Friday, November 30, 2007
I was contacted by RocketXL to test and review a pair of new headphones called AirDrives, so here it is:
In sum, AirDrives headphones allow you to listen to music while retaining the ability to hear your surroundings. They do this by sitting outside your ear canal, as opposed to the ear-busting traditional earphones, which sit inside the canal.
I was admittedly initially skeptical about their ability to deliver high quality sound while sitting outside of my ears. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that they delivered music from my iPod with surprising clarity. Despite being subject to sounds from my surroundings, I was still able to hear crisp, clear lyrics and tunes in the way that rival those of many earphones today, including the "standard issue" Apple ones that come with your iPod. My only complaint was that the bass effect was lost, which affected bass-heavy hiphop songs, but I suppose that's to be expected from something that doesn't thump within your ear. Turning the volume up to the max only produced a rather unpleasant, distorted bass. If it weren't for the bass, I'd say that the sound quality justifies its heavy price tag ($99 for adult earphones)
In terms of design, they are inconspicuous enough when you're wearing them(especially when you have black hair like me). The rubber coating on the earpieces make them comfortable enough to wear for long periods of time, and if it weren't for the music playing I'd probably forget that I was wearing them. They also come with a volume ramp, which is useful when you need to adjust the volume in response to your surroundings, (ie in heavy traffic as opposed to the park) The clip-on earpieces are admittedly a little bulky, which pose a problem when I try to wrap them around my iPod when I'm not using them. AirDrives solves this by providing a rather stylish carrying case for you to store them in, though its a little inconvenient to carry both my iPod and my earphones as separate entities. I'm not sure if they provide other colours (i believe they do), but I would have much preferred white ones, instead of the black ones I have.
My conclusion? I think they're perfect for sporty activities such as running, or when I'm walking between classes and don't want to miss a chance to say "hi" to friends. Pretty much any activity in which you require music as a background noise. For times when I want to zone out my surroundings though, I'd still opt for my old ear-damaging Griffin earphones. AirDrives are perfect for the person who wants to enjoy good quality music while still remaining in touch with his/her surroundings, but they don't give you the option to tune out the world when you want to, which is also important. Perhaps they should come up with adjustable earphones that lets you do both? Just an idea.
he rocked the party at 1:56 PM |
So I got locked out of my room just now as I was going down to pay the rent. Yay to friends who are awake at 2.45am to lend you their phones, keys, coat and a pair of jeans for you to RUN OUT IN THE COLD to meet my roommate and get his key.
Thanks Jeff and Kathy! (I tried wearing Kathy's coat first, which really didnt work.)
he rocked the party at 12:29 AM |
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
What really pisses me off: when all people know how to talk about is business, business, business.
So OCR (on campus recruiting) preparation season is here. What this translates into is seeing all my friends go what I like to call "Wharton-mode": Frantically reading (stealing) the Wall Street Journal and memorizing the S&P 500 closing figures, devouring vault guides like there's no tomorrow, spending 3 hours on their resumes, psyching themselves up for phone interviews..
All this is way above my head.
Fine: I suppose that from the perspective of someone who's looking for that crucial internship, this stuff is important. Its a backstabbing, no-mercy business world out there, and people have got to prepare themselves for it.
But really, shouldn't there be a limit to the madness? Its disgusting really, when I go for dinner with some random friends after class, and all they know how to talk about is the amount of money they want to make or which form of i-banking they want to go into. Or what to expect in phone interviews. Or if they missed anything in the Wall Street Journal. And you know its past the level of sanity when they start asking me to teach them macroeconomics just "to impress the interviewer".
Honestly, its disgusting. They've got recruiting down to a science, Singapore-style. They're going to prepare for it in the only way they know how: brute force studying, ploughing through the figures, mindlessly memorizing statistics and picture perfect answers to tough interview questions.
Wasn't the point of getting an overseas education to become more worldly, more critical and more intellectual? Yet, here we see our specimens: reduced to nothing more than groveling robots, clamoring over each other in the rat race to get the cheese, each one identical in his GPA, his ambitions, his (and I hate to say this) blindness. Blindness to the fact that there is so much more to life than what job you have and how much you make.
