warned me the Turkish sage might 'take over,' and suggested I pull it. Hmm, I'm going to have to read up on that. I rather like the Seussical looking plants.

Out back, we also discovered this crazy leafed wonder. 

Get past the green and you find this wild purple blossoms with what look like black swords sticking out of them. Friend Jason says "it's a type of arum Lily."  Yet another friend posted a photo of black lilies, and that's exactly what these look like. Mystery solved!

From Wikipedia, I learned they're formally called Dracunculus vulgaris (Dragon Arum). How cool is that - we have DRAGON lilies!

These pretty little clover-like lovelies below are hidden away under other plants. They look kind of like butterflies to me.

This towering flower I knew to be foxglove.

 Super cool looking, but also very toxic.

 We have pink ones and white ones ... 

 And we'll have to wait and see which color this one is.

I'm more of a 'plants you can eat' person, so I'm happy that we at least have some rhubarb.

 It looks very healthy!

 Check out CJ's stalk. We look forward to making a dessert with it!

There is also a fig tree. Though it's rooted in the neighbor's yard, lots of branches hang over into our space. We can't wait to pluck some figs this summer!

All in all, we had a fun 'field trip' in our own yard, and it was cool how through my Facebook friends we were able to crowd-source info about our plants! (Oh, that reminds me, the amazing pink flowers at the top of the post are a succulent called delospermum, or "ice," per Jason.

I Googled the flowers, and on a site called Hostasdirect.com, I read that they're called 'hardy ice' not because they withstand the cold temperatures, but due "to the appearance of the flowers and leaves, which are said to look shimmery as if covered in frost or ice (in reality, they are covered in hairs that reflect and refract light in a manner that imitates sparkling ice." No wonder they're so shimmery in this photo.

ON THE HORIZON: We learned on Tuesday that the mission operations team for NASA’s New Horizons probe has awakened the piano-sized spacecraft from its robotic hibernation. The reason for the wake up call? Hew Horizons is scheduled for a January 1 flyby of an intriguing object on the solar system’s edge, known as 2014 MU69 or Ultima Thule.

To date, New Horizons is most notable for having flown past Pluto in 2015, and returning stunning photos of that far away planet. (Yes, I said it! I'm of the age where we were taught our solar system has nine planets!). 

Anyway, New Horizons confirmed its wakeup call with radio signals received at 11:12 p.m. PT Monday. Hooray! (It had been in resource saving mode since last December!) Mission Operations Manager Alice Bowman of APL reported that the spacecraft was in good health and operating normally, with all systems coming back online as expected.

We learned that Ultima Thule, the focus of the follow-up mission, is a billion miles beyond Pluto and more than 3.7 billion miles from Earth in a region known as the Kuiper Belt.

We couldn't help but wonder, out of all of the bodies out there in space, why is NASA targeting Ultima Thule?

An artist’s conception shows NASA’s New Horizons probe silhouetted by the sun, with the Kuiper Belt object known as Ultima Thule or 2014 MU69 dominating the scene. (NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI / Steve Gribben)


It’s thought to be an icy object much smaller than Pluto, and preliminary long-range observations suggest it could consist of multiple objects.

CJ did a little digging and learned that Ultima Thule is estimated to be about 30 kilometers long. The closest distance New Horizons will come to MU69 is expected to be reached on New Year's Eve 2018.  From an article in New Scientist, CJ found out that MU69 has been chosen for study because its distance from the sun means that it has been in deep freeze since the solar system's early history. The composition of MU69 may reveal facts about the early solar system and its formation.

We'll definitely be following along on New Horizons' latest assignment!

Do the Hustle

BOOGIE SHOES: Last week was one of our busiest on record. So. Many. Things.

The biggest thing was helping host an auction/dance party/concession stand on Saturday afternoon. We've been working for months to gather auction donations, and I think the grand total of items available Saturday was over 80. 

One of the biggest challenges regarding the event was getting a big disco ball to hang from the cafeteria ceiling ... which, unfortunately, is made out of concrete. That meant it wasn't a matter of simply using a few good sized screws. Instead, Christian rigged up a device using four big clamps around a concrete beam on the ceiling. Fortunately, it worked well, and the room was transformed by the mirror ball and spotlights. It was fun seeing the looks on kids' faces when they saw the dancing lights.  I manged to not take a SINGLE picture of the set up or the event, if you can believe that. All I have to remember the event is a post-party photo of my 70's shoe and my snazzy galactic bell bottoms. :)

The primary reason I have no photos is I was too busy working in the kitchen, where we were making about 100 wiener wraps, 20 pounds of homemade "Hamburger Helper," and buckets of banana pudding for Nilla Wafer banana pudding desserts. (Can you tell the menu was '70s themed?)

Hopefully some of my friends have photos of the room. I'll have to ask around. ... 

UP AND AWAY:  On Sunday night, we tuned in to watch SpaceX successfully launch the SES-12 satellite to a Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO) from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. Liftoff occurred at  9:45 p.m. our time, and the SES-12 satellite was deployed about 32 minutes after liftoff.

You can watch a replay of the launch webcast below and find out more about the mission. 

https://youtu.be/2hcM5hqQ45s

FOR FUTURE REFERENCE: Today, a friend posted to Facebook about a series of short, geology-related videos by Central Washington University geology professor Nick Zentner.

In 2015, Zentner received the prestigious James Shea Award, a National Association of Geoscience Teachers award recognizing exceptional delivery of Earth Science content to the general public. 

Zentner has a number of different video series. I think we're going to start with "Nick on the Rocks," which features Zentner taking viewers on "armchair adventures" through Washington’s diverse landscapes, including massive lava flows, the planet’s biggest Ice Age waterfall, and a flank of Mt. Rainier that traveled to Tacoma.