I was depressed from having a really bad week. I got into that mentality that everything that could go wrong would and started questioning why this was happening. But time passed and I came back down to earth and realized, hey, sometimes shit just happens. Sometimes it's your fault and sometimes it's not, but you can't let it affect your mood. When you start thinking poorly, you start acting poorly, and let's be honest, feeling depressed doesn't feel good, so why go there?
When shit happens, you just have to man up and take responsibility, whether it be of your own actions or someone else's, 'cause chances are there's not going to be anyone out there to take care of you. I believe you have control over about 95% of things that happen to you in life, which I think is true 'cause I earned the good life I live right now, no one just gave it to me. Anyway, I feel a much better now and am glad, because depressed Andy is quite the debbie-downer and no one likes one of those! So moral of the story is: When Shit Happens, Make It Happen!
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Dealing with Racism: It Can Be Tough To Be Asian Sometimes...
It's 2:47am on a late Tuesday night. I played my typical round of APA pool league at the Fox and the Hound earlier tonight, business as usual. I got invited to go to a friend's house afterwards to hang out, and seeing how I'm usually in the mood to build friendships, I went, along with my friend Anthony. Things were going alright, the host was very congenial, letting us play on his shufflepuck board and whatnot, and we chilled inside while getting ready to play a friendly game of poker. After about an hour since Anthony and I had been at this house afterparty, my friend who originally invited us tells us that we should leave...I guess the notion is we're not really welcome here anymore. Supposedly the host was not told that myself and Anthony would be arriving, and there was an argument between my friend who invited us and the host.
Now, usually I would just think that the owner of the house was no longer in the hosting mood, but people at this party were talking and some threw out the theory of racism (mostly based on the fact that he had Confederate flags hung along his walls). While I have been exposed to racism before, Anthony came from a much harsher upbringing than myself. He claims that South LA where he grew up was extremely harsh on the minorities, especially Asians who were such a small part of the population. He also claims that he was held up at gunpoint before because of his ethnicity. I for one have never had to deal with such extremities, but seeing how Anthony drove us tonight, he was ready to hightail it out of there. In fact, he was ready to jump the wall and run, while I didn't think much of it. I was like, I'll just walk out the front door here, say goodbye to the fella, shake his hand and thank him for having us over in his nice home.
What Anthony has been through is very unfortunate, but it's not without question that dealing with racism does happen and it is very depressing to go through. While I rarely try to think of it and sometimes even forget that I myself and Asian (I just try to mesh with whoever I am with, regardless of their race), it has come up in the past where I question whether or not someone dislikes me because of my race. For example, going to the gym I have wondered if a guy won't let me work in with him on a machine because I'm Asian. And too many times I have felt rejected by women because I felt they just don't want to date an Asian guy.
Fortunately, most of my friends of ethnic backgrounds have not had their lives challenged and I hope they never do. However, it never fails to depress me when I hear about racial discrimination because I myself have been in the crossfire. And I think it really just centralizes around the white dominated society we have in America. People wonder why all Asians know each other, but the answer is sometimes very simple: we've all been through the same challenge of being a minority trying to survive in a non-Asian-dominated society. It's simply the hard truth.
I once had a Caucasian friend tell me that he disliked going out to places where he was like the only white person in the room. Welcome to my everyday life! But I don't hold a grudge against anyone 'cause many only trust what they are familiar with, and so many have not been exposed to these types of issues. Anyway, dealing with racism can be tough. I just have to try and remain optimistic and trusting of strangers that it's not an issue, just so I can be myself and live a normal life.
Hey, at least my cat Duncan doesn't even know what the fuck racism is. Love you Duncan!
Now, usually I would just think that the owner of the house was no longer in the hosting mood, but people at this party were talking and some threw out the theory of racism (mostly based on the fact that he had Confederate flags hung along his walls). While I have been exposed to racism before, Anthony came from a much harsher upbringing than myself. He claims that South LA where he grew up was extremely harsh on the minorities, especially Asians who were such a small part of the population. He also claims that he was held up at gunpoint before because of his ethnicity. I for one have never had to deal with such extremities, but seeing how Anthony drove us tonight, he was ready to hightail it out of there. In fact, he was ready to jump the wall and run, while I didn't think much of it. I was like, I'll just walk out the front door here, say goodbye to the fella, shake his hand and thank him for having us over in his nice home.
What Anthony has been through is very unfortunate, but it's not without question that dealing with racism does happen and it is very depressing to go through. While I rarely try to think of it and sometimes even forget that I myself and Asian (I just try to mesh with whoever I am with, regardless of their race), it has come up in the past where I question whether or not someone dislikes me because of my race. For example, going to the gym I have wondered if a guy won't let me work in with him on a machine because I'm Asian. And too many times I have felt rejected by women because I felt they just don't want to date an Asian guy.
Fortunately, most of my friends of ethnic backgrounds have not had their lives challenged and I hope they never do. However, it never fails to depress me when I hear about racial discrimination because I myself have been in the crossfire. And I think it really just centralizes around the white dominated society we have in America. People wonder why all Asians know each other, but the answer is sometimes very simple: we've all been through the same challenge of being a minority trying to survive in a non-Asian-dominated society. It's simply the hard truth.
I once had a Caucasian friend tell me that he disliked going out to places where he was like the only white person in the room. Welcome to my everyday life! But I don't hold a grudge against anyone 'cause many only trust what they are familiar with, and so many have not been exposed to these types of issues. Anyway, dealing with racism can be tough. I just have to try and remain optimistic and trusting of strangers that it's not an issue, just so I can be myself and live a normal life.
Hey, at least my cat Duncan doesn't even know what the fuck racism is. Love you Duncan!
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Kyle's Wedding Weekend!
You know what's great about weddings? It brings people together, especially those friends of yours who have moved far away and you just don't get to see each other as often anymore. My friend Kyle, one of my longest friends since middle school, got married to Jamie a couple weekends ago! Congrats Kyle and Jamie! I didn't blog about it right away though since he is one of my biggest fans and figured I'd wait until he was back from his honeymoon in Maui!
I got in on Friday night and met up with Chris, Jeff and Ashley, Nate, and Kyle Kinney at Goldie's. Goldie's is kind of our neighborhood bar that we go to every time this group is in town. :) After a night of just drinking and catching up, I had apparently had too much to drink and went home with Jeff and Ashley. But instead of going straight home, figures that Jeff and I would ask to be dropped off at the casino, heh. :P A funny story happened there actually, which is why I bring the casino up. Jeff and I were playing Blackjack and after losing all but $7 of my chips, I went to the ATM to get more money. When I returned to my seat, I noticed my chips were gone. The two people to my right (one was Jeff) who had been playing there didn't notice who took the chips and the new guy to the left had no clue either. The dealer was completely useless as well. Normally, I feel really safe leaving my chips at the table, because the dealer will usually watch it for you. Anyway, I talked to the pit boss, not really concerned about the $7, but just curious who would take it. While they checked the security cameras, Jeff shouted out aloud, "You'd have to have some pretty big balls to have taken the money and still be sitting at this table!" The pit boss came back after about 15 minutes and told the guy sitting to the left of me, "Sir, you owe the gentleman next you $7." This guy was apparently a bit drunk and kept insisting he didn't take it, saying things like "I wasn't even around here when that happened!" LOL! The pit boss had to have security come over and they were ready to toss him out and have him arrested. Fortunately, the guy wised up and paid me $10 and me being the nice guy I am, I made amends and said, "hey, it was probably just an accident, no worries." I really wasn't upset, just amused. If anything, I am disappointed that it happened because your chips are supposed to be safe if you need to walk away and use the bathroom but reserve your seat! And apparently Jeff thought it was that guy to my left all along, he just couldn't prove it. Hence his comical statements earlier. :)
On Saturday, Kyle got married to Jamie! Ashley was nice enough to drive a bunch of us other, a luxury I don't get much...ever. :) I was really happy and enjoyed a wedding full of drinks and good times, seeing great friends that I don't get to see very often (Chris, Brian, and James to name a few), and meeting their amazing fiancés in person for the first time - Priya and Mariana for example. :) The venue was beautiful (but I guess they always are) and the Edringtons threw an awesome wedding! With Chris and James getting married next year, that really only leaves me in the picture below as the lone single guy, a title I would probably take to my grave!
Another reason I enjoyed this weekend is that I limited myself to the friends I would see while in Phoenix. It was really relaxing because I basically just spent a majority of it at Jeff and Ashley's. I also didn't have to drive a ton - I actually made it to Phx and back to Tucson on a single tank of gas!
Congrats again to Kyle and Jamie! And now I must go prepare myself for Johnathan and Kelly's wedding this weekend!
I got in on Friday night and met up with Chris, Jeff and Ashley, Nate, and Kyle Kinney at Goldie's. Goldie's is kind of our neighborhood bar that we go to every time this group is in town. :) After a night of just drinking and catching up, I had apparently had too much to drink and went home with Jeff and Ashley. But instead of going straight home, figures that Jeff and I would ask to be dropped off at the casino, heh. :P A funny story happened there actually, which is why I bring the casino up. Jeff and I were playing Blackjack and after losing all but $7 of my chips, I went to the ATM to get more money. When I returned to my seat, I noticed my chips were gone. The two people to my right (one was Jeff) who had been playing there didn't notice who took the chips and the new guy to the left had no clue either. The dealer was completely useless as well. Normally, I feel really safe leaving my chips at the table, because the dealer will usually watch it for you. Anyway, I talked to the pit boss, not really concerned about the $7, but just curious who would take it. While they checked the security cameras, Jeff shouted out aloud, "You'd have to have some pretty big balls to have taken the money and still be sitting at this table!" The pit boss came back after about 15 minutes and told the guy sitting to the left of me, "Sir, you owe the gentleman next you $7." This guy was apparently a bit drunk and kept insisting he didn't take it, saying things like "I wasn't even around here when that happened!" LOL! The pit boss had to have security come over and they were ready to toss him out and have him arrested. Fortunately, the guy wised up and paid me $10 and me being the nice guy I am, I made amends and said, "hey, it was probably just an accident, no worries." I really wasn't upset, just amused. If anything, I am disappointed that it happened because your chips are supposed to be safe if you need to walk away and use the bathroom but reserve your seat! And apparently Jeff thought it was that guy to my left all along, he just couldn't prove it. Hence his comical statements earlier. :)
Congrats again to Kyle and Jamie! And now I must go prepare myself for Johnathan and Kelly's wedding this weekend!
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Lemme Lemme Upgrade-ya Upgrade-ya
I built my computer in December of 2007 and since then I have made a few upgrades: from 2GB RAM to 4GB, from a Dual-Core CPU to Quad-Core, a mechanical keyboard and gaming mouse to name a few examples. I never blogged about those upgrades but I'm going to blog about my most recent one: a new Solid State Drive and Windows 7!
OCZ Vertex 4 128GB Solid State Drive - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227791 ($90, on sale from $150)
Solid State Drives are the way of the future as they can achieve almost 10-50x the speed of traditional spinning Hard Drives. I installed this puppy this past weekend without having to buy any extra peripherals. It is SATA III speed, but it's backwards compatible since my motherboard is not SATA III. I had to set my BIOS SATA detection from AHCI to IDE in order to detect the drive, but after that it was smooth sailing.
Windows 7 Home Edition 64-bit - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986 ($100)
Why not Professional Edition you ask? Just google the difference and you'll see that Home Edition has all the stuff a typical user needs. I am not running my computer as a server or anything, so Home Edition was adequate for me! I've been stuck on Windows XP for a while now, so I installed Windows 7 onto the SSD with no problems!
The end result is an Operating System that loads super-fast! I put all my applications on my 128GB SSD: Windows 7 and games like StarCraft 2. I then keep my 300GB SATA around for storage purposes. This method of storing data is actually exercised in the high-end disk enterprise world. It's now common to store your hot data (things you access a lot and frequently) on SSD and cold data on slower, spinning drives.
