# PNP 599- TWIPYS Are Back Baby!+ Is King Kong Wrong? + Orby is An Idiot!

**Source:** Poor Man's Pinball Podcast  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2024-12-08  
**Duration:** 61m 59s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://poormanspinballpodcast.libsyn.com/pnp-599-twipys-are-back-baby-is-king-kong-wrong-orby-is-an-idiot

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## Analysis

Orbital Albert discusses the return of the Twippies awards show (hosted at Wormhole Pinball on February 22, 2025) with praise for Colin and the team organizing it, addresses rumors about King Kong being Stern's next game, and shares a personal story about nearly missing the Ontario Open due to mental health struggles and almost getting arrested during a livestream.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Twippies award show is returning and will be hosted at Wormhole Pinball on February 22, 2025 — _Orbital Albert cites announcement by Colin at Kineticist and Jamie at Wormhole Pinball_
- [MEDIUM] King Kong has been confirmed as Stern's next pinball game by multiple sources including Kaneda and Retro Ralph — _Orby notes hearing this on three different podcasts; loosely paraphrases Kaneda's confirmation; expresses skepticism about whether it's appropriate timing after Godzilla and Jaws_
- [HIGH] Orby was questioned by police during a livestream and nearly arrested for pinball-related reasons — _Orby mentions being on the live stream when police came; promises to explain the full story later in episode; treats it as a significant incident_
- [HIGH] Orby missed the Ontario Open in Toronto due to mental health struggles and logistical issues — _Orby received three emails before the flight, didn't board plane, apologizes to organizers and attendees; lost $500 from cancellation but saved $500-600 on hotel/expenses_
- [HIGH] Orby has bought and sold 15-16 pinball machines, profiting on 12, breaking even on 1, and losing money on 3, with worst loss around $1,000-1,500 on Guardians — _Orby provides detailed accounting of his pinball machine transactions_
- [HIGH] The Twippies will be live-streamed and feature hosts Retro Ralph and Aaron (science communicator) — _Orby congratulates Ralph on being one of two hosts; mentions Aaron as co-host; notes only ~40 tickets available plus invited guests_
- [HIGH] Erica from Erica's Pinball Journey is helping with sponsorships and behind-the-scenes work for the Twippies — _Orby discusses Erica's background in film/television industry and production quality_
- [HIGH] Orby has been drama-free since episode 493 (Upper Decker incident) through episode 599, approaching episode 600 — _Orby self-reports personal conduct metrics; notes he's over halfway to his goal of 1111 episodes_
- [HIGH] Spooky and American Pinball have never shared Orby's content despite him promoting them extensively (50-75 episodes) — _Orby expresses feeling disconnected from Spooky; notes Spooky shared Walt Wood's content but not his; acknowledges six degrees of separation keeps him independent_
- [HIGH] Orby has not received any income from his podcast except one small donation ~2-3 months ago — _Orby states he hasn't gained a penny since unsolicited dono when upset about JJP invite_

### Notable Quotes

> "is King Kong wrong? Is King Kong a good theme? Is Stern Pinball the right person to do it? Does it make sense to do it this close to having done Godzilla and Jaws?"
> — **Orbital Albert**, ~12:00
> _Orby's skepticism about King Kong positioning despite hearing it confirmed on multiple podcasts; sets up later discussion about game theme appropriateness_

> "I think you should bring the Twippies back. I think it's a very valuable part of your brand, Colin. And if you do bring the Twippies back, make it your own and make it better."
> — **Orbital Albert (paraphrasing his message to Colin)**, ~8:30
> _Demonstrates Orby's advocacy role in Twippies revival and his philosophy on brand differentiation_

> "I've been drama-free since episode 493. And we are coming up to episode 600. Like, that's pretty cool. I'm almost halfway, guys."
> — **Orbital Albert**, ~42:00
> _Self-reflection on personal conduct improvement and progress toward 1111-episode goal_

> "I like orbits better because when you do hit a nice clean orbit, you know, like a clean like a whistle, when you hit it just right, that sucker flies back at your flippers faster than Lord Tundra and Jesus getting to hell out of Newfoundland with a freaking hurricane on the way."
> — **Orbital Albert**, ~28:00
> _Explains his name origin (Orbital Albert) and gameplay philosophy; colorful metaphor demonstrates his distinctive podcast voice_

> "If Ken Cromwell and I were still friends and we were talking all the time on Facebook, do you think I could have been open and honest with each and every one of you listening right now?"
> — **Orbital Albert**, ~48:00
> _Reflects on maintaining editorial independence from manufacturers despite lack of industry relationships; justifies his critical stance on Avatar_

> "There's going to be haters along the way talking smack, saying they wanted it to be bigger, there's more tickets, it costs too much money, it's not a TPF... no matter what you guys do, people are going to complain."
> — **Orbital Albert**, ~56:00
> _Supportive advice to Twippies organizers; acknowledges community expectations and potential criticism regardless of execution_

> "I'm not going to lie, I was not in a good headspace to record for probably about a week. Many of you who saw the video I recorded from the airport there could tell that I was pretty down."
> — **Orbital Albert**, ~5:30
> _Orby's candid acknowledgment of mental health struggles preventing Ontario Open attendance; context for his vulnerability on-air_

> "I should come with like a sticker on my shirt that says like, Orby, be careful, be cautious, does not travel well, probably will lose his temper or like get in an argument with someone somewhere at some point."
> — **Orbital Albert**, ~38:00
> _Self-deprecating humor masking genuine disappointment and self-awareness about behavioral patterns_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Orbital Albert | person | Host of Pinball Nerds Podcast and Poor Man's Pinball Network; pinball collector, content creator with ~600 episodes; science enthusiast; struggles with mental health and travel; has not received income from podcast; maintains editorial independence from manufacturers |
| Colin | person | Founder/operator of Kineticist; organizer bringing back Twippies award show; received encouragement from Orby over past year to resurrect awards; surrounding himself with team including Erica, Ian, Retro Ralph, and Aaron |
| Retro Ralph | person | Pinball content creator; announced King Kong rumor; confirmed as co-host of Twippies 2025 alongside Aaron; recently congratulated by Orby for hosting role |
| Jamie | person | Operator of Wormhole Pinball arcade; co-announcing Twippies revival with Colin; venue hosting Twippies live event on February 22, 2025 |
| Aaron | person | Science communicator; co-host of Twippies 2025 alongside Retro Ralph; Orby notes strong enthusiasm for science content and appreciates Aaron's credentials |
| Erica | person | Content creator from Erica's Pinball Journey; background in film/television industry; assisting Twippies with sponsorships and behind-the-scenes production; noted for high-quality video/audio editing |
| Ian | person | Associated with Nudge Magazine; involved with Twippies as red carpet/street reporter or interviewer; potential similar role to Jeff Teolis |
| Jack Danger | person | Pinball designer and content creator; Orby's favorite content creator of all time; hosted Dead Flip livestream that Orby watched extensively; professional streaming operator |
| Ken Cromwell | person | Former PR/marketing figure at Jersey Jack Pinball; no longer maintains close relationship with Orby; maintained by Orby as example of how industry relationships could compromise editorial independence |
| Ray Day | person | Elite competitive pinball player; one of Orby's top three favorite competitors alongside Keith Ellwin and Escher Lefkoff; works at Stern on rules and code; friendly with Orby at tournaments |
| Keith Ellwin | person | Elite competitive pinball player; ranked in Orby's top three competitors for past decade |
| Escher Lefkoff | person | Elite competitive pinball player; ranked in Orby's top three competitors alongside Ray Day and Keith Ellwin |
| Jeff Teolis | person | Pinball content creator and interviewer; conducts red carpet/street interviews at events; Orby apologizes for missing Ontario Open that Jeff helped organize at Maple Pinball |
| Kaneda | person | Pinball podcaster; recently confirmed (loosely) King Kong as Stern's next game, per Orby's recollection |
| Drop Target Danielle | person | Appears to be Orby's partner/wife; traveled with Orby to New Brunswick; mentioned in passing in episode |
| Bug | person | Co-owner/creative director at Spooky Pinball; shared Walt Wood's Evil Dead content; noted by Orby as never sharing his podcast content despite extensive Spooky coverage |
| Walt Wood | person | Pinball content creator (Walt Wood Pinball on YouTube/Facebook); experienced recent health issues; created Spooky Evil Dead content |
| Dave Fix | person | Associated with American Pinball; added by Orby as Facebook friend but never directly communicated with him |
| Steve Bowden | person | Pinball industry figure; converses with Orby when doing tournament commentary; knows people at various pinball companies |
| Christopher Franchi | person | Pinball designer/artist; prefers pinball discussion over personal anecdotes; Orby structured episode around this preference out of respect |
| Stern Pinball | company | Major pinball manufacturer; subject of King Kong game rumor; recent releases include Godzilla and Jaws; employs Ray Day on rules/code; appears to be Orby's target for invite he never received |
| Jersey Jack Pinball | company | Major pinball manufacturer; employed Ken Cromwell; Orby mentions not being invited to JJP events; aspirational relationship for Orby despite claims of not caring |
| Spooky Pinball | company | Boutique pinball manufacturer; released Evil Dead game; has never reached out to or shared Orby's content; Orby feels disconnected despite extensive podcast coverage (50-75 episodes) |
| Wormhole Pinball | organization | Pinball arcade venue operated by Jamie; hosting Twippies 2025 live event; has existing streaming infrastructure for live broadcasts |
| Kineticist | company | Organization run by Colin; operates This Week in Pinball; acquired Twippies brand/concept and is reviving it for 2025; organizing team around Twippies revival |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Twippies Award Show Revival, King Kong as Stern's Next Pinball Game, Orby's Personal Mental Health and Travel Issues
- **Secondary:** Police Encounter During Livestream, Ontario Open Tournament Cancellation, Pinball Podcast Ecosystem and Content Creation, Editorial Independence vs. Industry Relationships
- **Mentioned:** Pinball Machine Economics and Collecting

