> At around six, I began work again on the guiding grid of my left panel by untaping the ruler. I then used the 136 pairs of guiding dots to begin drawing the grid. Using my pink mechanical pencil, and following the guiding dots, I started to draw every other vertical line from right to left, but about ten lines in, I decided to draw every fifth line from left to right instead. This created a repeating pattern of four pairs of dots, and a vertical line. I then drew a line for the second and third pair of dots in each 5mm section from right to left. When I got to the left-most edge, the lines were very unevenly spaced apart, so I had to erase the first four vertical lines, and then redraw them. Finally, I drew the rest of the vertical lines, and doing so was relatively easy, because all of the remaining pair of dots had a vertical line immediately on either side. This made it easy to tell if any of the guiding dots were off-center, and allowed me to make the proper adjustments while drawing the last of the lines. Despite my concerns at the end of the previous session, the vertical lines turned out to be fairly evenly spaced apart. I'm going to take a break, and then proceed with the horizontal lines. I was supposed to finish painting the panel yesterday and finish drawing the guiding grids for the 4" angle irons today, so I still have a lot of catching up to do.

> I returned to the kitchen around 2:30AM to draw the horizontal lines of the grid. I drew the guiding dots on either side with my mechanical pencil, but drew every fifth dot with the black Micron. Because there were only 20 dots on each side, I didn't need to tape the ruler in place. After I drew the guiding dots, I noticed that the line that marked the top of the flame pattern was uneven; the left end was 21mm away from the top of the panel, but the right side was 22mm down from the top. Fortunately, when I drew the horizontal 5mm mark lines, I found that only the line at the top of the flames was severely off, while the lines I just drew were not off by all that much. After drawing the guiding dots at the sides of the panel, I realized that I left-most vertical line was drawn over the tape that held the panel to the protective paper cover. I cut off the part of the tape that the line was on with my X-Acto knife, and then redrew the line. However, I scratched the aluminum in the process. Hopefully, the upcoming paint job will conceal the scratch.

> By the time I had finished drawing the horizontal 5mm mark lines, I noticed that the penciled dots on the left side of the panel faded quickly, so I decided to redraw them all with the black Micron. But this time, I let the ink sit for about half an hour before drawing the horizontal lines. As for the rest of the horizontal lines, I followed the same procedure as with the vertical ones. Drawing every fifth horizontal line created a pattern of one line, and then four pairs of dots, and then another line, and four more pairs of dots, etc. I drew the lines for every second and third pair of dots in each group. This left each remaining pair of dots with a horizontal line immediately above and below it, allowing me to easily fill in the rest of the grid.

> The grid was completed just after four in the morning, and so I poured myself a glass of Pepsi, then went to work on the paint job right away. I opened the image of the pattern I wanted to paint on Paint Shop Pro 4, and zoomed in to a 10:1 ratio. When I painted the words on the right panel, I drew a 10 x 10 pixel marquee and put it over each letter as I painted its counterpart on the aluminum. This was because every letter was the same block size; 10 x 10 pixels, including the blank left and bottom edges reserved to evenly space the letters apart. However this time around, the letters varied in size, and did not have the same block size, so it wouldn't be practical to draw a marquee around each letter as I worked.

> Not long after I started working on the paintjob, I started having the first of many problems. I was drawing the light green portions of the image, and had drawn the light green half of the "C" in CES, and the light green half of "Creamy", when I noticed that the "C" in "Creamy" was one pixel too far too the left, and therefore every pixel drawn after it was one pixel too far to the left. So I tried to fix it by carefully using toothpicks to erase the errant pixels. I also used the black Micron to fill in areas where the green pixels were, but black ones should have been. After I had filled in a number of pixels in the bottom row with their proper colors, I noticed that the green and black pixels were hopelessly smudged together. This left me no choice but to fog the area with my breath, wrap the eraser end of the pencil with a paper towel, and wipe the area clean. Unfortunately, this meant erasing a significant portion of the grid as well. So after I took a quick shower to help take my mind off of the disaster, I came back and successfully redrew the grid. I used the green marker to fill in the appropriate squares with light green, and this time I had no problems.

