Ive always been pretty much a tinkerer, like to take things apart, try to figure them out.

Radio Shack was my friend (they kindof suck now).

I once fixed a stereo system  that fell off the dresser, I hacked my Replay TV to put in a bigger harddrive, of coarse you heard about me modding my Xbox (the original one). Those things are relatively recent but it started way back when I was younger.

Heres something I did years ago that to be honest, Im a bit embarrassed about. I had to be in about the 9th grade when I got this crazy idea that if I open up the cable box and poke around, I may beable to figure out a way to get more channels. There were 3 cable boxes in the house, so I went and got the one in the room that we didnt watch television on as much. I brought it into my bedroom with a screwdriver, some alluminum foil, and some duct tape. My theory was that if I found the wiring component that controlled the scrambling of the stations, I could use the alluminum foil to short it out so that none of the stations would be scrambled and I could watch everything.

This was years ago, and back then the boxes that were issued were some really heavy duty boxes and they were riveted. The metal was pretty tough. I was determined that this would work and whatever damage I did to the box would be a be overlooked by my parents once they found out they can watch all the channels (kids). So I took the screwdriver and pryed the box open, breaking the rivets and bending the housing beyond repair, finally I got to the motherboard.

I looked around in it for a while, figuring what I needed to short was near the back of the box where the coax cable comes in. I place the alluminum foil in several spots, but was scared to plug it into the wall, fearing that I would blow a fuse in the house or something. Finally I decided to not do anything and tried to put it all back together like I found it.

I put it back on top the TV and looked at it. It looked pitiful all bent up sitting there, completely obvious. I couldnt even play it off like I dropped it. I then decided to just hide it, I threw it in a box in a closet and never mentioned it.

I dont know how long it was but my dad ended up finding it and knew from the beginning that I was the one who did it. He brought it out to show me and asked me why I did it. I didnt even try to lie, told him I was trying to get free channels. He was mad, I was embarrased…cause it was a stupid idea and I knew it.

Even to this day, my dad will bring it up (he still has the box) and I get that same embarrased feeling that I had when I first did it.