work

It has been quite some time since I blogged. I have found more useful things to fill my time, mostly I got a job and they pay me to sit at a computer, so I don't do as much here at home.

I work at Anderson Engineering, it is a civil engineering firm that specializes in environmental remediation, but also does all general civil/survey stuff.  By 'general civil/survey' I mean road design, site layout and design, parcel surveys, and so on and so forth.  I however do not really work with anything general civil-ly or survy-ey, I am part of the Kennecott team and I just do environmental analysis, remediation, sampling, and reporting.  I really love my job.  I get to learn all kinds of things about Kennecott and their copper mining operation here in Salt Lake Valley.  I also do a lot of computer work, database management, map making/editing, and again, report writing.

Out side of working everyday I play StarCraft, I watch TV shows (Bones, Eureka, Doctor Who) with Stephanie.  We obviously expecting a baby in a month, which is a big deal.  Perhaps when he is born I'll actually update this blog from time to time with stuff about being a dad... but perhaps I won't.

That's not all my life, but that's all for now.

Sunday Edition : Hymns

Today in church we sang four hymns that have strange but significant meaning to me personally. I thought it was pretty amazing that ALL of them I have a special (if not strange) connection to so I decided to write about it.

Three of the hymns have connections to my mission, first God Speed the Right. A line in this song, "If we fail we fail with glory" meant something to my MTC companion and he mentioned it a few times, in a testimony once I believe, so it always reminds me of him. Next was We Sing All Hail, which has a particular line, "... and bruised the serpent's head" which is in reference to God's promise to Satan given at the fall of Adam, "and he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." (Moses 4:21) Meaning that Christ will have power over Satan. This line was brought to my attention by one of my favorite people in the MTC, and when I sing this song I always think of him. Finally, Gently Raise the Sacred Strain, became one of my favorite hymns in the middle of my mission when it mysteriously became stuck in my head, and I studied the words and learned so much about the importance of the sabbath day. I used the hymn as the basis for a wonderful talk I gave a few months later.

The fourth song we sang wasn't a mission related song, but has even more meaning.  #166, Abide with Me was sung as the closing hymn at my grandpa's funeral in January, 2006.  Since then I has been one of the most special hymns in my life, and I will never forget it's importance since I almost cry any time I sing it.

Major League

Over the weekend of June 8th-10th over 20,000 people gathered at the Anaheim Convention Center to watch people play games.  I was able to count myself among those present and got the chance not only to watch people play, but I did a little playing myself.

The event was the Major League Gaming (MLG) Spring Championship, with most of the focus on the Starcraft II tournament.  There were also tournaments for League of Legends, Mortal Kombat, and Soul Calibur V, as well as a North American Starcraft Championship sponsored by Blizzard.  All the games were streamed online for millions of viewers, but as an added bonus for those attending, there were playable demo stations for the new Starcraft II expansion game set to be released later this year (Heart of the Swarm).

Most of my attention was focused on the MLG tournament, watching games and playing HotS against my friends.  We were there for all of Saturday and watched the finals online Sunday afternoon.  It was a great experience something I would definitely do again.

I'm sorry for the lack of quality pictures.
It was fairly dark all over, so lighting was less than ideal.

A high view of the main viewing area.

Leading up to this I have been getting really into the pro-scene of starcraft.  There are certain celebrity  like players and commentators.  It was cool and weird to be so close to them because they are very much just normal people.  Also the best players are Korean and many of the don't speak much english so its not like you could talk to them much or anything, but whatever.

There are tons of games going on at any given moment, this is a row of computers facing each other where two players face off.  

The most important game going on (with highly seeded or more popular players) is put on the main stage.  The players are in those little lit booths at the front, the screens show to the audience what either player's screen looks like on the sides, and then the commentators screen in the middle.  The commentators (who's voiceover is heard, are actually in little booths of their own behind the stage) have access to information about both players units, production, mining, etc. basically everything needed to commentate and say who is probably ahead and say how engagements will end up.  If you're not familiar with Starcraft at all... I'll explain it sometime later.

The next two most important matches at a given moment are played on a semi-stage where there are no commentators, but you can see either player's screen above their head so you can watch the big battles, also you can watch close up their fingers on the keyboard and mouse and really watch them play.  That dyed haired Korean is MarineKingPrime (aka MKP, aka Lee Jung Hoon) the winner of MLG Winter championship.  Here at Spring he came in 3rd.

