Some Fantastic Headphones

The headphones I’ve been using for quite a while have been very cheap earbuds.  They’ve been wearing out and I’ve been meaning get some better ones for quite a while.  I have been particularly interested in trying out some in ear headphones.  A couple weeks ago I buckled down and did some fairly extensive research into what headphones to buy.

The research process for headphones is a little difficult for a number of reasons.  First, most people that review or rate headphones can’t compare very many, since they typically  own very few.  Second, there are an awful lot of headphones in the world, with fairly subtle differences between similar models of the same brand.  Third, and probably the biggest problem, is that most of the things that make headphones good or bad are really qualitative and people’s opinions aren’t standardized in any way.

After researching a fair amount, I decided that Sennheiser was probably one of the better brands, and went to some stores to see if any were available without ordering online.  I was in luck: F.Y.E. had the CX300-II and CX400 model for sale for $29.99, down from their typical $80 price tag.  I ended up buying both models: one for me and one for my mom. 

The sound is quality is virtually identical between the two models.  The primary differences are that the CX30 0-II has an asymmetric cable and the CX400 has a shorter symmetric cable with an accompanying extension cable and that the CX400 comes with a clip and cable winder.  Both of them come with 3 different sizes of rubber things (can’t think of the technical term at the moment), and a nice leather carrying case.

Turns out I prefer the asymmetric cable as it does not get tangled up as easily (though the CX400 still didn’t get tangled up much at all).  The bass is quite powerful, and the crispness and clarity of the sound is pretty remarkable.  There are songs that I have never been able to understand what they are saying that I can now understand very clearly.  I can’t speak for all in ear headphones, but these ones are pretty darn comfortable.  I can wear them for hours without any problem, whereas with earbuds my ears get a little sore well before then.

I thought about upgrading to the next model (CX500).  It initially looked like I could get them for less than $50 online.  After doing some more looking around, however, it looks like there is a serious problem with cheap Sennheiser copycats.  Purchasing from an authorized dealer bumps the prices for different models up to where it ought to be ($80 to $130 depending on the model).  Buying from anyone else you can get whatever model you want for about $40 to $50 (cause they’re mostly—if not all—fakes).  So it looks like the deal at F.Y.E. was pretty phenomenal (F.Y.E. is an authorized retailer).  So if you are looking for new headphones, I’d recommend checking these ones out.  I’m pretty pleased with them.

A Tragedy May Have Struck

It’s too early to tell for sure, but my favorite hand soap may have ceased to exist.  I’ve mentioned this before: Bath and Body Works moisturizing hand soap has been the best hand soap I had ever used, hands down.  It smells great and it has prevented my hands from cracking and bleeding for about 18 months now, which is remarkable given the degree to which my hands historically dry out.  And I’ve successfully converted a large handful of people to it.

They just changed their product line.

I just bought the “new and improved” hand soap and used it for the first time.  I of course tried my favorite one.  But it made my hands smell more perfumy than usual and not as good.  I’m not sure if I like it anymore.  Maybe it’s just in my head.  I’m holding off on passing final judgment for a few days.  This might devastate my life.  (Not to mention the nuisance it will be to have to return 21 bottles of hand soap.  And yes, that is how many I bought.)

Women's Night Out

Apparently the Saturday night of General Conference weekend is a pretty good time to go to Bath and Body Works. For some reason they think that lots of women are going to be out shopping together. They had quite a few discounts and specials, calling it Women's Night Out. So I got $35 of merchandise for only $16.

While I'm on the subject, I originally went to buy some of the best hand soap I've come across: Bath and Body Works' Anti-Bacterial Moisturizing Hand Soap.  I typically have problems with dry skin—to the point of cracking and bleeding at times.  I've been using this hand soap in my kitchen and bathroom for about a year now and I haven't had any such problems since then.  Many of the flavors also smell fantastic.  My favorite is Black Raspberry Vanilla. I recommend it.

My First Attempt at Poetry

I just purchased Hamlet a couple of days ago and am inviting people over to watch it this week. I've seen excerpts from a number of film versions of Hamlet and seen a couple all the way through. From everything I've seen so far, the one I like the best is the Kenneth Branagh version released in 1996. That's the one I bought and that we'll be watching.

