Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Ho-ohohoh- ohhhhhhhhh SHIT, son!

by chinwhat at 9:50 p.m.


$42.99USD is expensive for a 2gig USBMemoryStick...


... but $42USD is NOT expensive for a 2gig RavegeUSBMemoryStick

Thursday, May 07, 2009

That New Star Trak Movie

by chinwhat at 7:25 a.m.
The fanboys are excited for the new Trek film. how do i know? Because a certain pal of mine (Shaun) decided to show his devotion to Starfleet by getting this license plate punched out


So how do i know this is Shaunjay's car?

i know that he now has a new ride.

we all know he loves the vanity plate.

this photo was taken outside a movie theatre on a weekday at around 1:00pm.

and of course, he loves star trek!

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Introducing My theMikeWazowski Custom Arcade Stick

by chinwhat at 7:07 a.m.
February had the release of the hugely popular return to the Street Fighter videogame series, Street Fighter IV. And in conjunction with Capcom’s game release was an announcement from MadCatz to release SF4 arcade sticks.

When they dropped, the internets was set ablaze! A retail arcade stick would go for $180 for the standard version or $200+ for the Tourney edition (in USD of course)

And that’s IF one could be found!

Because of the popularity plus rarity of the sticks, prices skyrocketed to ridiculous numbers online. I remember seeing the standard stick on ebay for something like $350US.

Thanks to my new appreciation to frugalness, I decided that paying a mortgage payments worth of money for an arcade stick just isn’t for me.

So what’s the alternative?

A custom stick of course! After much research on the internet, I gathered all the material required and wound up with my very own custom made stick: theMikeWazowski, tada!!!


Once upon a time...

Bought a generic third party xbox controller and gutted it freeing the PCB I needed.


Some poplar wood and plexi glass from Home Depot for the housing of all the wiring/electric goodness.



Good thing the electricians at work are good guys. They let me borrow their extra soldering iron and gave me some lead-free solder.


Testing my soldering to make sure I got proper connections.


A close up of my handy work. The wires soldered and secured with some hot glue.


Everything connected and mounted to the box.


Finished product!


Cost:
Buttons, stick, wires, connections: $125
Wood & plexi glass: $24.01
Controller: 33.89
TOTAL: $182.90
Free: inner pegs to secure the box frame, art work, bottom board and top board to secure the art between it and the plexiglass

Looking back: it was a lot easier than I anticipated. I was pretty unsure on whether I would be able to finish this project. I’m not good at wood work – as you can see, the box is crooked (grade 8 wood shop teacher Mr. Moher is rolling in his grave) I’m photoshop illiterate and I’ve never soldered before. Three strikes but not an out.

Looking forward: I’ve got enough buttons, a stick and wires for another arcade stick. I know now that I’m going to get a different controller since the one I got for this project isn’t as well documented. I’d really like to get an eight button layout instead of six, just to see if I can get the analog triggers to work. Also, I’d like to make the entire case smaller. theMikeWazowski isn’t heavy, but I think a smaller stick would be a bit more comfortable. Clean up the wires – they’re way to long right now and everything looks messy. Also to help with that, I’d like to try to daisy chain the ground wires – which ties into a PCB that’s better documented.

But yeah, I’m satisfied with my first go round and its good timing. I finally got to get my copy of SF4, RType just came out on XBoxLive and a Raiden collection is coming out next week (I love me some shmups!)

Also Teenage Muntant Ninja Turtles Arcade (the one from '89) is available on XBoxLive as well. All we need is some Final Fight and that awesome X-Men Arcade game on there too (I also love me some Beat Em Ups!) Oh snaps! I just realized I have Streets of Rage 2! >rushes to plug in arcade< stick<

Sunday, May 03, 2009

That’s How I Roll

by chinwhat at 9:02 p.m.
Almost two months ago, I had the most basketballest weekend that I ever basketballed! MarchMadness started – four straight days of college hoops. Some NBA games sprinkled here and there. And finally three nights of actual ball playing on the Saturday (we got waxed), Sunday (didn’t play so bad) and Monday (was doing great…).

Unfortunately, disaster struck Monday night. I jumped up to challenge a shot and landed on my teammates’ foot. >c-c-rack<

Down like a sack of rocks (or like Hatton Hangover) I knew it was a bad sprain instantly – and it wound up being the worse sprain I’ve had in a few years.

Since then, life’s been shitty. “Friends” not calling me to ball simply because I could barely walk (selfish!), the kids who I help coach are beating me down the court during practice, or even having to use the elevator at work to go up or down one floor. Really, have I been reduced to this??

I know I needed to get this take care of asap, so at the suggestion of my coworker, I went to go see someone a couple weeks back. He makes an appointment for me to go see a "doctor" (which i mistakenly confused with "physician") at Central Parkway Mall. I head over there looking for a doctors office, but wound up in one of those Chinese holistic joints... yeah...

Doubtful? Yup, I sure was. But since I was there, why not? The practitioner started to aggressively massage my tendons and it hurt like the hell! Then he asks me “have you ever had acupuncture?” Wow, I didn’t know it was going to go down like that! I’ve never had that done before, but if it means fixing up my bum wheel, I’m all for it.

Result: coming out of it, my ankle was super tender and sensitive. But I got some free topical medicine written completely in Chinese!


The Sequel: went back yesterday to get some more treatment since it kind of helped out the last time.

Same routine but the kicker was the guy asked if I wanted my injury to hurt less. “Sure!” I said. “Okay, we’ll do a big needle to get the blood out”

Me thinking “OOOOOOoooooooooooohhhhhkay” Definitely didn’t see that one coming. "Will it hurt?"

On his face, he had that half grimace half smile (but not really a smile) sort of to say "i'm glad i'm not getting done to myself" "Yeah?" i ask. He confirms "yeah..."

He leaves and comes back with a thick ass needle, a barbecue lighter and a pair of forceps gripping onto a wad of dirty cloth. :S

I’m not even going to lie, I was more than concerned. Scared even.

But all was fine. Turned out, he just used the needle to poke a hole big enough for blood to come out, the lighter to light the wad on fire and the fire to heat up an unnoticed a glass bowl thing so that when he places it over the wound, it just SUCKS blood out, which was kinda gross actually. When done, the bowl had a fair amount of my blood and what looked like some slimy faux blood clot-ish stuff…

So does my hurt less? Not right now, but hopefully soon... uhm... yeah...