I got rid of my old pickup truck a few months ago. It was sitting semi-dead on my lawn for awhile.

I have been wanting to get another (newer) truck for quite some time but can never seem to save the money long enough to do it. I decided when I sold my old one that I would get on the ball and get a replacement soon. I’ve been spending most of my free time selling loads of stuff on eBay to put towards it. Check out my current auctions.

I’m about 80% of the way there. I’m hoping I’ll have another truck in a month or two. Then I may be able to pick up some more games that I won’t have any room for. Stay tuned…

I started writing about this on CoinOpSpace.com to enter their restoration contest. I missed the deadline for the contest, but finished the restoration thread there. You can read all about it here.

They are normally $21.99, and are on sale right now for 40% off. I saw the same exact one at Michaels for $34.99.

I haven’t had much to write about lately. I sold 3 games that were in my way in the garage. Now I have a bit more room in there to finish up Mappy, Pac-Man, and my Donkey Kong. Mappy is on deck to be painted very soon. I also sold my old pickup truck that was sitting dead on my lawn for quite some time. I have nothing to haul games in, but I also don’t have any room for more games right now. I’m saving up for another truck, and have been listing a lot of stuff on eBay.

We went to a great flea market in Mansfield CT. It’s held in the lot of a still operating drive-in theater. While there, we picked up these 2 stools for the arcade:

I didn’t realize it, but these are all over eBay. You can get them brand new in any color for about $100 shipped for a pair. Search eBay for “bombo stools” and get yourself some.

It looks like this will be going to print very soon. If you want to see this happen and need one, please head over to KLOV.com and add your name to the list!

Q: If I install 8GB of RAM in a Gateway GM5664 desktop will the computer’s BIOS recognize it?

A: Yes

This computer came with Windows Vista 32bit, 4 DIMM slots, and 3GB of RAM as follows:

(2) 1 GB chips

(2) 512 MB chips

If you do a lookup on this by model # at just about every site that sells memory it will tell you there is a max of 4GB total, and a max of 1GB per slot. I believe this is because with Windows Vista 32bit installed by default, if you were to install 4GB, Windows will only see 3.5GB. In order to keep people from complaining after popping in more than 4GB and not seeing it in Windows, they must have listed the max memory as 4GB. However, if you upgrade to Windows 7 64bit and pop in (4) 2GB DIMMs it will recognize it and boots fine.

8Gb is probably overkill, though my computer is running faster than it was.

Here’s the exact RAM that I have installed:

http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=BF123C48A5CA7304

I had a very hard time getting a picture of this damage, but here is one from a side angle that shows a bit:

That picture is actually not of the worst damage. The center was an absolute crap fest.

For a couple of years I’ve been looking for a replacement. I even ordered one off of eBay and unfortunately the seller didn’t describe it very well. It was cracked and had some sort of sludge all over it so it went unused. I thought I could possibly clean mine up with some Novus but was a little wary of the paint that is on the outside of the bezel. I decided to give it a shot, and it worked wonders:

You can click on those pictures above to see them larger. I spent about 45 minutes on this. I started with #3, and kept going over it several times paying special attention to the worst scratches. I kept that off the painted area. I followed that up with #2 on the entire thing including the paint (though I did it sparingly over the paint). The paint actually had some scuffs and the Novus removed them. I followed that up with #1 and unless you were looking for faults you might think it was NOS. The only real flaw you can see now is where a deep gouge was. It actually almost removed it, and softened the edges to the point where it is hardly noticeable. If you shift your position while staring at it there is a subtle distortion and that’s about it. If I doubled my time on this I think it would have looked even better.

This bezel was so bad, if I got a replacement I would probably have tossed it. Now its about an A-. Novus kicks serious ass. Go buy some.

I think I should be set for awhile now. I had a small bottle of #1 and #2, and no #3. I’ve been using it more lately and wanted to get some #3 to try to get some scratches out of my Mario Bros. bezel. This stuff isn’t cheap, but I got a good deal on eBay at $60 for all 3.

For those new to Novus, it is designed for cleaning and polishing acrylic. #1 is pretty much a cleaner. You should never use Windex or anything similar on plexiglass, it will damage it over time. I use #1 to clean bezels and marquees, buttons, joystick knobs, etc…

#2 has a tiny bit of grit. You can use it to remove very light scratches. #3 is heavier and will remove slightly deeper scratches. If you have to use #3, you should then follow it with #2 and then #1. If you use #2, you should follow it with #1. If you just use #1, you should follow it with a Sam Adams.

Here’s some more flea market finds. I did not buy these, though it was tempting.

Here’s a Charlie McCarthy type doll/puppet/zombie. It looks like it lost its clothes long ago, shortly followed by its head. Some kind soul secured the head to its mid section with some good ol’ masking tape.

I can’t decide if this clown is more sad than creepy, or more creepy than sad. I think creepy is winning at about 58%.

Finally, we have a mixed item masterpiece. Up top is a stuffed deer head with a badly damaged and taped up nose (masking tape to the rescue again). Below is a demented version of Ronald McDonald. While you can click on all the pics above to view them larger, to get the full impact of Ronald I present to you this closeup:

1. His right shoe is untied

2. He seems to be missing his butcher knife

3. His whistle makes him look like an evil taskmaster. I bet he blows the whistle every time the fries are done.

4. Why is Grimace in his pocket?? That defies physics.

5. What in God’s name is up with his hips? He has child bearing hips!!!

I don’t think I will be able to sleep tonight.