A Completely Unrelated Series of Thoughts... Part 6

[NES_Rules]

What a weekend its been for me. I'm on my way home from work, and hear a sudden loud clanging sound. I pull to the side of the highway and all 4 wheels are still attached and no flat tires, so I check underneath, and my driveshaft is resting on a cross piece of the frame. The carrier bearing (that I had replaced a few months ago) had completely given out. Of course, I'm in rural PA where there's no such thing as cell phone reception, and I was lucky enough for it to happen where there's no houses or business nearby. So my choices were to walk an unknown distance to somewhere with a phone, or channel my inner MacGyver and fix the problem. I chose the MacGyver solution. I tried a few things, but with the way the bearing normally sits, it was hard to come up with a solution. Finally, I found a piece of 2x4 that's been in my truck for years and wedged it in between the bearing and the frame, but it wasn't enough, so I found a couple left over wooden stakes from work and used them as spacers to fill the gap. Then tied it all together with some scrap string. It wasn't pretty, the wood rubbed on the driveshaft, but it seemed solid, so I tried driving down the road to find phone reception.

I finally get a single bar on my phone and pull over, only to find my reception had disappeared. So I continued until I finally came to an open business, an apple orchard. So I'm finally able to call AAA and get a tow truck, of course, buying a bag of apples and some home-made apple butter in the process.

After 45 minutes or so, the tow truck arrives so I put my tablet in my back pocket (so I can play games/read on the ride home) but then the driver asks me to put my truck in neutral, so I get in and do so, but I hear a slight cracking sound. Fearing the worst, I try not to think about it and hope it was something else. For an hour and half of the ride, I'm too afraid to look at my tablet, and instead have to converse with my driver and his wife (yeah, he stopped about 15 minutes in to pick up his wife so she could go for a ride) but when we stop to get gas, I pull out my tablet and check it, only to find a dozen or so cracks along the side of the screen. They were mostly inconspicuous so I was upset, but not terribly worried. Until I tried using it. Apparently, with the Nexus 7, and crack in the screen makes the whole thing unusable. All I can do is use the sleep and volume buttons, can't even properly turn it off.

So this morning, I pull of my driveshaft, take it in, give them nearly $200 to put a new bearing on and balance everything. Then look into getting my tablet fixed. It would be about $150 for the new screen alone, I'm guessing another $50-100 to have someone install it. While a new (and improved) Nexus 7 is $260. So I ordered a new one (with insurance this time) total being close to $300. While I'm setting up the new tablet, I need to "update my security settings" for Google, which involves a text code sent to my phone. So I pick up my phone and find it unreadable, somehow, between me going to the store and coming home, the screen on it broke. About 10% of the screen was readable.

Luckily, I happen to have a spare phone that's the same model, so I figured I could swap out the screens and be done with it. Turns out, the phone's innards only disassemble to two pieces, the screen and the main board. With the way the wires went, getting the screen out of the phone looked impossible, so I went a different route and switched out the main boards. With a little finesse, I have a working phone again, and its in a much better condition case. With any luck, I'll be able to get another 6 years out of it.


TL:DR  My truck broke, my tablet broke, my phone broke. I had to fix the first to get the second and needed the third to setup the second.

[techwizard]

what a story, wow

[The Metamorphosing Leon]

What a weekend its been for me. I'm on my way home from work, and hear a sudden loud clanging sound. I pull to the side of the highway and all 4 wheels are still attached and no flat tires, so I check underneath, and my driveshaft is resting on a cross piece of the frame. The carrier bearing (that I had replaced a few months ago) had completely given out. Of course, I'm in rural PA where there's no such thing as cell phone reception, and I was lucky enough for it to happen where there's no houses or business nearby. So my choices were to walk an unknown distance to somewhere with a phone, or channel my inner MacGyver and fix the problem. I chose the MacGyver solution. I tried a few things, but with the way the bearing normally sits, it was hard to come up with a solution. Finally, I found a piece of 2x4 that's been in my truck for years and wedged it in between the bearing and the frame, but it wasn't enough, so I found a couple left over wooden stakes from work and used them as spacers to fill the gap. Then tied it all together with some scrap string. It wasn't pretty, the wood rubbed on the driveshaft, but it seemed solid, so I tried driving down the road to find phone reception.

