Gemdation, the Destroyer

October 13, 2026

If you've read the Debit Where Its Due blog, you'd know that I like to destroy stuff. But what you don't know is what I've broken. Be it on purpose or not.

This article is gonna expose me a lot. Fear me, electronics!

Tablet era

I will now go back in the good old days when I all did was go to elementary school and watch YouTube gameplay videos.

So I had this white Samsung tablet that I used to watch Minecraft YouTube videos with. One day it was buffering a lot and I was getting pretty tired of that. What I remember was that I hit it screen-first against a night stand, and then a huge crack popped on the screen, and I realized what I just did.

I don't remember what tablet I got next but I remember telling my mom that it just fell off my bed.

There was this grey iPad that I only remember using the Photobooth app on and later something bad that happened to it that I can't remember. What I can remember is that it was cracked and I could 'peel' the glass off the screen.

At some point during the peeling, it started to smoke. At that point I was near a back door and I tossed it out of my house.

Honorable mentions include an HP laptop that had a red cover, at some point it stopped turning on and I could see that the display had warping on it. And the other mention goes to a Samsung phone that had square-ish borders, it wasn't broken but I believe I left it at an intercity bus station. I have to assume it is in a landfill now.

There were a bunch of smartphones and other tablets that did not survive me but I can't say anything else since I hardly remember. Now time for the next era!

Mac and iPad combo

2020-2021, my best era ever! So one of my brother's friends wanted me to fix this old MacBook, and guess what I did?

No, I didn't break it, at least not yet, I only locked myself out of it. And it was the worst kind, a kernel lock, that I added myself. A good thing is that it was just a simple interface that wouldn't penalize you for multiple wrong attempts, but I couldn't remember what I set the password as for the life of me.

So it just sat there in my closet, until one fateful day. This interlaps with another device so let's roll into the pink iPad.

This was actually my mom's tablet that I used all the time, basically mine, if I'm being honest. And at some point I opened the MacBook's back with my tiny screwdriver and took both RAM sticks and hard drive out. I actually used kept that HDD up until early 2025 when it stopped working.

As for the RAM sticks, they did not get the mercy of being used again. I took my hammer and went to town. Fun Fact #1: I was in an apartment at this time, and someone who lived by me yelled "SHUT UP!" because I was being so loud. Looking back, that was hilarious but I was really freaked out at the time.

Now back at a later time to the iPad, I had the MacBook still opened and kept hammering until it bounced a certain way, and...

It got a crack at the top bezel, I remember I was so devastated because this was the device that I broke some other devices for. And I had a big Apple Music lofi playlist and everything. I could absolutely still use it since it was just the glass, but I really don't like a cracked screen, if it is something like the back glass then maybe. I guess I'm worried about cuts or something.

I ended up going back to my Galaxy J2 Core, the same one I previously mentioned in my Cheapo Phones blog.

Smartphone ruins

So remember how I said "this was the device that I broke some other devices for". Yeah, I broke some smartphones I had just to break them since I had the iPad, but I kept the J2 Core since I would have not a single smartphone left had I broke it.

Mentioning Cheapo Phones again, I believe I broke that Samsung J7 Star and the Note 3 in between the time I opened that MacBook and the time where I cracked the iPad. A shame really, and I'll get into all that later at the conclusion.

The J7 Star was the phone that got me through the beginning of COVID, and the phone I used to first see the Lofi Radio app. The Note 3 was probably the first phone I could ever say was a "flagship phone". It was out of date but boy, did it run Roblox with some nice graphics.

Fun Fact #2: Prior to getting destroyed, the J7 Star had a crack because it accidentally flung out of my hand onto a hard marble floor.

Fun Fact #3: Also prior to getting destroyed, the Note 3 lost its pen because one day I wanted to open a plastic bag of Cinnamon Toast Crunch snack bag things, I stabbed it in the bag and snapped the pen in half. Nothing was safe with me, I'm telling ya!

But it's time to stop being sad, and get into the story of that J2 Core.

So at some point in 2020 I got a used Google Pixel 3a, and wow, it was such a nice refresh on what a nice running smartphone is. It had a few OLED burn lines but that was it.

So when I got that J2 Core it was actually at Walmart, I believe it was BOGO or something but me and my mom ended up with a J2 Core. Problem was that hers ended up getting left in the street, and ran over. Don't even wanna know how that would happen.

And her phone was totally gone, I didn't even feel a vibration from it when I held the power button. So I gave her my old J2 Core, and... I actually don't know what could've happened to it. I only remember that she got a new phone.

Ecosystem phase

One thing that I'd love in tech is to have a full smartphone, tablet, and computer combo. Unfortunately, that doesn't exist, unless I put ChromeOS on my main machine or attempt to branch out into Apple products.