### Sentiment

**Mixed** (0.55) — Orby is genuinely excited about Twippies revival and praises Colin's team, but tempers this with skepticism about King Kong timing. Personal narrative reveals vulnerability and depression around missed Ontario Open. Defensive about lack of manufacturer relationships and podcast income. Self-deprecating humor masks underlying insecurity about relevance and acceptance within industry. Concludes with supportive tone toward Twippies organizers despite earlier anxieties.

### Signals

- **[business_signal]** Orby's podcast operating without revenue model; only received one unsolicited donation in recent memory; affecting travel and event attendance capability (confidence: high) — Orby states: 'I have not gained a penny from this show since someone sent me a dono'; notes lost $500 from Ontario Open cancellation; explains limited financial capacity compared to other collectors
- **[event_signal]** Ontario Open tournament in Toronto positioned as largest pinball tournament in Ontario history (confidence: medium) — Orby references event as 'largest pinball tournament' they were 'trying for it to be the largest... in Ontario's history'; apologizes to organizers Jeff Teolis, Maple Pinball staff, and attendees
- **[sentiment_shift]** Twippies return met with both enthusiasm and criticism; community debating venue choice (should be at Texas Pinball Festival vs. Wormhole) (confidence: medium) — Orby references 'negative nancies or debbie downers' saying awards should be at TPF; dismisses criticism as inevitable; encourages Colin to make event his own
- **[community_signal]** Orby pledging public support for Twippies event despite personal financial constraints and lack of industry connections (confidence: high) — Orby offers free red carpet services if airfare provided; promises to promote event; positions himself as 'positive voice in pinball' for organizers; defends against criticism
- **[design_philosophy]** King Kong game timing questioned: Stern recently released both Godzilla and Jaws, raising questions about theme saturation and strategic game sequencing (confidence: medium) — Orby's central question: 'Does it make sense to do it this close to having done Godzilla and Jaws?' Suggests market concern about oversaturation of similar monster/creature themes
- **[event_signal]** Twippies award show officially returning on February 22, 2025 at Wormhole Pinball with live stream format (confidence: high) — Orby cites Colin at Kineticist and Jamie at Wormhole making announcement; specific date provided; team roster confirmed (Retro Ralph, Aaron, Erica, Ian)
- **[community_signal]** Twippies organizers assembling dedicated production team including film/television industry professionals (Erica) to improve audio/video quality (confidence: high) — Orby praises Erica's background in film/television bringing 'spectacular' video and audio quality; notes team composition as deliberate strategy to avoid past streaming issues
- **[community_signal]** Relationship deterioration between Orby and Ken Cromwell (former JJP PR); transition from close friendship to minimal contact (confidence: medium) — Orby uses Cromwell as example of how close manufacturer relationships could compromise editorial independence; implies friendship has ended; speculates this separation enabled him to critique Avatar before industry consensus
- **[personnel_signal]** Retro Ralph confirmed as co-host of Twippies 2025 alongside Aaron (science communicator) (confidence: high) — Orby explicitly congratulates both by name for their hosting roles; treats as confirmed information from announcement
- **[rumor_hype]** King Kong confirmed as Stern's next pinball game by multiple sources including Kaneda podcast (confidence: medium) — Orby heard confirmation on three different podcasts; Retro Ralph posted about it; Kaneda allegedly confirmed it loosely; Orby expresses standard caveat 'where there's smoke there's fire'
- **[sentiment_shift]** Orby experiencing feelings of disconnection from major manufacturers (Spooky, JJP, Stern) despite extensive podcast coverage and industry participation (confidence: high) — Notes Spooky has never shared his content (50-75 episodes about them); never received JJP invite; claims to have 'no close working relationships' with anyone outside content creator circle; describes this as protective six-degrees-of-separation strategy

