Oxymoron

Does it make sense to drive a huge SUV with an American flag on top? I saw an example of this in the form of an Escalade EXV recently (is that what it's called? It's the huge one) and just could not understand it. Do these people even think before putting the flag on? "Oh hey, let's show my patriotism by putting a flag on a gigantic example of how much oil I use." It's the equivalent of going on strike while continuing to do your job.

The V-Modas broke

If you've been keeping up, you'll know that a while ago I had gotten some V-Moda headphones. A while ago they broke and I decided to not post about it until I'd gotten the replacements.

The problem was strange, they broke after sitting on a desk. They were working fine, sat untouched on a desk for a while, then later the problem was spontaneously there. What happened was the left bud would go on and off as the cord moved near the jack. I emailed them about it and they'd given me a response the next day. It took me a few weeks to have the headphones mailed out to them. Then they took their time in sending replacements. The customer service was overall good though, they were prompt to answer whatever questions I had and the new pair arrived the day after they confirmed that it shipped.

They also included all the accessories that come with a new pair, so I've now got a second pleather pouch, extra ear tips (which I needed anyway) and a second "modawrap," which is a hard rubber thing that you wrap the headphones around. That was courteous of them.

I apparently had an older pair of theirs before. The problem with the old pairs was that something would go wrong with the jack after a while due to design issues. Somehow, the pair I got had been sitting in the Apple store for a long while after they changed the design of the headphones to fix the problem, and that's why this happened. The new pair is mostly the same. The jack is the biggest difference, now it is angled and mostly rubber, with a piece of blue metal (matching the rest of the headphones) at the end opposite the jack. Also, the part that connects the wires of the buds to the wire coming from the jack seems to be a bit larger.

I now know what these headphones sound like brand new compared to broken in, though. Before I didn't notice much of a difference since the break in happened over time. I've essentially gone from a very broken in pair to a brand new pair, so the difference is quite noticeable. The soundstage of the unbroken-in pair sounds like the musicians performed in a room that was too small. The bass is also bloated and not as tight as it was. Something I've noticed from running sine waves through them though (I had to see if they'd changed anything sound-wise with the new models) is that they go both higher and lower now. The higher highs (17k+) don't distort anymore and they go a bit higher, while 17k didn't make much sound before you can definitely hear something and 18k makes a tiny bit of sound. Certainly after breaking them in this will improve further.

And as I mentioned, they also go lower. Although you still aren't getting great response below 30hz, it has improved, sounding a bit louder. I'm sure this will also improve with break in.

The strangest thing has happened though, for whatever reason my right ear canal seems to have somehow changed it's shape. While I didn't have issues with putting the buds in there before, it's now quite a challenge. I have tried with both the left and right bud and with different tips, but my ear canal is just strange. Basically, the earbud goes in at some strange angle and the sound loses all clarity and sounds very bloated and muddy. The current fix is a lot of careful repositioning. I can't think of why this might have happened, but I hope it stops.

Dear Apple: no.

The new iPod Shuffle. It's probably the prettiest thing I've seen in my life. Unfortunately, it is crap.

Removing the buttons sounds pretty stupid. They almost did it right, with the buttons being on the headphones. But oh no, you're stuck with the shitty stock headphones! Some other company will make an adaptor, right?

Well, almost. You remember those "authorization chips" that accessories for the iPod Classic/other iPods of that era need to work? Apple is now putting those in the headphones. We can essentially expect $10 headphone adaptors that cost 3¢ to make because Apple is being a shit. Anyone who's read this blog before knows I love Apple, but you'd have to be a pretty huge Macfag to not see what's wrong here.

Back the fuck up.

Was that a commercial for high fructose corn syrup? Really?

I don't know if you've seen it or not, but some guy is sitting on the ground in the park when some woman comes by and she's like "HEY HAVE THIS POPSICLE."*

He looks at that shit and says "Fuck you hoe, I'm not eating that frozen chunk of high fructose corn syrup. That shit fucks you right the fuck up."*

She says "Screw that shit, this shit is the bomb. This shit is all the bombs. It only kills you because you aren't supposed to have that much HELL YEAH at a time. Eat it in moderation, you pussy."*

He says "Fuck, that's swish. Gimme that popsicle. You're still a hoe."*

And then the commercial's over. I didn't know what to think the first time I saw it. I still can't believe they put that on TV. It's one thing to advertise things that use HFCS, but the fact that they're advertising a damn ingredient is just awful. It'd be fine if the commercial was for vitamins or something healthy that they put in food, but it's not. They're essentially trying to convince you that it is OK to eat shit and die.

The commercial does insist that it's good in moderation. That's a lie. Something that is genuinely bad for you is not "good" ever. It's just less bad in moderation. Besides, even if it were true that it was OK in moderation, it is in everything you don't buy at a health foods store. Unless you shop at one, you can't have it in moderation.

There is a good side to these commercials though, I doubt they'd put them on if HFCS-products were selling as well as they used to be. Either it's because of the economy, or people are just getting more health-conscious and aren't buying it anymore. This commercial better not convince anyone of anything though.

* Quotes may be off by a word or two

Focal XS speakers

They're a pair of computer speakers that I used at the Apple store today. They're $600 and good enough that I think I will pass up the Klipschs and get these after I am working. By that I mean they are very good. Granted, the Apple store isn't the ultimate testing environment, but it wasn't that busy and they sounded pretty great.

