2007
Etymotic Research ER6 Earbuds for iPhone
One of the unexpected byproducts of getting the iPhone is that I’m listening to a lot more music on the go. There are two primary reasons for this. The most important one is that my phone is almost always with me (unlike an iPod). Since the iPhone is much more than a phone, but is my phone, I now almost always have music with me. The second reason is that the experience is just so nice that I really enjoy using it. The integration of the phone and music player into the same device has some nice other benefits, like still being able to receive a call while walking around the city or working out and listening to music, or books, or podcasts.
Listening to more music I decided to do an upgrade of the earbuds that come with the iPhone. The included buds are okay, but you can do better. This is a tricky upgrade however. The iPhone comes with the customized headphones that have a mic in them for making phone calls (which is great by the way, it’s really nice to do calls with both ears). Of course you can plug in normal headphones and they work fine, but with less functionality.
UltimateBuds came to the rescue with an innovative approach. You can send them your iPhone headphones and they will detach the Apple earbuds and put the Etymotic ER6i earbuds on in there place. The microphone functionality is not affected, since it is still the same headphone set. Brilliant! I opted for this and sent my headphones in a week ago. The turnaround time was fast and the quality of the replacement is great.
I’ve now been able to try my modified Etymotic ER6’s in a variety of conditions and I am very pleased. I’m typing this while using them on a plane and having used noise cancelling headphones as well, these are far superior. The thing that takes some getting used to with the ER6’s is that they don’t really sit in your ear like typical buds do. They are rather just speakers designed for your ear canal. They go deeper into your and that takes a little getting used to. The sound is great though. Detail comes through crisply, bass is reproduced with depth and boom. Two thumbs up!
My only challenge with them thus far has been on an airplane. I’m a bit more sensitive than most to air pressure and ears. I found that placing the headphones in with a complete “seal” made for a lot of pressure on my ear. Working the earbud around a bit makes it okay though.
If your looking for better sound on the go with your iPhone, and don’t want to sacrifice the microphone, this is a great option.
At Minnesota Renaissance Festival. Got a cape and a staff to go with it! Very busy today! Hazzah!
Just played a bit of network Battle Tetris. Wow!
Mazie's First RenFest
This weekend we were adventurous and decided to take Mazie to her first Renaissance Festival! And just to keep things really interesting, we brought Izzy along as well. It was awesome. Everyone had a great time. Mazie really enjoyed it and had fun with just everything going on. Izzy did well, and was very interested when she realized there were bones laying around.
Went to the Minnesota Renaissance Festival with Mazie and Izzy. Was a total success! Yeah Family Thingelstad! 🙌
At Rafferty’s Pizza in Nisswa! 🍕
Amazing sky tonight. Unfortunately too late to roll out the telescope.
At King of Kong.
Mario Strikers Charged for Wii
I just got this game. I'm a total "noob" and am horrible, but if you want a
laugh my friend code is 232036 674634. We'll see how I do with this, I'm
not great at the Madden games and this is a sports game, but it's got a
lot of play in it.
I’m not really understanding why Strikers doesn’t just use whatever existing friend connections I’ve established on my Wii. I’m excited about Super Mario Kart coming to the Wii later this year, and am now wondering if it to will have a 12 digit friend code. We’re going to drowned in ridiculously long strings of numbers on the Wii!
By the way, my Wii system code is 4563 6523 0984 7710. That’s really
easy to remember too right? It feels like I have a bunch of old
Compuserve email addresses. :-)
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Uptown Art Fair 2007
My favorite art fair in the cities was a couple of weeks ago, the Uptown Art Fair. (Post from 2005 Tammy and I did our usual routine, going on Friday to check it out, and then going back on Saturday to get our Anniversary present. Some of the artists that were highlights for us.
Gabe Lanza
We decided our purchase was going to be one of Lanza’s paintings. We both really liked this piece entitled “G0L147H vs. Davidia”. It is very wide, and the colors have an interesting depth to them while being muted. The theme is also cool, a futuristic take on the story of David and Goliath.
John Turula
We really liked Turula’s art as well. We have one of his sculptures from when he and Russ Vogt were working together. He’s branched out into some new areas that are really cool.
Russ Vogt
Vogt continues to do some really cool stuff with outdoor sculpture. Nice stuff.
Beth Bojarski
Tammy is a big fan of Beth Bojarski’s work. She was at the Uptown Art Fair a few years ago but we didn’t get one of her paintings. She’s regretted not getting one, so this year we had to make up for that mistake and get one of her items. It’s hard to describe her work, I really can’t do it justice. Wait for her website to get launched so you can see it yourself.
Wendy & Marvin Hill
These block prints are really stunning. The complexity of them, and dozens of layers, draw your eye in for a very long time. I’ll definitely keep an eye out on their work.
Son Volt at the Zoo
I’ve been seeing Jay Farrar play music for around 15 years now. It started with Uncle Tupelo, continued with Son Volt through his solo work and now with the 2nd version of Son Volt. In those 15 years, I’ve never seen him jamming the way he did at the Minnesota Zoo last week. Wow!
Son Volt’s newest album, The Search, has some really great tracks and it plays even better live. The entire band really looked like they were having a lot of fun, and that made the whole concert just great. Farrar even said a few words a couple of times, which is incredible for him.
How odd is it that I saw the Beastie Boys in an old pool, and the following night Son Volt at a zoo. Two great shows, in very odd places, back to back.
Beastie Boys Bombard Brooklyn
No Sleep Till Brooklyn! That was the last song that the Beastie Boys played at the McCarren Pool in their first ever concert in Brooklyn, NY. I was there to enjoy it all!
I had a nice alignment of business travel and concert schedules and picked up tickets to go see the Beastie Boys in this limited tour following their recent release, The Mix-up. I got to have some great Mexican food and margaritas by Union Square, and then hopped onto the L train to head to Brooklyn. The Beastie’s put on an amazing show in a great venue. It was an outdoor show held in the now-empty McCarren Pool. The weather was great and the Beastie’s laid down some huge beats. They put things together in concert that were just great, mixing old and new songs together into new mashups with giant bass tracks.
If you haven’t seen the Beastie’s, you should make a big effort to check them out in concert.
Last Wednesday night Jim and I decided to go see a Mets game while in NY for business. We took a long train ride on the 7 out to Shea Stadium and picked up some tickets. We got some absolutely great tickets off of the 3rd base side. This was my second time at Shea, and oddly both times they were playing Atlanta. It was a lot of fun to see the game with Jim who knows more about baseball than I could ever know. He filled me in on some great trivia about the Mets that made me enjoy the game even more.
It was a great night. The game was awesome, with the Mets holding off the Braves for the win. The Mets fans are simply the best. These people express every range of human emotion, amplified to 11, through the course of a single game. Top it off with a wonderful evening outside, even though it was hotter and more humid than any of us would have liked. Baseball is meant to be played in that type of venue. As Jim said, “we could be watching a herd of goats grazing and it would still be great”. You bet! It will be great when the Twins get their new stadium.
Now I just have to figure out how to get to a Yankees game!
Last week I called home while on my way to a meeting in New York. To my surprise when the phone was answered Mazie was on the other end saying “Hello Daddy!”. Immediately beaming, I responded with “Hello Mazie! How are you doing?” Mazie isn’t much of a talker on the phone but I coaxed out of her that her babies were up already and that she had slept well.
Then I heard Tammy’s voice. I figured Tammy had answered the phone and had given it to Mazie. Nope! Turns out she picked it up and answered it herself. Tammy had stepped outside for a moment. How cool. Mazie’s first phone call. 🙂
John Lennon’s “Imagine” may be the best song ever written.