> It's almost 9PM now, and I got back from Pearl Paint this afternoon. The hunter green Pigma Micron was still sold out, but I did manage to find an orange Micron 01 pen. I will use this marker for Mario's skin on one of my 4" angle irons. I also found a small can of Krylon Crystal Clear acrylic spray, with the help of one of the sales people. I will test this acrylic on one of my top hatch aluminum scraps by painting a pattern on the panel, letting it dry, and then spraying it with the acrylic. If the ink remains intact, and if I can't scratch it off with some reasonable effort, I will use it on the real thing once the paint job is finished. I paid $1.93 for the orange Micron, and $2.67 for the acrylic spray, but because these items will not be a part of CES, they will not effect the project's budget.

> Because I couldn't find the hunter green, I will finish the words on the panel with only the green that I already have. I was having concerns that the hunter green might be difficult to see in front of a black background, so I don't think that this is a bad decision. While I was at Pearl, I found that there was a Micron that was a lighter green than the one I've been using. I'll keep checking back periodically, and the next time I see the light green Microns in stock, I'll pick one up, unless the hunter greens beat them to it. I will then use the standard green along with the green that I find first to paint the 4" angle irons.

> It's just after 10PM now, and I painted two test patterns on one of the scrap aluminum panel a little earlier, one in the Pigma Microns, the other in Sharpies. Each pattern has four squares with two colors in a checkerboard pattern, surrounded by a thick black border. Tomorrow, I will take it outside and spray the scrap with the acrylic coating, and the result will determine weather or not I use the spray to protect my side panels. A little later in the night, I finished the letters on the left panel with the green Micron. After dinner, I will paint the black background, and hope the black and green ink doesn't smudge together again.

7/7/2004 - Yesterday, I began working towards getting the name of CES painted on its left panel. However, the words and lettering are going to be different this time around. Instead of saying "THE CREAMY ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM" in the classic NES font in a three row format, I'm going to paint the words, "CES - built by Jason "Creamy Goodness" Tenn" in the Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening_font. I'm using a smaller letters, which allows me to put the words in a two row format. The letters, from the top of the tallest letter to the lowest point of the "y", are going to be 10 pixels high. Each pixel will be one square millimeter, just like on the right panel, meaning the words will take up an overall height of two centimeters, which is the height of the area above the flames. This means that I won't have to erase any part of the flame pattern to make room for the words, like I did with the word "SYSTEM" on the right panel. So needless to say, finishing the left panel should be a hell of a lot easier than completing the right one. Unlike the right panel, I definitely will be using two shades of green this time around. On the top row of letters, each letter will have their top halves dark green, and their bottom halves light green, and the reverse will be true of the letters on the bottom row. This should give the illusion of a dark green lettering with a light green stripe running across the middle.

> After placing the left panel on top of a paper towel, I began drawing the dots for the guiding grid yesterday evening. I taped the ruler onto the top of the aluminum panel, millimeter side up and facing the panel. I then folded the bottom of the protective paper up and over the flames to protect them from any accidental rubbing off. I got about halfway done with drawing the dots along the top of the panel, when I had to go into town to grab a Pepsi and some candy. When I got back home, I was so beat from the walk back I crashed for a few hours. It wasn't until 11:30PM when I got back to my panel, and I finally drew all of the guiding dots on the top of the panel, 136 dots which were 1mm apart. I cut the ruler free of the panel, and was about to start drawing the bottom row of guiding dots, when I realized that the pencil marks I made on the top of the panel were too faded to see clearly, and also some of them were uneven. So I taped the ruler back onto the top of the panel, and redraw some of the faded dots. The dots kept fading, so I finally used my black Pigma Micron instead. After all 136 dots were redrawn, I let them dry while I took a short break. The ink should be dry by now, so I'll get continue on with the bottom of the 2cm section after I finish eating. It's just after three in the morning, so I'm not sure if I can get this grid done before I hit the hay.

> Before I continue, I would like to point out that I'm trying to get this project done by the end of the month. If I can't, fine, no big deal, but it would be nice to have an entire year before the QuakeCon of 2005 to really enjoy my completed machine, and to install the proper upgrades for the QuakeCon's case mod contest. After I wake up this afternoon, I will run over to Pearl Paint and see if the hunter green Pigma Micron has been restocked. I'll also see if they have Microns in white and tan for the angle iron patterns, and some lacquer for the finishing coat. When I get back, I will fill in all of the squares on the grid that I can with the appropriate Microns, with or without the dark green pen. Tomorrow, I'll draw the 1" x 4", 1/16 sq in grid on each of the 4" angle irons, and on the next day, use the Microns to fill in the Super Mario Brothers patterns. Saturday the 10th will be the day I put a second coat of paint on the sheets and angle irons, and then spray everything with the lacquer to officially finish CES's paintjob. Finally, on Sunday, I'll see if I can get to JD's house to use his vertical drill press, so I can drill the bolts holes in the bottom and side panels and angle irons, so I can bolt together the bottom and side portions of my chassis. With 20 days to go after that, I'll have a decent chance of finishing everything by the end of the month.

