Andy's Blog

As a poor college student, great deals are always attractive.  No deal is better than a free subwoofer.  Originally I was quite fond of the Klipsch Synergy Sub-10 just so it would match with the other speakers, but then my cousin offered me a sub for free.  No way I could pass that up.  Turns out he had an Energy ES-12 sub.  It’s a non-ported sub so there’s no sound hole in the enclosure.  I’ve had trouble finding any reviews or pricing information on this sub because I think it’s pretty old.  Either way I really like this sub and I’m grateful that I got it for free.  At 12 inches I know that it will be able to fill any size living room that I will be moving into.  When I’ve hooked it up, the sub hits don’t seem to be as tight and accurate as I would like. The hits are a little bit loose.  Perhaps I need to fiddle with the settings a bit.

So I mentioned a little while ago that I finally bought a pair of Nike Hyperizes.  I wanted to give an update on my experience with them.  So far I’ve got some positive things to say, and some negatives as well.

Fit- My feet are kind of wide, so the first time I played in them for an extended time, my baby toe nearly got an blister from rubbing against the side.  I decided to tape up my toe to prevent this from happening again.  After playing a few more times, I tried no tape again, and it seems it was just a matter of breaking the shoe in for my foot.  That was a relief.  Other than this minor problem, I really like the fit.  The shoe feels snug on my foot, so when I cut and turn hard the shoe responds accordingly.

Style- I bought these shoes because I think they look cool and they’re really light.  I love the Black/White/Metallic Silver color scheme.  I’ve gotten more than a few compliments about them at the rec center.  I should mention that the lower part of the shoe on the toes has a shiny finish.  Some hyperize color schemes have this, some do not.  It doesn’t take long for these shoes to get stepped on and scuffed up to lose that shiny-ness.  Oh well that’s just how it goes.  I guess that’s why NBA players get new shoes every game.

Durability- So far so good, except I’ve notice the flywire material on the shoe above the balls of my feet are has started to wear down already :-(.  I think this area just sees a lot of bending and flexing while I’m running.

Cost- I should mention that I actually got these shoes from footlocker for $85 after tax and shipping.  They used to run about $125 before tax and shipping.  I was able to combine a couple of deals/sales they had going on to get that great price.  Definitely a purchase I am proud of.

Overall I love these shoes.  I would recommend them to anyone.  I’ve kinda got my eye on some of the Kobe V’s if they come out with a good color scheme and if I start to make some money.

So just coming out of college, I would imagine I’m not going to have a ton of money to spend on a speaker system.  So I’ve decided to go with what I believe is the best 5 set speaker package for the price.  It is the Klipsch Quintet III.  These speakers have been on the market for a couple years now, and I think they may be phasing them out soon.  I probably should buy them the next time they are on sale.  Klipsch is a well respected speaker company for those looking to spend a little more than the very basic systems like sony, samsung, and panasonic which are found at department stores.  I’d say Klipsch is a step up from those and equivalent to Polk Audio or Energy systems.  Klipsch’s trademark is that they like to use horn tweeters in their speakers.  All the reviews I’ve read about this system say people are amazed at how much sound this system puts out with such small speakers.  I love the fact that the speakers include actual binding posts and not the cheap spring loaded ones.  The satellite speaker stands are multi-functional in that you can set them on a bookshelf, or swing them around and wall mount the speaker.  Next time I’ll talk about the Subwoofer I’ve chosen.

I’m really into home theater/audio equipment.  Once I get out of college and start my career, I’d like to start building my own home theater system.  First I’ll start off with the receiver.  I really like the Onkyo TX-SR607.  It’s a 7.2 receiver with 6 hdmi ports.  It’s a decently priced receiver so you get a lot of bang for the buck.  A lot of the reviews I’ve read aren’t impressed with the video upconverting capabilities, but I’m pretty sure all the components I’m going to be using will have an hdmi output.  Here is CNET’s review of the receiver.  They rated it “very good”.  Next post I’ll talk about the speakers I’m eyeing right now.   

So after much debating and frustration with my other pair of basketball shoes, I gave in and bought myself a pair of Nike Hyperizes.  I just tried them on yesterday and they feel really good.  I have yet to play basketball in them, because I’m only going to wear them indoors.  I’m excited to test them out soon.

I have returned home from school for Christmas.  I feel like I don’t really know too many people here in Bakersfield anymore.  It’s been over 4 years since I really lived here.  I don’t keep in touch with a lot of my high school friends, which is fine because I’ve made so many friends at college.  I’m excited to go to Tucson on Sunday.  This is actually the third time going to Tucson in the last two months, but I don’t mind because I get to be with family.  When I come back to school in January, it will be my last quarter at Cal Poly.  That seems so crazy to me.  Time has gone by so fast.  The Lord has something new in store for me, a new chapter in life awaits.

I just finished my senior project today.  I was working on taking a standard exercise bike and modifying it so that when you pedal, it produces power.  I started this project in January and we just had the senior design expo tonight.  I am really happy to be done with this project.  It was a long journey and this week has been crazy but it is finally done.  Now onward to finals.

This past Tues and Wed it rained super hard in SLO.  I think in my 4+ years here at Cal Poly, that was the hardest it has ever rained.  It didn’t stop the whole day.  Unfortunately my house’s power went out at about 4:15pm.  On a whim, my roommates and I decided to go play some football out in the rain.  It was a lot of fun.  The entire field was literally a giant slip and slide.  After we got back there still wasn’t any light so we had a candle-lit dinner for five.  🙂  Definitely a solid time of roommate bonding.  It’s days like these that I’m going to miss about college life.  The LORD is good.

I was talking with my roommate Jared the other night before going to sleep about our futures after college.  Jared threw out the question: Where are we gonna be just 1 year from now? 1 year is not much time at all, but I realized that right now I have no idea where I am going to be.  I could be in the Bay Area. I could be in Orange County. I could be living at home with my parents in Bakersfield looking for a job.  It’s scary to think that I don’t know where I will be or what I will be doing.   At the same time I know that God is in control and that he has a great perfect plan for me (Jer. 29:11)  This gives me comfort.  I would like to stay in California, but that is my plan and not necessarily God’s plan.

Whatever the case, my life will be going through a lot of change.  My youth pastor once gave a sermon where he said, “The only thing constant in life is change.”  I think as humans we don’t like change.  We like what is comfortable and what we are accustomed to.  But when our lives are comfortable, chances are we are no longer grower or maturing.  God has a habit of pulling us out of those comfortable places and plopping us down in new situations.  I believe his purpose in this is to remind us of our need for him.  Bringing us back to that place of total dependence on him is probably the best place to be.

This past weekend I went to a mini family reunion down in Cerritos, CA.  It was a reunion of my Dad’s side of the family.  There are a total of 7 brothers and sisters in his family so it’s a big group.  My Dad is actually the baby of the family, so I have some cousins who are way older than me.  In fact some of my cousins have kids that are actually older than me.  Pretty crazy.  Anyways, God has blessed me with a great family and I enjoy spending time with them.  It’s great to catch up with people and see how everyone is doing.  Reunions are usually a great time of laughter.  Praise God for family.