Surface Mount Soldering

Success is inevitable if one is willing to travel the path of successive failure. At least I hope that's the case! First attempt at surface mount soldering:

Only two lifted pads and one bent-in pin! My only commentary is "thank god for solder wick!" The purpose of this board is to make useful the only Serial to USB IC chip via this breakout board designed and manufactured by the loving hands of one Sean Michnowski, a truly remarkably sharp, disciplined, and skilled individual. Only now entering his sophmore year at RPI, he designed and built by hand a set of beautiful PCBs for the RPI Formula Hybrid racecar last semester. Basically, a microcontroller such as a PIC or Atmega chip can interface directly to this board to USB for computer and USB peripheral integration. This board will have a USB B female plug soldered on when I can find it, and can be mounted into an enclosure for one-step microcontroller to computer connection! Sparkfun makes a version of this for about 14 dollars, but DIY is more punk for sure.