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EP 93 - Confessing Our Guility Pleasures

Special When Lit·podcast_episode·51m 48s·analyzed·Apr 23, 2023
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.030

TL;DR

Special When Lit #93: Post-hiatus return discussing TPF crowds, personal updates, nostalgia, and drain-it-or-save-it debates.

Summary

Special When Lit Podcast episode 93 features hosts Ken Cromwell, Bill Webb, and Steve Beattie discussing their recent activities after a break. The episode covers their experiences at Texas Pinball Festival in March (noting 6-7 new game releases and record crowds), personal updates (Steve's guitar arrival, machine acquisitions including Tron LE and Spider-Man), nostalgic discussions about smell-triggered memories, and a "Drain It or Save It" segment debating topics like sushi and game acquisition patience.

Key Claims

  • Texas Pinball Festival in March 2024 had 6-7 new games on display with unprecedented crowds

    high confidence · Ken Cromwell discussing TPF as 'the busiest show I've ever been to' with 'six or seven new games that were at Texas Pinball Festival'

  • Wait times for new machines at TPF reached approximately 45 minutes to an hour

    medium confidence · Ken Cromwell: 'I had heard that getting in line for one of those machines, especially one of the newer machines, was like getting in line for Splash Mountain. An hour was not uncommon'

  • Jersey Jack Pinball launched The Godfather game in March, followed by Texas Pinball Festival

    high confidence · Ken Cromwell: 'going back into March, with Jersey Jack Pinball, We had a launch of a new game with The Godfather, followed right by the show, Texas Pinball Festival'

  • Steve Beattie recently acquired a Tron LE and Spider-Man (both HEO machines)

    high confidence · Steve Beattie: 'In pinball world, I picked up a Tron LE and a Spider-Man. Both HEO, so that was pretty exciting'

  • Bill Webb sold a Twilight Zone Road Show and previously owned a Terminator 2 machine

    high confidence · Bill Webb: 'On a whim, I sold my Twilight Zone, had a road show for a little bit' and 'Had a Terminator for a little while'

  • Steve Beattie's custom guitar from Crow Hill Guitars has been in production for approximately 2 years

    high confidence · Steve Beattie: 'I reached out to Eric at Crow Hill Guitars two years ago... having a custom hollow body electric guitar being built for two years now'

  • Monopoly (pinball machine) provides surprisingly high enjoyment value despite initial low expectations

    high confidence · Bill Webb: 'I wasn't expecting to enjoy that game as much as I did... that game is really fun. Monopoly, huh? Yeah. Pleasantly surprised'

  • Ed Van Der Veen runs Texas Pinball Festival with high organizational quality

    high confidence · Ken Cromwell: 'my hat off. I tip my hat to the Vanderbeens for running that show. Amazingly well done'

Notable Quotes

  • “The busiest show I've ever been to in any capacity was that Texas Pinball Festival... it was lightning in a bottle. I don't know that we'll ever see anything like that ever again.”

    Ken Cromwell@ 1:35 — Captures the unprecedented scale and energy of TPF, suggesting it was a unique convergence event unlikely to be replicated

  • “I had heard that getting in line for one of those machines, especially one of the newer machines, was like getting in line for Splash Mountain. An hour was not uncommon to get on one of those new machines.”

    Ken Cromwell@ 3:10 — Illustrates the extreme crowd pressure and operational challenges at TPF despite its success

  • “Because of pinball, I've become a very patient person waiting for big ticket items, I guess you can say.”

    Steve Beattie@ 8:42 — Reflects the collector mentality in pinball—accepting long wait times for premium acquisitions as normalcy

  • “Pinball plays heavy on nostalgia... we're getting old now. We're old for munchins. And we like what we grew up with.”

    Ken Cromwell@ 18:24 — Core observation about pinball's appeal and the aging demographic of enthusiasts

  • “Two hours and 15 minutes for somebody to purchase something from you... my goal is to get somebody in and out as efficiently as possible, and I think most people that pick up here appreciate that.”

    Ken Cromwell@ 23:44 — Reveals operational philosophy of experienced machine sellers valuing efficiency

Entities

Ken CromwellpersonBill WebbpersonSteve BeattiepersonLucas PepkepersonEd VanderveenpersonEricpersonTexas Pinball FestivaleventSpecial When Lit Pinball Podcastorganization

Signals

  • ?

    event_signal: Texas Pinball Festival in March 2024 experienced unprecedented crowding and wait times (45-60 minutes for new machines), attributed to 6-7 new game releases coinciding with the show

    high · Ken Cromwell: 'The busiest show I've ever been to in any capacity... six or seven new games that were at Texas Pinball Festival... crowds were like nothing I had ever experienced'

  • ?

    product_launch: Jersey Jack Pinball launched The Godfather game in March 2024, timing preceding Texas Pinball Festival

    high · Ken Cromwell: 'Jersey Jack Pinball, We had a launch of a new game with The Godfather, followed right by the show, Texas Pinball Festival'

  • ?

    collector_signal: Active secondary market trading: Bill Webb sold Twilight Zone Road Show and briefly owned Terminator 2; Steve Beattie acquired Tron LE and Spider-Man HEO machines; market described as slow compared to 'crazy beginning of year'

    high · Bill Webb: 'On a whim, I sold my Twilight Zone' and 'Had a Terminator for a little while'; Steve Beattie notes market has been 'pretty slow' since early year frenzy

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Monopoly (pinball) experienced positive sentiment reversal—initially low expectations, revealed as genuinely fun upon play testing

    medium · Bill Webb: 'I wasn't expecting to enjoy that game as much as I did' and 'that game is really fun. Monopoly, huh? Yeah. Pleasantly surprised'

  • ?

    community_signal: Lucas Pepke revealed as voice behind Macho Pinball and Puppet Pales podcast library; demonstrates interconnectedness of content creation ecosystem

Topics

Texas Pinball Festival 2024 attendance and logisticsprimaryRecent machine acquisitions and salesprimaryNostalgia and sensory memory in pinballprimaryDrain It or Save It debate segmentprimaryCollector behavior and patience with deliveriessecondaryMachine selling etiquette and transaction efficiencysecondaryJersey Jack Pinball The Godfather launchsecondaryPodcast production and scheduling challengesmentioned

Sentiment

positive(0.78)— Episode reflects enthusiasm about TPF success, personal acquisitions, and community engagement. Hosts are upbeat, engage in playful banter, and show genuine excitement about recent events. Nostalgia segments are reflective and warm. Slight frustration appears when discussing overly-long transactions with buyers, but overall tone is lighthearted and celebratory.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.155

