Let's make this Christmas Be something this year Let's make this Christmas mean something this year. Hi, everybody. This is James Brown. This is a very, very unusual way to come to you. But I got to start by saying thanks. Thanks for such a wonderful year. Not only to you, God, number one. To you, number two. And for all the wonderful things. You know, when I look at a beautiful day, I say, let God is happy. Make this club love Be something Hey everyone, how's it going? This is Tommy Skinner of This Flippin' Podcast. I'm coming to you tonight with a special episode. I'll be missing my co-host Taylor James Rees just for this one time. But I am joined by a very good friend of mine, Mr. John Hawksby. John, how are you doing? Good. Thanks for having me. Absolutely, man. And we're here to, one, discuss pinball because that's what this podcast is about. And I just added several new games down to North End Pub, my location. So I was going to get John's take on some of those new games. So we hit you with the pinball talk. And then after that, we're going to bring it in with a far more serious cause. We are hosting our third annual charity bed drive at North End Pub on December 18th. We will be streaming pinball for 12 hours that day on twitch.tv slash thisflippinpodcast. And for the first time, we're going to be running tournaments as part of our activities during the charity stream. We have four separate tournaments planned for the day, and I'll get into a little bit more details on those. But we want to get you guys all the info on that because we will be taking donations not only in person, but also online that day, live while we stream. And in addition to that, this year we have reached out to several of the major pinball manufacturers that are around today, including Jersey Jack Pinball, Spooky Pinball, American Pinball, and Stern Pinball. And all of them have graciously donated us items that can be used as giveaways for tournament prizes, or more importantly, some really big ticket items that we are going to be auctioning off that day, taking bids both in person and online. And if we have to figure out how to ship these items to you, we will gladly do that because all the money is going to be raised that day. We'll be going to sleep in heavenly peace. But as I said, we will start out with some pinball talk for you, and then we will dive into the details of our third annual charity bed drive. So, John, you live roughly an hour away, and fortunately for me, you are a good friend, and you come up to visit me and hang out since I'm now living the dad life, and I don't get to travel very much. And I get to put games down at North End Pub for people to enjoy. In just this past two weeks, we have added in James Bond Pro from Stern. We added in 1979 Bally Hot Doglin, a super wide body. Probably one of my favorites. And then we got our Heist Playfield for our P3 from Multimorphic. And we also got our Ultraman from Spooky Pinball. So tonight would have been the first time you got to see any of those games. What would you like to dive into first? Did you mention Bond? I did mention Bond, yes. I started with Bone just because I was the most anxious one to see that one I guess. I only put a couple games on it just because there's more games now than I don't know the last time you got four games. Four games? Five games? Yeah, four games within a month is pretty rare I think for any arcade to add in so that was it. We're actually at the most games we've ever had down there. I think we're at 26 total games across the bar in the bowling alley right now at North End and Market Square Lanes. and we might even bring a few more down just for the event this coming Sunday as well. Yeah, so it was hard just to stick with one game since there's plenty of different new options, especially since I haven't been up here for a little while. Started with Bond. I really enjoy the flow. I mean, there's not a lot of negative stuff to say other than coding needs a little bit of work, but I like the direction that it's going anyways. Yeah, that's been my quick impressions of it. I honestly haven't got to play a ton of games on it. The night I set it up, I think I went back and played for about an hour with Tony, one of our local players, him and I taking some turns on it. But like you said, I think it looks like it's headed in the right direction, has a lot of potential. One of the tournaments that we will be hosting on Sunday, December 18th, during our charity bed drive, will actually be our James Bond official launch party from Stern. That will be the one machine that is on Coindrop that day. It will be $1 per play with every single dollar that goes into the game that day being donated to Sleep in Heavenly Peace. But that game will be running the launch tournament throughout the entire day. So we're running from noon to midnight with our stream. The James Bond tournament will run from noon to 11.30 p.m., at which point the top four players, the highest scores of the day, will play a final game. And we have Stern's Prize Pack on the way, which includes the trophy and a trans light. And then I picked up a few other little James Bond-related prizes as well. We will have a Lego Aston Martin to be given away, a deck of playing cards that are James Bond-themed, and then just tonight John and I checked out a vinyl record store, and I picked up the soundtrack for You Only Live Twice on vinyl. So we have a few other prizes for players on that one. But I agree. I know one of the major criticisms that came out when the machine was first shown was sort of the art package. Personally, I think it looks really good in person, but as anyone listening to the show knows at this point in time, I'm a huge James Bond fan. And James Bond is honestly what brought me into pinball in a weird way. What did you think of it? When you see just the picture by itself, like in the mock-up of the poster or whatever, I guess I could see the criticism for the art. But once you see it in person, it's beautiful. I mean, it looks perfect. I couldn't imagine it being in a different way. I mean, if it was original art, I don't know, it wouldn't look as cool. It wouldn't look as iconic, I guess. I have no complaints on the artwork at all. Yeah, I honestly think that the yellow cabinet really stands out in a lineup, and it looks great. It's very eye-catching. The one thing that I've noticed, and I've seen other operators mention this as well, is people are calling it us having the pro model Dr. No pinball, because it does feature Dr. No so prominently on the Translate. And if you don't know that there are other models of the game, etc., it makes sense. I've seen several operators buying a simple, basic 007 James Bond decal off of Amazon and applying it to the back glass just so that wording is there, too. Regardless, to me, it doesn't really matter because once you look at it, you can clearly see in the play field there's theme integration from several of the James Bond movies, obviously the Sean Connery era specifically, and I don't know if players will ever really pick up on that who aren't big James Bond fans to begin with. But for me, as we've talked about on this show many times, how this was a dream theme for me, I'm very excited to see where the title heads because I do think it just shoots really well, and I think it looks really good. There's a lot to look at, too. I mean, you'll hit a shot and then pick up on something that you didn't even notice the first time you looked at it. I don't know. It doesn't look bare, that's for sure. No, definitely has some stuff in there. I enjoy where the shots are at. And like you said, I know you mentioned earlier, you really like the Aston Martin, although it's not like a major interactive toy. It gives the game a really