When I started making the Facebook event on Saturday to invite people over I decided it'd be really cool to write the description in Shakespearean style. So after hours of looking up words, thinking, and writing on Saturday and Sunday, I have my first attempt at blank verse:

Come, I beseech thee, and sequacious be,
And fain aside thy dreary labors lay.
For an evening hence we shall display
The tragic story of young Hamlet prince.

Methinks the show four hours shall run,
Howbeit pause we and some refreshment take.
I shall some dish of culinary art prepare
And twain shall we partake therein and thr'out.

If it thy desire be, an off'ring shalt thou bring—
For then from thence we haply shall indulge
And betwixt us all a feast we'll make thereby;
Thus on the sweetness of much snackage dine.

Come hither to meet ere seven o'clock,
For straitly we shall start forthwith.
I prithee thus that prompt ye be,
Soas to end afore the witching hour strike.

Therefore straightway set thy mind to attend,
For I palter not, and again implore thee:
Decide anon and set thy mind to come
And repugn thee not then mine entreaty.

I have always considered poetry beyond my personal ability. Perhaps I need to revise my perspective and make more attempts. Ultimately I would like to write a poem about the clouds. But that's probably pretty far down the road. First I've got to make something rhyme.

Special thanks to Andrew, whose poetic attempts have inspired me to make some of my own.

The 75th Anniversary of The Joy of Cooking

A couple of years ago in early 2006 I discovered one of the best cookbooks ever published: the Joy of Cooking. If I remember correctly, my roommate Nick checked it out from the BYU library and we both fell in love with it. It wasn't long before we both bought copies. When we bought them then, the newest version was the 1997 edition.

About the Joy of Cooking
The Joy of Cooking was originally published in 1931 by Irma Rombauer. Since then it has been revised and reprinted a half dozen times. It has been in continuous print since 1936 with over 18 million copies sold. It is considered a staple in many kitchens, including many commercial kitchens. A more complete history can be found on the Joy of Cooking website.

The Joy of Cooking is unlike many cookbooks. It is encyclopedic in feel and scope. It is over 1,000 pages and has chapters that cover a very wide variety of topics: sauces, soups, seafood, meat, game, breads, cakes, pies and pastries, vegetables, and candy to name only a few. Each chapter is quite thorough in addressing the entire topic. It talks about the history and customs associated with the categories and subcategories, as well as all of the information you need to become well versed in cooking a particular kind of food. Then it has gobs of tried and true recipes for each variation it talks about. If you need to know just about anything about cooking something, the Joy of Cooking is the place to turn.

There are over 4,000 recipes in the book, and the recipes are organized differently than typical. The ingredients are listed in the middle of the recipes. They are in list format and bold so you can very easily see all of the ingredients in a recipe, but it is far more convenient when you are making a recipe to have the quantity and ingredients right where you are in the recipe. Apparently this also makes the recipes more compact so that many more can be included in the same number of pages.

The Newest Edition
I recently discovered by accident that a new 2006 edition of the Joy of Cooking came out shortly after I purchased my copy of the 1997 edition. I also found out that the 1997 edition was one of the least popular editions because it departed from the historic voice and feel of the historic Joy of Cooking. The 1997 edition was much more formal in presentation and tone. The 2006 edition returns to the informal feel of the older editions, adds back in several sections that were removed from the 1997 edition, adds several more sections that have never been previously included, and has over 500 additional recipes (making a total of 4500 recipes).

Needless to say, I ordered a copy. It arrived today.

The new edition is well constructed. It has 1132 pages and uses a slightly more compact font than the 1997 edition. The layout is much the same, but does have a few tweaks that make it a little easier to find things. I've looked up many of the recipes I've used and sections I've read and find it to be as good or better than my old 1997 edition. There are a number of differences in recipes, though, so I expect to use them both regularly.

To give you a feel for the scope that it covers, here's the complete Table of Contents:

