ND Fail

Well North Dakota turned out to be a bust. There may have been jobs there but none of them payed very much and housing was impossible to find. Lots of people were living in the Walmart parking lot but the money wasn't worth that. In the end I just missed my family too much and had to come home. It wasn't exactly fun and I didn't even bother taking pictures. I kinda just want to forget about that whole trip.

Right now I'm trying to find a job anywhere I can. I've been applying to lots of railroad jobs. I think that's something steady I could make a decent living at if I could get in. Today I'm going to take the test for the post office. The pay's not that great but it would be steady work. And they actually have several openings near by. I've been applying to construction jobs too but that's not looking too promising. I signed up for a couple courses at the Plumbers hall too, welding and HVAC. I figure it can't hurt. I still call the hall every week but I've been doing that for years and they haven't gotten me a job since 2008.
Well that's what's new.

I'm Back

If you didn't guess it from the title, I'm back home. The trip was a learning experience but other than that a total waste.

I ended up staying in Sidney, MT. It was the closest to Williston that I could find an RV space. Housing of any kind is very hard to find in the area. Most of the RV parks had a waiting list and once you do find a space you'll be paying $700-$1000 a month for it. Lots of people are making a lot of money from RV parks. There were literally thousands of campers out there. Many people were setting up camp in parking lots. The Walmart parking lot was more than half full of people living in RVs and many living in there cars. There are definitely a lot of jobs available but there are also tons of people pouring into the area. Every time I stopped at a gas station there would be several vehicles pulling in. You could tell they were people that just got in to town and many still had luggage strapped to the roof. I think even in the middle of a boom town, when there's that many people looking for work the pay isn't going to be that great. From what I can gather truck drivers are making a good amount of money. Many seem to be making around $80,000 a year and there are a lot of trucks. The oil wells are spread all over the area and trucks are needed to move the oil and fluids for the drilling process. If you have a CDL and a nice RV you're willing to live in it may be worth it for you to head out there. From the little bit I looked in to oil rig jobs it seems that it takes a little time to get one. The starting pay isn't that great either. The bonus is a lot of over time. Many work 12 hour days 7 days a week with various rotations, 2 weeks on 2 weeks off etc. When you add it all up even with the over time your still not working a lot of the time and the starting pay of around $20 an hour doesn't seem worth it. Also, until you can find a job with a company that actually has housing available you'll most likely be living in the Walmart parking lot.

My decision was to just come home. I couldn't find a job in construction that paid well and wasn't ready to live in the Walmart parking lot in January. I was starting to get really homesick and I missed my wife and daughter too much to stay in the area unless the money was going to be really good. I've never been to that area before and hadn't realized how empty it is. Williston is not that big of a town and it's hours from anything. There's lots of highway out there with nothing but the occasional RV park along the way.

I'll add more later but just wanted to get something up to let people know what I found and hopefully help some people avoid the disappointment of going out there. If anyone has any questions or wants a little more info feel free to leave a comment.

Made It

Well I made it. It took a while and I had a few problems along the way but I'm out here. The battery in my truck finally died around Madison, WI but it's been doing fine since I fixed that. The hardest part has been trying to find a place to stay. It seems this has been a really bad week to find an RV spot. I finally ended up getting a spot about an hour from Williston in Sidney, MT. Even here it's $250 for the week or $700 a month for a spot with electric and water only. I think full hookups are $1000 a month. They do have laundry, a bathroom and showers though. The old popup is doing ok. It got down below zero last night but with the help of some insulation and a lot of duct tape I stayed reasonably warm.

Today I'll be going to the job services centers. Everyone says that's the best place to start. I'm hoping to find a job that provides housing so I can move out of the camper. It works for now but I really don't want to stay in here long term.

Well that's all I've got for now. I'll be posting photos soon so check back.

Accommodations

Many of you have probably heard about the housing crisis around the oil fields. I've heard about man camps, people setting up camp in the Wal-Mart parking lot and living just about anywhere they can. Lately I've been trying to figure out my best options for living when I get out there. Here's the plan I've come up with. It's not ideal but I'm sure I'll be ok.

