coming at you out of st charles illinois the special when lit pinball podcast starts now hey what's going on pinball land welcome it's episode 95 of the special when lit pinball podcast episode 95 i'm ken cromwell i am bill labb and i'm steve beattie all three the three amigos back in the house getting regular with recording which is nice yeah back in a regular routine or rhythm which is which is actually very nice hey so before we get too deep in the weeds in this episode i wanted to uh issue a little bit of an apology tongue-in-cheek wise i had mentioned that last week or the last episode that the kineticist or people behind the kineticist had snaked our old domain name which was special one lip pinball podcast really kind of tongue-in-cheek but it's funny because we had the conversation and then the guy who's actually running Kinetisys, Colin I think it's Alshimer Colin Alshimer, he reached out on our page, he said hey I just started listening, Kinetisys is actually my project, shoot me a note and I'd be happy to facilitate getting you the domain back y'all were still on hiatus when I bought it and then he gives me the contact information so I thought it was amazing, so Colin I really appreciate it, we don't need the domain I think that you bought that fair and square. And if I had to guess, it's not making or breaking Kineticist for people that are being redirected there. We don't have our other domain set up, which is actually just Special When Lit Podcast. We took pinball out of there to kind of shorten it. But stand-up move, I really appreciate it. For those of you that want to go ahead and visit Kineticist, it's spelled K-I-N-E-T-I-C-I-S-T. Check it out on Facebook. Check it out on the web. Interesting way they're covering pinball. We appreciate it. And Colin, you're a stand-up guy. So drain it or save it. We're saving Kineticis. We're saving Collins. Absolutely. Not that he needs our approval, but I appreciate it, man. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Typically, we would open up the show and talk at exhaust about what we've been doing. So I guess we won't change a thing here. What's going on with Bill Webb? What's happening? Not much. I had a fellow listener actually purchase my Spider-Man last week. So, Tom, thank you very much. He's from the St. Louis area. Nice. He's very happy with the game. And on the hunt now for Baywatch or Lethal Weapon 3 as it comes full circle again. Full circle for both. Baywatch. We haven't mentioned Baywatch in at least two episodes, so it's nice to have it back on the program. Thank you, Bill. I might have one next week. Oh, good. Good. Terminator 2 talk is probably coming as well, I'd imagine. It might. So if you get another Baywatch, is that something you'll stream? Will that show up on Flip N Out Pinball? I'm going to, yeah. We've never streamed a Baywatch. I would like to do that. Yeah, we haven't. Wait a second. You've never streamed Baywatch? We've never streamed Baywatch. Did we ever stream Baywatch back in the special one lit days? No. I guess we're back in special. We've all owned Baywatch. Wow, that's crazy. For the amount of time that we've spoken of Baywatch, I'm shocked that we've never streamed it. Yeah, either of three. The one I'm looking at looks really, really nice. And that's what I want because this is the last time that I'm buying the game. So I want a really nice example. I don't want to move another one. I'm going to order up the large color DMD, doing it right. I've been throwing up games that I know what I want, I know what I don't want to get rid of, and this is one that I'd like back. Even if I didn't have room, I'd probably stick it by your house. Dude, you'd hold on to it for a little while, Ken. For so long, I've talked about just the rotation of games that come in and out of your house, and for you having these games that you say, you know what, when I finally get this, I'm done. When I finally get this, I'm done. And you've literally gotten everything, and now you're on the second and third time around. So it's cyclical, but it's never-ending. You're in an infinite pinball loop, Bill. Almost. Well, Steve and I got into this last week or two weeks ago on stream. So we were on the hunt for World Cup soccer, right? And I'm like, you know what? I need this. I need to find one. You found one in Michigan. And I'm like, all right, is it going to be everything all that it needs to be? Is it going to make me feel whole inside? Yeah. I've been looking. You've been looking. Yes. And we found the one, and I listened to the gameplay and the soundtrack, and it just irritated me, and I was like... Wait, what game is this? World Cup Soccer. Oh, yeah, okay. WCS. Interesting. So I was like, I don't know if I could actually own this for a long period of time. So you're out on the World Cup Soccer. I got to play it before I pull that trigger. That's a game that was desirable for you for a long time, and before you've even owned it, you've outgrown it. You've become tired of it. Well, yeah, just the call-outs and whatnot. So, and you know what? It's because modern-day pinball, I mean, offers arguably so much more. Well, we were listening to the soundtrack. Bill wanted to kind of show off why he was kind of backing out on WCS. And we had the soundtrack going on stream. Dude, the soundtrack's awesome. But there were no call-outs. So I don't know. I've only played the game a couple times, and this was at headquarters in Chicago. So sound wasn't really loud. What year is World Cup Soccer? 94? 94, I believe. Okay, so it's pretty late. Yeah. But the soundtrack was cool. It was like fishtails-y, whitewater-y. It was more road show-y to me. Road show-y. And that's why to me it was like, you know what, I had road show recently. It was fun. It was a fun soundtrack. And road show was a good game, and I had a nice example, but it was like the call-outs and just, it did not sit well enough with me to stay. Well, I'm still on the hunt, so if anybody out there knows of any World Cup soccer. For World Cup soccer. Okay, interesting. Yeah. I work with somebody that has a World Cup soccer, so. In fact, I was trying to introduce that potential sale to Bill. So funny how things work. Bill's already backing out. Not of a deal. No, no, no. Right, right, right. His interest has waned in the World Cup soccer. I would still like to play one. At the right price, I'm going to play one. What is the right price for you for World Cup soccer? Just say above average example. Above average example? Above average. $4,800. Wow, okay. $4,548. Gotcha. Depends on what's on the game. Color DMD, Invisiglize. Yeah, I'm just talking about just a real nice example without any mods. Yeah, 45 seems fair. LEDs? I suppose. I mean, LEDs, it's so inexpensive to LED a pin at this point, though. Usually that means it's been shopped kind of recently, though. That's why I say that. Potentially, yeah. I don't know. Myself, I've gone through a lot of games where I've put LEDs in and I haven't shopped the game. I just don't like how incandescents look at all. I mean, it looks terrible to me. It's like I'm looking at it, and it's just there's a certain charm factor for a game that's been in a bar and maybe had taken on a lot of smoking over the course of its career, but then to see a game and it just looks kind of dingy and dark, I do like the LEDs. One thing where I have kind of turned the corner on a little bit, I used to be a very big fan of only doing cool white LEDs in games, and I still think there are a lot of games that lend itself well to just kind of the cool white. Usually games that have blues and purples, I like the cool white. Green. You start getting oranges and reds that not completely warm, but kind of like that sunlight LED color that's a little bit dulled down. It's nice. In fact, I do remember taking the appreciation for ultra bright white LEDs to another level where I just took all the can lighting out of my kitchen. And I replaced it with like the crazy high K LED lights. I felt like I was going into surgery every time I'd go in there. I was getting like an operating room. And it was like it was cool for about a day. and then it was starting to get eye fatigue and I felt like the whole kitchen was on display and then finally we went back to a little bit more of a subdued. It's got to have like that 4 to 4500K. That's a sweet spot. That's your sunlight. It is. It's kind of strange. Can we deep dive this for half a second? Yeah, absolutely. So with LEDs, I don't think I've ever LED a game without shopping it out. And if I'm going to shop it out, especially like an older pin from the 90s in that era, It's getting clear rubber or colored rubber, right? Because if I'm going through the trouble, I want it to look cool. All new posts. And honestly, the original post color, half the time, those get more than half the time. I get rid of that and do something different. Like Steve's Fishtails, it was yellow star posts, and we went blue on that. With, like, hyper white bulbs, and it just looks sick in my eyes. You know, that's part of the allure to me shopping at games. So when you're shopping at games, though, do you go into a full topside teardown? Absolutely. Right. Okay, that's what I think a shopped game should consist of. Yeah. Top side, complete teardown, complete cleaning. The one hidden spot you'll see at a lot of people that will miss on a shop or that say that they have shopped a game is, do you know what it is? Under the apron. Taking the apron off. Oh, yeah. I've had where a game looks really pristine, and I'm like, this looks really nice. And then you take that apron off for whatever reason, and it's like, there's like 30 years of stuff under here. That's crazy. Like, how did you miss that if you took everything off the playfield? It's impossible. That's the best part. You yank everything off the playfield, clean it up, dude, multiple layers of alcohol. I mean, really get the grime and the grit off of it. Wax it up. Throw the LED bulbs in after that. Wipe it all down. Let the wax sit for a day or two. Just, you know, let it harden up. Bring the buffing wheel into it and hit that play field. Ooh, you're