Now I am super happy with my computer and should not have to upgrade it for another couple years!
OCZ Vertex 4 128GB Solid State Drive - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227791 ($90, on sale from $150)
Solid State Drives are the way of the future as they can achieve almost 10-50x the speed of traditional spinning Hard Drives. I installed this puppy this past weekend without having to buy any extra peripherals. It is SATA III speed, but it's backwards compatible since my motherboard is not SATA III. I had to set my BIOS SATA detection from AHCI to IDE in order to detect the drive, but after that it was smooth sailing.
Windows 7 Home Edition 64-bit - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986 ($100)
Why not Professional Edition you ask? Just google the difference and you'll see that Home Edition has all the stuff a typical user needs. I am not running my computer as a server or anything, so Home Edition was adequate for me! I've been stuck on Windows XP for a while now, so I installed Windows 7 onto the SSD with no problems!
The end result is an Operating System that loads super-fast! I put all my applications on my 128GB SSD: Windows 7 and games like StarCraft 2. I then keep my 300GB SATA around for storage purposes. This method of storing data is actually exercised in the high-end disk enterprise world. It's now common to store your hot data (things you access a lot and frequently) on SSD and cold data on slower, spinning drives.
Now I am super happy with my computer and should not have to upgrade it for another couple years!
Thursday, October 4, 2012
San Diego, D.C., and Lexi!
The past couple weeks have been pretty hectic for me! I went on trips to San Diego and Washington D.C., and while I was briefly in Tucson around those trips I had to deal with rental car situations since Lexi was in the shop getting her grill fixed up.
I'll start with the Wednesday before my San Diego trip, which was about 2 weeks ago. I dropped Lexi off at the Royal Collision Center for repairs and they estimated it would take about 4 days to fix, so I was hoping I'd get her back the next week when I got back from San Diego and before D.C. An annoying thing about renting from Enterprise in the city is that you can't drop the rental car off at the airport. I guess TSA taxes anything in the airport, so I would've had to pay $35 to drop off the car there, so I instead I dropped it off at an Enterprise about a mile outside and Wes kindly offered to drive me from there to the airport - yep a small 2-minute car ride probably, but he was okay with it since he was working at the nearby Raytheon anyway.
On to San Diego...
Kyle is getting married very soon, so we went to San Diego for his bachelor party! I get into San Diego on Friday afternoon and proceed to the courtesy shuttles for the hotel I'll be staying at, some Sheraton in downtown. The shuttle apparently gets to the airport and picks up someone else instead of me and I completely missed it. :( So I had to call them again and wait another 30 minutes for the next shuttle. About an hour since I landed, I finally get on their shuttle and coincidentally Shane (Kyle's brother and best man) is also picked up at the same time, albeit his flight got in about an hour later than mine. Heh, c'est la vie!
Everyone else got in later throughout the day, and we started the weekend off by ordering Thai food and having drinks at the condo where James' mom lives in downtown San Diego. We started there for pregaming since we could just walk or take cheap taxi rides into the Gaslamp District, which is one of San Diego's major quarters for tons of bars, restaurants, and nightlife. We found a place called Jolt'n Joes, which become our go-to bar that fit Kyle's interests perfectly: chill relaxed sports bar with beer pong and ping pong! I even bet James $10 on Kyle to beat his brother in ping pong and Kyle did not disappoint! :D The rest of the night was mostly spent drinking and wandering around Gas Lamp.
The next day we had originally planned to go to an Oktoberfest, thinking it was a beer festival of some sort. Much to our surprise, we learned that it was really just a folk festival, lol. So alternatively, we headed out to Pacific Beach and found a bar where we could just hang out and watch College Football. Later that night we had dinner reservations at a restaurant called "The Strip Club." It's a place where you order the cuts you want and you go to their grill and grill the meat yourself. What an ingenious idea (from an owner's perspective)! You don't have to hire cooks to grill steaks and if the customer messes up his own steak, it's his fault! Simply genius! To be honest, I wouldn't recommend this place to others. While the idea is novel and can be a fun activity, the steak I grilled was no different than what I can make at home. Also, you can't control the heat from the grill, which I found to be a bit powerful; I usually like to slow cook my steaks. It was also terribly hot inside, probably from all the grilling. They really should consider boosting the AC or installing ceiling fans.
This was our last night in San Diego, so we continued to just go out in Gaslamp and party it up. There was more Jolt'n Joes and stops at other bars like McFadden's. I think Kyle was fairly drunk that night, but it's kind of hard to tell since he seems to hold his liquor pretty well. :)
On Sunday we went to the Chargers-Falcons game! I really like trying to go to a professional sporting event when I visit a new city, so I was happy others wanted to join. Parking for the stadium was a pain, but we made it to our seats shortly after tip-off. Our seats were pretty low level and near the field, so the view was great. Unfortunately it was hot enough outside where you were just burning up and there was chance of shade. FYI, I think the best place to sit at Qualcomm Stadium would probably be on the lower level in the sections where the levels above hang over, since the above floors would provide shade. Anyhoo, the game was a blowout in favor of the Falcons, who's defense I started in fantasy that day, so I was content with the outcome. :)
Mostly everyone went home on Sunday, but James was staying until Tuesday and me until Monday night. On Sunday I met up with Sarah in North Park and we had dinner at Ranchos Cocina. When I visit my friends in different cities, I like to go the restaurants they really enjoy going to...in other words, I want to see how they live! :) It was really nice to see Sarah and after dinner she drove me back to James' condo and that was pretty much the rest of that night.
On Monday, James and I did a little sight-seeing around San Diego. We checked out Broadway Pier and rode the trolley to Little Italy. I find it amusing that there's a Little Italy, and it's on a road called India St, in the city of San Diego. :P In the evening we met up with his friend Sarah (not the same one as mine lol) at The Regal Beagle. I loved this place! So much character. They had 25 cent mini corn dogs on Mondays and when they take your order, they send the order on a piece of paper down a zipline into the kitchen. Never seen that before! I watched Cedric Benson during the Packers-Seahawks game try and win me my fantasy matchup against James nonetheless, but had to leave for the airport at half-time. I'd eventually win, Linsanity style of course. And so concluded a fun trip to San Diego!
Back to Tucson...
When I got home to Tucson around 9pm on Monday night, I had arranged to pick up a rental car from the Enterprise at the airport. Unfortunately my car wouldn't be ready until Friday, so I figured I'd just get a rental car from the airport and drop it back there when I came back on Thursday for my flight to DC. The Enterprise at the airport was a hassle. The guy showed me to the rental cars and "let me pick one", so I figured I was picking from the economy vehicles that I ordered. I told him, "whatever gives me the best gas mileage," and so he offered me either a Ford Fusion or some Chevy. I took the Ford and he went inside to run up the paperwork. When he came back, he tried to charge me $6 extra a day for the Ford. I was upset and told him, "I just want the car I ordered, I don't need anything extra." He could tell I was upset and eventually he gave me the Fusion anyway as a free upgrade, but still just annoying to have to go through that crap. And when I returned the car on Thursday morning before my D.C. flight, it happened to be the same guy lol. At least he remembered me...
On to D.C. ...
You might recall I had a "secret trip" planned for late September. Well, it was a surprise visit for my friend Mike's 30th birthday in D.C.! It was his girlfriend Keri's idea, since she was planning a big party for him that weekend. I left Tucson very early at 9am, but my flight connected in Dallas-Fort Worth and had been rescheduled to depart 2 hours later. :'( When I finally get on that plane, it takes another hour to leave because of baggage and storm delays (well, they told us baggage but I think it was storms). Anyway, I finally get into D.C. at 10pm when I had originally planned to get there at 6:45pm. Herman is waiting to pick me up and has to make up excuses why he's not at the bar celebrating with Mike for his birthday. He tells him that he has "furniture to pick up and is running late." Lol, I guess he was picking up an Oriental rug. :P
I eventually get to Joe Theismann's to surprise Mike! He is definitely happy to see me, although I think some of my surprise was blown when Kevin (also from AZ) arrived a day earlier. So he must've known that people were coming into visit him, he just wasn't sure when. I had texted Mike earlier that day, wishing him a Happy Birthday but also saying that I couldn't make it out there, since I knew Kevin had flown in. He didn't buy it. He also didn't buy it when Keri and Kevin made up the reason that I couldn't be there due to having to stay for work. Okay people, never use that excuse for me. Anyone who knows me well enough - and Mike does - knows that work is one of the last things that will ever keep me from doing the things I want to do. It's really rare that I can't go somewhere because of work. :) Mike and I proceeded to get hammered and we stayed up late playing Nintendo 64 with Kevin and Aaron, passing out around 4am, hehe (which is only 1am AZ time!).
On Friday, Mike took Kevin sight-seeing around the Washington Mall and we looked at several memorials. At night we met up with Herman, Juliet, Aaron, and Keri at Bistrot Du Coin. It was a fine French restaurant and we got a few mussel pots and I got some extra escargot on the side. Afterwards, Mike thought it would be a low key night at this place called One Lounge. WRONG! He walks into the bar and there are 40 of his friends shouting "Surprise!" Keri had bought a room with a keg and bottle service for all of Mike's friends! Pretty awesome girlfriend right there. So Mike spent a lot of the night hanging out with his friends while I tried to mingle and be single - two things I excel at. It was a great party for a great friend.
On Saturday, we went to one of Mike's favorite sports bars called the Tortoise and the Hare. He plays for their softball team and they are also a Penn State bar, so it's like the perfect place for him. There was a whiteout tailgating event for the Penn State game on TV vs Illinois, so several Penn State alumns were there. Keri and I DOMINATED in bag toss / corn hole, and when I say dominate I mean DOMINATE (scores like 21-4, 21-8, although one team did push us to 21-19). But I argue that I am a very good bean bag tosser! We spent most of the day there just hanging out and drinking and I was extremely hammered by the end of the night, so was Mike. I think I took like 30 pictures of us while I was drunk that you can find on Facebook.
Sunday was a pretty relaxing day. I watched Mike play softball in the morning and then we watched the NFL games all day. I was actually scheduled to fly back to Tucson on Sunday night, but after learning that my flight into DFW airport was delayed an hour and a half and that I would miss my connecting flight, thus leaving me stranded in Dallas for a night, I decided to just take a flight out of D.C. the next morning. One more night of hanging out with Mike! We didn't do anything though because by the time the Giants-Eagles game was over, it was pretty much time to go to bed anyway.
Going Home to Tucson...
I got home to Tucson at noon on Monday and Lucky picked me and took me to the Royal Collision Center to pick up my car. Lexi looks as good as new now! Actually, she looks better because my bottom ground effects had been damaged over time and they fixed that along with everything else. :) All-in-all, I ended up paying $500 for a deductible and about $220 for rental cars. The repair work on Lexi was $4,074. I am really happy to have my car back! I'm also really happy to be able to just chill in Tucson and not have to travel for a while!
I'll start with the Wednesday before my San Diego trip, which was about 2 weeks ago. I dropped Lexi off at the Royal Collision Center for repairs and they estimated it would take about 4 days to fix, so I was hoping I'd get her back the next week when I got back from San Diego and before D.C. An annoying thing about renting from Enterprise in the city is that you can't drop the rental car off at the airport. I guess TSA taxes anything in the airport, so I would've had to pay $35 to drop off the car there, so I instead I dropped it off at an Enterprise about a mile outside and Wes kindly offered to drive me from there to the airport - yep a small 2-minute car ride probably, but he was okay with it since he was working at the nearby Raytheon anyway.
On to San Diego...