0:00
coming at you out of st charles illinois the special when lit pinball podcast starts now hey what's going on pinball and welcome to episode number 93 that's nine three of the special one at pinball podcast my name is ken cromwell i am bill webb with us today steve beattie what's up steve beattie hey what's up boys we're back we're back had a little break after a pretty huge amount of events happening all at once.
0:30
Kind of put the podcast aside temporarily, but we're back. Well, you know what? I mean, we all have obligations, and things do come up that we have to definitely take priority. You were out of town for a little bit. It was a show season, so you were doing a bit of traveling. I know Steve and I had some other things that had popped up and family stuff. And, you know, don't forget the Easter weekend and stuff like that. So it doesn't matter even if we had the time to record on a Wednesday. It matters if we have even time to edit the stuff, too, because by the time if we don't get it edited right away, then it really doesn't. We actually recorded quite a bit of audio after episode 92 because Lucas Pepke came on.
1:05
Lucas, who does our retro roundup. And then also it was kind of discovered in the last episode that he is the mastermind and the voice behind Macho Pinball and the entire Puppet Pales podcast library, which was pretty crazy. But going back into March, with Jersey Jack Pinball, We had a launch of a new game with The Godfather, followed right by the show, Texas Pinball Festival, which was fun. I know you guys didn't get a chance to make it out there, but it was an unbelievable show. The busiest show I've ever been to in any capacity was that Texas Pinball Festival.
1:40
Was it just as good as when we went? Yeah. So the show is amazing. When I go to shows now, it's just different. I know before when we used to go to these shows back in our podcast days when we were just kind of hanging out, it was a lot of hanging out. And now it's a lot of work obligations, so it's a different experience. But, yeah, I mean, it's great. The buzz around Texas Pinball Festival is awesome, just like it would be at Pinball Expo. But, I mean, with so many games that had just been released, I think there was like six or seven new games that were at Texas Pinball Festival. The crowds were like nothing I had ever experienced at any pinball show I've ever been to.
The Godfather
game
Tron LEgame
Spider-Mangame
Monopolygame
Twilight Zone Road Showgame
Terminator 2game
Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
Crow Hill Guitarscompany
Funhousegame
Road Showgame

high · Ken Cromwell: 'it was kind of discovered in the last episode that he is the mastermind and the voice behind Macho Pinball and the entire Puppet Pales podcast library'

  • ?

    operational_signal: Hosts discuss optimal transaction duration for machine sales; consensus is 15-40 minutes adequate, 2+ hours excessive; reflects professional operator perspective

    medium · Bill Webb experienced 2 hour 15 minute transaction; Ken Cromwell: 'my goal is to get somebody in and out as efficiently as possible'; hosts drain lengthy transactions as inefficient

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Community rumor/mod: Tron LE machines play significantly faster with ceramic ball substitution; Steve Beattie confirms machine plays 'pretty quick' but did not test ceramic modification

    low · Ken Cromwell: 'I've been hearing... it's pretty common to replace the balls in Tron LE with ceramic balls. And it's supposed to play ridiculously fast'; Steve: 'I did not try that'

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Crow Hill Guitars custom guitar build took approximately 2 years from initial contact to shipment; demonstrates specialty custom manufacturing lead times

    high · Steve Beattie: 'I reached out to Eric at Crow Hill Guitars two years ago... having a custom hollow body electric guitar being built for two years now... it's in the mail'

  • ?

    content_signal: Special When Lit took break from regular recording schedule due to accumulated event obligations (shows, family, Easter). Retro Roundup with Lucas Pepke skipped this episode.

    high · Ken Cromwell: 'had a little break after a pretty huge amount of events happening all at once. Kind of put the podcast aside temporarily' and no Lucas Pepke retro roundup coordinated

  • ?

    nostalgia_signal: Extended discussion of smell-triggered memories connecting to pinball and arcade nostalgia; demonstrates deep emotional tie between sensory experience and pinball culture

    medium · Bill Webb's Terminator 2 'hot dog stand' smell memory and extended segment on various smell-triggered childhood memories (plastic thermos, pine sawdust, new car smell, shoe boxes)

