Jlab J3 Jbuds Ear phones Review

I should probably preface this review by stating that I am not an audiophile. 
I would also like to say that the word audiophile has been hijacked by people who like using terms such as loss-less format, dynamic range, and Nyquist limit.  When not using these terms, audiophiles spend the remainder of their day cursing at 13 year olds on World of Warcraft, while listening to Yes on vinyl in their mothers basement.
When you append a word with phile, it means that there is a love for something.  Thus, necrophilia is the love of corpses. (and by love, I don't mean true love)  Turophilia is the love of cheese.  Lame-ophilia means you enjoy watching the Bachelorette.  Pornophilia describes 85% of American men.

Do I love listening to music?  Yes.  So would you consider me an audiophile?  No.
If I want to stay in my WOW guild, they won't let me refer to myself as an audiophile.

When my most recent pair of ear buds died, I jumped onto Amazon and searched for new buds. (sorting by lowest price duh)
I try to weigh good reviews and good prices, thus anything with Shure in the title immediately jumped out of my price range.  I ran across the line of Jlab ear buds, and the J3 buds were right in my price range. ($19.99)
Reviews were mixed, but trended towards the positive.  If there were an audiophile filter on the reviews, these buds would be close to 5 stars.  As it stood, they sit just under 4 stars on Amazon.

I will rate the ear buds in the categories I believe are most important.

Comfort:
I have junior size ear-holes.  I truly believe that when I'm in my 70's and ear hair has taken full root in my ear-holes, that the hair will create a web so thick, it will lead me to believe I'm hard of hearing.  I'll purchase hearing aids when all I really need is a good pair of shears.  I suppose it could be worse.  I don't want such large openings so that birds attempt to nest inside.
The point is that I need a "just-right" fit when buying ear buds.  I can't do any of the hard-shell ear buds as they hurt after 5 minutes or so.  The J3's have 3 different sizes of squishy ear bud tips that fit just right and seal off noise from the outside.  I prefer the medium size, and can wear them for multiple hours without any pain.

Sound:
Jlab actually provides a burn-in process on their website for their ear buds.  They suggest multiple hours of this "noise" and then your buds will perform at peak performance.  I quickly hooked up my ear buds to my computer, and streamed the noise.
I can honestly say that there is a difference between the performance of the buds before and after the burn-in.  What is it?  I don't know, but my brain thinks they sound better now, and we're going with it.
The bass is sufficient, the outside noise is minimal, and the higher frequencies sound nice.  Quality sound.  Listening to Paula Abdul's Straight up now tell me at medium volume levels with these buds really gets the heart a thumping.

Ear Wax quotient:
I am a religious ear-wax cleaner.  Every morning I scrape my ears until they bleed as ear wax makes me cringe.  That being said, every now and again, stray ear wax clumps can accumulate on the buds.  Luckily, the soft tips are easy to remove and place in your mouth to clean.

Peripherals:
The buds come with a nifty hard case, different sizes of ear bud tips, and are shipped with "frustration-free" packaging.  The case is a life-saver, and will greatly extend the life of the buds.  The frustration-free packaging just means that you don't need a knife, screwdriver, and teeth of steel to get the package open.

Miscellaneous:
One knock I have is the length of the cord.  When my mp3 player sits in my pocket, there is just barely enough cord to reach my ears.  I would definitely have issues cranking some James Brown is Dead while playing Twister.
Another minor complaint is the residual noise coming from the ear buds while running or exercising.  If the cord bounces up and down and hits your arms/back, you'll hear this.  Luckily, my large quantities of back hair seem to dampen this noise.

The ear buds come in multiple colors including Paparazzi Pink and Electric Blue.  On a separate note, Jlab has fired their marketing color scheme naming team.

These ear buds are honestly a fantastic value, and sound pretty darn good.  For the cost of a nice lunch at Good Wood, you can get quality ear buds that are backed by a 1-year warranty.  I've put in hundreds of hours in the few months I've owned them, and their still going strong.  A solid 4-star rating.