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## Transcript

 All get around, he's on the rebound Hear the sound of our buddy, oh lordy, it's Orby Pinball now to rejoice He's tugging pinball, craft beer and coffee Miffed with syrup and honey Almost a laugh with his family in a random tangent Stories of his boys He's on the poor man's pod network We're gonna get more listeners Welcome back Pinball Nerds to episode 599 of your fifth favorite pinball podcast. My name is Orbital Albert and on today's show we're going to be talking all about the return of the Twippies, the most beloved pinball award show of all time, bar none. That's right, my buddy Colin there over at the Kineticist made the announcement today with Jamie from Wormhole Pinball, where it will be being hosted. I believe it's February 22nd, but go check your Facebooks for details. I'm not the details-oriented person you want to be getting your deets from, especially when you're traveling to a faraway place like on an airplane where you might need some identification to get on said plane. But we're going to talk all about my moronic moment, my idiotic only could happen to Albert period of time where I almost got arrested, guys. I almost got arrested for pinball. I was on the live stream when the police came over to talk to me and question me. But I've been questioned by the police in a long, long, long time and hopefully never again. But you know what? It was all worth it in the end because, well, I'm going to save that for the end. I'm going to, just for, out of respect for Christopher Franchi, he likes to hear the pinball stuff up front, and then I just say, Franchi and everybody else who doesn't want to hear about personal blog type stuff, what's going on in my life, I say, arrivederci, I say, au revoir, I say, see you later, take it easy. How do you say that in Japanese? I totally forget. I used to know, I used to know. Anyways, it's been a couple weeks since I've been here. I'm not going to lie, I was not in a good headspace to record for probably about a week. Many of you who saw the video I recorded from the airport there could tell that I was pretty down. And to be fair, I had a couple of people message me worried. No, I wasn't like suicidal or like I wasn't, you know, I wasn't like crying in the bathroom. You know what I mean? Like there was nothing like that. I was just like, man, you're a moron. I got not one, not two, but three emails a week leading up to my flight to go to Maple Open in Toronto. Sorry, the Ontario Open, the largest pinball tournament. They were trying for it to be the largest pinball tournament in Ontario's history. I'm not sure whopper-wise if it turned out to be, but it's probably darn tootin' close if not. Hey, if I had gone, maybe it would have been. So that's on me. I'm sorry, Jeff Teolis. I'm sorry, Maple Pinball. I'm sorry, Melvis Megaphone, Duncan, Joe Chervino, Julie Dorcer, Sean Russell, Mike Dimas, everyone else I was so excited to see there. Shout out to you all. And if I missed your name, it's probably because I just had too many gummy bears on my Saturday afternoon. Drop Target Danielle and I just came back from a beautiful trip over to New Brunswick. And they got the deals. They got the Cyber Monday. it is wonderful living in a country where the devil's lettuce is no longer known as the devil's lettuce because you go in and you talk to these wonderful employees from the government believe it or not it's owned and run by the government in new brunswick and nova scotia so you go in there and these people are like hey they're not quite forklift certified okay but they're gummy bear certified they can talk the talk they can walk the walk if you can talk thc cbd and edibles and everything in between, vaporizers, you can talk all that with Orbi, you can talk it with anybody, okay? I'm literally your toughest cookie, your hardest customer. If you can crack me, you can crack anything, you know what I mean? You can crack the code to figuring out how to break even on a new in-box pinball machine, but we're going to talk about that later as well. So, first thing I want to get into today is to talk about the Twippies being back. The second thing, and I wouldn't say it's a runner-up, it's kind of in the middle. I really think the runner-up might be my story about not getting on the plane. However, however, to all the people who are just here for pinball, the second thing I want to talk about tonight is talking about, and I don't like to address rumors usually. I've now heard this, I believe, on three different podcasts. Most recently, I just saw Retro Ralph there, and congrats, by the way, to Ralph. He's going to be one of the two hosts there, along with Aaron, but we'll talk about that in a second. But Retro Ralph just posted, is King Kong next, okay, for Stern? I know, I think it was even maybe like some, I think it was like two days ago, three days ago, Kaneda had a podcast confirming, I'm going to put that in very, very loose quotation marks, confirming that King Kong is next. And I just want to ask the question, is King Kong wrong? Is King Kong a good theme? Is Stern Pinball the right person to do it? Does it make sense to do it this close to having done Godzilla and Jaws? Maybe. I'm going to give you my opinions on that later. You know, I usually don't talk about rumors, but once we've had like five, six, you know, seven people confirm it, and even more than that talking about it, usually where there's smoke, there's fire. Not always, but usually. So we'll talk about that in a second. But first, I've got to give a huge, massive shout-out to my boy Colin over there at the Kinesis. I did go to Colin today before I even saw the podcast came out on Wormhole where they were all discussing it, talking about the Twippies coming back. And I said to him, my guy, is there any way you can come on episode 600? This is incredible. I want to talk about it. And I don't know if I got a direct response from him about that because we went on to talk about other issues. But I said, can you at least throw me a tidbit? Can you throw me a little piece of news? Can you throw me something for my clickbait so I can get the listeners to come listen to me rant and rave and tell everybody why I'm excited that the Twippies are back. And he let me know, he said, well, do you have any direct questions or anything like that? And I think something he ended up throwing in there, and I am paraphrasing, okay? I am paraphrasing right now. I don't have Facebook open. You don't want me to have Facebook open because then you can hear my notifications and everything else happening. I don't want to have it open because I'm going to get distracted. But to paraphrase, he said that me whispering in his ear, basically constantly pushing him, especially more so last year, telling him, I think you should bring the Twippies back. I think it's a very valuable part of your brand, Colin. And again, I don't remember exactly what I said, but he mentioned that it was probably from people like me saying that I think he should bring the Twippies back. And then also saying, if you do bring the Twippies back, make it your own and make it better. And take a freaking bow, pat yourself on the gosh darn tootin' back. Not just Colin, because I know it wasn't just Colin, but Colin has surrounded himself with what might be the perfect team. We've got Erica from Erica's Pinball Journey. Everything that she's been doing is really cool. I think she's got an interesting, fun take. She comes from the movie and television industry, so the video and audio quality is just spectacular on most of her videos, especially the edited ones, you know what I mean? That she's not just going live or going off the cuff, of course. So I'm so excited. She's going to be helping with sponsorships and other behind-the-scenes stuff. I don't know if there could be a sponsorship with Angry Alpaca Coffee coming up. Maybe, perhaps. We'll see. Definitely, at the very least, Colin, I would love to give you a personalized... It can be like a... I don't know. We could figure it out. We'll chat, Colin. But I would be more than willing, at zero cost, to everyone going to the Twippies. I think there's only... I think they said there's only like 40 tickets or something like that. now they're probably going to have 40 tickets and then like 20 extra for like invited guests and people like that so I would assume there'd be more than 40 there in total but I don't okay first of all Retro Ralph asked is there any way you would go uh on Facebook and uh I responded no probably not the reason is for a one-off thing like that if it's not even getting to TPF is like maybe a once twice in my lifetime I don't make the same kind of money as a lot of you guys right I don't I'm not out there buying new box pinball machines a couple times a month. And there's nothing wrong with that. There's room for everybody in pinball. There's room for poor men like me right here on the Poor Men's Pinball Network. There's also room for rich men. There's also room for everybody in between. Believe me, if a dude like myself who makes so little income so little often can buy and sell 15, maybe now 16 pinball machines over X number of years and not only turned a profit on every one of them except for one I broke even and one I lost $300 on or something like that. Oh, no, I lost $15. I've made money on 12 of them. I've lost money on three. So my ratio is pretty decent, okay? Pretty good. And the most money I ever lost was Guardians around $1,000 to $1,500 depending on if you include shipping. But let's go back to the Twippies for a second. What I'm excited about is, A, they are going to be live streamed. B, I'm really, really excited to see Aaron. So Aaron is known more so as a science communicator. Oh, Aaron, don't get mad at me. I forget how to pronounce your last name. It's like with a W. I don't know if I've ever, I know, I think I've heard Jamie at Wormhole pronounce it. But I'm not going to mispronounce it. I'm just going to say Aaron the science communicator. I am a huge, massive science nerd. And I know you're, come on, Orby. You're hitting the vape. You're doing the gummies. You're eating the cheeseburgers. You're drinking the craft beer. You're a homesteading lumberjack. you're not big into science. I am. Two things can be true. You can be a dude who likes to party and rock and roll. You know, have you never seen anyone with a mullet business at the front party at the back, baby? That's what I'm like. Okay. So back there at the party, I got the end of the mullet, but up here at the front, I'm a little bit business. Uh, I would say for like a better part of two and a half decades, all the way from all the way from honestly grade nine or grade 10, here in Canada on the Discovery Channel Canada, which we used to have. I'm not sure if it still exists. There was like a good morning science show that was incredible. Drop