An Obtuse Hybrid

I am now roughly three to four weeks into my semester (because I’m a bit too much of a lazy ass right now to actually check for accuracy) and I’ve come to the realisation of something extremely weird.

First, allow me to introduce my current circumstance. I’m currently enrolled in 16 units this semester along with 27 hours in my work schedule per week. Going by this, along with that common recommendation given to one that explains that it is very much helpful for every hour you’re in class, another 1-2 hours outside of class (on your own time) should be devoted to studying for these hours, 59-75 hours of my week is solely devoted to school and work, not including sleep, and of course, whatever remainder, as meagre of an amount as it may be, is my “free time”. You’d think I’d be dead by now, and you may be right to some extent, because I don’t know if I’m completely alive or not anyway (though this opens one up to too many philosophical or existential interrogations, so we shall deviate from this topic appropriately).

A good bulk of my classes are scheduled on Monday. I don’t remember my exact reasoning for having my schedule originally like this other than the fact that perhaps I thought it would be a good idea to get a good amount of my classes out of the way in the beginning of the week and then I would have an easy rest of the week, leading to a relaxing and stress-free weekend. One of my classes is online this semester, which is also taking a bit of getting used to, probably because this is my first experience having a class that did not physically require my presence, and it’s a bit disconcerting but also a bit liberating in the fact that I get to choose when I do the coursework at any point before the scheduled deadlines.

The problem with that single online course that I am now feeling the stress of is the fact that because I have that disconnect from a physical class setting, I tend to put off the class work until hours right before its due, which in this case, is usually Sunday right before Monday. Couple that with my four classes (one of which is my three hours lab) on Monday, and I’ve managed to become even more sleep deprived than I have been the last 7 years of my life.

So what’s up with the really vague blog title?

Well, here’s the thing. I am completely worn out, I am constantly getting frustrated that even with me driving separately from my brother so I don’t have to go to school at 7:30 am every morning just for parking, I am still barely getting to my first class on time. I am even more frustrated with the fact that even before my current school schedule, I am working the same amount of hours that I did last semester, but I’ve had to spread it out to even more days because of said schedule, and thus, even more time and money lost because I’m having to drive to work one more day than usual.

But I am more relaxed and happier than I’ve ever been.

Even more so, it’s weird that with the level of courses I’m taking this semester, I am only tired because of the fact that my sleep is lacking and the work is numerous, not necessarily because the work is difficult.

I don’t know, mates. It’s an awkward feeling to say the least, “an obtuse hybrid” of emotions, as per the blog title that I came up with in probably half a second. Needless to say, I’ll take all the frustrations and stresses that I have right now, because it’s better than being bored out of my mind, or being completely frustrated because I’m finding my coursework difficult.

Outdated

So in an attempt to say that I actually have a partially legitimate excuse for not having written on this thing for so long, apparently I’d been away for such a length amount of time that I did not realise that the program I used (Windows Live Writer) was now defunct when in use with Blogger, and thus, when I actually attempted to resurrect it yesterday, I was unable to sign in.

Fortunately, with the help of my best friend Google, I was also able to find out that because of the now unsupported stature of the program, it has also been outsourced, and the new developers handling the project have found a work around that works perfectly. Thus, I am back to making the same false promise that I’ll be updating more often.

Back to more important things.

ACADEMICS

It has literally been over a year since my last post and I want to take the time to perhaps ponder on the fact in what substantial growths I’ve gone through.

Before this post, back in 2014, I’d been subject to the horrible effects of lack of motivation, and so my academic level had seriously reduced at that point. I’m proud to to say that I’ve regained said motivation and now consistently getting more than satisfactory marks in all my current classes. Actually, my upcoming semester starts tomorrow and It is very unusual for me to feel this motivated about it, but I suppose there could be much worse things. In addition to my Biochemistry degree (which will not be completed this semester, but I’m almost there), I will be completing my English Literary Analysis minor (at least I think that’s what it’s called). I’ll also be taking the next, and most probably my last, semester of Spanish at the collegiate level. This is the class that I’m most timid about considering it’s actually a requirement for us to speak to a foreign hispanic student in their own country using their native tongue. I don’t know if I’m ready for that yet, but I suppose we’ll find out, won’t we? I’m also taking a Piano course for non-majors as an elective to somehow keep me motivated throughout, I need at least one class to kind of mellow myself out in.

