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.
I’m beginning to think that this weblog is shifting too much towards dancing games instead of a “slice of Kevin’s life.” Oh well, time will tell. Once again, there’s another ITG2 progress post for clicking “Read more »”
In other news, I’m heading back for Thanksgiving soon; even though the dorm life at Penn State is nice, I definitely need a break from the work before the short dash towards final exams. Coming home to my parents and sister again will be pleasing indeed. Thank you, God, for this time off so that I can go see my family, church, pastor, and friends again…
Short and simple for a Saturday-Sunday writeup; ignore this post if you’re not interested in viewing my level-ups with panel dance games.
Here’s a new autoplayed recording of a more-recent StepMania 3.9 simfile created around an Animusic track. Actually, a redux: I’ve used Animusic 2‘s 7/4-time Starship Groove in a pair of early, laggy experimental Couples charts, back when custom “stepping” was a new hobby for me. Since those turned out to be far too easy, even for dance pads, I’ve scrapped everything and built a brand new level; the redone 13-footer Challenge stepfile is difficult enough to warrant keyboard-ing it instead – just like the file based on Drum Machine. If one wished to dance to it, this would be like a four-minute sprint with incinerated feet!
As usual, I’ve posted the normal video capture along with a version that has Player 1’s assist tick enabled. This is so that the viewer can understand the stepchart’s overall rhythm better.
Last night was our DDR organization’s turn to host an event for LateNight PennState, held at the HUB-Robeson student center. While the club, aptly named “Dance Dance Maniacs,” did their duty with panel dance video games for the common people, one of the guys (Joseph Sherman) in our club headed over to the nearby pool room to do some work on the In the Groove 2‘s pads. I followed up later to check it out, and it was safe to say that the inside of the dance pads looked…really bad. Not so much that the sensors didn’t do their job of recognizing taps, but the dirt and grime that built up over the months couldn’t be removed by merely blowing and wiping on the internals. Interesting, considering a snug 1/4″-thick slab of Lexan (for each arrow) covered the box of electronics and sensors.
Since a picture would describe well, here’s one such box before any significant cleaning. Pardon the cell phone images:
We decided that one of the Lexan arrow panels would make a good photo prop. (in order: Joseph Sherman, myself, Jason Gilleece)
“I’m in your base, stealing your arrowz.”
Nevermind. The cleaning effort wasn’t really worth it then; we’re gonna need some heavier-duty equipment.
Kevin, also known as "PlasmaFire3000," is an electrical engineer who enjoys living for Jesus Christ, drawing, writing, reading, photography, music, video gaming, anime, manga, and sleepless attempts to build a death-ray laser cannon.
more about »
