adam schwenk » geek

Home Theater Setup

Administrator — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 06:02:46 +0000

So I’ve re-set my home theater this weekend. The new shelving unit I purchased from Bloodbath and Beyond came in quite handy. I like this setup because then my components don’t overheat (I swear, I could smell wood burning at times and the PS3 actually shut off due to overheating). the only thing I really want to try to come up with is a way to hide those cables better. I thought of maybe a wire mesh (like something you’d see on an old speaker or something) to put right behind the middle shelf so that you can’t see the wires below it, but I can’t seem to find any sources to purchase this. Any ideas folks?

As you can see, I’m pretty much loaded for bear. I have the Halo-Edition Xbox 360, Onkyo THX9100 Home Theater in a Box (7.1 surround sound speakers), PS3 (first edition, can play Ps2 games natively), and my handy dandy HD Tivo. This system rocks and is perfect for my space. Here are a few more pix to check out:

You can see the wiring issues here

Another view

Tale of the Cursed Schwenk

Administrator — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 01:39:11 +0000

I swear to God, there’s some deep-rooted stupidity in my Schwenk gene.

The other day, the carabiner for my keys broke. No big deal, but it had two sets of keys on it…my house keys and the trash/mailbox keys and bottle of hearing aid batteries Mike recommended. Little did I know the hell that was set in motion that day…

It started when I left work yesterday. I figured I didn’t need the other set of keys with the hearing aid batteries so I’d left them at home. This is part of the story, we’ll get to it in a moment. However, a synapse in my brain failed to fire and I left my keys sitting on my desk at work. SO, I’m at home with no keys and end up having to call a locksmith to open the deadbolt and let me in. Fortunately, I know how to jimmy a regular lock so we didn’t have to replace the doorknob (credit cards do wonders). $130 + replacement deadbolt ($40) later, and I’m in the house for the night.

Next morning (that’s today for those losing track), I decide since I still didn’t have a carabiner to combine the two key sets, I’d just take the other set of keys I had lying around the house. You see, on keyset #2 was a certain key that allowed me to unlock my laptop at work. The keys I left home. Fortunately, yet again, I managed to jimmy my way in and get my laptop (maybe I need to start a life of crime…I could wear a cape and a mask and steal large diamonds and have an arch-nemesis. I always I imagined I’d call him my Nemesissy. giggity).

ON the way home again (oh no…here we go), I decide “hey, there’s a Bloodbath and Beyond right by the red line on Grand. I can pick up this metal shelf set for my home theater equipment for appropriate ventilation, grab a bite to eat at the Chipotle next door, jump on the train and be on my way.”

Okay, this shelf set? about $50. And it was 2,000 lbs (I’m exaggerating for dramatic effect, but it felt like it). You see, I had to drag this 2k lb set of shelves all the way back to the house. This meant goihng down 3 flights of stairs onto the BUSY train heading north. Going down ANOTHER flight of stairs when I got to my stop. Walking 3 blocks with this thing. And did I mention I bought a couple of other small items while I was at the store? So yeah, I’m trying to balance all this crap…the box is falling apart and stuff is trying to fly out. Oh yeah, and the batteries in my hearing aids died. So now I can’t even HEAR anything…on the train, with people trying to get around me. You wouldn’t believe how nasty people can be if they suspect you’re just ignoring them when in fact you can’t hear them.

Also, I’m FULLY clothed in long underwear
and THICK jacket
and it’s snowing like crazy.

By the time I got in the door, I was heaving like a 60 year old smoker…dragging this 2,000 lb box on the ground to the elevator, and to my door.

And there we have it. Two days in the life of a Schwenk. I swear to God…don’t ever marry one. And don’t ever reproduce and bestow this dark gift on your offspring.

If I ever get married myself, I’m taking my PARTNER’S name. Maybe that’ll work. You think I’m joking? Ask my dad…he has stories too! Oy.

Computers suck

Administrator — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 23:45:22 +0000

Spent the last week trying to recover my desktop, an Alienware, that went dead on me after 2.5 years of use (1.5 years after its warranty expired). I discovered that the watercooling system for the CPU (which was the loudest damn thing I ever heard) failed on me. I also discovered when I tried to reboot the machine before realizing it had failed that the PSU “popped” and killed the motherboard. Rather than having to go and rebuild everything from scratch and have to reinstall all my programs, I bought the same mobo with a new cpu heatsink that was NOT watercooled (though HUGE). I found this new fan to be MUCH quieter even though it was a total pain to install. I got thermal paste everywhere (I’m not very coordinated :-/).

One thing I noticed in this escapade is exactly how DIFFICULT it is to make a bootable CD these days. You see, the mobo I was supplied had a BIOS that was 4 years old. I had to replace it with the latest because I kept getting BSODs every time I loaded into Vista. I was up till 2am trying to create a bootable cd with the appropriate bios update and executable file that would replace the older bios. FINALLY, I got it all working. Total cost?

1 PSU – $200

1 New Fan – $80

1 New MOBO – $70

Cost with tax = $385

God, computers suck. But this think is running like a dream now. Thank God it didn’t destroy the RAM or processor. Yet.

Posted via web from shpanky’s posterous

I am SUCH a MAN!

Administrator — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 20:39:00 +0000

I fixed my oven this morning, saving me about $250. I had to replace the igniter. Now it runs perfectly. I feel SO butch!

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

Legos

Administrator — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 02:42:19 +0000

Wow, this really brought back a lot of memories…A video of Gizmodo visiting the Lego Secret Vault.

Just amazing to see all those boxes and boxes of legos. Watching that video, I recall vividly sitting on the living room floor, building all kinds of cool stuff with my legos. I remember one invention, it was an underwater breathing apparatus that let in water and converted it into oxygen…and then I built it.

Or the times when I created spaceships, and amusement park rides…all kinds of stuff. Those are happy memories!