SMARTPHONES

On a lesser, but probably more obsessive, note, within the time span of a little over a year, I have gone through four different phones. No, I did not just manage to break them so quickly that I had to buy a replacement, but…well, yeah. I buy rather impulsively, and I like technology. It’d be less of a problem if technology wasn’t so damn expensive, but not much I can do about that, not that’d I’d really want to in the first place.

Nonetheless, the last time I was here, I was still sporting my beautiful LG (Google) Nexus 5 in all its glory. I don’t even think that I had upgraded it to Android 5.0 Lollipop at the time I had written my last post back in September 2014, which is kind of ridiculous.

My next phone that followed was probably the best phone that I had ever owned, the LG G3. However, despite it having the sexiest hardware that I’d seen on a phone at the time, the software, more specifically the UI (user interface) was rather cumbersome and hindering, so I ended up rooting it and installing an AOSP (Android Open-Source Project) ROM onto it. I would have kept it that way, but then Android Pay came out to replace the older Google Wallet for mobile payments, and did not work with rooted devices.

So instead reinstalling the stock ROM and just using it, I had opted to give that phone to my mother and bought from a co-worker my next phone, that being the Samsung Galaxy Note 4. Now, this was probably my shortest lived phone. I hadn’t even finished two full months with it before deciding that the larger screen size accompanied with the overall less refined bezels (than those of the G3) were just too out of hand for me, literally. Especially since I bought a case for it, it was much too larger to my preference regardless of the fact that watching videos on that thing was absolutely gorgeous. Also, while definitely improved from earlier iterations, Samsung’s signature Touchwiz UI was still much too foreign for an AOSP lover like me.

Currently, this phone is sitting in my room in pristine condition in its original box while I’m carrying the very classy Samsung Galaxy S6 on hand, and may I just say that it is by far the most powerful mobile device I’ve ever held, and not to mention, the most refined Samsung product I’ve owned yet. Opting for the 128gb variant, it’s honestly weird looking at my storage and seeing that I’ve only managed to use 20% of it so far when all my other phones, I’ve used at least 70-80% without my entire music playlist on there. In addition, it has the most minimal, rather pleasantly refined version of Touchwiz I’ve seen to date with updated icons that actually to not look completely cartoon-like in the past variants. I don’t care what anyone says either, while not practical, the back Black Sapphire glass is probably the best thing I’ve seen on the back of a mobile device. I specifically bought a case with a clear back just to show it off too.

Let’s not even talk about upcoming phones that I’m looking forward to…

HEADPHONES

I’d actually gotten into the headphone scene just a tad bit, and while I am definitely not what one would refer to as an audiophile, I do have a sharp enough ear to recognise that slightly differences between each model of headphone I get.

My first switch from the earbud territory (which a majority of it consisted of Apple earpods) came in the form of my Monster NCredible NTune On-Ear headsets. They were definitely not the most high-end pair that you could find, though Monster makes some quality products. As soon as I broke them in, I fell in love with the much more immersive experience that one would have never experienced with an Apple earpods (this is not to say that the earpods are horrible, but they are what they are). Sadly, I kept getting the lengthy cord caught against the most random corners and edges, so I had to switch.

It was then that I opted for the Bluetooth route which was perfect for me because 1) I’m not an audiophile so the distortion that comes with transmitting audio wirelessly doesn’t matter to me, 2) I have no qualms about charging another device, and the most obvious, 3) I wouldn’t have a cord to get caught all over the place. The only thing that I really needed to pay attention to was the estimated battery life. Since I would be using them at work, I wanted them to at least last throughout the entire span of my shift so I wouldn’t have to take them off and charge them. This would also eliminate the need for me to take another charger with me.

And so came my rather impulsive buy of the rather oddly designed pair of cans, though I suppose the design being partially inspired by gaming sets had something to do with it. These were the Sentey B-Trek H9 Bluetooth 4.0 headphones. Claiming to last eight hours long, my battery never actually ran dry on me to where it just died mid-song, but if the LED flashing red was any indication, that 8-hour claim was pretty accurate. However, I was a bit disconcerted with the sound quality. Then again, I should have been aware, I bought them at full retail price, and the NTunes full retail price was literally $100 more, so there wasn’t much to be expected. I did, however, misuse the hinges that allowed these headphones to be folded inward. They snapped, and thus, off to my next set.

