AJ’s Morbid Journal (of love)

Well I wanted to get a post in before February is over. I cant believe (well actually I can) that I have not had any posts, or any interesting stories to share.

Come to think of it, how many of my stories are interesting ?

Tales of relaxing and good times sure are few and far between when you are in your 30’s.. even though you have a supposed source of disposable income. Fear of that dang Economy however keeps the fun in check.

Say.. how many of you out there have an iPod?

For the longest time I was anti iPod. I was anti Apple. I hated that with an Apple computer, you couldn’t right click with the mouse, and if you had some sort of graphic design MAC computer, and could right click, you got a QUACK QUACK sound effect. Annoying!

Through the magic of the Morbid Journal, I am now able to do a search through our archives for the word “iPod” and instead of rewriting all of my basic points about Apple and iPods, I can just post little snippets here!

And.. a very special post that for some reason I locked down to the public (but have now re-opened!!)

So you can see how my tune has changed regarding iPods. I still do not think that Apple computers are anything special. They can not make you breakfast or tuck you in at night. My PC can not do these things either.. hence they are just computers. iPod however is a different story.

I was jamming with the AJ Band the other night and during a “New Order” song, my iPod froze. Freezing iPods are nothing new to me, but this time I was unable to “un-freeze” it. Yes I know about the different techniques.. the reset combination of the click wheel.. the plugging it into the computer via USB.. etc. One “technique” even suggested letting the battery drain over the next 24 hours, and then try recharging. F-no!

I must have been drinking, because I thought it would be a good idea to take my iPod apart. I have a long and unsuccessful history of taking apart my electronics to get them to work. Who could forget the time I took apart my NES Nintendo to fix the issue of glitchy cartridge loads. Needless to say, I could never really get it back together.. for shame.

A quick google history of iPod repair led to 2 methods of correcting an iPod issue like I was having.

1) Take it to douche central.. and bid farewell to at least $200

or

2) Take it apart!

I embraced my inner 11 year old, and grabbed my screwdrivers ready to perform surgery. It quickly became evident that I was Mangling/Mengele’ing my iPod (not funny? hmm)… but before you knew it I had the thing apart..

I must recommend to each iPod owner out there, that when fearing the worst, or accepting that it may never be 100%, to try and take it apart. It really is fun to look inside and see how it is all stuffed into such a small case. This is a 30gb 2007 model as well, who knows what the future may hold!

Inside is the teeeny hard drive, and the battery.. attached with thin ribbons that really do not seem very well attached. Keep in mind that at this point I had given up on it ever working again.. all search engine threads turned up the same symptoms that I was having.. with the same response (it is dead.. time to get a new one). I detached one ribbon from the battery and suddenly the display went black (which is good, as it had previously been stuck on my New Order folder… mocking me..)

I detached the hard drive ribbon and got a better look at the hard drive. Its so little! Filled with all my fun! The thought of being without my iPod for my morning commute was frightening. I really do need this stupid thing to entertain me.

Long story short.. Lauren came home from work, and it was time to have some dinner. Without regard for static electricity or anything safe regarding working with electronics, I shoved the battery ribbon back into the mother board.. flipped the lid back on, and turned it back on. Click click click.. BOOM! Success. It started working again.

The moral of the story.

If you have given up on your iPod and want to try to fix it yourself.. do it. Its not that hard. Use my images as reference. Worst case : The hard drive is dead. So what. Take it apart, find out the number and order a replacement on ebay.. Soon you will be back to having good times with your ipod just like me!

admin im a computer - stop all the downloading!, maxin' & relaxin', playing metal beauty ideas eh, the aj band

You know you love it and look forward to it. Some may imitate it, but this is the real deal.

2010: Dirty.

Still no flying cars.

Fin.

admin first post of the year (dirty)

Here are some fun tid bits as I sit here at work.. on my birthday waiting on further feedback about a website I am building. This site was supposed to have launched 2 weeks ago.. sheesh!!

I have recently completed the install of a new dishwasher. The previous dishwasher was built around 1990 and had been lacking its primary function (cleaning dishes) for some time now. A few weeks ago I came home earger to play some blast beat double bass drum when I heard a tapping sound. The room almost smelled musty. I looked up and saw that there was water pouring from the kitchen floor above.. THE DISHWASHER!!

I shop vacced the water that had collected in the dishwasher, and then cut the power. What an ordeal. Then came the clean up. The floor boards beneath were completely rotten… This thing didnt leak in all the time I have been the home owner (homo), which leaves the previous owners who not unlike the termite problem we have had with the house.. must have been completely oblivious to musty rotten wood smell, and munch munch termite sounds.