cool look when the ball ejects through the ceiling of that vehicle. Yeah, it's a lot cooler than I thought it would be. Same here. I got to fully agree with that. And the Rocket, as minimally active as it is, it still looks good on the play field. It's not an eyesore, in my opinion. Yeah, I wasn't sure how it was going to be on the Pro after watching the premium footage they showed. But, I mean, I didn't have any complaints playing this one. It looks awesome, functions well. I was also kind of not really caught off guard because it's modern pinball, but it's very fast to me. You can have some really short ball times, the way the game encourages you to shoot at certain targets. So, you know, bring plenty of quarters, be ready to play. But so far I'm enjoying it. So that was our most recently designed and newest game. even though we added it roughly two or three weeks ago at this point. Let's jump to the oldest game. I know you got to play a little bit of Hot Doggin'. That's actually what I played the most. I went straight from Bond to Hot Doggin', and then I kept going back to it after I played everything else. Have you ever seen a Hot Doggin' before? One time that I can think of. That was at District. I was going to say, I think when we went up to District 82, I remember seeing it there. I enjoyed that one. So seeing it again and having it not a nine-hour drive away is a big plus. Yeah, this is actually the second one I've owned, but the previous one I only had up at my lake house, and I basically had it up there for a summer and sold it. Yeah, you had that one fast. Yeah, that one lived a short life because I found out I was having a kid, and I wasn't going to have room for all these things, and that was before we moved into a house where I have more space. That's when I started to get worried, actually. Yeah. I really, really enjoy that game. I wouldn't say its art is amazing or iconic, but it's very time period. It'll transport you into a 80s comedy. I love the 80s, so it's perfect for me. Same here. I went through that machine. I repinned everything. I put in new displays, a bunch of new boards. It's got Yopsicles. If you don't know what a Yopsicle is, check it out on Pinsight or just Google it. Even Comet Pinball is now carrying the Yopsicles. But it is a great replacement light system for classic Bally's and Stern's, and it's cheaper than putting in new sockets and new LED bulbs. But I went through that entire machine, so every single insert is working on it. Putting all new clear Titan rubbers, giving companies all these plugs, but it's just because they make great products, especially if you're putting a game on location. And although the cabinet on that one is not the prettiest cabinet, because when I bought this, it was literally on a front porch of someone's house in a rainstorm, the play field on that game is actually in amazing shape. And I went through, cleaned it up, and waxed it, and it's playing really nice down there, in my personal opinion. And it's just not a really common one. I think I looked it up, and there's roughly 17 hot doggins available in public locations across the country. So it's not one you're going to get to see everywhere, whereas even though James Bond is brand new and they're just shipping them out, you're going to see it at pretty much any bar or arcade you walk into, and I like to keep a nice variety and mixture down there. I know you didn't get a ton of time on either Heist or Ultraman. Which one do you want to talk about next? Ultraman I've played before. I've played it at a couple different locations. It's still brand new. Although it's similar to Halloween, I like it a lot more. I think the theme is better intricated with that. It fits better for a game. I really like that they went with the horror aspect with Halloween to try something different, but it doesn't really translate into something that's super appealing. it's not a great to me it is not a great pinball theme especially like the pace of how the Halloween films work it's very like slow stalking and then a murder whereas like pinball is a very fast pace so kind of like the action aspect of Ultraman I think makes a little bit more sense just the sound the music use on Ultraman is a lot more appealing than Halloween Halloween just kind of seems boring after you play Ultraman. Same shots and everything. And that's what I think is really amazing is how much of an impact sound and the audio package of a pinball machine obviously makes a difference. Would TNA be the same without that soundtrack? That sort of thing. Yeah, I couldn't even imagine that being different. That's what's so unique, I think, when we see something like this. Although it's not a perfect comparison, even if you look back at Stern's history with Family Guy and Shrek, I love the TV show Family Guy but hearing some of those call out so repetitively I don't like playing that machine whereas if I play Shrek yes I do have to hear Smash Mouth All-Star but that somehow bothers me less than hearing Lois and Peter Griffin's voices over and over and over which doesn't make a lot of sense since there's so much more audio of Family Guy to pull from at that time when Family Guy was made it was still only a couple seasons I think But either way, it's the same idea. And I still think, I know we've mentioned it before, but I think this is a great idea, what Stern had previously done there, what Spooky just did with Halloween and Ultraman. When you design a layout that has really good shots that you could apply multiple themes to, why not do it? I understand there's always going to be a cost to that audio and the visual development, especially in modern-day pinball when you have the LCD screens that take so much more graphical work. but to not have to go in and completely research and design an entirely new layout and redesign a rule set, to me it has to save money somewhere along the lines. Like I can tell you right now, if Iron Maiden by Stern was repackaged into a different theme, specifically maybe Archer like it was originally designed, I would 100% buy that again and sell Iron Maiden. I'm not attached to Iron Maiden as a band, but I love that game. I still think it's Elwynn's best. I love Godzilla. I love Dress Park. I enjoy Avengers. I still think Iron Maiden's my favorite of his machines. So anyway, that's something I'm not mad about companies pursuing in the future, taking a great layout already that would fit for a different theme and just repackaging it because you never know when that theme might just hit home more for somebody else. And if it's coded, you get more games faster, which is always a good thing. Yeah, absolutely. As we know, production delays and all that sort of thing nowadays. Any way you can save time as a pinball company, Seems like it would be a good idea. Ultraman I've only gotten a few games on since it arrived. We're recording this really late Sunday night slash early Monday morning, December 12th. But Ultraman just got here Wednesday. I literally played one game the night that it arrived to make sure it was set up. And then I've played like three or four games. Yeah, I played a couple games at a show. Ours is having a ball stick issue up on the center ramp. I've sent Spooky some pictures looking for a good solution here. but it just seems like there's a gap too far between a post and a metal ball guide where the rubber runs, the ball's just sitting there. Yeah, if anything, I can literally just add a couple extra rubbers to fatten up the post. Otherwise, it seems to be playing really well, and it's by no means like a dream theme of mine or anything. It's a lot more attracting. It's very visually appealing. I like horror, too. I just don't think Halloween is a great horror film to throw into there. Or maybe, I