Mr. A-Z

Here's something for iPod junkies to think about:

(From a Family Edge email newsletter)
iPod Addicts are Tomorrow' Hard of Hearing
Hearing problems are set to multiply among users of portable music devices such as iPod because they are listening to their players at "excessive and damaging" levels, according to research by the National Acoustics Laboratories of Australia. Researchers surveyed people outside Sydney's Town Hall and Melbourne's Flinders Street train stations and found a quarter of them were listening to Ipods at volumes equivalent to small power tools - either to block out the noise around them or to hear the music as clearly as possible.
Overall, a quarter of people were found to be listening daily at a volume that exceeded the safety level at construction sites, which is 85 decibels. About 20 per cent of Australians over the age of 15 already have some degree of hearing difficulties. Australian Hearing, the largest provider of hearing services, provided more than 45,900 services to people under the age of 21 last year. ~ Sydney Morning Herald, Aug 17

Bummer. Especially since I grew up on "portable music devices". It has been and is still a part of my nearly 2 decades of life. As a kid I got my first Walkman as a present from Tita Wetwet who worked at Sony. In High School I got a discman from Dad. This year I bought an iPod Shuffle. To top it off, I delight in listening to music at "excessive and damaging" levels. So there you go - could the next audio device I purchase actually be a hearing aid?
Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be giving up my destructive hearing habits. I love music too much to stop. Besides, I figure once I'm old and nearly deaf, a scientist somewhere would've already come up with a better way to solve hearing difficulties and making money from the royalties.
Yesterday Kacy made me listen to some parts of a song by Jason Mraz called "I'm Yours", and it was beautiful. I absolutely love Jason Mraz, although my recent infatuation with Bossa Nova and House music plus all things Hed Kandi has taken over my 512-MB Shuffle. Rest assured they're mere flings - but Jason Mraz I feel is forever. Besides, who's to say I can't like all of them at the same time?
Anyhow, I find that there's much more to love about Mr. A-Z than his music. I love the journal he keeps in his site, www.jasonmraz.com . I've always been a writer, but his journals convinced me that I too wanted to post my stuff online. Here are some of my favorite lines from numerous journal entries:

This one I absolutely love - or as Carmz would say, my flavorite of them all:

"My home isn’t about being grounded in one corner of the planet. It’s about being in love and being lost in the middle of an amazing adventure, witnessing sunbursts over horizons of every time zone."

These are some other interesting ones from his most recent entry:

"My parents were weird and I don’t have very many memories of them being together, which is why I think I’m drawn to love and always needing someone in my life to dream with and think big about the future with. I like the idea that the memories I’m making right now I’ll be able to share with my own grandchildren and read them the letters I wrote to grandma when we were young and foolish and always traveling on opposite sides of the sea. I didn’t have the pleasure of spying on my parents in romantic situations so I look forward to the day I can gross out my kids by making out with Mom on the couch after dinner in front of their friends."

"I’m going to stop wishing I were a kid again and just be a kid again. When you’re a kid, ignorance is bliss. Nothing hurts for too long. No one asks too much of you except for things like wash your hands, wipe your feet, close the door, clean your room, etc. Life is sweet."

To read the entire entry here's the URL: http://www.jasonmraz.com/journal/index.php?idPassed=26
I got a text from Edz last night. It went something like this: "Humihinga ka pa ba? hehe...kain tayo!" Suffice to say I was touched, the weird person that I am. So this last quote from Jason Mraz is for Edell, fellow dormer and forever friend. Thanks, biatch!

"Ever notice how if you mouth "olive juice" to someone silently it looks like you're saying, 'I love you'?

...otherwise, take this entry for what it is or is not.

In it is enlightenment as much as there is in it vanity.

In it is humor as much as there is in it a science.

In it is a loud and harsh statement as much as there is a nothing coming from a quiet voice mouthing in confident silence.
Olive juice."

It suddenly occured to me that I wasn't able to reply to Edell's touching text. Aww dude, I'm so sorry. I was on the way back to Batangas and you know how I always space out en route to my home. Forgive me.