Second Semester Rush
Welcome 2008 (I guess)! Here goes another year of sporadic blogging, brought to you by Kevin.
Today marks the beginning of the second semester of my sophomore year – and EE 210 is right at the top of my “hardest classes that I cannot afford to get below a C in or face the wrath of my own ‘unstable yet lackluster’ standards”-type courses. People say that “sophomore” means “wise fool” as well; let’s hope I can debunk that definition this time around (considering the…very…lacking performance of this past fall).
And now, some fun things to speak of:
1. A picture I shot several minutes ago in the E SC 314 lecture hall. Dare I start playing Temptation by Diana Krall or just say “remove and die by ELECTROCUTION!!!111”?
2. Over winter break, I had the opportunity to visit my elementary school (Exton Elementary). Lunch included either bringing or buying a meal, lots of the usual chatter amongst our juvenile selves, and then suddenly, silence – because the red light of an infamous traffic light told us so:
3. Alas, during break as well, I finally took the time out with my neighbor down the street to build a Pop’n Music arcade style controller for Pop’n Music 8! I first had contact with Bemani’s nine-button Pop-kun series at Otakon 2007 in its massive gaming room, and at once I knew I had to play this Japanese music game again soon.
Unfortunately, no journal entries are available on this build, unlike the Tesla Coil Graduation Project, but that’s because the PnM ASC took less than a week to complete. Hopefully, it’ll survive the beatings at Setsucon 2008 – which I’m hoping a good number of people will go to (I’ll be seeing con-goers there as the gaming room head). More/better-quality pictures will come some day when I can get my hands on a DSLR from Penn State…
Wow…watch those LED-lit buttons blow out the cameraphone’s CCD! It’s not that bright to the naked eye, though.
A healthy amount of credit goes to the following people for ideas, which I refined and hybridized for constructing the ASC:
– Chase Reuter (almost a step-by-step “how-to” on constructing an ASC; the two-layer top approach): http://bantheinter.net/asc/
– Ecxol.net’s PnM ASC guide (Lexan panel cutting/drilling): http://sharkma.pp.fi/popnasc/
– FoxFireX (a pure wood finish instead of painting – I really liked the look; LED lighting scheme): http://furdaze.com/popncontroller.html
– Joel’s Ransai PnM controller (where to get the LED retrofit lamps): http://www.joelsgadgets.com/Popnmusic.html
– Justin Carmical/”Noriaki Kakyouin” (the sliding bottom cover; another “how-to,” in a sense): http://noriaki_kakyouin.freepgs.com/controller.htm
– Ransai forum users – especially Random (installing a switch-triggered lightkit properly): http://www.ransai.com/archives/forum3/viewtopic.php?t=46&sid=179c9ed340b3c65dd9d0786c2490c35a
– Wayne (basic idea and controller board types): http://www.shapermc.com/popn/popnasc.html
And of course, gotta give a lot of thanks to my neighbor for constructing the box that holds it all in, and last (but not least), God for letting me use the talents He’s given me to build the controller.
It’s no longer just Stepmania and In the Groove; I can slap nine buttons now and drive people even more insane!
(FYI, I didn’t actually pull the cord out in the first image)