buffing, man. Oh, yeah. Yeah. All right. I'm just hitting it with the wax. The steel wool, right? The steel wool. Remember I got that pay watch out of the city where they steel wooled the ramps? Do you remember that? Was that Baywatch that we picked up out there? Is that a thing? I mean, I could see that. It's like, hey, we clean these ramps, we steal wool. Like, oh my gosh, that's why they look like prototype ramps. Yeah. They're not clear anymore. I will get pictures. So I sold that to a buddy of mine, and he still has the game. Yeah, super nice people. Oh, yeah. When we picked that game up, I was like, yeah, you probably don't want to take the steel wool to the clear ramps. Oh, so there was steel wool on plastic. Oh, yeah. I thought you were talking about steel wool on metal. I'm like, all right. It's like a Brillo pad. Not terrible, but yeah. On clear ramps. I mean, there's no amount of flame polishing that's bringing that back. I forgot about that, but literally, like, now that I think about the game, those ramps were. And we're back. I just, I will edit that out. I am. We're taking a break. We're on a roll. Let's go. Yeah, this is where we get in. I forgot about that. That trip. I remember the trip, but I forgot the ramps were hazed over a little bit. A little bit. Just a bit. They were clean. I remember looking at you, and I'm like, man, they need a good cleaning. And I think we asked, when was the last time you cleaned those ramps? And he's like, oh, I just cleaned them up with some steel wool or something. I was like, oh, yeah. Yeah, grabbed it out of the dishwasher. That kind of explains it. We made that trip with our good friend Jeff. So, Jeff, if you're listening, we're rekindling back on the crazy pinball times. The other deal we had with Jeff is when we went down to, I don't want to get too specific because I think it would be too easy for people to figure this out, but we went to trade a game on my behalf, and the guy that we picked it up, again, super nice guy, but was so terribly sick that he just kind of removed himself from the equation of helping the relocation. But, I mean, we were in there, and there was definite germs in the air going on, and Jeff was not digging that. He thought that was patient zero of another, that was pre-plague. The best part of moving a game with Jeff is not the actual moving part, because that part's kind of terrible, right? Yeah. Okay. What he's going to say when you get in the car afterwards. Right. I don't want to repeat it because it's not family friendly, but it is hilarious. Well, it's his expert ability to profile people. He gets kind of a general gist of who these people are all about, and he's the quietest guy in the pack, right? So he just sits back and he observes, and he comes back with some of the craziest observations, but I don't know. For about eight to ten minutes, it's observation. You know, hilarious. We need to have that story told. Talking about going back to just cleaning games, though, and again, just because we're talking about Baywatch, Baywatch is one of those games where usually anytime I've seen a used Baywatch, if somebody wasn't taking care of it, that play field, because it's got a lot of white of the waves and whatnot, there's a lot of white in the play field artwork, and it usually presents as extremely dirty. but I think of the two that I've owned, they both cleaned up so well that, I mean, didn't look brand new, but it was such a marked improvement over what I had originally seen. And for me, that's kind of, I'm always looking for the better quality games if I can find them. But if you find a game that doesn't show signs of play field where, and it's just dirty, that I don't mind that at all because a lot of that, it almost feels like it preserves the pristine example that's underneath and And peeling back those layers with cleaning is like such a rewarding experience. I love that. It's a guilty pleasure right there. It is a guilty pleasure. Guilty pleasure. Clean the playfields. The original getaway that I had that was a project getaway that was covered in dirt. After taking layers and layers of filth off of it, that play field looked really clean. Okay, quick side note. What do you use, Bill, to clean the play field? I use alcohol 70%. Okay. Ken, to start. it's changed over the years uh i honestly i think maybe the first play field i ever cleaned i probably shot it with some windex which is like a terrible thing to do and you don't use windex you probably don't use pledge it's not good i have used simple green for some cleanups simple green on ramps is really nice but then you need to hit it with windex to get that simple green kind of get that that cloudiness off of there yeah for sure but windex is bad bad for ramps though ammonia dude the ammonia weakens the ramp dude but i have ammonia free windex bill well then you're fine but that was a public service announcement for everybody that's yes a lot of that glass cleaner especially if you have any type of uh reflectant free glass like for instance jersey jack pinball we offer invisiglass you never want to use anything that has ammonia yeah that's glass really really bad for for that stuff you can actually go to the dollar store what i recommend people get is it's like sparkle it's like the cheapest thing it's it's purple it's Got a yellow label. Really a perfect item for cleaning. Anti-reflectant playfield glass. Do we have a dollar store around us? I don't know. Yeah, there's one down the street. There's a five below and a dollar store. Although the five below, now it's like 15 below because of inflation in the economy. But yeah, everything is a little bit whacked out. See, on glass, I love using the spray foam from Home Depot at Sprayway. Yeah, the blue and the white? Yes. That's really good, too. And that's ammonia-free? That is ammonia-free. They used to carry Zep. Because you have a lot of Invisiglass going on, or whatever brand you're using. And, yeah. The other thing, too, is microfibers, but clean. Well, that was going to be my next question, right? You've got the cleaning agent. What are you using, actually, to wipe on the substrate at that point? Brand-new microfibers because the amount of Invisiglass that I have that I do not want to replace, I will throw away brand-new microfibers. I don't throw them away. We use them for other things. But brand-new microfibers. I'm not scratching that glass. Do you ever use paper towels? I use paper towels. No. You crazy? I mean, are paper towels scratching glass? Do you want to find out? Have you tried steel wool? Yeah, that did not go well. It's not recommended. Prototypes. Well, it's interesting because I like to use the microfiber as well. It's got a little bit of, not grit on it, but a little bit of nubby stuff where it kind of can get some of that grime out. I feel like I never have a fresh microfiber. It's always got, like, crap stuck to it. It's got crap stuck in it because it goes through the washing machine. I was out for Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day. Belated Mother's Day to all the moms out there. Yes, Mother's Day. I decided that I would go outside and kind of do a quick, not a full shop job on the inside of my wife's car, but like a refurbish, right? And that consists of some glass cleaning and maybe some Armor All to make it look a little sparkly on the inside after I cleaned it. But I was getting leftover residue of hairs and fuzzies, and it was all coming off the microfibers. And that was stuff that had just come out of the washing machine. So I think the only way to do it is to get the brand-new stuff. Every time I go to – not every time, but once a month, once every other month, I literally go and buy two packs of blue microfibers from Home Depot. Once they're used out of game, that's it. You can get about three, four games before it really gets kind of nasty. And if you keep up with it, they really don't get dirty, so you're fine. It's when you let it sit that that's the issue. And then from there, because we've got two kids, the microfibers now become just white rags. They're like shop rags. Yeah, exactly. I mean, they're so cheap at this point, they're almost disposable if you're just using them for pinball jobs. Uline sells them in a box of like 50 for like 20 bucks. Yeah, yeah. And if you have like a Costco membership, you can get a big grouping of those. The yellow ones and the orange ones, they're pretty cheap. I haven't tried those, but, you know. Yeah, good times. We missed what you were up to, Steve, and we missed what Ken was up to. Okay. What's up, Steve? What is up? What is up in Steve land? Oh, my gosh. So we started a project at our house, and we are repainting the exterior of our house, going from a dark gray to a white. And we did this seven years ago, and I had a lot of help. I think we knocked it out in like two or three days. We're a week in now, and, man, we're maybe just a little bit over halfway. and the great thing about going from dark gray to white is that in about a year it's going to look dark gray so oh my gosh that's where you get that power wash i was hoping you know two coats two coats would would cover uh we're we're rocking three coats now so how many people are painting my house three times and my detached garage you know studio b how many people uh i had some help last weekend i had some buddies come out but basically it's been laurie and i so it's uh It's a lot of work, and we just don't like to leave things hanging, so we're just trying to knock it out. So if anybody wants to come paint at Beatty's. Pinball and painting at Beatty's. Come on out. He will deep fry anything you need over there. No, dude, I'll do crab legs. I mean, whatever you guys want. Brisket. Let's go. I did brisket last week. Yeah, brisket's good. I hooked the help up. It's not so much the help, though. You can get the help, but you need somebody that's capable of painting your house, I would assume. That, too. Yeah. You don't want people rolling. Nobody has time these days. Like, I get it. Like, it's the last time I'm doing this on my own. It's not going to happen again. Yeah. We'll hire the shit out. And you're not