    • 2:14
    And, you know, my hat off. I tip my hat to the Vanderbeens for running that show. Amazingly well done and proud to be a part of it. So you think the festival was more crowded based on the releases of five or six pins, or do you think it's just going to build each year? Yeah, I think there's a lot of factors. I think coming again, just coming out of pandemic, people getting more and more comfortable. You know, in my opinion, I'm not concerned about that anymore. More and more people going to shows. But, yeah, I mean, it's got to help to have five or six or seven new games coming to a pinball show.
    2:45
    So, I mean, if I'm on the fence of going to any show and it's the perfect storm happening in Frisco, Texas, where I get to see every single game that all seemed to come out relatively at the same time, wasn't a better show or better timing. It was lightning in a bottle. I don't know that we'll ever see anything like that ever again. Not to say that the crowds will be any less at next year's Texas Pinball Festival, but, I mean, that was the – I mean, you're at the precipice of pinball exposure on that show. I had heard that getting in line for one of those machines, especially one of the newer machines, was like getting in line for Splash Mountain.
    3:17
    An hour was not uncommon to get on one of those new machines from what I heard. It really depended, right? Because your bigger manufacturers obviously are bringing more games, so the lines are not as long. Whereas some of the smaller manufacturers or maybe manufacturers that had brought games to Texas Pinball Festival last minute and didn't have as many to play on, naturally those lines are going to be longer. So there's a little bit of a delicate balance there. And it's just like any other pinball show, I suppose. But, yeah, just the crowds were – I was stunned. It was like – you know how you watch those videos back in the day and even to today to a certain extent?
    3:51
    Cabbage Patch Kids, like the big craze around Christmas time, but then Black Friday starts and they open it up and everybody just kind of hauls in. Our booth was right in the front of Texas Pinball Festival. So when you walked in, the first thing that you saw from a pinball manufacturing standpoint was our trust system and our video wall. and we had 16 games, I think, over there. But to see those doors open up and everybody rush in, it was amazing because it was pretty busy pre-open because if you have a vendor or a vendor pass or a media pass, there's a buzz in the building leading up to the official opening.
    4:24
    And that was pretty busy. And when the official open hit, it was slammed. I mean, it was amazing all the way through, I guess, Sunday afternoon when the show officially ended. It was like that the whole time. I'm assuming, right? Yeah, I mean, it ebbed and flowed slightly, but the least busy times at TPF, depending on maybe it was like Saturday afternoon or whatever, were still some of the busiest times I'd ever experienced at any pinball show ever. So, you know, it's an interesting way or an interesting, I guess it's a good problem to have if you're Texas Pinball Festival.
    4:55
    When does it become where you're kind of taken away from the enjoyment because of the crowds? I don't know. Everybody's there for the most part. I think a lot of people that are involved in pinball for a long time, they're there to see people, and that's great. But at what point is it like, hey, I want to jump on a new game. I don't want to wait 45 minutes, have maybe two house balls and a decent ball three, and then have to get back to the end of the line. So do you feel like they oversell the show maybe? Do you think you cap these pinball show ticket limits?
    5:26
    It's an interesting thing to talk about, and maybe that's something to talk about with Ed Van Der Veen. Look, he does a great job. But I think we've all been at pinball shows where it's just hard to get on games. And I think that's a big reason, like a lot of times when we go to these pinball shows, look, whether it be Expo or Louisville Arcade Expo when we were out there, MGC. There's a prime time. There absolutely is a prime time. And it's like if you're there to play pinball, you really have to kind of strategize how you're going to spend your whole day
    5:56
    because you're not going to see everything in two hours, or at least you're not going to play everything in two hours. No. But yeah, I mean, it's the life of a show organizer. I don't know how it's done. But again, it was amazing. It was a great time, and it was fun. I'm looking forward to next year, and I'm looking forward to Expo coming up in October. In October? Sooner than we think, guys. That's crazy. It's only about six months out now. Yeah. Now that you put it that way. For sure. What's going on with you guys? Steve, what's going on with Steve B? What's going on? In pinball world, I picked up a Tron LE and a Spider-Man.
    6:31
    Both HEO, so that was pretty exciting. Bill actually helped me scoop those with his muscles. Let me ask you this. Your Tron LE, and I've been hearing, I think I was talking to somebody at work about this. I guess it's pretty common to replace the balls in Tron LE with ceramic balls. And it's supposed to play ridiculously fast. I did not try that. I had never heard of that, actually. Yeah. I don't think it needed it. No, it didn't. It already played pretty quick. Oh, yeah. Pretty quick.
    7:03
    Yeah, not a whole lot else, though. In Pinball Land, I mean, I'm always looking for what's out there deal-wise. It's been pretty slow. The beginning of the year was crazy. I'm going to call you out here. What's that? Dude, you had the Tron? No, the beginning of the year was crazy. No, no, no. Ah, Tron. Spider-Man you got. Right? Yeah. And you picked up a Monopoly. Monopoly was, I think, prior. Yeah, it was prior to those. That was one of those crazy things where I wasn't expecting to enjoy that game as much as I did.
    7:33
    But we had a blast on it. Yeah, so we just streamed Monopoly on Monday. We had played it, I think, last stream, like after we streamed a round or two. And we're like, oh, this game is kind of cool. But dude, that game is really fun. Monopoly, huh? Yeah. Pleasantly surprised, dude. I couldn't believe, you know. Yeah, we'll be doing that one again. Yeah, absolutely. And more importantly, you have something that arrived that you've had on order for, what, 16 months? 16, maybe 24. It's been almost two years. I think it is two years.
    8:04
    I'd have to go back to when I initially reached out. So I reached out to Eric at Crow Hill Guitars two years ago. Oh, wow. And I've been having a custom hollow body electric guitar being built for two years now. And that's actually in the mail. Oh, no. Okay. So it's on the way? It's on the way. Man. It hasn't showed up yet. So Friday, I'm going to be patiently waiting for the door all day. I remember you just showing us chunks of wood and stuff where that was kind of being... Oh, it's sexy.
    8:34
    Oh, that's amazing. Congratulations. It's amazing work. So really, really looking forward to that. Was it worth the two-year wait on a custom guitar? I think because of pinball, I've become a very patient person waiting for big ticket items, I guess you can say. so yeah i think it's going to be worth worth the wait haven't played it yet yeah that's amazing well no but it's crazy it was nice it looks really nice the case is beautiful i'd like take a nap on the oh that's sweet is it a custom case too or do you just throw it in i think he
    9:04
    builds it he builds the cases i didn't have any input on the case but it's really nice but it was crazy because i saw that picture i'm like wow you know because dude as ken said we'd see it as a block of wood we would see it as you know hey what paint should i go with hey what should i do here There were a lot of decisions, tough decisions that I had to make along the way. Did you end up – I know at the time when you were kind of building this with the gentleman that you ordered it from, you were talking about trying to implement some type of pinball element. Did you end up doing anything? I did not. I could not figure out a good way to –
    9:37
    Probably for the best. Yeah. For resale, right? People are like, what? It's not even a resale, but it's like, how do you fit pinball into a guitar and have it still sophisticated and elegant? And not look gimmicky. Yeah, not gimmicky. Right. Yeah. So, yeah. I had a lot of ideas, but I kind of just shied away from that. I would have put in the back where the peg is for the strap. Yeah. You could have made that like a little plunger, like a pooler. That would have been cool. You probably still have a bad idea. Why didn't you say that two years ago?
    10:08
    I'm like, let's go. I want maybe little flipper bats as the front dots. But then, yeah, a lot of it was gimmicky. I'm excited for you, man. I know you've been waiting patiently. I forgot about it. Yeah, me too. Yeah. You're like, hey, what's going on? Months will go by, and I'm like, oh, my gosh, wait. What's going on with the guitar? Not exactly Amazon Prime, but that's okay. Yeah. Custom doesn't come in a box, number one. No. Number two, I'm glad you didn't go with some of those things, because I could really see how they'd be gimmicky. Like, if you ever make a mod for something or do something and think, like, oh, I just created, you know, pure gold in my mind.
