Thursday 2-27-25 New Monitor, Playing Pinball & Diamond Painting

 

 

We had a wonderful day. It was overcast with wind. It got up to 72 degrees.

Larry spent the morning playing pinball. He played on the mini cabinet. The games were Space Cadet, James Bond, Playboy and Cactus Canyon. He had a great time and the games played excellent.

I played the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: Two Game Tango Mini of 10 games (5 Free Cell and 5 Pyramid). It took me 1 hour, 46 minutes and 09 seconds, which put me in 25th place in my group. Then I played Angry Birds 2 and Angry Birds and Friends.

 

Angry birds characters

 

 

In the afternoon we received an Amazon order. It was a 12.3" touchscreen monitor that Larry hoped to use in his next jukebox build. When he ordered it he was not sure if it would even work with a Raspberry Pi or the jukebox software. He was very impressed by it. Everything worked perfectly and it looks great. It is a really wide monitor with a different aspect ratio than normal monitors. This monitor is to replace the two small monitors he had hoped to use before he discovered the jukebox software would not work with two monitors. While playing with the new monitor he reworked one of the skins to work better with the wide screen. The skin looks great. The front of the music selections are easier to read because they're bigger. Now he knows Fruit Box works on the monitor. It came out excellent. He thinks with some modifications he may be able to fit the monitor into the red Rock Ola.

 

While Larry worked on the monitor I worked out. I worked out with the Wii Fit for a half hour, Gold's Gym for a half hour and Synth Riders for a half hour.

 

 

 

Working out

 

I played one game of Asteroid Outpost on Bounce Arcade. During the game I earned a silver trophy. I mined the asteroids four times and was successful once. I did a multiball, which was very fast. I lost the ball as soon as it came to me. I had fun.

 

 

 

Asteroid Outpost

 

I played seven different games. I played the weekly challenge of Robocop and got a new high score of 2,841,860, which put me in 33rd place out of 46 participants. The other games were Goldeneye, Godzilla, The Great Houdini, Bay Watch, The Big Lebowski and Dead Pool. While playing Godzilla I entered my initials as high score #5.

 

 

 

Robocop

 

 

The Great Houdini

 

  

The Big Lebowski

 

Goldeneye

 

Godzilla

 

Dead Pool

 

Bay Watch

 

I continued working on my diamond painting of the Princess.

 

In the evening we watched a movie on Amazon called Man of the Year. It was comedy starring Robin Williams. He was a comedian that decides to run for president and is elected. It was a funny movie. Then I finished watching the second and final season of Murder City. I watched the 6th episode of the 12th season of Father Brown. I ended up doing 18,000 steps, which put me in 5th place in my group.

 

 

 

     

 

Wednesday 2-26-25 Three Virtual Dances, Diamond Painting & More

 

Temperature at the house at 3:30

 

We had a warm day at our house it was 80 degrees. The low was 59. It was partly cloudy. It was very comfortable.

I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The daily event was Event: Two Game Tango Mini of 10 games (5 Klondike and 5 Spider). It took me 1 hour, 24 minutes and 43 seconds, which put me in 25th place in my group. Then I played Angry Birds.

 Larry spent the day having fun. He played Space Cadet on the mini pinball cabinet. He played great games. 

Then he moved on to working on his new jukebox project. This jukebox has a very wide display area, to fill the area and provide more information he thought he would design a skin that would span across two displays. Today he discovered that Fruitbox (jukebox software) is not capable of doing this. It can only display on one screen at a time. He will have to come up with a new plan. 

 

New jukebox

 

I attended three virtual square dances. First was Di Green and Terry McCann's Weekly Plus at 10:00 for an hour. Di and Terry took turns calling five tips to 11 participants. Today Di worked on Fan the Top in different position, such as tidal waves and columns. Shirley and I have long hair and the dancers wanted to know who has the longer hair. We both put our backs to the camera the dancers were very surprise to see, that our hair were the same length about to our waist. I had a super time dancing with friends and to Di and Terry.

Second was Ett McAtee's Weekly C1 at 1:00 for an hour. Ett was back from her cruise to Egypt, that was two weeks long so she called four tips to 21 participants. She was busy the whole time in Egypt because she did an excursion in the morning and another one in the afternoon and was in bed by 9:00. She had a super time. We just danced. I was successful of getting home about 75% of the time. I had a fun time dancing to Ett and with friends.

Thirds was Dave Eno's Weekly C1/A2 at 6:00 for an hour and a half. Karin Rabe and Greg Moore helped Dave call the dance. The format was three tips of C1 to 10 participants, three tips of A2 to 11 participants and two trivia questions in between the A2 tips. All three callers did a great job of calling dance. I had a very nice evening of dancing with friends and to Dave, Karin and Greg.

