Kurt Leucht’s Blog

Ive been a Woot (woot.com, what is Woot) customer since May of 2006, buying cheap electronics here and there whenever I saw Woot offering something that I really needed. When I subscribed to the Woot RSS feeds (so I wouldnt forget to check the daily sale) I noticed that they were holding weekly Photo-chopping contests there. And they were actually giving away monetary prizes too, or at least monetary credit for purchases on Woot! Ive got a little bit of Photo-chopping experience, so I started keeping my eyes open for a contest theme that I would enjoy working on. Then Woot Contest 174 caught my eye.

The Challenge: Show us how we can get rid of thousands of unsold Sandisk Sansa Media Players.

The idea that immediately came to mind was to use thousands of these cheap little electronic devices to build a supercomputer … or actually a not-so-super-computer.

Here is the Sansa image I used from Woot:

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And here is the super computer image I used from Mississippi State University:

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And here is my contest entry (http://www.woot.com/Forums/ViewPost.aspx?PostID=2265560):

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I spent probably 2 hours on this entry. A pro could have probably done it in 20 minutes, but I’m not that experienced … plus the TV was on while I was working on it. It was fun, though. I especially enjoyed turning the SUN microsystems logo on the side of the rack into Sandisk. I think it turned out rather well.

I didn’t win a monetary prize, but I was honored with an “Honorable Mention” which is worth free shipping on my next Woot purchase. Here are the complete results for Woot Contest 174.

Kurt

A few years ago my dad transferred some of my grandfather’s old silent films that he and his friends from the Peoria Cinema Club had made from the original edited films onto VHS format. I recently transferred them onto DVD and then stumbled across a website called CreateSpace where you can publish and sell your own DVDs. They do a nice job of printing the packaging and also printing onto the DVD itself, and they also set you up a store to sell your DVD. They even let you upload a 30 second trailer that they stream to potential customers. That’s a nice touch.

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So if you’re interested in watching some historic 1950’s Peoria Cinema Club films, just go to the below link and order yourself a copy. It will only cost you $9.50 plus shipping. What a bargain! https://www.createspace.com/243975

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2/17/2008 Addendum: As if CreateSpace wasn’t cool enough, they are also affiliated with Amazon, one of the largest online stores in the world! So you can buy this 1950’s Peoria Cinema Club DVD from either the CreateSpace store linked above or you can purchase it from Amazon.com! (http://www.amazon.com/1950s-Peoria-Cinema-Club-Films/dp/B0013TPGE2/)

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Tonight I set up a CafePress store to sell various merchandise with my lemon blossom photo professionally printed on them. Check it out! <http://www.cafepress.com/lemonblossom> There are mugs, tote bags, coasters, buttons, magnets, greeting cards, posters, and much more! These are the perfect gifts for that person in your life who already has everything!

I found this really cool website called CafePress.com. It’s a site that lets you set up your own store with your own merchandise. You upload your own designs to be professionally printed on said merchandise and let people buy the stuff! Very cool. I threw together a quick Leucht.com T-Shirt design in about 5 minutes and it is now on sale for under 10 bucks. I designed some other stuff too.

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You can let people purchase the stuff at cost, or you can actually mark up the merchandise and make a little bit of cash in the process. This is a very cool idea. Check out the official Leucht.com online store now!

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NASA sent out a press release today about this cool art contest for college students:

Aug. 23, 2007

Sonja Alexander
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1761
sonja.r.alexander@nasa.gov

Keith Henry
Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va.
757-864-6120/344-7211
h.k.henry@nasa.gov

RELEASE: 07-179

LIFE AND WORK ON THE MOON: WHAT IMAGES COME TO MIND?

HAMPTON, Va. - A new NASA contest encourages university art and design students to partner with science and engineering departments to create art representative of living and working on the moon. The goal is for students in the arts, science and engineering to collaboratively engage in NASA’s mission to return humans to the moon by 2020, and eventually journey on to Mars and other destinations in the solar system.

