Hey all! Its been a while since an actual diary entry update, and as a result if I wanted to document everything that's happened to me since the last entry I would be performing an exercise in futility, so instead I'm just gonna focus on my recent trip to Illinois, and my first experience with the Vintage Computer Festival Midwest!
First and foremost, I need to place special emphasis on just how much fun I had. I cannot stress enough how much of a blast VCF Midwest was, and how much I enjoyed my weekend in Illinois, staying with my fiance's dad. Moreover, I also cannot stress enough how worth it the trip was overall. That being said, my first experience of the trip was me flying on an airplane for the first time, and simultaneously, discovering that I fucking hate flying in airplanes. It was miserably hot, I was motion sick the whole time, I was reduced to a sobbing mess as soon as the plane took off due to my extreme fear of heights, and all told I am going to limit my air travel as much as is feasible going forward, as I would have much preferred, and even enjoyed, a roadtrip to Illinois instead.
With that out of the way, good lord was it amazing!!! I got to chat with LGR (I met him first at VCF East, which is far more local for me), and once again he proved to be super cool, and was super fun to talk to (if briefly) about the Sims and the pathway from Sims content to STEM fields in general through his videos, and women in STEM more broadly. I also got bought some stuff I have been wanting for years for really great prices, like a Tandy 102 in fantastic condition, and a Dell gaming laptop from 2017 to replace my gaming PC which is on its last legs (which I got for 60 fucking dollars somehow which blows my mind that A) it was at a VCF at all and B) that it was so cheap, as they go for like 300 dollars at a low end on eBay. Although in fairness, the Tandy 102 was also like, over a hundred dollars less than it generally goes for on eBay in a similar condition as I got it.)
I also got to attend some super interesting talks, like one which went over the process of reviving the old Chuck E. Cheese Arcade Machines that were developed by Atari using reverse engineering, a great introduction and overview of FPGA, and a bunch of others that I could spend this entire diary entry talking about, but instead I'll reduce it down to a central point: I had a blast, and I strongly recommend that anyone reading this with even a passing interest in retro computing to attend if they are able!!! It was some of the most fun I've had at a festival, and I can't wait to go again next year!!!
Beyond VCF, it was also nice to see Isaac's dad again (my fiance's name is Isaac). He had to move back to Illinois, which is where Isaac grew up, because of work obligations to the company he had previously been working remotely for in Maryland (where me and Isaac still live). So, I haven't seen as much of him as I had when he was living like 30 minutes away, and I really did miss hanging out with him and "nerding" as he describes it. He is super cool, and I am very lucky that he's gonna be my father in-law once me and Isaac get married next year, as I got super lucky with having not only sane in-laws, but ones who I genuinely like spending time with. It was also very cool to stay in his new house, which is absolutely gorgeous, and right on the water!! Its also convenient because it means when me and Isaac vacation in Illinois for G-Fest or general Chicago fun, we have a place we can stay for free rather than in a hotel, which I am very happy about!!!
All that said, I am very glad to be home. I missed my dog Kody, and my cat Phoebe, and my own backyard, and my computers and my Godzilla toys, along with my routine. Something I missed more than I expected was my main keyboard which I've been dailying since I built it (its a custom keychron Q2 with Akko Creamy Blue V2 switches, and its so fucking good), as I forgot just how good it is after using only my laptop keyboard over the weekend for school and work in between fun vacation tasks (and for playing World of Warcraft lmao).
Of course this joy of being back could not be uninterrupted by problems, as some technical error caused literally everyone in my grad school who made use of financial aid to have all their classes dropped, which has consumed me for the last 2 days trying to get my classes back reinstated, and I still haven't had my financial aid reinstated even after being re-enrolled in my classes, so that was fun. I have no idea how this could have happened, but a classmate of mine said she was going to the registrars office in person to find out exactly what happened, so I expect I'll hear back next class hopefully. It has been hectic, and I just wanna make sure that my financial aid still goes into effect, because I can't afford my degree without it, and would have to just take the L for the cost of this semester thus far, which would suck ass. But as Vladimir says in my favorite play Waiting for Godot, "Nothing to be done" (Beckett, 1953).
Anyhow, hope all of you guys are doing well, and that life is not too rough. Much love from Lexi <3
Here's a quick pic of my Tandy 102 so you can all see how pretty he is :D
