My Grandpa, Ed Serbin, passed away this morning. He’s been battling colon cancer for some time and treatment wasn’t working. He has been in the hospital for a few weeks after suffering a fall from the cancer spreading.

My Grandpa David Block passed away when I was 10 and I only have a handful of vivid memories of him, but definitely not as many as I would have hoped for. I’m not sure when I first met Ed, but he has always felt like a grandpa to me and he always treated me like a grandson.

We last spoke over the phone on the 9th. He’s always been a witty and silly guy, for as long as I can remember. He still had that spirit in him when we talked. He was still making jokes, saying he fell from all the whiskey and people pushin him around. And that the hospital food was better than my Grandma’s :) That was one of his favorites.

We shared a nice laugh and he gave me some advice. Last thing I said was I love you. Nothing could top that, but it would have been really nice to see him one last time. I’ll miss you Ed. RIP

I’m still gathering some pictures together, and I am trying to find an essay I wrote in grade school about his experience in WW2.

We have a separate garbage can for recycling. It’s a cheap plastic one, and we use a plastic bag to line it. The plastic bag is pretty tight on the can so it creates an air sealant. You either have to try to push all the air out when you put the bag in, or you have to pull the bag off once you get stuff in there to push the air out. Or both, or neither as someone I’m living with seems to think ;)

Well that gets annoying, so I drilled a few holes in the back to vent the air out. Same principle as having air holes in the tops of water bottles, etc. Problem solved!

When I was in high school I used to have these nice Bose headphones, purchased with a pile of Best Buy gift cards and birthday money. It was often difficult for me to fall asleep without getting up and doing push-ups, or something that made me completely exhausted. At some point I found that listening to music (some pretty loud music) would put me to sleep without having to work myself into a sweat.

Over the years I’ve just lost appreciation for good sound. After I misplaced my Bose headphones during college I got a pair of Bose earbuds from my parents. In the past couple years, those plus about 10 other cheap pairs have gone by the wayside. Mostly because my cats are huge music fans and rock out so hard in the middle of he night that the cord gets ruined. I swear, they steal them from my backpack and put them back in the morning.

I’ve gotten really good at soldering ruined headphones back together. I should probably make some kind of video tutorial on it (although they are already out there). Well, last week someone mentioned these buds on reddit.com saying they were amazing for only 8$, including free shipping with Amazon Prime (I <3 being a student). 8$?! Okay, I'll bite.

Today: They are incredible. The bass is amazing for buds and the whole range is excellent. I’m a believer; these are as audiophile as I need, and now I’m continuing to spread the good word. Despite their goofy look and that they are relatively large, but all the better for deeper bass. The cord is unique and made of fabric instead of plastic, so it might stand up to heavy cat usage (I’ve tried teaching them about proper headphone usage), but probably not.

There is only one side stock tip included and it is a bit on the large side. They fit pretty snug in my ear once you get the buds rotated the correct way (the cord should almost be pointing along your eye-line), they are quite comfortable. I have amassed quite a few extra tips from other earphones and they fit well onto the end of these headphones, so if you have a good pair of tips you might be able to just pop them onto these buds. One additional con, after the headphones split from the main cord to the separate buds, it’s easy to pick up the vibrations from the rustling of the cords. It’s a bit louder than on other headphones.

One additional con for me, I like headphones with mics embedded since I’m listening to music on my phone all day. Just tap an extra button for hands-free talking. Maybe the next model?