Sleepy

[Sleepy's Sister]

I have been lurking on this forum for a few months now, and I've seen the posts that you have made expressing your concern for "Sleepy." I am Sleepy's sister. I debated whether I should join the forum to let you know about his condition, because I wasn't certain that Sleepy would feel comfortable with this, but decided today, after seeing Ike's post, that responding is the right thing to do. I wanted to be certain that you knew that no one on this forum is responsible for Sleepy's absence.

Sleepy began losing his eyesight to cataracts about four months ago. Using the computer became increasingly more difficult for him, and we talked about getting him a computer that uses text to speech software. He is almost totally blind now. About three months ago, he developed a chronic cough and had problems with wheezing, so he went to the doctor to have a chest x-ray. The doctor told him that the x-ray showed that he had emphysema, and that he should schedule a CT scan of his chest. Two weeks ago, he called me, and he could barely breathe. Our brother, who lives nearby, drove him to the hospital where they did a series of tests and discovered that he has an aggressive form of cancer in his lungs and pancreas. He is in very bad shape. As you would imagine, he is devastated by this news.

Thank you for all of the kindness and friendship that you have shown Sleepy through the years. This forum means a lot to him.

 

[Tii]

I'm am very sorry to hear this news and quite speechless to say
the least. He's been a very good friend over the years! Please
tell him Tim (Tii) is with him in spirit always!! God Bless him
and you and your family, AMEN....

 

[Shooby Doo]

That's really sad to hear. I always enjoyed reading Sleepy's LA anecdotes and thoughts. He's a truly unique and interesting individual.

 

[JonPurpleHaze]

I am saddened to hear about this and thought that health could be the reason we haven't heard from sleepy. I also sent him a private message and he always replies but this time he didn't.

Thank You for informing us.
Jon

 

[LeeVanCleef]

Thank you for the information. I can't tell you how dear to our hearts your brother is. I just... I wish him peace. He is so owed at least that much.

 

[pinballdaveh]

I too am saddened to hear this news. I always enjoy reading his posts. His knowledge of the entertainment and music industries makes for enjoyable reading. I wish that through you, his loving sister his voice can still be heard until god calls him home.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

thanks to GS gregg for the heads-up about this. i am terribly sorry to hear this news.

arne is a total original, who's been with our scene going back 15+ years or so. he is unique to my mind in being someone who understands so very much of VB script and the underlying code of the VP project, yet seemingly only wants to help other people on their tables, and has never been one of us ego-pumpers enamored of our faces in the mirror. *hand shakily raised on my part*

sleepy, you slacker!

anyway, thank you for the update, arne's sister. if he cares to chat, feel free to message me his number.

 

[elton]

Damn bad news.

A stalwart of the VP scene .... so sad

 

[rascal]

I'm sorry to hear about Sleepy's condition. Sleepy is a great long time member of the VP scene. Please wish him well from me.

 

[GSGregg]

We can't have this thread falling off the edge just yet, so let's take Sleepy's Sister "back to her old home" (or one of them, at least).

My Life On the Farm in '64 - Pinball Nirvana Forums


P.S. I'm waiting for a return email from the Real Player support folks, trying to prod my XP computer into ripping YouTube videos into MP3s that will play without needing any internet connection.

If anyone has beat me to it, stop me before I rupture something! :D

Gregg

 

[Coil_Smoke]

That's Rubbing The Brain Cells Together

We can't have this thread falling off the edge just yet, so let's take Sleepy's Sister "back to her old home" (or one of them, at least).

My Life On the Farm in '64 - Pinball Nirvana Forums


P.S. I'm waiting for a return email from the Real Player support folks, trying to prod my XP computer into ripping YouTube videos into MP3s that will play without needing any internet connection.

If anyone has beat me to it, stop me before I rupture something! :D

Gregg

That's the thread I was hopping to find around here. It was such a great slice of life and history. I wanted more and figured there was plenty. I thought...