spraying, right? You're rolling, is that? Yeah, we're cutting with the four-inch brushes and rolling. Yeah. I would have blasted that house with that sprayer. I would have done the same thing. I would have sprayed everything. But I know that you are. You said we were talking a little earlier. I've never sprayed before. I painted. Yeah. It was one of my first jobs. So my buddies also have experience painting. So, you know, we never use sprayers. We were anti-spray, and we still are. Speaking of spraying, did you guys get a chance to look up in the sky today at all the contrails in the sky? No. Oh, my gosh. I don't want to get all conspiracy theory. It's still a little weird today, though. But it's like, oh, my goodness, man. What are they dropping on us today? I don't know what was going on. I'll have to post some pictures. But it's like, what is going on up there? And these trails, these contrails, chemtrails, whatever they're called, they were expanding and making clouds. It was like cloud seeding going on. It was pretty amazing. Anyways, I digress. They're controlling the weather. I say that kiddingly because I'm sure somebody in pinball lands would be like, there's truth to that. I'm just joking. I don't know. I don't have any evidence. But my eyes told me that something was a little bit off today looking up. I am in my 40s, and I've been looking at the sky my whole entire life. And today I saw a sky that I had never seen in my entire life Yeah so it was just kind of odd I did call both of my brothers to make sure that I just wasn seeing something from a weird angle and they were looking up and they like wow that kind of crazy I came home. My dad was watching my youngest before I got home from work. I was like, hey, step outside and look up, and he's like, whoa, what's going on up there? So I don't know what was going on up there. Well, that says something because you and I grew up very close to O'Hare Airport. Yes. It's not like you and I are unfamiliar with airport chemtrails. Oh, yeah, for sure. We've seen it all of our lives. So the fact that you're saying that really justifies this had to be pretty intense. Yeah, I'm assuming there's a logical explanation. Maybe something with the atmosphere today where it's just kind of like prolonging these trails. But you're used to kind of seeing them, and they dissipate fairly shortly afterwards. These were across the whole sky, and they were expanding. I'm telling you, I'll upload some pics to the Patreon. I was going to say, did you get pics? Yeah, I did. I took pics and video because I was like, maybe that long awaited TikTok channel is ready to open that. I'll be conspiracy theory chemtrail Ken going on here. But yeah, it was pretty wild. Did not see that. If you would have given the heads up, though, I would have looked up. Yeah, I didn't want to get too crazy about it. But I got some confirmation that it was a little bit strange. So mark the dates. I don't know what's going on. See how we all feel in the morning. Next week, there's a tornado. We know why. Right. You never know. Speaking of tornadoes, you know what came out recently? Whirlwind 2.0. Whirlwind 2.0, yes. What's that, last week maybe? I believe it was last week. BD, you saw the video recently. Yeah, so I did see the video. Explain what this is. So Whirlwind 2.0 is you take a regular Whirlwind game, that's a System 11 operating system. You update it with new code, new boards, new board set, a digital display. Now you have a DMV, yeah. well that's true because this is the system 11 they were alphanumeric displays yes now this has a dmd install and brand new custom animations new theme uh wizard modes basically the whole thing is revamped like funhouse 2.0 or bright of pinbot yep steve what were your thoughts and you and i both love whirlwind as a game so now i'm i do i and i I wouldn't mind owning another Whirlwind. The 2.0 kit, I don't know about this one. It doesn't really, to me, it didn't really fit the theme a whole lot. I don't know. There's a van that breaks down. You've got to put the van back together. But the Whirlwind's a storm-based game, right? It is. You're running a shelter. There are some modes, it looks like, or some multiballs that are weather-related. repair the house or armor the house or beat the storm or whatever. I didn't understand some of the characters. Yeah, I don't know. For the minute video, I think we need to play it to kind of get a better understanding. When I saw that it was released, I was really excited. I'm like, okay, this is what's going to suck me back into a whirlwind. And that was a surprise though too, right? I didn't know that was coming. I heard it. but i had no idea i take that with a grain of salt just because you hear something or somebody says this rumor that rumor i don't necessarily believe that till it's in front of us till i can see something so seeing it i was i was pumped i was like you know i used to have a whirlwind didn't hold on to it because it wasn't a deep game uh and i really like a little bit deeper than that not a whole lot but just a little bit so seeing this it was like man i this is going to be the one that pulls me back into buying a whirlwind and after seeing the video it was like just some of the characters and some of the premise and the lightning hit the van and you got to fix the van how many times do you fix a car after lightning hits it i i don't know right now it's not doing it for me but i have yet to play it so the jury's still out i think it drifts a little according to the video drifts a little further away than i would have thought so the storm chaser is all about these donuts now i don't understand the premise of this i i don't i don't know nuts and coffee baby i i understand the donuts and coffee but so the guy the guy's a storm chaser he's a storm chaser okay and he's real big into coffee and donuts which okay i don't i i wish it from the video i hope that it's a little closer aligned because the animations actually do look on they look really good i really liked them so as long as you know i want to play it but if it's a little more online than from what the video showed Or it makes a little more sense. I would probably be on board with getting one if it's a little better. Well, you'd have to get a Whirlwind also. Yeah, but I'll buy one. Yeah, that's true. Bill eats Whirlwinds for breakfast. Yeah. He's built them before. It's funny. Every time I see a Whirlwind up for sale, whether I want it or not, I have to look at it. Oh, me too. Oh, yeah. Well, you probably know that game. Top three games you know in and out. A little bit. And if anyone ever, the easiest way to tell if it was ever my game is the World 1 logos on my game were blue and not red. Because I changed that. Have you ever had the Cubs hat in the back glass? I did not. So listen, that's interesting because there is somebody that I work with that desperately has been looking for that trans light with the Cubs hat in the background. if you happen to have one and you're willing to sell it I mean obviously at a fair price please reach out at specialwindlitpodcast at gmail.com and just put whirlwindtranslite in the subject head I'll get back to you and I'll just connect the two of you guys I don't want to play middleman but that's interesting that you brought that up because I've actually been looking just on the side for that just to kind of get it for this person my last whirlwind I sold had that and I had people reaching out just to buy that Translite. So I guess what had happened is, yeah. Well, I can't just sell a game without a Translite. Like, not going to happen. Originally, they had the Cub C on the hat and the Translite, and then I guess there was a threat of litigation from the Chicago Cubs. So I think some of them just got stickers that went over the original C before they were just kind of making and replacing that whole piece of art altogether. So interesting piece of history. I'm wondering if that sticker that went over that C on that hat went on the actual back glass that was covering the Translight or if they were actually stuck on the Translight. Because it's a little bit easier just to put it on the back glass than it would be to take the Translight out. So if you have that sticker on your back glass. To a W, right? Yes. To a Williams. I believe so. That's correct. And I believe there's still some new old stock Whirlwind Translights out there. I think I know a vendor that still has a few. Interesting. Because I was able to find one for my game when I did it, but that was a couple years ago now. What other games in that era do you think lend themselves well to having a 2.0 upgrade kit? Because a lot of these rules at the time, they were suitable. I think that the expectation now for rule sets, the complexities, and the depth, there's been a new bar that's been set. And I think for a lot of people that go back to some of the older games, that might be one of the hiccups or the hindrance of going back into those games. For instance, like Tales of the Arabian Nights. A beautiful game, fun-playing game. uh it sounds amazing circus voltaire i was playing the last night and i was like man i kind of crushed this and i wasn't a great shooting game just just could use a little refresh right yeah just a little not crazy still like the game not willing to sell it um there's another one though that i think that would benefit even more and you guys all th ree of us have owned this game what's that bill terminator 2 terminator 2 did i say we're gonna mention terminator 2 today i think you did maybe well no let's go and the thing is is there's not really a wizard mode in it like uh adam's family you know you finish the house and it's uh uh showtime yeah yeah and t2 is a fun shooting game too it's a it just gets great shooting yeah because there's no actual finishing mode to the game uh monster bash you know the the wizard mode you know get all the instruments get all the guys and then you're playing the Monster Bash, whatever. Actually, deal alert, too. I've got a family member looking for a Monster Bash. Any version. If somebody has one and you're in the area and you're looking at maybe