The Advanced Planning and Partnership Office at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., is sponsoring the “Life and Work on the Moon” contest. Winners will receive cash prizes up to $1,000. Winning artwork also will be exhibited online and across the country.

Students in architecture, industrial design, computer design, the fine arts and other disciplines are invited to submit entries in one of three categories: two-dimensional art, three-dimensional art or digital art. To ensure artistic concepts reflect the realities of the harsh lunar environment, art students are strongly encouraged to consult with science and engineering students and use NASA’s online resources.

A volunteer panel of judges will represent NASA, other government agencies, universities, industry and the professional art community. Judges will evaluate artistic qualities and whether the entry depicts a valid scenario in the context of the lunar environment.

In sponsoring the contest, NASA hopes to encourage more collaboration among scientists and engineers and the artistic and creative communities. Such collaboration may generate new ideas for living and working in extra-terrestrial environments, resulting in more successful long-duration space missions.

Winners of the contest will be offered the opportunity to exhibit their work in NASA facilities and science museums. An online public gallery will be available through a partnership with NASA’s Classroom of the Future, maintained by the Wheeling Jesuit University Center for Educational Technologies in Wheeling, W. Va., and the Christopher Newport University Institute for Science Education in Newport News, Va. Christopher Newport University will provide cash awards for top prizes.

Entries are due no later than December 1, 2007, and results will be announced in February 2008. A high school version of this contest is planned for the spring of 2008.

For more details about the contest, including NASA’s resources about the moon, visit:

http://artcontest.larc.nasa.gov

For more information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

Visit the art contest website linked above for more information.

Kurt

When I was a student at Deer Creek Mackinaw (Dee-Mack) High School in Mackinaw, Illinois (1984 thru 1988) I was really into anything that was even remotely related to art. I loved drafting classes and all of the different art classes too. Our art teacher, Mrs. Schultz, organized some of the best art students there and had them paint a few organized and approved murals around the school. I was allowed to paint a Space Shuttle mural upstairs on the big 2-story wall just outside the library. I was also into space, and I had some NASA photos and mission patches and I basically just painted a collage of some of the items in that material. I dedicated the mural to the crew of the Challenger mission that was lost during their launch on January 28th, 1986. This large mural was a big project for a high school student … and I never actually technically finished the mural. I had intended to paint land masses on the earth, but never got around to it. I took these photos in the summer of 2002, so the mural was at least there for 14 years. I think they had to paint over it a few years ago, though.

Kurt

I’ve always had both an artistic bent and a computer bent, so computer graphics have always been sort of a hobby of mine. I can remember writing programs to light up individual pixels on the green display of my Apple IIe computer when I was a teenager. I remember drawing out a Garfield cat onto graph paper first, then mapping out all the pixel X and Y locations on the graph paper to type into my computer program. Ahhhh, those were the good ole days.

I’ve been a Woot (woot.com, what is Woot) customer since May of 2006, buying cheap electronics here and there whenever I saw Woot offering something that I really needed. When I subscribed to the Woot RSS feeds (so I wouldn’t forget to check the daily sale) I noticed that they were holding weekly Photo-chopping contests there. And they were actually giving away monetary prizes too, or at least monetary credit for purchases on Woot! I’ve got a little bit of Photo-chopping experience, so I started keeping my eyes open for a contest theme that I would enjoy working on. Then Woot Contest 98 caught my eye.

The Challenge: Alter an existing comic-book cover so that it’s named after and features a product we’ve sold on Woot.

This was definitely down my alley. I searched the Woot blog for a product that would work good in a comic book cover. I saw the Navman portable GPS navigation system and immediately thought that I could turn either Spiderman or Superman into Navman.

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Navman portable GPS navigation system

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Source comic book cover

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My contest submittal

Kurt

I saw this product in a magazine somewhere and thought, “Hey, I can make that!”

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So I did. I bought a plank of cheap pine board and cut out all the shapes and screwed them all together. The painting was the hardest part, and even that wasn’t too difficult.

Kurt