Hey sleepy maybe you could work up a Wikipedia page > "Willow Road Dairy" in Pennsylvania.....C_S

 

[Sleepy's Sister]

Reading Arne's posts about our step-granddad's Willow Road Dairy, and seeing the pictures, brought back so many memories. One night in 1962, when I was 5 years old, after the family had all gone to bed, my brother Arne convinced me to sneak back downstairs to our living room, in the old wooden farm house that we lived in on the edge of the dairy farm, to watch "The Brides of Dracula" on our "big screen" 15" black and white television set. Arne loved scary movies, but I was easily frightened by them. When the movie was over, around midnight, we snuck back upstairs to our bedrooms. Keep in mind that our farm house was probably 100 years old, built before central heating, so each bedroom had it's own fireplace. The room was dark, and as I climbed into my bed, I caught a glimpse of a bat hanging from the door frame. Obviously, the bat had gotten in through the chimney in my room. I screamed bloody murder, and our dad came running, wildly swinging a broom to chase the would be vampire out of our house. I had nightmares for weeks after that experience, and I never let Arne talk me into watching late night horror flicks ever again.

The Brides of Dracula Trailer (1960) - YouTube


Our step-granddad used to deliver chocolate milk, along with regular milk, on his dairy routes, and would include small packages of marshmallows for hot chocolate. Arne and I used to love to sneak onto his milk truck and pilfer those marshmallows when he wasn't looking.

The bulls would often get through the barbed wire electric fence that separated our house from the dairy. I was grateful for the large walnut tree in the front yard that we could hide behind or climb if we had enough time. Those bulls look a lot bigger up close!

Arne loved the way fireflies magically lit up the night skies in Pennsylvania. We used to catch them in jars that we kept on our nightstands to light up our rooms at night. On one of our trips back to Pennsylvania, Arne caught a dozen or so that he hoped to take back to California to start a west coast population, but they did not survive the plane trip.

Arne never wrote the Willow Road Dairy entry for Wikipedia, because he was afraid the step family would be upset. I know he would have written a wonderful submission that would have been filled with beautiful imagery.

 

[Sleepy's Sister]

So, I've been poking around the "Arcade" section of Pinball Nirvana, and have noticed that Sleepy had quite a few high scores on the games. I played a few, and where Sleepy would score 18,000, I would score 150. :D


I admit that I don't know much about pinball. Are the games in the arcade virtual representations of vintage games, and did Sleepy help create any of these?

 

[Sleepy's Sister]

Pictures from the farm...

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

yo gregg,
got your message; practice has been kicking my arse lately; i'll get to it.

the stuff you asked about-- getting sleepy's media converted to digital for his sister and family is simple stuff. you can start by googling, but i'll fill in the blanks as needed.


@SS / kathy,
i'm seeing some really cool pics there at a glance; but yeah, arne was indeed the arcade king around here. i tried going up against him a couple times and got demolished each and every time. for a while that kind of pissed me off as one of the former gaming kings of shivasite (older pinball site), but eventually i learned to stop worrying about what a bomb sleepy was upon gaming / reflex / puzzle-solving stuff.

 

[GSGregg]

I never let Arne talk me into watching late night horror flicks ever again.

Bill may have been right after all;

Sometimes older brothers suck

Arne loved the way fireflies magically lit up the night skies in Pennsylvania. We used to catch them in jars that we kept on our nightstands to light up our rooms at night. On one of our trips back to Pennsylvania, Arne caught a dozen or so that he hoped to take back to California to start a west coast population, but they did not survive the plane trip.

When our family drove back for summer vacations at my mom's childhood home in Weatherford, TX, my sister and I had a similar affinity...for 'horny toads', and we'd abduct a few and bring them home in a shoebox. In spite of a large back yard (92 x 100+ ft) full of ants to chew on, they'd last maybe a week and croak on us. So much for exotic pets.

