Greetings and Welcome to an LGR Thing

I'm back at it again, convention-ing, which is something that is not quite as conventional as a Thrifts episode necessarily, but eh, somewhat of a similar format I've done before. Where I'm just going to go to an event, or a show, or whatever you want to call it, and see what it's like. Touring the place, looking at the stuff that's available and just conveying the overall experience as best I can through video form.

My brother and I went up there to record this, and it was taking place at Elmhurst, Illinois. It's the Vintage Computer Festival Midwest, which is the event. Have I said that yet? I have now. That's what it is, VCFMW. I've been there once before, 2019, and it was awesome, but I just went as a person visiting and didn't have a table or anything. Well, now I do. I got an exhibit of LGR Things. This is the first time doing something like that, so that'll be an experience.

And yeah, let's just dive right into the Vintage Computer Festival Midwest experience in 2021. Okay, so before we get to the actual show floor itself, what exactly is Vintage Computer Festival Midwest 16? Well, as you can see by this delightfully mid-90s Geocities-esque looking website, it is a show that happens in Elmhurst, Illinois and it's been going on for 16 iterations of it. Yeah, 16 is the number of shows, not the year, a little confusing. If you look through the timeline it gets even more confusing cuz 2020 was the 15th show but it was virtual only, not physical, so I don't know why that counts but anyway.

It's been going on for a while and I just started attending in 2019 as a random visitor. Just showing up, seeing what it was like and it was awesome. So I decided to come back this time as a featured person, guest, whatever, hanging out with my own table and an LGR things exhibit. First time I've ever done that so it's pretty exciting but there are a ton of different cool people and awesome devices and bits of computer hardware that gets set up at the show and shown off, traded, sold, whatever.

Which I don't think exactly works the same way at some of the other VCFs around the country. I haven't been to those yet, but VCF Midwest is one that you can do all of that and it's, I think, become one of the largest, if not the largest, of these VCFs at this point in terms of overall visitors which I think was a little over 1,000 or so this year despite the fact that yeah, it was a bit different this time around.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enGreetings and welcometo an LGR Thing,where we are once againgoing conventioning,which is something that isnot quite as conventionalas a Thrifts episode necessarily,but eh, somewhat of a similarformat I've done before.Where I'm just going to begoing to an event, or a show,or whatever you want to callit, and see what it's like.Touring the place, lookin' atthe stuff that's availableand just conveying the overall experienceas best I can through video form.So my brother and I wentup there to record this,and it was taking placeat Elmhurst, Illinois.It's the Vintage ComputerFestival Midwest is the event.Have I said that yet?I have now.That's what it is, VCFMW.I've been there once before, 2019,and it was awesome, but Ijust went as a personvisiting and I didn'thave a table or anything.Well, now I do.I got an exhibit of LGR Things.This is the first timedoing something like that,so that'll be an experience.And yeah, let's just dive right intothe Vintage Computer FestivalMidwest experience in 2021.Okay, so before we get tothe actual show floor itself,what exactly is VintageComputer Festival Midwest 16?Well, as you can see bythis delightfully mid-90sGeocities-esque looking website,it is a show that happensin Elmhurst, Illinoisand it's been goin' onfor 16 iterations of it.Yeah, 16 is the numberof shows, not the year,a little confusing.If you look through the timelineit gets even more confusingcuz 2020 was the 15thshow but it was virtual onlynot physical, so I don't knowwhy that counts but anyway.It's been going on for a whileand I just started attendingin 2019 as a random visitor.Just showin' up, seeing what it was likeand it was awesome.So I decided to come backthis time as a featuredI don't know, person, guest, whatever,hanging out with my own tableand an LGR things exhibit.First time I've ever donethat so it's pretty excitingbut there are a ton ofdifferent cool peopleand awesome devices andbits of