Snapshot Chronicles

Susan Getgood's personal blog

Monster headphones deliver Monster sound (and cut out commuting noise!)

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Three days a week I commute 90 minutes each way into Manhattan. Most mornings, the train is fairly quiet; there is an unwritten weekday commuter rule (suspended on weekends!) that noise and conversation should be kept to a minimum. So most mornings I work or read or sleep. From time to time though I end up in a car with a couple of folks that just have to have a conversation. All the way. Nonstop.

Those are the days I resort to my iPhone and Pandora for enough peace to concentrate. I used to use the earbuds that came with my phone even they don’t really cut out the noise very well. I just didn’t want to cart around a set of bulky headphones on top of all the stuff I carry back and forth every night – iPad, laptop, shoes and so on, and smaller headphones generally didn’t seem much better than the earbuds.

So I was delighted when BlogHer and Monster asked if I would like to try the N-Tune noise isolating headphones.

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Things I love:

  • Great sound quality for my music and they keep out most of the annoying conversations I am trying to block.
  • Very comfortable, avoids the “itchy ear” syndrome that sometimes comes from using earbuds for an extended period of time.
  • Small form factor, plus they come with a little carry bag to protect them in my bag.
  • Tangle free cord.

I also asked my 13 year old son and my brother, both of whom also use headsets regularly, what they thought. My son, who primarily uses a headset for gaming and Skype calls with other gamers reported that the sound quality was good, but he prefers a wireless headset that completely surrounds the ears. Better to totally block me out when I speak to him I suppose. My brother also liked the sound quality for listening to music but wasn’t crazy about the microphone for making phone calls.  I received a call on the train the other morning while listening to my tunes, and I thought the quality was fine.

Net — if listening to music or watching videos is your primary use for a headset, the Monster N-Tune is good choice. I probably won’t replace my earbuds for phone calls, especially when walking down the street in Manhattan 🙂 but these candy apple red beauties will definitely get a spot in my commuting bag. And if candy apple red isn’t your color, there are 4 other choices – green, purple, blue and orange. The N-Tune would also make a great holiday gift for the music-lover in your life.

Want to try them out for yourself?  For a chance to win your very own pair of N-Tune headphones (valued at $150), read all about them here and let me know in the comments which color you prefer. The comments on this post will be aggregated with the comments on the posts from the other bloggers participating in this review, and 25 pairs will be given away.

Sweepstakes Rules:

No duplicate comments.

You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

  1. Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post
  2. Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: “#SweepstakesEntry”; and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post
  3. Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post
  4. For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winner will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected. BlogHer will pool entries from participating blogs and select a sweepstakes winner at random and will contact the winner with details about fulfilling the prize. The Official Rules are available here. This sweepstakes runs from 10/2/13 – 11/1/13.

“Worst Gift Ever” Giveaway Winner

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We have a winner in the Worst Gift Ever contest for the $100 JCPenney gift card. Thanks to everyone who shared their stories.

It was close, but John, who bought his wife a manure spreader for Mother’s Day, just edged out Jean, whose husband gave her a faucet for their anniversary while she gifted him with a weekend spa package. I have some HP Photo Books on hand from a previous project so two are on their way to Jean as second prize.

John says he’s learned his lesson and plans to give the gift card directly to his wife. Good call John!

Regifting

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It’s a not-so-little secret that most people have regifted at one time or another. Why not? If you receive something that isn’t quite right for you, whether style or fit or utility, and for whatever reason, you can’t return it, there isn’t anything wrong with giving it in turn to someone who would like it or be able to use it.

Within the limits of good taste of course. It’s generally not wise to regift something back to the person who gave it to you or in a situation where the original giver might awkwardly become aware of the regift.

Or to announce at the top of your lungs that it is a regift.

A lesson my son has yet to learn alas. Last fall, we found a craft kit more suitable for younger children in the closet. It was a rainy day emergency gift that my mom had picked up when Douglas was in pre-school. He is far too old for it now, so together we decided to give it to my husband’s four year old grandson T. as one of his Christmas gifts from Douglas. Yes, that would make him Doug’s nephew but he adamantly resists that label and I respect his wishes.

The day after Christmas my step-daughter and her son came over to the house to exchange gifts. When T. got to the afore-mentioned regift, Douglas cheerfully announced to all in the room that the kit was something someone got for him but he was too old for it now so he gave it to T.

It could have been extremely mortifying. Luckily, although my mom was there, I had warned her beforehand and she was fine with it. My step-daughter also had just finished telling us some of her holiday regifting strategies; while I won’t go into details, let’s just say she has embraced the tactic to a far greater and deeper extent than we have.

What do I regift? Not much really, but there are a few things that are almost guaranteed to hit the regift pile.

Red wine. Unless we drink it during your visit, it’s going to go on the wine rack, and next time we have to bring a bottle of wine somewhere, it’s very likely to be regifted. I prefer white or champagne, and Dave isn’t that crazy for wine in the first place. But I’ll put it in a really nice fabric sleeve that the recipient can use next time she brings a bottle of wine to someone. I even won’t be offended if the sleeve ends up coming back to me someday. It’s what’s in the bottle that matters  🙂

Photo albums and some photo frames. These make great dog show trophies and I’m always stockpiling them.

Books we already have or will never read. Luckily most folks that bought my son “On the day you were born” didn’t write an inscription.

During the holidays, boxed chocolates. It comes into the house, it goes out as fast as we possibly can. We still have some chocolates up in Vermont from Christmas 2007 that we will never eat.

Duplicates. More than one of the same toy or knick knack or whatever. The dupe goes in the gift closet.

Regifting rules?

You have to truly believe that the recipient will like the item. Otherwise, you are just passing on your junk. If it’s really that horrible, put it in the basement. It will either break, get lost or your kids will find it and think it’s a treasure.

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The item should be new and unused. Want to give something that you’ve used? By all means, but it’s a wee bit tacky to wrap it up and present it as new. Just give it already. Note: this does not mean you can’t find lovely gifts for family and friends at flea markets and yard sales. I only deplore the practice when it’s your used item and you are implicitly passing it off as new. Not good.

Think long and hard about regifting anything received from your immediate family. Especially your young children. No matter how kitschy. Gifts from your young children are sacrosanct. As they get older, and begin to appreciate the benefits of regifting, the situation changes. Be honest though. Tell them beforehand. Even if they don’t live with you, they might come to visit and notice the absence of whatever it is.

As noted in the outset, keep track of who you received the item from and when. That way you won’t regift it to the original giver or in the presence of the original giver.

What was the most awful gift you’ve ever received? Did you regift it? The above-pictured chicken lamp was actually a dog show trophy we won years ago, and it still makes me shake my head. It had to be a regift. There’s no other explanation for a chicken lamp as a conformation dog show trophy.

The folks at JCPenney, in conjunction with their Doghouse campaign, have given me a $100 gift card to award to one of my readers. All you have to do is tell us about the worst gift you ever gave or received. I’ll even take third-party stories, as in “my friend once…” On a post on your blog or here in the comments, either is fine. Just be sure to leave a comment on this post or on my original post, which has more details about the contest and Penney’s campaign. My brother is the judge. Contest ends midnight EST February 7th. All the usual applies, void where prohibited, etc. etc.

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A quick follow-up on last week’s post about President Obama. Jonathan Pontell wrote an editorial in yesterday’s USA Today that brought up many of the same points:  Stuck in the middle.