PixlBit

Good morning Pixlpeeps! The plan for today is to either go watch Rogue One which starts at 2pm or save that for Monday and just do some small errands today like look for a new external CD/DVD drive for my laptop. Heck I could do both. Anyways this is the first Quick Hits of 2017 so why not do a little recap of Christmas with the peeps.

Christmas Eve my brother came down so it was time to take part in a new family tradition of going to the local steakhouse and trying to eat a giant piece of meat

 

I believe it was 30oz and it took me three days to eat. Hot damn it was good.

Saturday the family came over and we had Christmas lunch where we played the gift exchanged game where I drew a middle-high number so I could steal something and basically keep it because it would have been stolen at least once already. Instead I helped out my cousin who got the gift I gave which was one of those sausage packs from the Hickory Farms kiosk in the mall. He obviously didn't want it and it became a little joke so I took it because who doesn't love meat in a tube with cheese and a little mustard? (I could do without the mustard) Anyways he ended up getting Cards Against Humanity which is a damn good gift. A couple of picks later my aunt took my gift because she agrees about the meat and cheese. Since I knew there was one more left in the pile I went for it. Everyone had fun, the little kids got all kinds of cool stuff, we ate a bunch of food, spent time together, made fun of each other, and enjoyed whatever random sport was on TV.

The next day we went out to the local outlet because we were crazy. I found some sneakers like I said I would and I was done after that because why push your luck? A couple of days later after taking my brother to the airport it was time to stop at the shopping center with a Best Buy to look around. At the Bed, Bath, & Beyond (the store I used to work at for a month after college) I saw this display

 

To remind you I live in the desert...in SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. We have two NHL teams with Three Stanley Cups between them within the past decade. We have that many Canadians here in the winter to have a display of all the Canadian teams in the NHL. Also GO Saskatchewan Roughriders! I'm not a fan but a lot of people that around around here have their gear. My neighbor who is from Vancouver does not.

 

New Year's Eve I was roaming around Target and I spotted these

 

for this price

 

The other ones around it were at full retail at $180 so I said why not and I decided to get them. The employee at the Electronics section decided to show the guy working the cell phones the price and they said they were going to scan the rest of the Bose headphones to see what else was on clearance.

Full disclosure I'm not really a Bose fan, I always thought for the retail price of their headphones you can get some real quality stuff from the big headphone companies. To me they were Beats before Beats came along, except I would rather have Bose than Beats over ears. Since these were my first pair I decided to do a little review of the Bose Soundtrue II Around the Ear Headphones.

At first I really didn't know what to expect from them because I always stayed away from them. I know that previous models sound great but not $200-300 great. Like Beats, Bose goes all out for presentation

 

The headphones come in a leather like case that is soft yet has some sturdy backing.

 

The headphones themselves with a ghosted Bose logo on the cups. The body is plastic with a metal headband that is covered with the leather like substance. They are sturdy but very light, with no head clamping. When you wear them you don't notice that you are wearing them.

 

Inside the cups, they are marked so you know which side goes where. If you try them on backwards they don't fit as well. Again there is more of the leather like substance for the ear cups. These could easily be the most comfortable headphones I own because of weight and the quality materials.

 

The one item that really isn't what I feel that don't meet the quality standards of the rest of the headphones is the cable. It is very thin and I could see myself replacing it because it feels frail. The microphone works fine, but the durability of the cable is what bothers me. Also I found it to be longer than I need especially if my phone is in my pocket.

The most important feature of these headphones is the sound. How do they sound? They sound amazing! It is clear, and flat. Unlike the Beats that have a pronounced bass and treble that create a V sound these headphones are even but everything is very crisp. I think with the lack of Noise Canceling the sound is improved and when I'm wearing them I really can't hear anything around me.

 

Overall I think these headphones at the $54 are a steal. I think Amazon's price of $100 is actually a good deal as well, but at their retail price of $180 I feel you can do better with other products. If you like bass heavy music, or actual studio monitors these are not for you, but for the person who wants headphones that are simple in design, sound great, and weigh next to nothing on your head and are willing to spend $100, give these a try.

 Link to Amazon's Listing Of These Headphones

Chris And iTunes

So one of my resolutions was to listen to every song in my iTunes library. My goal was to listen to 50 songs a day and for week number one I did well

 

On January 1^st I was at 10,560 songs I have not listened to and rated. As of today I am at 10,397 even with adding some new stuff to the library. Out of the 295 songs I listened to, I added 35 songs to the 2017 playlist. My routine has been 10 songs in the morning, 11 when I go walking, and the rest scattered throughout the day. Usually I've been hitting 20-30 songs before lunch, and the rest later on in the day.

 

Pickups!

Games

These are games I bought before New Years so they don't count towards my resolution (love those loopholes)

 

This bundle was $12

The Born to Race bundle came with I think eight racing games that are a bit older (one of them crashes when I turn up all the settings to high) I also needed to map the controls to my controller even though there is a setting for 360 controllers. Shadow of Mordor is a game I've been watching for a while and when it dropped to $5 it was time to give it a try. Lego was a throw in because I wanted to try the Wild West Pack

 

The next game I got for free from Amazon and Twitch

 

This is like the third or forth freebie game I got with my Prime Membership. Prime is paying off and most likely I will renew next month.

 

For games I bought after the new year, from Humble Bundle $1 level

 

More games I've been watching and hoping they would go on sale, and for basically a quarter each why not. My China game has come to a stop because I encountered a never loading screen before the third mission. Hopefully the other Chronicle games don't have this problem.

 

Music

Last night from the local mom and pop's Buy 5 get 3 free $1.99 wall

 

Tony Toni Tone's Sons of Soul. I owned the tape version in high school (I was pro Walkman...until I got a Discman from Santa and that changed). Anyways in the little group I used to sit in was this girl that I had a crush on and we were talking about music and she said she had the this album, on CD. Yep I thought it was fate because I had it in my walkman. Beenie Man was for the song he did with Janet Jackson.

 

Def Leppard's Hysteria because Pour Some Sugar On Me. The rest of the album isn't bad. LL Cool J's single for Around The Way Girl reminds me of when I got my first walkman (it was actually a generic tape player with AM/FM radio but for 5^th/6^th Grade Chris, it was the best thing on earth.

 

More 311. I should have checked my list because I already have Grassroots. Also the former owner taped their name to the cases.

 

Edit Piaf because I have a couple of her albums already and my ringtone is Non, Je Regrette Rein (if you've seen Inception you know the song. Also its trippy when you're sleeping and someone calls you) plus it was one of the free CDs. The Wedding Album I thought would be cool but after listening to it, it sounds like one of those Target CDs that they sell next to greeting cards or a random endcap. It's not good.

 

At the checkout the freebie bin was full and I grabbed these three CDs

 

Stadium Jams is just fun original music they play at stadiums like Rock N Roll Part II, Bang On The Drum All Day, etc. and its by the original artists. The Star CD wouldn't rip which is why I'm going to go out looking for a new external CD player.

 

Lego

I started this last year and on New Year's I buy a new Lego set. This year it was a bunch of the Lego Batman Movie Blind Bags

 

Batman in the robe is freaking hilarious.

 

Alright Pixlpeeps I am off. Have a good weekend!

 

That's all for now, more later!

-Chris

 

The song that sold me on buying the album. This would always come on in the morning on MTV before I had to catch the bus