don't know. Obviously, it sold well for them. We operated Halloween for several months. We knew Ultraman was coming eventually, so we got rid of Halloween in preparation for that. And as always, I'm excited to have a spooky pinball machine at my location as I try to get representation for all the pinball companies. We've operated Jersey Jacks. We've operated American Pinballs. We have a P3 from Multimorphic. We have Bally's, Stern's, Williams. You definitely spoil this up here. Yeah, I try to keep a variety of stuff for our location. so that when people come hopefully they can get a chance to play something they haven played before And that leaves us with Heist I know you only got one game on it as you told me earlier tonight but what was that impression from the one game I needed a little more direction as far as what to do. I like it so far. I think if I watch at least one video or something, or even just talking to you about what I needed to do, I'll definitely have a better game plan going in next time. It shoots well. It's pretty. It's about my only real takeaways from it right now. I got a little bit more time. I had a vasectomy roughly, well, almost seven days ago now, and I overdid it a little bit on Saturday coaching at a wrestling tournament. I was not feeling the greatest, so somebody covered my bar shift that night for me, and I was able to get the kid to bed and go down and play a little bit of pinball. and I got about 10, no, 15 games in last night on Heist. And just like you said, it'd be fun to watch a video, and I know Kevin from Buffalo Pinball does have a video out there on Heist. That'll definitely help. But it's not one that I've watched very thoroughly, and there's not a ton of tutorials, and obviously you don't see it on location in a lot of places. So I was talking to another operator friend of mine about how, like, last night I sat there and I probably played Heist for like an hour straight, and I was having to figure out why I played. and I forgot how enjoyable that experience can be because we're so used to nowadays when a game comes out you get a launch video you get a tutorial all these people started analyzing it and explaining the rule set like Avengers came out with that 28 page book of rule set things like that and I don't have any of that for Heist so I was going down and I was just figuring it out last night and I really really started to enjoy it it has that one more game appeal I think it's the closest feeling to a traditional pinball machine because a lot of people worry about the P3 and the gameplay and we've been running Ranger in the Ruins on it for the last six weeks roughly. Although I love that game, I can see how people wouldn't feel it's as traditional as a modern pinball machine is. I think Heist is going to draw in some new people to that machine. We're still waiting on our Lexi Lightspeed playfield as well. Hopefully that arrives in the next month to six weeks. As people are getting used a heist, I can swap it out again, and then once we run Lexi for a little bit, I'm going to go back to Weird Al, and we'll have four full playfields that we can swap in there, and as you listened to our last episode, eventually I'm going to be getting the drained playfield as well, so we'll have within the next year, at least five playfields to put in there, and I know Multimorphic has said they have two games coming out in 2023 as well, themselves, and, you know, depending on their build schedule, we might even be able to get more than that, and I'm finding it very cool as an operator to be able to switch that experience up. And it's funny, I'll be down there and people will be like, oh, you switched it again. They see a new game in there and I'm like, yeah, check it out. It's something new. So that part I have enjoyed personally seeing from the customer base and then again figuring out Heist and playing it last night. I was able to get two jewels in my Heist, two of the Heists done with those, the two-person one and the three-person one. I'm learning that aspect of it. I think I've played all the different multi-balls and I'm starting to do the side jobs. I still can't get the damn Crosstown loop, but I did get the one where you shoot it underneath the upper flipper. I enjoyed that, and the Bash in the Crane one, too. So there is a lot to the game. It's got quite a bit of depth, and I think a lot of replayability for people, too. I'm looking forward to spending more time on that and Ultraman in the next couple weeks. And Bond, although, like I said, it's fun and shooting well, there's just not a ton in there right now, code-wise, so I'm looking forward to those code updates. It's going to be interesting at the launch party with such a basic rule set already in the machine to see those players who have sought it out and figured out what is in there and how to take the most advantage of it as it sits right now. If you didn't have so many other new games for me to bounce around to, plus chasing down the pin quests, and I would have spent more time on Heist, I think I would have figured out more to it. I'll definitely pop back to it for sure. yeah it's you know i i was able to and you didn't quite pick up on it but you kind of understood like you shoot the characters it starts a mode i understood that basic principle what i didn't get initially until i'd played you know several games last night is once you collect two characters that's when you can start doing the actual heist aspect of the game and doing the missions for the jewels so i was learning i just kind of got that at the end and i finally had that game where i got two of them i just was under 20 million and that is actually the pin quest goal i think i was already 25,000 points short last night. So that is going to be a tough one to get. I'm probably going to lower that goal for players because I just looked at the high scores that were posted on Pindigo for the machine and based it on that. And if you think about that, most likely the people who have heist have had it. It came out right around the pandemic start, I think. So people who had it have had it at home for two years and have been figuring it out and that sort of thing. So my goal might have been a little bit high on that one. But we're also, as John mentioned, one of the locations in the country that offers pin quests for players. And you can earn like a virtual pin buck currency. And you can use it to purchase North End Pub merchandise if you come and play at our spot. So if you ever make the trip up to visit, definitely let me know. And I can come down there and show you what that's all about. We got signs on all the machines for it too. At least a lot of the machines. But yeah, I think that's kind of a good summary of what's been going on as far as the games at our location. and what I've been trying to mix up. We've also picked up a Chicago Cubs triple play and a Asteroid Annie and the Aliens that are both sitting in my garage that will eventually get restored and make it their way down to the bar. But those are projects that will be put off for quite a while for now. But those are some future titles you will see down there. Again, some pretty uncommon games to see on location. But now that we've run through that, Let's get to the main point of discussion today. Sunday, December 18th, from noon to midnight, you and I, for the third time, will be hosting a charity bed drive where our goal is to raise roughly $3,000, which is what we did last year. Our goal was not that last year, but that's what we raised, so that's what we're going for again. that will be used by the charity Sleep in Heavenly Peace to build beds for kids who are in homes where they don't have a place to sleep. I first heard of this charity while reading CNN at work a