the prologue
it was thursday night. i was waiting on a train which as it turns out was to be over 40 minutes late on my way into the city where i was going to drink more than was really necessary while watching an incredibly exciting (though unnecessarily so) game between the new york jets and the evil new england patriots.
to kill time i called my brother. we discussed things such as video games, my birthday rebate, and how he lost another phone.
"another phone?" i asked. "yeah." he answered. "are you insured?" he answered in the affirmative and i continued to pester him. "but don't they make you fill out a police report for the lost phone?" "no, they just charge you $50 and send you a new one." "gee, i wouldn't mind a new phone." and karma set his evil bookmark…
the story
well, there isn't much of a story to be honest. i have no idea how my phone got broken. and hell, broken is even the wrong word. the digitizer (the piece of glass that senses when/where the screen is touched and relays that info to the cpu for processing) was cracked, very slightly. though, cracked enough to cause problems in the digitizer's operation and look annoying.
you'd think after reading how much i drank on thursday night that the injury to the phone was alcohol related, but i am certain it was not. i made a few phone calls on the way and after i got home before safely resting my phone by me bed as i always do. there was no sign of a cracked when it annoyed me a few hours later to wake up, though i s'pose i could have put it down harder than usual causing the damage.
after reading up on several sites offering either digitizer or full screen replacements for my phone, i decided to see if the screen from my old treo 650 would fit in my treo 755p.
found some info on how to take both phones apart and proceeded to do so friday night. the screens it turned out were the same exact size and seemed to have teh same connector to the motherboard. "i'm in luck!" i thought.
but it wasn't to be. after connecting the 650's screen to the 755p's motherboard, the phone powered up but the screen did not. dejected, i went ahead and put things back the way they were on the 755p (the 650 is still in pieces). the phone powered up and the screen worked fine, other than the crack of course. all was good.
saturday came and went. the phone functioned as it should have and continued to into sunday…
around 1:50 pm est sunday afternoon while stepping out of a kfc with my lunch, i retrieved my treo form my pocket and hit the button to turn it on. the screen went white. white with some squiggles, to let me know that while something was happening i sure as hell wouldn't be able to see it. the day, cold and bleak, passed by with little contact from the outside world. my poor treo signaled a text every now and again but sadly couldn't muster the strength to show them.
upon arriving home sunday night i again opened my dear treo, my lifeline to those i know and love. i had thought that perhaps the screens ribbon had come loose, but it was tight as a born again virgin. checking against several informative sites, it seemed everything was as it should be. my darling phone had shone it's final beam of light…
the epilogue
after scouring ebay, i found a well priced replacement from a well regarded seller who reside in massachusetts which is fairly close. i ordered and paid for my salvation and am (not so) patiently awaiting it's arrival, hopefully before my weekend begins on thursday.
the contest
when will my new phone be active? as soon as i get my new phone set up (meaning activated with sprint and as much of my software as i can remember installed) i'll shoot off a text to twitter. guess what time that text happens and you'll win 1000 entrecard credits.
don't have entrecard? well, if you're in and around new york city and wind up at the same bar as me…i'll buy you a drink. don't have entrecard and don't live in or around nyc and/or wouldn't go to a bar to get a drink from a dumbass blogger's contest? well, then you're shit out of luck and whoever comes in second gets your prize.
to enter, just leave a comment with your guess as to when you think i'll text twitter saying my phone is back in service and the world is good again. person closest without going over (price is right rules) will be declared the winner.
example: i text at 8:09 am on saturday morning. a person who guessed 7:23 am saturday morning would win over someone who guessed 8:10 am saturday morning.
i am in new york city on eastern standard time. i assume but can not guarantee twitter is set up for my time zone. the correct time for the purposes of the contest will be twitter's time stamp, not my time.
please guess a day and a time. you may be as exact as you like. guess down to the second for all i care. while there should be no reason anyone would guess the same time, if that occurs the perosn who guessed first gets preference.
some hints: i ordered the phone around 3 am monday morning. i am hoping (though don't know for sure) it will be shipped sometime monday. the seller is listed as being in massachusetts. it should be shipped via usps priority mail. i am a chronic procrastinator.
good luck!
karma broke my phone
should not have tempted the fates
i could not fix it
ordered replacement
it's used and same as the old
hope the thing comes quick
when will it get here
that's for the readers to guess
my blog's first contest
I lost my cell down a toilet and had to put my hand in the remains of the day. It never worked again.
RIP, Bob Phone!
I’m guessing, 1030AM Thursday
Hmmmmm. I’m really stumped, but I’m going to guess 6 p.m. Wednesday — well before the weekend.
Friday around ten in the AM
I demolished my Treo earlier this year trying to “fix” it. Turns out AT&T had a down tower and there was nothing wrong with the phone. Damn AT&T.
My guess: Thursday, 7:27 P.M.
@ everyone yay contest entries!
@ eric i’d never use at&t. you couldn’t get a signal if you were standing next to a tower. if only apple hadn’t made the mistake of granting em exclusive access to the iphone…i drool over how much space it’d save in my pocket. stupid palm and their 2.5 mm connectors for headphones.
*wonders what eric did to “fix” his phone*
Since I can’t get to sleep for some reason I’ll will enlighten with my fixin’ my Treo story. When I had the Treo my favorite past time was modding the software with all sorts of goodness that can be found at forum.xda-developers.com. Well I thought I screwed up the celluar radio somehow so I was going to do a hard erase and start over. The piece of crap Treo I got was an eBay deal so of course some button, the push-to-talk button I think, didn’t work. The button was required for the hard reset. The button however did work from inside the casing. I opened the casing one too many times for a succession of resets and something, not sure, but something important that liked worked the Treo and stuff fell out. Phone is “fixed” or otherwise known as dead. Switched to Sprint. Sprint is crap. Canceled Sprint. Switched to Verizon. Verizon is OHHHHHHH crap. iPhone 3G comes out. Happy. Except for the whole not being able to get much of Edge reception at home, much less 3G.
poor eric, get your sleep so you can feel better sir.
yeah i learned opening cases is a bad idea…i have two fixed treos upstairs now.
as for cel companies, i have been with sprint for nearly 6 years now and love it. always have a signal and i’m on a sero plan whichs costs me 70$/month for two phones with more minutes than i’ll ever use and unlimited texts and data which i use like they’ll stop existing if i don’t.
heard verizon is awesome. all my verizon friends love it.
at&t is utter crap though.
free the iphone!
4:00 pm thursday!!!
so we’re all wrong??
Okay I’m guessing Saturday 930am
phone still isn’t here. sadly. according to tracking it was processed in nashua, nh yesterday. there were a couple of guesses in another posts cmments i think one of them was a friday guess and besides, it’s price is right rules…latest guess without going over would win.
thanks for checking back though (=