target! I don't know where she is. I think she's in the kitchen somewhere. There's this really cool dude who hosted it. Do you remember the really cool guy? It was a name Ken who hosted the morning show on the Discovery Channel for all those years. you know what I'm talking about on Discovery Channel Canada though you know what I'm you know what the show I'm talking about right I think so yeah okay perfect that's good I mean anyways I can't remember the name it doesn't really matter he was a really cool dude I think he's no longer with us but I watched that religiously I also watch everything like like from science I've seen every David Attenborough you know what I mean I love nature I love science I'm Orbital Albert I named myself that not only because I like orbit shots way, way, way, way, way better than I like ramp shots. I think ramp shots are like the most overrated shot in all of pinball because they're the safest shot. It brings it right back to your flipper 100% of the time. It's predictable where the ball's going to go. There's lots of orbits where if you don't hit it with a swift kick in the old newts, it's not going to get around the back end. or sometimes there's a diverter back there, or if it's the Godfather, there's like seven diverters back there. So I like orbits better because when you do hit a nice clean orbit, you know, like a clean like a whistle, when you hit it just right, that sucker flies back at your flippers faster than Lord Tundra and Jesus getting to hell out of Newfoundland with a freaking hurricane on the way, okay? So here's the thing. Ramps are fine. I don't like pop bumpers. everybody knows that, unless they're important, I've been saying make pop bumpers great again for many years, a pop bumper like Scott Denisey did there on Rick and Morty, and a pop bumper like Jack Danger did there on X-Men, you know what I mean, like those are fun, interesting, unique places to put a pop bumper, the same way that Spooky did a great job putting a little flipper inside of the kicker there, I can't even remember the name of that now, okay, so here's the thing, I did make some freaking mistakes I wanted to apologize for in the spooky show. I'm going to do the little do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do. Orbeez mini top five of the show. Okay, right off the top of my head. Number one thing is I watched Night of the Living Dead. I didn't watch Evil Dead. They are completely different movies. I have gone back and watched multiple clips from Evil Dead. Even though that is very hard to do, it's very scary for me. I'm serious. I don't watch like super gory movies and stuff like that. I don't know. I guess I saw Deadpool and Wolverine, and the first minute of that's probably worse than all of Evil Dead, but it's just something about watching a guy with a chainsaw going at her head, and like... I'm probably never going to watch the whole Evil Dead movie. I don't know. Maybe. I'm sorry, Spooky. Don't hate me. I'm not a big horror guy. I never have been. I probably... I got traumatized from a babysitter who always wanted to watch Steven King when I was really young. And also, like, Friday the 13th and Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street. Oh, that guy, Freddy? Oh my God, I watched maybe two of those movies. I had nightmares about that guy for like five years. If you have, if you struggle like me with mental health issues from time to time, probably not a great idea to be watching tons of Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Probably not like your best, like for someone who has any type of paranoia, anxiety, depression, or like, if you're straight up like just mentally like 100%, you could just watch those movies all day long and it wouldn't affect you probably. but we have a saying here in Canada, actually Bell Canada, our biggest telecommunications firm, celebrates something called half of us, and we know that around 52% of us, and that's even low because a lot of people won't admit it, struggle with some type of mental health in some way, shape, or form, and I don't know why I've gone off on this tangent, but I am one of the half of us that am, you know, and this will tie in later to part of the reason why I didn't end up getting on the plane, but I apologize to everybody disappointed I didn't make it to Expo. I'm feeling like I disappoint people more now than I actually like live up to my expectations. I should come with like a sticker on my shirt that says like, Orby, be careful, be cautious, does not travel well, probably will lose his temper or like get in an argument with someone somewhere at some point. So who knows? I will say this, even though I did lose $500 from not going on that trip, I I probably saved another $500 to $600 because I would have had to pay for half of my hotel to Matt which would have been something like that I would have spent another or more on the pump and dump I would have easily Honey? Yeah? Can I score some type of drink, babe? Sure. Sorry, my voice is getting very hoarse. I have had a cold for the last three or four days, which is why you haven't heard me do the pod. and Hayden, who has my Bluetooth, so when I go to record an episode or go to play music in the background, Hayden's gone to work for the day and I totally forgot to ask him to get his Bluetooth speaker, which he typically keeps in his car or his trunk for when he's going to friends' houses and stuff. So, bad news, you're not going to hear from Don of Don's Pinball Podcast today. Him and I are doing a top five on, that's right, Space Hunt. I've written my top five. He's one of the very few people who can do a top five rad and one bad for Space Hunt. Space Hunt. Because, and oh boy, Cause, Brian Cosner, you're probably very jealous. River City Arcade, go play there if you're anywhere. Set up a trip to go. Tribe members, y'all, if you live drivable, if I was within one or two hours of Brian Cause, I already would have been to River City. I think it's River City Arcade. So shout out to him. I've gone off track. What else would you expect? I probably would have spent an extra $500 to $600. So by not going, I did save $500 to $600. Let's get back to the Twippies for at least a short other moment. I'm very, very, very happy to see that they're live streaming it. I'm also very, very, thank you. What's this? Yuzu lemonade. Yuzu lemonade, y'all. That's awesome. Okay, sorry about that. My whistle has been wetted, and it's feeling better. I really, really, really hope that the live stream goes off without a hitch. If I can give them any advice, practice, practice, practice. Do two or three live streams a week ahead of time with using the same audio, the same mics, and everything. Because that's been the biggest issue. I felt I, honestly, like Jack Danger was my favorite, and probably still to this day, is my favorite content creator ever for pinball. I spent thousands of hours watching the Dead Flip livestream and chatting in there. I knew most of the mods, or at least they knew me, probably from having to ban me or make sure I didn't put links in chat. But no, I'm just kidding. Obviously, from time to time, I have said or done a couple controversial things. Even though I'm trying to be more mellow and measured in my old age, Have you guys noticed I've been drama-free other than the Upper Decker incident? I've been drama-free since episode 493. And we are coming up to episode 600. Like, that's pretty cool. I'm almost halfway, guys. No, I'm past halfway. I always said I wanted... Originally, I wanted to do 1,000 episodes of this blog. And then I said, no, I want to do 1111. It's my favorite number. It's a lot of people's favorite numbers. I get it. But I think 1111 said... Like, there's a lot of people who've got to 1,000 episodes. Give me a break. Joe Rogan, Kaneda okay, there's two people who have got to a thousand episodes on planet earth but eventually there will be probably dozens of us and I would like to, I don't know, I just want 11-11 but who knows, who knows, who knows maybe I'll just, I'll be here forever probably 90% of you listening to this will die before I will stop doing pinball podcasts no, that's a little morbid, that's a little morbid but what I'm suggesting is, I'm here for the long haul whether or not I do it once a week or once every two weeks. Kind of depends on how I'm feeling. I'm really, you know, it does suck that I don't have any constant income. I have not gained a penny from this show since someone sent me a dono and I did not ask for it. A small dono like three months ago or two months ago when I was upset that I didn't get invited to JJP, which I don't care that I, you know, I do, but I don't. Moving forward, I'm trying not to care. I think when you finally stop caring about stuff is when like it actually happens. So if I finally go, I don't give a shats if I get invited to Stern or JJP ever. Then I'll probably actually just get my first email from a manufacturer ever after 600 episodes, right? Oh, I also want to give a shout out. Speaking of new content creators, Walt Wood. He had some health issues. So I'm sorry to hear about your health issues, Walt. But if you look at Walt Wood Pinball, I believe it's on YouTube. But if you look up Walt Wood on Facebook or YouTube, I think it's Walt Wood Pinball. you will be able to see him talking about Spooky about Spooky's newest offering, Evil Dead and Bug was kind enough to share it over there and part of me, the evil part of Orby was like man, I've made 600 episodes including probably talking about Spooky on no less than 50 to 75 of those episodes usually in a very, very awesome, rad, fun way and they've never shared one of my pods they've never reached out to me I've never got a message you know so I feel very disconnected with Spooky but at the same time I also feel like I can legitimately because of this disconnection because I talk to no one at JJP because I mean I like maybe a couple times a year I'll I will maybe maybe maybe fire off a message to Jack Danger like I don't really have any relationship with him whatsoever anymore Ray Day you know if I see Ray Day at a tournament he's probably one of the first people I'll go over and say hey to because I've just, I've, I, you know, he's one of my favorite, if not my favorite competition. He's probably, I mean, Escher Lefkoff, Keith Elwin, Raymond Davidson, you know what I mean? Like he's probably been in my top three for about a decade now. So, and then over on top of that, he also works at Stern and I really respect everything he's doing over there with rules and code and, and all that kind of stuff. So, you know, obviously like from time to time, I talked to him, but I don't have close working relationships with absolutely anybody outside of, There's a couple content creators I talk to personally a little bit more often. But I mean, I don't talk to and have never talked to anyone at Pinball Adventures or Home