Kyle is getting married very soon, so we went to San Diego for his bachelor party! I get into San Diego on Friday afternoon and proceed to the courtesy shuttles for the hotel I'll be staying at, some Sheraton in downtown. The shuttle apparently gets to the airport and picks up someone else instead of me and I completely missed it. :( So I had to call them again and wait another 30 minutes for the next shuttle. About an hour since I landed, I finally get on their shuttle and coincidentally Shane (Kyle's brother and best man) is also picked up at the same time, albeit his flight got in about an hour later than mine. Heh, c'est la vie!
Everyone else got in later throughout the day, and we started the weekend off by ordering Thai food and having drinks at the condo where James' mom lives in downtown San Diego. We started there for pregaming since we could just walk or take cheap taxi rides into the Gaslamp District, which is one of San Diego's major quarters for tons of bars, restaurants, and nightlife. We found a place called Jolt'n Joes, which become our go-to bar that fit Kyle's interests perfectly: chill relaxed sports bar with beer pong and ping pong! I even bet James $10 on Kyle to beat his brother in ping pong and Kyle did not disappoint! :D The rest of the night was mostly spent drinking and wandering around Gas Lamp.
On Sunday we went to the Chargers-Falcons game! I really like trying to go to a professional sporting event when I visit a new city, so I was happy others wanted to join. Parking for the stadium was a pain, but we made it to our seats shortly after tip-off. Our seats were pretty low level and near the field, so the view was great. Unfortunately it was hot enough outside where you were just burning up and there was chance of shade. FYI, I think the best place to sit at Qualcomm Stadium would probably be on the lower level in the sections where the levels above hang over, since the above floors would provide shade. Anyhoo, the game was a blowout in favor of the Falcons, who's defense I started in fantasy that day, so I was content with the outcome. :)
On Monday, James and I did a little sight-seeing around San Diego. We checked out Broadway Pier and rode the trolley to Little Italy. I find it amusing that there's a Little Italy, and it's on a road called India St, in the city of San Diego. :P In the evening we met up with his friend Sarah (not the same one as mine lol) at The Regal Beagle. I loved this place! So much character. They had 25 cent mini corn dogs on Mondays and when they take your order, they send the order on a piece of paper down a zipline into the kitchen. Never seen that before! I watched Cedric Benson during the Packers-Seahawks game try and win me my fantasy matchup against James nonetheless, but had to leave for the airport at half-time. I'd eventually win, Linsanity style of course. And so concluded a fun trip to San Diego!
Back to Tucson...
When I got home to Tucson around 9pm on Monday night, I had arranged to pick up a rental car from the Enterprise at the airport. Unfortunately my car wouldn't be ready until Friday, so I figured I'd just get a rental car from the airport and drop it back there when I came back on Thursday for my flight to DC. The Enterprise at the airport was a hassle. The guy showed me to the rental cars and "let me pick one", so I figured I was picking from the economy vehicles that I ordered. I told him, "whatever gives me the best gas mileage," and so he offered me either a Ford Fusion or some Chevy. I took the Ford and he went inside to run up the paperwork. When he came back, he tried to charge me $6 extra a day for the Ford. I was upset and told him, "I just want the car I ordered, I don't need anything extra." He could tell I was upset and eventually he gave me the Fusion anyway as a free upgrade, but still just annoying to have to go through that crap. And when I returned the car on Thursday morning before my D.C. flight, it happened to be the same guy lol. At least he remembered me...
On to D.C. ...
You might recall I had a "secret trip" planned for late September. Well, it was a surprise visit for my friend Mike's 30th birthday in D.C.! It was his girlfriend Keri's idea, since she was planning a big party for him that weekend. I left Tucson very early at 9am, but my flight connected in Dallas-Fort Worth and had been rescheduled to depart 2 hours later. :'( When I finally get on that plane, it takes another hour to leave because of baggage and storm delays (well, they told us baggage but I think it was storms). Anyway, I finally get into D.C. at 10pm when I had originally planned to get there at 6:45pm. Herman is waiting to pick me up and has to make up excuses why he's not at the bar celebrating with Mike for his birthday. He tells him that he has "furniture to pick up and is running late." Lol, I guess he was picking up an Oriental rug. :P
I eventually get to Joe Theismann's to surprise Mike! He is definitely happy to see me, although I think some of my surprise was blown when Kevin (also from AZ) arrived a day earlier. So he must've known that people were coming into visit him, he just wasn't sure when. I had texted Mike earlier that day, wishing him a Happy Birthday but also saying that I couldn't make it out there, since I knew Kevin had flown in. He didn't buy it. He also didn't buy it when Keri and Kevin made up the reason that I couldn't be there due to having to stay for work. Okay people, never use that excuse for me. Anyone who knows me well enough - and Mike does - knows that work is one of the last things that will ever keep me from doing the things I want to do. It's really rare that I can't go somewhere because of work. :) Mike and I proceeded to get hammered and we stayed up late playing Nintendo 64 with Kevin and Aaron, passing out around 4am, hehe (which is only 1am AZ time!).
On Friday, Mike took Kevin sight-seeing around the Washington Mall and we looked at several memorials. At night we met up with Herman, Juliet, Aaron, and Keri at Bistrot Du Coin. It was a fine French restaurant and we got a few mussel pots and I got some extra escargot on the side. Afterwards, Mike thought it would be a low key night at this place called One Lounge. WRONG! He walks into the bar and there are 40 of his friends shouting "Surprise!" Keri had bought a room with a keg and bottle service for all of Mike's friends! Pretty awesome girlfriend right there. So Mike spent a lot of the night hanging out with his friends while I tried to mingle and be single - two things I excel at. It was a great party for a great friend.
Going Home to Tucson...
I got home to Tucson at noon on Monday and Lucky picked me and took me to the Royal Collision Center to pick up my car. Lexi looks as good as new now! Actually, she looks better because my bottom ground effects had been damaged over time and they fixed that along with everything else. :) All-in-all, I ended up paying $500 for a deductible and about $220 for rental cars. The repair work on Lexi was $4,074. I am really happy to have my car back! I'm also really happy to be able to just chill in Tucson and not have to travel for a while!
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Shooting Ranch!
For my friend Johnathan's bachelor party last Saturday, we went to a shooting ranch in Marana. I'd say it was more of a big area of dirt that goes down into the ground like a crater, a landfill if you will. Anyway, several of Johnathan's friends including himself own various types of pistols, rifles, and machine guns. You can't shoot certain firearms at most indoor shooting ranges, so we went out here since we know people that are members of the Gun Club.
I don't know much about guns nor do I plan to own one anytime soon, but it was fun to fire off a bunch of rifles, since I've only handled pistols before. It was really challenging trying to hit a target hundreds of feet away with the rifle, but it was a pretty cool feeling nonetheless. :)
We fired guns out there for a few hours and then went to a BJ's aftewards for dinner. Congrats to Johnathan! He'll be getting married in Tucson come November. As for me, it's off to San Diego this weekend for Kyle's bachelor party!
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Brand New Desk (Lots of Assembly Required)!
I've had the same computer desk for over 10 years. It's one that my mom bought for me for college and while it was useful enough, it's actually pretty small. Here is a picture of what it looks like:
I've been wanting a new desk for a while now, something significantly bigger with nicer wood as well. (LOL, I didn't mean to make that sound dirty) I went to a couple furniture stores in town and eventually I found one at OfficeMax I really liked. What I ended up getting was a Bush Bennington Manager's Desk. It was a bit pricey at $400 including tax, but I'm always willing to pay more for higher quality goods. The desk arrived in a couple days and came in two packages:
The reviews online said that the assembly would be an arduous task. Some comments included "Counting wood, nails, misc. parts, this box contained about 500 parts." and "It took two of us approximately 6 hours to put together." They were not kidding! I have attached a few pictures of the various parts and pieces required for assembly:
I worked from home on Friday so that I could work on the desk all day long. I started around 12:30pm and it took me about 40 minutes to completely unpack the two boxes. Fortunately the instruction manual was very informative and the pieces were all well labeled and organized. I finished the shell of the desk around 5pm although I took an hour-long lunch break and was running benchmarks for work throughout the day. Although the manual advises not to use a power drill, I still did and it came up huge. 25 steps and about 7 hours later, I have a brand new desk that I really love! Hooray for upgrading the quality of life! :D
UPDATE: While writing this blog, I looked up the desk online to grab the link so that you may find it online as well. Turns out there is an instant savings today of $50 so I called OfficeMax just now and got credited back the difference! FYI, they'll refund you the difference if the price drops within 14 days of purchase. It's funny because if I didn't blog about this, I wouldn't have looked at the item online again and seen the savings!
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Labor Day Awesomeness...or Annoyances?
This blog's secondary topic: Things that Annoy!
Maybe it's just me, but I find it pretty annoying when people post complaints on Facebook or whine about the little problems in their life all the time. Yeah, I want to know if they're really hurt and need a friend, but I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. What especially bugs me are when they make or post quotes that sound as if they've arrogantly figured everything out in life. I for one don't try to ever post about anything negative going on in my life, we all have issues...some bigger than others. I'm a pretty positive person for the most part, really the only thing I find myself complaining about is my failed lovelife, but usually only my best friends hear it 'cause I know they're probably the only ones who really care in that regard. I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I just don't want to become sullen no matter how annoying life can get, and it got a little depressing over Labor Day Weekend. Unfortunately for you, I'm gonna have to share some of those annoying stories with the awesomeness. Also, if you aren't prepared to read an annoyingly long blog with no pictures in it, I'd suggest you close your browser window now. :D
I got in on Thursday night before Labor Day weekend so that I could have a full 4-day weekend in Scottsdale and Phoenix. A busy weekend was planned ahead, many friends to hang out with and see and they are all scattered around the city as usual. Mike and his girlfriend Keri had flown in the same night and they greeted me at their house with a Diablo Shrimp Burrito from Senor Taco. I was happy to be home and to see one of my best friends. Keri turned in early since she was a little jet-lagged coming from the east coast and had been up way early anyway, so Mike and I ended up just catching up and chatting on his back porch over a couple beers. Just like old times. :)
On Friday, Mike's mom had planned a surprise birthday party for Mike in the evening at his house. So Keri, Nate, and I took him out to lunch at Ajo Al's - we wanted philly cheesesteaks at Uncle Sam's but unfortunately the one at Shea & 101 closed. :( After lunch, we went to the casino with the goal of getting him away from the house while his mom set up the party and guests arrived. Mike played a round of blackjack using my betting patterns and ended up $35 on the day. Speaking of annoying, we sat down at a table and started chatting with the other players. When we sat down, one of them said "You can do whatever you want. You can't believe that anything someone else does will affect anything. If you do, you have issues." Something to note about Blackjack players: some people think Basic Strategy is the only way to play the game and if you do anything out of the ordinary, you're a fool. If they are making money, they don't care what you do, but if they fell like you lose them money, they flip out. So one hand comes out with the dealer showing a 4 and Mike has 13. Basic Strategy says you should stand and hope for a dealer bust, but Mike doesn't really like his 13 and wants to take a hit. He draws a 10 that forces him to bust. The two other players at the table flip out and are like, "What are you doing!?" So then the last player in the turn doubles on his 11. He draws a 7 and the dealer ends up getting a 20 and everyone loses. The two players continue to lose their cool and remember that guy who said "You can't believe that anything someone else does will affect anything. If you do, you have issues." Well he then said, "I can't play like this. If I'm gonna lose, it has to be on my own terms." Well, you got issues buddy. Fortunately I will say that Mike ended up winning about $70 when the two of them stopped playing and were just watching, so that definitely felt good! Lol, some people. :P Very annoying indeed.
