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!

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!

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!

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

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.

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!!!