This is SK-MC (aka Jang Min Chul, aka The Boss-Toss) talking to his coach and getting ready for a game against Quanitic-SaSe (aka Kim Hammar, he's Sweedish).   MC recently won a Red Bull tournament, SaSe went to take 4th place here at MLG (and I said 'hi' to him).

This is EG-ThorZaIN (aka Marcus Eklöf, a Norwegian) who came out of nowhere a year ago and started winning tournaments.

And this is Grubby (aka Manuel Schenkhuizen, Dutch) one of the few pro-gammers not on a team.

The finals were super amazing!  Even though it was just back at our hotel with the 3 starcraft nerds, then a handfull of girls, we got them all to be a little interested.  We watched some of the quarters and then the semi final matches and everyone started rooting for certain players.  Alicia made an astonishing climb through the losers bracket to make it to the finals where he was pretty much crushed by DongRaeGu (aka DRG, aka Park Soo Ho).  We were mostly rooting for Alicia, but DRG was pretty awesome to watch since he really was just soooo good.

A great way to spend a weekend :-D

If you're still interested here's an article from Forbes.com about the event, including an infographic on viewership and attendance.  It's a big deal because at one point over 400,000 people were watching live or on the internet, which is more than many major tv programs that happend at the same time.

nothing

I realized that I haven't posted anything for a while (almost a whole month!) and I feel like I don't have anything to post, which today, might be true.  Nothing important has happened to me today, but over the past month there have been a few random happenings that are somewhat noteworthy.

It's funny how we tend to focus so much on the here an now.  Many a person will say, "oh nothing's happening.." when really only two days ago they won the lottery.  After something is over I tend to forget about it.... if only excitement happened in retrospect.

So in lieu of some more interesting thoughts that swim in my mind, I will simply provide you with some pictures from some random happenings through the last months...

My car was paintballed!  Luckily our neighbor saw it, told us, and we wiped the paint of while it was still wet.  There might be a little bit of pink still in the grill though.

I quit working at Taco Time and subsequently stopped drinking 32 oz of soda everyday.  I'm always looking out for my health.

I worked for a handful of weeks at an industrial ceramics facility.  I worked with a mason who built/repaired kilns.  This is a picture of an arch (over the kiln door) that I made... woot.

 At one point in the month we took some BYU graduate family pictures... These may or may not be a surprise for my mother for an upcoming holiday.  I took this one and edit it a little for fun... (click on it for big size)

To come in a future post: my new desk, my new tv, and some thoughts on other things :P

March Madness

I have a very distinct first memory of March Madness.  I was either nine or ten years old, and in either fourth of fifth grade.  You might think that that isn't very specific for such an important memory, and so I will say that I'm pretty sure I was in fifth grade, 10 years old, and the year was 1998.  My elementary school principal was a graduate and a huge fan of the University of Utah (The U).  The U basketball team had a strong streak in the late 90's and was in the NCAA tournament for the fourth time in a row and our principal had been giving us updates and encouraging us to root for them.  They made it to the championship game where they played against the University of Kentucky.  I was a much bigger fan of UK than I was of the U, so I wore my Kentucky apparel to school the day after the championship game rubbing it into my principal that UK had beaten the U.

You might wonder why I am such a fan of the University of Kentucky, well I am happy to tell you.

This is where I was born,

This is how to get from there (where I was born) to Rupp Arena, where the University of Kentucky basketball team plays.

Congrats to the Wildcats for their 8th national championship!!

For those interested in random basketball trivia please keep reading, otherwise you may now close this window and resume your internet-ing.  I have a hard time remembering if my specific memory was in '98 or '97 because in both of those years Utah lost to Kentucky in the final and Elite 8 (respectively).  Furthermore, Utah lost to Kentucky in '96 in the Sweet 16, and in the second round in '93.  The first time that Utah ever made it into a post season tournament, (NIT 1941) they lost to Kentucky in the first round, and most recently Utah lost to Kentucky in 2005 in the Sweet 16.  Utah also lost to Texas Western in 1966 who went on to beat Kentucky in the final. (One of only three times Kentucky has made it to the final and not won... totally random, I know.)

I'm a Mormon

The Church published this today.  I'm mormon and I'm proud of it, more than just proud of it, I love being mormon!  I really liked this info-graphic and I think it's worth sharing, so here it is.  

Some of the things I love the most about being mormong is counting myself among those who pray daily, attend church weekly, and know more than most people about the Bible and religion in general.  Also I love how much I get to learn about Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world.

life questions

So after a year of no job offers, I've decided to go back to school.  Well it's still in the deciding process, but we're pretty sure that it's the best thing to do.  As I've been working on my application to grad school I've come across some interesting questions, questions that have pierced me deep as I have pondered their meaning.

