I actually found a store near me that sells these kinds of chips and parts. The downside is that they cost up to 10x as much as ordering them online. I ended up spending way too much money there. Anyway, I was able to start working on stuff before my shipments actually arrive. (I expect them Wednesday but might have to wait until Friday to pick them up.)
Here you can see a simple clock (blinking LED) using a NE555 chip. The larger chip to the right is a 74LS688N comparator that tells if two 8-bit binary values are unequal. (I thought I was getting the greater-than/less-than version of the chip, and was dissapointed.)