After an afternoon of hanging out around town, we returned to Mike's house for the surprise party. The guests parked away from the house so when I pulled up to drop Mike and Keri off, nothing would look amiss. I wanted to walk in with Mike and witness the surprise with him, but he told me to drive back to my house and just meet me as his house after parking, so I couldn't really say no. I hear when he walked in and people surprised him, he wasn't as much surprised as he was just questioning what the heck was going on. His birthday is actually not until the end of September, so at first he thought it was a surprise party for his girlfriend Keri, who's birthday was just on Thursday. But all his friends were there. Turns out his mom just wanted to celebrate his 30th with him since she wouldn't be able to see him again until Thanksgiving, and that was really awesome of her. She even hired a couple of belly dancers as entertainment, a funny experience we can all remember for a while and make fun of Mike for! :)
Mike wanted to take Keri Salt River tubing while she was there, so the three of us plus Kevin went on Saturday. Does anyone else find it annoying when people say they'll go to something and then when that day comes they just don't flat out want to? I think FLAKY fits the description! Yes, flaky people are very annoying and it's a bummer when you're hoping to see and hang out with someone when they're in town and they tell you they're gonna go to the river but then when the time comes they really don't care to see you I guess. It was a great day for the river, there was slight overcast and it may have been 100 out, but the water was a cool 68. I made the mistake of not packing a bigger cooler for the 4 of us and we killed a 24-pack quickly. I should've known better. Everyone drank more than anticipated, it's just so easy to drink on the river. And the last time I was out I was hungover, which is why I didn't have as many and caused me to under-estimate how many I would actually want to drink this time. Oh well.
On Saturday night, I had originally planned to go to a BBQ party at Matt and Pamela's, but that was canceled. Fortunately, only the party was canceled and not Matt and Pamela! :) So I drove out to Chandler to have dinner and drinks with them at Teakwood's. Afterwards, I traveled back up to Scottsdale to meet up with Wes for drinks at OHSO and then I stopped by Sam's house where they were watching Girls and Mystery Science Theater 3000 before I made my way back home.
Phoenix is a pretty annoyingly big city when you think about it and having friends scattered all over racks up a lot of miles on the car. I went through almost a tank while I was in town, so that's about 320 miles to give you an idea. On Sunday I grabbed dim sum at Phoenix Place in Chandler with Wes and his friends. I really like Phoenix Palace for dim sum and it's where my parents and I like to go often. There's usually plenty of seating and the food is great! In the afternoon, I drove over to the Biltmore area to help fix my friend's iPhone 4. This was my first time fixing a Verizon iPhone 4 (I had only done AT&'T), so it took me an extra 30 minutes to get the job done. After that I stopped by Wes's friend Charlie's house for some Bezzerwizzer and hanging out before I was scheduled to go to a Beer and Diaper Party at Buffalo Wild Wings in Happy Valley. Yes, it's a baby shower for the father, lol. It was for my good friend Hudson and it was awesome to see him, I haven't in maybe a year. I also went back to his house after dinner to play Golf, the card game, which I found pretty entertaining! After hanging out and on the way home that night, I stopped by the Zipps on Frank Lloyd Wright to meet up with Mike, Keri, Nate, Elizabeth, Kyle, Kevin, and Eric. I also broke one of my own high scores in the Buck Hunter game, lol. Oh, and one very annoying thing that happened this night while I was driving all over town that has to do with my car, but more on that later.
Then came Labor Day, which was the epitome of annoyance in my weekend. My parents had been out of town all weekend on a cruise to Russia and northern Europe. They were scheduled to get into Phoenix at 2pm and I was planning on going back to Tucson around 7...I also carpooled with Wes up here, so I would need to pick him up and give him a ride back as well. Unfortunately, my parents missed their flight in Chicago because apparently there was a family of about 20 who were holding up the flight out of Frankfurt. Had to do something with two kids not getting seats next to the rest of the family or something? Anyway, my parents were ultimately delayed 45 minutes out of Frankfurt and then when they arrived in Chicago, they had to go through a long line at customs and hence they missed their flight by 10 minutes. The next flight was scheduled to leave Chicago 5 hours later. Annoying for my parents indeed. So then I was presented with the dilemma of do I wait for my parents to get into town before I leave and get back to Tucson fairly late? Do I ask Wes to wait around for me with nothing to do? At this point I cracked a little and just wanted to shoot myself. I was pretty depressed from a culmination of annoying events that had taken place throughout the weekend. When it rains I can handle it, but it was pouring and I got pretty upset. At first I was going to just go home as originally planned and my parents were going to take a shuttle home. But then I started to think about everything more. Honestly, I go out of my way a lot when I'm in Phoenix visiting other people. But really, how many people would go out of their way to visit me in Tucson for example? To be honest, I really wanted to see my parents and go out of my way for them for a change, not just my friends. So I told Wes my plans and he unfortunately had to cancel his dinner, but he was able to find a ride back down to Tucson. I burnt time at Mike's house hanging out in their pool and playing croquet, which really cooled me off (literally and figuratively). I then picked my parents up at the airport at 7, we went to dinner afterwards and I was happy to see them, I took them home and then I packed up my things and Duncan and got back home in Tucson at midnight. And thus ended a weekend full of awesomeness and annoyances.
So yeah, sorry to dump the bad with the good on you, but shit does happen to all of us and it's good to vent sometimes. The key is how you go about your venting I think. I'm posting this on my blog and I know the only people who will read this are the ones who care to read it, so I'm okay with that. And at the end of the day I'm in still in a pretty good mood! Thanks for being the great fans you are and I hope to bring you more good stories to come!
Okay, so on a final note, back to my car. It was Sunday night and I was driving down I-17 from Happy Valley. It was late and dark outside, and a loose tire came rolling into my lane. I tried to swerve out of the way but could not in time and it hit my front bumper before rolling into the lanes to the left. It wasn't even a flat tire either, it was literally rolling on it's side against traffic and into cars. :( So yeah, here's the one picture you get to look at on this blog entry. Repairs are on the way, but it's annoying to say the least.
Maybe it's just me, but I find it pretty annoying when people post complaints on Facebook or whine about the little problems in their life all the time. Yeah, I want to know if they're really hurt and need a friend, but I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. What especially bugs me are when they make or post quotes that sound as if they've arrogantly figured everything out in life. I for one don't try to ever post about anything negative going on in my life, we all have issues...some bigger than others. I'm a pretty positive person for the most part, really the only thing I find myself complaining about is my failed lovelife, but usually only my best friends hear it 'cause I know they're probably the only ones who really care in that regard. I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I just don't want to become sullen no matter how annoying life can get, and it got a little depressing over Labor Day Weekend. Unfortunately for you, I'm gonna have to share some of those annoying stories with the awesomeness. Also, if you aren't prepared to read an annoyingly long blog with no pictures in it, I'd suggest you close your browser window now. :D
I got in on Thursday night before Labor Day weekend so that I could have a full 4-day weekend in Scottsdale and Phoenix. A busy weekend was planned ahead, many friends to hang out with and see and they are all scattered around the city as usual. Mike and his girlfriend Keri had flown in the same night and they greeted me at their house with a Diablo Shrimp Burrito from Senor Taco. I was happy to be home and to see one of my best friends. Keri turned in early since she was a little jet-lagged coming from the east coast and had been up way early anyway, so Mike and I ended up just catching up and chatting on his back porch over a couple beers. Just like old times. :)
On Friday, Mike's mom had planned a surprise birthday party for Mike in the evening at his house. So Keri, Nate, and I took him out to lunch at Ajo Al's - we wanted philly cheesesteaks at Uncle Sam's but unfortunately the one at Shea & 101 closed. :( After lunch, we went to the casino with the goal of getting him away from the house while his mom set up the party and guests arrived. Mike played a round of blackjack using my betting patterns and ended up $35 on the day. Speaking of annoying, we sat down at a table and started chatting with the other players. When we sat down, one of them said "You can do whatever you want. You can't believe that anything someone else does will affect anything. If you do, you have issues." Something to note about Blackjack players: some people think Basic Strategy is the only way to play the game and if you do anything out of the ordinary, you're a fool. If they are making money, they don't care what you do, but if they fell like you lose them money, they flip out. So one hand comes out with the dealer showing a 4 and Mike has 13. Basic Strategy says you should stand and hope for a dealer bust, but Mike doesn't really like his 13 and wants to take a hit. He draws a 10 that forces him to bust. The two other players at the table flip out and are like, "What are you doing!?" So then the last player in the turn doubles on his 11. He draws a 7 and the dealer ends up getting a 20 and everyone loses. The two players continue to lose their cool and remember that guy who said "You can't believe that anything someone else does will affect anything. If you do, you have issues." Well he then said, "I can't play like this. If I'm gonna lose, it has to be on my own terms." Well, you got issues buddy. Fortunately I will say that Mike ended up winning about $70 when the two of them stopped playing and were just watching, so that definitely felt good! Lol, some people. :P Very annoying indeed.
After an afternoon of hanging out around town, we returned to Mike's house for the surprise party. The guests parked away from the house so when I pulled up to drop Mike and Keri off, nothing would look amiss. I wanted to walk in with Mike and witness the surprise with him, but he told me to drive back to my house and just meet me as his house after parking, so I couldn't really say no. I hear when he walked in and people surprised him, he wasn't as much surprised as he was just questioning what the heck was going on. His birthday is actually not until the end of September, so at first he thought it was a surprise party for his girlfriend Keri, who's birthday was just on Thursday. But all his friends were there. Turns out his mom just wanted to celebrate his 30th with him since she wouldn't be able to see him again until Thanksgiving, and that was really awesome of her. She even hired a couple of belly dancers as entertainment, a funny experience we can all remember for a while and make fun of Mike for! :)
Mike wanted to take Keri Salt River tubing while she was there, so the three of us plus Kevin went on Saturday. Does anyone else find it annoying when people say they'll go to something and then when that day comes they just don't flat out want to? I think FLAKY fits the description! Yes, flaky people are very annoying and it's a bummer when you're hoping to see and hang out with someone when they're in town and they tell you they're gonna go to the river but then when the time comes they really don't care to see you I guess. It was a great day for the river, there was slight overcast and it may have been 100 out, but the water was a cool 68. I made the mistake of not packing a bigger cooler for the 4 of us and we killed a 24-pack quickly. I should've known better. Everyone drank more than anticipated, it's just so easy to drink on the river. And the last time I was out I was hungover, which is why I didn't have as many and caused me to under-estimate how many I would actually want to drink this time. Oh well.
On Saturday night, I had originally planned to go to a BBQ party at Matt and Pamela's, but that was canceled. Fortunately, only the party was canceled and not Matt and Pamela! :) So I drove out to Chandler to have dinner and drinks with them at Teakwood's. Afterwards, I traveled back up to Scottsdale to meet up with Wes for drinks at OHSO and then I stopped by Sam's house where they were watching Girls and Mystery Science Theater 3000 before I made my way back home.
Phoenix is a pretty annoyingly big city when you think about it and having friends scattered all over racks up a lot of miles on the car. I went through almost a tank while I was in town, so that's about 320 miles to give you an idea. On Sunday I grabbed dim sum at Phoenix Place in Chandler with Wes and his friends. I really like Phoenix Palace for dim sum and it's where my parents and I like to go often. There's usually plenty of seating and the food is great! In the afternoon, I drove over to the Biltmore area to help fix my friend's iPhone 4. This was my first time fixing a Verizon iPhone 4 (I had only done AT&'T), so it took me an extra 30 minutes to get the job done. After that I stopped by Wes's friend Charlie's house for some Bezzerwizzer and hanging out before I was scheduled to go to a Beer and Diaper Party at Buffalo Wild Wings in Happy Valley. Yes, it's a baby shower for the father, lol. It was for my good friend Hudson and it was awesome to see him, I haven't in maybe a year. I also went back to his house after dinner to play Golf, the card game, which I found pretty entertaining! After hanging out and on the way home that night, I stopped by the Zipps on Frank Lloyd Wright to meet up with Mike, Keri, Nate, Elizabeth, Kyle, Kevin, and Eric. I also broke one of my own high scores in the Buck Hunter game, lol. Oh, and one very annoying thing that happened this night while I was driving all over town that has to do with my car, but more on that later.
