Unravel Cancer: Experiences with family battling cancer: iPhone: Angel vs. Devil

11 September 2009

21:37 iPhone: Angel vs. Devil

After my pack got "beared" in Yosemite back in May, where the bear thought my brick-style Nokia was a chocolate bar, it was time to buy a new phone.

It took me 3.5 months to decide what I wanted. If I had to get a new phone, I might as well GO BIG, right? Many comparisons between Internet & email based phones ensued.

The Crackberry was out for sure. My work gives me one, and it stinks. The interface is clunky, the trackball is lame, and the websites are slow as molasses and poorly designed for reading on the phone. All in all, a fail.

The T-Mobile G1 or G3 was the next possibility. After much investigation, and taking straw polls from my friends, I decided on the iPhone. BUT! I did _not_ want to use it with AFee&Fee. I don't want one more penny of my hard-earned dollars going to that company after the royal shafting I received when I moved.

So, I bought a "jailbroken" iPhone on the black market. It wasn't cheap. The kid probably used the money to by hookers & blow for all I know... As soon as I spent 5 minutes with the thing, I didn't care about morality or corruption, I was addicted. It was like an electronic crack rock placed into my pipe night after night, without having to turn tricks to get the goods. Yes, it was _that_ awesome.

After a few weeks of Internet-based fun, I went on my first climbing trip with the thing over the Labor Day holiday weekend. Like a proud momma, I was showing it off to my climbing brethren in the car on the drive up. We watched videos on Oakland, and the many deep cultural phenomena here. Little did I know that doom lurked over the horizon.

Later that night, when I discovered I forgot my super hella-fragilistic seal-tight Starbuck's coffee mug for my tea, I bought a cheapo one at a gas station. The next morning, heavenly PG-Tips was brewing in my cup when we hit the road from the hot springs to our camp.

When we got to the campsite, the back of the Suburu popped open like a Jack-in-the-Box, and we scrambled to mushroom-ize our tents. It wasn't til we began gathering our gear to climb that I looked for my tea... When I saw that the canvas bag my tea was in was brown & soggy on the bottom, I didn't think it was a big deal. Til I saw the phone in the bottom of the bag.

Pulling it out was like reaching into a mucky creekbed - it was covered in gummy, slimy tea. Oh, man...

Mistake #1 was trying to turn it on. This likely shorted it out.

Mistake #2 was setting it on the dashboard of my buddy's car for the rest of the 4 days we climbed. Direct heat like sunlight tends to fry the circuitry as well.

Course, I didn't learn all this til I came home & researched it on the web. What I also found out was you can try to open up the phone & scrub out the corroded bits with a toothbrush and some mild propyl alcohol. Seeing the guts splayed out on my desk was like a modern-day-mosaic. I now know that there is such a thing as a #00 Phillips screwdriver. And, suction cups are my friend.

But actually, the recommended method, after NOT turning it on, is to place the gadget into a bag of rice for several days, to absorb any moisture that's leftover inside. This probably works really well for water, but gummy, sticky tea is a whole other matter.

Desperate and crazed from 4 days of heat in the Owen's River Gorge climbing like a mad fool, I tried the teardown alcohol rub method. The night before, when I plugged in the iPhone to my computer, the computer recognized it, tried to clean & wipe it, to reinstall the software. But, the iPhone was too sick to accept the medicine.

AFTER the alcohol bath, and a 15min blowout with the neighbor's hairdryer, iTunes didn't recognize the device _at all_. It really was like a bad haircut.

If I had $5 for every person who asked, "Did you get the insurance? Can you turn it into the Apple Store for repair?", I'd have enough cash to buy another one!

Instead, I had to buy another one out of my own meager pocket, which I did on Wednesday. Once an addict, it's hard to kick. This time I spent less money on a non-jailbroken version. Did I mention I had to learn how to hack the iPhone after owning it for only 4 days? Ai, yi, yi - that was another fun day. I installed the 3.0.1 software hoping it would fix a sync issue, and the patch re-locked the phone. It took me 3.5 hours to hack it the first time. The second time: 20 min. Saved me $50! Which promptly went to the bulkiest, hardiest, rugged-est, and ugliest iPhone case I could find. Black, thank you. The bubblegum pink nearly made me barf.

Fed some kids' mary jane habit. They rolled up in mommy & daddy's new Mercedes SUV , one with a busted knee from basketball. Not even sure if they graduated high school. The gimpy one was selling his sister's iPhone 3G, as she got the 3GS, no doubt from Daddy Warbuck's, VP of Shmooze at HoseMe Semiconductors, or something.

If my shabby motorcycle leathers, beaten up shoulderbag, and dusty Honda said, "I'm not a filthy rich bastard.", they forgot to read the memo. Managed to talk them down on price anyway. But, luck would have it that the kid screwed up on the software reset, and we had to drive closer to his house so he could run home & do the final thing. This time, when I hopped into the back of their luxury vehicle, it reeked of pot. Guess where my 3 bones & change were going? Oh, well. This iPhone was in much better shape than the first one, and runs a lot better/faster.

In the meantime, I'm keeping the money in the box they gave me. While it rattles around a little bit, it's way safer and won't get scratched while I'm waiting for the bullet-proof vest to arrive in the mail. It's kinda hard to hear it ring, though. So, if you call me, please make sure to leave your number again!

What does this have to do with cancer? Not much. But, the cool thing is I kept expecting myself to freak out or get really upset & mopey. But, I didn't! It hit me pretty quickly I had nobody to blame but myself, although the idea of finger-pointing was tempting. I just didn't go down that path. In fact, I was able to let go of the whole mess and climb with impunity, my thoughts laser focussed on the routes.

Living with cancer in my family has offered up yet another gift - recognizing what's truly important in this life. Is a super cool-ass internet/email/hella fun gadget more important than my health? My family? My friends? Nature? Nah - it's just a toy. A hella cool, convenient & life-changing toy, but a toy nonetheless.

hella hella hella hella

Just thought I'd throw that last bit in there so everyone knows _for sure_ I live in Oakland now. :)

Labels: hack, iPhone, jailbreak, Oakland, Owen's River Gorge, rock climbing

Breathe.

I'm a 30-something professional woman who's mother & brother were both diagnosed with Grade 3 Astrocytoma tumors within about a week of each other. My mother's tumor is in her brain, and my brother's tumor is in his spinal cord, causing him to lose feeling in his arms & legs. These writings are about my experiences dealing with them, coping, loving them, loving myself, and living my life knowing that they are both dying. I hope you find inspiration and courage from my writings to help you get through whatever is going on in your life.