 

Dancing with friends

In between the dances I worked out with the Wii Fit for a half hour and Synth Riders for a half hour. 

 

Working out

 

I played Bounce Arcade for a half hour. I played two games of Gunpowder Gulch, where I earned a bronze trophy in both of the games. I fought the deputies multiple times and failed. I played one game of Monster Manor, where I fought the ghost, stunned the manor once and earned a bronze trophy. I did do as well playing the games but I had fun. 

First game of Gunpowder Gulch

 

Second game of Gunpowder Gulch

 

Monster Manor

 

I played four different pinball games. I played Robocop, Scared Stiff, Aerosmith and Iron Man. I entered my initials on the board of Aerosmith but the scoring doesn't work correctly so I don't know where I stand. 

The digital version of the Aerosmith table is kind of an interesting story. It is a direct copy of Sterns 2017 Aerosmith pinball machine. The guy who developed the digital game released it knowing it had a few problems, he even documented the problems. He requested that nobody update the table and said he would work on the problems. This was the only table he built. He disappeared and nobody has been able to contact him since. It is a terrific table and got really good reviews, all the other developers have respected his request and have not done any further development on his table. Hopefully one day he will either return or someone will write their own version.

 

Aerosmith

 

Iron Man

 

Robocop

 

 Scared Stiff

 I continued doing the diamond painting of the Princess.

In the evening we continued watching the 14th season of Death In Paradise. Then I finished the 1st season of Murder City and started watching the 2nd season. I ended up doing 18,000 steps, which put me in 5th place in my group.

 

   

   

Tuesday 2-25-25 Dancing in Liberty Hill

 

Another gorgeous day in Belton

 

We had another gorgeous day with a lot of sunshine. The morning temperature was in the high 40s and it got to the high 70s. There was a wind out of the south, which kept it a little cool.

Before going to bed I did the Daily challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. When I got up I had breakfast. Then I did the event, which was Event: World Tour Mini of 10 games. It took me 47 minutes and 19 seconds, which put me in 15th place in my group. Then I played Angry Birds.

Larry continued playing games on the mini cabinet. He believe all the games now work correctly other than Playboy. Playboy plays great but he's not completely happy with the multiball. He'll continue working on it.

We spent most of the day in Liberty Hill, Texas dancing C1 and A2. We left the house about 10:15 to start our journey to Liberty Hill. We had to stop by the post office. We got to Kay and Bob's house by 12:00 to dance C1 with Henry and Susan. We danced to Johnny Preston via tape. Today we worked with phantoms. It was challenging but fun. This week John Kephart, our regular caller was on a cruise so he wasn't there. He arranged for John Carlton to call the dance and class. John comes every week and knows the dancers and routine. He did a good job of calling to almost two squares, we were shy one person to make the second square. He workshopped Pair Off, In-Roll Circulate, Out-Roll Circulate, Turn and Deal and Scoot Chain Thru. He put us in different positions and walked us through the moves because dancers requested it. We had a super time dancing with friends.

 

  Get a partner and dance

 

We were home by 4:30. I made dinner and we spent the evening relaxing in front of the television.

I worked on my diamond painting of the Princess.

 

Progress on the Princess

We watched the YouTube videos we follow. While watching the videos I played three different games of pinball. They were the weekly challenge of Robocop, The Big Lebowski and Cirqus Voltaire. While playing Cirqus Voltaire I joined the cirqus. I had fun playing pinball. 

 

Cirqus Voltaire

 

Robocop

 

The Big Lebowski

 

About 7:00 we watched Justice League. It was a good movie. Then I continued watching the first season of Murder City. I ended up doing 18,000 steps, which put me in 4th place in my group. 

Monday 2-24-25 Dancing C1 with Di, Games, Housework & Working Out

 

Foggy Morning

 

We woke up to a thick fog but it was gone by 9:30 am. When Larry got up the temperature was 45, it got up to 75 degrees. Once the fog lifted it was a gorgeous day with blue skies and sunshine. There was a little breeze, which kept it cool.

 

Our backyard

I started the day out by doing a little housework. I vacuumed the living room and kitchen before we attended out weekly C1 dance at 9:00. 

 

I hate housework

At 9:00 Larry and I attended Di Green and Terry McCann's Weekly C1 dance for an hour and fifteen minutes. Our friend Henry from our Tuesday dance zoomed in to check it out. Di was happy to see him. He just stayed a little while and decided he wasn't ready for Zoom dancing. Di explained to him we had been dancing through Zoom for five years. She also suggested he try her A2 on Tuesdays or Plus on Wednesdays, they may be easier to see. Di called five tips of C1 to 16 participants. Larry danced four of the tips with me. Michael asked Di to work on Courtesy Turn and Reverse Courtesy Turn because he dances both the man and woman part. He dances by himself. She walked us through the two moves before the last tips. During the last tip she worked on the two moves. The dancers were happy she did because a lot of them dance by themselves and it's harder to keep track of where your partner is. Di does an outstanding cueing on where the phantoms are but you still loose them. Larry and I had a great time dancing to Di and Terry and with friends. 