computer hardwarethat gets set up atthe show and shown off,traded, sold, whatever.Which I don't thinkexactly works the same wayat some of the other VCFsaround the country.I haven't been to thoseyet, but VCF Midwestis one that you can do allof that and it's, I think,become one of the largest,if not the largest,of these VCFs at this pointin terms of overall visitorswhich I think was a littleover 1,000 or so this yeardespite the fact that yeah,it was a \"masks required\" showby order of the DuPage CountyHealth and the host venue.So everyone had to have theirmasks on all the time insidewhich was fine, I thoughtit worked out very well.And yeah, it happenson a Saturday and Sundaybut my brother Luke and I,who was taken along with meto do pretty much all of thisfootage that you're seeing,just record all that andhelp setting things up,we left on a Thursday to drive up therefrom my area of North Carolinawhich took about 11 hours-ishto make it all the way upto the Chicagoland areaand then west of that over into Elmhurst.And we ended up staying at the Clarion Innwhich is right there connectedto the Waterford Conference Centerwhere the show takes place andthis is one of thoseclassic conference centersthat just hasn't been updated in decades.It's hideous and I mean thatin the best possible way.I think this is actuallykind of a perfect venuefor a vintage computer festival.And yeah, it all takesplace just in this areaand in the hallways surrounding itand it's just gonna be all cleared outand filled up with exhibitors here soon.And yeah, that's all wewere doing on this firstpre-day of the show.Just getting familiarwith the venue itself,saying hi to folks andthen just setting upall of the tables, including mine hereon this eight foot by four foot table,which I promptly coveredwith a woodgrain paneling tableclothbecause those do exist apparently.And I was set up with someother content creator types.Computer Clan right there and 8-bit Guywith Texelec. And yeah,they just shoved all of usweird Youtuber-y people over in a cornerand it's like \"y'know what?Stay there.\"And yeah, after gettingthings generally laid outon the tables, it was allabout testing stuff outand seeing what broke alongthe journey getting here.Because this old stuff, without fail,something goes wrong.And yeah, thankfully for meit was only like three or fourlittle things.Loose cards and connectionsand some driver issuesand something else didn'twork with the sound,but I got it all sortedeventually into the evening.And it was kind of comfortingthat literally everyone elsehere is in the same boat.Just everybody setting up their tables,many of them much larger than mine,and then trying to geteverything functioningas much as possible beforethe doors actually opento the general public in the morning.There's so many things that can go wrongwith stuff this age andthat's just how it goes.I was quite pleasedwith my little LGR tableover in the corner here.I don't know, I've justnever done anything like thisso it was wild seeing this stuffthat I normally just showin videos out in the openfor anybody to come up andcheck out and get their hands onand talk about, or whatever man.And of course, there'salways an item or twothat you could use that you forgot about.And thankfully, this placehas a Micro Center nearbywhich I don't get to go to very often.I just don't have anythingclose by to where I livethat's like this andyeah, they carry all kindsof old cables and adapters andcards and extension thingiesand stuff for computers goingback to the 80s and 90s.Seriously, they have justa little bit of everything.So I picked up a coupleof cables and adaptersand I went over in this section hereand I was like, oh man,actually still have parallel port cardsand Compact Flash adapters and all kindsof little useful things.And I actually ended uppicking up this 5.25-inchdrive bay storage boxbecause why not?Another goofy yetuseful drive bay add-on?Yeah, I can always take one of those.After this, a whole bunchof people ended up goingto Aurelio's Pizza for an eveningexhibitor supper of sorts.I didn't get any footageor photos there, whatever,but it was really good.Got a little sleep overnightand then first thing nextmorning got some breakfastand the show was kickin' off.9:00 AM the first thingyou do when you get hereis just walk inside the entranceand grab yourself a badge.And yeah, this is a freeevent so you don't have to payfor anything if youdon't want to, but