Where there is a will, there is a way.

So the other day my roommate, Cody, was complaining about the speaker in his iPhone no longer working. I had done repairs on my iPod Nano years ago and although it is a very very small device to work on, I was able to fix it. I told him I could order a few parts online and fix his phone for him instead of him having to shell out ~$150 for an insurance claim on it. I didn't have the screw drivers needed so I ordered the ones for the phone and a new loud speaker all for about $10! Sure beats $150.

I got his phone all pulled apart and the instructions I had found online actually had you take out the main board in the phone, the battery, etc... (I later found out this wasn't all necessary,) and all was going well till I had to take out the battery. The battery is glued into the case of the phone and while I was trying to be careful not to damage anything else while prying it out, I ended up snapping the plastic too I got to help take the phone apart. I had some other small tools used when repairing my Xbox 360 and building my desktop computer so I went upstairs to grab that tool kit so I could finish working on the phone. Not even 2 minutes later I come downstairs and hear my roommate say "we got fire!" WHAT??? I was thinking to myself "what in the hell could I have done to it to cause it to catch on fire?" It turns out Cody decided to try and pry the battery out himself with a knife he grabbed in the kitchen. He punctured the plastic around the battery and exposed some plates inside the battery. Whenever he would mess with it the battery would start to glow and smolder in the spot and smoke would start coming off of it. We were able to get the battery out finally and I got the speaker replaced, but with no battery his phone would be out of commission for until I could get a new one. I looked and found a new high capacity battery for $12 online so I went ahead and ordered that one for him. The new battery should be here later today or tomorrow so I will finish up his phone and get it all back together. Overall it was quite an interesting fix that went from a hopeful cheap and easy fix to Cody being without a phone for 4 or 5 days and an interesting story.

This also leads back to one of my goals for this year which is to find a way to start making money online, and maybe eventually get to the point where I can say goodbye to the regular 9-5 working world. If everything works out with this repair, then I have a broken iPad that I was given that I'm going to try and repair as well. I think I know what I need to do to fix it, but the front glass on it is shattered and something internal is wrong as well. I'm hoping to get both of these devices back in working order and maybe start finding broken iPhones and iPads that I can get for cheap and do an easy repair to it so I can just flip the device. While this isn't really making money online the way I had in mind this would be something that could really be done from just about anywhere.

I had some hibachi chicken, mushrooms, and rice today for lunch and in my fortune cookie it said "Where there is a will, there is a way." I found this to apply to what I had planned to blog about today. Even though my idea to make money online didn't relate to repairing electronics I can see that where there is a will to make extra money away from regular work, there is a way to do it with the skills that I have. I have always been able to figure out how to fix my electronics, but never really thought about it as a way to make money. This may change soon though! I'm sure I will keep this blog updated with my progress as I figure some of this out.