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Showing posts from April, 2010

PS3 and the Yellow Light of Death (YLOD)

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Sometime last year, Dad went to turn on his Playstation 3 and was greeted by the infamous Yellow Light Of Death. It's tough to find a good description of what the YLOD is, but this forum thread is somewhat comprehensive. Essentially, the PS3 does nothing but show a single LED. Apparently there are a number of possible causes. Dad had just bought a new game it was stuck in the Blue-Ray player and no amount of coaxing was getting it out. With a repair price of about $150CAD (+ shipping) Dad simply bought a new Playstation ($300). tiny ribbon cables galore I had some spare time a couple of weeks back and Dad had found a suitable heat-gun to attempt the, by now, common "re-flow" repair. We watched this very good YouTube video (which is in two parts ) and took the plunge. If it failed I was planning to at least crack the Blue-Ray drive to get the game which was M.I.A. Death by a million screws. One of the biggest challenges in this process is remembering where a

Late celebrations lead to even later posting

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Pre-Dawn March 17th The Bad Beginning: I was worried about QNY this time 'round. Not getting together with people until April 2 is an unprecedented delay and I typically NEED the pick-me-up that our quest conference usually provides me. This year it was especially true, what with my popped rib-head, a cracked rib, alienating my parents and all. The evening had some disappointing elements for me, but on the whole, was very satisfying. It started out with a great walk to our chosen meeting place. For the first time the girls came with me and we were all giddy with anticipation. We took our time, stopped at a couple of parks, and talked about what Questing meant to the three of us. Anwyn took an approach similar to mine. She said that anything you did could be a Quest, it was how you did it that mattered. Shepherd Book might have said that "how you get there is the worthier part." Leora thought that Questing was pushing boundaries. She thought that to do it you might

Silly Questions & Reflective Results

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Not bad considering the odd-ball questions that were used. I am Red/White Take The Magic Dual Colour Test - Beta today! Created with Rum and Monkey 's Personality Test Generator . I'm both chaotic and orderly. I value my own principles, and am willing to go to extreme lengths to enforce them, often trampling on the very same principles in the process. At best, I'm heroic and principled; at worst, I'm hypocritical and disorderly.

Eggses it is!

The kids are getting old and dexterous enough that this year we thought we would invest in some eggquipment. Anwyn and I wound up at The Ukranian Museum of Canada on Saturday. Being the day before Easter, I was worried that supplies for egg decorating would be limited, but there was no danger of shortage. Trust them to know Saskatoon's Psanka needs. Here is a slide-show of all the eggs that kids and novice adults alike produced. Warning!! If you are some sort of psanka purist, go no further. You have been warned. And here is a video showing all sides of Vin's SNL homage egg.

Spring Car Show

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Dad's 7D Dad loves his cars. I enjoy the spectacle, the in-your-face paint jobs, big car nostalgia, whatever. He invited everyone out to the Draggins spring car show at Prairieland Park. I think everybody had a good time. The adults tried not to drool on all the chrome. I took pictures and tried not to drool on Dad's new camera, and the children collected plenty of suckers, pre-Easter chocolates, pamphlets, hand sanitizer, yo-yos--the kind of junk kids seem to love collecting. Handwing gets roughed up by The Boss Oh, and James had a little altercation while trying to make off with one of the cars... At the bottom of this post is a link to the rest of the pictures . Most of them are not cars--they're family near  cars ;) I swear there would have been more/any shots of Matt if he didn't constantly throw his hand up AND scowl anytime a camera was pointed his way. Quick reflexes. Though, he did submit to one shot. Satisfied customers If you actually want  t