1979 Starcraft Galaxy 8

Coleman Portable Flush Toilet

I'll be pulling my luxurious 1979 Starcraft Galaxy 8 pop-up camper out there. I considered buying a camper with a bathroom off of Craigslist but in the winter the plumbing on it would just freeze up anyway. I've ordered a camp toilet from Amazon.com. It's not the best but it should do the trick. 

Texsport Battery Powered Camp Showere

The tricky part was trying to build a shower. I decided the best option would be to hang a shower curtain from the ceiling like they do with most pop-up campers that come with a bath. Then I had to figure out what to use for a shower pan / drain. The best idea I have is to use one of the 55gal plastic rain barrels I have. They're large enough to stand in and already have a drain with a hose connection built in. For the water supply I plan on using a large aluminum stock pot I have to heat water on the stove. I also ordered a battery powered shower pump from Amazon.

Rain Barrel

The camper has an LP furnace built in to it. I'll also be bringing a couple electric heaters, a couple propane heaters and an electric blanket just in case. I will be bringing my 3500 watt generator for backup power and it will add a little weight to the back of my truck for traction. Hopefully I won't need it but it won't hurt to bring it along, especially since the furnace doesn't work without a good power source.

Well that's the plan for now. I'll post some more pictures when I get camp set up out there.

Cellular Problems Solved

WARNING! This is not for the faint of heart.

(work in progress, will update soon)
FAIL!
(I haven't been able to make it work yet, I did get a Samsung Intercept to work but for some reason can't make the Wildfire connect to the right towers, will update if I ever figure it out)

How to root and activate a Virgin Mobile HTC Wildfire S on a prepaid plan that uses Verizon's network.

Here's a summary of what I've found out and done. 

1. Got a new HTC Wildfire S for Virgin Mobile

2. Obtained S-Off, Rooted and installed a Custom Recovery

3. Changed PRL file to Page Plus Cellular

4. Activated on Page Plus

note: I didn't come up with any of these methods or write any software, I'll try to give credit to those that have. :) Most my information came from http://www.xda-developers.com/ and http://www.kittyforums.net/

Step One: obtain S-Off, Root and install Recovery

(Tested by me, works great! ;) )

All HTC phones come with a security flag called s-on. This locks parts of the phone. Luckily I found an easy way to get S-Off, Root and Recovery for the Wildfire S all at the same time over at the XDA-Developers website. The original thread is here.

Required Files

HTC Drivers http://www.mediafire.com/?j9ocz7n8b51j5og

Simple Gold Card Creator http://www.mediafire.com/?t2jdi977o9odv77

Wilfire-S_One Click.zip http://www.mediafire.com/?8iijdtldidczrj5

Directions:
First we are going to install the Htc Usb Driver that was downloaded. Just double click and continue with the install.
Next do a backup the sd-card. This means anything you have on it to copy and paste somewhere on the pc. The reason for this is the sd card will be wiped for the process.
Now take and extract the Simple Gold Card Creator to the desktop. Inside should be a .exe file, if windows vista or 7 you will need to right click and open as admin.
Plug the phone into the usb cable connected to your pc. Enable usb storage.
In Simple Gold Card select the drive letter in step 1. Then click format, once format is done pull down the taskbar. Switch from usb storage to charge only.
Plug the phone in to the usb cable connected to your pc. Go to settings>applications>development enable usb debugging. Also at this time you should get a prompt on the taskbar (Windows) about installing drivers. Make sure it finishes before going forward.
Now inside of the Simple Gold Card Creator select MMC1 & click GetCID and copy it into the web page that the program links to in step 4. Make sure to use a real email as it will email a img to you.
Download the image file from your e-mail, the click load img in Simple Gold Card. Browse to where ever it saved and open it.
Now on the phone pull the taskbar down yet again and switch from charge only to usb storage. In Simple Gold Card make sure the drive letter didn't change. Then click patch mmc.
You should now have a working gold card! YA!.... Now pull the taskbar down again and switch to charge only mode.
Extract the contents of Wilfire-S_One Click.zip to the desktop. Inside of the new folder you should have a tools folder and a s-off.bat.
Double click the s-off.bat which will open a cmd window. Be sure to pay attention to what it is doing and hit any key when prompted. Caution make sure to wait till the phone is booted back up after booting to h-boot for the first time. As said read what is said in the prompt.
When all done you will be s-off, have root/superuser, cwm and busybox installed. Which I would recommend to do a backup.
Now enjoy life with your s-off'd wildfire

Step Two: Install Page Plus PRL File

(Tested Works!)

