Back up and running

Update: The new X-box DVD drive arrived Tuesday, and when I returned home from work I immediately set upon my system, tinkering and fiddling with getting the new part in and testing it. The result: SUCCESS! We have working X-box again! I tested the drive out with a couple games and a DVD, but didn't have time for much else. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to completely reassemble the box, and play some significant Halo 2 and Splinter Cell. Boy, playing on an X-box that I've repaired with my own two hands is extra gratifying!

In other news, I am taking myself out to the ballgame tomorrow with coworkers. Mariners vs the Cleveland Indians. Initially my son and wife were coming as well, but because our plan is to drive up to Ferndale this weekend to visit family and go to the vaunted Ferndale Old Settler's Picnic (the big annual small-town event of the city), we figured he needed sleep more than a Mariner's game.

I just realized that I haven't entered anything Star Wars on my blog for a while, and that's just no good! So, Factoid of the Day:

In Episode III, in the beginning scenes when Count Dooku had "kidnapped" Chancellor Palpatine, Palpatine had fed Dooku a plan whereby he was supposed to engage Kenobi and Skywalker, kill Obi Wan, and face Anakin in a one on one duel. Then, Dooku would allow Anakin to defeat him and take him into custody, where Dooku would live out the rest of the fight as a well-cared-for prisoner of war. With Dooku out of the way, the Republic would win the war, and Palpatine would seize control of the government, releasing the Count to serve as a vice-emperor of sorts. So the order to kill Dooku by Palpatine must have been quite shocking to the Count indeed!

Another weekend comes to a close

Hello -

Just an update on goings on, since I can't think of anything really profound to say...

On my busted gaming system:
I went through all the tutorials regarding dismantling the box, getting at the DVD drive, dismantling the drive, and cleaning the lens and mirror of the laser. I had to purchase about $30 worth of tools and accessories to do it (including a cd/dvd cleaning disk that did nothing). I cleaned the appropriate surfaces and 're-mantled' the X-box. Turned it on....still broken. So, after much deliberation with the wife over whether I should try and purchase just a new laser for the dvd player for about $25, or a whole new drive for between $25 and $75 (the difference there being really crappy and cheap DVD drive versus high quality DVD drive), I managed to snag a high quality DVD drive off of Ebay for $35 plus $15 shipping. That is about $20 cheaper than all the other auctions I saw for the same item. I was quite lucky. So....hopefully that will arrive Tuesday, when UPS said it would, and hopefully it will be fully undamaged and functional.

On my son:
Teaching him to use the toilet. He is successful when naked, but accidents abound when he has underwear on. We are now using M&Ms as motivators. And we have bought stock in paper towels.

On my softball team:
Crushing and embarrassing defeat this weekend. Only had 10 people show up, so everyone played, even though a couple players didn't know quite what a softball looked like. It is ok, though, I should be grateful. If they hadn't played, we would have lost by forfeit. Instead, we lost by humiliation. :-) On another note, I was forced into sliding three times in the game. I have concluded that three slides are approximately two slides too many in one game. The first is not so bad. Come up, minor to no pain, just a little scratch maybe. Second slide, same spot on the leg as the first, hurts significantly more. Dirt grinds into small scratch already there, plus more ripping and tearing of leg flesh to open up a healthy wound. Third slide: pure agony. Dirt and rocks embed in the limb, whole wound gets a nice coat of blood/dirt mud mixture. Trying to slide a different way yields a second wound right on the knee cap that is even more raw than the first, due to the fact that there is nothing but skin and bone on the knee. Plus, it hurts that much more if one is called out, as was the case in my third and final slide. Perhaps I should consider wearing pants to the next game, instead of shorts.

On my weekend:
Fairly crappy Saturday. First, the softball game (see above). Then, went to a Texas Hold em tournament and got absolutely awful cards. The kind where you actually think you may have a good hand, but it is just bad enough to lose to someone else at the table. As an example (for those who know the game), I went all-in after the flop, since I had an 8-9 underneath, and the board flopped 10-J-Q, giving me an instant straight. Someone else at the meager 5 person table called, because he had a K-A, giving him the higher straight! The odds of that were ridiculous, especially considering there were only 5 people at the table, but that was the way my evening went. Tournament started at 6pm, I was busted out at 8:30pm. Lost $20. Awful.

Then, after having pretty much a loser Saturday thus far, I decided to go to a coworker's mudwrestling party from the poker fiasco. By the time I arrived, the mudwrestling was over, but I figured I could mingle with some of my drunken coworkers for a while. Unfortunately, there were only a total of three people at the party that I knew, out of about 40 or more. One was the hostess, and two left the party at about 10 pm, leaving me adrift in a sea of unfamiliar faces. The house was just too amazingly cool to leave though, so I stuck around in their fully surround sound theater room and watched some Will Ferrell SNL and a movie. By the time the movie was over (at about 1:15am), I was the only conscious person left in the room. I shut off the equipment, went upstairs, said goodbye to the only conscious person upstairs, and drove home to crawl into bed at 3am.