yeah.They just request that you get a badgeso that we know you're aperson with a name, I guess.And yeah, that's that.And immediately the energyis starting to rise.The buzz is buzzingand even over at the table,there are already one ortwo people ready to goand start askingquestions about LGR things.But yeah, just got everythingall powered back onand running again.Hopefully it's stillworking since last night.I don't know, hopefullynobody touched it overnight.Who knows?I don't know, usuallypeople are nice about thatbut I dunno, never done anything like thisso I didn't know what to expect.Everything was great thoughand still working, so yeah.Got started manning the LGR Things table.And yeah, this righthere, this is where I wasfor the next two days pretty much.I just about never left hereunless it was for somethingelse I was committed to doing.But my brother was theredoing all kinds of recordingof footage so before wetake a tour of the floor,let's enjoy a little bit of ambiancefrom Vintage Computer Festival Midwest 16.- VCF Midwestradio is back on the air.Welcome, we are officiallyopen for two days of fun.Thank you all for coming.- Oh yeah.These are my people.I have missed this, augh.I don't know about youbut these kind of eventsreally just make me feelalive and connectedto the kind of work that I do.It's so easy to just getcaught up in the routineof troubleshooting andrecording and editingand writing and scripting andemails and everything elsethat comes along with being awhatever I am, I don't know.Retro YouTuber/person/thing.And getting to these kind ofshows, seeing the actual peoplethat watch this stuff andgetting to meet everyoneand see all of theircool things?And just engage in thatenergy, and the hubbub,and the excitement and seeingthings I've never seen beforeor only in photos orcoming across somethingthat I haven't seen in25-30 years or whatever.It's fantastic.And this is just the outer hallway.We haven't even gone inside the main areaof the convention center tolook at all those tables.So yeah, I'm just gonna letsome of this footage play,comment along the way I guessand let's just enjoy the ride.Honestly, I'm seeing a lotof this for the first timeright along you here'cause I was back thereat that table. Which Iwas very happy to do,but I was back there theentire time basically,just meeting a bunch ofy'all and selling merch,signing things, taking hundreds of selfies,and just generally chattingabout whatever, man.Hangin' out.That's exactly why I come to this showand I was more than happy to do that.But just kind of still also wishthat I was able to more freely explore.I got a little bit of timeto explore while I was therebut you know, it's one of those thingswhere it's hard to do that.Yeah, ah man, there wasso much cool stuff hereat the show.There always is, butthis year in particularI was really thrilledto see a wider varietyof objects that I had notseen at the previous one.For instance, this entiretable or really a whole cornerof a few tables,dedicated to UK computers.All kinds of stuff fromSinclair, Acorn, Amstradand so on.A few of these I'd never seen.I'd never seen anArchimedes before in person,I really want to get oneand cover it someday.Ah, and then all these monitors,all these 50Hz PAL monitors, it was neat.Along with a fantasticdisplay just dedicatedto Sinclair Research andSir Clive Sinclair's arrayof legendary machines.Rest in peace sir, he passedaway shortly after this showwhich I found rather poignant.And yeah, it just goes from table to tableof things that you'll recognizebut have been equippedin some way withfantastically cool additions.The whole world of home brew add-onsand user-made productsand boards and expansionsand new chassis and 3D printed things.There was so much of thatthere it was genuinely hardto even pick out certainthings from the crowdbecause every table wasjam packed fullof some interesting productI have been interested inor I've never heard of, most likely.Cuz a lot of thisstuff is for platformsthat I just don't have a tonof intimate familiarity with.I mostly stick to IBM PCs and compatiblesand I'm always thrilledto go to a show like thisand you see the occasional PC but really,my table? At leastin the main convention area,was one of the few thatwas dedicated to PC stuff.Everything else wassome other architecture,some other operating system.A lot of things that were way olderthan I've ever usedbefore to any real degree,or things that I