Part of the application is a letter of intent, the application says this about the statement of intent:

This statement gives the admissions committee an opportunity to learn the following:

1. your preparation and background for the program to which you are applying and the special emphasis you hope to pursue in it,
2. your academic or professional goals and reasons for your choice of career,
3. your particular academic or professional reasons for applying to Brigham Young University and the scholarly or professional contributions you expect to make to your program;
4. .....

Those middle few questions have really got me thinking.  What are my academic and professional goals?  What scholarly contributions will I make to the field of civil engineering?  I've been thinking for the past year that I want to do 'transportation' engineering, designing roadways and such.  But really, I never really thought of that before I ever went to college.  I never even thought of all that before I took a transportation class.  The real reason I switched to civil engineering was for structures.  

I think I speak for most engineers when I say that engineering is fun regardless of what it is your engineering.  Making awesome things is just always cool, whether it's buildings, roads, dams, engines, computers, waste water treatment plants.... it's just cool to build something intricate and amazing.


So I've applied to graduate school at BYU, and I'll hopefully bet going into structural engineering.  It will be strange going back to school, but hopefully I'll do a little better and care a little more, and it will probably be a lot of fun in the end.

craving

I'm really feeling the urge to post something, but I don't know what.  I often think of simple ideas to talk about while I'm working and stuff, but I don't remember them for long.  Life lately has been fairly mundane...

Oh wait!  I remember one of the more exciting things of the past week or two.  One night we went out to Cold Stone to get some ice cream.  All day at work I had been thinking about churros and I day-dreamed about churros mixed into ice cream.  So we went to Cold Stone and I quickly glanced at thier mix-in's list.... no churros or any other kind of cinnamon-covered pastry, sigh.  But then I saw this on a sign:

The Churro Carmel Crave.  It was wonderful, toasty churros, gooey carmel, and tasty french vanilla ice cream.  It was a dream come true.

Now that's what I call a taco!

So I recently started a job at Taco Time here in Herriman.  Yes, I am totally serious about that.  Engineering jobs are continuing to be elusive so in the midst of applying to every civil engineering job available I got a part time job at our local Taco Time.




Since starting there I can't really get this video out of my head... if only we made something like that at our store.

overkill

So we bought a new car.  We looked at a dealer, and didn't really find anything we loved, plus the salesmen are so annoying.  We looked at a bunch of private sellers and we found a car that we think we'll love!  Our primary requirement was having good gas milage.  Our new Ford Focus gets 36 highway, and it has a lot of add-ons.  In fact, it's a little overkill, we certainly don't need a 6-disk mp3 capable stereo system... but it's nice.  It has leather seats, cruise control, power locks/windows, and it's orange.

DK

Last November Nintendo released a retro-remake game for the Wii, Donkey Kong Country Returns, emulating the style and format of the original SNES game DK Country.  Sadly then (and now) I did not have the funds to purchase brand new wii games, but I did have in my possession a N64 and the interesting title of Donkey Kong 64.  Being curious about the DK franchise I decided that before I would allow myself to buy the new DK game, I would play through the old DK game.

Sadly DK 64 is one of the worst platform games ever created.  The controls are glitchy, the levels are expansive and the goals are obscure.  I never would have made it past the first hour of playing if I hadn't found a very thorough game guide online.  Of course I, being a perfectionist, could not settle for merely beating the final boss, I had to go through every level, collecting every banana medal, finding every banana fairy, and of course getting every last golden banana (not to mention the battle crowns, blueprints, and boss keys).  The guide I found was very useful in aiding my quest, but as you can see here, it still took me 46 HOURS!!  (that's right, all 101% - the 201st banana is a 'secret')

And happily for my birthday this week, I was rewarded with the next installment.  I now consider myself a DK enthusiast... for the most part.

and now you're older still....

I often have made fun of old people.  In my mind there are endless jests toward students who have children, and those who show obvious signs of having a wife watching over them.  I know several engineering students who often mention, my wife made me do this, I need to do that for my wife....  

Living my own life, making my own decisions, that is a symbol of my youth and independence.  Old people are made old by losing their independence, first by marriage, then by the baby in the baby carriage.  

So often have I scorned the student eating the sandwich his wife made, pulling it out of a plastic tupperware, along with a yogurt and spoon.  All carefully packaged with the care only a woman could possibly have for lunch.