The first song I demoed on them was something orchestral. It was quiet in the store at the time. For maybe 15 seconds there didn't seem to be any sound, or if there was it was being drowned out by something being played elsewhere in the store. Putting my ear up to the speaker revealed that the sound was coming from the speaker. If you ask me, that's a pretty good statement about transparency. I honestly thought that it was coming from somewhere else.

I turned off this orchestral song after a bit though. These speakers have an integrated iPod dock. This is useful, if you ask me. My friends bring over iPods often and these would be nice for when that happens. Plus, the dock connects to your computer so on top of playing the iPod through it, you also use it to sync the iPod. Pretty cool, if you ask me. Anyway, I used the iPod Touch that was docked with it to listen to some songs I'm familiar with via iTunes previews. The Apple store employees don't care how loud you make things, so I did get to turn them up. They didn't sound strained or distorted even when played loud with songs that are generally loud (ie No You Girls by Franz Ferdinand). Testing conditions weren't the best though, so I'm sure I was missing some of what they have to offer. They were hooked up with the Apple TV, so they were spaced kind of far apart around a large television, and they were stuck to the table slightly behind the TV. This drowned out the sound a little.

The cabinets are plastic and resonate a lot, but for whatever reason the sound of cabinet resonance didn't seem to be there. This is just fine.

The sub was on the table though, so I didn't get to really hear that as I should've. It has a 6.5" down-firing driver and a front firing port. It didn't sound strained with the bassiest songs I tried and did sound rather musical instead of making boring thumps like a lot of computer subs. I tried No You Girls by Franz Ferdinand and Raspberry Jam Delta-V by Joe Satriani on them, for example. They both have intricate bass lines (which really make those songs awesome, if you ask me) that came out just fine. I also tried Under The Influence by The Chemical Brothers which is a very bassy song. At a few parts of the song, there is a loud bass sweep that starts deepish and goes deeper. The sub didn't sound strained during any of this.

I don't know if they have an active EQ or not. They did, however, sound like they could have benefitted a little from an EQ adjustment. I would have turned down the treble. I don't know if the iPod Touch I used in the store had any EQ settings or not though, so I can't be sure if that was the speaker's doing or the iPod's. I should have checked.

Next time I go I'll be sure to bring my iPod so I can try more of my own music. Hopefully sometime I'll get to try them in some better testing conditions though, like perhaps a quieter store or another Apple store where they aren't set up inconveniently around a TV. However, they left me very impressed. It's not unlikely that I'll pass up the Klipsch's and get a pair of these.

Ford Flex

Does anyone else think it looks like a giant Mini Cooper?

Conflicting emotions

Today I was kind of bored and decided I'd rate reviews of things on the Apple site so people won't waste their money. I'm on Beats by Dr. Dre now and several reviews say "these are crap headphones, buy bose instead" and I have no idea how to rate these reviews. It's terrible.

Why does anyone respect rappers?

I don't understand how people can respect someone who is very vocal about how they think they're better than everyone else. The majority of rap songs that I've heard are about how much money the rapper has. Why does anyone want to spend money to listen to an uneducated moron who can't dress himself talk loudly at you about how he has your money? Then they use their money to go and pollute, thereby killing the people who gave them the money. It makes no sense. 

Pastrami owns your face

Seriously, this is the best form of meat. Pastrami is your children's father, it's who you turn to when all else fails, it's your favorite TV show, it's your purpose in life. Nothing defies pastrami. Not even Leslie Nielsen or French Stewart, for they are what pastrami is made of. Pastrami is so amazing that I have lost interest in other sandwich meats. The difference is clear as sex with a pastrami sandwich and sitting in a library where they play muzak. That's right you ignorant shit, pastrami is so great that you can't even compare it to things that aren't pastrami. It even beats itself in how good it is, it's greatness is infinite.

Where's the first place you go to spend money?

When you have money to burn, where's the first place you go? Most people have some store or brand that they always go to first when it comes to this sort of thing. Mine is Apple, which is evident by something I'm going to post about later. But what's yours? Leave a comment.

Fucking parents

Damn parents spoiling their kids. Today I was at the Apple store using what will be the iMac I get after I become employed when this guy and his two sons came in. They walked out with two 20" iMacs. One was for the teenager dude who looked to be about 16, and the other was for his younger brother who must have been 8. This guy bought his supposedly 8 year old son a $1200 computer. My parents wouldn't do that for me now, and we can definitely afford it. No, they wouldn't do it because they're right minded. My iMac of the moment was $1k which was more than I expected them to spend on me at the time, and more than I'll expect to spend on me again. I mean they will never get me another $1k computer because by the time I need another one I'll be of working age, and by that time there is no way they are getting me anything expensive. 

I also saw that kid walking around with an LG Voyager. I wasn't scoping this out either, they were on the other side of the table I was using. Damn other people's parents.

Why does anyone start smoking?

This isn't going to be one of those "HELLO FELLOW TEENAGERS SMOKING ISN'T COOL AMIRITE" type things, just so you know.

Anyway, why does anyone today start smoking? I can't understand it, and normally when it comes to this sort of thing I can see it from other people's point of view. I've tried this, but I just can't think of a reason for anyone to start, in any mindset. You are literally making a decision to spend lots of money on an early, painful death. I can excuse people who've done it always because they grew up when smoking was "good for you." But when people start today, they are basically flying a huge, smelly flag that says "I AM A MORON." It's true and you know it.