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Monday, August 12, 2024

[22] Procastination is the Thief of Time

 Remember me?  I'm the guy that used to write occasional blog entries.

Each time I plan on it, I get sidetracked and put it off.  And then put it off again.  "I'll do it tomorrow."

So today, let me get back to an entry I intended to write in April.  It was after I took my yearly trip to Wall, New Jersey, to check out the annual VCF East Festival, run by the Vintage Computer Federation (formerly MARCH, or Mid-Atlantic Retro Computing Hobbyists)

Before I get there, though, I need to eat.


It's become somewhat a tradition of mine to start the morning there with some Cannoli Pancakes from the Sand Dollar Pancake House.  Along with a bottomless coffee.  Because breakfast IS the most important meal of the day.

First, the facility.  The VCF has a museum that, over the years, has grown into a large section of an abandoned barracks at a decommissioned army base.  Camp Evans was a major base in the development of technology such as radar, and as such, the main road it faces was long ago renamed Marconi Road.  A collection of smaller museums has been developed there, under the banner of InfoAge, that are mostly science-related.  While my visit was primarily to the Computer History Museum run by VCF, I have a soft spot for the Military Technology Museum of New Jersey.


Mostly cars and tanks you'd see in M*A*S*H or an Indiana Jones feature, but there's a lot of random, one-off production models to be found also.

But the main focus of my visit was the museum run by VCF, to see what was new.

The VCF museum has many systems that range from the very old...

...to the more recent.

And, of course, the show.  Some random shots:






And there's always a marketplace for those who wish to buy/sell/trade.  For those who know me as a reviewer at the TAG blog, I almost found some new games to play:


Back to the boardwalk at the end of the day, and a visit to another important destination.



How about a museum dedicated to 80 years or so of pinball machines (and a few other notables) which you can play unlimited, by the hour?

And then, the drive home.  All this is just about 2 hours from my house, so it's not an imposition.  (Anyone in the area, my lunch choice is a Korean-fusion taco place nearby...)