......

Such were my thoughts today as I put my plastic tupperware back into my backpack and thought, I'M OLD!!!    though I don't wish anything else, since being married is so much better than single life, and the 'loss of independence' really isn't bad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQd4tAQJT_M

Burning Bridges

On the island of Palawan, on the western border of the Philippines, there is a small fishing on the eastern coast, right in the middle of the norther half of the island. This small town is called Roxas, there are several towns further north which are so far removed that they are home to several resorts, tropical getaways, though you'd be hard pressed to call them tourist towns, they're just that small. Some things I'd like to tell you about Roxas. It's economy is supported by two industries: fishing and cashews. Those who aren't fishermen or farmers run one of the town's few shops, and then there's your random mix of city and church officials and constructions workers. Roxas is a very small town.

I spent four months there and in that time I personally spoke with three of the town's city councilmen. I met with members from every church in town (Adventists, Catholic, INC, Pentecostal (two dif. churches) Baptists, and Muslim) and with pastors from 4 of those. I knew the home and names of the top ten richest people in town, I knew family relations between many of them, and I met several of them. I walked every single street in within the 'downtown' area many many times, and even explored some of the alleyways. I met with school principals, radio announcers, and big business men, but not because I was so cool, or even because I worked so hard to find famous people, it's just that there were so few people that you couldn't help but meet all of these people.

Pictures: (1)Google map image of the entire town (2)me being 'lost' looking for the seashore.

So it's a small town. On the western edge of the town there is a large school run by some Canadian/American charity that takes donations from 'sponsors' and uses the money to teach kids, (a good education can be a very big thing in the Philippines). The only stipulation for families enrolling in said school is that the kids and the parents attend a bible school type thing. It's some strange non-denominational 'We read the bible" hotshots who think that their reading of the bible make them superior to everyone else (and this attitude rubs off on the families).

So those two factors (small town, crazy bible schooled adults) combine to make this story:

I was wandering down sandy walkways going from house to house talking to people, we had taught a simple first lesson at the home of an older lady, and noticed some people watching/listening outside (easy to do since the houses are bamboo and windowless). We left and started talking to those who had been observing us, this one lady was rather stern about not listening to us, but I guess she was too polite to send us away because we got invited in.

Being the great missionary I am, I had her round up all her kids, and bring her husband in from the back room and we began to teach a lesson, however she made me promise that we weren't there to baptize her into our church. Her husband was quiet, and she was compliant mostly agreeing with everything we said, but not really caring. When we started teaching about Joseph Smith and modern prophets I asked her if she believe me, she said yes. I asked her then if she would be willing to follow the prophet, she said sure. I didn't think she quite understood my point so I repeated myself, she once again agreed and said something to the effect of, Oh good, Joseph Smith's a prophet, that's a great thing for him, I read the bible too, and it's a great thing for me. I'm normally a calm guy, but something a her saying "big whoop" about Joseph Smith really caught me on fire, so I did my little logic thing again, saying prophets have authority (sure) Joseph Smith's a prophet (sure) you must get baptized by authority like the bible says (sure) then you have to get baptized in the church restored through Joseph Smith- the one with authority!

She wasn't happy that I told her to get baptized, and I felt really bad that I had told her to, we quickly finished the lesson, got a return appointment and left. The next morning right after comp study I couldn't contain myself to do what we had planned, I had to go back to that house and apologize to her for breaking my promise. Sadly, it was too late to apologize, the bridge was already burned now that family, and likely any one in their neighborhood will listen to the missionaries ever again... and it is sad.

Luckily I had enough success on my mission that I didn't beat myself up too much over that one. Now it serves to teach me a very important lesson on promises, trust, and the influence for bad and good that one man can have.

I can't help...

I'm posting today about nothing in particular. I wish I had more time to do everything. Yeah I'm sitting on campus wasting the next ten minutes writing this post, but I really don't have much else I could be doing right now. Some things take large blocks of time, like structural analysis work for example. One problem takes me about 30 min to complete, and half of that is just understanding the question. Therefore for me to start working on my structures homework right now, I'd get started and in 20 minutes I'd have to go to class and then later tonight I'd practically be starting over again thinking about what the problem is asking me to solve and how to do it. I could study for my stats test, but pretty much this first chapter has been so super easy that I'm not sure what there is to study. Finding averages is something I think I learned in like 5th grade. And so I will continue to sit here.