Oh and thanks to the crappy housing market.. do I invest money in fixing these things only to not receive the extra money once the house sells? Invest 5k in fixing wood, and not receive it when selling.. or paint, reinforce and cover baseboards. Hmm..

Anyway, I began spending my free time on dishwashers. What is the best brand. What is the brand that will blow up after 2 weeks. Which brand.. cleans the best!! How gay. It really took up too much time.

Kenmore seemed to be the best. Good reviews, good forum “real people” reviews.. until you realize you are on a Sears forum.. and there must be moles present to give these things 10 out of 10. I then read about a Bosch (Borsh). Its pricey. It has a funny name.. and hey.. real people say its good. Sold!

Since the previous one leaked (and must have been leaking for many years off and on) the wood boards underneath were completely rotten and warped. It was pretty bad. I could have removed the damaged floor (with a saw that I do not own) and then put down some new wood floor boards cut to size.. or I could measure the max height (3/4 of an inch) of a replacement board that could sit over it.. and have it cut to size at Home Depot for free. I opted for this!

On the board went, fit pretty good.. and Lauren had ripped up her home office/ballet studio water proof flooring, so I took some of this and put it on top of the wood. No more wet floor! (Flee-ouir as Arnold would say.. “If you dont scrub that kitchen Fleeouir, you aint gonna rock n roll no more.. YAKKITY YAK!! DONT TALK BACK!”)

It is now Dec 31 and I had started writing this last week before the Christmas break. I am trying to get this in before 2010.

So hey.. I could have paid someone 150$ or more to install this dishwasher, or I could do it myself. That $150 could go towards expensive asian 1:6 scale action figures! On to the install.

What a pain in the ass. First I had to add a new shut off valve to the hot water line.. the last one was completly coroded and did not have the ability to “shut off”. The incredible Hulk must have attached the last one as they (or it) attached the compression nut with so much force that they bent the copper pipe. This of course meant trouble for attaching a new one. I opted to just sand the crap out of the connection and hope for no leaks. It worked. Then came getting the new drainage hose attached.

Is this interesting to anyone? feh. I am writing this for myself to remember.

I couldnt use to old drainage hose connection that I was planning on.. so I had to remove that and install a new one. All this could have been done within an hour or less by a professional.. and since I am anything but.. it took me probably 2 weeks to finally get this all done. I should also mention I had a difficult project pop up at work that partially ruined my holidays. Not difficult on my part, but made difficult by others. Lots of long nights meant no time to install the dishwasher.. and instead our kitchen was in shambles for those 2 weeks.. Lauren had to hand wash the dishes as well. Oh the humanity! (I grew up in a dishwasher-less home.. so hey.. nothing new).

The electrical was another beast on its own. Instructions said minimum connection of cable to use was 14 AWG. Did you know that I am not a licensed electrician with a permit? Well I am not, and I do not have a permit. Holmes would kick my ass.

THIS IS NOT UP TO CODE!

The cable I did have was 12/2 NM American Wire Gauge #12 with 2 conductors + ground. Electricians also charge up the ass for their work. F that. The old one was using this cord, and from the research I did.. it sounded like this one would work as well. It also said it needs to have a heat rating of 70 degrees. I dont know if the one that I have now is up to those standards.. but hey.. I crossed my fingers when I connected the beast.. and so far, so good (so what??)

Once you have everything connected you then have to slide the unit (ahuh huh huh) into the space you have. Pain in the ass. I dont see how a professional installer would have done this any different.. they wouldnt have cared that this was an expensive piece of equipment.. and as such would have forced it in. I on the other hand am very cautious and took my sweet as time. This also was a problem with the 2 week window it took to install.

FINALLY it was pushed in and lined up.. everything was connected.. and the power was turned back on. Great success! no surges.. or lights dimming. To help celebrate my success, my computer rewarded me with a corrupted C drive.. containing information I had not backed up yet… so then I had to deal with that. I am still dealing with it. 28 hours to allow my program called “recover my files” to check my drive. Once it was done, I started the copying of the files it located to an external drive.. ANDDD.. it crashed. Thanks.

Oh and the dishwasher inlet valve was leaking. I had to take the thing apart at least 3 times to get it leak proof.. So was it worth the $150 I saved on not having someone install it? I dont have $150.. do you ? So I guess it was worth it.

On a side note, I needed to get a new hard drive to replace this corrupted one on my current XP system. Best Buy still carries a 500gb IDE hard drive (IDE is an outdated format.. replaced by SATA). Anyway, its an older format, but I was able to find a 500gb IDE drive for 65$. Not much.. but not bad.

