schnuth.com

X-Men Graffiti

schnuth — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 21:03:53 +0000

Sweet Cyclops graffiti as seen on July 15, 2010 on the streets of New York City.

Ray Bradbury rules.

schnuth — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 20:38:50 +0000

Been feeling rather anti-social and bored on top of the normal amounts of self loathing lately, and that particular emotional cocktail does not produce good blog posts. But since it’s been a couple months without a post, here’s another quick “Look at this cool video I found!” entry.

So… look at this cool video I found! If other people really got this excited for things I like I could finally participate in break-room conversations at work. More than likely this is NSFW, unless you too don’t care about your job and are also looking for creative ways to get deported from the country. Thanks to my hero Topless Robot for turning me on to this one.

A Time Lapse Journey Through Japan

schnuth — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 04:37:21 +0000

I found this video posted over at Topless Robot (my new favorite blog) and felt compelled to share it here as well. There are a lot of great videos of Japan online, but this is the best I’ve seen in quite sometime. I suggest clicking through and watching it in HD since it is just profoundly beautiful.

More nerdier then you.

schnuth — Sun, 02 May 2010 04:30:48 +0000

At one time I had hoped that I’d be able to spotlight some of the weird things I find at thrift stores or garage sales here on my blog. But as it turns out I find just about jack squat these days. I could bore you with stories of a mere 12 years ago when friends and I would load up the back of my station wagon with nerdy treasures on Saturday afternoons, but those will have to wait for another time.

Instead check out my sweet new tie! I have absolutely no need for neckties unless someone gets married or dies, so whichever happens next look for me there sporting my wacky computer tie. Remember when mice used to look like that and nearly cripple your wrist? We certainly have come a long way in the ergo-dynamic department. This also seems a fitting tribute to the floppy disk as Sony has announced recently they are no longer going to produce them.

Was it also a coincidence that I was wearing my MC Frontalot t-shirt? Who can really say?

More hardcore then you.

schnuth — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 07:23:30 +0000

San Diego Comic Con 2009-2

Originally uploaded by hamish11

Every few months I’ll give some thought to getting a tattoo. It’s something I’ve been thinking of doing for awhile but have never actually worked up the nerve to take the plunge. For inspiration I’ll check out some of the incredible photos in the Geek Tattoos! pool on Flickr. That’s what I was doing tonight when I was completely blown away by this photo. Needless to say, this guy loves the X-Men more then you or anyone else you know. For reals.

I love shirt.woot.com

schnuth — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 05:46:24 +0000

I get asked a lot where I buy my cool t-shirts. Well, either “cool” or “weird” depending on the person asking. One of the places I buy shirts is over at shirt.woot.com. They have contests (known as derbys) where people design shirts based on a given theme, and then members of the community vote to determine the top 3 winners. The shirts are then sold for one day on shirt.woot for $10 shipped, and then later offered for $15 shipped if you happened to miss one you wanted.

I subscribe to their RSS feed in Google Reader that I check daily. This has led me to buy many t-shirts as $10 is the perfect price point for a impulse buy. Today’s entry was a must buy:

Entitled “You Shall Not Octopass” it came in third in shirt.woot’s Classic Literature Mashup Derby. This shirt of course mashes up the classic biblical myth Noah’s Ark with 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. Apparently Noah won this battle as Llamas are alive and well today. Personally I think it would have been funnier if the squid was eating a mythical creature that doesn’t actually exist, but for some reason the llama makes me laugh. Plus the colors are really great and eye catching. I can’t wait to see what random comments I get from wearing this one. Especially from the churchin’ crowd at New Empire during Sunday dim sum.

Head over to shirt.woot.com and grab one for yourself!

Biking Ruminations

schnuth — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 07:14:24 +0000

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.

The above photo was from the last year I went to bike camp in 1992 when we did a three state trip through Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana. It wasn’t my favorite year, or my favorite picture, but it’s the only one I was able to find. That year it rained most of the time, and a few campers got sent home due to safety issues. As you can tell from some of the looks on people’s faces, it wasn’t the best year ever. But even a crappy Bike Camp was better then no Bike Camp, and I still had a great time. I could have went for one more summer after graduating high school, but decided against it. My senior year had been a real bitch after my mother past away less then a week after this photo was taken. That experience turned my life upside down, and forced me take a serious look at my religious beliefs for the first time in my life. I honestly didn’t feel like I could deal with it at the time, and it’s a decision I now regret.

You always thought you’d stay in contact with the friends you make at camp, but it never really happened. Going back every year to Bike Camp you’d see a lot of the same people from the year before and that made it a really unique experience. While I was active in youth group back in my churching days, I never felt like I was truly part of the group. It always felt like the other kids tolerated me because they had too. But going to Bike Camp every summer always felt like going home.

While I’ll never recapture those long lost Bike Camp days, I do want to get serious about biking again in 2010. Ride more, get back in shape, and maybe do some touring. Except this time I’ll do without the dorky required 6 foot orange safety flag. But judging from the intolerant Toledo drivers I’ve encountered, a helmet will definitely be in order.

Yet another nerdy observation.

schnuth — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 09:25:48 +0000

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.

Entering nerd bliss.

schnuth — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 21:37:30 +0000

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

My weakness is nerdy bits of colorful plastic.

Green Lantern represent!

schnuth — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 20:17:47 +0000

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

Don’t be that guy.