Then came Labor Day, which was the epitome of annoyance in my weekend. My parents had been out of town all weekend on a cruise to Russia and northern Europe. They were scheduled to get into Phoenix at 2pm and I was planning on going back to Tucson around 7...I also carpooled with Wes up here, so I would need to pick him up and give him a ride back as well. Unfortunately, my parents missed their flight in Chicago because apparently there was a family of about 20 who were holding up the flight out of Frankfurt. Had to do something with two kids not getting seats next to the rest of the family or something? Anyway, my parents were ultimately delayed 45 minutes out of Frankfurt and then when they arrived in Chicago, they had to go through a long line at customs and hence they missed their flight by 10 minutes. The next flight was scheduled to leave Chicago 5 hours later. Annoying for my parents indeed. So then I was presented with the dilemma of do I wait for my parents to get into town before I leave and get back to Tucson fairly late? Do I ask Wes to wait around for me with nothing to do? At this point I cracked a little and just wanted to shoot myself. I was pretty depressed from a culmination of annoying events that had taken place throughout the weekend. When it rains I can handle it, but it was pouring and I got pretty upset. At first I was going to just go home as originally planned and my parents were going to take a shuttle home. But then I started to think about everything more. Honestly, I go out of my way a lot when I'm in Phoenix visiting other people. But really, how many people would go out of their way to visit me in Tucson for example? To be honest, I really wanted to see my parents and go out of my way for them for a change, not just my friends. So I told Wes my plans and he unfortunately had to cancel his dinner, but he was able to find a ride back down to Tucson. I burnt time at Mike's house hanging out in their pool and playing croquet, which really cooled me off (literally and figuratively). I then picked my parents up at the airport at 7, we went to dinner afterwards and I was happy to see them, I took them home and then I packed up my things and Duncan and got back home in Tucson at midnight. And thus ended a weekend full of awesomeness and annoyances.
So yeah, sorry to dump the bad with the good on you, but shit does happen to all of us and it's good to vent sometimes. The key is how you go about your venting I think. I'm posting this on my blog and I know the only people who will read this are the ones who care to read it, so I'm okay with that. And at the end of the day I'm in still in a pretty good mood! Thanks for being the great fans you are and I hope to bring you more good stories to come!
Okay, so on a final note, back to my car. It was Sunday night and I was driving down I-17 from Happy Valley. It was late and dark outside, and a loose tire came rolling into my lane. I tried to swerve out of the way but could not in time and it hit my front bumper before rolling into the lanes to the left. It wasn't even a flat tire either, it was literally rolling on it's side against traffic and into cars. :( So yeah, here's the one picture you get to look at on this blog entry. Repairs are on the way, but it's annoying to say the least.
P.S. Did it get annoying when I kept putting the word annoy in bold and italic font? ;)
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
2-Mile Run for Oil
Today I worked from home so that I could change the oil on my car. I went through the normal process: drained the oil, changed the oil filter, etc. And when I got to the final step, which is to pour in new oil, I realized that I didn't have any oil to put in there! :/
I had only a quart and a half of oil handy, so I called O'Reilly Autoparts to see if driving a mile to their store on a quart of motor oil is safe. The clerk advised strongly against that, saying it would damage my engine if I were to try. I also considered my friend Matt's suggestion of pouring the old oil back in there, but then I would have to lift the car and drain the oil again, which is a big hassle.
So I decided to run. A mile is really not that far away, so I put on a backpack and put a cold gatorade, my keys and wallet and ran to the store. It was pretty hot out, easily over 100 degrees and I chugged that gatorade the second I got to the store. I put 6 quarts of oil in my bag and made the trek back, jogging slower this time around since I was carrying around extra weight. The total trip only took about 30 minutes, which is about the same amount of time it would've taken me to drive to the closest Walmart anyway and I got a good workout too!
That was the first time I've run more than a mile in long while (I'll run a mile max at the gym), so I won't be joining any marathons anytime soon. Hopefully next time I'll double-check that I have oil ready so that I don't have to embark on spontaneous afternoon workouts!
I had only a quart and a half of oil handy, so I called O'Reilly Autoparts to see if driving a mile to their store on a quart of motor oil is safe. The clerk advised strongly against that, saying it would damage my engine if I were to try. I also considered my friend Matt's suggestion of pouring the old oil back in there, but then I would have to lift the car and drain the oil again, which is a big hassle.
So I decided to run. A mile is really not that far away, so I put on a backpack and put a cold gatorade, my keys and wallet and ran to the store. It was pretty hot out, easily over 100 degrees and I chugged that gatorade the second I got to the store. I put 6 quarts of oil in my bag and made the trek back, jogging slower this time around since I was carrying around extra weight. The total trip only took about 30 minutes, which is about the same amount of time it would've taken me to drive to the closest Walmart anyway and I got a good workout too!
That was the first time I've run more than a mile in long while (I'll run a mile max at the gym), so I won't be joining any marathons anytime soon. Hopefully next time I'll double-check that I have oil ready so that I don't have to embark on spontaneous afternoon workouts!
Friday, August 24, 2012
August Recap
Haven't blogged in a while, so my apologies to my co-#1 fans (you know who you two are). Almost a whole month has passed since my lost blog so I'll just go ahead and recap what I did in August so far:
Mt. Lemmon Camping (8/4):
I went camping with Wes, Teqas, Dori, Ryan, and Ann at the Rose Canyon Lake campgrounds near the top of Mt. Lemmon in Tucson. The name is very misleading. Rose Canyon Lake is more of a lagoon, you can't take any boats in it nor would you want to jump in this murky, swampy water. It's still very pretty to look at and the weather was awesome: about a 75 degree high and maybe 50 at night. It did end up raining overnight, which is fun to listen to the drops falling onto your tent, although it usually sounds worse than it really is. We only went camping for a night, but it was fun to just switch things up for a weekend.
IBM 2012 Golf Classic (8/10):
I'm not much of a golfer really. In fact, I kind of really suck. But when I heard IBM was holding a tournament in Tucson at the Ventana Canyon resort, I couldn't pass this opportunity up. It's a beautiful course, we were getting a great rate, and it included lunch. Several IBMers from Phoenix come to Tucson every year and they apparently play a round of golf each time their in town. This year, they decided to invite the Tucson site to join them and it ended up being a 23-team tournament. I played with Mike and Chris from IBM and my non-IBM friend Colleen was our 4th. We started at 8am on a Friday (yep, nothing like taking a day off work for golf, but sucks to have to get up so damn early!) and the 23-teams took on the course for the next 5 hours. The format of the tournament was 4-player scramble (otherwise known as "best ball"), so it's really favorable for any team just trying to have fun out there. Having Colleen was huge by the way, since she got to tee off from the copper tees, which on average were about 90 yards closer to the pin. I'm pretty sure we played off her drive for at least half of the holes. Our team ended up getting a 77 on the day (par 72), which we were pretty happy with. We didn't finish in last place at least! The winning score for the tournament was a 60, so we know we didn't have a chance of winning going into this thing. It was all for fun and that's exactly what we had. :)
Saguaro Lake Wakeboarding (8/11):
I felt like getting out of Tucson for a weekend and I'm really fortunate to have friends in Phoenix to visit. Matt wanted to take me out for my birthday since he couldn't come to my Tucson celebration the following weekend, so I traveled to Phoenix to enjoy happy hour at Sandbar in Chandler with him and the next day we went wakeboarding on Doug's boat out on Saguaro Lake. This was now the 4th time I've been wakeboarding (2nd time this year) and I am seeing some small improvements! Honestly, I'm a slow learner and it takes me several practice attempts before I start becoming good at something. This time out, I was able to stay up on the wakeboard and start maneuvering left and right. Towards the end I tried to travel outside of the wake, but I never really successfully got over, I'd end up crashing shortly after. Nonetheless it was a fun time out on the lake as always!
I will also mention that later that night in Phoenix, I hung out with Jeff and we hit up the Talking Stick casino around midnight. Jeff and I love to gamble (we also hate it too sometimes) and we ended up playing Blackjack until 4 in the morning. I was down for most of the night, down to my last $100 at 3 in the morning. I was ready to just lose the rest of my money, so I kept playing and I'm glad I did! I ended up hitting a huge streak and winning about $400 in just a matter of minutes to put me up about $95 for the night. :) We went home shortly after and I ended up getting up 2 hours later to watch the USA-Spain gold medal game, even though I was passing in and out of sleep while watching it. :P Needless to say, I was very tired when I got back home to Tucson and ended up sleeping for several hours.
Birthday (8/16):
I try not to advertise my birthday anywhere but I guess the word is out now what day it falls on. This year I turned 29 (this just reminded me to update my Blog profile to the right). For my birthday I went to Carrabba's for dinner and got the shrimp scampi tossed with angel hair. It's something I had been craving for a long while. Many of my great friends came out for my birthday, and many great friends I am fortunate to have!
This year was interesting because my friend Cesar actually has the same exact birthdate as me, he's just a year older. So we had a co-celebration at dinner and with cake. Afterwards I made it out to 4th avenue where several other friends made it out to celebrate with me. I'm really happy everyone made it out! Towards the end of the night I was super-hammered and I actually don't remember most of the last hour.
Somewhat funny story I had the next morning: I woke up with a bad hangover and couldn't find my phone anywhere. I tried calling it with my landline but no one picked up nor did I hear it ringing in the house. I figured I left it Mr Head the previous night and was hoping that someone turned it in. I drove over at 11:30am but the bar was closed. I was in a tough situation because I needed to fly out to New Mexico later that evening and couldn't risk not having a phone for the weekend. I didn't want to go to Apple and buy another iPhone since I figured that I could ask someone in Tucson to go to Mr Head in the evening for me and look for my phone. So while I was still out and about, so I stopped by a Cricket store and got a cheap pay-as-you-go phone for $20 and 15 days of unlimited calling for $15 (that's the minimum). When I got back to my house and started packing for my trip, I decided to call my phone and leave a message on it in case someone found it. When I called, I heard vibrating sounds in my room! This time I had all the fans off and I wasn't as hungover, which is probably why I could hear it now. Low and behold, I found my phone under my bed of all places! How it got there I will never know, but I was super happy to have it back! Unfortunately, my irresponsibleness cost me $35 and now I have this cheap "burner" that I'll probably never use except to make prank calls on my friends. :P
Brian and Kelly's Wedding in Albuquerque (8/18):
So as I mentioned, I flew out to New Mexico Friday evening to attend Brian and Kelly's wedding in Albuquerque. It was really annoying getting there however. A 1 hour flight was delayed 90 minutes before even taking off and then when we got to Albuquerque, we had to circle around for 30 minutes to let a storm clear and for other planes to get off the landing runway. I finally got in and met up with everyone and we ended up going to a Fox and the Hound for Brian's bachelor party. The Fox was super close to our hotel (within walking distance) and Brian didn't want a super-crazy bachelor party anyway, so a chill one was exactly what he got. Although Jeff and I did hit the strip club at 3am until 5am lol. It was fun, but probably not worth it...them Albuquerque strippers are not very hot. :/ I got a lap dance from the best-looking one there, but even then it was horrible because she didn't take her top off for me or anyone else at any point in the night. LAME! She claims she was 18 and just started stripping, but still, that's not a good enough excuse!
Mt. Lemmon Camping (8/4):
I went camping with Wes, Teqas, Dori, Ryan, and Ann at the Rose Canyon Lake campgrounds near the top of Mt. Lemmon in Tucson. The name is very misleading. Rose Canyon Lake is more of a lagoon, you can't take any boats in it nor would you want to jump in this murky, swampy water. It's still very pretty to look at and the weather was awesome: about a 75 degree high and maybe 50 at night. It did end up raining overnight, which is fun to listen to the drops falling onto your tent, although it usually sounds worse than it really is. We only went camping for a night, but it was fun to just switch things up for a weekend.