    10:44
    And then you see it and you're like, dude, I need to throw this in the garbage. Well, every little thing you do costs money, right? I mean, it's pretty little nice chunks of money, too. I'm sure this was not for the faint at heart either. But you know what? You bought something you loved. And, hey, what better? I'm ready for the next one, baby. Let's go. Would you do another one? Yes. Are you already planning your next one? You don't even have this one. But I already like it. He already likes it. He saw the picture. He fell in love with the picture. Yeah. Hey, that's how you know you're hooked. You know, it's good stuff.
    11:14
    Yeah, so. Well, congratulations, man. We'll have to have a, I can't wait to see it. Yeah. Are you going to let us hold it? Because I know that's kind of like, that's tough. You may hold and play the guitar. Interesting. All right, good. So, Bill, what's new with you? Well, I've just taken up guitar lessons. What? I'm kidding. No, but to hold your guitar, I feel like I need to because it's a piece of art now, you know? I need guitar lessons to, yeah. Well, and for those who don't know, Steve plays in a band, the aforementioned local band. You need a band, yeah. Yeah. We're a local band. Actually, we don't. So he goes on the local tour.
    11:45
    Life's gotten in the way of that, too. We haven't had practice. Maybe we have it once a month nowadays, but no show scheduled. Yeah, but it's still early. You guys will be doing stuff. We'll do a show or two this year, I'm sure. Yeah. You should give me some music where I can use for like playouts and outros and stuff. We can do that. Yeah, yeah. That'd be kind of fun. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. There you go. I'll do a little, could be like the slash. And then you should set up like a Patreon for your band. Since that's all the rage, we'll talk about that later, because guess who's back in that action. Guess who's back.
    12:15
    Anyways, what's up with Bill Webb? Shady's back. Not a whole lot. On a whim, I sold my Twilight Zone, had a road show for a little bit. That was fun. We'll talk about that more later on, because we got some drain it or save it questions about that game. and what else? Had a Terminator for a little while. That was nice. Oh, T2's gone. Yeah. It was nice because it was back for a little while, played it literally, you know, we talked about this before, still smelled the hot dogs after it all
    12:46
    started working because it was a pile when I got it. It was a project and half the crap was missing off of it For those who don get the reference the T2 brings up a lot of nostalgia for Bill because it one of the games that he kind of grew up playing and then owning several times Pause here Go back to episode one First five minutes you understand Yeah, there you go. No, but, yeah, that was one of the first games. It was at a hot dog stand. So whenever I, like, don't play it for a long time, like, that whole rush just comes back. You know, it was like, ah, do I keep it? Do I sell it? But I've had it so many times, and it was like, you know what, I got other things coming in.
    13:17
    So it was nice to have it back for a little bit. But other than that, yeah, you know, the kids are getting older, and that's about all, man. You know, nice new pinballs coming out. You bring up the nostalgia thing where, like, T2 takes you back to the hot dog stand. Yeah. And I just had a conversation about this with somebody else that I knew. Do you guys ever get smells that bring you back to a certain period of time or in a room? And the reason that it would, like, what's a smell, for instance, for you where you smell it and it takes you back?
    13:50
    So I have memories, and this might work a little backwards, but mine kind of work as in like a, you know, I remember playing Terminator 2 smelling hot dogs. You know what I mean? I remember thinking back to my preschool classroom and like the smell of, not mold, but it didn't smell very clean. It's just some mustiness. Some musty kind of crap. When you open up a pinball machine, it's like, hey, it reminds me of school. Yeah. You know, so I, you know, smell that.
    14:20
    I mean, it doesn't happen often where I have the smell and then it triggers. It's normally the opposite way. Because I, for whatever reason, and we'll move on here in a second because I don't know how interesting this is. But the smell that brings me back is like back in the day, I would have like a metal lunchbox and like a plastic thermos. And the smell of the plastic of the thermos and my lunch in that box. I don't know. occasionally I'll get a whiff of it randomly and it brings me right back to, you know, grade school and opening that up. It's just weird things.
    14:50
    You know how songs can bring you back to moments that you had with people or, or night you're out with your buddies or maybe like an old girlfriend or something like that. It's just, it's nostalgia is so amazing. Yeah. It's, it's so powerful. I got a, I got a kind of a gross one. So there's a, there's this commercial like cleaning solution and let's say somebody, you know, has an accident somewhere or whatever and they clean it up with this i don't know what it is but it's this smell that reminds me of like second grade this girl was sitting next to me and just
    15:24
    ralphed all over her desk that's that pine sawdust mix that they throw on top it is like a pine like yeah so every time i smell every time i smell that it reminds me of that moment and me being like i gotta get the hell out of here dude every school in america had that stuff there are people that are listening now that have literally had somebody throw up in a classroom yep and that stuff was more pungent than the throw up and it and it didn't really get rid of the smell of the throw up it just like you know throwing perfume on top of gasoline as far as the smell goes it doesn't
    15:55
    get rid of it it's just not as terrible interesting interesting yeah do you remember that ken i don't remember that i wasn't around a lot of people throwing up at school i guess but i mean i suppose i would if it had happened recommended i mean yeah maybe it did happen i suppressed the memory it's like i don't i don't know there were hot dogs in there so now every time i play t2 she threw up some hot dogs which reminded me of t2 thanks bill um hey just like the smell of a fresh trapper keeper you know that yeah yeah that plasticky kind of yeah over laminates uh new trap
    16:28
    yeah yeah yeah almost as good as new cars though uh going down to wrigley field walking around the ballpark and just the smell of the food i mean that stuff stuff like that occasionally i get that same whiff like outside of portillo's yeah out in elk grove village where jersey jack is it's right down the block and you'll get that whiff and it's like oh it smells like bar like ballpark food oh yeah yeah um yeah there are certain times in your life that you just have a certain something just triggers you back you know yeah you know i'd be curious too if you have something that brings you back whether it be a smell or something like that email us at special when lit
    17:00
    podcast at gmail.com special when lit podcast at gmail.com just be curious to see what triggers people yeah if in a good way in a good way two triggers if you don't mind we're gonna go just a little further down this rabbit hole before we jump in the meat and potatoes the new shoe smell box yeah i literally ordered just three pairs or two pairs of uh case with shoes because the famous footwear didn't have the white ones right and that's all i ever rock so for months i was wearing black ones until i finally got motivated open the box dude you know you smell that brand new shoe and you're like or how about this damn new car smell oh absolutely i mean for those that are
    17:36
    fortunate enough to have ever owned a new vehicle or sat in a new vehicle i mean when you open it up there's something i don't know what is is that the carpet that's just brand new is that carpet i'm smelling and dude i don't know what it is but it's amazing long time too it can last like and you years always try to preserve it and then eventually it starts fading away like in the winter and then like you'll hit the first kind of hot spring day where it heats up the inside of your car and you walk in you're like i it's the new car smell it's like a new car right now it's amazing that's all the toxins being released from the plastic probably that's exactly what it is though I like it.
    18:06
    I like toxins. I think for those of you that are listening to the podcast, we're a pinball podcast, right? But I mean, we will be bringing up topics that are outside of pinball, but eventually lead back into pinball on all these topics. And nostalgia is like a pretty heavy topic, popular topic, because pinball plays heavy on nostalgia. Well, we're getting old. It kind of is what it is. We're getting old now. We're old for munchins. And we like what we grew up with, you know? Yeah, without a doubt. Our secret, the Tyco slot cars. Remember those things burning up the house? Mm-hmm. That's a good smell.