> It's almost 5:30AM, and I just finished drawing the bottom row of guiding dots on my left panel. These dots will be used to draw the vertical lines of the grid. I couldn't place the ruler on the bottom edge of the aluminum, since that would mean drawing the dots on top of the bottom of the flame pattern, and then pressing the ruler against of the flames to draw the vertical lines. This could scratch off some of the flames, so I was forced to place the ruler on the bottom of the blank space instead. Doing this raised the millimeter lines on the ruler above the panel, so it was impossible to draw the dots perfectly spaced apart. Because of this, the lines may turn out crooked as I draw the grid. Anyways, I'm off to bed, and I'll let the dots sit and dry until I get back in the afternoon.

7/4/2004 - Last night, I started what I had hoped to be the last session of work on my side panel before applying the lacquer to it to make the paint job permanent. I still had the cardboard taped to the panel, and I could squeeze the sides of the cardboard to bend it slightly in an arc, so that I could see some of the paint job underneath. I set up the desk lamp so I could better see the rectangular window mark I drew in pencil on the aluminum during the previous session. The next step was to erase everything within that rectangle to make room for the word "SYSTEM", and I was going to do that with the cardboard frame on. However, I felt it was more important to see rectangle clearly than it was to provide the panel with maximum protection. So I decided to remove the cardboard cover earlier than I'd originally planned. I used a toothpick to scrape off the inner parimeter of the rectangle, and then scraped away everything in the middle. For some reason, the light green square was the toughest to scrape away; the toothpick only faded it a little bit. There was still a lot of Sharpie residue within the rectangle, so I knew I had to resort to a more drastic method. I covered the panel with the cardboard frame without taping it on, fogged the rectangle with my breath, and then wiped the rectangle with a toothpick wrapped in a paper towel.

> Now that I had a clean slate to paint "SYSTEM" on, the next step was to draw the guiding grid within the rectangle, so I could later fill in the appropriate squares with my Pigma Micron 05 pens to paint on the word. With the cardboard cover off, I drew the horizontal midline in the now blank window, following the already existing squares on the left and right sides of the window. I then VERY carefully positioned the cardboard cover back over the aluminum panel, so that the midline lined up with its counterpart on the cover. I then taped the two panels securely together, so they could not slide. I used the lines on the cover to draw the eight remaining horizontal lines within the rectangle, and then removed the cover to check my work. The top line was uneven; the left side was very close to the top of the rectangle. In fact it was so close, I accidentally erased part of the line below the errant one, and it took me about half an hour to make the fix. I drew the vertical lines using the same interlacing pattern I used to draw the ones on the cover, odd lines first, and then the evens. After drawing all of the odd lines, I decided to take a break when I got caught up in about an hour of Capcom vs. SNK 2. When I got back, I drew the even vertical lines to finish the grid, and then paused again for dinner.

> After I had finished eating, I removed the cardboard cover from the aluminum panel, and began to fill the squares with the Microns to draw the word "SYSTEM". The first "S" went without a hitch. However, right after I took the pictures of the S, the cord of my headphones brushed against the letter from right to left, smudging it a little. I quickly repaired the letter by erasing the blank squares with a toothpick, and then redrawing the rest of the squares their appropriate colors. I completed most of the letters by painting each one from left to right; first drawing the black space to the left of the letter, then drawing the green letter itself, and finally filling in the rest of the black areas of the letter's square. When I got to the "T", there was a very thick vertical grid line that got me worried. The line ran along the right of the T, and I had to consider each side to be half of a square. With this in mind, I very carefully marked the right edge of the T by filling in the left half of the line, and the black pixel to the bottom and to the right of the letter by filling the right half of the line.

> When I finished all six letters in "SYSTEM", I was confident that that was the last of the work I had to do on the side panel for a while. After I was done admiring my work, I wrapped the panel in plastic so I could put it away. BIG mistake. Just as I was about to take the panel upstairs to my room to put it away, I noticed the word "SYSTEM" was a little smudged. Frantically but carefully, I unwrapped the plastic, and every letter in the word was smudged! It took me about half an hour to fix the damage, and when I was finished, the letters looked almost as good as they did before. The next time I do a paint job like this, I will give the Pigma or Sharpie ink at least six hours to dry before wrapping it with anything. I'd like to think that this bad experience makes me one mistake smarter. Also, I'm never going to wear headphones while painting again either. Another mistake smarter, I suppose. Anyways, I finished the painting session around two or three this morning, and I spent the next two hours doing random searches on Google before going to bed.

> My parents threw a Fourth of July party today, and we had several guests over, including my sister Jennifer. When she arrived, she lent me her dark and light green Sharpie markers. After I finish both painting side panels, and all four 4" angle irons, I will give everything one last coat of Pigma and Sharpie ink, and then apply a coating of lacquer or polyurethane to everything, officially finishing CES's paint job. But first, I'll have to buy some lacquer and polyurethane, and test them on one of my top hatch aluminum scraps to see which one better preserves a test paint job.

7/3/2004 - I began work on the protective cardboard frame for my side panel yesterday, but I didn't get as much work done as I wanted to. I found a nice, thin piece of cardboard in a small cabinet here in the kitchen. Using my pink mechanical pencil, I first drew the cut lines in the cardboard to cut out a 4" x 7" section, the same size as my side panels. I measured the aluminum panel to determine where the word "SYSTEM" would go, which was just below the word "ENTERTAINMENT" on its left edge. From the upper-left corner of the panel, the upper-left corner of "SYSTEM" turned out to be 25mm x 22mm, while the lower-right corner was at 85mm x 32mm. I drew the window cut lines on the cardboard based on these measurements, so that the resulting rectangle would be the same position on the cardboard as "SYSTEM" on the aluminum. After doing so, I saw my parents moving a bunch of trees to the backyard one branch at a time, so I took a break to assist them, which took about an hour. After coming back, I cut out the 4" x 7" section of the cardboard cover.

> I needed to eventually draw a guiding grid on the aluminum to draw "SYSTEM", and in order to make that task easier, I drew the 1mm grid lines on the cardboard, but this was far more tedious that you might think. I began with the guide dots for the vertical lines, and there were about 60 of them to draw, all 1mm apart. I used Scotch tape to attach my ruler securely to the top of the cardboard sheet, and then careful drew the dots. When all the dots were drawn on the top of the sheet, I repeated the process on the bottom of the sheet, and then at the bottom edge of the 6cm x 1cm rectangle. I then drew the dots for the horizontal lines on the sides of the sheet. There were only nine dots on each side, so I didn't need to tape on the ruler. By the time I got around to drawing the grid lines on the cardboard, it was already night. I began drawing the vertical lines through the future window. I drew the lines in an interlacing pattern; drawing every other line, and then drawing the ones I had skipped (odds, then evens). However, I got so bored drawing all those lines, that I found myself Web surfing for a few hours. Despite this distraction, I eventually did finish the odd-number lines. When I was about two thirds done with the even-numbered lines, my parents began to watch Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, so I decided to join them. When the movie was over, it was about 1AM. I drew the rest of the vertical lines, and then it was easy to draw the nine long horizontal lines.

> Once all the lines were drawn, I used my X-Acto knife to cut out the 6cm x 1cm window in the cardboard, and then placed the window over where "SYSTEM" should go on the side panel. The window didn't line up exactly with "SYSTEM", so I had to push the cardboard panel slightly up and to the right. I then marked the parimeter of the window on the aluminum sheet, and then took off the cardboard to get a good look at the mark. It was exactly in the right position, and so I put the cardboard back exactly the way it was before, and then taped it in place.

> Today, I'm going to try to find a way to erase the Sharpie marks within the window, so I can then draw the word "SYSTEM" in its place. Hopefully, I'll get a lot of work done today without all of the distractions. It's just after 5:30PM, so there's still time to finish the panel today.

7/2/2004 - I think I may have found a solution on how to paint the word "SYSTEM" on my side panel without stripping any paint that's not supposed to come off. I could build a cardboard protective frame that would be the same size as the side panel, and cut a 6cm x 1cm window in the cardboard where "SYSTEM" will be on the aluminum. I would start with a thin piece of cardboard, cut it down to the size of the side panel, mark both cut lines for the window and grid guide lines for the letters, cut out the window, and then tape the cardboard over the aluminum. If I measure the window correctly, it should expose the exact spot where "SYSTEM" should be. Then, I will erase all of the Sharpie ink that shows through the window, and then use the grid guide lines to draw the grid, and hope that this new grid lines up with the one I used to paint "THE CREAMY ENTERTAINMENT". I will then use the Pigma Microns to paint in the word as usual. My only hope is that I can find enough time between my CompTIA_A+ studying to get it done today. It's just after 2AM, so I still have plenty of hours in the day to make it happen.

6/29/2004 - At around 6PM last night, I continued to work on painting the top two rows of CES's name on my side panel with my new black and green Pigma Micron pens. I completed painting the word "ENTERTAINMENT", which spanned the entire length of the name's parimeter in the middle row, and this gave me an extra reference when painting the top row of letters. I painted the "E" in the word "THE", and then spent the next two hours painting the word "CREAMY". I did have a few slip-ups while completing the letters that day, but nothing too serious. After the top two rows of letters were completed, my panel read "THE CREAMY ENTERTAINMENT", and I used a black Sharpie to fill in the empty spaces; the space between "THE" and "CREAMY", and whatever was to the right of "CREAMY". The Sharpie marks didn't look like the same shade of black as the black from the Micron, but I assumed this would correct itself once all the ink dried. However, nearly 24 hours later, the ink is all dry, and the blacks from the two pens still don't match. I may someday end up scratching off the Sharpie ink on the top of the panel and replace it with Micron ink.

> I took the protective paper towel off of the panel, and got a good look at what my panel would look like when completed. I noticed a lot of tiny missing areas in the flames, so I took the black Sharpie and filled them in. Even though I was done for the night, I still had one final step to go before the panel could be considered finished; painting the word "SYSTEM" on the bottom row. This would not be easy, as I would have a lot of problems to overcome. I will have to remove the existing flame pattern in the 6cm x 1cm area where "SYSTEM" will be before painting over that area. Normally, I would draw guiding lines on the panel to make a box which would tell me the position and size of the "SYSTEM" space, but doing so would ruin the paintjob of the flames and the letters. Also, I have to think of a way to remove the paint without scratching the panel. Once the Sharpie ink is gone from the section, I'll have to draw a grid of 1 sq mm lines which line up with the letters on the top two rows, so "SYSTEM" does not look crooked below the other words. And on top of all that, I have to somehow protect the entire panel so my hands don't smudge the ink.

6/28/2004 - At around 6 or 7 AM yesterday, I began to apply color to my side panel. I began by figuring out where the name should go on the top of the panel. I decided to put the left-most portion of the letters 25mm right of the left edge of the panel, instead of 20mm as in my original plans. This way, there would be some space between the left 4" angle iron and the left edge of the letters. I used the black Pigma Micron 05 to draw a 130mm x 20mm border around the area where I planned to draw the letters.

> Once the border was in place, I got started on the letters, which were 10x10 pixels each. I brought Glamdring down to the kitchen, and with Paint Shop Pro 4, I opened the CES name image and zoomed in 10:1 so I could more easily copy the pattern from digital to aluminum. I began with the letter "T" of the word "THE" in the upper-left corner of the image, but once again I got off to a rocky start. I misread the true size of the pixels twice, causing me to first draw the T eight pixels wide instead of six, and then to make the horizontal part of the T two pixels thick instead of one. In order to erase the errant pixels, I fog-breathed on them and then wiped them off with a paper towel. When I turned on PSP's grid feature, the positions of the pixels became a lot clearer.

> Once the T was finished sans the dark green ink I didn't yet have, I drew the "E" below it in the word "ENTERTAINMENT". After I drew the light green part of the "E", I was in the process of inking the black pixels at the bottom of the letter when I unexpectantly ran out of room on the bottom and fell a row of pixels short. At first, I thought I might have accidentally put an extra pixel of space between the T and E, but looking closer I found that I had made the T one pixel too long. In order to fix this, I had to erase the bottom two pixels of the T, and then painstakingly brought everything below the bottom of the T up one pixel, which meant a lot of fog breath erasing and redrawing. The toughest part about redrawing the pixels was that whenever I erased errant pixels, the portion of the grid under it would often fade considerably. This meant whenever I drew over a portion I had just erased, I had to strain my eyes that much harder to see the grid so I could put the pixels in the right places. However, I discovered that using a toothpick is an effective way of erasing smaller errors, because the small tip means I can erase an error more accurately, the error rubs off more neatly, and the grid doesn't fade as much as with the fog and wipe technique.

> Around 12:30AM, my mother brought down her desk lamp so I could see what I was doing more clearly. This would also use less electricity that having all four ceiling lights above the table on. The lamp made the grid a lot clearer, especially when I had to draw over partially erased section of grid from an earlier error.

> The next letter I drew was the "H" of "THE", but I then decided it would be best if I first completed "ENTERTAINMENT" in the middle row. The space between "THE" and "CREAMY" could cause certain problems when positioning the C, so I figured that I could use "ENTERTAINMENT" as a guide to get the correct position on the word "CREAMY". I made it all the way up to the second "N", so when I finally called it a "night" at around six this morning, my panel read "TH ENTERTAIN". The technique I used for most of the letters was to first position a 10 x 10 pixel marquee around the letter in the CES gif. I would then copy the isolated letter by drawing the black negative space around the letter, and then drawing in the light green letter itself. I would have then drawn the dark green halo around the letter if I had a hunter green Pigma Micron on me, but that will have to wait another couple weeks for Pearl Paint to restock those pens. The last thing I did before heading off to bed was give the drying green letters another coat of ink, since they were starting to look faded. I plan to do some further work on the panel as son as I finish typing out this report, and I'll report today's session sometime tomorrow.

6/27/2004 - I continued working on painting one of CES's side panels during this morning's pre-dawn hours. But before I started to work on the actual panels, I decided to give my Pigma Micron 05 markers a quick round of tests. On one of my aluminum top hatch cut-outs, I drew a series of dots 1/16" apart along the top and right edges with my blue Micron. I blew on the marks a few times, and then lightly pressed the edge of my right hand against the marks. The marks partially came of on my hand, but did not smudge. I drew a series of dots along the bottom edge, and began to use the top and bottom dots to draw vertical lines. However, I screwed up the lines early on, so I moved right on to another test. I drew a small, solid square on the top-left corner of the panel, and planned to come back later to see if it would dry well.

> I took one of my side panels still in its paper towel, four Microns, my pink mechanical pencil, and my trusty ruler to the kitchen to finally begin painting CES's name on the panel. But before I began, I wrapped the paper towel around the panel to cover the green flames, so that only the unpainted top two centimeters were visible. My mother applied a piece of Scotch tape on the paper on either side of the panel while I held everything in place. Once the existing flames were protected, I used my pink pencil to make the line marks 1 millimeter along the left and right edges of the top 5" x 2cm section of the panel. The panel is seven inches wide, but I set aside an inch on either side for 4" angle irons which will cover the side panels. Once the marks were done, I then used the ruler to connect the dots, making the horizontal lines. The lines weren't as evenly spaced as I would have liked them to be, but it should still be good enough for the grid.

> The vertical lines are proving to be far more difficult and tedious to draw than the horizontal ones. These lines were a lot shorter that the horizontals, but there will be a lot more of them when the grid is done. So when I made the line marks on the top and bottom edges, I had to tape the ruler in place to keep it from slipping as I made the marks. After completing the marks, I started to draw the vertical lines. The toughest part was working around the existing vertical lines which were 5mm apart, because they weren't exactly even, and I made the mistake of assuming they were. So I had to draw new lines over them to make the correction. The existing lines were already quite a bit faded, especially at the edges, so it was easy to tell them apart from the new lines. Around five or six in the morning, I completed the first 5cm of vertical lines on the left side before heading off to bed. Today, I plan to complete the grid, and then fill in the squares for the black and light green pixels. The dark green pixels will have to wait until I can get my hands on a hunter green Pigma Micron 05 pen, hopefully in two weeks time.

> It's almost 7:30PM, and I just finished drawing the grid of 1mm squares on my side panel, but I didn't have an easy time. The pencil line marks became hard to see and quite frankly I didn't trust them. So I began using my black Micron to draw the marks, which made my job easier. But still, the marks were a little crooked, so I had to compensate when drawing the lines. Some lines turned out crooked, so I had to redraw them. The grid was too small to erase any wayward lines, so I was forced to just draw over them and I hope I don't follow the wrong lines when I fill the grid with the Microns.

> By the way, the blue test square I drew this morning is now dry. About an hour after I first drew it, I pressed on it lightly with the edge of my hand, and the ink didn't come off. But when I pressed harder, only a little ink ended up on my hand. Now, the square still looks solid and un-faded, and the ink no longer comes off. I'd say that the Microns have passed the smudge test.

6/24/2004 - This afternoon, I went to our local Pearl Paint on Route 17 to pick up some Pigma Micron markers. These are fine-point markers that can write on aluminum pretty clearly and not smudge as badly as many other markers. Fortunately, the markers came in a variety of colors as I'd hoped, but a lot of the colors I needed were sold out. There were many tip sizes, the smallest being 005. The best I could do was to buy a pack of six 05 markers, which had four of the colors I need to paint the sides of CES. I now have black, light green, red and light brown, but I still need white, dark green, and yellow markers. It's a good thing that the set included a black pen, because I left my black Micron 02 pen in Aventura. According to the cashier I talked to, the markers should be restocked in about two weeks, so I'll return to pick them up then. The markers cost me $13.57, but because they will be used as a tool to build my computer and won't be an actual part of it, the cost of the markers will not be factored into CES's budget. Even though I don't currently have all the colors I need to finish painting CES's side, I can still work with the pens I have, and then finish the job once I get the other three colors. As I was deciding which markers to buy, I tested two of them on the aluminum cut-out middle portions of my top hatch, in order to see how the markers would smudge. I used a black Micron to make a tiny mark on one of my aluminum pieces, and then rubbed the mark with the edge of my hand. I gentle rub didn't smudge the mark, but a harder one nearly erased it. I figure that as long as I give any marks I make with my new markers about a minute to dry before going near it, I can probably reduce the chance of the patterns smudging on my side panels.

> Yesterday, I picked up my first, last, and only paycheck from A&P, for my training for a cashier job that I just wasn't cut out for. The check was for a little over $90; not bad for a job in which I didn't last for much more than a week. I already have $28 in change sitting on my tall dresser, and that cash will go towards the mounting rack for my slimline drives. The next time I can get to the bank, I will deposit $50 into my diminishing account, and cash the rest. Then, I should be able to afford the mounting rack. Once I order and receive it, I will then try to figure out exactly how to mount it to CES's bottom panel.

6/16/2004 - Last night and through the earliest hours of this morning, I was working on finishing the left door of my top hatch. Leaving the protective tape on the aluminum panel, I placed it on top of one of my two remaining lexan panels, which was still protected by the paper that it was shipped with. I held the two panels together with about five or six pieces of Scotch tape in order to keep the panels from slipping apart as I drilled. I then began drilling through the drill holes already in the aluminum panel, and continuing to drill through the lexan. As I was drilling the first hinge hole, I noticed that the panels were slightly crooked, but decided to continue anyway. Once I had bolted on the hinges, they were extremely crooked, and I ended up wasting the whole fucking lexan sheet. Fortunately, I still had the third lexan panel to fall back on. Using the same procedure, but being much more careful in lining up the panels, I repeated the process. This time however, the hinges, and everything else went on straight, and I was pleased with the result.

> After all the holes were drilled in the lexan sheet, I separated the left door's two panels by removing the bolts and Scotch tape. I then peeled off all the tape from the aluminum sheet, took the panel to the slop sink and, using lots of soap and a small scrubber, scrubbed away as much of the masking tape residue as I could. After the aluminum panel was clean, and I peeled off the protective tape from the lexan sheet, I put the two panels back together and very carefully bolted the hinges, knob, and roller catch back into place. Finally, I had CES's entire top hatch completed. As a final step, I went into the garage and recovered some drawers which contained some screws, bolts, and nuts. After a bit of searching, and found a matching pair of nuts which fit the fastening screws for the top hatch's brass knobs. I removed the knobs from the top hatch by separating the knobs from their fastening screws, placed the nuts onto the screws, put the screws back into the panels, and fastened the knobs onto the other side of the screws. I then sandwiched the panels in between the knobs and nuts tightly. The result was that the knobs were fixed a lot more tightly than the nuts on the other side of the panels.

> Because the middle sections of the aluminum panels were removed in the creation of the hatch doors, three and a half ounces were shaved off of the total weight of CES. The official weight was 9 lbs, 2.5 ounces before I cut out the middle of the panels, so now the official weight of CES becomes 8 lbs, 15 ounces. The heaviest item left to add to CES's weight is now the Via Epia V10000A motherboard I have yet to buy, and that weighs a little over half a pound. With still more weight to chop out of the chassis to accommodate the top hatch hinges and the fans, I think I still have a very good shot at staying under the ten pound limit.