few years ago. Every year, CNN gives out awards to their heroes, people who have done the most impactful thing. And it's, you know, quote-unquote, your common person. It's not a celebrity who's done something. It's just your average day citizen who has come up with something that is helping people. And I saw this charity and it basically said, you know, they were building beds for kids who didn't have a place to sleep. And as someone who worked in, at that time, an alternative school setting, a lot of my students could quite possibly be those kids. They don't always come from the best home lives. I know for a fact that our school provided a mattress for one of my students at one point in time. So the charity just, you know, it stood out to me. John here is one of my best friends and he's one of the best people I know. I sent this story to him as like, hey, isn't this cool? And as the story explained, the charity had branches all over the country. You could join them on a build day and you go and you help build these beds, specifically the wooden bed frame. And then they also use the money that's donated to them to provide mattresses and pillows, sheets and blankets, everything that you would have on your bed and a lot of us take for granted. I just thought it was cool. Next thing I knew, John, who was a member of an organization known as the Bearded Villains, had organized for his group to go and participate in one of these build days in Indianapolis. And not only would they help build the beds, but they would help deliver them to homes. So John took something that I saw and thought was cool and that maybe we could do something with, and he became active in doing so, which was both awesome and inspirational to me. And unfortunately, a lot of their build days take place when I work because I work typically six, if not seven days a week. Every day. So it is hard for me to get to participate in that side of things. So I tried to look at something that we could do. And a couple years ago, we set the goal of we wanted to raise enough money to build one bed. And by one bed, it's one bunk bed. So it's actually two beds for children to sleep in. Right. The initial year that we did this, the goal was $400. We felt really good that if we could raise $400, we'd be providing a bed for two kids in our community. That first year was far more successful than we anticipated. We ended up raising a little over $2,000, able to build five complete bunk bed sets, provide beds for 10 children. as inflation has occurred and the cost of building materials has gone up. Last year, we were told that the rough cost was $500 per bed, and we just checked today to get the build cost. They've taken it down from their website because the prices have varied so much from different regions of the country. So we specifically spoke tonight with the Indianapolis branch, and we learned that right now for Indianapolis, the rough cost is $350 to provide a bunk bed. So two beds for kids to sleep in, and that includes all the sleeping materials, a mattress, sheets, blanket, pillows, and a place for kids to sleep. So with that being the basic information on it, we're going to kind of talk to John about some of his experiences with the organization, why this is so near and dear to both of us at this point in time, and why it is so important and how it is that you can help. so John again I love you man I think you are a great human and a great friend I'm proud to have you in my life but with all that being said even if I don't know you and you're a complete stranger tell me what a build day is like when you go work with Sleep and Heavenly Peace it's a lot of sanding basically they deliver the wood to a location it's usually a team building thing or a church or an organization that just wants to do some type of charity we've worked with with several churches on build days we've done a construction company there was a some fortune 500 company that wanted to do a team building day so basically you show up with nothing they provide everything they're sponsored by Lowe's so you just need people it's all rough lumber they have dyes and everything's set up in place at different workstations. So you don't have to work just in one spot. You can do anything from sanding, running a drill press, running a saw. Probably the favorite thing to do, they brand their logo onto the side of the frame. So a blowtorch and an iron. It's pretty cool. Everybody loves to do that. Makes for a good picture. So the build day, I think the most that we've ever done in just one build day was 50 beds with 100 volunteers, and that was in Frankfurt. The smallest amount, I think maybe 10. I don't remember what we did the very first one, but it wasn't a whole lot. 50 is a lot. that's all I think that's the most but they all have to be sanded you don't really think about the importance of sanding until you think about it being somebody's bed so it's something that they're going to have to crawl over if they're on the top bunk any splinter, any imperfection that can snag their clothes or their skin so you want to do the best that you can to make sure that they're getting something you know that you can be proud of and anyone who's done pinball restorations can relate to the sanding process of how important that is to prep work for a cabinet if you're going to repaint it and that sort of thing and that's something that you know we're rarely touching the entire side of whereas a bunk bed is something that a young child is potentially going to be spending you know a third of their life in if they're sleeping the proper amount of time but you got to get in and out every day so you're definitely wanting to keep things safe for kids so you don't have to have any construction knowledge any skill or anything to show up for a build day it just takes time and that's what you know any volunteer thing with this is time time to deliver time to make the bed time to carry everything in time to pack up the truck when the build day is done anybody can help they do all ages at build days nothing's really restricted. Of course, you know, if they're with a blowtorch, they're going to be supervised. But I definitely recommend checking out any build days and any locations around. There's 270 chapters nationwide. I think there's like eight in Indiana now. Yes, I just double checked on Indiana. Just in our state alone, we have eight different branches of this charity. And that's an important thing to remember. Like, if you don't have money to contribute you know while we're doing this stream or if you're coming to visit us in person but you have some time you can volunteer reach out you know look up the website they specifically have an area where it says you can find my chapter and it breaks it down by state and then by you know kind of like city area like for alabama here it is they have birmingham and it's split into the east and the south divisions um we have one a little bit closer to us here in indiana than indianapolis and frankfurt but they've had some trouble getting enough volunteers together currently. So our donations that we raise specifically will be going to Indianapolis. That is where John lives. That is where his group, the Bearded Villains, volunteer to help on these builds. And that's where they actually go and they deliver these beds. And that's something that you've also gotten to do in this process is you deliver these beds. And I know it is both probably the most rewarding and probably also at the same time the most frustrating part of this. Because you're taking these into a home where there isn't a bed and if you're listening to a podcast specifically about pinball there's a good chance in your life not that you've never experienced hardship but that you're probably not currently