Pin. Surprise, surprise. Never talked to anyone at Spooky. AP, I think I added Dave Fix as a friend, but I've never actually talked to him. Steven Bowden, I'll conversate with if he's doing commentary on a tournament. But what I'm getting at is that I like this six degrees of separation. because think about it. If Ken Cromwell and I were still friends and we were talking all the time on Facebook, do you think I could have been open and honest with each and every one of you listening right now and being the first pinball podcaster, the first content creator to say it and now everyone else repeats what I said is that Avatar has no toys. It looks pretty. It's a butterface. Avatar is a butterface. Everything's good, butterface. When I'm saying that, I don't want to offend anybody who has an ugly face. I'm sorry if your face looks like you walked into a frying pan. Hey, look at my nose. I broke my nose now four times, once snowboarding, once in a fight, and I think once drunk. I think I was at Stevo, and this, well, I know, this massive guy, like, he was like 6'5 and 290 pounds, picked me up and ran with me into the corner of my head into a cinder block wall, and I ended up getting a, oh, God, I had to be beside a third-degree burn victim who was lighting his pilot light. That was probably my least fun night in the hospital. I'm not going to lie. I tried to offer the last $40 to my name and my wallet to the nurses to move me. I said, dear God, I know I still need to get stitches up my eye. I know my nose is broken and we need to wait for the x-rays. But please, Lord God, I'll give you every penny I have to move me to a different room. You don't ever in your life want to have to listen to someone having burnt skin peeled off them. And you definitely don't want to do it for five or six hours. But, you know, you pay the price. You go to Steve-O, you hang out with the Jackass Boys, and you're a bit of a mouthpiece like me, and you probably will end up getting your ass beat up. I'm trying to be family-friendly on this one, and I'm probably far from it. But going back to the Twippies, I love the Twippies. I want to go to the Twippies. I can't afford to go to the Twippies. I'm not going to the Twippies. But what I will do is I will help promote from a side, if any negative nancies or debbie downers and i'm not explicitly talking about chris of canada's pinball podcast whether it be anyone from any social media is like being rude or mean or saying bs and chat i did see a whole bunch of lame-os saying why it should be at tpf it should be a tpf it should be a tpf then you organize your own award show and go do it at tpf they're doing it their way. This is how, Colin doesn't want to just try to replicate what everyone else has done. He wants to make it his own thing. And if he can get around him a great team like Retro Ralph, Erica, Aaron, of course, who else? Ian, Ian from Nudge Magazine. Ian's going to be like a, I guess like a man on the street reporter or, you know, like what Jeff does when he goes and does, I'm assuming something like that, where he goes and does the little interviews, maybe like does the red carpet. Wait, wait. You don't have anyone for red carpet. Okay, Colin, if you're listening, you don't have to send me first class or wormhole or whoever, but if somehow, some way, someone would fly me on the cheapest flight from Boston, I can drive my butt to Boston, no problem, or even honestly take the maritime bus or a train or a ferry. But if someone puts me on there, I will do red carpet. All you got to do is pay for the airfare. I'll pay for my own hotel. I do have a passport now. It did finally come in. Okay, that's a long shot. That's not going to happen. I can't even get invited to Sterner JJP for an opening. Probably not getting, you know, put on the guest list. That being said, Colin, the whole team over there, Jamie, Retro Ralph, Aaron, if you guys need anything, I do think one thing you should replicate that the Twippies did really, really well before, and I think Will, I believe, who helped run this week in pinball before, obviously, as well as the Twippies, he would admit it went very well and was free, almost free promotion, is if you go to all the pinball content creators and designers and people well known in pinball and ask them to give you a 10 to 15 second clip that says, make sure you turn into the Twippies on February 22nd, 2025. I'll be there. You know, I'm trying to replicate my last ad when I did that. I will show that to on people all the time and they get a kick out of it. But what I did is I actually went on a sled and I got my son to spin me and then record me saying, I know what I won't be doing on blah, blah, blah, whatever date the Twippies were. I won't be tobogganing because I'll be watching the Twippy Award Show. Anyways, favorite video ever. If I remember, I should probably, I'll try to put it in the links. If I remember at the end, which I probably won't. Oh my God, we're at 25 minutes. Okay. I'm stoked for the Twippies. You know what? I came to this conclusion today. At first I was like, well, I hope I get at least one vote. You know what? If I never, ever, ever ask you guys for a vote, it'll do two things. Number one, if I don't get any votes and I didn't ask, I won't feel bad for not getting any votes. So that's kind of a defensive mechanism to protect myself against my little tiny baby soft ego, which gets so my little baby ego gets bruised easier than a yellow banana. Okay, so I don't want my ego to get bruised. And I don't want to, I don't want to push really hard for Twippy votes for like three months and then get like seven or eight again. I think the one year only got one when I said I didn't want any. But of course, if you say you don't want any, you're not going to get any. So this year, legitimately, I don't know if they're ranking and I legitimately am in your top five. I hope they do rankings, Colin. I don't know if that was mentioned in the podcast. If you do rankings and I legitimately am your fifth favorite, because I know I'm not, no person has ever said, you're my favorite pinball podcast, and I don't want to be, I don't have to be, it's a pinball blog where I go off topic more times than Elmer Fudd thinking he saw a putty tat, okay, I think that was Sylvester Stallone, or no, I think that was the kitty cat I was doing, Tweety Bird, that's what it was, but anyways, I am excited for the Twippies, I'm glad you brought it back. Colin, there was too much. I should know the financial term because I got an honors in business marketing for one semester, but I don't remember the term. I would say amortization is the wrong term, but you've got too much money and investment and too much goodwill built into the name of the Twippies that if you're going to buy this week in pinball and change that into your own thing, make the Twippies your own thing, Colin. And Jamie at Wormhole, there's going to be haters along the way talking smack, saying they wanted it to be bigger, there's more tickets, it costs too much money, it's not a TPF, the audio wasn't good enough, the video wasn't, no matter what you guys do, and gals, no matter what you do, people are going to complain, you be you, do your thing, you have a great team behind you, I'm here to support you, I'm here to be your positive voice in pinball, look, if there's problems with the show and the audio quality is really funked up, like I was saying before, I love Jack Danger like no other but that was really hard to watch when him and emoto's audio was way off and it was probably even harder for them because he's such a consummate professional and he's such like he knows streaming so well and i don't remember which one it was maybe it's during covet or something and the audio was really off and at least two of the shows i thought almost two years in a row and it really kind of put a sour damper on it and uh so no matter what you but i think that won't be a problem because the people who already stream from wormhole are the people streaming so that should be a good chunk of it taken care of just worry about the feedback worry about the audio and I would try I know it's a pain in the butt but I would make sure at least your top two hosts so at least Aaron and Retro Ralph let them have a freaking earpiece buy the cheapest one you can find on Amazon if you don't have it but let them be able to hear the audio in their ear and when you guys do a warm-up let them be able to hear that I'm sure Retro Ralph's done that many times before. I'd be shocked if Erin hasn't. I was just listening to her do an interview on the BBC. Like, she's been in outer space, for God's sake. I'm sure she can figure it out. I'm sure you guys will figure it out. I'm here for you. I'm here for it. I'm here for whatever the twippies is this year. Obviously, as a content creator, if there's things that go wrong during the show, I'm going to, in a kind and compassionate manner, give you criticism on it. But, that being said, it sounds so far like they've covered their bases and it's going to be really rad. Obviously, we'd all rather it be at like Expo or TPF. That is obvious. But for one reason or another, this was what's going to work for this year. Let them get started. Let them get their feet wet this way. I don't know if Colin has any past, you know, running this type of award show. Very few people on planet Earth. It's like one in 500,000 people have ever helped run any award show ever. So, you know, it's not something that you're experienced in. It's not something that you, oh, I went to school for lighting and audio video. And yes, there's like a small program like that at the odd college university, but it's, you know, anyways, let's move on to talking about King Kong. Is it wrong If Keith Elwin does not do King Kong I don think Stern should do it I don think I think King Kong done by I love you John Borg I think King Kong done by John Borg or Brian Eddy or someone like that, I would be shocked if it sold even as good as like, honestly, I would really, even if the artwork is great, if there's not way better toys than that little, what did Don there call it, Mr. Garrison, He called it the Mentos Box. The Mentos Box is literally the only toy, other than the car that moves a millimeter, that you can F with on the Pro. And then the other one, there's one other, I guess the drop target that can go in and out for the nightclub. So there's hypothetically three tiny little mechs that kind of interact with the ball in John Wick. If King Kong had the exact same number of, I'm trying to think of a nice word to say, underwhelming mechs and toys like John Wick did, then I think you're going to see that King Kong will be as underwhelmingly sold as it. But, because I think there's the zeitgeist, I think overall people are more hungry and enjoy and like and know Godzilla a little bit more than King Kong. I just don't, I think, look, if Keith Elwin does