USA Diary Edish! TikTok bans, inaugurations, tech events & furry conventions????
me vs the tech reporter they tell you not to worry about xxxxx
This special diary edish of the newsy is brought to you by my pals at Samsung!!!
Yeeesh, it’s been a big few weeks for your kiwi pal Luce!!! First of all, a huge welcome to the 50 thousand new beautiful readers we have with us now!!! I’m so glad you’re here, and if this is your very first ‘diary edish’ then yay! This is where I take a break from writing about the news to give you a little insight into my life.
Anyway, here’s why it’s been a big few weeks:
I got on a plane to the States RIGHT before Trump’s inauguration
TikTok got banned while I was here
I attended my very first big tech event (as a legit media organisation!!)
I think I have been converted to Samsung…
THERE WAS A FURRY CONVENTION AT MY HOTEL
And I’m going to tell you alllllll about it 𓆩♡𓆪
Luce note: I’m writing this on my phone rn (yes, my new Samsung) while I’m sitting on the train and it’s seriously faster than my laptop!!! I will not be writing these newsy’s from my phone every day, but it’s nice to know that if I need to, I can.
Part 1: San Francisco
Our first stop of the journey was San Franciso. Now, you’ll notice I’m saying ‘our’ because Samsung set me up with Morgan - the best chaperone of my life - who, surprise surprise, has now become my bestie. After a chill 12-hour flight, we got into a literal SELF-DRIVING CAR and headed to our first stop, which was hilariously, The Cheesecake Factory. Even though she was my chaperone, it was Morgy’s first time in the States, so it was important that we did some touristy ‘American’ things.
After The Cheesecake Factory, we went to our first ever NBA game which was actually SO fucking sick, and I need to show you the zoom on the Samsung I was using while I was over there because it’s INSANE:
I have to admit that at this point the jetlag had hit me, and I did in fact manage to fall asleep during the game (much to Morgy’s amusement), but after a hotdog and a giant coke, I recovered for the second half.
By the time we got back to our hotel TikTok had been banned (RIP), and then the next morning was Trump’s inauguration which we watched live (DOUBLE RIP) so I guess you could say it was a pretty full-on 24 hours for Luce and Morgy!!!!
The rest of our time in SF was spent like this…
Eating the best Sub I’ve ever had in my life:
Doing a little bit of thrifting/ shopping on Valencia street (THANK YOU TO THE SYSCAHOOD FOR GIVING ME THAT TIP) where I found my dream WATCH RING! I’ve been looking for one of these for like, ever, and I found a pink sparkly one:
And now that the jet lag had worn off and the tummy was full, it was time to go to San Jose to live out my Elle Woods dreams and report on my very first tech event.
Part 2: San Jose
In the most iconic thing that could happen to Lucy B, when we arrived at our hotel there was a legit FURRY CONVENTION happening. Me and my flatmates used to watch furry documentaries all the time during uni, and this was the first time I’d seen them in the flesh:
And then before we got to go and get our hands on all the new Samsung products, Morgy and I went to see the Winchester Mystery House, which was SO creepy but SO cool (if you haven’t heard about this house I suggest you look it up.)
Then Morgy and I got down to business. Our first stop was going to check out the new Samsung S25 Ultra (this was before I had been converted) and by the time we walked out of there, I’m not gonna lie, I was sold.
The things I appreciated the most about the new phone (the Samsung S25 Ultra) that I genuinely think you’ll be into:
Audio eraser: There’s a feature called ‘audio eraser’ where you can literally filter out different background noises from your videos. Want to keep the waves but remove the wind? You can do that! Want to remove everything except the birds? Yuuuup, you can do that too!
100x zoom: The camera is fucking unreal. Sorry iPhone but the zoom on these phones is insane and you can do zoom to 100x!!!
Their sustainability efforts: As I expected, it was all the usual stuff, but I did appreciate that Samsung is creating a circular battery recycle chain that reuses batteries from older products to reuse cobalt from previous devices!
I have friends who work in this field so I was genuinely super interested in this!!! Battery life: The battery life will let you watch videos for 31 HOURS. That’s a lot of Harry Styles fan edits.
Colours: Well, some of them are pink, hehe.
Oh, and here was my OOTD:
The main event: Samsung Unpacked
The next day we had the ACTUAL event, which was like… a concert, but for a phone??? It was actually really cool to be surrounded by other techy/ media people, and it was truly an honour to be the only NZ organisation there (hell yeah!!!) so here are a few things I felt about the actual event:
Their execs didn’t attend Trump’s inauguration which is a slay
Almost everyone here was tech bro, or dressed in ‘tech bro chic.’ Lots of shades of grey, statement sneakers and slim little backpacks. Me? I was in a pair of denim overalls with a little cat on the front :)
the only pic i have of my fit People are SO excited to be here. And they applaud when there are new feature announcements as if we’re watching a concert. I’m not judging - we know I love people with hobbies!!
There was an announcement at the very end which happened after everything finished and everyone started leaving (it was a sneak peak at the Samsung Edge) but it was literally giving a Marvel post-credit scene (and kinda got that reaction from the audience too hahahah.)
Also, even though I was seated really far back, LOOK AT THIS ZOOM AGAIN:
Our final day in San Jose (yes, I’m a poet!)
I spent our final day attending a tech forum dressed like Elle Woods on her first day of law school (as you all told me quite a few times in my DMs):
And tbh fair enough bc here was my OOTD:
Compared to what i was surrounded by:
Anyway, the forum was pretty standard, but my biggest takeaway was that I could record it on my phone (the Samsung S25 Ultra if ur interested) and then it would TRANSCRIBE IT and SPLIT THE FOUR SPEAKERS UP and LABEL THEM (it recognised their voices) and then even SUMMARISE IT FOR ME.
This was life-changing because I have a tendency to zone out, so the fact that it recorded, transcribed, and summarised this 45-minute chat for me was low-key ICONIC.
You can see how that works in my vlog:
And now?
Well, I’ve been in Santa Cruz visiting my brother’s girlfriend’s family (and eating incredible clam chowder), and now I’m in Sacramento with my cousins, about to take a road trip to Big Sur with them!
It’s honestly been the trip of a lifetime, it’s seriously an honour any time someone takes Shit You Should Care About seriously enough to have them as their primary news source to cover an event, and even more so when I get to be FULLY myself in such a male-dominated industry!!!! So, I do wanna be a little bit earnest and thank Morgy + the NZ Samsung team for taking a chance on me.
I also never thought I’d say this, but my Samsung is now my primary phone. While I can’t fully give up my FaceTime and iMessage yet (which means the iPhone is hanging in there for personal use), the Samsung that I’m using now (the S25 Ultra) is genuinely soooo much fucking better. I can’t believe I’m saying that either!
Thank you for reading this INCREDIBLY LONG diary edish!!!
OMFG! You are describing Display Week in San Jose. This was my life pre-transition. I’m not sure what those men would make of me now, with my fluorescent pink hair, tattoos and septum piercing. Brings back memories. Some of them good. Next time you’re in Santa Cruz, ping me. I’ll show you the queer scene.
I would read WAY more coverage of tech summits etc if the pieces all read like this! Brilliant stuff, Luce!