IBM 2012 Golf Classic (8/10):
I'm not much of a golfer really. In fact, I kind of really suck. But when I heard IBM was holding a tournament in Tucson at the Ventana Canyon resort, I couldn't pass this opportunity up. It's a beautiful course, we were getting a great rate, and it included lunch. Several IBMers from Phoenix come to Tucson every year and they apparently play a round of golf each time their in town. This year, they decided to invite the Tucson site to join them and it ended up being a 23-team tournament. I played with Mike and Chris from IBM and my non-IBM friend Colleen was our 4th. We started at 8am on a Friday (yep, nothing like taking a day off work for golf, but sucks to have to get up so damn early!) and the 23-teams took on the course for the next 5 hours. The format of the tournament was 4-player scramble (otherwise known as "best ball"), so it's really favorable for any team just trying to have fun out there. Having Colleen was huge by the way, since she got to tee off from the copper tees, which on average were about 90 yards closer to the pin. I'm pretty sure we played off her drive for at least half of the holes. Our team ended up getting a 77 on the day (par 72), which we were pretty happy with. We didn't finish in last place at least! The winning score for the tournament was a 60, so we know we didn't have a chance of winning going into this thing. It was all for fun and that's exactly what we had. :)
Saguaro Lake Wakeboarding (8/11):
I felt like getting out of Tucson for a weekend and I'm really fortunate to have friends in Phoenix to visit. Matt wanted to take me out for my birthday since he couldn't come to my Tucson celebration the following weekend, so I traveled to Phoenix to enjoy happy hour at Sandbar in Chandler with him and the next day we went wakeboarding on Doug's boat out on Saguaro Lake. This was now the 4th time I've been wakeboarding (2nd time this year) and I am seeing some small improvements! Honestly, I'm a slow learner and it takes me several practice attempts before I start becoming good at something. This time out, I was able to stay up on the wakeboard and start maneuvering left and right. Towards the end I tried to travel outside of the wake, but I never really successfully got over, I'd end up crashing shortly after. Nonetheless it was a fun time out on the lake as always!
Birthday (8/16):
I try not to advertise my birthday anywhere but I guess the word is out now what day it falls on. This year I turned 29 (this just reminded me to update my Blog profile to the right). For my birthday I went to Carrabba's for dinner and got the shrimp scampi tossed with angel hair. It's something I had been craving for a long while. Many of my great friends came out for my birthday, and many great friends I am fortunate to have!
Somewhat funny story I had the next morning: I woke up with a bad hangover and couldn't find my phone anywhere. I tried calling it with my landline but no one picked up nor did I hear it ringing in the house. I figured I left it Mr Head the previous night and was hoping that someone turned it in. I drove over at 11:30am but the bar was closed. I was in a tough situation because I needed to fly out to New Mexico later that evening and couldn't risk not having a phone for the weekend. I didn't want to go to Apple and buy another iPhone since I figured that I could ask someone in Tucson to go to Mr Head in the evening for me and look for my phone. So while I was still out and about, so I stopped by a Cricket store and got a cheap pay-as-you-go phone for $20 and 15 days of unlimited calling for $15 (that's the minimum). When I got back to my house and started packing for my trip, I decided to call my phone and leave a message on it in case someone found it. When I called, I heard vibrating sounds in my room! This time I had all the fans off and I wasn't as hungover, which is probably why I could hear it now. Low and behold, I found my phone under my bed of all places! How it got there I will never know, but I was super happy to have it back! Unfortunately, my irresponsibleness cost me $35 and now I have this cheap "burner" that I'll probably never use except to make prank calls on my friends. :P
Brian and Kelly's Wedding in Albuquerque (8/18):
So as I mentioned, I flew out to New Mexico Friday evening to attend Brian and Kelly's wedding in Albuquerque. It was really annoying getting there however. A 1 hour flight was delayed 90 minutes before even taking off and then when we got to Albuquerque, we had to circle around for 30 minutes to let a storm clear and for other planes to get off the landing runway. I finally got in and met up with everyone and we ended up going to a Fox and the Hound for Brian's bachelor party. The Fox was super close to our hotel (within walking distance) and Brian didn't want a super-crazy bachelor party anyway, so a chill one was exactly what he got. Although Jeff and I did hit the strip club at 3am until 5am lol. It was fun, but probably not worth it...them Albuquerque strippers are not very hot. :/ I got a lap dance from the best-looking one there, but even then it was horrible because she didn't take her top off for me or anyone else at any point in the night. LAME! She claims she was 18 and just started stripping, but still, that's not a good enough excuse!
The next day, Brian and Kelly had their wedding ceremony at the BioPark Botanic Garden and it was a beautiful environment. Great choice you two! The entire garden was closed off for our private party, so after the ceremony we were able to look around the gardens freely, which was kind of a neat perk. Afterwards we headed to Boston's for food and drinks and that pretty much rounded out the wedding day. While on this trip I did get a chance to sample New Mexican cooking, which apparently utilizes green chiles as a key ingredient. Jeff, Ashley, Brian, and I went to Cecilia's Cafe, which was featured on "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives". I got the firemen's burrito, which is a massive breakfast burrito that I definitely couldn't finish in one sitting. I will say that I honestly prefer Arizona mexican over New Mexico mexican, but it was definitely fun to try that different style of mexican food!
Congratulations to Brian and Kelly! Like so many of my friends, you two are a great couple and I'm really happy for both of you!
That's pretty much it for what I've been up to in August! Labor Day weekend is just around the corner and will be a very busy weekend. I already have plans everyday and night that weekend, so I hope to be able to share it with you shortly after!
Thursday, July 19, 2012
MIH Overload!
I recently went a little crazy with the Making It Happen theme. It was kind of necessary after all I was going through (Kyle would call it a "Freedom Weekend" using his words). Anyway, this past weekend I traveled to Las Vegas even though I vowed at the beginning of 2012 when I was just there that I wouldn't go back the rest of the year. However, sometimes you just really need a vacation. I booked my travel to Vegas on Monday and left on Thursday to go meet up with Wes and Suzye to celebrate Suzye's 21st birthday!
No, I didn't stay at the Bellagio, that picture is just to set the mood of this blog with the Vegas theme. We actually stayed at the Flamingo, a hotel I've never stayed at before. I think it's been remodeled recently and I was content with the place, for the price it was pretty good. :) Hanging out with Suzye and Wes was really refreshing for me and even though it was a short trip, I'm really happy I went! Since Suzye lives in San Diego now, we really don't get to see her much. :/ Also, I didn't win any money since I know you're curious. I lost a bunch on craps and blackjack, you know, the usual. And no clubbing this time, but you won't hear me complaining (you know my feelings about places like Tao)! I will say that the next time I go to Vegas, which is hopefully not anytime soon, I think I'd like to stay at the Cosmopolitan. Man that place is trendy!
I left Vegas early on Saturday morning in order to make it back to Phoenix for a Bocce Ball tournament with Jeff. We entered a double elimination tournament with 16 total teams and the games started early in the morning. It was $40 a team, which included beer and food...and mandatory Fireball Whiskey shots! I was actually really scared that we might have to forfeit our first game and it kept looking that way. I landed in Phoenix at 9:30am but the tournament started at 10:00am in North Phoenix. And of course things never go as fast as planned and I didn't arrive until 10:45am! :/ Luckily, we were up right as I got there and Jeff and I hurried our way to a 15-8 victory over our first opponents!
I left Vegas early on Saturday morning in order to make it back to Phoenix for a Bocce Ball tournament with Jeff. We entered a double elimination tournament with 16 total teams and the games started early in the morning. It was $40 a team, which included beer and food...and mandatory Fireball Whiskey shots! I was actually really scared that we might have to forfeit our first game and it kept looking that way. I landed in Phoenix at 9:30am but the tournament started at 10:00am in North Phoenix. And of course things never go as fast as planned and I didn't arrive until 10:45am! :/ Luckily, we were up right as I got there and Jeff and I hurried our way to a 15-8 victory over our first opponents!
If you've never played Bocce Ball, it's pretty simple. One team throws a small white ball anywhere on the field. Then the object of the game is to throw your 4 heavier softball-sized balls as close to that small white ball as possible. Teams take turn tossing based on who's closest and then points are scored for every ball you have closest to the small white ball before your opponents balls. Yes, lots of ball in bocce ball. After our round 1 victory, Jeff and I started to choke. :( In our second round, a 12-8 lead quickly became a 12-15 loss. Then in the loser's bracket, a 7-0 lead became a 13-15 loss. Needless to say, it was disappointing how we lost, but overall the tourney was a lot of fun and I hope to play again next year! Thanks Jeff for inviting me as your teammate!
I spent the rest of the weekend in Scottsdale hanging out with the parents and then finally made my way back home to Tucson on Sunday night. Then I decided I wanted to join a pool league, so I inquired about the Tuesday APA Pool League at the Fox and the Hound. There was a team looking to pick up a player, so I was like, "sure, why the fuck not!?" This league is a fun league with handicap and the system is set up so that it's 5-on-5, each of the 5 members of a team taking a turn against an opponent from the other team. New members (that's me!) start with a rating of 4 for guys and 3 for girls. The scale goes from 2 (lowest) to 7 (highest) and based on who you play, you have to win a certain amount of games to win the match. My first night, I got matched up against a 5, so he had to win 4 games against me and I had to win 3. He was pretty good in my opinion, but I held my own... ...until I started to choke badly. After splitting the first 2 games, I lost the 3rd game when I had a 5-ball lead but scratched on the 8-ball. FM! In game 4, I had a solid shot at the 8-ball but I missed and then he put it in. FML! Finally, in game 5 the 8-ball was right next to the pocket along with the cue ball, but I needed to use a bridge, which I never use, and then I ended up shanking the cue and missing the shot and giving him ball in hand. FML! So I ended up losing my first night 1-4 and was really sad. :( Everyone was nice and just chalked it up to first-night jitters, but you know me and my competitive nature. I was pretty upset with myself inside. But anyway, I'm excited to join a pool league and look forward to having another thing to do on Tuesday nights!
So a lot transpired in the last week, my hand forced by things I have mostly gotten over by now. But the MIH doesn't stop there. I'm traveling to Alberqueque in August for Brian and Kelly's wedding, Phoenix for Labor Day weekend, and then shortly after I have trips to San Diego for Kyle's bachelor party, and a secret trip somewhere that I can't tell anyone. :) Matt and I came up with a new motto for me, "Make Everything Happen!" So if you ask me what I'm up to these days, I'll just tell you "I'm MEH!" :P
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Fancy New Grill...And Then Some!
My old Charbroil grill that I had for over 5 years was no longer good and it was time to purchase a new gas grill for my backyard. I looked around a bunch at Lowe's and Home Depot looking for cast iron plating, which is my personal preference when it comes to grills. They don't make too many cast iron grills anymore (or they are heavily coated) but I was able to find a Weber grill at the Home Depot that I liked a bunch. I had also read reviews about how awesome quality Weber grills are and I had my eyes set on the affordable $500 Spirit E310.
I purchased the grill on Saturday and had the option of taking the on floor model or having a new one shipped and pre-assembled for me. I never like buying used/display models, so I requested that they have one shipped and so they called me on Tuesday letting me know my grill was assembled and ready. My friends Wes and Dori came to help me go pick up my grill, but when I got there I noticed that the grill they had ready for pickup was not the grill I ordered. Instead, it was the higher end $700 Genesis E310 that they gave me! I didn't say anything about it and was wondering if it was a mistake they'd figure out, but they ran all the paperwork and give me the grill with no issues. I know I know, I could've said something, but myself and my friends were there and it would be too inconvenient to try and set up another run later in the week, so I accepted the upgrade and walked out of Home Depot a very happy man! I will just have to think of it as a backorder issue, where they didn't have the Spirit E310 in stock but had promised me a grill and so they gave me the Genesis E310 instead! :D
Anyway, I took that bad baby home and used it the same night, it's so awesome and I'm very impressed. Here are some pictures. There really isn't a big difference between the Genesis and Spirt, the Genesis is just a little bigger, has nicer metal, and the burners are in the front instead of the side.
