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Today’s mail brought the fun results of my first Woot—a Gravis Eliminator Rumble USB Gamepad 3 Pack for $14.99 (incl. shipping, what a deal!). Finally, I can play emulated Mario Kart on my computer the way it was meant to be played—with a gamepad!

In college, I got a Blue & White PowerMac G3 tower, which came with a 6GB hard drive—not too bad, at the time. Later in college, when the six gigs got a bit tight, I bought and installed a 20GB hard drive in the extra hard drive slot. Eventually, the 20GB drive (“Aragorn”) became my boot drive and main storage drive, while the original 6GB drive (“Arwen”) was reserved for MP3′s. However, as the number of CD’s that I’ve ripped, multimedia files that I’ve collected, pictures that I’ve scanned or taken, and software titles that I’ve installed has grown, 26GB of total space has become quite inadequate. Thus, when my Dad asked what kind of graduation present he could give me, I suggested a new hard drive, and a voucher for that very item is exactly what I received.

Immediately afterwards, I noticed that Best Buy had a 120GB drive on sale (plus free shipping from their online store), and I put in my order promptly. In addition, since I had no more hard drive connections in my computer, I sought out a good deal on an external firewire enclosure, which I found at NewEgg.com. With the new hard drive and the empty enclosure in hand, I removed the original 6GB hard drive, installed it in the enclosure, and replaced it with the 120GB drive.

At this point I had to decide what to name my new hard drive. I considered dropping the Lord of the Rings naming scheme—my iBook’s hard drive is named Gandalf, and I have USB flash drives named Frodo and Sam. However, I instead returned to the original plan that I had decided upon a couple years ago when I first imagined having three hard drives attached to my tower—Aragorn, Legolas, & Gimli.

Maybe it’s because I’m no more than 4.5 months from moving (although I don’t know where), but I’m in a mood to sell. It started with a chair. I bought a new office chair, since my old chair broke. However, after getting the new chair, I found out that I could supposedly get my old chair fixed under warranty. While waiting for the necessary parts to be ordered and shipped, I held onto the new chair in case the deal fell through, but kept it unopened in case I ended up being able to take it back. Unfortunately, getting my chair fixed under warranty has taken several months (and counting, although progress is being made). It’s a little late to return the new chair at this point, so I need to sell it instead. Fortunately, I got the chair on sale, and since I only expect to recoup what I paid for it, it shouldn’t be too hard to sell. [Chair Flyer (PDF)]

The next item I have for sale is my guitar. I got my guitar while in high school, and started taking lessons. However, I never really got into it, and when I went away to college, I dropped it completely. I held onto it just in case I ever decided to try taking it up again, but at this point in my life I don’t foresee that ever happening. There are many other things that I’d rather spend my time and money on than learning the (albeit cool) ability to whip out a guitar and lay out some hot licks. Therefore, I figure that I might as well sell it in order to get some money to buy something else that I will enjoy more. [Guitar Flyer (PDF)]

Finally, I noticed that I have a bunch of CD’s that I absolutely never listen to anymore, so why not sell them too? Now, the previous items I’ve decided to sell locally, since I don’t really want to mess with shipping them to someone across the country, especially in the case of the guitar. CD’s, on the other hand, are cheap and easy to ship, so this seemed like a good time to experiment with selling on eBay. Thus, I submit to you my very first eBay listing: Don’t Censor Me – Audio Adrenaline (CD 1995) – Like New.

You’ve seen it at the arcade or on TV, or at least you’ve heard about, haven’t you? That dancing game. You know. That game that pumps out loud music with a strong bass beat while the player hops around like mad on some sort of platform. Bobby played it in that episode of _King of the Hill_ where they go to Japan. It’s called Dance Dance Revolution, and once someone explains how it works, it’s lots of fun. The basic premise is that the game scrolls arrows up the screen, and when they reach the top (which happens to be in time with the music), you have to hit the corresponding arrow on the platform. The better your timing, the better your score. It takes a while to get the hang of it (everyone fails the first time they try), and it takes tons of practice to master it, but it’s a great workout.

If you want to play DDR, you could of course go to the arcade, wait in line, lay out lots of cash, and risk embarrassment in front of all the other people there; or you could save yourself a lot of trouble and invest in a home system, which is what I have done. Plus, if you make your setup mobile, you can take it to with you and have an instant party hit. If you’d like to put together your own DDR system, here’s some suggestions.