Windows Metro phase

So, out of nowhere, really, I got a phase where I wanted a Surface (RT) tablet, Windows Phone (Nokia Lumia Icon), and Windows 8.1 on my computer, all because I liked the Metro design. I even bought a game on the Windows Store! It was Pac-Man Championship Edition DX, and Bandai Namco's port job was so wack that it couldn't save the game data. Data only existed as long as the game was running, old console style.

I believe CE DX was the only Window Store title I bought back then, and on the Xbox 360, some Namco games. I was so happy to have everything, I thought of the Xbox 360 as the "streaming TV" of the group, and yes I had that too.

Fun fact #4: I unknowingly put some now-delisted titles on my Microsoft account because of that phase! Can't get titles on the Surface RT anymore, and can't get them on Xbox 360 anymore.

Now where was I? At some point I realized that this was not working well for me. Though, the devices stayed with me into the next phases and got broken later. Also, the Xbox 360 ended up at a pawn shop.

Google mini phase

I forgot to mention that at some point the Google Pixel 3a had a rough fate. One day, in my freshman year, it dropped onto the school floor and cracked the bottom half of the screen. And the reason why it had a half crack was because there was already a line crack in the screen that happened back in 2021, it was only something you noticed if you held the phone a certain way. Now, it looked horrible.

Probably the most weak phase. In 2022, I got the Google Pixel 1 and the Google Pixel C. The phone had a wack battery that died whenever it wanted, and the tablet was just slow. I believe both the Windows and Google devices got both broken in the next phase.

Sony phase

So I went from outdated Windows, to outdated Google, to outdated Sony. Even back then, I was like "oh man I used my money on this?"

In a weird turn of events, I ended up going back to buyer's remorse. The reason being that I thought Sony was a good brand, and I already had an alarm clock from them. Don't ask because I don't even know what causes these phases sometimes.

I bought a Sony Xperia Z5 Premium and the Z4 tablet, the "matching tablet" as I thought. I will say when I bought the Z5 back in 2023 it actually had better app support than it would have today. The tablet though, that was terrible because it had a weak battery that couldn't even survive 30 minutes without a charger.

Oh, I have a picture of when I first got the Z5. It was quite the square and had a bit of Japanese services like that tablet did.

So I believe the Google Pixel 1, Pixel C, Surface RT, and Lumia Icon all got destroyed. Must have been a blast but I don't remember much.

I remember the reason I destroyed the Xperia Z5 later was because I already kinda broke it. When I was playing on my old Switch, I was on the couch and I put my knee on the phone accidentally and cracked the back glass. Later I broke the rest of the glass and destroyed it.

Contemporary crash

Now that the mobile phases are over, and then I got my first console (Wii) after a while, I actually toned down the destruction a bit.

Just a bit.

I believe at the start of 2023 my mom got a pair of Vortex electronics, a smartphone and a tablet. I ended up owning them and actually still have the smartphone to this day, the tablet, however...

Well, I would have kept it if it wasn't rendered broken by that accident. So what happened is that the tablet was sitting on the couch, and someone wanted to reach to clean something up on the wall, and they put their knee to get up on the tablet, and...

The image is of a later destruction. Imagine only the protruding lines were there, that was what happened.

And also there was this white MacBook that my aunt gave me and it was just too far gone. Smelt horrible, did not have a charger for it, and the screen looked damaged already.

I think it just sat around home for a bit until it eventually got destroyed.

The Vortex tablet and white MacBook ended up getting destroyed on the same day. (September 20, 2025)

And this is the start of me recording all of my destructions, back then I wouldn't even document it. So here is the Vortex tablet getting thrown on the floor, hit with a fidget spinner and a CPU fan (because I had that as well).

The inside screen looked pretty colorful if you ask me.

And for the white MacBook. Pretty light work.

Then I started to open it. Almost every time I open a laptop I like to check the hard drive, this one happened to have a rattle, though it was probably because of me.

I made a collage of the 'timeline' of my opening the MacBook. Pretty cool stuff in there.

I should also mention that when I open something that can clam shut like a laptop, I usually get a mitten or towel to shield my hand from being cut. Then I usually get cut anyway but not that much as it would be.

I think that is all from the major electronics. I did break a lot of other stuff that I don't care about much though. Guess it is time for honorable mentions.

When I got my old Switch, my aunt gave me a third party Pro controller. I used it on my PC at the time until it particularly started to mess up. The left stick had a limited area it could reach for some reason, it is like the issue appeared overnight. I destroyed it later.

And here is some other extras. Bootleg Joy-Cons that I got from Mercari, and a keyboard.

Tribute

I honestly wish I wasn't so destructive so I could keep all of them. Imagine how cool it would be to still have those Pixel devices at least, those were so important to me trying out YouTube Music. If I had to save just two phases, it would be the Google and Windows phases. Sorry Sony! And...sorry electronics!