Being jobless, I've been compelled to try and salvage things that break rather than just indiscriminately replacing them and around here lately, there have been several things to fix. A couple of weeks ago my XBox crashed with the Red Ring Of Death (RROD), my most expensive crash cymbal cracked significantly, and of course, there's my shoulder which is still healing up.
Let's start with the cymbal - it's an 18" Zildjian K Custom fast crash, and it's the most valuable platter I own. I had two cymbals that got cracked at the same time, indicating that the case got dropped at a gig or something got dropped on it. I replaced the one because it was kind of basic and I got an A Custom instead. But the K is expensive...like $300 to replace, and right now I ain't got that kind of cash. Guitar Center won't take cracked cymbals in trade, Zildjian doesn't repair them, and so I was left with an option to use epoxy and try to bake it back together or I could try to drill a hole at the head of the crack, try to stop it from continuing, and hope that the sound didn't become too trashy. So, on Tuesday I drilled a 1/4" hole in my beautiful cymbal in an effort to help it limp along until I can come into some fundage to replace it. It sounds okay, but I don't think I'm going to record with it; it should stand up okay for a live show, though, at least for a little while longer.
On to the XBox. If you've been following my tweets, you'll know that my 360 is pretty much gutted and laying on my kitchen table. I'm currently waiting on some parts to fix it (odd sized screws, nylon washers, and a new heat sink to help keep it from happening again) and so my 360 is pretty much out of commission. It's still cheaper than either sending it back to Microsoft to have them fix or buying a new one. It's been interesting to take apart, though, and this might come in handy in case some friends happen to have a 360 RROD on them - at least I'll know what to do. And, if this doesn't work, I can buy just a refurbed console without all the extras for cheap to replace the broken bits. All this could have been avoided if I had the receipt, but alas - I bought the console from a third party and don't have it. So, DIY salvation is my aim here. I should have the parts first part of next week and should hopefully have it up and running by Wednesday or so.
And finally, I started on physical therapy for the shoulder today. No strength exercises yet, just range of motion...once a week for now, but probably twice a week once the strength training starts (they have to get their copays out of me somehow, I guess). But, the rebuilding has started and hopefully soon it will be back to normal. Just so long as I can drum what I gotta drum for the EP recording, I'm good.
So, lots of rebuilding and salvaging going on over here at casa de Drew. Now if I could just salvage my career or a steady source of income that doesn't involve sponging off of the state, I'll be totally in bidness!
I'm on my 3rd xbox. They seem to burn out after a couple years of heavy use. I have one I could send you if you need parts, not from the RROD but something that caused the video to scramble (no error lights). Once you get it fixed I have three words for you: BATMAN ARKHAM ASYLUM
We talked about your cymbals when you came over for dinner, and I offered my Custom ride for recording. That offer still stands if you need it.
Yeah, the irritating thing with the Xbox is that it is a known design flaw and rather than recalling all the boxes with serial numbers that have this issue and fixing it at their expense, Microsoft just keeps making the things and not really apologizing at all for the 47% failure rate - and in many cases (such as mine), they'd rather charge money to fix a design flaw and garner ill-will in the process than to keep their customers happy. It ranks right up there with writing software with a known bug in it that is designed to force customers to sign up for support in order to have it fixed at some point in the future.
With the PS3 Slim now at a very competitive price point, I don't think that Microsoft can really afford to be so cavalier these days. I can't say that if I had to replace a next gen gaming console that I wouldn't consider the PS3 this time around.
The repairs went well and the XBox is back up and running. I took your advice, Brad, and will say that your recommendation was spot on: Batman Arkham Asylum is a pretty dang good game! I have the hardback comic of the original "Arkham Asylum" story, and so it's kind of cool to play this game. This isn't quite as dark as the comic, though.
Excellent recommendation!