I purchased the grill on Saturday and had the option of taking the on floor model or having a new one shipped and pre-assembled for me. I never like buying used/display models, so I requested that they have one shipped and so they called me on Tuesday letting me know my grill was assembled and ready. My friends Wes and Dori came to help me go pick up my grill, but when I got there I noticed that the grill they had ready for pickup was not the grill I ordered. Instead, it was the higher end $700 Genesis E310 that they gave me! I didn't say anything about it and was wondering if it was a mistake they'd figure out, but they ran all the paperwork and give me the grill with no issues. I know I know, I could've said something, but myself and my friends were there and it would be too inconvenient to try and set up another run later in the week, so I accepted the upgrade and walked out of Home Depot a very happy man! I will just have to think of it as a backorder issue, where they didn't have the Spirit E310 in stock but had promised me a grill and so they gave me the Genesis E310 instead! :D
Anyway, I took that bad baby home and used it the same night, it's so awesome and I'm very impressed. Here are some pictures. There really isn't a big difference between the Genesis and Spirt, the Genesis is just a little bigger, has nicer metal, and the burners are in the front instead of the side.
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
iPhone 4: DIY Broken Screen Repair
During my trip to Apache Lake a few weekends ago, I accidentally shattered the screen on my iPhone 4 while camping. While it's still unknown to me how the phone got shattered, I ultimately ended up with a broken screen that required fixing.
As you know by now, I enjoy and prefer doing things myself when I can to save butt loads of money. I investigated the DIY (Do-It-Yourself) process of repairing an iPhone and successfully repaired my iPhone 4 with zero problems and figured I'd blog about my findings! This blog entry is for anyone else who unforutnately shatters their iPhone and wants to know their options about getting it repaired.
DISCLAIMER: If you follow my advice to repair your iPhone on your own, you do so at your own risk. I am not liable for any resulting damage, injury, or expense. I am not a professional in any sense and this blog is solely for informational purposes.
Repair Option #1: Go To Apple
Your first thought when you shatter your iPhone screen is probably to take it to the Apple store to get it fixed. Well unfortunately, your warranty doesn't cover accidents such as water damage and shattered screens. However, they do have a "Out-of-Warranty Replacement Program" where for $150 you can get your phone completely replaced with a new phone. Your new replacement phone is not completely brand new though; it's built from remanufactured parts that are like-new and fully tested. FYI, I have one of these replacement phones from when I dropped my phone in the water and it is fine with no problems and looks brand new.
Repair Option #2: Third Party Repair Shop
This is a good option if you are not confident in your abilities to repair your iPhone on your own. I called "Blue Ridge Wireless" in Tucson AZ about screen repair and they will do it for $115. They can get your phone fixed in an hour. You lose your warranty with Apple if you choose this route.
Repair Option #3: Do-It-Yourself Repair
For the iPhone 4 and 4S models, you will need to repair BOTH the glass screen and the LCD touch screen digitizer. I don't suggest just buying the glass even though the digitizer works fine, which is what I tried the first time I opened my phone. On eBay, you can find brand new OEM parts for your iPhone, the key is to make sure you buy the part for the right model. I personally bought a "OEM LCD Touch Screen Digitizer Glass Assembly Replacement For iPhone 4G AT&T GSM" for $30, which matches my iPhone 4 model. You can look at the back of your phone for the model number, e.g. A1332, and use Google to determine what part you need. Most screen replacement parts you buy off eBay will also come with handy tools to help you take apart your phone.
Once you've received your new glass and LCD screen, it's time to take apart your iPhone. For instruction, I used phonedoctors.com's video on Youtube to follow along. However, the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S are surprisingly very different inside. For example, my phone didn't have the same vibrator and had a few less screws, but with some intuition, it's pretty clear what you need to do to take apart the iPhone. The last thing that I recommend is the ScrewMat, which is a mat that identifies and helps you keep track of the screws you take out of your iPhone. It's really helpful to have this because the screws are all very small and very different and you need to be very organized when it comes to the repair. You could buy one for $20 off their website or just do what I did, which is Google image search and print it out.
I opened my iPhone twice. The first time I did not have the right replacement part...I only had a glass screen, which was completely worthless (waste of $7). It took me about 2 hours to open the iPhone using the aforementioned video's instruction, realize that I didn't have the right parts, and then put the phone back together. When I finally got my screen + digitizer, I took apart the phone and replaced the broken screen in 40 minutes without even needing the video. So in conclusion, if you trust in your electronic and engineering abilities, I strongly suggest the DIY option for repairing your broken iPhone screen...you'll save a ton of money and it'll be a very self-rewarding accomplishment!
Future Protection:
I learned my lesson from 1) dropping my phone in my toilet and 2) shattering my screen. My co-worker Yijie at IBM told me "it's not a problem fixing your iPhone, it's a problem fixing you." I always used a case that didn't cover the phone completely or there was no screen protection and I paid the price twice with my iPhone 4. I've actually gone through 5 iPhones believe it or not (three 2G models and now two 4G models). So got a sweet case for my iPhone: the Otter Box Defender Series. This is the case I have for my iPhone now and I love it. It's not completely waterproof, but it helps a lot. There's a also a plastic cover to protect the screen. The entire unit as a whole is non-obstructive and pretty lightweight. If you're interested in getting one, I would go to your carrier's store (AT&T, Verizon, etc) and purchase it from them because you'll likely get a 20-25% discount since you're a client.
Anyways, I hope this blog entry is informative for anyone who encounters a shattered iPhone screen! Good luck out there!!!
As you know by now, I enjoy and prefer doing things myself when I can to save butt loads of money. I investigated the DIY (Do-It-Yourself) process of repairing an iPhone and successfully repaired my iPhone 4 with zero problems and figured I'd blog about my findings! This blog entry is for anyone else who unforutnately shatters their iPhone and wants to know their options about getting it repaired.
DISCLAIMER: If you follow my advice to repair your iPhone on your own, you do so at your own risk. I am not liable for any resulting damage, injury, or expense. I am not a professional in any sense and this blog is solely for informational purposes.
Repair Option #1: Go To Apple
Your first thought when you shatter your iPhone screen is probably to take it to the Apple store to get it fixed. Well unfortunately, your warranty doesn't cover accidents such as water damage and shattered screens. However, they do have a "Out-of-Warranty Replacement Program" where for $150 you can get your phone completely replaced with a new phone. Your new replacement phone is not completely brand new though; it's built from remanufactured parts that are like-new and fully tested. FYI, I have one of these replacement phones from when I dropped my phone in the water and it is fine with no problems and looks brand new.
Repair Option #2: Third Party Repair Shop
This is a good option if you are not confident in your abilities to repair your iPhone on your own. I called "Blue Ridge Wireless" in Tucson AZ about screen repair and they will do it for $115. They can get your phone fixed in an hour. You lose your warranty with Apple if you choose this route.
Repair Option #3: Do-It-Yourself Repair
For the iPhone 4 and 4S models, you will need to repair BOTH the glass screen and the LCD touch screen digitizer. I don't suggest just buying the glass even though the digitizer works fine, which is what I tried the first time I opened my phone. On eBay, you can find brand new OEM parts for your iPhone, the key is to make sure you buy the part for the right model. I personally bought a "OEM LCD Touch Screen Digitizer Glass Assembly Replacement For iPhone 4G AT&T GSM" for $30, which matches my iPhone 4 model. You can look at the back of your phone for the model number, e.g. A1332, and use Google to determine what part you need. Most screen replacement parts you buy off eBay will also come with handy tools to help you take apart your phone.
Once you've received your new glass and LCD screen, it's time to take apart your iPhone. For instruction, I used phonedoctors.com's video on Youtube to follow along. However, the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S are surprisingly very different inside. For example, my phone didn't have the same vibrator and had a few less screws, but with some intuition, it's pretty clear what you need to do to take apart the iPhone. The last thing that I recommend is the ScrewMat, which is a mat that identifies and helps you keep track of the screws you take out of your iPhone. It's really helpful to have this because the screws are all very small and very different and you need to be very organized when it comes to the repair. You could buy one for $20 off their website or just do what I did, which is Google image search and print it out.
I opened my iPhone twice. The first time I did not have the right replacement part...I only had a glass screen, which was completely worthless (waste of $7). It took me about 2 hours to open the iPhone using the aforementioned video's instruction, realize that I didn't have the right parts, and then put the phone back together. When I finally got my screen + digitizer, I took apart the phone and replaced the broken screen in 40 minutes without even needing the video. So in conclusion, if you trust in your electronic and engineering abilities, I strongly suggest the DIY option for repairing your broken iPhone screen...you'll save a ton of money and it'll be a very self-rewarding accomplishment!
Future Protection:
I learned my lesson from 1) dropping my phone in my toilet and 2) shattering my screen. My co-worker Yijie at IBM told me "it's not a problem fixing your iPhone, it's a problem fixing you." I always used a case that didn't cover the phone completely or there was no screen protection and I paid the price twice with my iPhone 4. I've actually gone through 5 iPhones believe it or not (three 2G models and now two 4G models). So got a sweet case for my iPhone: the Otter Box Defender Series. This is the case I have for my iPhone now and I love it. It's not completely waterproof, but it helps a lot. There's a also a plastic cover to protect the screen. The entire unit as a whole is non-obstructive and pretty lightweight. If you're interested in getting one, I would go to your carrier's store (AT&T, Verizon, etc) and purchase it from them because you'll likely get a 20-25% discount since you're a client.
Anyways, I hope this blog entry is informative for anyone who encounters a shattered iPhone screen! Good luck out there!!!
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
May Weekends in Phoenix-ish
When I saw my #1 blog fan (arguably, but anyway his picture is to the left) this past weekend, he pointed out how I had not blogged in many weeks. Although he's right, I was kind of waiting to go on all my Phoenix trips this month and make one long blogging post. I find that I blog most about my vacations or events I go to and not so much about my random thoughts. Sometimes I wonder what my audience prefers to read about, but in the end I just try to blog about whatever and if I can find the time to write something up. So anyway, on to blogging about the month of May where I ended up going to the Phoenix area three weekends in a row!
The weekend of May 12 was Mother's Day, so my sister was also in Scottsdale to visit my parents. I usually try to coordinate visits to our parents with her. That Saturday I got into Dobson to have some good ol' Dim Sum at Mekong Palace with the family, but I will argue that there are better Dim Sum places such as Phoenix Palace. Later that afternoon, I went to meet up with some friends who had traveled from Tucson to go ice-skating in Chandler at Polar Ice for my friend Dori's birthday. Tucson actually doesn't have any ice-skating rinks anymore and she wanted to go ice-skating, so it had to be in Phoenix.
After ice-skating, we went to Teharu for sushi dinner, which was actually my recommendation after it was recommended to me by Matt. If you've never been, it's one of those conveyor belt sushi places where you just pick off the belt whatever you want to eat and they charge you at the end. It's not only delicious, but surprisingly very affordable as well.
The next weekend of the 18th was the 4th Annual Wakeboarding and Camping at Apache Lake trip. It had been planned for months by Doug and was something Kalyn and I had been looking forward to for a very long time. For me, it was my second time on this annual trip and Kalyn's first. We drove up to Apache Lake from Tucson on Thursday morning and set up camp that afternoon.
This past weekend was Memorial Day, and Kalyn, Lucky, Ann, and myself decided to make it a full blown weekend of fun in Phoenix. On Saturday we met up with Kyle and Jamie and Nate and Elizabeth at the Diamondbacks game versus the Brewers. It was also JJ Putz bobblehead day, so each of us received free bobbleheads! The game was a good one that ended in a 8-5 victory for the D'backs.