it, the sales will be absolutely fine. If Keith Elwin does it and he's stepped up his game and it's even more fun, and legitimately better than Jaws and or King Kong, the last two monster ones, obviously the alleys are going to sell out. That's not a question. Even if the, I've heard there's a price increase of perhaps $600 coming, I believe, at Chris over there at Kaneda's Pinball Podcast. Stop saying people don't ever quote you. I just did it. I think he said that. I don't know if that's true. Again, that's another rumor. I don't think it's the right time for Stern to increase their prices. but if it is another Elwin coming out next that would be the time to do it especially on the LEs for the love of God I would not put the price up on the pros I would not they've got to be making even though they make so much less money per pro they sell so many more pros than LEs especially on something like John Wick or something that's not a Keith Elwin the chances of them actually recouping all of their money for it is much higher if they can actually sell more I think you go an extra $500, $600 up on the Pro, and I think the sales are going to be just... I think the pushback on that would be heavy, swift, quick, and I think they would be doing a reversal. And they would kind of have to be eating their words like right now JJP is. Because I said, and I quote, if they don't take at least $1,000 off their high-end model, it isn't going to sell very well, especially because it doesn't have any toys. There's not a single mech or a toy. There's a toy or a mech that if you hit a button near it, it kind of moves or jiggles a little. But the ball never actually touches or interacts with a single solitary mech on it. And as gorgeous as it is, and as much as I love my son Owen, Owen, you were wrong. I'm sorry, buddy. X-Men's better. But Avatar might just be prettier. So, you know, there's that. let's for a minute just suppose that the thousand dollars off of all the JJP machines look, it depends if you're listening to my mom or my dad my mom always told me because as you can assume I was late everywhere all the time she would say, Albert it's better to be ten minutes early than one minute late and then my dad would say all the time well, Albert because he was late quite a bit much like me he would say whenever he was late anywhere of course he would say not me so much, but when he was late, he would say, well, better late than never, son. I don't know why my dad sounds like John Wayne, but he does. Okay. That's just, that's how he rolls. Actually, I did have my dad on here for an episode during COVID when I was really bored. So if you listen to that, shout out. That probably was probably my least listened to interview of all time, but shout out to Kirk, the Kirkosaurus, keeping it Kirky, getting her done. Shout out to my mom up there in heaven. Probably, I'm not going to lie. She's probably my favorite mom. I know you're thinking, come on, Orby, you only have one. No, I had three. I have a fourth. I have a fourth mom right now. Shout out to Kwan. There we go. Yeah. So lastly, the last thing that I did want to talk about was my trip. That didn't go very well. Didn't go very swimmingly. In Ontario, where I grew up, which was the province in Canada where I used to be from, where I was trying to head back to, to go, and I'm not going to lie, guys. Yes. Do I eat, sleep, and breathe pinball? Yes. But was the main purpose of the trip to play in the Ontario Pinball Open? No. The main purpose of the trip was to go see my mom, or sorry, my mom, my dad. I got to stretch out my leggies here, guys. Sorry. It was to go see my dad, to go see, well, as many as you know, my friend Drew had passed, and I noticed he had just had his birthday a couple weeks ago, and a lot of people had said they had gone to go see him. So I was thinking I would like to try to contact a couple of our mutual friends and maybe go say a last goodbye to my buddy Drew. That was part of the reason why I was emotional leading up to going on the trip. The other part of it was that, you know, I was still feeling fresh, freshly annoyed slash disappointed that I didn't go to Expo. The other part of it was we had just found out that our dog, Luna Tuna Elwyn Agar, most likely, we have to get the x-ray still, but most likely she needs to get a operation, which Chat GDP tells me is between $3,500 and $6,000 Canadian. Because apparently something to do with her ligament on her knee is completely blown out, most likely. It could be a slightly lesser expensive one if it's not completely ripped off. I don't know. It's a very common thing that happens to dogs like over five years old, and she's six years old now. So it's a very common thing that happens if a dog is running really fast and turns and goes the other way, this ligament rips. So poor little Elowen has been a tripod. She hasn't been much of a pinball machine recently. She's been a pinball machine minus one leg. She can put a tiny bit of weight on it when she's standing, but when she's running she can't put any weight on it whatsoever. So I found that out. So, you know, that was also weighing on my soul. To be fair, I actually think that was... To be fair, I think I found out about that after. But I had a lot going on. I also had gone away for the largest show I've ever done in my 20 years of running small companies and having side hustles between an organic lawn care company, I think it was called Healthy Lawn, between Hummingbird Homestead, you know, between all these different little companies that we've ran, I've never gone and done a show this big, quite this big myself. And it was myself and Owen in Acadia, so I was kind of still a little stressed out from that, from doing a big show like that. And yeah, I wasn't in a great place mentally. And then I got very bad sleep the night before. And then after waiting in line for 45 minutes, the guy at the front told me, I'm sorry, sir, your driver's license has expired. And I said, oh, that's okay. I have my health card here. And I showed him my health card. And he said, unfortunately, sir, because Nova Scotia does not put your picture on the health card, I can't accept this as government-issued ID. I went on to show him about nine other cards in my wallet, and he said, these are all fine and dandy, but none of these have your picture on it, so it wouldn't work for picture ID. You would need to go get your license updated, or you'd need to show me a passport. Do you have a passport, sir? And I said, I do have a passport, but the passport is two hours away, four hours round trip. And he said, well, that is not going to work. Is there any way you can get someone to drive it to you? Because the plane leaves in like an hour and a half. And I said, no, the two people at my house or that live with me that have cars are both working for the day. And neither of them would even be able to get from where they were working back to River Hebert, back to Halifax to get me my ID, to get me my passport. And I know what you're thinking. Why didn't you just bring your passport? Or why didn't you check your ID? I don't know. Maybe I'm an idiot. I think I remember at like 2 a.m. the night before trying to go to bed. Okay, I'm not going to say I'm an idiot, but I did something stupid. I had a moronic moment, and I didn't check all that stuff. And you should do that. You should definitely do that. Like I was saying, in Ontario, they send you a message like three months before your birthday, then in your birthday month. And then I do believe like if it's been two weeks past your birthday and you haven't updated, they'll send you a final reminder, or at least they used to do that. And Nova Scotia, they don't do that. and I'm just not the type of person who's anal retentive and is checking their, you know, I'm not looking at all of my identifications and checking the, well, I should have done it with, I should have done it with my driver's license because I screwed up doing it with my passport last year and that's why I couldn't go to the Beast in Buffalo. I'm such a failure. I'm not good at traveling. I'm not. My dad, to be fair, my dad is agoraphobic, has agoraphobia or is agoraphobic and he does not travel hardly, barely at all. He doesn't go more than maybe five kilometers, which is about three miles from his house, maybe more than maybe three, four times a year he'll do that. If he has to, he gets very uncomfortable. Thankfully, I haven't had to deal with that too much, but I think at this point I'm starting to, because what happened is, is the gentleman told me there might be a chance if I got on the phone with Flair that they might be able to switch me to a flight the following day for a very nominal fee or not a small fee or whatever. So he said, I'm sorry, sir, if you could step out of line and go call them, I've got to help the person behind me. And of course, I'm being argumentative and a little bit, a little bit abrasive, a little bit argumentative. I wasn't yelling or screaming. I was staying actually somewhat calm. Nothing, nothing like the Upper Decker incident, fellas and ladies, nothing like that. But so anyways, I leave and I go to call the other place. Well, surprise, surprise, they don't open till 8 a.m. mountain time. So I had to wait like another 40 minutes. So while I'm waiting, I go onto their website and I'm trying to switch my thing over, but I can't log in. And then when I say forget password, I do it like five or six times. And even though I can see I've had emails to this email address, so I know I'm using the right email address, it's not sending me the, it's not sending it to my, I looked at my junk mail, I look at my spam, I looked at my promotional email folder. I looked in every folder there was on Gmail and then I resented again because I was getting very close to that time where I knew that if I didn't switch it over, they probably either weren't going to let me or like, I don't know, they can't fill that seat at all anymore once it gets closer. Now, the good news was the plane actually got delayed 45 minutes coming from Toronto because the Carl Weathers was garbage there, as all of my Southwestern Ontario friends can attest. And in fact, had I got back to Ontario, I most likely would have been stuck there because Kitchener, Waterloo, the area where I was supposed to fly out of, lost power apparently on that day and everyone was scrambling to try to keep their houses warm. So if the snow was so deep they lost power, probably all the airplanes were shut down. So I may have been stuck in Ontario an extra two or three days and being in Kitchener-Waterloo with very limited options to get back to any friends or family houses, I probably would have had to pay for a hotel for a night or two. And then that would have made things even harder because then there's no one to watch either of the dogs on Monday or Tuesday. So anyways, it ended up that when I talked