PPCGeeks - DIY Media Player Remote Control?

Ok, the pictures included show my current setup for my "music player". I was driving back from my "Scripting with Perl" course the other day, and I had a thought occur to me, when thinking about how I could control Windows Media Player via remote.
Ok, now I want to state this right now, I'm not a programmer!!! However, for those of you who are, I'd appreciate any input.

1: Using a wafer board, buttons, an IC chip (which I have no idea how you would program one. Maybe the school can help?), and an USB adapter/cable, solder together the inside of a remote. (The outside would be some wood, if I can't find any feasible plastic, hallowed out, with a pastic cover that has the buttons through it)

2. Create a driver for the remote on Windows Mobile that would issue the commands for the following buttons:
A. Up,Down,Right,Left
B. Enter
C. Volume up/down
D. X amount of configurable buttons

*As I am not an Electronics major, I'm not sure how "user friendly" IC chips can be. If they are able to be reprogrammed, "Unassigned" buttons can be included and programmed either as the driver through the use of an ActiveSync program, or if the IC chip can be programmed.

So, there you have it. My pipe dream/fantasy I had the other day.