I have been so frustrated with T-mobile and other carriers locking down their phones. Now I understand that getting a subsidized phone has some implications, but limiting applications on the phone is a joke.

You save like $100 - $200 per phone to do a contract with a carrier and they block the best features of the phone.

I have a Nokia 5300 (XPressMusic), it is a good phone, when i got it my requirement was email. My old “smartphone” had email built in, I liked being able to take a picture and email it to a friend or myself.

After getting the phone I couldn’t figure out how to email, the sales guy assured me I had the capability. We travelled, 30 days passed, still no luck. It turns out oh yeah you have email, but you have to log into T-Mobile’s stupid tZones and use their web like interface. I was FURIOUS! I demanded a return (politely) and they said as long as it’s been less than 30 days…sigh.

This was Spring of last year, so with recovering from my illness and surgery and all that I just didn’t want to deal with it. Fast forward to Fall and I was getting antsy. I hate the wap browser, I want more. I want opera mini. Well too bad, T-mobile blocks all network accessing apps. Now I understand their argument, if everyone had access it could cripple the network. For the most part people aren’t going to use it all the time.

I had been searching high and low for 1) unlocking and 2) how to get around this block.

In the end, 1 is easy, call t-mobile, they will give you an unlock code. I still have yet to do this, but since I am not switching anytime soon, I’m in no rush. And since unlocking does not fix the bigger problem I could care less. Item 2, well as of about Sept/Oct 2007 I could find nothing. Lots of companies promising, oh yeah, send me your phone, for $50 we can do it.

I didn’t trust them. So now I start getting antsy again after being in Vegas and taking forever trying to use tzones and the stupid built in web browser. I just give up trying to get the details I want.

I started searching again, stumbled along a lot of the same frustrations. I was about to give in and pay $450 for an unlocked iPhone when I stumbled on a youtube video showing how to unbrand the phone. It included text instructions and links to everything needed. In reality, there was just one app I needed to download because I had the others (came with the phone, Nokia software).

I basically needed to backup my important shit, then run this app, click a few things, change a code, click a few things and BAM, my phone no longer is restricted by the powers of tmobile. It unlocks features I shouldn’t have like push to talk, don’t worry T-mobile doesn’t support it (yet) so it wont work.

Now I am able to install opera mini and use it. It took a bit of fooling around to get opera to actually work. I got it working, then just as stupidly as I got it working I made it stop working. I fooled around some more and realized what I did to get it working and it works again.

I did this not to try and “beat the man” or rip off anyone. I just wanted what I feel like I paid for and was promised. I also want to be able to use the web in a somewhat normal manner. The opera browser has cool features and I can user things like Mobile Google and all that now.

So what about email Jay? Well, sadly I still can’t seem to get it to work. Here is a link to my phone on Amazon (mine is black), notice one of the features is Email (POP3). So why the f can’t I get it to work! At least now I can download and install an email client if need be. One of these day’s I’ll figure it out.

Keep in mind this “unbranding” as far as I know is only for Nokia and if you try it, it’s at your own risk. I take no responsibility for your actions.

Yep, yet again I call it Spring Break. Why? Because it is, I may no longer be in school or of the typical Spring Breaker age group, but we tend to go on a trip around the same time to a destination full of these spring breakers. As usual we went to Las Vegas for our trip this year. We haven’t been to Vegas since June 2007. That is a pretty long stretch for us, we try to go at least every six months.

This year we decided to stay at Excalibur. Yeah, I know it’s crazy. I have never had the desire to stay there. In fact of all the times we have gone to Vegas together the first time I took Renee there was about two years ago. It is still very family oriented. We chose the Excalibur because they are updating the rooms and had a smokin’ deal. We wanted to do this trip on a budget because we have a larger trip in June to Vegas. It wasn’t bad for the money.

The updated rooms were nice for the money. Not perfect, but you can tell they put some thought into what they were doing. It was nice to see they used CFL for lighting and the plasma TV is a nice touch. Amazingly we spent very little time in the room, so I did not take any pictures. We were constantly on the go.

