Okay guys, thanks for all the question helps, I think I got it mostly figured. So, I was just using some straight male to male pins from my breadboard to each hole in the LCD, and when I gently bent/tipped the lcd display backward or forward, it would sometimes work. So then I knew that it was a problem of bad connectivity. And then, yes, I soldered the pins to the LCD, and now it works great. Will it work to use my IR Remote to change the text on the LCD?
