Blog of Josh Hall

I want to “rebuild” something in the house.  I’m not sure whether it’s just a room that is a replica of another room of a house I lived in, or a famous room from somewhere else, like the Whitehouse.  At Winterthur and Nemacolin Woodlands, they have areas where the walls are actual storefronts so the room or hallway feels like a city street.  Something like that would work too.

I fixed my xbox 360 at home! thanks so much to llamma.com for the instructions!

Step 1: Diagnosis. I had 3 flashing lights on the xbox, the top right one was still dim. This is the Red Ring of Death.  It’s certainly worth asking someone else to borrow their power supply to test your xbox.  Pop off the hard drive and try to boot it to see if you still get it.  Try different outlets.  Basically, try everything else in efforts to get a different result!  There’s a way to get a more detailed secondary error message which is outlined here.  Mine just told me “WTF dude, your crap is broken, i dunno what’s wrong”.

Step 2:  Know your options.  OK, you’re hardware is shot.  Check your warranty status since you may be able to have Microsoft fix it for free.  Log into Live, add the serial number for your xbox and check warranty status.  Even if it’s out of warranty there, they have extended their warranties to 3 years specifically for this error!  Don’t break your warranty if you don’t have to! If they still won’t replace your box, you’re out of alternatives, make sure you don’t just want to shovel out money for a new box.

Step 3:  Get your hands dirty with demolition. You will need:

• A power drill with a 3/16 or 5/16 bit
• A TL 8 and TL10 sized star shaped screw driver

Search youtube for some videos to take apart the xbox.  basically, pop off the faceplace, pop off the grids from the side, monkey around with the back hinge design (the hardest part), and take out the motherboard and heat sinks.  You’ll have to pop off those X brackets buy prying at the tips one tip at a time.  Once those are off, use some plyers to get the studs out of the bottom of the heatsinks.

Once the heatsinks are off, you have to clean off the old thermal paste from the bottom of the heat sink and the processors. i cleaned off whatever i could with a q-tip or tissue, then you can get some arctic-clean cleaner, or just some kind of grease remover worked.

last part is to grab your drill and make those holes bigger in the xbox case where the xclamps were.  Technically, 3/16 should work, but i had to use 5/16 since I tried fitting the studs (or even the bolts if you already have them) through them, but they didn’t fit.  Don’t worry too much, that’s what the washers are for.

Step 4: Put it all back together. you’ll need:

• 8 screws
• 32 steel washers
• 16 nylon washers
• Thermalpaste

You have to put a really thin layer of thermal paste on the processors. it’s so easy to put too much on when you apply it, so be careful! All you have to do is put a layer as thick as a sheet of paper. just enough to cover the writing basically.

The tricky part is putting the screws and washers in without them falling all over the place. What I did was stick the screws in the case, and put a piece of tape over the heads to hold them in the case. then, flip it right side up, put 3 steel washers and then 1 nylon washer on them. Then goes the motherboard. Then another nylon then another steel on each screw. put the heatsinks back on, and hold them in place while flipping the box upside down so you can get the screws threaded without them falling out and losing the washers.

That’s actually enough to get it working. hook up the fan, the dvd drive, the front power board, and crank it up. Mine went right up, and I just discarded all the other screws and crap since these new screws are holding everything in place enough.

Follow up: so, after 3-4 weeks of running fine, it rrod’d again. This time with the sub error code 0031, which indicates a short somewhere. I tried all the steps over again with no avail. Not sure if I did something wrong, but I am bummed!

So I sat down this year looking for inspiration, and all I could come up with was a big old wreath. It looked terrible. I don’t have enough of the moss/vine/accent pieces, and I certainly don’t have enough flat green pieces. So, I scratched that and created the stocking. It’s about 8 inches tall, and I wish I could have made it bigger, but guess what, I ran out of red 2×4 blocks. I was happy with how smooth it looks though.

Once that was up for a week or so, I wanted to create some other pieces since it looked lonely.

here are the close ups of the others:

There is no such thing as a multi-sex “wedding shower”.  They’re called Bridal showers, and only women go to them.

Alright, this memory is going to be a little graphic, but i have to live with it, so I’m going to share it. With an opening sentence like that, how could you not read more?

So while I was at pitt, I lived in Lothrop Hall. Lothrop Hall had disgusting bathrooms and the stalls did not offer much for privacy. If I remember correctly, it may have even only been a sheet in front of you. Either way, it wasn’t be best place for a #2. The Cathedral of Learning however, had an awesome 2nd story bathroom. It was very hard to get to, so it made it typically pretty sanitary, but it also had the longest hallway of stalls that I think I’ve ever come across. There must have been 15 stalls on either side. You don’t want to pick the close ones, because those are for people that had emergencies, and you don’t pick the ones all the way at the end, because that’s too obvious and frequented. Somewhere in the middle though, you find the perfect balance of cleanliness and privacy. The problem is, others, 1 gentlemen in particular, thought the same thing I did.

So I sitting in one of the right side stalls, doing my thang. Every once in a while, someone will walk by, but that doesn’t bother me. It’s only when a dude takes the stall directly across from me that I’m a little perturbed. I hear some strange noises. I peer through the crack in my door to see what’s up. This skinny black dude is sitting on the toilet, with the door open, stroking his wookie. WTF. I don’t know what his logic was with the door, but when he’d hear someone coming through, he’d shut it, at least enough to prevent seeing what he was doing, but then he’d open it back up again.

I tried to ignore it. I don’t know what triggered it, maybe he didn’t see me at first, but he got up and came over to my door and knocked on it. I didn’t respond and kept my head down. He was peaking through the cracks at me and I think he mumbled something, but I have no idea what. I think he was crazy. After perhaps a second knock, he retreated back to his stall, I assume to continue his work.

What he probably didn’t realize was the implications of his actions. He’s stuck with me now. There’s no way I’m leaving the security of my stall. I have my cell phone and my vocal chords if he tries anything. I’m there for the duration.

I have no idea if he finished his deed or not, but he did end up leaving after a while. I gave it a good buffer time before I left. I thought he might be waiting for me outside, so I chose a public and quick exit.

I never returned to those stalls, I think. If I did, I remember thinking to never go back during that same time frame. Too much privacy has tainted it.

There’s a new webisode (online episodes) called footnote, and the first episode features how people live in community and interact with one another. Pittsburgh was chosen, and it’s a pretty cool picture of some of the more unique groups in the city. (features some friends as well)

You’ll have to follow the link to watch the episode:

http://www.fntv.com/episodes/s1e1/