On Memorial Day, we went Salt River Tubing with Matt, Pamela, Doug, Jonny, Alex, Jody and several others. I think we counted 20 in our group. It would've actually been more, but we unfortunately got separated from Jen, Jon, Deanna, and Vanessa. :( Regardless, it was a great time even though I was hungover for most of it!
Friday, April 27, 2012
AHGL Finals in Santa Monica; IBM Basketball Championship
AHGL Finals in Santa Monica
This past weekend, I traveled to Los Angeles and the Santa Monica area to compete in the finals for the After Hours Gaming League!
Courtesy of IBM, I flew into Los Angeles on Thursday evening and my buddy Xav picked me up from the airport. It was already a crazy beginning to the trip when Southwest had e-mailed me at 6am that my flight at 5pm was delayed 2 hours already. After I was all "WTF" for a few hours, another e-mail came saying that the flight was back to it's original departure time, lol. Computer error possibly? When I got to Los Angeles, Xav and I picked up his wife Nicole (both are former teammates of mine from IBM) and we went to Chosun Galbee for dinner to meet up with one of my teammates, Brian a.k.a. thudbang, and his brother and sister-in-law. Oh, and I should add that Kalyn drove all the way from Tucson to join me on this trip! So all of us enjoyed an amazing dinner at the Korean BBQ restaurant, which I think was one of the best meals we had all weekend...and the price was really great for what you got! Thursday night was pretty chill since the rest of the teammates from IBM wouldn't be arriving until Friday. So Xav, Nicole, Kalyn and I grabbed a couple brews at Smith House and called it a night shortly after.
On Friday, Kalyn and I ventured out to Santa Monica Pier on our own, figuring the rest of the weekend we'd spend with the IBM team and doing AHGL stuff. It was really nice to go to the beach, just the two of us, although the water was way too cold to go in. We had lunch at Ocean Avenue Seafood, where Kalyn tried a raw oyster and almost puked LOL. I gave her mad props for trying one and then I happily consumed the rest. :)
Friday night, while team Epic had rented out a LAN center and was practicing their SC2 matchups, there was a scheduled bonfire on Dockweiler beach where the IBM team gathered to meet one another and drink and hang out on the beach. We literally roasted hot dogs and smores over the fire and it was a pretty bitchin' good time. After the bonfire, the team split up a little, but several of us went to the Melody Bar and Grill to get food and drinks. There weren't many bar options around the LAX airport area and apparently a lot of places close around 11pm...very odd. Anyway, it was soon off to bed in preparation for the big day ahead!
Saturday was the Finals for the After Hour Gaming League. Team IBM and team Epic took a charter bus to the Red Bull Corporate Headquarters where the event was being held. Red Bull HQ was pretty awesome...a giant skateboard ramp runs through the middle of the entire office and yes, there was plenty of free Red Bull for everyone to consume lol. I got to meet Day9 and Husky in person and took many photos of the event, most of which have been posted to my Facebook. The afternoon was kind of boring because they were showing League of Legends, so we just spent the time chatting, hanging out, getting free food and drinks until the StarCraft finals were ready to air.
The first game between IBM and Epic was between GreatArchon (IBM) and Crabtastic (Epic). GreatArchon opened with hellion+marauder pressure, but Crabtastic was able to hold everything off with apparent ease. Crabtastic then used a nydus worm to infiltrate GreatArchon's base and Epic took game 1 of the best of 7 series.
The second game featured Zai (IBM) versus Razed (Epic). Zai opened with a Robotic Facility while Razed attempted quick Dark Templars, but Zai's build was very safe and he was able to take out the sneaky DTs and even the series 1-1.
The third game was between VDeezy (IBM) and JDub (Epic). JDub is arguably their best player and his superior macro abilities showed when he was able to outmacro and outplay VDeezy. Epic then went up 2-1. However, the first 3 games went exactly as we had envisioned.
The fourth game was a pivotal match between thudbang (IBM) and USKC (Epic). Although thudbang was arguably favored in this matchup, USKC held his own and had a key auxiliary attack in the game where he killed many of thudbang's drones. The losses began to pile up, USKC got ahead, and he helped his team secure a 3-1 lead.
On to game 5 between Kuma (IBM) and Spraypaint (Epic). It was now up to Kuma to extend the series. However, Spraypraint executed a very aggressive 4-gate with Warp Prism build while Kuma attempted DTs and just didn't have enough units to defend Spraypaint's drop. Epic won the series 4-1 and I was left on the sidelines, not able to play nor showcase my skills, but only to watch as our team had fallen so quickly to Epic's great play.
The outcome of the series was pretty disappointing. IBM had come very far but got romped in the finals. For the record, ATrain (IBM) and Elendil (Epic) played their match offline after the weekend to just see what would have happened. ATrain executed a powerful 2-base mothership rush that caught his opponent Elendil offguard to win the game. It was a relieving feeling to know that I would have won my game had I got to play, but oh well, such is life sometimes!
After the AHGL Finals, Day9 treated everyone to pizza and bowling in Santa Monica. For fun, IBM played Epic in a bowling matchup and stomped Epic to the tune of a 500-300 victory. ATrain rolled a 184 for good measure. It helped that Kalyn drove because she brought my bowling ball and gear with her in her car. :)
On Sunday, everyone was ready to go home, but Kalyn had decided she didn't want to leave the beach just yet. She was in no hurry to go back to Tucson and because she drove, she could afford to stay another day and leave whenever. She let me accompany on her extended vacation, so I skipped my Sunday flight and the two of us went to Venice beach. Venice beach is pretty awesome...shops along the beach and a long boardwalk containing several colorful characters. We relaxed on the beach and enjoyed our last day in California. Later that night, we found a cozy little motel called Sea Shore Motel in Venice beach to stay the night. We also had dinner at Finn McCool's, which was featured on the Travel channel. :)
On Monday we drove home from LA and split the driving time, when traveling together, makes the 8-hour drive not seem so bad. Overall, the AHGL weekend was a great experience and vacation and I was really happy to be a part of it; sans 2 hours of team IBM getting it's ass whooped by Epic, lol. I was also thrilled that Kalyn was able to come along the trip with me, since she made it like 10x better. :D As for next season, I think I will be back and hopefully the key players Zai and thudbang will be back as well. Until next year!!!
IBM Basketball Championship
This past week was a big one for me. After coming up short in bowling and the AHGL, I had one last chance to prove that I was still championship material. The IBM Basketball League finals were this past Wednesday. My team had lost in the winners bracket and was forced to win the losers bracket to have a chance at the final game(s). Because our tournament was double elimination, we had to beat the other team twice on championship night while they only had to beat us once. They had beaten us once during the season and again the playoffs, so it was time for me to draw up a new strategy. Their best player, Adam, is a very difficult player to guard. He can shoot the ball from deep behind the 3-point line and is tall and skilled enough to work his way inside. My new strategy was this: instead of having my star, Ryan, or our muscle, Cooper, guard Adam, I would defend Adam instead. In the previous two games, Cooper and Ryan could guard Adam, but it left us really weak in the paint since we are an undersized team compared to them. So on this night I guarded Adam and played some really hard-nosed defense. Adam was cold from outside and had trouble scoring inside when Ryan could help at the second level. On offense, my teammate Matt really helped with by shooting almost lights out and the our whole team just played great. We won the first game 54-30 and then the second 64-50 (we were even leading 41-21 at the half). And so I finally won a championship this year! It was my first year as a captain in the IBM Basketball League and I was really proud of my team, but mostly it was just a lot of fun to play with all my friends this season. Hopefully everyone can get back on the same team next year and we can make a run at a repeat title!
This past weekend, I traveled to Los Angeles and the Santa Monica area to compete in the finals for the After Hours Gaming League!
Courtesy of IBM, I flew into Los Angeles on Thursday evening and my buddy Xav picked me up from the airport. It was already a crazy beginning to the trip when Southwest had e-mailed me at 6am that my flight at 5pm was delayed 2 hours already. After I was all "WTF" for a few hours, another e-mail came saying that the flight was back to it's original departure time, lol. Computer error possibly? When I got to Los Angeles, Xav and I picked up his wife Nicole (both are former teammates of mine from IBM) and we went to Chosun Galbee for dinner to meet up with one of my teammates, Brian a.k.a. thudbang, and his brother and sister-in-law. Oh, and I should add that Kalyn drove all the way from Tucson to join me on this trip! So all of us enjoyed an amazing dinner at the Korean BBQ restaurant, which I think was one of the best meals we had all weekend...and the price was really great for what you got! Thursday night was pretty chill since the rest of the teammates from IBM wouldn't be arriving until Friday. So Xav, Nicole, Kalyn and I grabbed a couple brews at Smith House and called it a night shortly after.
On Friday, Kalyn and I ventured out to Santa Monica Pier on our own, figuring the rest of the weekend we'd spend with the IBM team and doing AHGL stuff. It was really nice to go to the beach, just the two of us, although the water was way too cold to go in. We had lunch at Ocean Avenue Seafood, where Kalyn tried a raw oyster and almost puked LOL. I gave her mad props for trying one and then I happily consumed the rest. :)
The second game featured Zai (IBM) versus Razed (Epic). Zai opened with a Robotic Facility while Razed attempted quick Dark Templars, but Zai's build was very safe and he was able to take out the sneaky DTs and even the series 1-1.
The third game was between VDeezy (IBM) and JDub (Epic). JDub is arguably their best player and his superior macro abilities showed when he was able to outmacro and outplay VDeezy. Epic then went up 2-1. However, the first 3 games went exactly as we had envisioned.
The fourth game was a pivotal match between thudbang (IBM) and USKC (Epic). Although thudbang was arguably favored in this matchup, USKC held his own and had a key auxiliary attack in the game where he killed many of thudbang's drones. The losses began to pile up, USKC got ahead, and he helped his team secure a 3-1 lead.
On to game 5 between Kuma (IBM) and Spraypaint (Epic). It was now up to Kuma to extend the series. However, Spraypraint executed a very aggressive 4-gate with Warp Prism build while Kuma attempted DTs and just didn't have enough units to defend Spraypaint's drop. Epic won the series 4-1 and I was left on the sidelines, not able to play nor showcase my skills, but only to watch as our team had fallen so quickly to Epic's great play.
After the AHGL Finals, Day9 treated everyone to pizza and bowling in Santa Monica. For fun, IBM played Epic in a bowling matchup and stomped Epic to the tune of a 500-300 victory. ATrain rolled a 184 for good measure. It helped that Kalyn drove because she brought my bowling ball and gear with her in her car. :)
IBM Basketball Championship
This past week was a big one for me. After coming up short in bowling and the AHGL, I had one last chance to prove that I was still championship material. The IBM Basketball League finals were this past Wednesday. My team had lost in the winners bracket and was forced to win the losers bracket to have a chance at the final game(s). Because our tournament was double elimination, we had to beat the other team twice on championship night while they only had to beat us once. They had beaten us once during the season and again the playoffs, so it was time for me to draw up a new strategy. Their best player, Adam, is a very difficult player to guard. He can shoot the ball from deep behind the 3-point line and is tall and skilled enough to work his way inside. My new strategy was this: instead of having my star, Ryan, or our muscle, Cooper, guard Adam, I would defend Adam instead. In the previous two games, Cooper and Ryan could guard Adam, but it left us really weak in the paint since we are an undersized team compared to them. So on this night I guarded Adam and played some really hard-nosed defense. Adam was cold from outside and had trouble scoring inside when Ryan could help at the second level. On offense, my teammate Matt really helped with by shooting almost lights out and the our whole team just played great. We won the first game 54-30 and then the second 64-50 (we were even leading 41-21 at the half). And so I finally won a championship this year! It was my first year as a captain in the IBM Basketball League and I was really proud of my team, but mostly it was just a lot of fun to play with all my friends this season. Hopefully everyone can get back on the same team next year and we can make a run at a repeat title!
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