 

Dancing with friends

 

After lunch I worked out on the Wii Fit for a half hour and Just Dance (Just Dance 2015 four songs and Just Dance 2016 five songs).

 

 

Exercising with different programs

 

Larry continued working on JP's Space Cadet game on the mini cabinet. He made some more changes to the sound and is now happy with that. He is now working on a problem with the auto launch, it doesn't always work correctly. He experimented with changing some settings, he could get it to play correctly but the changes would break other games. He finally wrote up his issue on a website that the developer of the control board follows. The developer wrote back but his suggestion did not help. Another person also wrote back with something Larry could try. It involves a change to the design of the game. Using that he has the game working much better but he needs to play it more to see if it is completely fixed. Sometimes testing take a long time, it is not always easy to get the game to the position you need. He will keep working on it.

 

I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: Tri Peaks Adventure of 20 games. It took me 1 hour and 38 seconds to complete, which put me in 8th place in my group. Then I played Angry Birds.

 

I continued doing my diamond painting of the Princess. 

 

I played seven pinball games. They were the weekly challenge of Robocop and the other six were Bay Watch, The Champion Pub, JP's Space Cadet, Nightmare Before Christmas, Rambo and Willy Wonka. I did not get on the board but had a great time playing.

 

 

 

Bay Watch

 

 

 

JP's Space Cadet

 

 

 

Nightmare Before Christmas

 

 

 

Rambo

 

 

 

Robocop

 

 

 

The Champion Pub

 

 

 

Willy Wonka

 

I played Monster Manor two times in Bounce Arcade and didn't earn a trophy because I didn't play too well. I woke up the manor and fought the ghost but didn't stun the manor.

 

 

First game

 

Second game

In the evening we watched Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice from our movies. It was an good movie. When it came out we didn't really care to watch it because Batman and Superman are against each other. But we really like watching superheros movies. It was loaded with a lot of big name stars: Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot, Amy Adams, Jeremy Irons, Holly Hunter, Laurence Fishburne and more. Then I started watching Murder City on Amazon. It's a British detective series, that ran from 2004 to 2007 (two seasons). I ended ups doing 18,000 steps, which put me in 3rd place in my group.  

 

 

Sunday 2-23-25 Two New Pinball Games, Diamond Painting & More

 

Beautiful Day

 

We had a beautiful day with a lot of sunshine and no wind. The high was 68 degrees.

We spent the day just having fun.

Larry installed two new pinball games, JP's Space Cadet and Robocop (Weekly Challenge). He installed JP's Space Cadet on both pinball cabinet and in both 2D and VR. JP's Space Cadet has an outstanding VR room. The game is a lot of fun to play. Once Larry installed the games he played them to make sure they work correctly. The sound of JP Space Cadet on the mini cabinet didn't sound correct so Larry worked on it and got it to sound great. Below are pictures of JP Space Cadet VR room.

 

JP Space Cadet playfield

 

JP Space Cadet

Larry changed last week challenge Bay Watch from three balls to five balls. My high score for Bay Watch for the week was 1,016,361,130, which put me in 39th place out of 65 participants. While I played Robocop my first high score for the week was 2,157,840, which put me in 11th out of 15 participants.

 

Bay Watch high score game

 

Robocop first high score

 

I also played five other pinball games. They were Godzilla, Goldeneye, Junk Yard, Scared Stiff and World Joker Poker. While playing Godzilla I entered my initials as high score #5. I had a great afternoon of playing pinball.

 

Godzilla

 

Goldeneye

 

Junk Yard

 

Scared Stiff

 

World Joker Poker

 

I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: Easy Street Mini of 15 games. It took me 30 minutes and 7 seconds, which put me in 13th place in my group. Then I played Angry Birds.

I worked out with the Wii Fit for 45 minutes and a half hour with Gold's Gym.

 

Working out

 

I continued working on the Princess diamond painting.

In the evening we watched Flawless on Amazon. Flawless was a very good movie. It was about a frictional heist, that takes place in London. It starred Demi Moore and Michael Caine. I finished watching the fourth season of Hope Street. Then I watched the 5th episode of the 12th season of Father Brown on BritBox. I ended up doing 18,000 steps, which put me in 4th place in my group for the week with the total of 126,258 steps.