The Las Vegas landscape is always changing, when we were last there the Frontier was getting ready to close down. It has since been demolished, but the old sign is still there. A new resort will occupy the land once adorned by the Frontier and the Stardust. Here is a before and after photo of the Frontier:

There has also been great progress made on the new MGM Cosmo project being built between the Bellagio and the Monte Carlo along with the Bellagio appearing to have finished or are very close to finishing their new tower.

Here are some photos of the Cosmo project, this is a mix of 4 different lifestyle towers, there is residential and hotel. The pic on the left id from Spring 2007, right March 2008.

Renee and I both keep saying if I ever hit it big we’ll buy something down there. I don’t think I could live there full time, but it would be nice to have a place I could call home.

In the last year both the Wynn and the Venetian have added additional towers as well, the new addition to the Venetian is called Palazzo and the new tower for the Wynn is called Encore. You can see the Encore and the sign for the Palazzo, I thought I had a picture of the Palazzo but I guess not.

One major thing to note for the site seeing folks who are heading to Vegas the Volcano show at the Mirage is shut down until late 2008. It appears they are revamping it, my guess is there will be more fire and all that. My guess is they are also going to change up how the show is powered, I think before it was oil and gas? Here is a picture from a few years ago of the display out front compared with how it looks right now.

While walking around all day we stopped by one of our favorite spots (at least in the Summer0 which is the out door bar and stage at Harrahs. While there we caught a few songs being performed by Band She. I have to tell you, they kicked ass! I wish we would have stuck around longer, but they finished their set and took a break. We never really got back by there. I posted a very short clip on you tube of them performing Separate Ways from Journey. Watch the video.

We also took a trip down to Fremont Street. We had a lot of fun down there last year and we wanted to go down and see the show and walk around. In the end we didn’t have very much fun down there this time. I think it will be more fun when everyone is together in June. At least the bus driver was entertaining on the ride down there.

This trip also coincided with the beginning of March Madness so on Thursday the sports books were all jam packed and were really wild. It was cool to be in Vegas for something big like that and see and hear the energy. We flew out to Vegas on Ted, with some guys from KU who were taking their first trip to Vegas and of course wanted to root on their team. We also ended up Flying back on the same flight as them. One of the poor guys was really hung over and almost got sick. The flight attendant had to give him some oxygen to help him out as we wrapped up the flight to Denver because it was pretty bumpy. I just talked him through it and got him focused on breathing. It was pretty funny because you know these guys will have great stories to tell about their first trip to Vegas. Reminds me a lot of my first..okay well second, my first trip was not a good one.

In the end the trip was a blast, it really felt like we didn’t do as much as we usually do, but we were constantly on the move. I guess that’s good, we didn’t get bored. Though I will have to admit my legs are still a little sore even after being home for about two days now. We are really looking forward to our trip in June.

I took more pictures than what is posted above to see all the pictures click the picture below.

It’s been on vacation for about three months now. I guess I should probably find out how it’s doing. I’m sure it’s coming along fine. This has been a particularly brutal winter for more southern Colorado so I’m not surprised it is taking a little white longer.

Recently I volunteered to be on the Board of Directors for my neighborhoods civic association. I think I might also be the VP now, I’m not certain about that. I am also helping to direct the revamping of the website it still has a long way to go. You can check it out at http://www.highlands460.org

My health has held up okay, knock on wood, minor setback recently but things are still going well. I have been skiing 3 times already this season. We are heading up again this weekend. It feels really good to be back doing something I love so much.

The animals are well as well. Kona is about two now and is finally mellowing out a little. He is like a little dog trapped in a big dogs body, it’s almost funny. Elvis is getting older, he is about 13 now. He has slowed down a lot, but he’s holding up. Losing JJ last year impacted him and stressed him out. They weren’t really buddies, but change always jacks a cat up.

My parents recently sold the house I spent my teen and early adult years in. It went pretty fast and I was sad to see them sell it because I loved that house and the lot it was on. Still, the new place is nice, it is on a golf course and my Dad always wanted that.

Everything else is pretty much the same, getting pumped up about our trip in a couple weeks and even more excited about the BIG Vegas trip in June. If you want more details on that trip (everyone is invited) drop me a line and I will fill you in on the details.

Ok then, that’s it for now.