About Me

A sketch of the desert in Arizona.

@kevin_gnutzmans

Hello. I am Wyatt, a recent high school graduate hailing from the beautiful southwestern US state of Arizona. Thank you for visiting and taking the time to look around my blog.

The end of secondary school feels like a huge transitional period in a lot of people's lives. We begin to take our next steps concreting our values, entering the workforce, pursuing higher education, and saying our goodbyes to friends we've known for a decade while also meeting new ones. For me, beyond deciding on a college and a future career path, through this period came a revelation.

When I was younger, I never felt like I did enough in the way of building memories and trying new experiences. As I got older I began to lament at the idea of this being "it." I became incredibly depressed and dispirited. Travel had always been in the back of my mind, but I was always too unmotivated to try to do it. I knew there was a lot beauty to see out there, but these doubts and fears kept me from going through with it. But throughout high school, I had a number of teachers, coworkers, and friends empathize with my scenario and encourage me to travel and see the world. I started thinking back to my bucket list from when I was a kid, researched new destinations, and began putting in the effort to actually travel and build lifelong memories. In a way, this blog is dedicated to all of those people who pushed me in the right direction. It serves as a reminder to be thankful and keep the promises I made. Because, to be completely honest, if it wasn't for them, I probably wouldn't be here today.

My Interests and Hobbies

Favorite Music?

I'm a huge fan of everything drum-and-bass. Whether it's 90's jungle mixes, house, techo, IDM, or modern borderline-schizophrenia-inducing breakcore, I'm down for it.

Favorite Films?

My top three movies are Office Space, Truman Show, and The Shawshank Redemption, in that order. Honorable mentions being Castaway and Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Office Space is an awesome, dry portrayal of white collar work. Truman Show delivers a powerful message about identity and self-determination in an incredibly unique way. The Shawshank Redemption and Castaway both are inspiring films about the indomitable human spirit and the importance of purpose. Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure is a great, silly comedy with a cool premise.

Favorite TV Shows?

Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul definitely top the list. The hill I will die on though is Office UK. People don't understand this show. It's hilarious in that it's dry and realistic—everyone has had a boss like David Brent, who thinks they're the funniest person alive. Everyone in the show is miserable, as one would be working as a sales rep at a paper company. Every joke lands with the perfect amount of cringe and awkwardness. I can't help but feel that the US version of The Office lost much of the charm of the original in trying to cater to the American palette.

Favorite Foods?

I'll eat most foods without complaint, but if I was on Death Row it would definitely be a ribeye steak cooked medium with mashed potatoes and a Caesar salad.

Favorite Color?

Orange. I will fight you.

Hobbies?

I love to work on my car, build vintage computers, and service old consoles and audiovisual equipment. If your VCR isn't loading a tape, your Minidisc deck won't eject, or the laser in your Playstation 2 is worn after 10,000 hours of reading a pirated DVD-R of Silent Hill 2, I'm your guy. Although, usually, this just translates to me being asked to change the TV to HDMI2 at family gatherings. I also like to fish.

Favorite video game?

I enjoy the Max Payne trilogy of games. Max's story of loss, revenge, and learning to move on resonated deeply with me. I like listening to Max's internal monologue throughout the games. The gunplay is also awesome. I don't drink but I like to think that if I became an alcoholic, I'd probably end up like him.

Favorite books?

My favorite works include Edward Abbey's Desert Solitare and Monkey Wrench Gang. They chronicle the beauty of the desert and in many ways warned against the destruction and commercialization of nature.

Biggest Pet Peeves?

Not using your turn signal. I feel like turn signal use is a pretty good personality litmus test, similar to the "putting the shopping cart away" debate. I can understand forgetting but people who openly admit to being too "lazy" to use them kind of disgust me. Driving already requires an almost inhuman level of concentration our brain is probably a million years of evolution away from fully comprehending, if you can't be bothered to flick a stalk when you turn you really shouldn't be driving in the first place. Could you argue that turn signals probably don't make a huge difference in certain scenarios? Sure. But the type of person to defend not using one is almost always the same person who blindly veers across 8 lanes of traffic to make their exit or cuts you off turning left from the outside lane.