haveused in some other formbut I've never actuallyseen it in this form.Like this delightfullittle Altair 8800 clone.I have a full sized clone of one of thesebut this one was really sharp looking.Nice and small and compact.I didn't know that this was a thingand now I'm really interested.And then just all of the vendor tableswith, say, big box PC games for days,it seemed like.I did stop at a few of these.I meant to pick a few things upbut by the time I had the time to go backand get over there, most of it was gonebut that's no surprise.A lot of the things thatare here, the best stuffends up selling within thefirst two to three hours.By lunch time that first day,a good quarter of theinventory of all the best stuffis long gone and that's just how it isbut there's so much still hangin' aroundthat you're gonna find cool stuffall the way up until theend of the day on Sunday.And the vast majority ofthis, I'm always happy to seeis very fairly priced.A lot of the supposedvalue of all these thingshave shot up, especially overthe past couple of years,in particular, but most folks at the showthey're not here to makean absolute killing.I'm sure some of themdo, but even the thingsthat you know would sellfor a good chunk moreif they were plopped oneBay for a 'Buy It Now' price,yeah, they're usually notpriced that high here.Plus, you don't have to pay for shipping.You don't have to worry about packagingand things getting destroyed.It is especially a fantastic spot to go tofor brittle, old plastic machines.A lot of the Apples andCommodores and thingsthat tend to break a lot during shipmentif they're not wellpackaged, as well as CRTs.Tons and tons of CRTs of all kinds.I saw nice VGA CRT monitorsfor sale all day on each dayfor like $10 apiece.PVMs and BVMs for like $200 something.$200-300 or even less, dependingon what kind of model it is.Obviously, there was somereally, really high dollarthings too, and there is an auctionthat happens at one point.Yeah, that's one way that they recoupsome of the cost of putting on the showsince it's free and whatnot.Not only that, but there'salso the 'Free Table'or tables, this was shotbefore the show fully openedbut once it is going, you just getall of these tables filled with stuffthat people brought and they don't want.Anyway, let's move back tojust walking around a bitand ah man, look at this,a lovely Amdek 310A monitoramber screen I've covered on LGR beforeand it's paired with an IBMPC XT with an LGR case badge.The ones that I had last VCF Midwest.So they must've kept oneand stuck it on there, nice.And yeah, just this entire wing or roomin the conference centerwas one of my favorites.If you look on the map thatthey made up for the show,they refer to it as theBig Iron & Cool Stuff room.It definitely is that.You got all kinds of IBM, VAX,DEC, SGI, Televideo, Entrexand who knows what else.Just old school minis andmicros and peripheralsand expansion interfacesand all kinds of good stuffstuffed into this one room.So much of which, that Iwish that I had more timeto go check out in person ordo a more detailed video on.But ah, let's just take alook at a few of these thingsbecause the more time goeson, for whatever reason,I find myself drawn moreand more to the older,more obscure, more unobtainable nonsensethat was well before my timebut intrigues the crap out of mejust because I don't understandso much of what it doesand it brings me backto that initial sparkof what got me into retrocomputing in the first place.Something about this erathat's way too fun to look at.Like this Digital EquipmentPDP-11, or at leastthe chassis for one, anda few related devicesand peripherals.A fantastic VT100 terminal up there, ah.As well an ADAC Corporation System 1000,I love that \"recalibrate\" label.I didn't know what this was,apparently it's a peripheralextender for the PDP-11.And then right next tothat just the classicLear Siegler terminal ADM-3Arunning the one and onlyColossal Cave Adventure.So cool, man.Always wanted one of these terminals.And then this, I was super happy to see,this is a Topo robot.One of those little servant,personal robot attendantkind of things.You could program it with an Apple II.Kind of similar to the Hero-1 by Heathkitbut yeah, this was its own thingand I've never seen one inperson, it was a little biggerthan I thought.Really wish I could've seen it in actionor at least hear it talk but you know,just awesome to see it.And of course, in the SGI corner here,you had to have FileSystem Navigator runningon at least one of 'em. FSN.Yeah \"it's a Unix system, I know this.