Archive for July, 2007
31st July 2007
We’re back from vacation!
It was awesome to be able to get away for over a week and just do whatever. We went to Gatlinburg TN and we were not at a loss for things to do. It is a tourist trap with all of it’s little shops, but between hiking, water parks, dinner shows and historical sights there seems to be a wide range of things for most interests. I personally, was surprised at how many arcades there were. But I guess if arcades could survive anywhere, they would be a place like this. I must have went in about 10-12, and my how arcades have changed.
Yesterday was my first day off of my second week off from work. It was a really productive day for me.
I had about 50 emails waiting for me after the trip, some of them were calls to action, things that needed to be done, so finishing up some ends with that was my first order of business.
Just before we left I had won a arcade bezel for Mr. Do on ebay. This was the bezel that I was tracing all of the artwork for over the last year. Yesterday I had scanned that in 8 pieces, and this morning I worked on tracing a good portion of it.
I sent out a quick email, and then I worked on finishing up details on my newest website freelance work, Meglouisedance.com. That took me to about 11:45, so I figured now would be a good time to get some exercise before lunch.
I took a really long ride, returned a movie to Blockbuster, returned some items to the Shelby library, then rode all the way across Raymond and up Tibbs to check out the Tibbs Drive In. Those are always located in depressed areas, and this one had a for sale sign on the land, which made me sad. All the more reason to go and see some movies there now while we still can.
The ride was miserable, there was a strong wind coming in from the northeast, so I couldn’t top 12 MPH on a lot of areas. It was about a 20 mile ride roundtrip, so I was wiped when I got back.
After I got my energy back, I uploaded some updates to the blog I worked on over the trip, I got the internet working again in the house so I transferred some files from my laptop and worked more on the Mr. Do artwork. Then I had some more business type stuff, I added the website launch to Rothecreations as well as some other minor changes, and did some invoicing and emailing of clients.
Sarah came home soon after and I ran to the bank really quick. Sarah made some dinner, and I helped put away some clothes and pickup the house so she could hopefully relax that much more after dinner was done.
From there on out, someone was on the phone. Sarah had three calls to make that lasted her until 10:30, it was amazing. I talked to some friends online, and some other people on the cell. Jeff and Sarah also came over for a little bit to drop off a DVD and chat. So we were just going constantly. While I was on the phone I took a look at my Craigslist and ebay feeds from over the week we were gone. There must have been over 800 new items to scan through. Pretty ridiculous. A new Jr. Pac-man dedicated came up for sale out west, but doesn’t look like it is in very good condition.
We hit the hay soon after, it had been a productive day and we were both whipped. Sarah has some long days of work ahead of her this week at camp, so might as well get to bed reasonably while we still can.
Updating Wordpress
Well, looking back, I am not surprised.
It was March when I last did something with this blog, I wasn’t even sure if I would follow through with it.
But today, I updated from 2.1 to version 2.2.1. This gets me setup to keep upgrading the website if I want to.
I got an unexpected week off from work, and I am trying to decide the best way to use the week. First priority is always trying to use that time to improve myself professional, or to make money to always better ensure our future and lifestyle. When doing freelance work, there is always some waiting, so that is what I am doing now. I have over three and a half days to change over my Rotheblog.com website. I would like to be able to have it contained to just this week, not start the project again and not finish it, and have it bleed over into my everyday life as a worry.
So, I think by the end of today I will make a decision on whether I should or not.
But, this is Wordpress version 2.2.1 now, and hopefully I will make a decision on what to do before another version comes out and I just keep updating the base without doing any other real work.
Vectorizing Rare Mr. Do! Bezel Pieces
Continued working on the rare “white” Mr. Do! bezel today. I got the main large yellow portions of the Mr. Do Bezel drawn with the blue diagonal lines included. I was also able to finish the base of the ice cream dish, and I also realized that there is a slight difference in the artwork for the apples, so I made another file for that. Pretty exciting to be further along.
I can piece most of the Mr. Do! bezel together today, and will probably finish up tomorrow by drawing the cherries with the new great photos I have. After almost a year of searching, I almost have a really accurate Mr. Do Bezel in a vector artwork format.
Scanning in Mr. Do! Bezel
Today I took a lot of time to scan in the bezel, from the rare “white” Mr. Do! arcade game, in 8 different pieces and stitch it together. It doesn’t look great, there is some discoloration and one spot is just fractions of an inch from lining up, but even with all that headache and the one missing chunk, I can still perfectly finish my vector artwork for the Mr. Do Bezel.
Photo of Mr. Do! Bezel I won on ebay
Before I left for vacation I heard back from Mark, and we emailed a couple of times.
First, he did indeed end up selling his Mr. Do about 5 years ago he said, which would have been about the time he was posting looking for that bezel in the Google Groups. He said that he sold it to a couple he thought, and was remembering for some reason that they may have resold it soon after that. He offered to look through his old email to see if he could find some contact information for them. So that is very exciting.
Also….I have heard in the past that if you wait long enough you will eventually see something come back up on ebay again if you missed it the first time. Well, there was no first time that I missed it, but the White Mr. Do Bezel came up for sale under a “miscellaneous” title on ebay a couple weeks ago. I was in contact with another guy who does Mame stuff and we were going to get it either way between the two of us. Well, I bid and no one else did, I got the stupid thing for a $1. Of course there was $12 shipping, but still pretty cheap for something I wanted that bad.
I had it waiting for me when I got back from vacation, the colors look really good. There are some scratches which you couldn’t see in the auction, and it does have a small chunk missing at the bottom and some cracks / melted spots, but I don’t care. I wanted it to have it, and I knew I could use it to complete the bezel tracing that I needed to do! Here is a photo of it.
Forgot Dig Dug connector orientation
Well, forgot the orientation of the edge connector the board. I hooked everything else back up, got to that and had a brainfart, so I will have to look up the pinout again.
18th July 2007
We got an unpleasant and shocking surprise when we got home from work today. I walked in from work, and Sarah said, “Before you get involved in something else, there is something on the table I think you should read.” “Is it bad?” I asked, “Yes, I feel is it.”
There sitting on the table, was a resignation from our beloved Pastor Krupski. I don’t need to list reasons here, but he just felt like he couldn’t be the leader the church needed.
I was upset, extremely. I love Pastor, he is the one Pastor I have ever known to be down to earth guy who is real, charasmatic, and a great leader. We feel a strong connection to him, and that is tied a little bit to our life down here and our choice in St. John.
We don’t know what to do, or what to feel, but the coming months will be hard as we seek out a new Pastor and come to grips with some closure on what has happened and how to move forward without him.
We’ll miss you Phil.
Photo of Wizard of Wor PCB
Got a photo today from a collector of their Wizard of Wor PCB. They have a cabaret version of the game, however, and after looking at the photo and looking at the owner’s notes, the Wizard of Wor PCB for a cabaret is a little different than the dedicated upright version.
Here is the photo if you are interested.
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