Don't get me wrong here, this is not an attack on business minded Singaporeans. I've seen people of other nationalities do it too, so caught up in their world of blazers and ties, namecards and (kissass) "networking". It makes me want to puke.
Neither is this the rant of a "sour grapes" loser who couldn't make it into the business world and is sulking from the outside. Hell no. I've proved to myself that I could have easily made it in if I'd wanted to last year, but why sell my soul? I'm taking Finance 100 now and its "plug-and-chug" methods require much less brainpower than my political science and history classes, in which I actually have to think to answer questions. It pisses me off when people assume that everyone wants to get into Wharton. Is everyone really that blind?
This however, only serves to assure me that my decision was the right one. I'm taking more interesting classes, meeting more diverse people, learning how to think critically, and getting the chance to do the things that I'm truly passionate about. And I'm even more determined to prove that I can have my cake and eat it too. If money is the sole justification of the majority of these people, I'm going to show that I can beat them at their own game while keeping my soul intact. Not going to be easy, but I'll do it, even if its just for the sake of future Whartonites who think that conversion to "robotism" is the only way to succeed.
And in the meantime, at least I'll make better dinner conversation.
he rocked the party at 6:18 PM |
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Back after the long hiatus!
Apologies for the sorry state of my blog for the past, what, 3 weeks?
Regrettably, I've let activities and commitments get the best of me, being all responsible and Singaporean and studying for my 3-midterms-1-paper-and-a-gagillion-dance-practices-rehearsals-runthroughs-showoffs, which have sapped my energy and left me with an average of 4 hours of sleep a night. (anything less than 7 and I get cranky) So you can imagine my shitty mood these past weeks.
Updates:
1) Dressed up as two-face for Club SG's very successful halloween party
Before makeup:
And After:
(no im not purposely putting up pictures of me with hot girls, these are just the ones that show off my costume)
2) Got pissed off at Wharton again, re-focused my life goals. (shall elaborate at a later date)
3) Danced and danced and danced and danced and danced. Every day. And night. At the expense of my homework and my sleep. Note to myself: being part of 10,000 dance groups at the same time is not a good idea. Shall have to decide which one to drop next semester.
4) Wondering why things seem more attractive when they're unattainable. (seemingly)
But then again, all these collegiate pursuits are just oh so trivial. I've partied it up the past couple of weekends, hosted some of the funnest pregames of late, with nights ending in very satisfying ways (in totally platonic ways, you horny parkers), stuff of which I thought would define my college experience. But would they? Tonight I'm sitting at home waiting for my laundry to be done after a nightful of pho, jazz and video watching, yet I still feel... incomplete.
'Course, I could make a couple of phone calls and arrange a spontaneous fun filled evening, but I'd probably wake up tomorrow and still live in the fear of feeling incomplete. Whatwhatwhat would cure this insatiable appetite for experience-collecting?
(How about you? Although there's probably not much point in thinking about it. I am constantly disappointed by females who disappoint me constantly. And my pride will hate you for that)
he rocked the party at 12:39 AM |
Monday, November 05, 2007
Apologies for the lack of updates this week. Am in my busiest week of this semester yet with 3 midterms, 2 of which I need to do reallyreallyreallyreallyreally well in if I want to enjoy my winter break in peace. (which will be spent in Peru!!! Yes, its been decided.. Im sorry I wont be going back to Sg just yet.. boo)
This week, I'm even skipping dance and postponing asking the potential-
Dammit, I know I said I wouldnt sacrifice experience-collecting for studies, but this is different.
Wish I could blog more, there've been a plethora of updates this weekend, but they'll have to wait till I shed my stupid-kiasu-overachieving-Singaporean side once my midterms end.
Something that must be said, however: Its so much better to have an early night and study in the morning than to be unproductively trying to force facts into my brain till 4.45am.
he rocked the party at 5:17 PM |