1. A History of the Joy of Cooking
   
2. Nutrition
3. Entertaining
4. Menus
5. Beverages
   
6. Wine and Beer
7. Cocktails and Party Drinks
8. Appetizers and Hors d'Oeuvres
9. Brunch, Lunch, and Supper Dishes
10. Stocks and Soups
11. Salads
12. Sandwiches, Wraps, and Pizza
13. Egg Dishes
14. Fruits
15. Vegetables
16. Pasta, Noodles, and Dumplings
17. Grains
18. Shellfish
19. Fish
20. Poultry and Wildfowl
21. Meat
22. Game
23. Stuffings
24. Savory Sauces, Salad Dressings, Marinades, and Rubs
25. Breads and Coffee Cakes
26. Pancakes, Waffles, Fritters, and Doughnuts
27. Pies and Pastries
28. Cakes and Cupcakes
29. Cookies and Bars
30. Icings, Toppings, and Glazes
31. Desserts
32. Frozen Desserts and Sweet Sauces
33. Candies and Confections
34. Keeping and Storing Food
35. Canning, Salting, Smoking, and Drying
36. Freezing
37. Jellies and Preserves
38. Pickles and Relishes
39. Know Your Ingredients
40. Cooking Methods and Techniques
41. Index

The index alone is 60 pages long; taking that into account gives an average of 26.8 pages and 112.5 recipes per chapter. That's about 4.2 recipes per page overall, though there are usually a couple of pages of introduction at the beginning of each chapter talking about the topic.

How to Get It
I don't own many cookbooks: this newest one brings the total to 4 (and 2 of them are the Joy of Cooking). I love and use them all, but the Joy of Cooking is certainly the most referenced. I got it from Amazon. They currently have it for $23.10 with free shipping (if you spend over $25). It's definitely worth the price; it'd be worth the price even if it cost a lot more. If you don't want to wait for shipping (which I can totally understand—the last week has been excruciating) and you are willing to pay a bit more, I am sure that Barnes and Noble and Borders both have it in stock. The list price for the book is $35.00, but they may have it for less. I absolutely recommend purchasing it.

The Coolest Jump Drive Ever

A few months ago I bought a new jump drive. I still get utility from its design and size (both its physical size and mental capacity) every time I use it.

When I first came to BYU I bought a jump drive. It was a cutting edge 512 MB drive. I used it for a while, but it didn't last long because most of my computering happened on my computer at my apartment and I didn't have much need to take my files anywhere else. And it was annoying to carry around—it was like 2½ inches long and ¾ inches wide. I didn't want to have something that big in my pocket all the time, and I'm certainly not going to wear it around my neck.

It didn't take long for me to move away from using my jump drive and start using SD cards. I used a Pocket PC regularly at the time, so I could use my SD card on my Pocket PC or with a jump drive sized SD card reader. That worked really well for a while, but again the size of the SD card reader discouraged me from carrying it around everywhere (or anywhere, for that matter).

I eventually solved the problem by setting my computer up so I could remotely access it from anywhere. Then I didn't need to carry a jump drive and could get to any of my files at any time, so long as I had the internet. That was really cool and worked great; I quit using a jump drive or SD cards and just left everything on my computer.

When I moved to my new apartment, my computer situation changed drastically. The internet was incredibly slow, so I preferred working on campus. Also, I don't manage my own network anymore, so I can't setup my computer quite the same way. I can still get to it from anywhere if I need to, but it's not as easy or as fast of a connection. So the necessity of having a jump drive has returned.

In approaching this problem, I knew that I would need to be pretty selective in which jump drive I got. If I found a great price for a jump drive I wouldn't carry around then I'd just be wasting my money to buy it, 'cause I wouldn't use it. It was worth spending some time looking and a little bit extra money to get the one that I wanted and would use. So I started seriously searching for a jump drive I could love, treasure, and prize enough to have as my faithful companion and carry around with me everywhere.

It didn't take long to find The One Jump Drive: the 8GB Sony MicroVault, pictured at the right (pay special attention to the cloud-like aura—that took over an hour). It only took a few days to confirm that there isn't any better jump drive on the market. Now I've had my jump drive for several months. I think I love it more now than I did when I first got it. If you were going to marry or make out with a jump drive, this would be the one. I named mine Jacobi.

I bought Jacobi back in December for about $40 including shipping. Notice the first caution listed on the above website: "If swallowed, promptly see a doctor." This may seem odd at first, but it's there for good reason. The drive itself is smaller than an SD card. It measures 1.25" × 0.56" × 0.19". It is the smallest jump drive I have ever seen. It is small enough that I can carry it in my wallet. And my wallet is pretty compact. Check out how small it is (click to make it bigger):To make Jacobi even cooler, I'm running 256 bit AES encryption on half of it (AES encryption has been authorized for use in encrypting data up to the Top Secret level by the US Government). If I ever lost Jacobi I'd probably cry. But at least all of the data I have stored on it would be irretrievable without the appropriate decryption password. I've set up Jacobi to autorun so when it is plugged into a computer it automatically starts the encryption software and prompts for the password to mount the encrypted volume (named Dedekind).