to the girl on the phone. She was like, I'm really sorry. There's no way I can do anything about it. The only way I can switch your flight over is if I charge you $149 fee. And I said, but the flight was only $130. I don't want to pay $150 to switch it to a different day. And she basically said, I'm really sorry, sir. There's nothing else I can do. I basically angrily hung up and said, yeah, thanks so much for your help. And I hung up. Now, was I being sarcastic and rude? Yes. probably when you're being sarcastic and rude not a good idea to be in an airport and go argue with someone especially when you're already upset at this point I'm stranded I have no car I'm two and a half hours away from my house I have no one who could pick me up for another eight or nine hours the last thing I want to do is be stuck in this airport for another eight or nine hours and I'm actually getting really upset because I was supposed to spend two or three days with my best friend before we went away to the pinball tournament I was supposed to hang out with my other two best friends I was supposed to meet up with two other couples who were good friends of mine who I hadn't seen in a long time. And then I had my aunt and uncle, my sister and brother-in-law, my other sister and brother-in-law, my two nephews and my niece, all meeting me at Beer Town in London to hang out for a bit. Plus I was going to reach out to more of the London, Ontario pinball nerd people, especially the ones that weren't going to be going up to the pinball tournament at Maple in Toronto and hang out with them. But none of those things seemed to be, you know, I was getting more and more upset about all this. and I went back in line. I waited in line for a long time, like, I don't know, 15, 20 minutes, quite a long time. And when I finally got up there, I was really happy I didn't get this gentleman because I thought the gentleman had had enough of me and he was going to be like, sir, just, I told you you're not getting on the plane. Just leave me alone. Sorry. And now at this point, I'm not concerned at all with getting on the flight. I know she's not letting me on the flight. I know he's not letting me on the flight. But the girl on the phone seemed to insinuate without directly saying it that the only people, if anyone in the company, who could change my flight to the next day, and of course I could have just bought a ticket for the next day, but the next day was $487 because they were down to so few tickets. And that's how Flair works. When you buy tickets at the very start or at the very end, they're the most expensive. All the seats in the middle, they try to fill up for cheap. I don't know how or why it works that way. It's a discount bargain airline and when you have a discount bargain airline you get discount bargain employees because when I got up to there the girl did not even look I don't like that when you go up to customer service they don't even raise their eyes I really do that really really gets my it really gets my tilt bob a dangling okay it really does I do not like if you can't even be bothered to look up I don't even care if I'm at McDonald's or whatever like look up from your phone and say, hello, how are you? How can I help you? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. What would you like? Here's what she says. I'll try to do a little bit higher pitched voice just for the sake of the conversation. This is off the top of my head, me trying to remember it. Could I please see your license, sir? And I said, oh, actually, I'm not here to, sir, could I please see your license? You could, but if I showed you my license, you'll notice it's expired. Okay, then I need another piece of identification to let you on the plane, sir. And I was like, well, here's the thing is I actually just had a question for you. Then she looks up and she says, I need to see your identification to get you on the plane, sir. And I said, I don't know why you're getting so upset with me. I'm trying to ask you a question that's not related to getting on the plane right now. And she looked at me and she said, why are you being passive aggressive to me? And I said, I don't know what that means, but I'm not sure why you won't just answer a question when I waited in line 20 minutes to talk to you. And she basically looked at me really grumpily and said, what do you want And I explained to her I said unfortunately I don have up ID but I talked on the phone to customer service and I was really really and I trying to be nice at this point because I trying to save and get to go see my friends and family and go to this pinball tournament. And I'm trying my best, but this girl is not having it. She's done her shift. I'm literally the last person in line. She's, you know, there's no more flare flights for the end of the day. So she gets to go home. She's not going on the flight, right? Like that's the other crew. And anyway, so she's looking at me like, don't F with me today, sir. And I said, listen, all I'm trying to do is get myself on the flight tomorrow because of the fact that unfortunately I had absolutely no clue when I was not sent a reminder and I should have checked, but I didn't. This is on me. It's not the airline's fault, but I'm wondering if there's any way you could find it in your heart to somehow, some way move me to tomorrow because of the fact that I need to go back home to get my passport for me to get on the flight. And she said, no you can call flair and switch it for 149 is there anything else i can help you with and i said well no there's nothing else you can help me with but i don't think you understand i've already spoke to the people at flair and they said that the only way they can do it is by paying 149 fee and that she kind of insinuated that there might be a chance that if i came and talked to you very nicely that and she said sir you're not getting on the plane today and i'm not switching your flight. Is there anything else I can help you with? And I said, well, I don't know why you're being so rude. You've interrupted me multiple times now. She said, you're being aggressive. Do I need to call security? I said, call security. What would you say? And she goes, I would tell security that you're being somewhat passive aggressive. And I said, you're really going to call security and be like, oh, hi security. I have someone here being somewhat passive aggressive. come help me. And she goes, that's it, sir. And she called security. And I was like, are you, what, what is happening? I wasn't even like, I wasn't even leaning up on the desk. I was barely raising my voice. I was barely even matching her tone. To be honest, she was being, she was being like a nine out of 10, right? I was maybe an 8.75. Come on. But no, I was being rude. I was being a dick. I was being a bit of a jerk. Do I think she need to call security over something so foolish like that. So anyways, the security woman comes over before the police can get there because we're at an airport and there's police and there's security, but the police weren't nearby. And she's, I think her job is to like analyze if this is serious or not. Because she's talking for like a minute and a half and she's saying like, well, is he like threatening you? Or like, is he, you know, like doing any aggressive movements or anything? And she's kind of half talking to me and I'm going, and I am being rude at this point. Now I've kind of like, I flipped my lid, not quite as bad as the Upper Decker incident, but I'm basically saying, like, this is ridiculous. I'm just sitting here. I wanted to ask her a question. She interrupted me three or four times before she'd let me ask the question. Then while I was answering the question, she just was, like, getting really angry and upset, like, she doesn't want to work here. Like, I should be allowed, like, I paid a hundred and something dollars to be on the flight today. I should be allowed to ask her one question without her getting angry and suggesting I'm being passive-aggressive and calling security. And she was like, well, sir, you're not going to get on the flight today. And I don't think she wants you here anymore. So you should probably leave. I said, okay, well, I have no problem leaving, but like, am I in trouble with security or something like that? And she goes, well, no, not right now. Uh, but I think it's probably best if you leave. And I said, all right, I'm out of here. See you later. And as I was leaving, she was like, and I hope you have a good day, sir. And I turned her straight in the eyes and I said, uh, I hope your day gets better because I really think you need to get laid. And when I said that to her, the security guard's mouth dropped. And she looked at me and she said, you're banned from Flair for life. And I said, you need to really get laid. So we both have problems, lady. And I said that as I was walking away. And then I was like, whoa, you do not want to get banned from Flair for life. That's the only way I've got to town and back to town, to Ontario, to Toronto, to Ottawa, to go into Chicago to like to anything because it's like you know between 80 to 150 dollars typically for a flight if you buy it at the right time as opposed to like a cheap one on Air Canada can be seven eight nine hundred dollars so even the Porter Airlines which is halfway between is 250 to 350 so this would cost me like it's the difference of me being able to go to two or three Ontario turnips for you or none so I don't even know if I'll be traveling again for a long time I don't think she actually banned me from Flair for Life because of the fact that on Sunday night, I got my pre-boarding pass sent to me and they said it was like obviously was generic. But I think if I was banned from Flair for Life, I wouldn't have got a, hey, Mr. Agar, we're excited for your flight. Make sure you bring your up-to-date ID with you. the thing is had I even got on that flight there's no way my wife could have even perulated or there's no way she could have expedited or shipped or sent because Canada post is on strike right now here in Canada there's absolutely no way she could have actually got my passport to me there so I may have been stranded there even if they did the wink wink nudge nudge like okay well we know you don't have photo ID in Ontario they may not have let me back on the plane and I don't have a car to get back here with and my license is expired so I can't rent a car and I don't want to sit on a train for five days. There's no one to watch the dogs. There's no one to run the homestead. There's no one to take care of the chickens. There's, you know, I have parenting duties, house husbandry duties, you know, like I can get away for three or four days and get it covered for a day or two. But, you know, for me to spend four days on the train to get back to Nova Scotia. So I know a lot of people, I know even Mike Dimas, shout out pinball shenanigan