So, I've been poking around the "Arcade" section of Pinball Nirvana, and have noticed that Sleepy had quite a few high scores on the games. I played a few, and where Sleepy would score 18,000, I would score 150. :D Are the games in the arcade virtual representations of vintage games, and did Sleepy help create any of these?

As far as I know, they are just cobbled together as a means of getting your employer pissed at you while you're supposed to be working. JonPurpleHaze is probably the authority regarding what they are, where they came from, etc. You may have noticed some very erratic ball behavior in some of them, and to a degree that just isn't acceptable in recreated tables (Future Pinball opinions notwithstanding ).

Try Festival Pinball (middle 2nd row); after trying to hit things that scored, I hit a spell of kneejerk reflexive shots that went up the middle and, I thought, didn't hit anything valuable, but when I looked at my score, the numbers were UP---so, I tried a few games of those kneejerk shots, and got 4 Million plus and the high score. Applying a kneejerk philosophy to a recreation would be pointless.....

The PN Arcade contains quite the database; hit 'show High Scores' to the left of each game's thumbnail and get the name, highest score, and playdate of every player who ever lived (well, not really...)
_________________________________________________________

The only recreation I'm aware of Arne doing is a 1977 machine by Bally, called Mata Hari. He released it in January of '04, and it's in the '70s section of downloads at IRPinball.org, Pinball Nirvana's 'sister' site(?)

If you have Arne's computer, maybe he still has it in Visual Pinball > Tables; if not, there's a whole phalanx of experts here who can get you up and running VP.

Gregg

 

[GSGregg]

Kathy;

I once posted (#485) in Game Reports; sleepy replied and began an 18-post conversation that may be the one that got us acquainted

http://www.pinballnirvana.com/forums/showthread.php?p=90359&highlight=beer+league+pinball#post90359

Strange; nobody else has posted a Game Report since. I guess we burned the topic out.....

 

[GSGregg]

P.S. I'm waiting for a return email from the Real Player support folks, trying to prod my XP computer into ripping YouTube videos into MP3s that will play without needing any internet connection.

If anyone has beat me to it, stop me before I rupture something! :D
Gregg

No help from RealPlayer, as they elected not to support XP after "re-evaluating market trends", so I hit the support 'blog' and found a reference to downloading with Firefox (see? I TOLD you I was pretty new to computers) and downloaded Video DownloadHelper 6.1.0.

Hours later, I'm still trying this and that, and the files that seemingly erased before I replayed them turned up in the VDH library the existence of which I was unaware. Now let's see if I can get them here in playing form.....

Well, the audio (MP3) is here, but the full video (MP4) is not a valid file extension for attachment. Next up: The Albadukes, I hope.

 

[JonPurpleHaze]

I just added the .mp4 extension to the forums, I have used Video Download extensions for Firefox with Youtube in the past, the last one I tried is Download Youtube Videos as mp4:

https://github.com/gantt/downloadyoutube
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/download-youtube/?src=search

In this post I'm going to test uploading Reflections of My Life that came from youtube with the extension I mentioned. I don't know if I can get them embedded, might just show up as attachments.

About the Arcade, it started over 10 years ago with different software and grew when we converted to vBulletin, after we upgraded in January I proposed to reset the high scores (over 5,000 games) because they go way back but I think sleepy was against that idea so we never did, he was very good with a bunch of games.

 

[JonPurpleHaze]

Forgot to mention that in the other thread, I posted a link to a single post in a thread that also contains firefly stuff from sleepy:

When I was young..

 

[LeeVanCleef]

Google is your friend!

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=mp3 from youtube

 

[Sleepy's Sister]

GS - Horny Toads are definitely interesting creatures. When we lived in West Texas, my 3 year old son used to call them little dinosaurs. I can understand your fascination with them.