Waited a long time in line since it was the after Christmas rush of people buying crap they didnt need (like Wii fitness) and I was finally up to the cash register. Why do guys wear their hair in swoopy emo f** bangs? Do girls go for this? People used to say when I had long hair that it looked effeminate. Its not like I had pink streaks or little berets in it. Swoopy bangs doesnt exactly look macho to me… perhaps I am out of touch. At somepoint I turned 32 and lost a decade to life’s various shenanigans. Somewhere in that time this swoopy bang look became “cool” and girls actually allowed these swoopy bang guys to “make it” with them. Wow.

Back to the story. Swoopy emo guy instead of ringing up my purchase and allowing me to leave decides to analyze the box. “Wow, this is really 500 gigs?”.

Yea.

“Hmm.. this is for IDE, are you aware of this?”

Yes.

“That is outdated”

“Its for an older XP computer.. the hard drive just died in it”

“Wow you should throw that out and upgrade !”

?

No, its for a computer attached to my tv..

“heh”

It saves me money since I download everything and don’t need to buy dvds from here.

Emo kid didn’t like this.

Anyway.. see you in 2010.

admin awkward situations, douchebags, im a computer - stop all the downloading!

Once upon a time.. it was my birthday. 32 now.. uhh.

admin Uncategorized

hm.. is this thing still on?

Today is my wedding anniversary.

We hope things are going to be better next year!

Today’s conflict. We had Minsky’s at lunch.. fully paid. Minsky’s is one of my favorite places to eat in Kansas City, and makes my top 5 things that are worth staying in the USA for. As far as pizza prices go, its up there. 13.95 for a medium pizza.. pretty high when you compare this to “Little Ceasers” which is 5$ for a large ? or is it a medium. The Little Ceasers pizza is pretty much garbage.. It reminds me of the pizza we had in high school.. that would cost you 2.50 a slice, and was cheese on cardboard with no flavor. If however you only have 5$ for a pizza, rock and roll. Anyway the point to this tale.

I love Minsky’s! Wait.. I already made that clear. I would have it every week if I could! Some poo poo routine.. I say.. I embrace it. If I were to be executed, my last meal and event would be a Minsky’s pizza, with a 6 pack of Moosehead beer.. while watching The Amazing Race. AHh. Lauren admits that Minsky’s is the best pizza everytime she eats it, she is also the young lady that introduced me to this crack cocaine cheese and sauce covered treat. Yet when it comes time to eat pizza, she likes to deprive herself by having Pizza Shoppe pizza (a local competitor). A good pizza mind you, but no Minsky’s. Variety is the spice of life.. I know. If I were to eat Minsky’s every week I would get sick of it.

I still love Pizza Pizza in Toronto though. 967-1111 = The Lambada (that’s the forbidden dance). All this talk about food and you would think I am a fat 800 pound guy stuck to my sofa. I am not though. If you really want an insight into my mental function, I am compiling a “pizza pizza” shrine to proudly display in my American home. I have a Pizza Pizza bag, a pizza slice cardboard holder, and napkins!

So we got Minsky’s Sunday. Enjoyed it. Had 2 beers (I never have 6) in my official British pint glasses glass. Thursday is usually the day when I have my pizza leftovers. Speaking of routine, when I used to live in Toronto with my parents.. Thursday would be “pork chops” day. Mmm. Followed by Friday where it was Wendy’s! (Canadian Wendy’s I may add.. yes there is a difference!.. believe it or not).

Who am I to turn down Minsky’s .. and free Minsky’s I may ad. This is what I had for lunch today.. and today is Thursday. Pizza left over night! MINSKY’S left overs. I would just feel awful if I left them to waste away in the fridge. Oh the horror.. the humanity.. my inner conflict. Shakespeare could write a play based on this turmoil.

I shall be eating it tonight.

Routines even go as far as lining up food, day, and even tv programs to watch. This has changed through the years.. I can recall watching Survivor when it first came out and eating Taco’s. For a while I would watch Survivor with Amanda and have Pizza Pizza. Mm.

Tuesday’s was new DVD day, and I would head over to Future Shop (Future Shoppe).. spend wayy to much money on a dvd (that in 2009 would be worth penny’s.. fuckers!) and then head over to Wendy’s…thus watching the new filn I shouldn’t be wasting my money on.. while eating Wendy’s.

In 2009, I download Survivor and usually watch it Saturday mornings with Lauren as we eat our tasty breakfast. Is it funny how things change? not really.

I seem to now have a problem with graphic violence/gore while eating. This cant be a unique issue. Yesterday while having Red Robin left overs (mm Red Robin.. and again.. I am not fat!) , we happened to be watching Walter Bishop (of Fringe) taking out someones brain. Blech.

admin fun moments, old tymes, treats future shop, pizza pizza, survivor, Wendy's is tasty