the earphone dilemma

listening to music is one of the critical things that keep me sane and centered. i dream of the day i can append a music player to my ear (though the possibility of hearing degeneration is a scary thought). nope, an ipod shuffle doesn't cut it, nor does a bluetooth headset. so i'm weird. no arguments there.

so in an office setting (or even at a common area at home, though this is less critical), i yearn for a room all to myself so i can play my music any volume i want, even sing along to it, without bugging anyone else. but we can't always have what we want (besides, it's a bit impractical, duh). so we compromise, with a pair of speakers or a set of earphones. even then, we're not satisfied. speakers can get too loud and disturb the others, while earphones can cut you off from the real world. and when you're at work, it's not really advisable to be isolated, is it? worst case scenario has your boss calling you over and over while you remain blissfully ignorant. on second thought, having a disaster happening around you while you're spaced out in your own little world is much much worse.

one of my friends passed on something his boss said to explain the "no-earphones" policy in his office, which can be paraphrased as: if you needed music to focus on your work, you''re not really focusing at all. the man has a point, actually, but we audiophiles will dispute that till the day we die. but then, even i ignored the mp3 player a whole 30 minutes since it stopped, just because i was busy studying a blog tutorial. oh well. nuff said.

current playlist:
keane, under pressure
fall out boy, grand theft autumn/where is your boy
u2, i still haven't found what i'm looking for
the cardigans, erase/rewind