Patrick

The owner of the team I am playing in fantasy hockey this week has checked out because he had Kirill Kaprizov on his bench and missed out on a 12.2 point performance.

Haha, I totally meant to say Minnesota when I typed Minneapolis. Forgot which one was the state, I guess. That's awesome. I'm also not much of a fan of the digital pinball machines. I get it - cost and maintenance-wise, especially, pinball machines can be so expensive - but it just doesn't feel the same. I hadn't actually thought that hard about arcades outside of the U.S., so I'm glad you brought this up.

Totally get what you mean, Ken. Also, I just looked up Zorbaz - looks fun. I see they are a regional chain in Minneapolis. Always interested to discover new regional chains when we travel.

Hello, Thank you for visiting KarateForums.com. We recognize one member every month as the KarateForums.com Member of the Month for their positive contributions to this community. Our honoree for December is... Wayofaswede for the third time! Thank you for all of your contributions over the years, Wayofaswede. Glad that we have you as part of this community. Thanks, Patrick

I am a little behind, but I *just* saw Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, and I loved it. It was really fun. Spoilers below... I love the idea of the mutants teaming up and having fun. Their personalities were hilarious, and having kids voice the turtles was genius, too. Was just super fun.

Glad you were able to find a solution for the pain and fever. I'm sure it was scary.

Thank you for sharing this with us, Montana. It sounds like you have been through a lot. I'm glad that you are in a good place regarding your own diagnosis. I have heart issues in my family. My grandfather had at least one heart attack without realizing it. Definitely something I think about.

Hello, Thank you for visiting KarateForums.com. We recognize one member every month as the KarateForums.com Member of the Month for their positive contributions to this community. Our honoree for November is... Luther unleashed for the third time! Congrats! 7 days from now will mark 10 years since you joined our community! Thank you for all of your contributions over the years. Thanks, Patrick

Welcome back.

Hello, Thank you for visiting KarateForums.com. We recognize one member every month as the KarateForums.com Member of the Month for their positive contributions to this community. Our honoree for October is... GojuRyu Bahrain for the second time! Congrats! Thank you for all of the solid contributions that you have made, since you joined over 10.5 years ago! Thanks, Patrick

Happy New Year!

I love this thread each year. Thanks for sharing, all.

That's awesome, Bob. Hope you can get some peace from now to March and that it allows you to focus a bit on the diabetes stuff. Patrick

Hey folks, I'm really late in posting this, especially since some holidays (like Hanukkah, which I celebrate) are already over, but... I wanted to take a moment to wish you a happy holiday season. Thank you for enriching this community with your time, thoughtful consideration, and knowledge, and for making it a part of your life. There's a lot of ways to spend your time, and you choose to spend it here, and that's never lost on me. I hope that 2024 is a great year for you and those who matter most to you. Thanks, Patrick

Sorry Bob. That stinks.

Sounds amazing, John.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/12/dodgers-to-sign-shohei-ohtani.html They'll still have a $46 million dollar luxury tax number each year. Basically, deferred money is discounted at a certain rate for the luxury tax calculation.

I am about to bake some ginger cookies for my wife to take to work, and it got me thinking about favorite holiday season cookies. Do you have one? Or a few?

Thank you for the kind replies, all. I appreciate the call-out, as well, John. Sure. I'd like to present KarateKen with a trophy recognizing his outstanding contributions to KarateForums.com, which I know are recognized by members near and far. Thank you, Ken! 🏆

The Ohtani signing has let to a lot of reading on contract deferrals, which has been pretty interesting. I am not 100% sure how I feel about it, but the Dodgers found a way to save some money on the contact. I don't think he's worth almost twice what Judge is. He can only play 162 games, and the injury is a concern. I'm hoping the Yankees sign Yamamoto. He's the guy I've wanted most this free agent period.

Very cool, Fat Cobra! I was able to see some of the Adirondack Pizzeria arcade on their Facebook. Looks like a good selection of games. Thanks for sharing.

Hello, Thank you for visiting KarateForums.com. After more than a month of nominating and voting, the 22nd edition of the KarateForums.com Awards have come to an end. It is now time for us to announce the winners! Before I do so, I wanted to once again congratulate everyone who was nominated. Regardless of whether or not you won the award, the fact that you were nominated means that, when asked to identify a member who really stood out in the past year, your fellow community members thought of you. In the history of this community, only 169 members have ever been nominated for an award. To be nominated is pretty cool, and you should be proud. If you did not win or were not nominated, please don't take it badly. These awards do have meaning, but they are also for fun and not everyone can win or be nominated. Please join me in congratulating our winners. I would like to specifically thank everyone who participated in the process by nominating and voting. It is the community that selected the nominees and decided the winners. There are no KarateForums.com Awards without you. Several nominees took the time to vote in categories where they were nominated. Since you can't vote for yourself, your choice is to vote for someone else or not vote at all. Though I can't reveal who voted for whom, please know that I appreciate everyone who thoughtfully voted in the categories where they were nominated. It says a lot about you, and I love to see it. If you are reading this now and realizing that you accidentally voted for yourself: Don't worry, those votes were deleted. Without further ado, here are our winners: 1. Member of the Year: Zaine (for the 3rd consecutive year!) 2. Community Spirit Award: Wastelander 3. Staff Member of the Year: sensei8 (for the 4th year!) 4. Funniest Member of the Year: aurik 5. Karate Contributor of the Year: aurik (for the 2nd consecutive year!) 6. Health and Fitness Contributor of the Year: DarthPenguin 7. Instructors and School Owners Contributor of the Year: Zaine Congratulations to aurik (2 wins!), Zaine (2 wins!), Wastelander, sensei8, and DarthPenguin! Both Zaine (Member of the Year) and aurik (Funniest Member of the Year) won categories by unanimous nomination. In order to preserve the secrecy, these nominations were not initially reflected on our historical totals, but they are now. This also prevented me from previously mentioning that aurik was tied for the 2nd most nominations, with sensei8, with 3. With their wins this year, both aurik and Zaine have moved themselves into the top 10 for most KarateForums.com Awards wins, as they are both tied in 9th place with 4 wins. Zaine becomes only the second member to threepeat for Member of the Year, following sensei8, who did so from 2009-2011. Congrats all around. One other random fact: This is the first year since 2016 where we had no ties. For past winners and all of the awards historical data, please check out: http://www.karateforums.com/awards.php Thank you for reading and for supporting the KarateForums.com Awards. Sincerely, Patrick

Thanks for the replies, Ken and John! I just looked at the game selections at both of these, and they are both awesome. Maybe I'll make it to them one day. https://freeplayinc.com/dallas/games/ http://www.pinballmuseum.org/

For my birthday, Kara recently took me to Morristown Game Vault in Morristown, New Jersey, and I'd say it's definitely in my top 5 arcades right now. Funspot in Laconia, NH is probably my favorite overall, with Flippers in Grandy, North Carolina as my favorite for pinball. But there are so many gems around the country (and world, I'm sure). Most of the ones I love are in small(er) towns. What are your favorite arcades? I'm really interested in ones that are open now, but feel free to reminisce about ones that existed in the past, too!

Voting is now closed. Thank you to everyone who participated in the voting period. Those who nominate and vote are the most important part of the event as there are no awards without you choosing to honor your fellow members. Stay tuned for an announcement with the results later this week! Thanks again, Patrick