Page Plus is the only way to get a non Verizon phone on the Verizon network. They're a pre-paid MVNO(mobile virtual network operator) 

Required Files

MSL Reader from the market here

QPST here

Page Plus PRL here  (update: this prl file works better for sprint network phones http://www.mediafire.com/?8ctt788opff38cd )

1) Download Files and Install MSL Reader on phone

2) Open MSL Reader and accept the superuser request.
3) Tap read MSL
4) Write down your MSL, you'll need it
5) Go to the phone app, dial ##PORT# and hit on, then select.
6) Enter your MSL and click OK
7) Plug into a computer and download HTC diag drivers
9) Download pageplus.prl
10) Install QPST
10B) go to the device manager, and select the unknown HTC device, then update driver. then browse>let me pick from a list>have disk>go to downloaded unzipped folder>choose the appropriate folder for your OS type>click the driver. Now open, next, yes, close. Right click HTC Modem, and go to Properties>Advanced port settings>see what your COM port is
10C)Open QPST CONFIGURATION and select port. then add port, here you type the port your HTC MODEM is on.
10D) Your phone will now show up, and you will click start client>service programing
11) click your device and OK.
12) DO EXACTLY AS I SAY NOW! NOTHING ELSE!!! NO LOOKING AROUND!!!!!!!
13) Click read from phone, Give it the MSL you wrote down
14) Now click save to file
15) Click roam
16) Click browse where it says file and in that you put the pageplus.prl you downloaded
17) Write to phone. THIS WILL RESTART THE PHONE, BOOT MAY TAKE A WHILE DON'T PANIC

Step Three: Activate on Page Plus

(NOT TESTED!, will update once I've completed it, as I understand calls and texting should work fine, still need to check about data)

You will need to change your MDN and MSID to activate your phone. To do this dial ##your_MSL_here# then choose edit. If you lost you MSL use the app you downloaded earlier in the process to get it. When you activate your phone they will give you your MSID and your MDN will be your phone number.

To get data to work you need to dial ##3282# then click edit, then Data Profile and then edit your username to xxxxxxxxxx@vzw3g.com where the x's are your phone number.


If all is successful you'll have a decent Android phone with a relatively cheap prepaid plan on Verizon's nationwide network. Good Luck!

Cellular Coverage

Well, the time is getting closer that I'll be heading out. I've been researching cellular coverage to make sure I can stay in touch out there. I currently have Virgin Mobile service. It's a great service and I get truly unlimited data, unfortunately there is no coverage in North Dakota. From what I've found in my research Verizon has the best coverage in the Williston area. Fortunately I have a Google Chromebook with Verizon 3G built in so I shouldn't have any problem staying connected.

Verizon's Coverage

The bad news is the Verizon 3G isn't unlimited and definitely isn't cheap and I'll have to find something for voice calls since my Virgin Mobile won't work out there. I'm also pretty sure I'm getting a new Virgin Mobile for Christmas. I may have to sell it and find something else. I have yet to find a prepaid Verizon Android phone for a decent price and Verizon's prepaid rates are outrageous. So far I think my best bet will be AT&T. They have an unlimited prepaid plan for Android phones for $50 a month.  I believe they slow down your data rate after a certain amount of usage but it's still the best available in the area. The coverage may not be as good as Verizon but I'd say it's a close second and for the price I think it's definitely the best option.

AT&T's Coverage

Google's New Navbar

If your sick of the black navigation bar on Google sites here's a trick to get the new navigation bar early.

Basically it's just installing a cookie to tell Google to use the new version. This method works only in the chrome browser. Here are the steps.

1. Go to http://www.google.com 

2. Right click anywhere on the page and select inspect element.

3. Click on the "console" button towards the middle of the screen.

4. Paste this code
document.cookie="PREF=ID=03fd476a699d6487:U=88e8716486ff1e5d:FF=0:LD=en:CR=2:TM=1322688084:LM=1322688085:S=McEsyvcXKMiVfGds; path=/; domain=.google.com";window.location.reload();



5. Press enter.

That should be all you have to do. To get the new navigation bar to show up on other pages just hit the refresh button.