By this point, I was a bit desperate. I wanted a good sounding pair of bluetooth headphones that also held extensive battery life, and I was willing to make a much larger investment than I had on the previous two pairs. And then, I found them. The pair that I fell in love with came in the form of the Samsung Level Over set of cans. They were perfect, despite not being Bluetooth 4.0, but that was a moot point. They even came with the active noise-cancelling feature AND had capacitive controls on the right ear pad, which just made them all the more appealing. Plus, there was a Samsung Level app on Google Play that would provide some more functionality to the sets, as well as be a rather easy to use equaliser. Bigger and bulkier, they also did not have foldable hinges, so these things were sturdy. I actually waited about a month after stumbling upon the beauties before I bought because I was waiting for one in my price range, and I finally bought them off eBay for literally double the amount I paid for my two previous pairs combined.

When they came in the male, I was so damn happy, and then I put them on and allowed myself to be immersed in a perfect music listening experience (well, not perfect, but certainly the best I’d experienced til that point). The sound was rich, crisp, and flat, well, much flatter than I heard before. Because I listened to primarily electronic music at the time, I actually had to take advantage of the app’s equaliser to tune the bass up just a bit for my liking. The active-noise cancelling actually disoriented me a bit because, since I’m used to hearing so much ambient noise, it literally felt like sound was being sucked away from my ear-canals which caused some imbalance for me. I had to turn the volume up to compensate, which was a double-edged sword because then the sound would leak a bit more than I would have liked. But the battery was out of this world. I listened to them for over 30 hours and I never once managed to drain it completely to zero.

And then they got stolen.

To whoever took my precious pair of Samsung Level Over’s,
enjoy them while you’re alive for once you die, may your soul be
consumed by the infinite depths of scorching hellfire.

I probably wasn’t as mad as I should have been, but at the same time, I had to bide my time, for I spent a good $200 on those pairs, I couldn’t just shell out another when I hadn’t even used them for a month. I hadn’t even paid the credit off.

During this transitionary period, I went back to cheaper pairs for a while, buying some earbuds such as more Apple earpods, official Wired Headsets for my S6, and a couple of cheap Bluetooth earbuds by Bluedio which were surprisingly good for how much I bought them for, but of course, I still missed the immersive experience of a true, over-ear set of cans.

After about 6 weeks, I finally found myself in a good enough shape (financially and mentally) to start my hunt for another pair again. This time, I was aiming for something cheaper because I found myself not using the active noise-cancelling feature enough for me to really put it to use. Admittedly, I would miss the capacitive functionality, but if that functionality is what made the sets so expensive, I wasn’t opposed to disregarding them.

One of the pharmacists that I’m rather close to at work said that his favourite brand of headsets was actually JBL (and he is sort of an audiophile for he is constantly buying more mixing equipment). I trusted his word over mind, and quickly found myself constantly going back to these pairs of JBL Synchros E50BTs. I finally bought them, and let me just make my verdict. They are nowhere near as bulky or sturdy as my previous Samsung sets, but still sturdy enough, nor do they feature any striking features that I could really take advantage of. They look rather plainly, almost cheaply, made with the JBL logo plastered on the set three times, and the controls on the left earcup take a bit of getting used to.

That being said, these headphones are the best pair I’ve owned to date, and they cost half of what I paid for the Level Over’s. It does not have a flat line when it comes to its sound reproduction signature, but how it is right now is absolutely perfect for me. Basses are beautifully emphasised, highs are crisp and do not distort even at higher volumes, but the mids, especially with vocals…It’s like the artist is whispering in my ear. Even with the emphasised bass and perfectly tuned highs, the vocals are all you focus on. And, while the battery life wasn’t a monster like my Level Over’s, it’s lasts me just fine for it still lasts a solid two days, a very solid and accurate comparison to the 16 hours claim on the box.

I also bought myself a pair of Samsung Level U Bluetooth earbuds for whenever I go to the gym. The on-ear sets were never meant to be used for an extensive workout, and the Level U’s are sweatproof, and they have excellent sound quality in relation to how much I paid for them. Plus, 11 hours of battery is nothing to be ashamed about.

CONCLUSION

So yeah, I figured I’d already managed to bore the reader with all the tech crap that I’d just spouted, so I’ll stop here. I didn’t quite get through everything that I wanted to say, but most of it consisted of future events anyway, like my upcoming trip to the Philippines to attend my cousin’s wedding this summer, so I suppose those can wait.

While I’m saying this mainly to myself to somehow redeem my past failures, I’ll go for a rather inclusive closing statement.

May we all have a blessed new year, and perhaps we change for the better as well.