\"Lovely 3D interface, and justso many beautiful machinesfrom SGI just hanging out.Every time I see one of theseit's just, you gotta stop and look.They have an amazing auraabout them inside and out.And then in the very back,there was an assortmentof IBM stuff.Unfortunately, I didn't geta lot of footage of thisbut yeah, look at thatamazing display and keyboard.An IBM System/34 or at least part of it,along with some attacheddrives and peripherals.I wish I had more to show.And then this whole area here.I was delighted to seethis Televideo section.So if you don't knowanything about this company,I was actually planning todo an LGR Tech Tales about ityears ago, started ascript, never finished it.But they did these 900-series terminalsthat are just legendary,a bunch of CP/M machines.And they did indeed trytheir hand at PC clonesstarting in 1983 with somepretty ballsy advertisingsaying that this is what it should've beenfrom the beginning in terms of a PC.And yeah, it was just really cool to seeso many of these in one spotwith all their differentdisplays and varying typesof green monochrome.There were just all sortsof different slight huedifferences, it was prettyneat seeing so many of theseCP/M machines or weird PCcompatibles and other stuff,in one spot, hangin' out, being cool.And I don't know what this guy was doing,single step binary programming maybe,but it looked engaging andI hope that he had good luckmaking whatever he wastrying to work, work.Right behind that though,this table or set of tableswas another fantastic standout for me.Just an overwhelming row ofHP machines from way back.Stuff, a lot of it I'dnever seen before in personlike the phenomenal 2100with the 2627A colorgraphics terminal attached.What a beast. And I love thatbrown around the keyboardand the display, reminds meof some of their calculators.And right beside it, this amazing example.A 2647A graphics terminalwith chess playing.Feel like I need a glassof J&B scotch whiskeyto go beside of it.Very much reminds me of 'The Thing,'even though that's not thesame machine, but still.And the HP stuff just continuedwith one incredible lookingexample of a machine orperipheral or add on or somethingafter another, dude, ah.This gigantic 21MXComputer series machine.Something about the way that these lookhave always appealed to me.I would have absolutely noidea what to do with 'embut they look amazing.I mean look at this display!It was so sharp, so crispon this 2645A.Ah, just good stuff.There was even some Honeywellhardware hangin' aroundhere and there, which is always a treatdue to the rarity of it.And this too, thisPanasonic Senior Partner,another early example of anIBM PC-compatible luggablewhich has a thermal printerbuilt into the top of it.So cool.And oh man, this entire back corner, dude.Yeah, spent a little bit over heretalking to the guy running it.Apparently a lot of this wasfeatured on Knight Rider.Yeah man, amazing-lookingEntrex data terminals.Just incredible to look atwith fantastic keyboards.I love all the colors on the keysand just the overall sci-fi design.The first one lookin' a little more '2001,'the second one alittle more 'Star Wars.'It's just phenomenal 70sdesign, in my opinion.Look at this SingerElectronic Perforator hereready to stick some holes in your tape!Wish I could have seen that in action.What a beastly thing.And then some of thetables just down from therereminded me of thriftingin Silicon Valleyin the late 80s, early 90s or something.Just all kinds of gigantic old hardwarerandomly tossed around.Huge hard drive plattersand oscilloscopes.Test equipment, typewriters, vacuum tubes.Even a daggum Intel Intellec MCS8.Just hanging out.I believe all of this was for sale,or at least a good chunkof it seemed to be.More awesome Hewlett Packard stuff.Ah, HP86, yes!Also this lovely thing.We got a DEC PDP 11/70,or a Raspberry Pi-poweredslightly miniaturized version, I believe.It looked amazing, and of courseall the blinkenlights.It's just pure modern art.And I was also happy tosee an increasing numberof late 90s-early 2000smachines mostly from Applewhich kind of makes sensedue to the, I don't know,recognizability and collectability,but just fascinating to seewhat's slowly becoming considered retro.Like original iPods and thoseclear Harmon Kardon speakersand Cubes and yeah.It makes sense,but