I finally get a single bar on my phone and pull over, only to find my reception had disappeared. So I continued until I finally came to an open business, an apple orchard. So I'm finally able to call AAA and get a tow truck, of course, buying a bag of apples and some home-made apple butter in the process.

After 45 minutes or so, the tow truck arrives so I put my tablet in my back pocket (so I can play games/read on the ride home) but then the driver asks me to put my truck in neutral, so I get in and do so, but I hear a slight cracking sound. Fearing the worst, I try not to think about it and hope it was something else. For an hour and half of the ride, I'm too afraid to look at my tablet, and instead have to converse with my driver and his wife (yeah, he stopped about 15 minutes in to pick up his wife so she could go for a ride) but when we stop to get gas, I pull out my tablet and check it, only to find a dozen or so cracks along the side of the screen. They were mostly inconspicuous so I was upset, but not terribly worried. Until I tried using it. Apparently, with the Nexus 7, and crack in the screen makes the whole thing unusable. All I can do is use the sleep and volume buttons, can't even properly turn it off.

So this morning, I pull of my driveshaft, take it in, give them nearly $200 to put a new bearing on and balance everything. Then look into getting my tablet fixed. It would be about $150 for the new screen alone, I'm guessing another $50-100 to have someone install it. While a new (and improved) Nexus 7 is $260. So I ordered a new one (with insurance this time) total being close to $300. While I'm setting up the new tablet, I need to "update my security settings" for Google, which involves a text code sent to my phone. So I pick up my phone and find it unreadable, somehow, between me going to the store and coming home, the screen on it broke. About 10% of the screen was readable.

Luckily, I happen to have a spare phone that's the same model, so I figured I could swap out the screens and be done with it. Turns out, the phone's innards only disassemble to two pieces, the screen and the main board. With the way the wires went, getting the screen out of the phone looked impossible, so I went a different route and switched out the main boards. With a little finesse, I have a working phone again, and its in a much better condition case. With any luck, I'll be able to get another 6 years out of it.


TL:DR  My truck broke, my tablet broke, my phone broke. I had to fix the first to get the second and needed the third to setup the second.

Maybe keep less rocks in your pockets?

Just got back from the old roomies party. Didn't get too plastered, broke up a fight, got hit on by a girl while my girlfriend watched (alas she wasn't into it), attempted to turn off a smoke machine and only turned it up, and had a relatively alright time.

[The Metamorphosing Leon]

So apparently amazon has some sort of promotion thing going on wherein certain people qualify for coupons for 40-60 bucks off Kindles. Then if you combine that with their 20% off refurbs you can clear a kindle for like 10-20 bucks.

Apparently if you load this page (while logged into your amazon account) and you get a popup about the coupon, you're all set to get a cheap ass kindle.

http://www.amazon.com/?_e...ative=390957&linkCode

I don't seem to qualify, but they say to check daily as I guess they're doing more every day until the end of the month.

[The Metamorphosing Leon]

I sewed a hole in my pants today. I am now a real man.

[RetroRage]

Why didn't you just use duct tape like a real real man?

[Alabama-Shrimp]

Why didn't you just use duct tape like a real real man?

Because he would get sticky nads......

[Izret101]

I had to tape a hole in my pants when i was on the job. You just have to tape from the outside and the inside.

[GrayGhost81]

Cautionary article about collecting as an 'investment'

http://finance.yahoo.com/...-worthless-095537403.html

[Shadow Kisuragi]

OMG, you mean prices don't always grow on older items? Why the hell do I have all these games then?!

[GrayGhost81]

OMG, you mean prices don't always grow on older items? Why the hell do I have all these games then?!

I know man! Duke.Togo told me video games were a sure fire investment!

[The Metamorphosing Leon]

The entertainment industry does that with everything. In reality 95% of all "collectibles" are worthless the second they leave the store. Gaming actually has slightly slower devaluation, what with the trade in market, but it's still majorly devalued as soon as you pay retail for it, and is relatively quickly worth zilch.

[Izret101]

Something is only worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it.
Regardless of the market.

[ReddMcKnight]

Dark Horse Comics is awesome.

(BURP!)

My spoon is too big.

[SirPsycho]

My hometown has a Starbucks across from another Starbucks. 50,000 people live there, wtf?