As of late I've been spending an extraordinarily large amount of time with a certain person, Stephanie. Pretty much if I'm not in class or sleeping (or when she's in class or sleeping) we're together. Its nice to have a constant companion like that, not one of force, but one I've chosen myself. In fact, to be honest, she's my girlfriend, and having not dated much it doesn't mean much when I say that I've never enjoyed being with someone as much as I do her, but I still say it. An interesting thought I had the other day was about some advice from my dad. He doesn't give me advice everyday, but the things he tells me are often very precise, measured, and direct advice for struggles I'm facing (and they're often accompanied by a general conference talk or BYU devotional that deals with the same subject). His dating advice has come to me in chunks over the years, and one of the most memorable sparked not by a talk or experience of his own, but by an Adam Sandler movie, '50 First Dates.' He has told me the message of making your [significant other] fall in love with you everyday is one of the best he has ever seen in a movie. As I pondered on that thought I realized that giving Steph a reason to fall in love with me every day is not something I've worked at yet... but that's because it's come naturally. Again, the limited time (two weeks of dating) may present a less than adequate knowledge, but I feel pretty optimistic for the future.

being alone

"I remember when I used to think I liked being alone, but lately being alone is just.... lonely." I felt that way today, and I posted such on my facebook status. I hope people won't take it as a sob story or anything, because I think it's more of a shift in state of mind. Right now I feel lonely, something I've felt fairly often this past week, and especially this weekend. It was finals, people were busy studying and taking tests, others were headed home as soon as possible, my roommate and best friend recently acquired a girl friend (and spend all his time with her, not me), other people had family gatherings and the like, but the bottom line for me was, I didn't. I studied a little, hung out with some friends from time to time, but I also did a lot of nothing. Countless hours playing Star Wars Battlefront:2 and significantly less hours taking tests created many times where I was alone.

Being alone is great, you can think clearly, you can relax. I love just listening to background noises, especially out in nature, the whisper of the wind, rustle of leaves, and enjoying having nothing around. In high school I also used to love watching everything around me. Just sitting quietly on a bench, listening to my friends talk to each other, so despite being with them I was often alone in my own world.

This weekend I'm housesitting at my aunts house while they're in CA for the holiday break. I was somewhat anxious to leave my friends in Provo and head down here so I left our little game night early and got here around 9:30. I started doing my wash and watched some ESPN... then I realized how lonely I was.

I love being with people, in some ways I've noticed it's like a drug to me. When I'm with lots of people talking and having a good time I get excited, I talk a lot, I get way into things and become overly dramatic about a lot of random stuff. Mostly I just smile a lot and laugh, laughing and smiling until my cheeks and stomach hurt. I have a few select people that I really love being with, and I LOVE to be really mean to them. I know sounds crazy, but that's what I do, I make ridiculously sarcastic and mean comments to all of my closest friends, which other people laugh or are shocked at, but those involved know how much I actually love them.

For the past while I've been feeling more and more distant from my friends, even when we're together I often feel alone... kind of like I'm going back to high school and I'm just observing them. I feel there are a number of very intertwined reasons for this, but I'm not going to discuss that now. For now it is late, and I am going to sleep in this big, dark, empty house.

emo day!

There comes a day in every young man's life that he just has to sit down and listen to some Dashboard Confessional... Today is that day (okay, so maybe one of the many of mine, but still). There's not one particular reason for my emo-ness today, but I'll enjoy it while it lasts.

I keep meaning to write in here, but nothing I think about stays in my mind long enough to be transferred to type. Some of my thoughts recently though include:

-Fair-weather fans whom I hate. Not just those who leave a game with 5 minutes to go, but those who only cheer for winning teams in general, sure we have a national recognized football team, but what about our women's volleyball team or cross country, they rock too and deserve to be cheered for just as much.

-Hearing really awkward clips of conversations of random passerbys. Things like, "...pills and it's like drug use..." or "... buy a new baseball bat, come over to your house and beat you with it!"

-Dating... yes girls and their ever complex minds still intrigue me, as do my own reactions to them.

-Surprised at how much I didn't really miss my friends over the thanksgiving break, not that I don't love them, but I just enjoyed being with my family so much that I kinda forgot to think about my super awesome friends (who I believe were equally absorbed into their family activities).

and I've been thinking about myself a lot lately too. Thinking about how cool I am, about the cool stuff I've done lately, about the cool classes I'm taking or will be taking, about how arrogant I am and how obnoxious I must seem to others, how much I talk when I shouldn't and keep silent when I should talk, how I'm dirt poor, how life's quickly escalating complicatedness is by far a much larger foe than I could ever hope to defeat.... hence the emo. w00t.

yes, this is me playing frisbee on the beach ^_^

And this is an 'A' for Ako (tagalog for 'me') Awesome, Ace, and an all around nice guy ;-)

Dating vs. Hanging out

I held a facebook discussion recently. Please see the below note and ensuing comments.

