Daylight Savings Meltdown / New Phone! / Geo Alternator / Green Xbox
Another two weeks have gone by between entries! Am I too busy to write? No. Truthfully it's a combination of laziness and lack of a interesting stuff goin' on. The last couple work weeks have been good. Daylight savings was crazy though. When the clocks shifted, a lot of the fab machines got stupid and stopped talking to the computers. It's one of the few times I tried paging second-tier support. Doing that means waking someone up. But I was reassured this nonsense happens every time the clocks shift for daylight savings. It's just funny. But I actually had a good time not being able to fix people's tools. It must have been that it was the last night of the work-week or that it was only an eleven hour shift because the clocks went backwards an hour so everyone was in a good mood. The job has it's moments, I will say that.
My folks have a cell phone that never works. I offered to give them mine. That means it's time for me to get a new phone and get a real service instead of this "emergency-only" pay-as-you-go nonsense. I was going to join up with my brother, Ryan's, Verizon family plan but all five of their services slots are filled up. That means I have to go it alone. I did some quick research and with the big providers I'd spend like $60 a month. I don't need a phone badly enough right now to justify that. Plus, two-year contracts scare me. I did more looking around and realized the provider I'm already with, Virgin Mobile, has a $25/month no-contract plan that does unlimited 3G data and texting plus 300 minutes of talk per month. Then I noticed Target had an Android touchscreen smart phone for $100 to go with Virgin's service. Game, set, match. I am now officially rockin' an LG Optimus V and I've been texting like the wind. I even already got a nice case and some goodies for it. The phone itself is great: Camera, WiFi, YouTube, mobile Internet, GPS, Google maps, and of course the Android market. My friends tell me I've finally arrived in this century and I have to agree. Hard to look back, now. Perfect plan, excellent phone; I'm all set. So if you've got my number (It hasn't changed and begins with 971), you're all officially free to begin bombarding me with texts and pictures too.
One of the pieces of gear I got for my new phone is a car charger. I plugged it in around Friday of last week and although it worked, I think it fried some of the electronics in my Geo. Sunday morning, after my last overnight shift of the week, I noticed the battery light was on and although I was able to make it home, it was quite distressing. The battery light means one of two things: Either the battery is bad or the car's power plant, the alternator, is bad. I figured it was the alternator since if it was the battery, I wouldn't be able to start the car. Sure enough, I tested it and it was shot. I was fortunate enough to have been able to buy and install a new alternator all on Sunday so I'm back on the road just in time for the next work week to begin.
As I was digging around with the electronics I noticed a bunch of extra wire that the car's previous owner, one of Ryan's friends, Larry, had put there to power an amp and speakers once upon a time. All those wires were all drawing power straight from the alternator through one fuse. Not good. Just like in a house, drawing too much power on one circuit can lead to something failing, and when I plugged in my cell phone, that may have been the final straw that killed the alternator. I've resolved that once it gets warmer and nicer outside, I'll pull out the rest of the crap wiring and redo the electronics. Until then, I don't have a radio to listen to nor can I charge my cell phone in the Geo. Small price to pay for being able to get to and from work! Whew!
Finally, just in time for St. Patrick's Day (Which also happens to be my half-birthday) I give you a green Xbox!
Click the photo or this text to see the full size image!
Yea, over the years Ryan and I had amassed a collection of these Xboxes that we hacked and used as media players for our TVs. Tech has come a long way and Ryan no longer needed his Xboxes so he dumped them all with me. I kept the best parts out of all of them and assembled one perfect Xbox. The rest of them, including one I painted red almost five years ago and tricked out with dozens of red LEDs, are all on eBay right now as a parts lot. That red one just had too many problems with the LEDs breaking over the years and the paint job wasn't great. Plus it lit my room up at night and was annoying. I love having a unique console, though, so I picked up some leaf green spray paint and this one remaining Xbox got the painters touch. Two coats of glossy leaf green then a coat and a half of clear coat. Looks amazing. I want to lick it. You think it taste like apples? We'll never know. And with no LEDs and other nonsense to muck it up, this Xbox should reign as my personal media player for years to come as well as being one of a kind and simply rad to look at.
My folks have a cell phone that never works. I offered to give them mine. That means it's time for me to get a new phone and get a real service instead of this "emergency-only" pay-as-you-go nonsense. I was going to join up with my brother, Ryan's, Verizon family plan but all five of their services slots are filled up. That means I have to go it alone. I did some quick research and with the big providers I'd spend like $60 a month. I don't need a phone badly enough right now to justify that. Plus, two-year contracts scare me. I did more looking around and realized the provider I'm already with, Virgin Mobile, has a $25/month no-contract plan that does unlimited 3G data and texting plus 300 minutes of talk per month. Then I noticed Target had an Android touchscreen smart phone for $100 to go with Virgin's service. Game, set, match. I am now officially rockin' an LG Optimus V and I've been texting like the wind. I even already got a nice case and some goodies for it. The phone itself is great: Camera, WiFi, YouTube, mobile Internet, GPS, Google maps, and of course the Android market. My friends tell me I've finally arrived in this century and I have to agree. Hard to look back, now. Perfect plan, excellent phone; I'm all set. So if you've got my number (It hasn't changed and begins with 971), you're all officially free to begin bombarding me with texts and pictures too.
One of the pieces of gear I got for my new phone is a car charger. I plugged it in around Friday of last week and although it worked, I think it fried some of the electronics in my Geo. Sunday morning, after my last overnight shift of the week, I noticed the battery light was on and although I was able to make it home, it was quite distressing. The battery light means one of two things: Either the battery is bad or the car's power plant, the alternator, is bad. I figured it was the alternator since if it was the battery, I wouldn't be able to start the car. Sure enough, I tested it and it was shot. I was fortunate enough to have been able to buy and install a new alternator all on Sunday so I'm back on the road just in time for the next work week to begin.
As I was digging around with the electronics I noticed a bunch of extra wire that the car's previous owner, one of Ryan's friends, Larry, had put there to power an amp and speakers once upon a time. All those wires were all drawing power straight from the alternator through one fuse. Not good. Just like in a house, drawing too much power on one circuit can lead to something failing, and when I plugged in my cell phone, that may have been the final straw that killed the alternator. I've resolved that once it gets warmer and nicer outside, I'll pull out the rest of the crap wiring and redo the electronics. Until then, I don't have a radio to listen to nor can I charge my cell phone in the Geo. Small price to pay for being able to get to and from work! Whew!
Finally, just in time for St. Patrick's Day (Which also happens to be my half-birthday) I give you a green Xbox!
Click the photo or this text to see the full size image!
Yea, over the years Ryan and I had amassed a collection of these Xboxes that we hacked and used as media players for our TVs. Tech has come a long way and Ryan no longer needed his Xboxes so he dumped them all with me. I kept the best parts out of all of them and assembled one perfect Xbox. The rest of them, including one I painted red almost five years ago and tricked out with dozens of red LEDs, are all on eBay right now as a parts lot. That red one just had too many problems with the LEDs breaking over the years and the paint job wasn't great. Plus it lit my room up at night and was annoying. I love having a unique console, though, so I picked up some leaf green spray paint and this one remaining Xbox got the painters touch. Two coats of glossy leaf green then a coat and a half of clear coat. Looks amazing. I want to lick it. You think it taste like apples? We'll never know. And with no LEDs and other nonsense to muck it up, this Xbox should reign as my personal media player for years to come as well as being one of a kind and simply rad to look at.