Read more »

Firing a Friend Review

Have you ever had the opportunity to break a heart or crush a man’s soul? Look him in the eye and tell him he isn’t good enough? Recognize that he is just 5 years away from retiring with a 20+ year career at the same company, and yet still drop him like a bad habit? Well my friends, as a newly appointed member of engineering middle management, that is exactly what I had to do. There will be a special place in hell for me, I know, but I did everything I could….really.

Consider the following: I am a strapping 33 year old who was offered a position as manager over a small group of engineers after 9 years at a large tech. company. Problem number one is the fact that I am the youngest member of the group and after 9 years working next to these guys, I’m now the supervisor. With the change also came the new charter of being a stronger, more efficient, do-more-with-less group. We are the stragglers after at least 3 rounds of lay-offs over the last few years and we are tasked with finding some way to keep our company afloat in this madness we call an economy.

So I go to work. I meet with everyone, but honestly, I didn’t really need to. Over the last several years it has become obvious who does what. Everyone understands the company’s situation and is already doing way more than should be expected, well… everyone but Frank, that is. Frank, as we will call him, is a 62 year old engineer who has been working quietly in the background at our company for 20+ years. He doesn’t talk much, comes in at 6:30am on the dot, and leaves at 3:30pm exactly. He hasn’t really produced anything useful in the entire time I have been there, but he is staring at his screen the entire time he is at work. He doesn’t screw around, but puts in his time doing something that looks like work. No socializing and no internet except when he is eating lunch at his desk, which he does every single day. All that time working, but nothing is being produced, nothing is ever delivered.

I take a look at his responsibilities and see that he has been given nothing but busy work as he is too slow to meet any reasonable deadline. He is in a protected class of aged workers, so the company has been very careful so as not to discriminate, and his previous boss kept him around basically as a buffer in case of another layoff. When confronted, our previous boss admitted that he didn’t trust him with any real work. Now he is my problem.

Formal analysis of the group’s workload shows that everyone is working overtime, has deadlines, is on-call, and is handling large numbers of high visibility projects. Again, everyone but Frank. This can’t continue, so I redistribute the workload. Frank is now expected to do everything that all the other members of the group are required to do. As you can imagine, this is more than a disturbance to Frank‘s routine. Oh, did I mention that Frank is probably the nicest guy you have ever met in your life. If you saw him and his ever-present smile, you would likely just walk up and give him a big hug.

Well, that change in his routine was the beginning of the end. The carnage that followed will forever live as a black mark on my soul. Frank took a stand. He recognized his protected class and his perceived experience in the industry. He challenged the system and refused my changes. I met with him weekly and over the next four months watched that infectious smile turn to a furrowed brow and a look of disgust every time I walked by. I set up goals for him, with deadlines, and he refused to partake. I offered more training, left him on his unique schedule, asked if there was anything I could do to help him succeed, but he was set in what he was doing and refused to adjust it. After working with H.R. to put him on corrective action, he made the worst move possible. He had a private meeting with my boss and said that I was harassing him with an undoable workload. Further investigation revealed that he hadn’t really produced anything of use in the last 10 years, so our company had paid him over a million dollars for, basically, nothing. Now, not only had he signed his own death warrant, but his old supervisor was in trouble for not handling this sooner…way sooner.

We proceeded with the three strikes of corrective action and when at last I had my exit interview with him, he seemed shocked that what was happening was even possible. Near the end, I had resorted to begging him, pleading for him to finish-up anything that would give me an out. Give me anything I can work with because once H.R. is involved, there is no room for subjective decisions. He did not. So night after night, I lost sleep wondering how the hell I was going to do what I had to do to someone I had known so long and really liked.

The other thing I couldn‘t understand is how he had seen coworker after coworker walked to the door with the countless layoffs that our industry has, yet it was beyond his grasp that he could be affected. He was oblivious to reality, the state of the company, and his place in it. When it came down to it, I so wished someone would have given him a severance package and handled it in a much less brutal, dignified way. However, I don’t have room for buffers in my group, every precious spot has to be filled with someone productive or we won‘t have a company much longer.