Dating versus Hanging Out

the conclusion for me was basically this: communicate. If everyone is perfectly clear in all they say, and communicates what they truly mean then most problems would be solved.

Silence Resolves Nothing. hu.

Silence Resolves Nothing

I realized that this is somewhat of a dramatic blog, probably unnecessarily so. But I write when I'm emotional, and lame drama gets my blood pumping, sorry. I have a lot that I want to write right now, but I feel constrained 1) complaining never helped anything 2) I think that I need to maintain a higher level of fidelity in my relationships. Always venting to a computer helps your interpersonal skills zero, so I guess I'll have to force myself to talk to real people.

Lately I feel that my life has been a little too full of this melodrama that's been consuming me, but I am realizing that it is be cause I keep talking to other people, not involved, asking advice, getting opinions, formulating ideas and plans, but it doesn't help. The drama is still there. Hence the title of this post, "Silence resolves nothing" and as long as I don't talk to those actually involved with the situation then it will never change... *sigh* I'll have to suck it up and get on that now.

I actually just had a chance to talk with this person, but I didn't, and now I'm regretting it, but not sure if I really am.... oh gosh I'm weird. I'm actually considering not posting this, but then why would I have a blog to type, but not to post? I think not. :-D I'ma gonna sleep and work on this tomorrow now.

The Best Bad Day

Today could have been the worst day ever... it's 12:07 am, I just got home from campus, and I'm making Western Family Macaroni and Cheese for dinner. I recently spent 5.5 hours in one chair, staring at a computer screen, editing a horribly filmed movie.
Earlier in the day I had spent 2 other hours in the same chair, editing the same movie.
A girl of my dreams canceled our noon-date to the MOA (I love the MOA...)
I got a 69% on my religion test (that puts my testimony at about a C-)
I have a huge and rather hard test for my Electrical & Computer Engineering class tomorrow. Today I had no time to study for it.
I hate the library, not that it's a bad place, I just avoid going there to study. Today I spent half of my waking hours there... I think I want to cry, not even kidding.

Why wasn't today the worst day of my life?
I talked to the girl of my dreams (I know, call me a sap, but those ten minutes did make my day that much better)
I wasted an hour talking with an old friend... a good hour.
I got to talk about sailing for half an hour :-) I love sailing.
I got to iChat with my little sister K.com (she gave me some instructions on video editing)
I used Final Cut Pro on a MacPro ^_^
I am currently listening to the new Dashboard CD, eating Mac&Cheese, and talking with the ever beautiful Katherine Alice Affeltranger. w00t

I ended up with a 75% on that ECEn test, and our movie won 3 awards at our ward Oscar's night; best visual effects, best costume design, best actress, w00t

Stereophonic...

I like music. Not only is it music that I like, but I like sound. It bothers me when watching a movie and the surround sound setting aren't adjusted properly, I love to adjust my equalizer settings all the time for every song, so that it sounds just right. Recently I've been comprimising a LOT on my love for proper sounds. I have an old pair of Apple Ear Buds that I got with my first iPod (a green 4GB mini) that have been through a lot, to the point the cover is sliding off and wire is exposed around the junction. I have a second pair that I picked up somewhere along the way that were equally hashed (including having been through the wash). I have been consistently using the ones that were physically intact (that is the ones w/o exposed wiring) despite their lack of quality sound. The left ear driver was messed up going through the washer and couldn't produce any quality sound (is lost it's bass register), but I settled for it supposing the exposed wires to produce an even worse sound. Last week I lost this faulty pair of earbuds, and today I started using the exposed wire ones (with some clear tape surrounding the junction of course...) and I found that they work great! I could hear stereo again! I watched an episode of Glee and the talking had spacial relativity, the transition sounds were off in the distance, bouncing right to left, what a marvelous experience!! I was so happy I listened to music not only for my whole free hour, but throughout my physics class too!

I was impressed to see how much a good pair of head phones can change your musical experience, something I always knew, but perhaps never appreciated. It makes me think that someday perhaps I will go the whole 9 yards and get myself a $50+ pair like these Skullcandy babies here... For now, I'll stick with the earbuds with exposed wires.

go stereo!