If you went to VCF West or VCF SoCal recently (in the last year) you might have spotted these keytags I've had out. I didn't expect them to become so popular (I ran out before day one was over both VCFs) so I'm hoping to have a ton more printed out this time around (and I'm thankful to compgeke for both giving me the original files and giving me permission to make 3D printed versions of this).
Except I need to make some tweaks because unfortunately the 0.2mm nozzle of my Bambu P2S struggles with the thin font used for "Computer Shit". With the original fonts/design files it can be tweaked, and I'm prototyping ones that'll hopefully print better + are a bit smaller to save on filament.
I did (as I mention before) also get a P2S. Would love to get that printing out keytags as well but it lacks the 0.2mm nozzle (which are thankfully easy to acquire and install) and an AMS for color switching. I hope to be able to swing one before VCF West this year because yeah, each batch of these keytags is a 10h print. Ouch. And I anticipate these are going to fly off the table. AND I've gotta print BlueSCSI tags too for someone else.
This has nothing to do with tech, but considering this DOES have something to do with my VCF tables (at West for the last two years, and SoCal this year)...yeah I'll talk about it here.
Probably like a handful of people may wonder what the story is behind the sea slug stuffies that usually sit on my table. Usually the star of the show is Rootie (the purple-ish one with the cowboy hat) but the one who started it all? Chicken Sandwich.
It's 2024. We just got done dealing with some of the worst housing-related fun stuff we'd ever dealt with, just got done upending our pad and effectively moving out and back in again. As part of this we decided hey, let's wander around places like Five Below and look for fun decor since, well, the place is looking kinda bare, now.
The girlfriend spotted this sea slug stuffie sitting on one of those stuffie carousels that you see sometime in stores, and made a note to come back and grab it when she got paid again. The time came, thankfully it was still there (along with several friends) and she grabbed it and brought it out to the car.
In the car, we're both looking at it, remarking at how cute it is, and she's like: "We need a name for it."
I look it over. Noticing its oblong shape and the little sparkly yellow ruffle that surrounds its body. It reminded me of cheese. I then say, completely out of pocket:
"It reminds me of a BK chicken sandwich. You know, the oblong-shaped one?"
We both looked at eachother like something just clicked and yep, that would be the name. Chicken Sandwich. It probably didn't help that we had just watched one of those TikToks that went over silly cat names and couldn't stop laughing at the one that was named "Meet A Real Costco Hot Dog".
Chicken Sandwich was the one that started the sea slug arc. Everything else just kind of followed in short order. Googling for information on this lil' slug, I found out that hey, there's actually a purple variant, and they're on clearance for $2 a pop.
...so I bought the other one. And we decided well, maybe we should keep the sandwich thing going, so it was named, aptly, Ube Sandwich.
Oh, but we're not finished yet. The orange sea slugs had been put on clearance too, suggesting that Five Below was clearing inventory. We waffled on picking up another one because cheap, decided against, and almost as if on cue, my phone begins going off warning of an earthquake to the north of us (yay, California).
Yeah we turned around and bought that sea slug. We don't fuck with omens. This one, continuing the trend, was named appropriately: Spicy Chicken Sandwich.
You'd think that's enough, right? Nah. Because here comes the star of the show. The girlfriend wanted a beanie off Five Below's website, and I just so happened to pop a look...the purple sea slug was still on clearance, and there were two left. Aw, screw it. In the cart they go.
Now, we were at a loss for names, here. The first one was named Mochi (and she wears a little ribbon around one of her antennas to set her apart). The last one, we struggled for a bit. But again, as if by divine intervention...
I'm a longtime Patron of The Macintosh Librarian. She's pretty damn cool (and I had the honor of meeting her in person at VCF West 2023!) and occasionally she'll send me special edition Maccy prints as thanks for being the first Patron. Trust me, this is relevant, not trying to brag here, promise.
In 2024, not long after VCF West, she sent me a few things, one of which was a large 3D-printed Maccy that also came with a cowboy hat. The hat had become separated from the big Maccy, but...as the hat sat on the couch next to the still-unnamed purple sea slug, I got an idea...and put the cowboy hat on the sea slug.
I didn't know it yet, but it was at that moment that Rootie Tootie was born. (Not named after the pancakes, but the association is enjoyed nonetheless.)
Initially my name for her at that point was Yeehaw Sandwich (because once again, sticking with the sandwich names) but the girlfriend had the better idea of calling her Rootie Tootie, and that's what eventually stuck. And she very quickly became the sea slug. Because there's just something about a smiling sea slug wearing a cowboy hat.
(And yes, eventually, we did take her to IHOP just to order a Rooty Tooty Fresh 'n Fruity because why not. Also she has a pink horse we picked up at a western wear store that's been appropriately named Fruity.)
So yeah. That's really the answer if you wondered what the significance of the sea slugs is, either on my social feeds or at a VCFed event. I've usually brought stuffies to VCF events just because why not and it makes my table easier to find for friends, but from 2024 onwards...yeah, it's sea slugs.
Ending note: I have nowhere else to really put this, but if you read this and think "hey, that looks familiar, I think I got a polaroid-like thing with that sea slug on it, what gives?" Well, it's because of a fun thing I've been doing since 2025 called "slugbombing" where I'll take Rootie to what looks like an unattended exhibit and take a photo of her sitting on the exhibit with an Instax Mini 9. I then tuck the photo somewhere kind of out of sight, for the exhibitor to find later. My hope is that it puts a smile on their face.
I have also just straight up asked people if they wanted to be slugbombed, and thankfully most people are good sports about it and enjoy it. Like Action Retro, here.
So to get this side of my socials caught up, I did write a pretty big blogpost on my main site about VCF SoCal 2026 and how it was as a first-timer (after having gone to West since 2022). Go give it a read if you wish! And if photos are more your thing, I do have a pretty big Flickr album full of photos I took at the event.
tl;dr: If things line up next year I definitely want to come back, I had a blast despite some hiccups.
Come meet me and hang out at the Vintage Computer Fest in Orange, Ca this weekend, Feb 17th and 18th at booth E37. I’ll be showcasing some of our obsolete data storage drives, their media and audio media formats, how we transfer media to a modern platform for archival for clients, specializing in DAW and sequencer file conversion. I’ll have a PowerPC Mac running Vision, EZ Vision, Alchemy, Music Mouse with some synthesizer, sampler and drum machines. I’ll also have a demonstrations of sampler audio file transfer, Gotek floppy drive emulation, Greaseweasel, PiSCSI for Mac and samplers and our collection midi controlled vintage game console synthesizers: MidiNES, Midi Atari 2600 with Synthcart, SuperMidiPak and GenMDM.