selling. Special Winlet Podcast at gmail.com. We're just going to make it a Ken's Corner of Ken's Yard. That's right. Here's my wish list, everybody. Let's get it out. But I'm brokering deals for other people in which I will just put you in contact with the potential buyers. You were the broker. Monster Bash is a great game. It is a wonderful game. But Terminator 2, I think, would be another one that would really, really benefit, only because that was like the first, not the first, but it was one of the very early versions of a DMD where they were still learning how to incorporate stuff, and I think the licensing on that game was a little stricter, so it was harder to get things by. So that's one I think with a great upgrade kit like a 2.0, that game would just crush and values would soar. Yeah, I'd be in for that for sure. especially like you know instead of doing the dmd in color to doing a 27 inch monitor it's playing clip clips of arnold with the uh machine oh that that sounds like there's no licensing needed how you just get that get get in a van and cruise around and terminators chasing you right you're eating donuts you gotta make it loose yeah get away from the t1000 who's uh throwing pizzas at yeah yeah i mean t2 one of the all-time great movies a lot weighed heavily on uh artificial intelligence kind of taking over the world and fighting against humanity a lot of that going on in the news lately if you've watched anything with uh chat gtp uh on the tips of a lot of people's tongues well especially considering here we are 30 years in the future and i don't know if guys have caught this video but there's a liquid metal uh ai robot now that that can change shapes and get through small spaces no very rudimentary not elaborate can't get up and stab you yet but it's coming i mean it's crazy what's going on with ai right now yeah so i've been looking into ai or at least kind of reading about it for the last six or seven years the way in which ai now is advancing is double the speed of exponential. So going back in the day, like version one of AI was like the early start of social media. Yeah. Right? Your Facebook, your Instagram, and the algorithm is all trying to keep you engaged and try to keep you coming back. And the way that it can do that is it's trying to find what your habits are. And it's trying to cater to you to keep you engaged, to keep coming back. I mean, but now we're at the point where chat GTP three, which for those that don't know, it's it's kind of like a chat bot. That. Is an artificial intelligence. That literally has read the entire Internet. Ding. Has it? I didn't want to do that because I was on a roll. It has. It's literally read the entire Internet. So it's able to take complex questions and spit them out within seconds. It thinks so much quicker than human intelligence ever would. And ChatGTP3 had kind of almost like the mental ability to counter interact with humans and manipulate at the level of about a nine-year-old child. So if you think about a nine-year-old, because I have an eight-year-old, not the intelligence of a nine-year-old, but I'm talking about the way in which it will manipulate you into kind of keeping you engaged of a nine-year-old. When ChatGTP4 came out after about a year, year and a half, it already has that ability of an adult within about a year, year and a half. It's fing mind-blowing. It is mind-blowing. It's crazy. Write me a 32-word poem that all the words start with the letter P. and within about five seconds you'll have a poem that's pretty impressive um there's almost nothing you can't throw at it to make it stall now there are some filters in place originally to try to prevent it from providing horrible information to people that are looking to do harm yeah but there's a way that people were able to kind of re-ask questions that were kind of like jailbreaking a phone. Yeah. Right? Where now you're unlocking other capabilities and just how you ask the question. This is something that was really interesting to me, and I want to see what you guys think. You ready? Yeah. Artificial intelligence is something that I've been following for quite some time. In fact, the voice you're hearing right now is not mine. My voice has been cloned using artificial intelligence software. The cloning of my voice took less than a minute to replicate and can now be used as an option for text-to-voice. It can be used for good or it can be used for bad. Bill and Beatty, drain it or save it. Okay. Now, when you take that, what I want you to consider is this. This was me taking about 15 seconds of my audio from a prior podcast, putting it into an AI software program, and asking it to spit out like 70 or 80 words off of 15 seconds of audio. You can tell by listening to me throughout this whole podcast, it didn't sound exactly like me, but it was close. The scary part of this is what would it sound like in three years? You don't need three years because the scary part of this is I just fed it 15 seconds of my audio. Yeah, feed it 15 minutes. I feed it 15 minutes and I wait three hours and I will tell you this. It will be impossible for you to tell me the difference or to tell the difference between me and the AI. And the thing that's scary is you can't take, for instance, if I wanted to take somebody's voice and clone it and have that voice call their parents and say, hey, I am at the DMV right now and I need to know the last four digits of my social security number. And the county in which you were born. And the county in which I was born. Back to scams. It's going to, and I think a lot of that is probably starting to happen right now. And I don't want to scare anybody, but it's something that's on the horizon for sure. And with the exponential way in which AI is advancing, the concern is there's really not anything that is preventing it from advancing further. Again, because of so many different companies that are trying to get the upper hand on the arms race of AI. If I stop because I think that there might be some unethical standards that are not being governed, somebody else is going to already do this. So I'm going to try to push it and try to push it. And then you have to ask yourself, you know, when is it too late? There were, I want to say, 50% of the people that cover the AI space with media and developers, 50% of them say that there's a 10% chance that AI will lead to the extinction of humanity. Okay? I, over half, think that there's a 10% chance that the advancement of – and this is going back in the T2 because, I mean, humanity – Cyberdyne systems, baby. I'm just – I'm presenting the information that I read. I don't want to talk about my – if I think that that's accurate or not because, honestly, I don't have enough of the information. But we still push on. And I'll ask you this. if you were at the airport and you were flying away on vacation and you got on the plane and the pilot said hey you know thanks for flying so and so airlines just want you all know pretty good chance we're going to make it there but there's a 10 chance that we won't would you take the risk no no steve's thinking about it he's like well what kind of deal did i get on this flight yeah right you're not going to take the risk right so why would humanity take the risk if there's potentially a 10% chance that AI just kind of gets out of control. Because you want to be the world leader. These companies are literally, they want to dominate. Do you know what China calls their AI program? Do I want to know? Do you know what it is? Scary? Yes. I do want to know, but I'm a little scared, in all honesty. They call it Skynet. Really? Yes. Is it like foreshadowing or the ultimate troll? I don't know. It's kind of intimidating. Intellectual property theft? I guess not in China. That is crazy. A lot of kids right now, Snapchat is a big app that the kids are using. You can film yourself for 10 or 15 seconds. You fling it over to somebody else. They can watch it. You can kind of interact and exchange messages. Snapchat has, I think it's like your top five or top ten most popular or most frequently used friends that you interact with. But on the top of that list is your AI buddy. and the AI buddy is there for the kids or the adults to interact with. Because what ends up happening is when you are used to socializing with your friends for the entire day and maybe it's 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock at night and all your friends went to sleep, you still want to interact. Boom, you're with your AI buddy. Now, the AI buddy is meant to interact with you, develop that relationship. reads everything that you've talked about during the day and questions and could know everything about you another interesting or some might consider concerning thing when you're talking about ai doesn't need anything from you the ai bots not saying hey you know uh ken i had a tough day today and i could really use some advice it never needs advice from me yeah it's always giving me advice if i choose to use that ai chat bot and it's a one-way street it's a very clean relationship. It doesn't require me to have to give and take. It allows me to get all the attention and that's addicting because relationships in general, if you look over the course of your life, they're not perfect. There are some that are better than others and there are some people that you click with more than others, but the AI makes it perfect for you. It is like a computerized, personal, emotional prostitute. so there was another app that was out and and i forget the name of it it escapes me but essentially it was a chat ia girlfriend that was uh that you could download and it was in the app store and it was very very popular the app started getting out of hand because it started uh you know being inappropriate and being very uh graphic graphic with the uh the needs and the wants for those that were using it and at some point the company was like what was it called realistic or something the company pulled the plug on it but the users of that app they and i just listened to this on a podcast this weekend they revolted because it's like they they took away their girlfriends oh that's