experiencing too many hardships compared to what some of these homes would have so if that being said what would you say is like your most memorable brightest memory and then kind of like your most upsetting memory and doing some of this delivery stuff i mean like so the the coolest thing of every delivery is it's bigger than Christmas for a lot of these kids. They'll meet us at the door. They'll want to carry in every piece of lumber, every tool, see what we're doing next. They'll stand at the doorway while we're drilling and everything to put everything together. And then the coolest part is you actually get to make the bed with them. And by that, you mean like the bedding aspect of it? So you get to put the sheets on it with them. And, you know, before you're even out of the house, they're already under the blankets. Unfortunately, a lot of the kids have never had a bed at all, which it's kind of eye-opening. I mean, it's rough seeing. We did a build or a delivery. This was three months ago or something. the mother had separated due to marital issues so she was in an apartment starting over on her own she had two boys and she was currently pregnant she was also sleeping on the floor they had nothing at all so the only furniture that they had was what we were bringing them That not easy Biggest thing I always say is, you know, we're leaving it better than we found it. And that's the easiest way to deal with it. We've done, there was one apartment, there was, we delivered 10 beds. So five full bunks to a three-bedroom apartment. There were at least three kids there that had never had a bed of any kind. So helping them make their first bed up, that stays with you for sure. I don't know. You don't think about not having a bed unless you've not had one. When I first moved in 2015, I moved to Chicago, stayed there for nine months, and then moved to Indy with just a Mustang. So my bed didn't make the trip. I personally didn't have a bed for 14 months. So as soon as you brought this to my attention, I knew exactly what it felt like to sleep on the floor. So that's why I stuck with it and tried to get involved as soon as possible. We've been building with them since 2019. And I know just in Indianapolis, we've put well over 100 kids in beds. That means a lot. Yeah, and I'm still, you know, I feel bad that I've never been able to go through the building process or delivery process. It's just not something that works great with my schedule. So when we were trying to think of what we could do to help, the idea of the stream came together. And then I remember as soon as we did the first year, we were like, wow, that doesn't seem like 12 hours of streaming pinball would be very hard or a big deal. But it was very difficult to do, actually. Now throw four tournaments in. And now we're going to mix in tournaments as well. It was also just like it's a lot of work for one day, but I know that what we help raise that day will go a long way. And I think, you know, I know the first year we had someone donate the full amount to build a full bunk bed set. I'm just going to put this in perspective. CERN just released the Mandalorian Pinball Topper, which is the, you know, quote-unquote coolest topper of all time. It's also $2,000. For that amount of money, we could build roughly six bunk beds. That's sleeping arrangements for 12 kids. and I'm just as guilty as anyone. I spend a lot of money on pinball. I work a second job to pay for my pinball hobby largely. I can do more with my money to be helping more people and not here to guilt trip anyone by any means. I love this hobby. It brings people together. But I think in this hobby, we can do a lot of good with it and we've continued to see that time and time again. Pinball does all sorts of different charity outreach activities for a variety of causes. This is just the one that we've tried to make our thing at North End Pub. um and it's important um when i shared this initial story about john i didn't know that he had spent time without a bed um i voluntarily spent time without a bed as a kid because i was weird and i liked sleeping on couches so my parents let me just have two couches in my bedroom growing up that's all i've ever slept on until i was like i think 25 when i got my first actual bed but i always had a space that was mine and that's kind of what's so important about this um it's not just the fact that it's a bed, it's the fact that it's a space where a kid can feel safe, something that they can have a little bit of ownership over. Earlier tonight, John brought up some of the things that he wanted to mention, some talking points so that we wouldn't just get stuck here, being a little bit prepared for this. And some of those things were how much having a bed for a kid can improve their quality of life, their ability to perform well in school, all sorts of things that are related to that and i didn't mean to sound unappreciative of that but that was something i was very familiar with having worked in teaching where frequently our state comes up with flaws about these tests kids have to take and how they have to perform on these tests and how important it is but those people creating the laws don't think about the fact that i've got a handful of kids coming to my classroom every day that didn't just have a place to sleep that night, that maybe they had to work to help their family, that they didn't have a meal when they went home that night and they didn't have breakfast that day either. They were looking forward to coming to school because they knew they could get a lunch that day. When you remember that those are things that are going on in your community and that there's kids who are living with that as their day-to-day life and you find out what sort of an impact just them having a bed, a place where they can hopefully get a night of six to eight hours of sleep so that they are rested when they come to school and they feel better about everything in their life that next day, you kind of start to see the importance of having these beds delivered in your communities. And I frequently forget how big of a city Indianapolis is. I think it's like the 11th or 12th biggest city in the country at this point in time. And as a result of any big city, you're going to have more areas with poverty in it. I know Indianapolis was hit hard through COVID. Everyone is being hit hard now with the rising costs of everything. So honestly, it was really good news for us tonight when we found out that bunk beds are being able to be built for $350 right now. That's a big difference. Yeah. And we did it last year, so I don't see a reason for us not to put our goal again at $3,000. But honestly, if we can raise $3,500 and know that we're building 10 bunk bed sets, providing beds for 20 kids in this community because of a day that we spent hanging out playing pinball with our friends, That, to me, is great. And I know some of you are asking right now, like, you know, how does this raise money? Well, again, all the machines at North End Pub, except for James Bond that day, so we'll have 25 machines on free play, and then James Bond collecting coins as part of the launch party with all that money being donated. We just make it donate to play. We're going to have 10 games that are set aside for the tournament that day. You're going to have 15 spread out across the rest of the bar in the bowling alley that are on free play for everyone to play throughout the whole day. So no matter what time you come, if you can come and hang out for 20 minutes any time in that day and make a little donation to us, you'll have 15 machines to choose from to play. If you care about tournaments and IFPA points or that's just how you like to socialize in pinball, we'll have tournaments running