Monday, April 14, 2008
Most of you folks probably don't understand this - and there's no need for you to worry about it - that there's a lot of drama and tension in writing a blog entry.
For example, I had to struggle on what to actually write about in this current entry.
Should I bore you about my daily mundane life and include things like what I ate, where I ate and describe every single conversation I had with everyone?
Should I write about John McCain's recent visit to Iraq, which is known as Mesopotamia to the ancient himself?
Should I talk about my futile wait for Momma Jolie's adoption attempt?
Or should I join the masses and write something about the rising food prices, crashing world economy and the overall devastation brought upon Mother Earth by a race of vermin otherwise known as mankind?
After much deliberation, I have decided to write a piece about something so gut-wrenching and plaintive that it could bring tears to every single eye on a potato.
I broke my earphones two weeks back.
It was a terrible (or as Charles Barkley say it, TRBL) tragedy, because of my general hatred for other sentient beings.
You see, the reason why I loved my earphones so much wasn't because of its snazzy color combination, cheap build or cheaper price. I loved it because it blocked out sounds from external sources, i.e. other humans and whatever they happen to be travelling on.
And so for two weeks, I had to go through the ordeal of listening to other humans' futile attempts at communication.
It was TRBL.
However, like I always like to say, as long as I am still on this side of the cold meat counter of a cannibal market, I will try to solve every single tragedy that befalls upon me. And so, I applied the HongXiang Method.
The first step did not work, however, so I had to throw money into a new pair of earphones.
So I did.
I got myself a pair of kooky-looking earphones known as the Westone UM1. Nobody I've talked to actually knows anything about this brand or model, but I was still prepared to shell out big bucks for it because it is one of the few items on the rack that managed to insert both alphabetical and numerical forms of the same digit into a product name.
You can't beat that for value, really.
Anyway, I've had the Westone UM1 for about five days now. It has been awesome. (How would Charles pronounce this? AWSM?)
For one, and I think I've mentioned this before, the Westone UM1 looks kooky.
People used to walk up and start talking to me when I had one of those normal-looking earphones. They actually expected me to take out my earphones, listen to their problems and give them advice.
Not anymore.
The beauty of the Westone UM1 is that it looks like a pair of hearing aids. It's amazing. (AMZN?)
Having a pair of hearing-aid-lookalikes in my ears naturally lead people to assume that I am deaf. And people generally do not talk to deaf people. It is some kind of prejudice, I believe, but I like it because I no longer have to solve any problems of other people.
In fact, I fully expect people to make attempts at talking to me and apologise in an extremely guilty manner after I gesticulate wildly in mock sign language.
What a beautiful scene.
Another advantage of the Westone UM1 is that it filters out external sound. I no longer have to listen to the polite conversations between doctors and accountants and lawyers and women with severe haircuts and halitosis.
Some may argue that wearing such earphones may be dangerous because I will not be able hear any oncoming dangers. However, I want to assure you that it is not true. (I really appreciate your concern, though.)
The reason lies in a very simple Science law - light is faster than sound.
And by extension, I will be able to see any oncoming dangers before being able to hear them.
With this law of Science in mind, I believe it is safe to state that one is perfectly fine even if one cannot hear the rush of traffic, the whine of a crashing plane or the war cry of a Samurai running at one's throat with a sword.
(I do not know where I got the last comment from, but I swear it sounded like a good line to end this entry with when it was in my head.)