    18:36
    That's a transistor going out in a pinball machine now. Ooh, what's that smell in the garage? Oh, okay, better shut everything off, figure out what's going on. That's that burnt, burnt, that's that fresh, fresh coil. That's that fresh coil. That you're putting in. Let's do this because we do not have a retro roundup this week, and it's not of any fault of Lucas Pepke's. We just literally were getting back into the swing of things, and we wanted to get this going tonight. We didn't have time to kind of coordinate with Lucas, But let's do a Drain It or Save It. Sound good? Let's do it.
    19:10
    It's time for this week's edition of Drain It or Save It. For those of you new to the program, the way Drain It or Save It works, we each come up with one topic. If we agree or support the topic, we will save it. If we disagree or don't support the topic, we will drain it. We're going to start today with Steve Beattie. Steve Beattie, what's your topic for Drain It or Save It? My topic is, and it's because of you boys, and I don't know if you will drain it or save it. This is interesting to me. Sushi. Drain it or save it.
    19:41
    I like it. I am going to drain it. All right. I'm not a seafood fan, number one. I had a feeling. Oh, yeah. I'm not a seafood fan, for starters. Number two, I like things cooked, unless it's cold pizza. Okay. And we're going to stick on the raw sushi because you're going to have, well, there's lots of taste. It's still seafood, so it's still out for me either way. So I'm going to drain that. This sounds familiar to me. We've either spoken of this off mics or on mics before. Off mics for sure. Okay, yeah. I'm going to drain sushi or raw fish in general.
    20:13
    Again, with Bill, I think things that are dead probably are meant to be cooked just to kill off anything that might be upsetting. And I do remember going to Clearwater, Florida with my wife on vacation. and her encouraging me to try sushi going into the sushi restaurant. The first experience that I had seen was somebody throwing up outside and then ordering this huge sushi tray that 20 people couldn't have eaten. And I don't know why, for whatever reason, I thought ordering tuna sushi would be safe because I just thought tuna that came in the can was raw.
    20:45
    And it's not. That's cooked, guys. So when the tuna came, it was just very pink. And so I stay with the California rolls or the vegetable rolls or the imitation crab meat. I'm fine with that. But sushi in general. So you'll still eat that? If it's not raw fish, yes. But sushi in general, if I never had it again for the rest of my life, I would not miss a minute of sleep. I'm going to drain it. Well, obviously, I'm going to save it. I love sushi. I would eat raw fish with nothing on it, and I'm okay with that.
    21:16
    It's like you go fishing, you pull it out of the water, just take a bite out of the fish. That's not for me. In Florida, we caught some tuna, and when I was filleting it, you just cut a little slice off yourself, and it's really, really good. Really, really, really good. That just seems very barbaric to me. I wouldn't eat, like, an uncooked Mrs. Paul's fish stick. Like, that's how it is. But, you know, I'm not a big seafood guy anyways. But anyways, but yeah, that's interesting. Sushi is a very polarizing topic for a lot of people. But, Steve, you save it.
    21:46
    Myself and Bill, we drain it. Okay. What do you got, Bill? All right, so mine for this week. Gentleman shows up to look at a machine or something you're trying to sell. It doesn't have to be pinball. It can be whatever. At what point do you finally just get to the point where you say, all right, sir, you know what? I'm afraid I have, like, a life to live, and I'm going to need you to leave. Is two hours too much? He was at your house for two hours? Two hours and 15 minutes, and I kept my cool. My wife actually lost her proverbial cool.
    22:17
    She literally sent me 10 text messages in a row with my thing on. Like, hey, what are you doing? You know, did they turn you into a lampshade? She's like blink twice if you're under duress. Yes, that whole Nicole in the van thing. Yes, very good. Two hours and 15 minutes for somebody to purchase something from you. Save it or drain it? Would you be patient enough for two hours and 15 minutes? All right. Well, occasionally when people come to buy a machine for me, we hang out.
    22:49
    We have some beers. We're playing a bunch of pinball. Steve's the guy that stays at people's houses for two hours drinking beer. No, I do not. When I go to grab a machine, I'm like, give me that. Remember the Dave story a couple episodes ago where he was the pinball wizard? Kept the car running. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no. This is not drinking beer. This is Bill's house. Bill's kids are awake, and the machine is in the garage. That's all you're doing. looking at one machine, two hours and 15 minutes. Well, then I'm going to drain it. I mean, if I'm not having fun, you know, we're not playing pinball
    23:21
    and, you know, let's turn it into a thing. Let's go. Okay. Ken? Yeah, I'm going to drain that for the most part. Sometimes you click with somebody, you don't mind the company, or the circumstances lend themselves well to have people over for an extended period of time. But my goal when I sell is to thoroughly go through the game that I'm selling and at that point complete the transaction and get it loaded up. Everybody's schedules are busy. Yeah. And for the most part, and yeah. My goal is to get somebody in and out as efficiently as possible, and I think most people that pick up here appreciate that.
    23:52
    So, yeah, two-hour extended time, I'm going to drain that one. Well, and that was an actual thing that happened to me with a game that I sold. It was not a $13,000 circus full tear or anything crazy. It was a cheaper machine, but the person was very thorough and like, I don't know, and blah, blah, blah, blah. Two hours and 15 minutes. I like them, and I feel bad saying, hey, dude, make a decision, or just get the hell. I'm not that person, but they were really like, I don't know if this is supposed to be like this.
    24:25
    And I've owned multiples of this machine, but I was like, I felt bad. Which is funny, because literally, there's been times, like you, or you, you know what you want, and you look at the machine, 15 minutes at most, you know if you're taking it or if you're not. Or you negotiate. I usually know in the first five minutes. Yeah. Yeah, you kind of get an idea. Yeah, for sure. But honestly, like for me, 40 minutes, I want to be back in the car on the road, you know. Yeah, right. And that's after counting money and getting the legs off and up the stairs, whatever. And that's why I was like, you know, I try and have games in the garage too just for that reason
    24:58
    so people can, you know, get on with their life, you know, whatever. It's always hard to move a machine with somebody that's never seen your stairs and that kind of stuff. I agree. I felt bad. I didn't drain it and say, get the hell out. But it's like, dude, come on. You've got to do the whole thing like when you said somebody had to come over at 4. You'd be like, no, 4 works good because I've got to go pick up my daughter at 4.45. Then you have this time where it's like, this is where I need to get going. Yeah, for sure. For sure. It's nothing personal.
    25:29
    I only do that when I legit have something to do. And this was like a, you know, for once a screw-off day. You do have legit something to do. It's to spend the rest of your day doing what you need to do. Well, it was at night. It was with the kids. And the wife was like, you know, I had to put both kids to sleep. I'm like, I know, dude. I'm sorry. What do you want me to say? It's like, hey, you know. Well, I've got a life to live. Like I said I felt bad and I didn want to pressure him But you know at one point you know when my phone literally Hopefully he literally Hopefully he doesn listen to the podcast Nah no one listening anyway Just a bit outside Just a bit outside
    25:59
    You can't see that on the air. Ah, nobody's listening anyway. Hey, Bill, are you going to do your second, or are we going to save that for another time? We can do the second, if you guys are up for it. All right, so I had a road show for a little bit. Pulled the faces off because one was broken. They're a little creepier with the faces off, but do you find the faces on Funhaus or Roadshow creepy? Save it or drain it. In what context? Like save it like you like those faces? Save it you like it or drain it as in like they're a little creepy
    26:30