still weird. Time marches on.And there was also the arcade areawhich wasn't always functioning.A couple of these seem tobe continually breaking downbut yeah, when they were working,it was great to hear themand see them doing their thing.I wish I'd gotten more timeto play a couple of thesebut I didn't.Still. Tempest, MissileCommand, Asteroids, and Mr. Do,can't go wrong.And then back aroundover here to our tablesin the corner.You can see Texelec has an assortmentof wonderful add-ons.They got so much good stuff.I recently covered the 'SnarkBarker' Sound Blaster clonefor Microchannel overat my Blerbs channel,check that out.A lot of good thingsfor sale through Texelecand of course, 8-Bit Guy's games.Commander X16,whatever iteration it is,just hangin' out.And a number of delightfulmachines from The Computer Clan.Yeah, check out Ken'svideos if you haven't.There's a lot of good stuff here.Next Cube that he pickedout at the last show,I believe, as well asthe 20th Anniversary Mac.Always hoping to seeone of these at a showand well, he had the one here this year.There was actually an Apple Isomebody brought earlier too,I totally missed itunfortunately, but yeah,apparently someone actuallybrought an original Apple Iin an armored case forjust part of the dayon one of the days.However, Steve from theYouTube channel Mac 84did get some footageand he was kind enoughto offer it for me to use here.So yeah, look at this thing.Absolutely beautiful.No touching, obviously, and they did notlet it out of theirsight for even a second.Easily the most valuablething at this entire show,only there for a brief period of time.Hopefully I'll get tosee it if they happento bring it again nextyear, if that happens.Anyway, back to ourtables and beside the TAM,there was the Mod Book whichis like an Apple MacBookcrammed into a tablet.Super weird thing, again,check out his video.People loved coming byto mess around with thisand it really made me wish like dang it,I almost brought a coupleof interesting tablet-styletouchscreen old devices forpeople to mess around withbut I ended up not doingit for whatever reason.I'll have to bring some nexttime if I think about it.And yeah, that's kind ofthe general vibe of the showfor a visitor.For me, of course, I wasjust back there in the cornerhanging out with whoevercame by, which was constant.Chatting and hanging outand talking about whatever,signing things, taking selfiesand gettin' some merch soldand playing around with theLGR things that I brought.A ton of fun.Yeah, I had the dot matrixprinter there as wellto print out whatever anybody wantedon Print Shop Deluxe or whatever else.It only jammed like five or six times,which wasless than I thought.And yeah, I also did apanel in there somewherewith other vintage tech YouTubers.- Clint, I have to put youon the spotand ask you as well, is thereany project you've thoughtwas gonna go great and forsome reason it just didn't?- Nope.So that couldn't be further from the truthbut I couldn't resist.Anyway, I did actually try to makesome thoughtful responses as well.Do check out the entire video.I think it was like an hourand a half or something,pretty long but yeah,I thought it was fun.Came together well,people seemed to like it.Sort of a lengthy Q&A session.And well, yeah, that's about it.Overall, for the show, it'sjust really a couple of daysof hangin' out, having funwith other like-minded folks,buying and selling things if you wantor just going and checkin' out stuffthat you may never see again in your life.It's a fantastic show,highly recommend it.I'm glad as many peopleshowed up as they didbut I'm also kind of glad itwasn't too overwhelming either.This was fewer peoplethan last year, or 2019.Makes sense, I know Iheard from a bunch of folksthat said they weren'twilling to make the tripor attend it because ofthe concerns about healthand all of that, which is totally fine,completely understandable.We'll see how it goes next yearbut I'm glad that everythingseemed to go over okaywith the local mask mandates and whatnot.I didn't even get the usual con flu,not even a sniffle, so that was nice.And hey, in the future,if the entire weekendseems like too much foryou, I'd easily recommendeven just the first day of the show.Both days are great, but the second dayis more of the same as thefirst just with a lot less stuffout on the tables, fewerpanels, not as much stuffto buy and sell.Depends on what you're coming for.If you want more relaxed,just