by ·0 Comments

My current work project has required some long days as each sample can take unattended hours to test.  I came in at around 4 AM, did a sample, setup up a new one, and drove to Best Buy to have my car stereo repaired.  The person who took my keys looked more likely to jack car stereos than repair them but there appeared to be cameras about I needed to admire his consistency when asking me questions:

Agent: What’s the problem with the radio?
Me: A few things, for one it’s fugly.  Also, the iPod connector doesn’t seem to work.
Agent: What is?
Me: The install, I really suck at this.
Agent: You did this yourself?
Me: Yea, any professional should have probably just slit their wrists if that were the quality of their install.
Agent: What do you mean?
Me: Well, there were wires, of various colors that had words written on them like “To Brake Cable” and “To Battery” and not seeing directions on what to do with them, I bunched them up and rammed them behind the head unit.
Agent: Ok.  Let me look.
*Minutes later*
Agent: Sir, this make a while.

I promptly fell asleep in the waiting room and at some point I recall waking to a kid saying “he sounds like daddy”.

Agent: Sir, I believe I updated your install.  Here the video display now works when parked.  You can adjust the date, and the battery display info is now also available.
Me: What about the iPod connector?
Agent: I’m not sure, just in case I wrapped it with electrical tape.
Me: Is there a shock hazard or something?
Agent: No, the grey plastic looks ugly.

Thank you, tattoo, nose-ring, and beard-having scruffy Geek Squad Man, you’ve made Wanda sound grand.

 

by ·0 Comments

While our tenants are theoretically renters we’ve very much taken a “you break it you bought it” attitude to home repairs.  One accidentally flushed a toilet bowl freshener which stopped up the toilet in ways that polyurethane foam couldn’t.  He attacked it for several hours with a combination of a plunger, a toilet snake, a trash bag, and a beer can (?) and I thought he was victorious.  Based on much loud cursing, a little sobbing, and a sticky note that said “DO NOT USE” affixed to the toilet I guess he wasn’t.

A day later, inspiration apparently struck as I was sitting at my computer and heard him yell “aha!” at 2 AM.  There was a flurry of activity that ended with what sounded like a shower and him returning to bed.  His triumph was confirmed by a new stick it note: “USE!!!”  The previous note had been moved to a roll of paper towels that were… browned.

by ·0 Comments

Before rebuilding my brother’s computer I did some troubleshooting to see if I could get it to work again and tracked it down to a mobo power supply issue.  The 4-pin 5V connector wasn’t working correctly and after some searching under magnification I saw a tell-tale bump which indicates something on the PCB blew.  I thought for a second how many people would be able to figure out that minute a problem and smiled smugly.  While cleaning up after the disassembly I turned the motherboard over and saw the 3-inch diameter scorch mark centered on the back of the pin-prick I’d seen earlier.  I smiled anti-smugly realizing how much time I’d wasted finding a defect with the cross section of a pubic hair when I should have seen the scarring on the back that looked like it’d been inflicted with a brule torch.