    and maybe the game shouldn't be in your house. I'll save it. I was never bothered by Red and Ted or Rudy. Okay. Yeah, drain it. Like mannequins and stuff in general, like fake faces and dolls that eyes move and mouths move. It just opens itself up to paranormal activity. I'm out. I'm draining it. I've never owned Funhaus or Roadshow. Not because I'm afraid of the gateway portal. That's fine. Can you imagine though? You're going through your collection at night time and then Rudy just
    27:01
    starts talking to you and it's unplugged. Not even going to open up. Oh, it's unplugged. I'm out. Draining that. What about you? My son didn't. I save it because it doesn't bother me either way. My wife is absolutely terrified. She hated the game in the garage. Well, with the faces off, too, probably. Oh, yeah. It was creepy as crap, and I loved it. You know? And my daughter. That movie Alive. It's got these eyes. Well, and Madeline, literally, she was taking the Red's head and braiding her hair while the thing's on the table. I'm like, dude, what the hell are you doing?
    27:31
    Don't be encouraging that. Well, and then I put it all back together. I'm like, okay, cool. She'll stop messing with it. Dude, she's going to get like barrettes and putting them in Red's hair. I'm like, what are you doing? It was sure enough entertainment for me. But, yeah. And then Billy didn't like it either. Smart people. You've got to go. You've got smart kids. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's all right. Their dad's going to be in a portal. That's cool. Portal? What does that mean? The gateway to hell! Oh, jeez. Red's going to get me. No, but you know what? I mean, it's not an uncommon thing.
    28:04
    So my wife is very terrified of dolls. And not like she doesn't like them, like she gets terrified of certain things, right? So she's like, don't ever bring something like a Chucky doll home, right? And I was at a friend's house, and I saw the Chucky in a box. I'm like, this is awesome. I'm not too concerned with him coming to life and living out a movie. So I take the picture and send it to her, and I'm like, look what I just bought. She goes, you better not even come home if that's in your car. Yeah, yeah. I don't like dolls. I would never take on somebody's used doll or buy one used at a garage sale or something.
    28:37
    You don't know the history of that doll. You don't know what's going on. Like, you know, that's okay. I totally understand that, man. Sometimes there's bad energy. You ever see Annabelle, Bill? No. Annabelle? Oh, my gosh. I get your thing, though, where sometimes an inanimate object can have bad energy with it. Any object can have bad energy with it. That's why I've always been real hesitant to buy, like, old historical things. And I'm not, like, somebody that's going through life all creeped out by every little thing. But it's like, hey, what's that creepy jewelry box where you open it up and there's, like, some hair in there and a lock?
    29:09
    Oh, that's perfectly normal. I'm out. I don't want anything to do with that. Not bringing that in my house. To your point, not opening up portals in here. No Ouija boards for me. No thanks. Oh, no, I'm not a Ouija board fan either. Can we double down for a second here and bonus drain it or save it? Yeah. Ouija boards. Pinball machine that somebody had previously owned and is no longer on earth. Would you buy that machine or are you a hard pass on that deal? Oh, no, I would buy that. I mean, I think most pinball machines I probably owned were owned by somebody that might have passed at some point.
    29:40
    Okay. You know, that's that. Sure. But if somebody like died while playing the game, that might be a little bit creepy. A little Christine pinball. If they found somebody like hunched over the play field, you know, with a rig of mortise set in, that would be kind of disturbing to me. So, and you said Ouija boards. You're out on Ouija boards. Yeah, I'm out with Ouija boards. I had an ex-girlfriend of mine who got into a Ouija board, and I experienced some really odd, disturbing behavior and just watching the board do stuff.
    30:13
    And this was, like, in my early 20s. Not a fan. I'm out. I'll drain as well. I was never a fan of the Ouija board. Screwing with, you know. Get that shit out of my house. I wouldn't even have one in my house. Yeah, don't bring it in your house. Yeah, they're not in my house. Yeah. You know, Jamie was like, oh, we should get a Ouija board. I'm like, hell no. Let's bring the gate in. It's like, that's okay. Hey, we should just paint a pentagram on the floor of the basement and get some candles and some sacrificial blood. We'll rip some fireball and play some Ouija. What could go wrong? No thanks. Damn, Bill opened the gateway to hell by accident.
    30:45
    Right. What'd you do last night? Oh, we opened up a gateway to hell. And we were talking to somebody. Red and Ted are moving now. Yeah, right. Right. All right, so my drain it or save is real easy. See, it's been a, well, I'm not going to say if I mind it or not, but it's been something that's been on my mind for years, especially as I get older. And that is the use of the turn signal when operating an automobile. Train it or save it. What do you got there, Steve? Save it.
    31:16
    Why? Who wouldn't save it? You got to use them. Yeah. You got to use them. So you're a fan of the turn signal. I'm a fan of the turn signal. So it's not an optional. Unless it doesn't go off. I don't like when I do the turn and it doesn't go off on its own. So I guess I should rephrase that. For those that don't think that it's important, does that bother you? It bothers me. Okay. What do you got, Bill? It bothers me as well. So drain those people that don't use it. Because, you know, like when you get the person that's going to make a right-hand turn, but they don't put it on, so you're sitting there waiting, and they keep slowing down, slowing down.
    31:49
    Speaking to me. And you're like, dude, you just cost me 30 seconds of my life. And it's, you know, whatever. i hate you know wasting time i get it no i drain it too it's it's my pet peeve i don't like it i signal into my driveway on my side street i mean that's how much i take the turn signal seriously and for whatever reason for whatever reason uh it seems like the older i'm getting in the new wave of drivers that are coming in turn signal is not even considered a courtesy anymore it's like a lost artwork like i think that people need to be you know understanding what the turn
    32:22
    signal does it's not for your benefit to see the arrow blinking within your dash it's for everybody around you to know what your intentions are going back into my school days of learning how to drive we have to use the ipde process i was identified p was predict d was decide and e was execute and it's really hard for me to use my ipde process when it's when i can't predict decide or execute what you're doing because you haven't turned your turn signal on so for those that aren't using no turn signals? I'm draining it. I don't mind if somebody... Dude, if you're not around anybody, I don't care.
    32:53
    If I'm not around them, I'm not even going to bother putting it on. That's just me. Oh, I will. If I'm on the highway by myself... Do you know how expensive a turn signal switch is to replace? I'm just telling you. Have you ever had to do that? Yes. I've never had to do that, so I do not. Yeah, I had to do it in my first car. Dude, it's not cheap. I always signal. Always signal. So Bill's not taking the plunge. I could be the one driving in the woods by myself, signaling. When Bill sells his car, he's going to say low turn signal usage. Absolutely. Right.
    33:23
    All right. So drain it or save it. We had sushi. Steve saves it. Myself and Bill drain it. Bill, you're drained it or save it. It's where extended visitors when picking up games. I think we all three drained that one. And the creepiness of the eyes and movement of Rudy and Red and Ted in these pinball machines. I drained it. Steve didn't care. Right. I saved it. Yeah. And Bill, you saved it? Yeah. Because you don't mind either. So I'm the only one that was scared of them. And then finally, myself with the turn signals, I think we all three drain those that take it less seriously.
    33:56
    But you're not as stingy as I would be in policing those that are not using the turn signals. Correct. All right. That's going to wrap up this edition of Drain It or Save It. If you have a Drain It or Save It, you can go ahead and you can email us at specialwhenlitpodcast at gmail.com. And we might use your Drain It or Save It on the air. Most definitely. All right, so another segment that I was hoping to bring to you, not a segment, but a topic. So I was helping a neighbor install some under-cabinet lighting,
    34:26
    and we started talking about weird things that most people hate doing that we like doing, right? On pinball machines? No, no, no, no, no, no. This is not a pinball machine topic. You said under-cabinet lighting, and I went right to the pinball machines. No, this was in his house, in his kitchen. Nice guy. and he's like, dude, I love sitting there mulching my lawn and this kind of stuff. And his dad came over and he was watching us do electric, which I hate when people watch me, but he's like, oh, man, I love doing electrical work. I'm like, electrical work is okay. I'm like, dude, I absolutely love taping drywall because it's such a pain in the ass