So I sat across the desk from him and told him it was done, that he was fired. He asked how much time he had to find another job, and again and I had to explain the obvious. No time, I had to escort him out right then. His things had been packed when he was on break. Alone, I walked him out the front door and as he left, he turned and looked at me with such distain and disgust that I thought he might hit me. It was awful, but it would have been much worse if he only knew what I knew, that he wasn’t qualified for the job he had, and probably hadn’t been for the last 10 years. That there is no way in the world he will ever get another job in this industry. That he wasn’t only done in our company, he is done in engineering, period. I removed him from his 20 year home, his job, his career, and his friends.

As I think of it now, it was reminiscent of the book Of Mice and Men. “Tell me about the rabbits George”………………BANG!

May God have mercy on my soul.

Read more »

Real Estate Intervention Season 3 Review

I've previously mentioned my obsession with home improvement reality shows. 
I enjoy the suffering of others, and this is what drew me to the previous seasons of Real Estate Intervention.
The premise is simple.  Take an agressive real estate agent who looks like Richard Moll with a mustache, and send him out with a cute chip-munk faced interior designer to tell people that their home for sale is unbelievably overpriced, and that their house looks like a set from Swiss Family Robinson. (I love that show)

In previous seasons, the producers were adept at finding the most delusional sellers in the country.  Many were upside down in their mortgage and asking 30% higher than they should.  Mike Aubrey (Richard Moll realtor) would take them around town looking at comparative homes, and a sold comp as well.  In the mean-time Sabrina Soto (Chip and Dale-esque designer) would get updates on their selling progress.
Aubrey would generally show them that their house was ridiculously over-priced, and that they needed to take one in the shorts or pull their house off the market.  The sellers generally wouldn't listen to his advice, and on the "3 months later update" portion of the show, they usually hadn't sold and were subletting the downstairs bedroom to a family of 9.
Mike Aubrey was the resident hard-ass.
Soto's job on the show was to get coffee with the sellers, and look pretty for the camera.

It actually was a pretty entertaining show. 

Not anymore.

This new season (season 3) is fairly similar to the others, but the creators have changed things...and for the worse.
They obviously thought that Soto was under-utilized, and now have half the show dedicated to her redecorating and helping stage the house.
Aubrey doesn't take the sellers to as many houses, and seems to have lost his "Simon Cowell" edge that made the show entertaining.
In addition, most of the sellers are generally likeable, and want to listen to the advice of the show---which usually means the house will sell.

A recent episode had an older couple selling their DC multi-level home for 1.8 million dollars because they had recently purchased a retirement home in Florida.  This will not draw in audiences.

I propose that if they renamed the show Trailer Park Intervention and only helped people sell trailers, the show would be a genuine hit.  Move over Pawn Stars.
Aubrey would have to grow a mullet to match his psuedo-stache in order to "mesh" with the locals.  They would go visit other trailers on the market, but would need to bring mace for the dogs, and marlboro reds to keep the kids busy.  Soto gets pregnant, and wears nothing but tube tops.  She outfits each trailer with a 6 foot tall felt picture of Jesus, and a neon Schlitz sign for the window to class up the place.  Rather than telling the sellers a price for their home, Bull Shannon-copycat instructs them on what would be the best trade for their trailer.  '82 Trans Am's would be worth at least a 34 foot double-wide.  6 20 guage shotguns and card good for one VHS rental per month at the corner store would garner at least a 14 foot mobile.

Consider the above paragraph "prior art."  Any attempt to steal this idea will be met with yelling and threats of lawsuits.

This feel-goody crap is not as interesting.  It's true that Moll-doppleganger still sports his chic mustache, but even that has lost its luster.  He drives around in BMW's and other luxury cars rather than a windowless van.
Soto tries to spice things up by wearing dresses that end 12 inches above her kneeline, but I'm not into inter-species relationships.