kind of like yeah,fartin' around or whatever, the second dayis probably the day to dothat or like the latter halfof the first day becausepeople stay 'til like midnight.So yeah, you get differentaspects of the showdepending on when you're at the showand what you're there to do andwho you're hanging out with.And inevitably, it all just turns intokind of a retro game fest.Even though it's not really a \"gaming show,\"but like, every singlepossible computer therethat could run a game, had games on itor had games that could be loaded onto itand eventually, that'sall anyone was doing.Screwing around playing some games.Including me, I did get to playsome multiplayer Duke 3D and Doomwith some people that came by.Anybody that asked that wanted to play it,I had 'em serial connectedup to play some multiplayerso that was a lot of fun.Haven't done that in anenvironment like thisin ever, I guess?Usually it was just home LAN partiesback in the day for me.And then around 2:30-3:00on Sunday, that was that.The show wasn't entirely overbut a lot of the visitorshave left and a lot ofthe vendors and exhibitorsstart slowly packing up and about as soonas it all gets set up, it's all taken downwhich, I don't know,maybe it even takes longerto take down some ofthis stuff, good grief.Made me tired justwatching these guys pack upsome of those larger machinesfrom the 70s and 80s.I'm glad they brought this, butI'm even more glad it's not my problem.It's stressful enough even just haulingmy little PCs, CRTs and theMIDI Mountain up 700 miles.And also well worth it.Ah, this was such a funtime and a great getawayfor about a week, in my case.And that sums up the VCFMidwest experience in 2021as I experienced it, at least.It was pretty weird having myown exhibitor table at first,I got to admit, but once Igot into the groove of things,it was an awesome time.I learned a lot, tookplenty of notes on thingsI would do differently next time.I would like to return in 2022and also check out some of the otherVintage Computer Festswhen I can, but we'll see.Till then, I just wantto give a huge thanksto everyone who stopped byto say hi while we were thereand it's awesome meetingviewers in person,putting a face to your screen namesand simply chilling in an offline settingwith like-minded computer peopleand non-computer people, really.I talked to a bunch of you that were like,\"I don't even knowanything about this stuff,\"\"I just wanted to hang out.\"And that was great too.Honestly, I probablyhad more conversationsabout non-computer stuff thanI did anything else.Music, movies, cars, TVshows, comics, sneakers,aviation, audio gear andsynthesizers, photography,video making, whatever man.There was even one guy,all we talked aboutwas old telephone systems.So many of these hobbiesintersect in one way or anotherat a show like this andusually some common groundin the Venn diagram ofgeekiness is found before long.Oh, and thanks to y'allwho brought donations too.There were a bunch of thingsdropped off at my tablethat I didn't plan for.I wish I had room for all ofit just take it all back,but yeah, I definitelywent home still with morethan I drove up with.So that was a pleasant surprise.And shoutout to Ken, David,and all of the other YouTubersthat were there.Not even with tables, just hanging around.I wish we'd had more ofa chance to just vibeand talk shop at some pointaway from all the hubbub,but so it goes at busy shows like this.And finally, credit to my brother Lukewho filmed pretty much all ofthe footage that you've seenin this video.This is just one of thoseshows where I can't breathewithout someone recognizing meso recording all the footagemyself was not feasible.So check out his channel as well.He's got his own video aboutthe trip to VCF Midwestplus some of the timewe spent after the showin Chicago proper, whichthat's a whole 'nother part of this.Any time I go up that way,I have to spend some timein the city because it's fantastic.But anyway, yeah. That's that!I hope that you enjoyed this lookat the VCF experience.Let me know in thecomments if you were thereor if you've got any other similar showsyou'd recommend that you've been toor plan to go to or whatever.I'm always down to trysomewhere new in the future.Speaking of which, I've gotmore traditional LGR Thingsin the works.So stay tuned for those videosor check out some of my previous episodeson conventions and retro stuff in general.And as always, thanks for watching!\n"