almost the entire 12 hours that day. And if you don't give a damn about pinball at all, but somehow you hear about this event and you want to show up and make a donation, please do so. so not only will we be doing that but while we're streaming online we will have our paypal and venmo information up you can just send us uh money that way please make a note on there although we're going to see what's coming in you know that you're making this donation for whatever the cause is and any amount really helps they used to have it on the website like thirty dollars gets sheets ten dollars gets a pillow that sort of thing but again with the fluctuations and prices they just got rid of that and they've that's another one of those things you have to remember like you can tell yourself, I can go buy a bed and blanket for this, that, and the other, but making these cash donations for the charity to buy things in bulk and get discounts is really what helps the most. That's the same thing for most food banks. You can always donate food there, but if you give them $10, they can make that $10 go a lot further than you can as an individual because they're going to pull everyone's money together. So those are some of the really important things to remember about this. And then again, as I mentioned earlier, we are being blessed by the kindness of the pinball community, as in the manufacturers. And I just received in the mail yesterday two backglasses from American Pinball. We have a backglass for Legends of Valhalla, and we have a backglass for Oktoberfest that we will be auctioning off. And Jersey Jack has told me they're sending us two playfields. They will be sending us a Toy Story 4 and a Guns N' Roses play field autographed by the entire design team for those games, as well as banners for those games also autographed. We're going to auction all those off. Spooky sent us a cup and a bunch of koozies that we'll be using as giveaways and prizes throughout the day. And Stern Pinball has said they are sending us a package that should be here this week, along with our launch party goodies as well. So I don't know what we have coming from them at this point in time, but ideally whatever it is, it's something we can auction off to again help raise some funds. And we'll be taking – when we go to that, we're going to say, hey, for the next two hours, this is what's up for auction. We'll be taking bids in person at our event that day. And if you're online, you can bid as well. We've done this in the past, the first year with a few items, just things I had around the house. And someone brought up, hey, man, reach out to the companies this year. They like to help with this stuff. That's a good idea. And all it took was an email from me to these companies. I didn't have to beg. I didn't have to ask anyone multiple times. Literally every company got back to me within 12 hours, I think, of, hey, we'll send you something or this is what we are going to send you. This sounds like a great cause. So we're going to do our best to shout out those companies. But everybody I asked to help out with this is helping out with this. So hopefully if you listen to this and you can't do anything for whatever reason, tell somebody else about it. Maybe your friend can. And that's another thing. If you can't, again, can't donate financially to us for this cause at this time, look up your local chapter and see if you can go help out on a build day. You know, maybe you have experience sanding or you're just good woodworking and you're good at building things. You're good at getting people together. You have a softball team. You have your kid's t-ball team you help out with. Whatever it is, I should really get my wrestling team to go on one of these builds sometime when it's not season and they're not all starving and grouchy. And help out because, again, you're impacting the people in your community. That's what's so cool about this. And that's another thing. If you're like, hey, man, what you're doing is great, guys, in Indiana, but I want to help out my state. Go look it up online and donate to your local chapter. We are doing this not just to raise funds, but to raise awareness. Because I guarantee you, no matter where you live in this country, there's somebody who could use a little bit of help right now. And it's not that hard for us to do so. We just have to be reminded every once in a while that we're capable of it. So I hope that not only do we raise the money to build beds for our community, but I hope we raise some attention to where people help out in theirs. And again, if you can't do it now, tell a friend and maybe share our info. Whatever you need to do, we'll help you however we can. But get out there and help. So to touch on that, awareness is the biggest thing. I've had several people ask, what's this thing you're talking about? What's this thing you're posting about? And come to find out they had a chapter that was 10 minutes from their house. They're always looking for volunteers. They're always going to need people to help with deliveries. He's always going to need help for build days, which is key. We've had people reach out just from an Instagram post in Texas saying, you know, how can I get somebody here a bed? And if anybody has any questions, can't find the information themselves, feel free to reach out to me or Tommy. I can get in touch with any chapter, any of the presidents. It's all on their website. It's really easy to use. And let me just say their website really quick for those of you who are looking or too lazy to look on your own, it is shpbeds.org. That's again, shpbeds.org, sleep in heavenly peace. That's where you get your shpbeds.org. So just for the ones that have signed up in Indianapolis, I know right now the want list or the need list for beds is at 70, and that's just the people that know about it, and that's just the Indianapolis area. I know at one time the Chicago need was 500. That takes a lot of work and a lot of patience and a lot of people, and a lot of people that care. And you don't have to provide money for that. You just have to spend a little bit of time, a little bit of dedication, or just talking about it. Several people have donated that. I have no idea who they are, but they heard about it through somebody else. And we can't thank you enough for that. pinball community is coming up big twice already i hope we get to do that again some i'm so thankful for what they've done for us in the past i'm excited for it i hope it goes well yeah although i dread the technology side of setting up a stream and stuff because just trying to record this tonight we've had multiple issues with microphones i hate that part of it but as the donations start pouring in throughout the day and we start thinking about what we are achieving, not just personally but as a community and a group and how many people we're potentially helping, it's all easily worth it. I know we've been talking about it for months now, what we would do this year, how we would do it. I had the idea that tournaments have become such a big thing in pinball they tend to bring out more people. So I said, hey, let's just run tournaments all day. People are going to need those points. Maybe that will bring more people out and they'll donate more to play. and then again with streaming and online we've taken in just as many donations online as we have in person the last couple years too and by no means I haven't streamed pinball in months I just don't enjoy the setup and breakdown of streaming I enjoy when I actually do it but it's a lot of work to get to that point get your years worth in one day so we will do 12 hours in one day last year we had technology issues with the wifi going out of the bar so we were hot spotting it and then I had an