8am came early this morning, for church. That is all I have to say about that!

My X-Box BROKE!

Angry. So very angry. Wednesday Evening, I decided to play a little Halo 2 online, with the snazzy new map pack I purchased last week. I put my Halo 2 disk in and got the dreaded "Dirty Disk Error", meaning my X-box didn't recognize it as an X-box game.
"Hmmm, that's odd," I thought, not realizing the impending doom that would soon settle upon me. I ejected the disk, then reinserted it. Same message.
"Oh, you better not do this to me, kind Microsoft machine..."
I tried again. Same result.
"YOU FILTHY PIECE OF KAKAPOOPIE....!!"
I put in another X-box game. Same message. I put in a DVD. Same message. I immediately run to the internet. From extensive searching, I have found that this periodically happens to people's boxes, due to cheap components in the system. There are now a set of steps I must follow to attempt to repair it.

Step 1: kick it.
Step 2: Put in a cd/dvd cleaner disk and run it.
Step 3: If that doesn't work, kick again.
Step 4: Unplug and take apart machine, dismantling all until I reach the DVD drive.
Step 5: Take apart the DVD drive, and clean the lens and mirror of the laser manually.
Step 6: Pray.
Step 7: reassemble, test.
Step 8: If it still doesn't work, angrily storm around house in a funk, then purchase a replacement laser.
Step 9: Disassemble once again, and replace laser (this has steps involving removing solder, so I am probably screwed at this point, not having any soldering experience).
Step 10: reassemble, test again, and hopefully everything will be wonderful. If not, go to step 11.
Step 11: Get even ANGRIER.

You see, there is a lot of pitfalls in my plan. If I can avoid them, that will be super. I am mildly interested in seeing the interior of my box. But the fact that it is busted makes the experience less enjoyable. Of course, I suppose if it wasn't broken, I wouldn't be opening it up in the first place.

By the way, for anyone reading that has encountered serious X-Box problems, I found an excellent site that explains all do-it-yourself repairs, as well as sells components. Very philanthropic, since they could easily sell this kind of good info. it is:

www.llamma.com

Doh! I knew I forgot to do something....

SO SORRY!!

I have been terribly lax in updating the blog, and I hope it is not a trend that will continue. There has been SO much that has happened since my last entry, I can't possibly fit it all into one post. So I will create a list of major events, and write about them if time permits.

DARBOS LIST OF MAJOR THINGS THAT HAVE HAPPENED LATELY

1. Went to a Mariner's game with my dad and my son. The Mariners actually won, but in 12 innings, and we left at the end of the 11th.
   
2. Summer bowling resumed between myself and my former boss, Scott. I took the first meeting, winning 2 of 3 games and breaking 200 on the last one.
3. The Dark Side, my vaunted softball team, came in second place out of four teams in the Softball Summer Slam, with a record of 2-1.
4. My friends, Nick and Emily, were admitted to the hospital at a mere 7 months of pregnancy due to questionable test results during one of their numerous doctor visits.
5. Wife went camping with my son for two days, allowing me to revert to my bachelor self. Basically, all I did was go see Revenge of the Sith for the fifth time (but at the Cinerama for the first) one evening, and go out to happy hour with some coworkers for the other. I am apparently a poor bachelor.
   
6. Left work early on Friday (well, that was major for me anyway).
7. My Friends, Nick and Emily, gave birth to a nearly 2 lb son named Kaden. Everyone is currently doing just fine. Kaden will have to be in the hospital most likely until September, when he was due to be born.
8. Played in a Texas Holdem tournament with an old college friend. It lasted from 6pm till after 2am. I got third place and won $32.
9. Eagerly traveled to CompUSA to pick up the Halo 2 expansion multiplayer map pack today. They didn't have it, despite the fact that today was the reported release date. I proceded to travel to FIVE more stores with no luck. Apparently, the release date no longer means that you can purchase the game. Bungie now in my book officially SUCKS. Not only are there nearly a year of delays in the releasing of Halo 2, they expect us to purchase extra maps that should be included with the original game. Then, on top of it all, they advertise a release date for these maps, and don't deliver. I despise them and yet cannot stop purchasing their product.

That was a brief recap of all major things that have happened since my last blog update. If nothing else interesting happens in the next few days, I can expound on some of these things, if anyone is interested....

The evil geniuses of The Dark Side!