RE: Toys-R-Us
July 15, 2016 at 6:43 am
(This post was last modified: July 15, 2016 at 6:46 am by I_am_not_mafia.)
(July 14, 2016 at 9:32 pm)Tres Leches Wrote: I bought a new pernambuco violin bow for myself last Christmas. I was so excited I felt like I was starting a new relationship.
Blimey! I just checked the prices on them. I was checking prices on violin bows last night when I opened my case to find a whole wad of hairs had come loose. I think I would have been distraught if it had been a really good bow.
I have no idea what bow came with the violin. It's a second hand Hidersine Veracini violin.
(July 14, 2016 at 9:32 pm)Tres Leches Wrote: I badly want a pair of Bose noise-cancelling headphones to finally block out the shouty, obnoxious woman who sits next to me at work and manic-ly prattles on and on about her life every day. I listen to earbuds, which block out everything but this clown! I need heavier equipment but the Bose headphones are expensive.
As I mentioned on the classical music thread my old pair of Bose noise cancelling headphones broke recently. I bought them back in 2002. I've actually managed to fix them again by opening them up and resoldering the contacts but not before buying a new pair. The noise cancelling is so much better on the new pair. The old pair had a constant white noise which the new pair doesn't.
Apart from that one point where my stupid boss was on the phone and twiddled with the cable in his fingers they were treated very carefully. I'm still angry at him even now. Although sometimes they got a little squashed when packed away tightly in a handbag. The ear muffs finally disintegrated on me about 10 years later and Bose no longer stocked the parts. I had to find someone who made them but they weren't as comfortable. You can easily wear them with the genuine Bose ear pads comfortably all day. So knowing that my old pair lasted 14 years, I'm going to make sure the new pair lasts just as long if not longer. I'm aiming for 20 years.
And this time I bought spare ear pads and a cable for it while I can still buy spares. And just like last time, a new model came out literally a week after I bought it.
I don't see them as a luxury though but a necessity. Especially now my colleague chews gum and sucks sweets all day long. If it wasn't for these new headphones I'd be in HR's office right now and my colleague would have a face with a keyboard stuck in it.
When I bought my first pair I was living in student accommodation with a bunch of MSc students who acted like very loud kids. The day I received them they had a massive party right next to my room separated only by a very thin wall. The headphones allowed me to continue working.
The headphones do better with constant low noise rather than high pitched inconsistent squawks but they still help. They may seem expensive, but not compared to a hi-fi and not when you consider how long they last if you look after them. Use them on a long plane or train journey and at the end of it everyone will be visibly tired and you'll stay relatively relaxed and fresh.
I bought a big plastic box to store them in the office rather than pack them away in the carry case because I'm guessing that after 10 years the internal metal contacts in the jack socket might start getting a bit loose if I keep plugging a cable into it.