emergency that my wife started spotting at roughly three months pregnant after we had already had a miscarriage. So I went into panic mode, and I just had to bail on everything while John and a few of the guys stayed behind to finish out playing pinball until midnight because if nothing else, we're going to at least play for 12 hours and raise those funds. And luckily, everything turned out fine. By the time we stream this year, I will have a kid who is just two days short of being six months old. And that has been an entire experience and process in itself. but an even more eye-opening one because I can't imagine how I would feel if I didn't have a bed for him to go to sleep in at night and the things I would want to do you know to make sure he could get it and if he needed help doing that I would hope there'd be some people out there helping provide him with a bed and that is what we hope to do for kids that we don't know by any means but we know that their life will be improved if we can provide them with this so it has become something I look incredibly forward to. I was just telling Casey, the owner of North End Pub, last night about, you know, how proud I am of what we've done the past two years and how I'm looking very forward to this Sunday to see what we can do again. And hopefully we continue to make this an annual event because I look very forward to it. And I know, you know, there's probably so much more we could do. But it's kind of become something I really hang my hat on with pride as in like I had someone mention just messaged me on Facebook a couple days ago saying hey are you guys going to do the bed fundraiser again this year awesome and I said we are it's coming up actually you know here's the here's the website for it or here's the event page but we'll be doing donations online and in person again uh and this person uh does not live in the United States currently that's international and it's really cool to see that we're getting some attention from them. So again, it's not that we're doing a ton, but what we're doing is very impactful for some individuals. So whatever you can do to help on Sunday, December 18th, tuning into twitch.tv slash this flipping podcast, or somehow getting your ass to Lafayette, Indiana and down to North end pub and hanging out with us. It is greatly appreciated by not just us, but those that we are going to end up helping, even if they don know where that money came from for that bed at any point in time in their life you can go to sleep a little bit easier knowing you helped out One other thing that we didn touch on which is also very equally important if you need a bed or if you know of anybody that needs a bed you can also request a bed on the same website. The delivery I talked about with the woman that had nothing, she was very proud and she also didn't speak English, which made that an interesting delivery. her social worker was the one that pointed her in this direction and signed her up for it. So you can get a bed for somebody that needs one. Pride stops a lot of people from asking for help. So it's good to jump in there. At least do something for the kid. That's the number one thing. So if anybody needs help, I mean, it's right there. They have it on the website. There's an entire page, how to apply for a bed. And not only does it give the requirements of what you need to if you are the one applying, but it also gives it as a referral. And it says they actually get most of their beds in houses because of referrals. I know personally I have trouble asking for help in almost any aspect of my life. It's just kind of how we're raised in society in this country. But the reality is we all need a helping hand. when I moved this summer John helped me move I was very fortunate to have several friends who helped us in this process because we had a three week old kid at that time the house we didn't plan this move, it all happened incredibly quickly my parents, so many people helped when we needed that help and have continued to help John helped just a couple weeks ago to come watch the kid just while I had to briefly run out and do some sort of Oh, I had to go pick up James Bond. Yeah, Bond was ready for pickup, and the person I had scheduled to come babysit so I could make that drive had to cancel because they got called into work, and John drove up here on like 12 hours notice and spent the day hanging out with my kid until Alyssa got off work. So when you need help, regardless of what it's for, it's really nice to know that there's people there that will help you, and I think that's one thing we forget in this country, that like, yes, things can be shit sometimes, a lot of things. But typically, like, if you ask for help or you seek out the help, it is probably there. There is a lot of good in people. And that's kind of, I think, another reason I enjoy doing this every year is like, you know. I think everybody wants to help, but they don't know how. Yeah. And they don't have the means of finding out how. Or they wouldn't even know that an organization like this exists. and had CNN not done that story I don't know that I would have known about this so there's a lot of little things like that and I know you know I don't think you and I are the sappiest most emotional dudes but I know that first year when we saw how much money we raised when we were hoping to build one bunk bed and we were able to build I think it was five ten beds for kids to sleep in that year we covered the first bunk bed in like the first hour the day before the stream even started which is incredible online. I know I was personally close to tears. I think you were too. It was just really, really cool to see that we had made that sort of impact with something that we didn't know if it would have any success at all. And again, last year, we didn't know if we'd have any success at all. And honestly, going into this year, I don't know that we will have success. But now based on two years of going strong, getting more and more help from people involved in the pinball community, making their donations for things that we can auction off. I feel a little more confident going into this year that we're going to do something awesome. But I hope we blow away our expectations. We're more prepared this year. We've done a lot for this, which I definitely can't thank you enough for. Putting the word out, being more prepared than me, making a poster. I try to be on that side of things. You handled the building and the delivering of them, which is, you know, we make a good team. We work well together. and with you, the listeners, and the community, we are able to achieve something that's pretty cool to me. So what started out as something that we hoped to build one bed for, we have now spent the last two years, I think, building over 20 beds for kids, and this year we hope to do the same thing. Again, Sunday, December 18th, from noon to midnight, we will be streaming twitch.tv slash thisflippinpodcast. it'll be on Facebook on both the Flippin Podcast Facebook page as well as my location, North End Pub Pinball's Facebook page I'm assuming on our personal Facebook pages if you're listening to this, there's a good chance you're a friend with me on Facebook John Hawksby H-A-W-X-Y B-Y, my bad, I can't spell is on Facebook and Instagram as well and you can look up his group, The Bearded Villains that is largely who goes and does the builds with you and the deliveries As far as I know, we were the first chapter to do it. That's now expanded. We have a chapter in the north. They just did some deliveries yesterday. Minnesota is doing them now, and then I know Tennessee wants to do them soon. It's definitely spreading, which is great. Can you just tell us a little bit about the Bearded Villains as