    35:00
    that I actually enjoy doing it now. Oh, yeah, once you learn how to do it. Money and taping is the worst thing ever. Not worst. No. I know who to call when I need help. No, like seriously. I'm going to let you have fun over here. I got a great day planned for us. Right. No, but I absolutely used to hate it as well until I actually learned how to do it. And now that I know how to do it, it's like, man, this is actually, you know, it's a rewarding process because as long as you follow the steps and do it right, you know, if you do that right, it's very minimal sanding and you don't get screwed up with drywall dust.
    35:35
    Because that's what everyone hates, right? Yep. But that was one to me that was like. It's an art. It is an art. It's one way to describe it. An art I do not possess. Yeah, right. Who's lighting up there? Jamie Webb. It's been two hours. She's like, I ordered the Ouija board on Amazon. When are you getting home? Red and Ted are in the bed. Actually, she just ordered Jimmy Jones. Red and Ted are in the bed. So, you know, the drywall and taping one is one that I really enjoy that now,
    36:08
    just because of the art behind it. is there a task that either of you enjoy doing that would normally aggravate somebody else, but you find it rewarding and fulfilling when you've done it? Ken, you want to start this one off? Yeah, I mean, I immediately went to pinball because you were talking about under-cabinet lighting, and I was thinking about installing under-cabinet lighting on a game. But one thing that I think a lot of people are either intimidated in doing or would rather pay somebody else to do that I find rewarding when going through is when you get enough confidence to do your first kind of topside teardown of a game.
    36:43
    And that consists of really taking everything off the topside of a play field for usually like a deep cleaning or a restoration. Getting it back together can be tricky depending on how you removed everything and how you documented that. But once it's together and you realize that eight or nine screws that were in there were just extra, I didn't even need those for the game to function properly, it's pretty rewarding to do. And I do enjoy that. The other thing that, and I'll never tell my wife this because I still try to get out of it, but I've actually, I hate this.
    37:16
    And I think a lot of people hate this, but I find it now therapeutic and I've gotten into a rhythm. And that is, that is folding laundry. Oh, I don't know why, because I despised it for so long. But now I've got this system down where I can go work at the Gap and just fold the shit out of everything over there because it's down. It's to the point where, like, I used to purposely just kind of crumble stuff up into balls so that I wasn't asked to do it. But, you know, my wife, she knows better than to sell me short.
    37:47
    But, yeah, so topside teardowns and folding laundry, for whatever reason, I enjoy it. It's satisfying. It relaxes me. Can I jump in there? Yeah, please. If you don't mind me saying this, you have a full house. You have three children. Oh, gosh, yes. So we have two children, and I understand the dynamics of small clothes versus our clothes. Folding a full washer full of our clothes, we're bigger people. Yes. Yeah. Well, there's a lot of things that go through your mind, right? When our hampers are full, you fold them quicker because those clothes take up more capacity.
    38:22
    Yes. Whereas a kid's like the little toddlers that have full hampers, you fold that stuff all day. The one thing that really does aggravate me, just to get back into the laundry here for a second, is that every single piece and article of clothing that my wife and my kids have are all inside out. I'm the only one that takes my clothes off without turning them inside out because I know down the road I've got to fold that stuff, and I try to keep it right side in. Yeah I do the same Yeah it a step in the process Yeah so it just kind of this weird kind of dynamic But it funny that you brought that up So I got one too that I hope my wife never hears
    38:58
    Trust me, she's not listening. She's not. Nobody's listening. Subscribe. So, you know, I work from home. And occasionally I'll grab the, well, we got the new Dyson wire-free vacuum. Ah, nice. But I kind of secretly enjoy vacuuming. I like doing the little lines in the carpet. I like just getting the floors clean. It feels nice and clean in the house. I secretly enjoy vacuuming. It's out there. Hey, world. I get it.
    39:29
    Do you guys enjoy vacuuming? One of the greatest things we ever did was get rid of the carpeting because that would piss me off when somebody would just real lazy do a couple of real nice lines, and then the rest of it was all just crap thrown together like lines here, lines there. Designs. Like, son of a... Yeah, like a lawn, dude. Right? Okay, so this kind of segues... What happened to us? This segues into my other... What happened to us? I like mowing my yard. I do, too. I really... Oh, my gosh.
    39:59
    I like doing laundry. Unless it's like three times a week, and it's like 100 degrees out, I get a little annoyed. But I mowed for the first time last week, and I loved it. mowing the lawn is like my poor man's substitution of golfing it's like it's like i know i'm not getting out for five hours to golf but i'll put an hour 30 minutes in yeah i don't like i don't like any of the yard work pulling weed sucks like mulching sucks i don't like doing any of that on the yard so i'm actually in facebook groups it's or one group is called stripe life so i've really
    40:33
    gotten into i got the riding mower i'm really into like the stripes the designs i can do the diamonds patterns dude and if i mess one up i'm like i'm pissed that's amazing um yeah you do the same pattern uh every mo you you literally follow the same tracks every mo and that just beautiful pops man i always thought that you wanted to reverse that so that you're you didn't train the lawn to go one way you want to train the lawn that's how you get the lines see i because i've got a 30 inch wide like but i'll have something that drags behind to kind of
    41:05
    Oh, so you're pressing the grass down. That gives you good stripes. But this is interesting because these are all things we're not supposed to like, and they're all our guilty pleasures. But there's a double down on this too, though. So, Steve, for you, you honestly enjoy it because of the lines and everything else, and you've got a kick-ass mower. Let me just say that right off the bat. So you've got a riding mower, Steve. Do you have a riding mower, Bill? No, no, no, no, no. I have a riding mower. He has the Bentley of mowers, though. He's got a zero turn. And I think the zero turn really helps with the lines.
    41:36
    You've got a huge lot. Yeah, I've got a little over an acre and then a 60-inch mower. Right. With a diesel engine. Diesel, baby. Yeah. Dude, you could run that thing on vegetable oil. Dude, that gas lasts a long time. Oh, I'm sure it does, dude. So I've got a 48-inch John Deere, right? And because of my lawn, I have to mow it the same way every time. So you've got a riding mower. Yes. So I'm the only one that's pushing my mower. Yes. You've got like the Cadillac of the push mowers, too. They don't get any bigger than your push mower.
    42:06
    All right. So in the 30, though, the only thing, because I looked at a 30, the bag is twice as wide. Is it a painted, do you bag? I don't bag. I bag like the first one of the year because the grass is a little bit longer, but I'm very good at keeping it where I'm just kind of mulching all the time. Okay. Yeah. Because the 30 inch, I looked at one of those when I originally was like screwing around looking at mowers, and I'm like, that's a big ass bag. So if you had to dump that and you weren't proficient, dude, that would suck. So on mine, I bag it, and I've got two giant bags that hang off the back, which is nice because you don't have to stop and whatever.
    42:41
    But at the end of the run, you're dumping two bags, and that part sucks. Why has that not, like, advanced as far as how to dump clippings into a garbage can or bag? It's like the bag is almost smaller than the bag that you're dumping from, and it gets all over the place. Why is there not an easier way to do this? It doesn't bother me because... I'd be more encouraged to bag if it wasn't just such a show all the time, getting clippings all over the place. I'm not bagging an acre. Yeah, no, I don't blame you. Literally, you got a... Controlled burn for you. Yeah, I do.
    43:11
    Yeah. Well, for me, I do the first half of the bag, I just throw in the bag, just handfuls. After that, you can dump it where it doesn't just go all over. And the other positive, too, is having kids. I don't know if you notice this, but once a week, it's your quiet time to put on some music and leave the F alone. And honestly, I think that's where a lot of people consume podcasts. It's driving to and from work, riding the train, cutting the grass. I'm always listening to a podcast. I used to rock out to music, but I'm like, you know what? I can get some educational information here.