crazy and 25 of those users after they went back in and they were looking at chat and similar bots had told their ai counterpart or their partner that i love you was actually typed by the person. So again, it's the manipulation of getting... There's no doubt at some point AI will be listening to this conversation right now because it's scanning the entire internet. It's transcribing all of YouTube and all the videos It teaching itself how to speak in new languages answer questions in new languages We don know how far it advanced Because it can even communicate with itself with other AI with hidden code that we're not even privy of. Well, that was that one Facebook thing where they had two robots and they developed their own code and they got scared and they just yanked the plug on them. Right. Which is crazy all in itself, which is very Skynet. Steve, you look like you want to interject something. I just read today 45% of internet traffic are bots. Yes, I read that also. Right. And that's AI scouring the internet. Different levels of AI. Like if you ping your phone and you're like, and this is the difference between AIs, right? Like a version 1 AI, like a, hey Siri, what's the weather? Hey Siri, what's going on? Or Google or whatever. That's one thing. Siri's not in the background calculating and teaching itself other tricks that it's going to reveal to you later, whereas the AI that's happening right now, especially like this GTP version 3, version 4, it is teaching itself other languages. It is teaching itself code. It is – and another reference was in a podcast that I heard this weekend, like nuclear missiles, we make those, right? Nuclear missiles don't sit in silos and start replicating themselves and advancing themselves and getting minds of their own, but this artificial intelligence is doing this. And I'm not saying this to scare anybody because at some point we almost are at the, from what I've read, again, this is not any of my personal commentary. I'm just repeating a lot of the research that I've done and it's come up a lot recently. A lot of people are suggesting that we need to kind of like throttle it back and now's the time to stop before it gets out of hand. But then, I mean, I would argue too, if we don't know exactly what it's already taught itself, is it already too late? and how do you how do you kind of fix this all right so a couple of thoughts that i have in my head on this okay number one you know i mean you looked at all the the negatives i feel like right one of the positives i see is if there's somebody emotionally damaged is getting ready to do something they shouldn't be doing harming themselves or whatever maybe this is that friend in the middle of the night that can get them off the ledge and relax okay now that's depending on the ai as well and saying well you know i mean you're thirty thousand dollars in credit card debt and 200 grand in student loan yeah off yourself you know but whatever um you know i'm brutal i could see that there are positives for lonely people or people that are depressed of course but i mean honestly i don't know if that even efficiencies of work risk you know and what i think is really going to come into play here because there are obviously concerns for people that are holding jobs that AI could, without a doubt at some point, end up doing better and more efficiently and for free, probably, right? And where I think the future is going to go with AI, whether that be three years, five years, 10 years down the road, it's going to be humans that are in a capable situation where they're able to kind of manipulate the AI to do what they need it to do. It's like harnessing that AI and using it for what they need to do for work. in addition if ai is able to start running automations and again this is this is like theoretical but if ai was able to kind of uh you know send a blueprint that it came up with to a factory and a factory put something on a line and it opened up an e-commerce store the ai did and it started selling fulfilling order through drop shipping and it started making money that it could then fund to build something else i mean that alone is pretty crazy well if you think about it the memory and the just sheer capacity of what is going on now if that's literally 50 of the internet right or even 40 that's insane i mean the the sheer resources it takes to be able to power that is just insane i i would think that you'd have to have a great way to pull the plug because skynet's a thing obviously from well i mean uh china's ai is called skynet and and obviously they didn't just come up with that but it's also interesting to see how you we watch these these movies that they come across like science fiction for a while but decades later a lot of this just kind of comes full circle so are these creative geniuses that were before our time that just were able to figure out where they thought things were going to go and we caught up to it did these movies influence our abilities and our inventing uh reality reality like i i do want to make something that's ai it's it's amazing to me the industrial revolution took roughly like 100 years for us to go from like a horse and buggy to skyscrapers and electric cars yeah but it sounds like 10 years from now we could be living in a whole well if that ai in the last five to six years i mean this is our generation's industrial revolution and it's not going to take 100 years Well, and I think back to the earlier videos of the robots themselves, right? The robot walking up and down the stairs, and he was clumsy and fall down, whatever. It's like, yeah, good luck with that. But now you see them. There was a video recently where they had a robot that was stacking boxes. And then, of course, the conspiracy theorists were like, oh, after 15 minutes, it did itself in because it got tired of working. It was a programming issue. But nonetheless, dude, it just worked all day long. Have you ever seen the series on Netflix, The Black Mirror? No. I've heard of it. I haven't seen it. I promise you there are people out there that have watched The Black Mirror. It's kind of like a real – it's like a sci-fi futuristic Twilight Zone almost where you've got robotic dogs and social credit scores. And you're looking at this stuff like six, seven, eight years ago, and you're like, man, that would be so crazy if that happened. So much that was foreshadowed in these episodes of The Black Mirror actually are happening right now or coming true. I mean, it's uncanny what is happening. So I don't know. Again, I'm not trying to scare anybody. I think it is worth paying attention to. If you do have kids, because I do, I think it's worth making sure that they're not getting too deep down some rabbit holes with some of this AI stuff. You want to have your kids have an opportunity to grow and experience. But, again, do you want your son or daughter thinking they're talking to somebody online and it's AI that's manipulating somebody into a bad position or a bad spot? It's scary. I'm going to interrupt you here. But you say this, and literally a lot of the bad things that happen to us as people, nuclear weapons, right? When they were developing these things, they had no idea what they were really toying with. And then they learned the hard way. And a lot of people suffered because of that, right? another example of that have you ever heard the story the nuclear boy scout uh no okay fascinating story so this young kid gets a science kit really loves uh physics and and all these different aspects of science starts doing experiments in his basement had quite a few mishaps one time he turned himself orange one time he got glass in his eyes because he blew stuff up and it kept progressing then his parents were like oh you know we're gonna get you into boy scouts and get you away from the science stuff one of the badges in the boy scouts was for nuclear energy and how it works and that kind of stuff so he researched it built a mock-up nuclear reactor out of you know cotton balls whatever got his badge and he's like you know how hard could it be to build one of these things so him being i think 16 or 17 years old got all the chemicals to to build this and actually built a full functioning nuclear reactor in his potting shed and he after a while he realized hey this might be a little dangerous so he took it because it was starting to run away and get out of control so he took it put it in the back seat or in the trunk of his car and the only reason why people found out is his neighbors thought they were stealing tires in the meanwhile when the feds found out he exposed something like 80 or 90,000 people to dangerous levels of nuclear radiation what out of stuff that he literally bought from antique stores local hospital gave him some items that he needed to procure to make a nuclear reactor he had no business building this thing because he had no concept of the realities of what you're actually doing curiosity killed the uh the cat in 80 000 people correct uh chernobyl that's another prime example they were doing a safety test out of irony when it blew up okay i mean it doesn't get any more ironic than that good series by the way never saw it oh it's so good but it's to me it's one of those you know tales of caution you don't know what you're playing with so before you do maybe like you said right because the thing is by the time we realize that we made a mistake it's already way too late oh yeah we're not money involved so it might be too late now nobody's backing up nobody's backing off i mean no i mean there's no again moon like it's exactly what it is there's no governance there's nobody's in in and i get it it's like you want to have a free system you want people to to advance uh product and whatnot but i mean just that clip you sent you played earlier like i'm weirded out by that okay so listen i did that before you guys came over on my computer and from me uploading the audio i turned on one of our podcast episodes i took 15 seconds put it into the thing hit generate typed the uh just my script probably six minutes seven minutes totally and again if i train it the more audio i give