And the final touch: the icon for Jacobi in My Computer looks just like my jump drive. And it's scalable. The picture actually changes to a different picture with appropriate resolutions depending on the size at which the icon is currently being displayed. Look at the picture to see what I mean (click on it to enlarge).

So my jump drive is about the coolest jump drive I've ever seen. If you haven't met Jacobi in person, ask me about it next time you see me.

My New Tablecloth

I really like tablecloths. I first bought one a couple of years ago when I was living in the Grange. The table was very large, so I bought a blue tablecloth to fit it. It added a lot to the kitchen there, though I didn't use it as often as I expected because it would always get dirty fast. We didn't have much counter space in that apartment, which made it a lot worse.

A little more than a week ago I got out my tablecloth and put it on the table in my apartment. I had to fold it over because it was so long, but it looked really good. The color complimented everything very nicely and made the kitchen a lot more pleasant to be in. I was really amazed at how well my roommates and I did at keeping it clean. It wasn't until I finally did take it off to wash it that I realized just how much I liked having it. So I decided I needed to buy a new tablecloth that was the right size for my current table.

Today I went to Bed Bath and Beyond with that purpose. They had one particular style of tablecloth that I really liked, and they had it in a couple of perfect colors. The price sealed the deal: it was only $15. This particular brand advertised that it would be stain resistant and resistant to absorbing liquids (because it was made of microfiber polyester). I think most tablecloths advertise that. I'm pretty sure that my last one did. It is true that it has never stained, but I use Clorox Oxy Magic (which deserves an entire blogpost of its own) whenever I wash my clothes, which means I don't get stains on anything--so I'm not sure how much of its stain resistance can really be attributed to the tablecloth itself.

Along with my tablecloth, I also found cloth napkins that were exactly what I've been looking for: bright white with a subtle yet elegant design, and made of a cloth that feels perfect: soft and well made. They were also made of microfiber polyester, so neither they nor my tablecloth would ever need any ironing.

I was pretty excited about my new tablecloth and napkins. When I rang up at the register the very attractive cashier asked me if I'd ever had one of those particular tablecloths before. I said I hadn't but that I was pretty excited to get it. She said that she has several and likes them so much she won't use anything else. How could my purchase get any better?

I washed my tablecloth and napkins promptly after getting home and put the tablecloth on the table. It is a very dark navy blue and looks as sharp in my kitchen as I was hoping.

Several hours later, as I was eating dinner I decided I should probably see just how it behaved when I spilled water on it, so I timidly poured a very small drop of water on the tablecloth. To my absolute amazement and astonishment the water did bead up on the tablecloth and didn't soak in at all. I poured a bit more on and none of it soaked in. I wiped it off with a paper towel and the tablecloth wasn't even wet!

After pouring water on it several times I was so surprised at its amazing behavior I went and got my camera. I took pictures of about a dozen different water spills ranging from a few drops to large bodies of water. Check out these before and after pictures (click on any of the pictures to enlarge them):










Then I started making videos. You really need to check out the video I made below. I've watched it dozens of times and it still amazes me every time. This was filmed after I had poured several full glasses of water on the tablecloth and cleaned it off. After all that the tablecloth was still dry.

So then I had to find out how much it could take. I left a pool of water on it for over 20 minutes--it still didn't soak in at all--it just sat there in a pool. At the end of the 20 minutes it wiped right off and the tablecloth was still dry.

So then I spilled some food on it (chicken curry) and let it sit for a minute. I wiped it off with a wet dishrag. It took a little bit of scrubbing, but not much. When I had cleaned it off the tablecloth finally looked wet for the first time, and it took it a little while to dry. After it had dried, the difference at the spot where I had spilled the curry was so subtle that the only way you can see it is if you stand at just the right angle and know where you are supposed to look, or if you pour water on the spot (it looks different, but still doesn't soak in). No one would notice it. I'm sure that washing it (which I am currently doing) will get rid of the spot.

So now I've come to the same conclusion as the cashier: I don't intend to use any other tablecloths. I have fallen in love with this one. I am so pleased with my new tablecloth that I will be buying another one just like it early next week, only this one will be black.