I tuned into this show for mental stress, financial loss, and credit-ruining circumstances.  I'm not getting this anymore.  It's officially pulled off my DVR schedule.  If you disagree, this show can still be found on HGTV.  Search porn-stache in your Tivo, and it should pop up.
1 boring star out of 5.

Read more »

The Bachelorette review

There is no preface that can make up for the following review. Nothing I say will make me look any better. But you know I'm going to try anyways.

Did I watch the latest season of the Bachelorette? Yes. Yes I did. Why did I subject myself to that torture? It all started with my wife watching the first episode and because I am a TV watcher, I sat to keep her company and make snide remarks continually throughout the show. That lasted up until the end of the episode when they showed a sneak preview of "Here's what's coming up on this season of the Bachelorette..." The preview clip showed drama, violence, jealousy, love, lust, and crutches. I knew at that moment I was doomed to watch the entire season.

I am going to also defend myself by stating that there is little to nothing to watch during the Summer TV season. I only watch Wipeout and So You Think You can Dance. It really is sad when the only things to view are reality TV. Other than those shows, I only watch shows and movies from Netflix streaming (which I'll review at a later date). I consider myself to have the greatest opinion when it comes to television shows. The shows that enjoy being in my top 10 are the best of the best. So it's a mystery why I watched and liked the bottom of the garbage dump, the bachelorette.

I would like to go on for a few paragraphs about how this is my wife's fault. But it would be a lie.

Anyways. I'm going to describe this season of the show in the straightest, masculine, and most cynical way possible.

Ali is a short blonde girl who is a 6.5 on her best day. She was on the last season of the Bachelor and didn't make it the the finale. So this time around she was the center of attention while two dozen men with chiseled jaws vied for her love and more air time. The show lasts about two months and a handful of men are sent home through a dramatic rose ceremony at the end of every episode/week. It's nearly hilarious when every week they say "Stay Tuned. Coming up is The. Most. Dramatic. Rose. Ceremony. Yet.

For people who eat this up, I hope they're really not experiencing all the drama, it could give them a heart attack if they buy into what the commercials say. Also, there isn't really any suspense to the "Rose Ceremony." If she has to eliminate 4 people that week you just look for the faces that you haven't seen during the episode at all. It's like an episode of Lost claiming that in the next episode "Someone. Will. Die." But then you just find out that it was the two characters who were introduced halfway into the third season. Who cares.

So there were all types of guys on the show. None of the competing men liked a wannabe pro wrestler nicknamed "Rated R." They claimed he was fake and in it for the fame. He told Ali he was genuine. And like the fake blonde she is, she believed him. That is, until the middle of the season when there was the stunner that he had a girlfriend back home and really was on the show to get famous. (Sorry pal, I don't think the WWE is looking for pansies that cry if they don't get a rose) Other than him there were very few memorable guys. There was the "sexy latin lover" who didn't have a personality but Ali was attracted to. There was a metro-sexual (I didn't know they existed anymore after 2003) guy who whined all of the time, but Ali was in love with. And there was a sincere guy from Cape Cod who didn't belong on the show because was too real. Don't worry, Ali didn't really like him because he was too nice. Well the metro guy dropped a bomb near the finale by going back to his ex girlfriend just because he was insecure and she wanted him back. I think Ali lost all interest at this point and just chose the "hot" latin guy with the butt chin in the finale.

Now of course they are engaged to be married. But I think in the 19 seasons of the Bachelor (4 seasons per year) there have only been 2 weddings. And who knows if they'll last.

But it's funny. I watched this show nearly every week. Then she chose the winner and I got that feeling. You know the one, where you think "Wow, I just wasted a part of my life on something really stupid..." I knew that if anything good was gonna become of this, it would be a semi-humorous review.

I'm going to give this show two stars. One for the drama that the producers were able to create every episode. The other because I kept watching. Now I'll just have to wait in suspense for the next season of the Bachelor, which I'm sure starts in 3 weeks.

Read more »