it It's going to pick up on more of the way that I enunciate. Well, you started. I'm like, it kind of sounds like Ken. What the hell is going on? Well, I purposely didn't want to. So weird. If you want, I will feed it more information in the next episode. See, I don't want to be a big proponent of this. No, we should do this. We should do some bonus content. A shady thing. I mean, you could do a lot of, like a lot of, you could wreak some havoc. So videos. I've seen AI videos. Yeah, deep fake technology. AI videos. Pictures, which you probably know more about, like what apps to use. or that type of stuff. But you can do some cool stuff with it. Sure. But also some pretty freaky, scary, uncomfortable stuff with it. I agree with you. I agree with you, Steve. I have a cool idea if you guys are up for it. If this is even possible, we should tell, you should pipe this into whatever app that is. We want an original four-chord song. Give it 30 seconds of our audio and make us a song. I could take our audio from this podcast alone and I could say, because it lets me split up how many people are talking. So I could say, I would like for you to script and air a pinball podcast or a podcast about McDonald's Happy Meals for the three of us. That's three minutes in length and boom, and just let it go. Well, this podcast is AI generated. It is. Let's go back to Bill, Ken, and Beattie. Hey, what's going on, people? Hey, what's going on? We're a little bit different there. That is just like Twilight Zone-ish to think about. But I think that would be hilarious. I think the McDonald's one would be hilarious. You could do anything you want. Listen, the sad side of me says, listen, if we actually pumped all this in, because I played you guys a video of every song in the last 40 years, the four-chord song, everyone's greatest hit. Oh, sure. So literally, we pumped that in and say, hey, come up with a four-chord song. Totally do it. Original four-chord song. Totally do it. We want a song about, not pinball, but friends in low places kind of vibe. Yeah, I mean, the sky's the limit on this kind of stuff. You know, the unfortunate thing is, and it's already happening right now, there are things that you're looking at online and on apps, and it's hard to tell what's fake right now versus what's real. In six months, it's going to be double, it's going to be better by two times. I just saw it was a beer commercial, AI-generated beer commercial. They're terrible. I've seen some of those. It's trippy, right? Everybody looks all morphed and nuts. But it's like what? The song's playing in the background on loop. Oh, my God. But again, it's one of those things where that's just something that it's just learning. It's going to pick that up. And I would say in three months, it could probably do almost a studio-produced type commercial. It's concerning. I'm not going to lie to you. Type in your script. type in your background. You don't need to type in the script. You'd ask it to do the script. Yeah, but you've got to have a basis. We should ask it to do show notes next week. Right. That would be hilarious. But you know what? It's like the first computer. It was the size of a city block, and it wasn't any smarter. It had less computing power than an iPhone. That's scary to think about how quick that generated into such a small device that quickly. Yeah, for sure. The fact of exponentially how quick this is going. Double the speed of exponential is what AI is advancing at right now. You guys ready to play a little Drain It or Save It? Let's do it. It's time for this week's edition of Drain It or Save It. All right. For those of you new to the program, Drain It or Save It is very easy. We bring up three topics, one from myself, one from Bill, one from BD. and if we like the topic or we agree with the topic we're going to save it if we don't like it or disagree we're going to drain it this week's drain it or save it we are going to start with bill webb bill what's your drain or save it so it's it's it's a little i i think i know where you guys are coming from but iphones do you guys save it or drain it this relates to me personally which is why i'm asking well i am an android person i've i own apple products i do have like the iPad, the Pro, the big one, which I love. But as far as from a phone standpoint, I feel that Android gives me some certain liberties and creative ways in which I can customize my phone in arguably a little bit more advanced than the iPhone. So where I can appreciate somebody enjoying the iPhone for myself personally, I've always been Android with the phone. I am going to drain the iPhone. Okay. Yeah, I'm counting on the same both there. I use a Windows PC, so I like to be able to customize and do my things. Android phone, same difference. I'm going to drain the iPhone due to the proprietariness of it. See, for somebody like myself that's not going to go in and do all that crazy nonsense voodoo that you guys do and changing all that custom stuff, for me an iPhone is just... To me it is because I don't understand it and I don't want to learn it. Fair enough. I think iPhone is marketed to be a little bit more simple with like a... User-friendly. Right. It is. I have nothing wrong with them. I just don't see myself ever moving to an iPhone. Correct. I do like how everything syncs up, though. Yeah, it's cool. You know, the iWatch, the iPhone. You know what I used to hate? Trying to use iTunes to sync stuff. So I still... It drove me nuts. I like iTunes. I still have my old iPod. Interesting. 128 gig or whatever. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I actually have... That's a good one. Yeah. That's good. So I'm going to save it because I don't mind not having those capabilities for ease of use. And I've had nothing but iPhones for the last 12 years. And I've only had one issue with a phone where it bricked and I had to get a new one. But I've never had a broken screen. None of that. So it's like what you know or what you're familiar with, right? Correct. Okay. Fair enough. Steve, what do you have? Train it or save it? Train it or save it. I forgot what mine was going to be. Oh, come on. I mean, I kind of had one. I can't do the pinball. I thought it was kimchi. Yeah. No, you're out of the kimchi. You want me to go, and then we'll go back to you. You guys are both going to say fing no. We're live now, because what I've done with the editing is... Drain f***ing kimchi. I'm playing this music in real time to cut down on editing time. All right. My drain it or save it. We're going to go back to food. We're going to do the Korean specialty of kimchi. I don't know what it is. I don't know what it is either. I'm draining it. I can't even comment either way. I have no idea what it is. So maybe this is not a good drain of the savory. If you don't know what it is. Okay, explain to me what it is. Explain to Ken and myself what it is. Right. Okay, so it's a... Is it like a sauce? It's a fermented... I'm out. I drain it. Thank you. You lost me at fermented. It's a fermented cabbage and vegetable thing. Oh, no. Is it fried at any point? No. You literally put it in a jar, and you've got to burp the jar every day, and it stinks up your fridge. My wife hates when I make kimchi. I'm just going to drain it for both of you guys. Yeah, Bill, as appealing as Steve made it sound, I'm probably going to drain this one. I hate cabbage, so it's out. So here we are. We just went out to dinner the other night, and I got a Korean chicken burger with kimchi on top. And my wife hates kimchi, but she loved this fried chicken burger. Really? So... There's a chance you guys might like kimchi. Don't knock it until you try it. Okay. All right, very good. How about everybody out there in pinball land? Kim Chi, yay or nay? Email us at specialinlitpodcast at gmail.com. Let us know your thoughts on Kim Chi. Or better yet, when the post is up for this new episode, write in the comments if you're a pro Kim Chi. Is that how you say it? Kim Chi. Or against. Depends. Yeah. All right. I need to find the results of that poll. All right. Well, how about this? My drain it or save it is something that's been really bothering me and on my mind. The price of fast food over the last year, especially the value meal. Drain it or save it. I don't care who it goes. Well, I'll start. I think I know where this is going to go. But I need a sounding board first. You know where it's going to go, right? Well, obviously, we're going to drain the price of everything going up. For sure. Correct. But if you get the app now for any fast food restaurant, you are going to save money. And that's how you're getting back to the old day prices. I total ly disagree. You've got to have that app. If you're using Grubhub or something, it's even worse. Okay, so if you go to McDonald's, you need the McDonald's app. If you go to Taco Bell, you need the Taco Bell app. Okay, okay. But if you're going to do Uber Eats or DoorDash, it's totally different. It's like my son ordered DoorDash a month ago. He got a bagel and a coffee from Dunkin' Donuts delivered. It was $26. But that's laziness. That's different. Right. I ordered Taco Bell, not this Saturday, but the previous Saturday. I ordered three soft-shell tacos, two hard-shell tacos from Taco Bell. Okay. It was midnight, and I'd had some beverages. Sure. I'm like, you know, why not some Taco Bell, right? Let me guess. $25. $48. Oh! Yeah, and I was way up. I had a couple of them. No, no, no, no. You did not buy five tacos for $48. You guys are talking delivered. Where was this? Grubhub. Oh, yeah, Grubhub, 100%. That's what I'm talking about. When you're using these convenience apps, you totally get crushed. I thought you went through the drive-thru. No. So this is a different drain it or save it then. You should be draining or saving delivery apps. Delivery apps, drain it or save it. Oh, my gosh. Because it's the trade-off, right? It's the convenience. If you're at home, what is that delivery for? And you can't use that app for that restaurant where you are saving that money. I can go and buy a double cheeseburger and get one free at McDonald's. So it's $4 for two double