ALL - Thanks so much for your praise! I was afraid to see what would happen since that "10 Mistakes" post... I'm still kinda afraid of what guys like paige will say. Not that I'm delicate, but jeebus, building these things is NO JOKE!
kizer - I figure if I'm going to go blind, go BIG.
It wasn't finished at Christmas, it was finished late February/early March. I had been referring to the way my roommates approached finally getting to play this mammoth thing that had taken up so much of my time - and SPACE in our living room! It was childlike, in a good way. They're BIG on Bust-a-Move, so naturally that's what they wanted to play first.
mountain - De-casing isn't a option because I might want to sell it someday. That said, I think Destination monitors are a really great compromise for cab use, especially if you get a good price and are okay with the max resolution. Small text is a little blurry around the edges of the frame (the CRT glass is a pretty steep curve as far as monitors go, so some distortion is to be expected at the edges) but other than that, it's great. REALLY nice for watching movies on too. I'm really curious to see what could happen with this attached to a AVGA!
Again, thanks for the comments and questions! Keep em comin'! I like being popular for a moment!