January 2, 2010

Biking Ruminations

Back Row: Ron Lauck, Wayne Powell, David Deever, Sara Deever, Heather Watkins, Sarah Abts, Kathleen Miner, Judy Tardell, Howard Abts, Merv Matteson, Aaron Schnuth. Middle Row: Jim Robinson, Wesley Jones, Dana Philabaum, Brian McElroy, Mark Dowden, Mark Brook, Eric Jerger, Jason Douthwaite. Front Row: Mike Wolbert, Matt Dye, Craig McElroy, Tara Reardon, Brian Sabo, Martin Huber, Tish Thompson, Matthew Abts

For Christmas my lovely wife gave me a indoor bicycle trainer so I can “ride” my bike during the winter.  I kept telling myself every year that I was going to buy a bike, and didn’t actually get around to it until late this past summer.  Bicycling is something I used to enjoy quite a bit when I was younger.  First it was just a way to get around the small town I grew up in, but later on in high school it turned into something more.

One thing I always looked forward to every summer was going to camp for a week or two.  Not only was it one of a couple times a year I’d get away from my family, but it also gave me the chance to hang around other kids who had no preconceived notions of who I was.  It won’t be much of a shock to you that I wasn’t Mr. Popular when I was younger.  So getting to hang around other kids my own age, who didn’t know they were supposed to constantly try and make my life miserable, made me feel like I wasn’t a complete and total freak.  Being that we were weekly church goers, it was only natural that I went to church camp.  Sure I was in Boy Scouts too, but the stories I would hear of Merit Badge Boot Camp from my fellow scouts never sounded like an awesome time.  I liked the camping part of Boy Scouts but really hated earning badges.

Methodist Church Camp consisted of sleeping in platform tents and doing all the fun camping stuff sans badge earning.  Once I got into high school however I became interested in some of the more adventurous entries in the annual camp brochure.  The summer before my freshman year I decided to try out Bike Camp.  The first year I attended was a week long tour around the Georgian Bay area of Ontario.  Not only did it foster in me a love for Canada, but I liked the camp so much I attended for four summers in a row.  I don’t know if it ever had a more official title then Bike Camp, but that’s what we always called it.  We’d ride on a pre-planned route of whatever area we were visiting that year while sleeping at night on the floors of churches.  It doesn’t sound very spectacular, but trust me – it was a crap load of fun.

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December 21, 2009

Yet another nerdy observation.

I was taking some screenshots tonight for a review I’m going to write, and figured that composite video for the Super Nintendo should look good enough.  The result was this blurry picture:

Contra III - SNES - composite video

Yuck.  So I dug out my old trusty S-video cable and this was the result:

Contra III - SNES - s-video

What a difference!  I wish all old video game consoles were as easy to get a S-video signal out of as the Super Nintendo is.  As long as you have an original console (not the second smaller revision) all you need to do is plug in a N64 or Gamecube S-video cable and your good to go!  To get a S-video signal from my Turbo Duo I had to have it professionally modded.  I still need to do the same for my Sega Genesis one of these days.

December 7, 2009

Entering nerd bliss.

I’m such a fancy lad when I wear all my Lantern Corps power rings!

My weakness is  nerdy bits of colorful plastic.

November 29, 2009

Green Lantern represent!

Don’t be the guy who wears his Green Lantern t-shirt while reading Green Lantern comics.

Don’t be that guy.

November 24, 2009

Vectrex represent!

Don’t be the guy who wears his Vectrex t-shirt while playing his Vectrex.

Don’t be that guy.