    43:44
    I need to be doing that more for sure. Hitting the grass. I need to be doing that. Because I just cruise. And I'll tell you what. There's nothing more satisfying than the smell of a freshly cut grass and at the end grabbing a drink and sitting down on your lawn chair and just kind of overlooking your – I'm always like, hey, Lori, come check out these sweet lines. Yeah, that's awesome. From the second story of the house. Like, oh, man. All right. So Steve is kind of – I'll fly the drone around. I'm really not – He's getting aerial footage. I've taken pictures of my grasslands.
    44:14
    Sure. That's pretty – Oh, yeah. I get it. Stripe life, baby. I like the segment, Bill. That's a good segment, Bill. It is a good segment. But what was the name of the segment? Things most people hate that you enjoy. Guilty pleasures? We've got to come up. Yeah. Guilty pleasures. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. That could be a segment. I still got a couple more, but we can save those for another time. I would agree with you. So just chill. Yeah. I was thinking, so look, a lot of the content creators right now, there's a buzz about
    44:47
    patreon right so patreon is like a way that you can support a content creator or whatever we had we had patreon and look this is going to be just a couple minutes this is not going to be a commercial about why we would like for you to be part of our patreon but we're just going to briefly go on this and uh we had patreon open before like three or four episodes before we ended special one lit yes um and then it was just there were things that happened really quick which is why we put the the uh the podcast on hiatus so we're not unfamiliar to patreon we're not pioneers of Patreon by any means because
    45:19
    Patreon's been around for a long time. But I think in the pinball content creator space we were the first some of the first people that were using Patreon for allowing people that wanted to add support. We did reactivate Patreon so if you're interested in supporting the show, look, we're not looking to get rich and buy extravagant things with the Patreon support. The Patreon support legitimately just goes back into not even so much compensating us for our time, but just kind of like general support stuff like there's hosting fees uh that we do like to upgrade equipment
    45:52
    really want to kind of get back into merch um we've had a pretty cool and popular uh t-shirt design that was done by brian holderman last time with the tiki pinball girl we do want to do another special one lit shirt and uh it's just kind of like more fun things i'm not looking to retire off the patreon support we're not looking to have more patrons than anybody else or or compete on that level but i mean we do want to have it out there for those that want to And there are certain consumable items that we have to buy occasionally. Chords don't last forever. Yeah, for sure. This one's bad right now.
    46:23
    Yeah, you got a little popping going over there. I do. And it's not that we can't afford these things, but it's just like this is just something that we do as a creative outlet. And it would be fun to just be able to expense those off with support. So, again, it's not like the show is going to get worse. If you don't support us, it will be maintained and improve if you're able to do so. So to give you an idea how this works, and I just want to try to wrap this up in a two-minute thing. If you are not familiar with how this works, you can go to Patreon. It's P-A-T-R-E-O-N.com slash specialwindletpodcast.
    46:55
    If you're listening to this podcast now, I'm sure that I put the link in the show notes. You can just kind of click on it. And there's different tiers, okay? The tiers start at $5. There's a $5 a month, a $7 a month, a $10 a month, a $25 a month, a $50 a month, and a $75 a month. I think most people that want to just kind of jump in and just kind of buy us a beer, so to speak, to support the show, you're looking at the $5 tier. And that $5 tier kind of gives you access to our private Discord channel. So if you want to chat with other patrons of the podcast, supporters, myself, Bill, and BD, you can do that for $5 a month.
    47:30
    And then you're supporting the show. That's great. Thank you very much. If you want to go $7 a month, that's where we do have bonus audio content. We had put this up a couple months ago as options. We didn't really talk about the Patreon just because we didn't. We wanted to get into a rhythm before we started discussing support for the show. But the bonus audio content, essentially, we have so many side conversations that happen within the podcast. It's ridiculous. That some of it's really entertaining. Some of it's hilarious.
    48:02
    but some of it just doesn't make it into the show for the flow of the show for whatever reason. So we pull all that stuff out. You know, it's, it's not, we're not withholding anything from you. And in fact, the bonus content that you're receiving was never part of the podcast at all. Anyways, it was just something that maybe it was a discussion pre-show or during the show that was off topic. Or when we wrapped up, we'd like to keep the mics going just to kind of get a post wrap up for ourselves. And those conversations get interesting. So, you know, you're going to kind of get access to that for every single episode.
    48:34
    If you go to tier three, it's $10 a month. This is where we're going to offer kind of live access, where we're going to set up some type of a Zoom or a group meeting if you want to kind of hang out with us. I think this will probably end up happening after we record our podcasts on Wednesdays. Roughly once a month, maybe twice, depending on how the month falls. Yeah, yeah. We'll open that up to where, you know, for like an hour, everybody can just kind of come hang out and do their all thing. And subsequently, every time you support a tier, you get every tier that's underneath that tier as well.
    49:05
    The next tier is $25 a month. And at that point, if you want to help us shape an episode, we'll kind of bring you in to do so. You get creative input regarding the discussion topics, the drain it or save it suggestions, retro roundup. You get to pick kind of the month and date for that. And if you want, you know, for that episode, jump on with us at the end for five minutes and kind of join the crew and discuss your vision for that show. I think that'd be kind of fun. If you don't want to do it, I get it. Not a big deal. The last tier we have is $50 a month. It's the Big Daddy Wizard mode. You're going to get everything from the prior tiers and Patreon.
    49:37
    The other thing we're going to offer is this. We'll have some type of disclaimer that we'll kind of set up here shortly so that you're not being taken advantage of and vice versa. But essentially, any merch or add-ons that we offer for sale, if you're a $50 Patreon member for a minimum of three months, you are going to receive anything that we've ever offered. So if we have shirts or coasters or anything that comes out, you're going to get all the prior, all the previous tier benefits, but we're also going to send you all that stuff for free.
    50:13
    And again, that's going to be domestic. I apologize for the supporters that are outside of the U.S. It just gets really kind of complicated and expensive to ship outside of the country. If you still would like to take advantage of that tier and you wanted to work something out where you wanted to send us a prepaid label for stuff, happy to do that. I just don't want to honestly be on the hook for trying to figure out customs and trying to figure out how to get something overseas. It just kind of gets weird. So, again, that's our humble ask. If you get a chance, you can go to patreon.com slash specialwindlitpodcast,
    50:44
    or you can go to patreon.com and just type in specialwindlitpodcast. In there, you can kind of visit all the tiers. Every little bit of support helps, but again, certainly not expected. On that note, I think that's a great Episode 93 wrap-up right there. I don't know how you guys feel. That was a fun one. Yeah, it was kind of a little bit all over the place, which is fun. And if you want to contact the show again, you can hit us at specialwindlitpodcast at gmail.com. You can find us on Facebook, Special Winlet Podcast, Instagram, Special Winlet Pinball, Twitter. What's the Twitter feed, Steve?
    51:16
    How about that Twitter log in? We'll figure it out. Who cares about Twitter? I don't know what's going on with Twitter. Wait, it's not even Twitter anymore. Patreon, we just talked about. Patreon.com slash Special Winlet Podcast. And, hey, do us a favor. Interact with the show. Get active on the Facebook page. Get active on the socials. If you want to have a little bit more input on the show, go ahead and give us that email. Not a big deal. Happy to have you for Bill Webb and Steve Beattie. I am 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.