Hello people! :)

[iKarith]

Hi everyone!

 

I'm not exactly new to the Apple //, but I'm fairly new to using AtariAge. I'm iKarith, Joseph Carter in some circles, and I'm a legally blind albino who sunburns in < 5 minutes in Portland, Oregon in January as a result of the cancer drug I take which made it so I didn't die of terminal melanoma. ...I've had an interesting history.

 

Those of you who know me from Facebook Apple // groups know I'm going to KansasFest this year, thanks to the kindness of some truly awesome folks, which means I'll be actually meeting IvanX with whom I've been collaborating to improve Raspple II, A2SERVER, A2CLOUD, etc. and make them all easier for the community to develop and maintain, as well as some 60+ of you guys.

 

As you can imagine, I basically grew up with an Apple //, usually a //e with an Echo. CRT monitors give me nasty headaches after awhile because I have to get so close to them to see anything, so the Apple was an obvious choice since everything from AppleWorks to Eamon could be trivially modified to talk.

 

The IIgs and the platinum //e have a special place in my heart because of specific things growing up, but the common Apple //e was the backbone of my childhood, despite me never owning one growing up.

 

I love vintage technology, particularly computers. I'm not really a collector, though at this point I have a small collection that comprises a IIgs and some parts, a TI-99/4A I rescued from a Goodwill before it was abused, and a C64. I feel it kind of an obligation to make sure that these things continue to do cool things for the sake of doing cool things. But my first love always will be the Apple // series because I owe everything I've ever done or will ever do to having one around somewhere.

[Osgeld]

welcome aboard, and gee I wish our goodwill's had anything computer related, all gets sent downtown, the beige boxes cost an arm and a leg, anything interesting gets sent to auction

[iKarith]

Mine rarely has anything interesting. It just had this one little TI, one time.

[desiv]

Welcome!!

More PNW in the house!!!

(Live in Lincoln City and work in Salem)

 

Great story.. I didn't start with the Apple, but it was the first home computer I got to play with. Just not mine..

A friend of mine had an Apple ][+ and I got to play it a bit..

 

When I finally got a computer, it was a Vic-20, and I went the Commodore route from there..

 

But I always had a soft spot for the Apple 8-bits (and I liked the IIgs; awesome sound chip!).

 

Now I have an Apple //c and a IIe (and a couple of Macs, tho the Classic is the only one hooked up)..

 

Love the Apple 8-bits still!!!

 

Enjoy KFest!!! The pics I've seen always look fun!!!

 

desiv

[iKarith]

Cool, always looking for more people who are basically local. Kinda contemplating trying to find Portland people and get together in say the community room in my fiancee's building for a quick get-together and trial balloon for a mini-KFest for the region in the fall. Folks have expressed interest in a West-coast thing from as far away as Seattle and San Diego, but if we can't get Portlandia folks to show up, it'll be a bit tougher to get a larger group.

 

The issue is that I know half of the Portland folks who might come to such things are pretty busy and have a hard time committing to regular events, so I don't think I could talk them into a Portland A2UG. We do have the retrocomputing group in Canby (I can't get there this month as I don't drive and haven't even tried to find people who are going yet) and we have the Commodore 64 folks the day before out in Beaverton. Is there really room for an A2UG? I'd go, but I have no life and can really only go out at night anyway.

 

Maybe in the future. For now, trying to get people local together once, and then organizing something a little more ... more in the fall.