Faulty Goods
10 May 2012
All seemed well when I opened the outer packaging, it was nicely packed and the box didn't appear to have any signs of damage. However, when I went to open the main packaging itself it I noticed that the plastic seal covering the tab appeared to have signs that it had been opened before (the edge was slightly crumpled). Inspecting the inner packing, I noticed that there were further signs of imperfections on the cardboard. When I looked at the headphones themselves I saw that there was a tiny bit of damage on the corner of the padding on one of the ear-cups. It wasn't that big a deal and I could live with it, but still, it was a little disappointing.
The main problem arose when I plugged them into my computer speakers to test the sound quality. I started the music track on 50% volume and immediately noticed that there was something not quite right about the headphones. It seemed as though the volume on the left side was slightly lower than on the right, but only by a little bit. When I turned the volume up a little bit more to try and confirm my suspicions, a horribly noticeable distortion materialised from the left-hand driver. This pretty much confirmed it - I had a faulty pair of headphones.
I was really disappointed as I had been looking forward to using these new headphones. They look really good and feel comfortable when wearing them. It's just a shame that they're faulty. I've sent an e-mail to the online retailer that I bought them from requesting a replacement, but I'll have to wait until tomorrow morning to see how they reply. I probably won't get a new set until next week now which is a shame. I just hope that the exchange process goes smoothly and there aren't any delays.
Posted byHocchan at 3:56 pm 0 comments
Labels: Daily Life
Soredemo Suki!
09 May 2012
For some reason I've recently become a big fan of Sashihara Rino from AKB48. It may have something to do with her '300 Google+ updates in 24-hours' challenge that she completed last week. Previously, in 2010 and 2011 she had undertaken and successfully completed similar challenges of 100 and 200 updates respectively to her Ameba blog in 24-hours, but this year's challenge seemed to be nigh on impossible. After all, you have to average a rate of one update every five minutes (without breaks) for 24-hours. But somehow, perhaps through Sashihara's well-known determination, she managed to complete the endeavour with an hour to spare. I followed her updates on Google+ for the whole day, trying to '+1' all of her updates and give her some fan support. I wasn't the only one who had the same idea though. Pretty much within a minute of an update being posted the 500 comments maximum threshold would be reached.
It was really heart-warming to see all the messages of support for Sashihara. I was slightly irritated with all the idiots who just post stupid comments containing a single letter or number, but you get those attention-seeking morons wherever you go so it can't be helped. This challenge was a rather pointless activity in the grand scheme of things but it really does show how much of a hard worker Sashihara is. From everything I've seen of her in the past, she'll always put 100% in everything she does. I really admire her spirit. I just wish she wouldn't always be so negative about herself. Although that extreme humbleness is also one of the attributes that attracts people to her, so I don't think she should try to change too much. I'll be cheering her on what ever she does.
PS. I really loved her first solo single それでも好きだよ (Soredemo suki da yo). Just a shame that she didn't manage to beat Nogizaka46's single in the Oricon weekly ranking.Posted byHocchan at 12:36 am 0 comments
Labels: AKB48
So Near And Yet So Far
07 May 2012
I've been meaning to write an update for a little while now but I've been too busy stressing out over my Japanese portfolio to actually find the energy to do it. I swear, the Japanese module this year has been so much more stressful than all of the other modules combined; including the dissertation! I don't know what it is but I've seemingly lost all confidence in Japanese. I don't feel like I've progressed very much at all this year, even though we've been studying some fairly high level material.
I guess it just seems like there's not been any sort of structure to the teaching. Apart from the few weeks of keigo practice we had, the lessons seem to be jumping about from topic to topic without giving us enough time to soak it all in. Plus I'm in effect taking seven modules worth of classes this year so the workload has been higher than before, meaning that I can't put as much energy into Japanese as I did in the first or second year. I've had to prioritise my other subjects since they're worth more marks in the overall scheme of things.
There are only a few weeks left to go now before I finish my undergraduate degree, but it still feels like I've got a small mountain of obstacles in front of me. I just hope I can somehow make it to the finishing line. After that I'm going to have to work out what my aims are for the next few years. I know I definitely want to go back to Japan for the long-term, but I've not figured out exactly how I'm going to achieve that. That's something I'll have to seriously think about in the next couple of months.
Posted byHocchan at 3:04 pm 0 comments
Labels: Daily Life, University