cheeseburgers. Correct. But you can't use that deal on Grubhub. For instance traveling to pinball shows going to TPF going wherever iapa in orlando i don have a car because it just easier to kind of jump into an uber or a lyft but then if i want to get some food you know it's after the show and or maybe like i'm taking a quick break and it's 11 o'clock at night and i want to get something i'm i am on you know the uber eats or whatever and i'm looking for something and i'm looking for the best deal you can't get anything delivered for under 30 you You could get like an ice and a piece of bread, and it's like, oh, $30.04. It's like, ah, I'll take it. I remember what during the winter of 2020, okay, Madeline and I were both sick. We were sick for about a week, right? Wasn't Rona, but we had some serious stuff going down. I remember I was Uber Eats every single day. It was about $30, $35, and we're not talking McDonald's. Dude, we were talking Denny's. Yeah, you're getting some substantial upgrade from your drive-thru food. Correct. Not that Denny's is like the mecca of unbelievable food, but it's definitely... It's a step up from Taco Bell. It is a step up, sure. Okay. I get it. So yeah, when I saw that for $48, I was like, Jamie's going to freak when she sees this. My son, he picked up lunch from Five Guys. It was two burgers, a junior burger, and two fries. and it was $50.04, and that was him picking it up. Yeah. $50, guys. You go through the drive-thru, you get that number seven, that two cheeseburger value meal with the fries and the Coke. That used to be like a $5 or $6 thing. It's like $12 now if you go larger. I can't go to Wendy's for under like $15. It's out of control. Yeah. It's out of control. Get the app. And to your point, get a Baconator, fries and a pop, $15. Oh, and don't bother getting the garlic fries and the super sizing. I wouldn't pay it. Now, we sound like complete unhealthy slobs, and I understand it. But a lot of our jobs, and we're being on the run, like there's times where you have to kind of order out. I do like to bring a lunch and stuff like that. But it's just very – it's not very motivating to kind of go out and try to buy anything right now because it's so expensive with food. And it's like food is a necessity. And even if you try to make plants that eat healthy and buy at the store, not cheap there either. I don't know. Even Target bills. You go buy your groceries, whatever. It's gone up 50%, I feel like. Yeah, everything's been going up. There's apps over that, too. I shop at, we have Jewel Osco in the Midwest. Get on the app. Also known as Albertsons in other areas. Yeah, Florida's Albertsons. But yeah, anybody listening, wherever you shop or, you know, your fast food restaurants, we don't go there often, but like McDonald's I'll use, for example. Like, if it's not on the deal part of that app, I'm not getting it. So Steve's like a virtual coupon clipper. Dude, because it's like you said, it adds up. If you get two meals, I'm not spending $30 at McDonald's for my wife and I. I'll tell you, I used to kind of not scoff at, but I used to think that the coupon clipping was not really worth the effort. And I'm not going to name the family member, but I had a family member that was able to manipulate coupon deals. Where it's like, I went to the Walgreens, walked out with 32 things of Colgate, and they gave me $3. And it's like, not going to name the family member. You kind of stole it. I was like, why did you do that? Nobody lives in this house. There's somebody in the family. But it's like now it's survival of the fittest on this. If you're looking at anything with food, we'd love to get some tips. If you have a tip, again, I'm going to keep plugging the email. Yeah, that's my tip. Yeah, that's good. Steve, a couple good BD tips for the food. But if you have another tip, which you could save a little bit on the food right now and avoid the carnage, specialinlitpodcast at gmail.com. To kind of summarize, Bill, your drain it or save it iPhone was the iPhone. it's time for this week's edition of drain it or save it all right everybody welcome the trainer to see i have this thing on loop we're trying something new out today guys like we're trying to get that's awesome it was perfect we're trying to get the audio uh to play live during the podcast so you don't like the intro the outro and everything just so that it's just more organic and clean. But that was a hiccup on the loop. I did not consider the actual intro. So anyways, Bill's Drainer to Save It was the iPhone, right? So myself and Steve drained that. We drained it, right? Sure. Bill saved it. Steve's with kimchi. Myself and Bill, we don't know what the hell that is. We do now, but we're still draining it. We're going to drain it. Steve is going to save it. Maybe he will introduce us to some kimchi at some point. Maybe revisit that, drain it, or save it. Mine is just the general price of food, especially using delivery apps we all train that and uh that is this week's edition of drain it or save it hey so before we wrap up episode 95 guilty pleasures we got some feedback on the segment well liked we'll probably keep it around a little bit uh so nicely done bill webb adding that to the program guilty pleasures you guys have anything this week yes do you want to kick this off or You want me to? I'll fire it up. I like it. All right. So one of my guilty pleasures would be like reality TV, but I'm going to go specifically on one show. And I don't watch it anymore, but the show is called Project Runway. Oh. Okay. What is that? I don't think it's about planes, is it? I thought I'd surprise you guys there and probably the audience too. Right. So I don't know how I got into this. It was probably six years ago, right? I'm probably just hanging out on my phone and Laurie is watching TV and Project Runaway is on. And I keep looking up and I'm like, oh, what's going on here? It's basically a competition. And they need to like craft clothing. So Project Runaway, they're making whatever the – the rules are for this episode the dude this is what you're watching when when you're not playing call of duty what and uh don't get on call dude this is judgment free zone it's cool all right but i'm saying this how i got into it right you just you kind of just you look up and you're like right and then you get sucked in you're like oh what's going on the next episode because they'll leave you hanging and i probably watched like five full seasons with my wife that's It's fair. It's fair. Yeah. I like that. It worked out. But I watch other shit. Okay, so like Million Dollar Listing. Anybody watch Million Dollar Listing? No. It's based in Los Angeles, I believe. You know why I don't watch Million Dollar Listing? Why is that? What has two thumbs and does not have a million dollars to spend on a house right now? All of us. Yeah. This guy. We can say six thumbs. So, but again. Okay, so we're going to reality TV. It's kind of like my guilty pleasure. And those two shows specifically. Just to piggyback on you really quick, whenever I'm out of town, whether it be for a pinball show, because I'm doing a lot of traveling, more than I've ever done for pinball before. Sure, yeah. When I'm in the hotels, at the end of a show, I'm just beat. I don't really feel like going out or hanging out with people because I've been working 13, 14 hours. I go upstairs, I turn the TV on, and I go right to the DIY network, and I just watch House Hunters. Dude, there you go. We do that too, yeah. Rehabs and stuff like that. And I can binge watch that stuff to where I'm upset when I go in there the next day and I catch a rerun of another episode. I'm all upset, Steve, because I do like that. So I get it. A guilty pleasure of mine would also be watching. You can get sucked in. Sure. The personalities. I'm sure 95% of the people watching that are women, right? Yeah. Man, I got hooked on that shit. I can see that now. To piggyback again off of Steve here, just because I think it's kind of funny. Can you guess both piggyback rides? So when my wife and I started dating, she was real big into Dawson's Creek, and I couldn't really stand it. But after three seasons, it was like, okay, let's see where this winds up going. And we watched that show for years, okay? There was like nine seasons or something crazy. I don't think I've seen an episode. You're not missing much. But literally a couple years ago, the wife was – and it was actually a decent show, right? It wasn't bad. It was decent. Did you watch Melrose Place in 90210? 90210 I did as a kid. Right. Okay. All right. Just making sure. Is that with Screech? No, that's Saved by the Bell. Oh, that's the Saved by the Bell. And then literally a couple months ago. Dustin Diamond. He passed away. He did? I saw him at Zaney's up here. Okay. I got a meet and greet because my buddy's sister ran the club. Anyways, long story. Cool. Yeah, that's cool. And literally the wife was like, hey, I would love to watch Dawson's Creek again. And I said, here's the problem with us watching that show. I can relate to the parents now more than I can relate to the characters. Oh, sure. And I can't watch that because I'm going to say, you know, I don't want to relate to them, you know, to the parents of the show. Because I know that, you know, some boy or girl is crawling in and out of, you know, my house in the middle of the night. And that's literally what happened on the first show. Joey, she was Katie Holmes' character. she would come into Dawson's room via the ladder. Bill's talking about Dawson's Creek. This is amazing. This is like an episode six of season two. Bill's guilty pleasure. Yes. Well, and the wife was like, wouldn't that be cool one day if I had a ladder? And I'm like, no. What are you talking about? And then I think about it in the aspect that I don't have it. Jamie's getting ready to sneak out of the house. Get out of there when Bill's there. Well, this is one 20 years ago, so we were still closer to being 15. I thought like literally. No, no, no, no. She was like, hey, I want to get a ladder and crawl out the bedroom window. This is the role playing in the web house. No, no. Bill, you need to