First, you’ll need a computer to run the game. It will have to be a fairly recent system—something with some speed, a decent graphics card, and a USB port. My 500 MHz G3 iBook does fairly well, but it does occasionally skip. Therefore, I’d recommend something with a little more oomph—something like an iBook G4. Starting at $1099, this sleek little laptop packs an 800 MHz G4 processor, an ATI Mobility Radeon 9200, and the ability to mirror the screen on a TV using a $19 adapter available from Apple. Along with the Apple video adapter, you’ll also need an adapter to convert the iBook’s stereo mini plug headphone jack into two RCA jacks (about $5), and a three plug RCA cable to get the audio & video signals to the TV (about $10). Cost: $1133

Second, you’ll need some software. For this we turn to Stepmania. Stepmania is open-source software that has received lots of development, continues to undergo very active development, supports both mp3 and ogg music files, and supports a wide-variety of step file formats. At the moment, it’s best to download version 3.0 final, since the next version (3.9) is still in the early stages of development and thus probably rather buggy. Cost: Free

Third, you’ll need some songs with step files. You could search the web for originals, but the quality of the stuff that’s out there is either hit or miss. Instead, go for the official song sets, which can be found at DDRUK. Simply sign up for a free account, and then hit the downloads page to get the DDR Bumper Packs, which collect all the songs from a given DDR version into one ZIP file. (Note: You’ll need BitTorrent to download the files.) I suggest mixes 1 through 8, including the “Plus” and USA Playstation versions. While you’re there, also pick up the ZIP file containing the complete collection of banners for each of the mixes. Cost: Free

Fourthly, you’ll need a dance pad. I suggest buying a RedOctane pad. The three different models that you have to choose from, depending on how serious you want to get, are all high quality. The simplest and cheapest (which is what I have) is the original RedOctance soft Dance Pad ($50). It’s a good pad that gets the job done. If you go that route, you’ll probably also want to get the RedOctane Dance Pad Cover ($15), which is recommended to extend the life of the pad especially if you want to wear shoes while dancing. The next pad in the product line is the RedOctane Ignition Pad 2.0 ($100). This is another soft pad, however it features raised buttons that allow you to better feel your way around the pad, and a 1-inch dense foam insert that supposedly improves the response of the sensors. At the top of the heap is the RedOctane Metal Pad ($200). Featuring a steel frame and polycarbonate buttons, this hard pad truly brings the arcade experience home. Cost: $65, $100, or $200

Fifthly, all three RedOctane pads come with Playstation conectors, so you’ll also have to buy a Playstation-to-USB adapter. The Stepmania website maintains a list of compatible adapters. I have the EMS USB2 adapter, however I would now go with the Boom PS Joy Converter ($15), which is the one that the Stepmania website now most highly recommends. Cost: $15

Finally, if you are going to use a soft mat on carpet, you’re going to have trouble with it sliding around. The grippy bottom only works on smooth surfaces. However, I’ve found that putting a plastic/vinyl office chair mat for use on carpet under the pad fixes the problem. A three foot by three foot mat (which matches the dimensions of the dance pad) can be found at any office supply store. Cost: about $15

Total Cost (not including computer): $95

As time marches on, I’m becoming an ever greater Lord of the Rings fan. For example, as I’ve already mentioned in a previous entry, I intend to learn Elvish (Sindarin to be exact) this summer. (As a side note, a post on Elfling this past week alerted me to a collection of Sindarin lessons put together by Gildor-Inglorion at The Council of Elrond.) However, now my obsession has extended into the realm of movie replicas.

I was talking to Kyrie on IM a little while ago, and I inquired of her about some references in her blog to doing various things with “Sting”. It turns out that she picked up an unauthorized replica of Frodo’s sword Sting on sale this past summer. Being the curious sort, I popped over to eBay to see if there were any Sting replicas on there, and if so, how much they went for. A quick search turned up a ton of them, both authorized and unauthorized, and a wide selection of other LotR(Lord of the Rings) swords as well. The sword that really caught my eye was Narsil, the sword of Elendil, which Isildur took up to cut the One Ring of power from Sauron’s hand, so as a reward for surviving midterms (although how well I survived is yet to be determined), I decided to make use of my entertainment budget to buy myself a Narsil replica. Now, the official authorized replicas made by United Cutlery were going for about $150, which is a bit out of the price range of an unemployed seminary student, even if it is $100 or so off retail. However, the unauthorized replicas (the replicas of the replica, if you will) were considerably cheaper, so I decided to go that route. I ended up paying only $36 plus shipping for my Narsil, which includes a decorative wall plaque to hang it on.
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