Okay so last time I cleared up the Alaska thing. Now I wish to write about pinball. It's an obsession of mine.

First of all, my theory on pinball and most people is this: People never really think about pinball (it is a dying thing, and a dying art) and when they do, they probably just pushed 50 cents into a machine out of boredom. Then they play it, do horribly, and get pissed because it seemed like such a rip-off. This is not giving pinball a fair chance. Pinball is actually a great thing. First of all, it's way harder to make a pinball machine than a video game-arcade type thing, so that makes it way more luxurious than some crappy video-game.

Being bad at pinball is, well, bad. Being good at pinball is good. Being really great at pinball is really great. It's proportional, so if you get good at it, you can have tons of fun.

Also what you might not realize is that pinball is a serious thing. People play in tournaments all the time. Go to sternpinball.com. They have tournament listings. Those are still happening today. (Stern is the only company that still makes pinball machines) People are really, really good at pinball. I mean really good. Like I got like 215 million points on this machine, and that was the best I could do at the time. It's still probably the high score on that machine. (I have tons of highscores all around my town, which is a great feeling) Anyways, it ends up the actual highscores ever are like 10 billion. So that gives you perspective.

Once you get good, a new pinball machine is the best thing ever. There's a place called Lyons in Colorado (pronounced like lions) that has a place jammed fulla pinball machines. That's my heaven.

Also people think that pinball is a rip-off. Well it does take some of your money, but you can get more and more out of it the better you are. One time I played a playboy machine, put in 5 credits worth of money (which is 2 dollars, and it's 1 game for every 50 cents, so the 2 dollars gets you a free credit, which is a three ball game) and left a half hour later (I got kicked out) with 8 credits. I actually went up. And then I got a 2 dollar refund. So that was a half hour of free pinball, and if I could have kept on playing, it would have been 3.50 worth of pinball. And, by the way, I walked into that bar a normal guy, and came out a "Playboy champion". Sure, I didn't get the highscore, but I did get the highscore in this one multi-ball mode. What makes it impressive is that it was my first time playing the game. I only played 5 games before I did that. With skills, you can do great stuff like this too.

Also, let me tell you why I enjoy pinball. First of all, there's something that's hard to describe about it. Just something about the metal-on-metal action, that silver ball, the randomness, the challenge...And yes, the best thing ever, the multiball. You might not think of pinball as being a game that requires a lot of coordination, but it really is. It takes a ton. You need coordination to predict all the balls. It's weird but you come to understand it. Then there are tons of skills that you get to get the ball even when it appears to be going right down the middle. And there's nudging. That's something I need to start working on. Nudging just moves the table, but since the ball is slippery, it keeps going down it's same path. So you can cover some weaknesses with that. Also there's something satisfying about getting points. Hearing the word "Jackpot" spoken in an extreme manner, over and over by Gandalf is really great. Especially when he says: "Trrriple (rolling the 'r' and a slight pause) Jack-pot!!!" and stuff like that over and over; it's like a crazy point orgy. It's great. (That's the Lord of the Rings machine which is my favorite. Gandalf is a fine announcer.)

So basically, I highly recommend getting good at pinball. You have to be dedicated, and then eventually you won't have to force yourself; you'll want to do it. Really bad. So yeah, pinball is the greatest thing ever and you should play it.