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It’s been a long day of pulling through errands, but my ecstatic mind couldn’t wait any longer to write this! I found out earlier that my Portable MAME Control Panel senior design project won the SolidWorks World 2012 Hobbyist Contest! This is very humbling and a great honor from both the SolidWorks Corporation and Dassault Systèmes, because even today, I haven’t experienced as much enjoyment and real-world productivity from using CAD applications as much as this well-honed software. It truly is an art to breathe technical life into free-form imagination, and DS’ talented employees helped turn a bit of imagination into a worthwhile product – one that enables my friends and I to relive the glory days of the video arcade.

All in all, it’s been a pleasure, and I thank your team for being supportive in my engineering journeys. I hope to see you in San Diego next month for SW World 2012, and I’ll certainly be ready to learn even more from the pros.

I remember from years back, a pastor of mine gave a sermon mentioning about God’s sense of humor. As in, the Lord sometimes uses what we say, do, or think about on whims and turns them into lessons for our lives long after we’ve forgotten about the former. Well, it appears that my pastor was quite correct. As an example, before I graduated from high school, an opportunity came up for my class to state our personal quotes for the upcoming yearbook. Mine went like this:

“Time is a God-given thing; everyone is rationed 24 hours to use it for Him.”

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So…I ended up keeping my word in the previous entry: no updates to this blog during the convention. It turned out there were no free Internet connections at the Baltimore Marriot Waterfront hotel, and even the Wi-Fi access points weren’t strong enough to carry across the bay.

But all that aside, Otakon 2008 overall was a great way to close the summer before I head back to the dirge of classes. And as I’ll mention later, it was actually a good thing that there was no Internet available. With well over 25,000 registered attendees, this was the largest anime convention on the East coast that had become even bigger than last year. Now some may disagree, but it felt significantly less crowded than 2007’s con, likely because the Programming department shaped up and nailed most of the events down on schedule. Of course, with a gathering of this size, there’s the inevitable “There’s so much to do, but so little time!” syndrome: there were a total of six video anime viewings rooms, four panel locations, three workshops, two autograph rooms, an additional high-definition screenings room (changed from the 35mm screen of years past), a multipurpose concert/films hall, and for the first time ever, the usage of Baltimore’s 1st Mariner Arena for the most popular and crowd-drawing events (masquerade, JAM Project concert, and Sunday concerts). Almost all of the viewings and panel tracks were blocked in Friday through Sunday.

In spite of the massive event flood, there weren’t many that I considered going to. Besides, there was always video gaming, the dealers room, Artist Alley, cosplay photography, exploring Baltimore, getting food, socializing and meeting with friends, and so many other continuously-distracting events to attend. Here’s a rundown of what happened all three (four) days. Hit the “Read more” link!

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So when I first wrote back in October 2007 that this site would be “mostly a slice of Kevin’s life again,” I forgot to mention how sparsely the weblog would be updated. What, it’s been since April 10, 2008 since the last bit? Ah, seems it’s time to give a rundown of what’s happened over these few months. Hit “Read more” if you’re interested, but pardon the disorganization ahead…there’s a lot to talk about.

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Spring Break has ended, and it’s time to move on with the semester. Too bad most of the exams are jammed between now and the next month and a half! Quite a poor testing schedule on PSU’s part, sadly.

However, before I head off to return a certain Nikon D80 to Penn State Media Tech, the following are some photos of the Pop’n Music Arcade-Style Controller project built over winter break; read more here about the inspiration – and credits to whom it may concern – to construct such a bulky gaming device. Assuredly, it survived Setsucon 2008 quite well, and even more so the subsequent DDR and Import Gaming Nights (held by Dance Dance Maniacs and the Penn State Anime Organization, respectively). In fact, the final three photos are in-use shots from the most recent gaming night before last week’s break. Enjoy!

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