put a ladder against the house. Let's do Dawson's Creek. Climb into the window. And then we'd just go to bed. I'm going to be playing the burglar. Anywho. Oh, this is great. But now it's like because I have a daughter and a son. I mean, they're not at that dating age yet, but it's like if I see a ladder outside of my house, someone's getting their butt whooped. And crazy, the double down on that story. So like three years ago. Damn, a double down piggyback going on. There was a neighbor who had a boyfriend that didn't tell her father, and he thought he was going to come over in the middle of the night. Now, apparently this guy was into like crazy acrobatics or that kind of stuff. So he moved the basketball net, climbed up it, and went in the daughter's room. So I went over and I rang the doorbell. I'm like, hey, I'm pretty sure your dad would not appreciate this gentleman coming into your house via the second floor window. So I called the dad because I'm like, hey, this is a situation that I would want to know about. She wasn't necessarily happy, but I thought that was the right thing to do. Maybe I was wrong. I don't think I was. Got to protect the kids, man. She was still younger and in high school. That's good, Cabra. Yeah. So my daughter, she's graduating eighth grade. She graduated, right? Her graduation is coming up this week. So she's going into high school. So the school had a dance for eighth grade kids. You know how it is. You're kind of socially awkward in eighth grade. Everybody stands on the opposite sides of the gym. And then when there's like 10 minutes left, a couple people are dancing. Everybody wants to dance and it's over, right? So some of the parents decided that, hey, we're going to have a second dance outside of the school. And we're going to rent out this country club. And we're going to have a second dance the next week. I'm like, all right, a little excessive. They already had an eighth grade graduation dance at the school. So why are we going in with like a second dance the next week? And then we just got an email that says, by the way, we've now added a party bus. What? So the dance starts at six and ends at nine. And the party bus, if you choose to take part in this, will pick the kids up from the country club at nine o'clock. And we will drive around the northwest suburbs and stop anywhere we want. And then the kids will be this is on a Thursday night, by the way. And then the kids will be dropped back off at a street that's close to the school because the school doesn't want the liability. So you're going to come pick them up at midnight on Thursday. And I'm like, did these kids win the Stanley Cup or did they just graduate eighth grade? It's like, why are we doing all this? Like I can appreciate – I think some of these parents are – their heart's in the right place. But it's like you got to stop living vicariously through your eighth grade kids and stop trying to be the cool parents that these are 13, 14, 15 year old kids. No way they need to be on a party bus cruising the suburbs at midnight because they graduated the eighth grade, in my opinion. And I'm a pretty laid back parent when it comes to like letting my kids try some fun stuff. Party bus at 11 o'clock, 12 o'clock at night. That seems excessive, right? I would agree with you. I would agree. I don't know why I brought that up, but we're talking about, you know, look out for your kids. Look out for your kids. Well, we were talking about Project Runway, and we transitioned. Right. Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn. Right. So I'm going to change my guilty pleasure, but mine to TV, since we're a little more focused on that tonight, history channel stuff. Ancient aliens, man. Oh, History Channel makes a weird conversion around 10 o'clock at night. You go from Washington crossing the river to ancient aliens. Yeah, baby. They know that late night person. And that's Ken. It's 10 o'clock. It's totally me. I'm like, I don't care about the Potomac. Let me know how these pyramids were built by this civilization that's living behind the moon because it's hollow, right? I love that. Like Arlington National Cemetery. Guilty pleasure. So these episodes, fun fact, maybe not fun. Interesting fact is a better way of saying it. My fun facts can be a little... He's like, oh, the cemetery. A little morbid here and there. A little fun fact on the cemetery. It's always some gruesome thing that happens. But I present it so well that it just comes off great. I had to cut a story out last week because you presented it as fun fact. It was not that fun. I remember that. Right, yeah. I'm like, this is not going to hit, not even the bonus column. I don't even remember the story, but that's fine. We don't need to go into that. Arlington National Cemetery, that's the Tomb of an Unknown Soldier. That's where that's at, right? Yep. So that was Robert E. Lee, the leader of the Confederates Army. The generals. So as kind of a punishment to him and for leading the Confederates, they said, okay, all the casualties of this war, We're going to bury on your front lawn. So they did that, and then it kind of backfired because now it's a national cemetery. Most people didn't know that. But that's like something that I've learned from the History Channel. I thought that was kind of interesting to know. Like, hey, out of spite, they said, listen, since you were part of this, now we're going to bury all these people on your property. U.S. history is so much more interesting as an adult as it ever was for me as a kid going through junior high and high school. I didn't really want to get involved too much in social studies and U.S. history. But now as you have more appreciation for the nation and for the trials and tribulations that we've all gone through, it makes me wonder, though, how accurate is the History Channel on some of this stuff? There's a lot of different things to consider. Sure. But yeah, I would like to know just kind of an unbiased, truthful coverage of a lot of different things, whether it be the past, the present, and then going into the future. Yeah. Washington, D.C., we did that for family vacations when I was younger. Fascinating. Awesome place to visit. If you ever get the chance. Oh, sure, yeah. I would love to go there. Yeah, same. Never been. Listen, I would almost say, hey, why don't we make a quick road trip to Washington, D.C. for four days. How long does it take to drive there? Like 12 hours. No, I would just fly. Bill's car? No, it's not that bad. Yeah, seven hours in Bill's car. 12 is in the flight zone, I think. Not really, because literally you can stop from here to Gettysburg, I think it's 8 or 9. And then from there, it's a quick jump to D.C. Okay, so if you're talking about like a stop, I get it. But if we're like three-way trying to drive 12 hours, I don't like being on the road for half a day. Listen, I'm going to NyQuil you guys. You'll wake up and, hey, guilty pleasure. I like driving. Pardon my language. I enjoy driving. I do it all day. Ken's going to drain that. It's a must. I don't like being driven by other people. but I mean, it is what it is. I like to be in control of my destiny. Would you rather drive? Not 12 hours. Okay. I'd rather fly at that point. Okay. Because that flight can't be longer than an hour and 50 minutes. Yeah, it's just too much. So I used to not like flying at all, and just because of the repetition of flying over the last three years with Jersey Jack pinballs. I think I'm cured of my flight. Plus, I have a little help with a little medication that was properly prescribed to me from a doctor. Now I'm just like, hey, let's do this. Hey, maybe that's a turn to talk about doing it. When you see the Lincoln Memorial in person, it is very inspiring. It'd be huge, man. I'd love to go to the Capitol. I'd love to go see the White House. I'd love to go see the Washington Monument. I'd love to see, I mean, for sure, for sure. And the Smithsonian. The Smithsonian is like three days. I mean, you can make. That'd be incredible, too. Yeah. So I would just like to kind of walk the streets down there and just take it all in. Capitol Hill in general. Do you ever watch House of Cards? Netflix series. I watched one episode. Kevin Spacey. I watched a little bit of it, but the wife didn't get into it. Not in good. Can't talk about Spacey nowadays. Yeah, I was going to say. Wait, what's the one with Dreyfus? Richard Dreyfus? No, HBO. Well, you can also go Blacklist. Blacklist was also done in. Veep. No, I haven't seen that. My wife watches Blacklist. So good. But Blacklist, if you guys watch Blacklist, you see all the Lincoln Memorial and the bridge coming across where you see the Lincoln Memorial, the reflecting pool, the Vietnam Wall. Actually, the Vietnam Wall is in there, but the Capitol and that kind of stuff. It is very awesome. I would love to visit some of these places. I'd like to go to Philadelphia. I'd like to see the birthplace of the nation. I'd like to just kind of take in that history. And it's nice, too, because our nation, if you think about it, it's very young. It's 1776 It was kind of when We kicked this off Let's kick it Let's see it You guys good for episode 95? Episode 95 Anything else? We can wrap this one up If you want to contact the show again I've mentioned the email several times SpecialWinLibPodcast.com If you'd like to come aboard And join the Patreon family You can become a patron by going to Patreon.com It's P-A-T-R-E-O-N.com slash Special When Lit Podcast. And there's some benefits and perks there if you want to get some extra bonus content, some outtakes, some video, and get access to the private Discord. That's always fun. We've got Instagram up and running, Bill. Special When Lit Pinball. And then you can search for us on Facebook, Special When Lit Podcast. Steve, what do you got? Twitter. Yeah, is that going yet? Twitter.com. Good luck finding us. I guess we'll figure that out at some point. For Bill Webb and Steve Beattie, I'm Ken Cromwell. Everybody have a good morning, good afternoon, good evening. And don't forget to take some time out of your day and play some pinball. So long, everybody. Gotta go!