I'm in!
Hi Dave, you said to mention why I'd like to get some of the gear you're talking about in the video. So here goes. It's actually a bit longer, but if you want a shorter version, let me know.
You see, when I was a kid, maybe 4, 5, 6, I used to be into geeky stuff. Well, there was no real "geek culture" back then in eastern Europe like there is today, no Internet, nothing like that. But as I was usually sat in front of the humongous black and white tv (already antique in the 90s) I got into this one tv show (see below) that showed computer games. They featured electronic music a lot. Years later as a teenager I found out they were using something called "analog synths". Being broke AF I was never able to afford any of those as they cost a million polish zloty but might have as well cost a million dollars, hell, I wasn't even able to diy any of that stuff for parts being too expensive. But I really got into it, started frequenting the synth diy mailing list, reading schematics, learning electronics (I didn't go to university for that), theorizing about how circuits could work, coming up with ideas that I haven't seen anyone else execute. In parallel I also got into 8 bit computers and even got a Commodore 128 (an antique as well, we were well into Pentium days by then) and started thinking what it would be like if Commodore computers got another upgrade. But afterwards, as an adult, I had neither the time nor means to get into that stuff, and this kind of got put on the back burner.
Then 2020 happened. I was one of the first people to get it in my area. I was basically in bed for 5 months and nearly died. In the meantime, my cra**y landlord tried to dehouse me, and I couldn't get a job. A year later, after a year of shallow breathing I finally got one of my lungs back to mostly full function and the other one is going to bounce back as well, apparently. I was really scared I would stay super ill for the rest of my life, as pretty much every part of my body and every organ got affected negatively, and I still get regular "long covid" relapses.
So that got me thinking. I never followed up on that passion from way back when I was this small kid sitting in front of the B&W tv. And if I had died back in 2020, that would be it, no one would do this stuff, and I would have never found out what it's like. So I should start building analog electronics for music. I should try to make things that are in my head that no one tried before. And I want to build another 8 bit computer, one of my own. I started looking around, but most of the bench gear out there is just pretty bad for this sort of use especially if you limit yourself to the kind of budget I have. So if you wanna send some dumpster junk my way, it would be more than appreciated, and I could finally get the ball rolling on some things that a lot other people could enjoy, giving back to the communities that taught me so much about electronics.
Also, just wanted to wish good luck to all the other people entering the contest!
And here's the show I was talking about: