CES Report - Section 11:
7/9/2004 to 7/19/2004
7/19/2004 - It's almost 1PM, and I just thought of a way to accurately paint the white portions of my angle irons. For the past few weeks, I've been searching for a white permantent marker with a fine enough tip to paint the pixels without going over the grid lines. I couldn't find such a marker, and was ready to give up on the white and put the finishing coat on the angle irons without it. But just now, I figured that if I can make a cardboard eraser shield of the parts I wanted to paint, I could use my 1.0 Pen-touch marker to fill in the white pixels without painting over the other colors. There aren't that many white areas, and I'd only have to make eraser shields of the following shapes; the outer rim of the Fire Flower's oval, the eyes of the Koopa Troopa, the three pixels of the KT's shell highlight which I can also use for the shell's edges, and a four-bar tetrad for the rest of shell's edges.
> The next thing that occurred to me was that if I could use this masking technique for the white pixels, I may be able to use it for the light green ones as well. The angle irons only have one shape that will be colored light green; the trapazoid shape of the 3D blocks. Each block has one such shape on the top and on the left sides. Therefore, I only need to make one trapezoid shaped mask for the blocks, and then fill in all of the light green pixels with my sister Jennifer's light green Sharpie marker. This means that I won't have to buy the fresh green Pigma Micron anymore.
> This left only the yellow pixels un-accounted for. I figured that if I am to use the light green Sharpie in place of a fresh green Pigma Micron, I can also save money by borrowing a yellow Sharpie from Jen. I could then using the same eraser shield technique for Mario's skin and suspender buttons, the coins, and middle rim of the Fire Flower. I'm going to be busy reading the book for my CompTIA_A+ studies, so I may not be able to get any work done on my angle irons today.
7/17/2004 - Yesterday morning, I found a bottle of Wite-Out in the small wooden drawer on the pay table. This is the same bottle that I used to mark the cut lines for my front panel components back in January. There is a wedge-shaped rubber brush attatched to the cap, and when I get a chance, I will test it out on my second top hatch aluminum scrap sheet. If the brush passes the test, I will then use it to paint the white parts of the flames on my side panels. The flames are based on 5mm square grids, and if I have no problems filling them in, I may then use the brush on the much smaller 1/16" squares of the Fire Flower and Koopa Troopa angle irons.
> During this morning's pre-dawn hours, I decided to once again search the house for discarded items, so I can eventually use them in CES. I had to keep it down, because I didn't want to awaken my cousin Marie or my parents. About a month ago, I lost track of my grandmother's clock radio, and to this day I'm regretting not grabbing it and stuffing it into my closet when I had the chance. At the time, I didn't realize exactly how perfect it was as a potential four-button switch board for my cold cathode fan grills. It had four white small constant contact buttons, lined up in a row, and the buttons had a good feel to them to. I don't understand what could have happened to it; it was in the back of the Maxima, and my dad said he didn't touch it. I may or may not have taken it out, and if I did, I sure as hell don't remember what I did with it. On the off chance it ever does come up again, I'm going to sieze it and duct tape its ass to my closet so it can't escape. But I don't think I will ever see it again, so I'm still fishing around for another potential switchboard, or at least a front panel plate for the grills' existing switches.
> While in the basement, I was digging through the two bottom drawers of the bookcase, and I came up with a couple of things I thought I could someday use for CES, including a thin audio/video wire. If I ever to get around to replacing the wire on my junk power button, I felt that this A/V wire would be a good choice. I also found a clear, unopened plastic bag that had strange items in it. It also contained four long, thin screws, which I thought would be good replacements for the ones that came with my fan grills. The screws I already had were too short to pass through the mounting holes of a grill, then through the bottom or back panel, and then through the mounting holes of the fan. So I took the bag upstairs, and without opening it, I checked to see if a screw inside would fit through the fan holes, which it did. But when I tested the screw on the holes on one of my grills, the screw was too wide, so I had to return the bag to where I got it.
> Without my grandmother's clock radio, I was forced to look for alternatives for my fan grill switch mounting plate for my front panel. At first, I considered using the buttons on a busted CFS-204 Radio Cassette-Corder as my grill buttons, but after I figured out how they worked, I realized that they were no use to me. The buttons' holes were the right size for my existing fan grill switches, but the buttons had a concaved parimeter around them, which would prevent me from attatching the switches on securely. I also considered tearing apart my NES Advantage joystick and using its constant contact switches, but I just didn't have the heart to destroy a controller that's been so good to me, even if I may never use it again. I then considered my other controllers when looking for a posible faceplate. The only controller I was willing to chop down was an 8-button controller I got from Radio Shack, but the buttons on it rested on a concaved pattern, which prevented me from securely attaching my switches to the buttons' holes. So the hunt for a fan grill switchboard or face plate goes on.
7/16/2004 - A little after midnight, the white ink on my right panel had dried, so I scraped off all traces of it with a toothpick. I'm going to give myself until I finish painting the fresh green and yellow Pigma Micron markers on the angle irons to find a better alternative to painting the white pixels. Otherwise, I'm just going to have to apply the finishing coat without it. I'm thinking that some kind of Wite-Out may do the trick, but only if I can find an appropriate applicator to get it onto my angle irons.
7/15/2004 - I came back from Pearl Paint a little after 8PM today after a half hour walk. Pearl didn't have the Pigma Microns in fresh green or yellow, but I was able to place an order for them, and according to the lady behind the counter, they should arrive at the store in a matter of days. After picking up a second black Micron 05, I went to a counter at the back of the store, and asked the person behind the counter if there was any such thing as a white fine point permanent marker. He gave me a white Pen-touch 1.0 marker, and said it would good for writing on aluminum.
> A week ago, I bought a can of Krylon Crystal Clear acrylic coating at Pearl, and tested it on a scrap piece of aluminum. The acrylic didn't cause the test ink pattern to run or otherwise distort, and it protected the pattern from rubbing off. However, I could easily scratch off the acrylic, taking bits of the pattern with it. So here I was back at Pearl looking for an alternative. Taking the advice of the Customer Service person, I picked up a can of Chartpak Clear Gloss Spray. All three items; the black Micron, and the white Pen-touch, and the Chartpak spray, cost me over $11.
> I tested the white Pen-touch on the second aluminum scrap from the top hatch by trying to draw a small square in one of the corners. At first, I nothing came out of the pen, but after considerable shaking and pressing in the retractable tip in with my finger, I was able to get it to work. The ink dried completely in less than an hour, and when it did, I tested its permanence by scraping it with my fingernail. The ink came off very easily, and if I wanted to, I could take off the mark while leaving very little residue.
> Before I trusted the while pen on my angle irons, I used it to draw the white area of the flames on my right panel. The pen was twice as thick as the 05 Microns, and its round tip made it very hard to make precision marks. I was afraid to do the corners completely and avoided them, so I wouldn't paint over the light green areas of the flames. I then tried a method of getting more precise marks by dipping a toothpick into the tip of the pen, and then using the toothpick as a writing instrument. However, I couldn't transfer ink from the toothpick to the panel. Furthermore, I think I may have damaged the pen's tip, because it started poking out farther than it had before, and looked like it was ready to fall out of the pen. This made using it even more difficult. Then, the pen stopped writing and I had to shake it again, and this to me was the final straw. I decided not to use the pen for my white pixels after all. I got as far as making three marks on the panel, but decided that I would scrape off the ink, but I would have to wait for it to dry first.
7/14/2004 - Once all the black pixels of the Coins and Koopa Troopa angle irons were painted, I allowed the black ink to partially dry while I purged the pictures of the camera. About 40 minutes later, I returned to the kitchen to continue decorating the angle irons. I used the green Pigma Micron to paint the green parts of the 3D block and the shadows of the coins on the Coins beam. As for the Koopa Troopa beam, I used green to paint the brick's outline, then the turtle's shell, eyes, and nostril, and finally filling in the green bricks. I used the orange Micron to draw the highlights on the coins. Sometime after midnight, I went upstairs to take a break and soon my mother frantically called me back downstairs. When I got back to the kitchen, the coins angle iron was smudged; my dad had accidentally brushed up against it. Fortunately, I was able to fix it in about half an hour. After fixing a bit of smudging on the turtle's shell on the KT beam, I just let both beam sit until around 6:30AM, which is when I applied the orange Micron to all orange areas of the beam; the face, the feet, and the quilted pattern on the shell. An hour later, I felt that the ink on the beams was dry enough to remove the beams from the table, so that's what did. I put them where the other two beams were; on the high chair next to the table, out of the way of anyone having breakfast this morning. Once the ink is completely dry, I will wrap them each in a sheet of plastic, and put them back in the shoebox.
> When I ordered the slimline mounting rack yesterday, I was going to also order a yellow and a fresh green Pigma Micron, but the shipping and handling fee was over ten bucks, so I thought, "fuck it, it's not worth it". Mom suggested that I go to Pearl Paint and ask them to order the markers, so I can come back when they arrive and pick them up. If I'm awake to do so, I'll see if I can stop by Pearl today and make the orders. I'll also ask them if any white, ultra fine point permanent exist.
7/13/2004 - It's almost 2AM, and after a short break, I'm about to continue working on painting my angle irons. I really wanted to get them finished yesterday, but I once again underestimated the scale of a task, and couldn't finish in a timeframe that I wanted to. It doesn't matter though; I just want to see this thing done. Then, I can focus on my CompTIA_A+ exams.
> It's almost 2:30AM, and I FINALLY finished drawing the grid for my fourth and final angle iron. Drawing the guide dots on the right edge of the angle iron was pretty straight forward; tape the aluminum ruler in place with tape on the right side, draw the dots on the left, take the ruler off, put it back on with the tape on the left, and draw the dots on the right. This time however, I used the pink pencil the draw the dots instead of the black Micron. However, drawing the horizontal lines proved to be more of a challenge. I couldn't draw the lines with the aluminum ruler as the edge, because the left end of the ruler would bump into the Mario angle iron I had taped to the side of the table, four and a half inches to the left of the angle iron I was drawing the grid on. So I went to the other side of the table, closed Glamdring and reached over it, and when I used the ruler as my edge this time, the ruler stuck out to my left, which was now away from the Mario angle iron. Using the interlacing method, I completed the horizontal lines of the grid. But when I crossed back over to the opposite side of the table, I noticed that the lines were leaning to one side. This is really no surprise, since the top and bottom edges are not exactly at right angles with the side edges. I'm going to make this beam my Fire Flower beam, since it has the most blank space on the top and bottom of the other beams. This will hopefully make the slant less noticable.
> After I finished the grid on my last angle iron, I moved it about eight and a half inches across the table to the right to give myself some space to work on it, so my elbows wouldn't run into one beam as I worked on the other. Because the future Fire Flower beam was now so close to the end of the table, I didn't have anywhere to rest my arm while working on painting it. But I found it easier to work from the far end of the table, and reach across to the beam. It was still an awkward position, since I had to keep looking over my right shoulder to see Glamdring's screen in order to follow the pattern on the gif.
> When I drew the pattern onto the Fire Flower beam, I started with black. I began by drawing the top-most completely black row below the spent "?" block. This made the crookedness of the grid even more obvious, but I was hoping that would fix itself as I got furthur along. I then drew the four bolts of the spent "?" block, but they were one pixel too high, so I had to lower them. I then drew the all black row on top of the "?" block, and then proceded to outline the flower from bottom to top. Once I finished outlining the top of the flower, I then filled in the black spaces between the block and the stem, and between the stem and the oval part of the flower. Next, I filled in the blank vertical spaces on either side of the block with black. I took a short break to move the pictures in the camera to Candybox, and then purge the camera's pictures. When I got back to the kitchen, I blackened everything below the block on the Fire Flower angle iron, and then everything above the flower. I used a lot of black Micron ink filling in so much space, and it's possible that I might need a new one to finish the rest of the angle irons.
> With all of the black spaces on the Fire Flower beam filled, I focussed my attention again to the Mario beam. Using the black Micron, I outlined the black parts of the 3D block at the bottom of the beam, which were the bottom and right sides of the block. I then outlined the black on the left and right sides of Mario's legs, and then outlined the black area between his legs. My next stop was the outline of the face. Starting with the two black pixels just under the tip of the hat, I followed the outline of Mario's face down to his left arm. But when I got there, I fell one pixel short the sleeve. At first, I thought I made a mistake in the outline. But after extensive checking, I eventually realized that the spent "?" block at the top of the beam was positioned one pixel too high. This was because I forgot that the angle irons were not exactly four inches high, but 1/16" taller. The space at the top was supposed to be null, but I confused that for the top row of the beam when I based the top block on it. Therefore, the block and everything I positioned based on it was one pixel too high, which explained why I was falling one pixel short of the sleeves. I'm going to have to fix that before I get to anything else.
> It's almost six-thirty in the morning, and I've just finished moving the spent "?" block and Mario's hat down one row. My next move on the beam is to continue outlining the black spaces, but in order to give the red and green ink time to dry, I'm going to move on to the Fire Flower beam, and apply the orange and green to it. This should be a piece of cake now that the background is in, unless of course I make any more major errors.
> Using the orange Pigma Micron 01 for the first time, I filled in the center of the flower's oval, and it went off without a hitch. Using an 01 pen feels a little different from using an 05; The finer tip made me feel like I had a lot more leeway, and it made me feel more in control of what I was drawing. I then drew the inner outline of the flower's stem and leaves with the green Micron, and then filled in the area with green. It was at this point when I noticed that the flower was one pixel too high above the block. But since it would be WAY too much of a bitch to correct at this point, and because it's not really that big a deal, I decided to let it slide. I finished with the green by outlining the spent "?" with green, and then filling in the block completely.
> Going back to the Mario beam, I drew the black outline of the face from the tip of the hat down, but kept going until I reached the bottom of the sleeve. I then started the black outline at the tip of the hat again, but this time I went in the other direction. I outlined the rest of the hat, the back of the head, and then down to the bottom of Mario's right sleeve. However, I did have a bit of a scare. I was eating pizza at the time, and the napkin I was holding must have brushed against the angle iron. As a result, there was a black streak that travelled upwards and to the right. As a stroke of incredible luck, most of the streaks passed through areas that were going to be black anyway. The only exceptions were the tip of the hat and a small streak through the "?" block. I already fixed the "?", and already scratched off the tip of the hat, but I'm going to wait until the black is a bit drier before filling the red back in.
> It's after 8AM, and I just finished applying the black ink to my Mario angle iron. I outlined the spent "?" block and inked in the four bolts. The bolts were not as easy as I would have liked them to have been, because they got a little blurred when I moved the block down one row. Then, finishing the black was only a matter of filling in the black sections, one by one, from the top_down. I don't yet have a yellow Micron, so finishing the brown sections will do it for the Mario angle iron for today. I'm going to bed now, and the black ink on the beam should be dry by the time I get back to the kitchen. I just hope nobody smudges it while I'm gone; that would suck royally.
> It's almost 6:30PM, and the Mario beam is now as completed as it's going to get today. I finished the brown coloring by first outlining the boots and working up to the mustache and eyes, and then filling in the outlines starting with the eyes and the sideburns, then working down to the boots. After the brown ink dries, I'm going to remove the beam from the table and put it in a safe place.
> It's almost 8PM, and I just ordered the slim CD and floppy drive mounting rack from MPI Services. The price was $19, and the cheapest shipping and handling charge available was UPS Ground, which was $9.26. The total cost was $28.26, but I gave my mother $29, because she's the one who takes care of the credit cards in this house.
$706.93 total budget + $10.00 more spent = $716.93 total budget
Items bought so
far...
2-WIRE
JUMPER CABLE 2 Pin Internal 24 inches from PCCables.com
- $7.00
Assorted
LEDs from Radio Shack -
$2.64
CES's
12" x 7" x 4" aluminum chassis materials from OnlineMetals.com
- $61.00
3 6"
x 7" x 1/8" lexan panels from FreckleFace.com
- $12.00
2 hard
drive coolers from HardwareCooling.com
- $17.00
2 80mm
Green Cold Cathode Fan Grills from FrozenCPU.com
- $21.00
2 brass
concave knobs from the Home
Depot - $2.11
1 pair
of middle brass hinges from the Home Depot - $3.12
2 brass
roller catches from the Home Depot - $2.00
17 packs
of various nuts and bolts from the Home Depot - $14.00
1 Samsung
120GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive from NewEgg.com
- $90.00
1 Slim CD + 1.44M FDD
Adapter from MPI Services - $29.00
Money spent so far
- $260.87
Current
shopping
list...
1 VIA
EPIA V10000A 1Ghz Motherboard - $87.99
2 512MB
PC133 SDRAM DIMM - $171.98
1 Slimline
CD Desktop to IDE Adapter - $9.99
1 Samsung
Slimline CDRW/DVD drive - $81.99
1 Slimline
FDD Adapter - $9.99
1 Mitsumi Slimline
Floppy drive - $26.99
1 Directron
Tri-Lighted 40mm Case Fan - $9.99
1 PW-60A
external power supply - $49.95
1 Bart Simpson Case
Badge - $0.01
UPS Ground
Residential
shipping for Directron
items - $7.18
Money left to
spend
- $456.06
Total cost of CES - $716.93
> Sometime before 8:30PM, I resumed work on my two remaining angle irons. I taped them both to the edge of the table on either side of my chair, making sure to keep the bottom of each image facing me. As before, I began with the black background. I started on the Coins beam, outlining the 3D block on the bottom of the beam, and then the two coins above it. This completed the black outline of the Coins beam.
> I then moved right on the Koopa Troopa beam. I marked the bottom black horizontal line of the brick block, and then the three uninterupted black lines above it. I then drew the vertical lines to form the bricks. After that, I outlined and filled in the area under the mouth and the three black pixels under the back of the shell. I outlined the top of the shell and the top of the head, but this didn't go flawlessly. I drew the black space in the mouth one pixel too short, so I had to fix it and everything I based on it. Fortunately, this didn't give me too much of a problem. With the black outlines of the Coins and Koopa Troopa beams completed, I filled in the black areas. I did the the Coins beam first, thickening the outline of the coins for some extra leeway, and then filling in the rest of the black areas. As for the Koopa Troopa beam, I filled in everything above the turtle with black, and then followed suit with everything below the brick block.
7/12/2004 - I didn't get nearly as much work done as I would have liked to yesterday, because not only did my nephews Austin and Brandon show up, but my cousin Marie also stopped by. The only thing I did manage to get done was draw the 15 vertical grid lines on one of my 4" angle irons. I began by taping the beam to the kitchen table with three pieces of Scotch tape; two on the side of the table, and one the top. I used my aluminum ruler and pink mechanical pencil to draw 15 guiding dots on the top and 15 on the bottom. The ruler by itself was lower than the angle iron, so I used one of my top hatch aluminum scraps to bring the ruler up to the beam's height. Drawing the 15 vertical lines was a bit tricky. I tried using my aluminum ruler as an edge, but on a four inch beam, it kept wobbling. So I used a six inch, plastic GTFM ruler instead. The tape holding the beam to the top of the table was in the way of the lines, so to avoid running over it, I removed it and put one piece of tape on either side of the beam on the top of the table. These new pieces hugged the edge of the table, allowing me to draw three or four lines on the other side of the beam. When the lines reached the top pieces of tape, peeled back the tape a little to make room for more lines. When I reached the last few lines, I took the tape off yet again, and put two new pieces over the lines I had already drawn.
> It's just after 12:30AM now, and I plan to finish drawing the grids for all four beams, and then fill in the grids with the five available Pigma Micron colors I have so far. I'm going to get this done by next midnight, come hell or high water. I'm going to order the slim drive mounting rack from MPI Services, and yellow and fresh green Microns from Gellyroll.com today, and after the Microns get here, I will use them to fill in more of the grids' squares on the angle irons.
> It's just after 5AM, and I just finished the guiding grid of the first of four 4" angle irons. I would have gotten more work done if I didn't keep getting distracted by doing random Google searches, so I'll try to cut down on the distractions and try to get at least one more beam gridded by sunrise. Anyways, completing the horizontal lines was just as tricky as the vertical ones, if not more so. In order to draw the guiding dots for these lines, I taped the aluminum ruler to the wide edge of the beam that was furthest onto the table. Once again, I used the top hatch aluminum scrap to raise the ruler to the height of the angle iron. I put a piece of tape on the left side of the beam, and one on the middle. After I drew all the dots I could on the right edge, I put a new piece of tape on the right side of the beam, covering the dots, and then removed the piece of tape on the middle of the beam. I then drew the dots in the middle of the beam, covered the dots with a middle piece of tape, removed the left piece of tape, and then drew the dots on the left. This way, at least two pieces of tape always held the beam to the ruler.
> Because the other end of the beam was over the edge of the table, there was no table to rest the ruler on. So I put the ruler on top of the beam, with its inches edge against the vertical line closest to the edge of the table. I then put two pieces of tape on the ruler, and followed the same pattern I did when I drew to dots on the opposite side of the beam; drawing all the dots I could on the exposed parts of the beam, moving the tape when necessary and making sure that at least two pieces of tape were always on the beam, and then drawing the rest of the dots. Despite this method, the ruler was still loose enough to move a little while taped down. I had a little trouble getting the lines straight, so I had to redraw some of them. Once the grid was finished, I untaped the beam from the table's edge.
> I spent most of these morning's hours working on the guiding grids of my angle irons. I completed two more grids, the second in about an hour 40, and the third in just under an hour at around 7AM. At that time, everybody was coming down to use the table for breakfast, so I had to put everything away and the fourth and final beam had to wait until later. I used a different variation of my method of gridding each time, and if I had the time or patience to get into the details, I would. But I don't, so I won't.
> It's just after 8:30PM and I just drew the guiding dots for the grid on the top and bottom of the fourth and final 4" beam. I used my black Pigma Micron to draw the dots, and I'm going to start working on painting the other beams while I'm waiting for the dots to dry in order to save myself some time. Each angle iron is marked with a T and a B, standing for "top" and "bottom". I used these marks while drawing the grids, so that the bottom row and left columns would be exactly 1/16" wide. This is important, because the beams are not precisly 1" x 4"; they're off by about 1/16" on each dimension. Two of the beams have T and B on the left side, and the other two have the letters on the right. This puts two grids on the left of the beams, and two on the right of the beams. The Mario and coins will be painted on the beams where the grid is on the right side, and the Fire Flower and Koopa Troopa will be painted on the beams where the grid is on the left side. This way, Mario can be on the left side looking at the Fire Flower on the right, and the Koopa Troopa can be on the right side looking at the coins on the left.
> While waiting for the dots on the fourth angle iron to dry, I started working on the beam with Mario. I taped the beam on table with three pieces of tape; two on the side of the table on either side of the beam, and a third long piece on the very bottom. I also put two aditional pieces of tape over the tape on the sides vertically, to hold them in place tighter. I didn't want to put any tape on the beam on top of the table, since that would cover the grid.
> I used Glamdring to bring up the gif image with the collage of the planned decorations of all four beams, and zoomed in 10:1 to expose the grid. Following the Mario beam's design on the far left end of the collage, I began applying ink to the beam, with the same method I used to paint the left panel. I would focus entirely on painting one color, let it dry, and then move onto the next color. The 1/16" squares of these grids were slightly larger than the 1mm squares on the side panels, and I was hoping that would make my job a little easier.
> I began with the color green, focusing on the spent "?" block on the top of the image. I outlined the four bolts in the corners of the block, drew the block's outline, thickened the block's border and bolts' borders to 1/16", and then filled in the rest with green. I next worked on the 3D block on the bottom of the beam. I began with the green pixel in the bottom right corrner, then did three more, in which I had to fill in the pixel one space up and to the left of the previous pixel. I then drew the 8x8 pixel square to the top left of the top left-most pixel of the four, and then drew four more pixels in the same manner top left of the big square. I then thickened the big square's border to 1/16", and then filled in the square to finish the green in not only the block, but the whole beam as well.
> By the time I finished the Mario beam's green, the dots on the fouth beam were dry. I changed the position of the tape holding the ruler to the beam, and then drew the dots on the right side of the left edge of the beam. I couldn't draw the dots in the middle, because the piece of tape which held the beam to the top of the table was in the way. So I decided to let the ink dry again, and then work on the beam's vertical lines. I removed the aluminum ruler from the beam, and then used the GTFM ruler to draw the five lines closest to the edge of the table; the rest of the lines were blocked by the piece of tape holding the beam to the top of the table. So I removed that peice of tape, but first used two other pieces to reinforce the pieces holding the beam to the side of the table. With the top of the beam cleared, I was then free to draw the rest of the vertical lines.
> The dots to the right of the gap were severely off center, so I fog-breathed and scratched them out with a paper towel. I then redrew the dots, and drew the dots in the middle of the left edge, this time without taping the ruler to the beam; I was confident that I could hold it in place long enough to finish the dots, and I happened to get lucky. While letting the dots on the fourth beam dry yet again, I decided to continue working on the Mario beam, this time with the red. Early on, I made a misjudgement on the width of Mario's right leg (my left), and as a result, I had to take a toothpick and scratch out some of the squares. Mercifully, I didn't have to redraw the grid this time, and only had to erase the red on three squares. After the error was fixed, I successfully drew the outline of Mario's red overalls, drew the outline of the yellow buttons, and then filled in the red portions of the overalls. I then drew the isolated red pixel of the overalls, which was immediately to the top left of the rest of the overalls. Finally, I drew the outline of the red portions of the hat, and then filled in the hat to finish the red on the Mario beam.
7/11/2004 - About 11PM last night, I began yet another session of painting my left panel. By this time, I had already drawn the black outline around the word "Creamy" and the left-hand quotes using the black Micron. I started with the middle sections of the two "s"s in "Goodness", because that was the most difficult part of the word to outline without drawing into the letters. After completing the rest of the outline of the "s"s, I proceeded to outline the right-hand quotes, and then the rest of the letters in the word except for the letter "e". I did not outline this letter, because the best way to put the ink in the "dead end street" portion is to put my hand very close to the two "s"s I just painted. So I'm now waiting for all the letters to dry before doing the "e", so I don't risk smudging them.
> At around 1:30 this morning, I had outlined the "e" in "Goodness", and began outlining the final word on my left panel: "Tenn". As always, I started with the most difficult sections, and then outlined everything else in the word. I'm currently letting the ink dry, and it should be dry enough to start filling in the rest of the background by the time I finish typing the next parapraph.
> As I have been working on painting the left panel, specifically drawing the outlines of the letters, I've noticed that this is a very unforgiving part of the project, because I'm always one mistake away from ruining the entire panel. I'm just hours away from completing my side panels, if you ignore the second coat of ink, the acrylic coating, and the light green Micron ink that still has to fill the down arrow on the left panel. I'm very excited about almost getting these panels done, and I kinda feel that I'm jinxing everything by typing this out. So I'm just going to not say anything else about them, at least not until I finish inking the left panel's background black.
> It's just after three, and I've finished blackening out the background on my left panel. The panel is now drying uncovered, and I'm going to wait until daylight to wrap it in its protective plastic cover and put it away. I have now done all the work I can do on my side panels without the light green Pigma Micron, so I have no choice but to start decorating my four inch angle irons. I have five of the eight colors of Pigma Micron necessary to finish the task; I have black, orange, red, light brown, and standard green, but I still need yellow, light green, and white. I'll work on as much of the grid as I can today, and hopefully I can finish coloring the beams in the five available colors by the 12th.
7/10/2004 - It's 5:30AM right now, and about half an hour ago, I ran a few tests on the aluminum panel which I'm using to test some acrylic coating I bought recently at Pearl Paint. First, in order to test how the acrylic would protect the ink from rubbing off, I took an eraser and tried to erase a part of the guiding lines I drew in pencil. The mark stayed perfectly in-tact. I then tried to erase both the Pigma and Sharpie test squares. They too remained in tact. The next test I ran was to see if the acrylic could repel any accidental pen marks. So I took my red Micron, and my bright green Sharpie, and marked two small vertical lines with each. I then fogged the four marks with my breath, and then rubbed them with a paper napkin. The Micron marks came off, but not the Sharpies. So I tried scratching them off with my fingernail, and fortunately they came right off. I then put the panel to the final test. I used the same two markers, and made a horizontal mark across the test squares with each marker. Again, I fogged the lines, and rubbed them with the napkin, and only the Micron came off. However, when I scratched the Sharpie marks off, it took some of the acrylic with it, and part of the pencil guiding lines as well. This may be because the marks weren't completely dry; I could still smell a tiny bit of the acrylic, and it was slightly sticky. I'm going to wait a few more hours, and then make another mark with the Sharpie, and try rubbing that off. Even if the acrylic fails this test again, I'll still use it for CES's panels, since it has proven to be able to prevent the ink from rubbing off under most situations, and it repels some ink. This would make the panels better off with the acrylic than without, since it would still provide them with some protection.
> About a week ago, I found a cheaper alternative to the Slim CD-ROM / Floppy Disk Mounting Kit I found on MyCableShop.com. The MyCableShop mounting kit costs $58, and comes with a slimline to PC floppy adapter, and a slimline to IDE adapter. The mounting kit I more recently found from MPI Services doesn't come with the adapters, but costs only $19. I can get the two adapters for $9.99 each on Directron, which means if buy the MPI mounting kit plus the two adapters, I'd only be paying $38.98 instead of $58, which saves me $19.02.
$735.95 total budget - $19.02 less spent = $716.93 total budget
> While visiting Directron.com about a week ago, I found some great news. The Via Epia V10000 motherboard has been yet again reduced in price, this time from $97.99 to $87.99.
$716.93 total budget - $10.00 less spent = $706.93 total budget
Items bought so
far...
2-WIRE
JUMPER CABLE 2 Pin Internal 24 inches from PCCables.com
- $7.00
Assorted
LEDs from Radio Shack -
$2.64
CES's
12" x 7" x 4" aluminum chassis materials from OnlineMetals.com
- $61.00
3 6"
x 7" x 1/8" lexan panels from FreckleFace.com
- $12.00
2 hard
drive coolers from HardwareCooling.com
- $17.00
2 80mm
Green Cold Cathode Fan Grills from FrozenCPU.com
- $21.00
2 brass
concave knobs from the Home
Depot - $2.11
1 pair
of middle brass hinges from the Home Depot - $3.12
2 brass
roller catches from the Home Depot - $2.00
17 packs
of various nuts and bolts from the Home Depot - $14.00
1 Samsung
120GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive from NewEgg.com
- $90.00
Money spent so far
- $231.87
Current
shopping
list...
1 VIA EPIA V10000A
1Ghz Motherboard - $87.99
2 512MB
PC133 SDRAM DIMM - $171.98
1 Slim CD + 1.44M FDD
Adapter - $19.00
1 Slimline
CD Desktop to IDE Adapter - $9.99
1 Samsung
Slimline CDRW/DVD drive - $81.99
1 Slimline
FDD Adapter - $9.99
1 Mitsumi Slimline
Floppy drive - $26.99
1 Directron
Tri-Lighted 40mm Case Fan - $9.99
1 PW-60A
external power supply - $49.95
1 Bart Simpson Case
Badge - $0.01
UPS
Ground Residential shipping for Directron items - $7.18
Money left to
spend
- $475.06
Total cost of CES - $706.93
> I got rid of the two dark green pixels to the right of the word "SYSTEM" on my right panel around 10PM. It was a simple matter of scratching out the green pixels with a toothpick, using the black Micron to draw the outline on the top and left edges, and then filling in the rest of the scratched out pixels with the black Sharpie. The only thing left to do now is to wait until I get the left panel and the four 4" angle irons completely painted, and then cover everything with the acrylic coating.
7/9/2004 - In order to give the text on my left panel a more Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening look, I have decided to add a down arrow to the lower-right corner to the text. Whenever a text box appears in LOZ:LA, a flashing down arrow on the bottom-right hand corner of the box appears when there is more text to be read. I had the space to add such an arrow, but I hadn't drawn a grid in that section. Fortunately, all I had to do was draw four more vertical lines on the right side of the grid. So I used the black Pigma Micron to make four dots on either side, and then used them to draw the lines with my my pink mechanical pencil. Later on in the night, while I was working on the black background, I noticed that there was a fifth line, which was already part of the old 5mm square grid. It was still covered by the piece of Scotch tape which held the aluminum panel to its protective paper cover, so using my X-Acto knife, I stripped off that part of the tape. This time however, I did not scratch the panel.
> While working on painting the black background of the left panel's text, I decided to play it safe. Instead of trying to cover every single bit of the panel with the black Micron ink, I drew up to the grid lines which surrounded the green pixels, but did not risk crossing the lines and drawing into the green. Also, I made sure that only one color of ink was wet at any given time in a particular area. This way, I could greatly reduce the colors smudging into each other. I followed a new pattern to paint the background; outline one word at a time with black ink, and then use the green Micron to fix any smudging in any other word, and then let the ink dry for about an hour. Then come back and outline another word with black, fix smudging of the other words with green, and let the whole thing dry again. I would keep repeating this pattern until I was finished inking the entire panel.
> I followed this pattern with, "CES", then "built", then "by", then "Jason", and then the hyphen between "CES" and "built". Occasionally, I had to fix some smuding with the letters I hadn't outlined yet, using a toothpick to erase wayward ink, and the green Micron to redraw any green squares that started to fade. Some of the letters I had outlined had a little bit of black cutting into the green, so I had to wait for the errant letters to dry, scratch away the offending black, and then redraw the square with the green Micron.
> When I finished surrounding all of the characters on the top row with black ink, I thought about filling the wide open spaces with the black Sharpie, just like I did with the right panel after I finished drawing all of its letters. This seemed like a good idea, because the Microns are more expensive than the sharpies, and the ultra-fine point of the Microns becomes a liability when covering a large area. However, black Sharpies and black Pigma Microns do not produce the same shade of black, so I decided to cover the spaces with the Micron for consistency.
> After taking a break to allow the large amount of Micron ink to dry, I brought up a mock "All your base..." screenshot of LOZ:LA to use as a guide to follow while drawing the down arrow. I would have just drawn the arrow itself, but because I didn't yet have a Micron of a second shade of green, I could only draw the black outline. The outline came out without a hitch, and it immediately gave the panel more of a Zelda feel. Because the arrow was on the right edge of the panel, and "Creamy" was on the left edge, I decided it was safe to outline the word without waiting for the arrow outline to dry. I completed the outline without any serious problems, and because the sun had already come up by then, I decided it was a good time to go to bed then.
> It's just after 8AM, and I just finished spraying the first coat of acrylic coating on my test panel. I took the panel outside to the backyard and sprayed it with a thin coat of the acrylic, and left it outside because of the fumes, but I'll return soon to give it a second coat. So far, there seems to be no signs of the ink running or bubbling, and I hope it stays that way.
> It's after 10PM, and I sprayed the test panel with a second coat of acrylic coating about an hour ago. I've washed my hands thoroughly at least twice since then, and my hands still smell like the stuff. At the next sunrise, I will bring the test panel inside, and then run a series of tests on it to see if the acrylic is good for CES's side panels. I'm going to take the rest of the day off from CES to work on my CompTIA_A+ studies, so this will be the last paragraph I write for today.