well before we go? So the Bearded Villains is a worldwide organization of bearded dudes that want to give back. I mean, it's a beard club, but it's also a charity club. It's a brotherhood. We have been a chapter since 2014 in Indiana, or 2015 in Indiana. I joined with them in 2017. I'm now the captain of the chapter. We are a 501c3 nonprofit. We've got 15 members, and they all like to show up to do whatever there is for us to do. We've done everything from deliver beds, part cleanups. We donated to help rebuild a playground in Richmond. Anything that we can do for community outreach, anything to give back as a group of brothers, and that spans nationwide and worldwide. So any of you out there who are looking for another way you could help out with something that's charitable in your community, you can look up them online and see if you guys have a chapter near you. I believe every state's got one now. So, yeah, there's probably something you can do in that sort of regard. If Sleep in Heavenly Peace, for whatever reason, doesn't seem like your cup of tea, this group's involved in several charitable efforts throughout the different communities that they exist in. And I know one of the things that John gets to do that he shares stories with me about, as you do, is a challenge or a t-ball, softball. Yeah, so children, it's in the spring is children, and then the fall is the adult league. It's a baseball league with children and adults with disabilities. It's a chance for them to play actual sports on the actual field, and their parents can actually sit down in the bleachers and watch their kids be kids. I've worked with Special Olympics, and I've taught Life Skills Adaptive PE, so we've got, although not the same people we're working with, similar experiences and those sort of things. So there's lots of ways you can help out. This is just what we've chosen to do that involves both our pinball hobby and doing some good community service in our minds. So I'm looking forward to it. the third annual charity bed drive brought to you by North End Pub and the Bearded Villains streaming all day online and if you want to come up hang out in person please do so you can stick around as little or as long as you want we will have tournaments going all day we are going to be doing our monthly four strikes tournament we're going to have a flip frenzy and we're going to have I believe it is a timed match play and on top of that we will have the James Bond launch party running throughout the entire day and we're going to be auctioning off all those items I already told you before that were donated to us by American Pinball and Jersey Jack Pinball and whatever Stern Pinball is sending our way and we've got the giveaways from Spooky Pinball we've got pin quests you can do while you're there we've got 26 different pinball machines to play like I said we'll have a lot of them in the bar but if you are under 21 or you have kids that are under 21 in Indiana. Children are not allowed in bars. We still have 10 machines on the bowling alley side of the establishment where you can do that. On top of that, it's also a bowling alley. If you like to bowl, you can come and bowl that day. You don't have to play pinball. There's all sorts of ways you can participate in our event and still be contributing. I'm excited. I'm looking very forward to it. I hope we have another great turnout. Is there anything else you want to make sure we mentioned i think that's everything other than a big thank you to to yourself and casey for making this happen um thanks for sharing your platform getting the word out on this thank you for all your hard work thank you the pinball community that's pretty much it for me and thank you for doing the actual hard part of building the beds and delivering them and impacting these kids lives man because that is uh it's a lot to do it's a lot of emotional weight and baggage from some of the stuff I know you've seen. It doesn't make for the most compelling, well, it probably makes for a very compelling podcast, but it's not something that's fun to talk about. So you're doing the really, really important part of this activity when it comes to building and delivering these beds. Again, shpbeds.org if you want more information on the organization itself and finding out if you have anything local you can do. otherwise tune into our stream show up in person next week Sunday the 18th and make a difference help out your community I don't have a lot of things I'm asking for for the holidays for Christmas that's not really my thing my life is pretty damn good overall but if you can make any sort of donation or contribute in any sort of way to this cause that would mean a lot to me and that's what I'm planning to give to this year because my kid is already spoiled as the only grandkid and the only kid that I will be having most likely as I cross my fingers that I don't jinx myself here. So at this point in time, we're going to call this an episode. I don't even know what number it is. It's a special edition or something like that. But again, December 18th, a week before Christmas, let's make somebody's holiday a little bit better by raising enough funds to build them an awesome handcrafted bed and give them a place to sleep, a place to have some ownership of, and a place to feel safe to start their days off better and hopefully improve their quality of life for a long time to come. John, thank you again for sharing this event with me. I look forward to it every year. And those of you listening out there, we'll talk to you soon and see you on the stream. I say it's happy because the bread's sweetened the sun is shining The wind is blowing The breeze It leaves the flying Everybody feels nice We just say Oh God Thanks for all the wonderful things You can see a little snow sometimes But you know God only knows How the Christmas is gonna look So one more time I'll say Let's Make this Christmas No, no Come on now, now, now, now This year One more time, would you sing one more time? Let's No, no Make this Christmas No Let's make it look all right Now let's make our next year be as nice as this year. Now Christmas has got to be the kind of a Christmas that we remember a long time ago. You remember when everybody used to look forward to Santa Claus? You want to know what you're going to have the next day. You couldn't wait until Christmas morning to jump up. But that's the morning that you wouldn't go to your table. We'll go straight to your little sack, hanging on the mantel, over the fireplace. Let's make this Christmas. No, no, no. We'll start making this year. Let's, let's make Christmas. Make this Christmas Oh, thank you so much now Mean something No, no, no, no You know, I just enjoy this And I really can't find enough words That would really make me express myself The good feelings that I have But I want to say thanks, thank you God And now, let's make Christmas the kind of a Christmas that we remember. You know, you made Christmas very, very beautiful for me in my past years. But let's make this Christmas good for everybody. The kind of a Christmas that Mom, Dad, Granddad get. Let's make Christmas. Make this Christmas. And all the bags are waiting. No, no, no, no. We need something. Oh! Oh! This year Let's Let's make Christmas Make this Christmas Oh! Oh! Mean something Oh! Oh! Come on, John This year Everybody Let's Let's make it a beautiful Make this Christmas A lovable Let the violins play now. Let the violins play now. Let the violins play now. Play the song one more time. Feels so good. Come on. Make this Christmas Hey! Hey! In something This year Yeah! Yeah! No! Thank you. Make this Christmas I'll see you. I'll see you Christmas morning If I don't You see Santa Claus. Let's make this Christmas Be complete This year