Thanks for ripping Reflections of My Life. I've always wondered how to convert YouTube videos to mp3's. I usually get my music on itunes, but sometimes you can't find an artist there, such as Dean Ford or the Albadukes.

JPH - I understand why Sleepy didn't want the scores reset, since he owned so many of the high scores. He set the bar pretty high on some of these games, much to the frustration of many players, I'm sure. I remember once telling Sleepy about a pinball arcade in Pasadena that would let you play an hour for $10. Sleepy said that it probably wasn't cost effective for him, since he was used to playing hours on a quarter. :) $10 would be a bargain for someone who plays as poorly as me.

 

[JonPurpleHaze]

Google is your friend!

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=mp3 from youtube

Yeah, it looks like I misunderstood what the problem was with mp3's vs. mp4's.
Another test for a firefox extension called Youtube mp3:
https://addons.mozilla.org/En-us/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3/

The Hollies - He Ain't Heavy He's My Brother
(mp3 converted from youtube with the above extension in Firefox)

 

[JonPurpleHaze]

We could put together a mp3 playlist about this and I tried when it was posted but got stuck on #1 American Tune - Simon and Garfunkel (with usenet) but just converted the youtube version instead, there are better files out there but it's a start.

In case anyone is interested, I took your suggestions for music for Arne's visitation, and compiled this list:

1. American Tune - Simon and Garfunkel
2. I'd Love to Change the World - Ten Years After
3. Landslide - Fleetwood Mac
4. Go Rest High Upon that Mountain - Vince Gill
5. Angel - Sarah Maclaclan
6. Tears in Heaven - Eric Clapton
7. The Last Song - Brian Wilson
8. Knockin' on Heaven's Door - Bob Dylan
9. Somewhere Over the Rainbow - Israel Kamakawiwo-ole
10. Amazing Grace - Aaron Neville
11. In My Life - The Beatles
12. He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother - The Hollies
13. Life Without You - Stevie Ray Vaughan
14. Four Strong Winds - Neil Young
15. From Where You Are - Lifehouse
16. Ain't Wastin' Time No More - The Allman Brothers
17. See You Again - Wiz Khalifa (This selection was a bit random, I know)
18. Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd
19. Keep Me in Your Heart - Warren Zevon
20. Dancing with the Angels - Monk and Neagle
21. One Moment More - Mindy Smith


I hope Arne would be pleased with my selections. I wanted to include the Albadukes, but did not have wifi connection at the funeral home to play YouTube videos. Thank you for all of your suggestions!

I really like the playlist and don't know a few tunes but have seen some of them live and have vinyl on a bunch.



edit: adding new tunes but won't search for Vince Gill, have Sarah McLaughlin on tape, saw Fleetwood Mac several times, I believe the first time was in California about 1978 outdoors with Black Sabbath, Rush and a very drunk Rod Stewart as the headliner, poor Rod was falling around, Black Sabbath and especially Rush saved the concert.

Should have been keeping a log or something, I decided to search for Vince Gill and have added it out of respect for sleepy and his sister, it shouldn't be played last because it still sucks. Have seen a bunch of these bands live but 4 were new to me, saw a bunch of them before they died. About Sarah McLaughlin, have cassettes, about Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys anybody see that movie from last year when Giamatti is screwing with his head? One of my favorite concerts that I ever went to was a Warren Zevon thing in Ohio.
edit:replaced He Ain't Heavy youtube mp3 with a better one..

 

[LeeVanCleef]

Hell, Jon, I was going to help with the uploads but you buzzed right through them!
Arne added a lot of songs to this thread where I posted the Nuggets albums, along with some great stories, as well. I forgot arne was a fan of Herschell Gordon Lewis! Not many people besides he and I would admit to that in public. Kathy, I sure hope you didn't end up watching The Sterile Cuckoo at the drive-in with your brother! If it had been me, I would have started playing with the car-horn until someone took me home!

http://www.pinballnirvana.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13016&highlight=nuggets