there himself and said like, well, are you finding a plan B? Are you coming another time? Look, I could have flown in for significantly less on Friday night, but by Friday night, I would have missed a whole day of the pump and dump. I would have missed the Classics Friday night match play tournament, which was the one I did best in last time and the one I'm not that great at moderns. I'm really horrible at remembering rule sets. I'm pretty decent at EMs and okay at solid states, so I typically do better in the Classics. That Friday night tournament was the one I was most excited for. But listen, pinball nerds, that's not why I didn't go Friday night. First of all, my nerves were shot. My cortisol was through the roof. Second of all, shortly after this, I was doing a live stream, which many of you may have seen. I didn't think the police were coming for me after that. I thought when the security girl said, okay, just leave, I thought we were done. She didn't say, by the way, the police are coming to look for you. So while I'm doing my live stream, I see two officers fully like they got on like everything, everything like riot squad like tasers pepper spray gun or guns the what did the one person have two and then they also have like the bulletproof vent like these weren't like uh they they were real cops these weren't like airport like i used to be like a rent-a-cop these weren't rent-a-cops with billy clubs and flashlights these were like legit cops and they were like uh and i like you can see me put down my phone in the live stream and they're like excuse me sir, you actually look somewhat like a person that we were looking for, but I assume it wouldn't be you. You didn't happen to get into a major altercation with someone at the flare desk, did you? Because someone matching your exact thing does, but you just seem so calm. And I said, no, that was me. I said I was calm most of the time I talked to her until she flipped out and threatened to get security over me being somewhat passive aggressive. So they took my whole thing and they said, wow, like, literally, like, they said usually, like, someone would, you know, spit on them or someone would, like, pull back their arm like they were going to punch the table or, like, someone would say, like, oh, I hate you or I'll find you or someone would say, like, something, like, who pissed in your cornflakes? Okay, I did say the thing about you need to get laid. That's probably what took it past the line. Mind you, security had already been called. But maybe that's why the police ended up being involved at the end of that. I have no clue. For the record, she probably did need to get laid, but that's rude and I shouldn't have said that. Even though I'm not going to say it was uncalled for, it was definitely called for, she definitely did need to get laid, or maybe she just had some other issues besides that where she's just a mean, rude, bad person. I have no clue. But you know what? Also, maybe she has a friend or family member going through cancer treatments. When my mom was super sick, I was nearly impossible to deal with. So maybe that's what it is. So I would like to give her the benefit of the doubt. wherever you are Karen or whatever your name is wherever you are I'm sorry for being rude and saying that especially what I said at the end that was uncalled for but please don't blame me from flare I want to be able to flare I gotta have my 26 pieces of flare on come on office space let's go um yeah so I did not get on the flight it was a little bit sad and uh I I told a really grumpy ladies, you need to get laid. Not my proudest moment. Thankfully, I was like pretty mellow about it because part of my anxiousness was knowing A, I had to fly in a plane. B, I had to land in like one of the largest airports, well, the largest one in Canada, one of the largest airports. I think it's like the third or the fourth after like LAX and whatever, JFK there in New York City. Pearson's one of the largest international airports in North America. I was going to have to get through three terminals to get on to a subway to take the subway to Union Station, and then I was going to have to wait like an hour and a half to get on to Union Station. It's very tricky to find your way around, by the way. It's also one of the top pickpocketing places on planet Earth, so, you know, it's a little bit scary. It's a little bit tricky. It's a little tough. I'm no slouch. I'm a bit of a city slicker and a bit of a country bumpkin, so I can handle either. I would have been fine. I would have made sure my wallet was safekeeping. I don't have the metal cord anymore or whatever. What do you call it? The metal chain from your wallet to your thing. But like I would have stuck it at the bottom of my... I don't have one of those waste things. I should have one of those. I would have been fine. But then and then from there, I would have had to get on another bus for three and a half hours back to London after traveling on a plane for two hours and 45 minutes, after traveling on a subway for 25 minutes, after burning time for 45 minutes at the airport after burning three and a half hours at the airport that morning, after driving for two and a half hours over a mountain range that was like about to get snow in Nova Scotia. And then after that, I would have had to go on one, if not two, City of London buses to get to my dad's house or Fork River. And I didn't have to do any of that. All I did was I hopped on the maritime bus at 1pm, got picked up from Danielle right as she finished work at like 3.30, came home, relaxed, had a glorious weekend. I mean, it wasn't glorious because I was, I don't want to say depressed, but I was definitely down. I was definitely like, dude, you effed up the beast a little. You should have learned from that. You definitely effed up Expo by not getting your passport papers done months in advance instead of just like leaving it to the last minute. And now you've effed up this by not, like, excuse me. I'm going to have to take like a cough lozenge. Uh, okay. Um, but I didn't get to go on that trip. Hopefully next year, totally straight up. My wife agreed with me because I spent less than half of the money we had set aside for that trip. I will get to go on a trip depending on if my dog's getting surgery or not. I will get to go on a trip at the next maple pinball open, which has just been announced. I could be wrong, but I believe it's in March or April again. That would be like similar to the one I went to last year in the spring. So I do plan on doing that one again. Of course, God forbid, depending on how the dog's doing, because my Luna Tuna Elowen Egger will always take precedence over a pinball trip. That being said, again, part of the reason I didn't come back on the Friday night, even though I could have got a cheap flight, was because I wouldn't have had time then to see my friends, my family, or anyone else because my flight back was early Monday morning and the pinball tournaments didn't end till Sunday night. So my best friend was just going to drop me off at the airport. I wouldn't even have got back to London. I wouldn't have seen any of my friends or family there back at home. That's why, Dimas, to answer your question in a long roundabout way, I didn't bother coming on the Friday night. Anyways, I've gone on too long. Sorry, Franchi, if you're still listening. Franchi, why are you still here? You got let go a long time ago. I'm, just to recap everything, I'm stoked AF for Twippies. I'd love to be part of it in some way, shape, or form, even though I probably can't be there. Someday, though, I will. I would love to be. I think I would be the perfect red carpet guy. I don't, I'm not the right person to host the Twippies. I would freak out about that with anxiety. I'm kind of like Ian from Nudge. People can handle me in little tiny spurts from time to time. That's why I try to, I've been trying to keep the Pinball Podcast well under an hour, even though I didn't do great at it today. Guys, it's been a couple weeks since I got to chat with you. I'm really excited. My chocolates and gummies are kicking in. I'm going to go have a nice time, play a little bit of OG Fortnite, by the way. They got OG Fortnite is back, Season 1 Fortnite. I'm getting destroyed in that. You sweats. You try-hards are kicking my butt. I might have to go play some Zero Build just so I can get away from you construction builders who can build faster than a roofer on a speedball. Anyways, I'm going to go have a nice night. Y'all go have a nice night. I want you guys to take notice. Oh, and big shout-out also as well. I almost forgot. Jeff Teolas fired me back $40 from the tournament. I'd already paid for the whole tournament. Jeff, you didn't need to do that. Jeff had already done all the payouts. I think he just did it out of the kindness of his heart. Jeff, you did not need to do that. I thank you for doing that. I appreciate it. You did not need to do that. I don't want any of y'all to donate any money to me. If someone wants to buy X-Men 49, I'll take another 50 bucks off. I'll bring it all the way down to 275 American or 360 Canadian. That would really help me out right now, to be honest. That would actually pay for a good chunk of what I lost. But I don't want any donations. I'm not trying to sell any coffee. Just remember, what I ask from you is that as long as I'm not... Well, I didn't sing on the show, partially because I don't have my Bluetooth, partially because my throat sucks, but I will be doing some Christmas singing before Christmas comes. I'm sorry, unless someone buys that X-Men, then I can't sing at all. But my promise to you is that I have been working really hard to no longer advertise on the program, to ask for coffee sales, to ask for donations. All I want is to increase the numbers and people listening. So if you could, if you're a content creator, pinball podcast, or YouTuber, maybe give me a quick shout out, say the show's slightly better than it used to be, if that's true for you. He hasn't freaked out in like 40 episodes. You could say that, you know what I mean? Whatever, whatever it is, tell your truth. That would be great. Or if you're not a pinball content creator, tell your friend to listen. Put up a link on Pinside. Maybe just, you know, fire off a link to someone on Facebook or one of your other social media outlets and say, hey, Orby's back, baby. Because episode 600 is coming and I'm shocked. I'm stoked for it. I'm excited for it. Will I have Colin on? Will Don join me? Will Drop Target Danielle come in and do a full episode with me for the first time in like 100 episodes? Who knows? Tune in to find out next time and until then, say it with me nerds. Play before you pay. This is the way. And don't forget to eat, sleep and breathe Maple Pimble. Thank you.

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 16ec1a73-8890-46d4-8854-afbe181534fc*