Monday, February 04, 2008

Living - Goodies from Home

Today a bit of joy came in the form of a package from my folks in Montana. Enclosed were three things: a Christmas card from our jeweler with nice photos of Kel's ring, a daily Dalai Lama calendar from my brother, and noise canceling headphones I ordered.
Mo Anam Cara, Gaelic for My Spiritual Friend (or soulmate). Kelly recognized this spiritual bond between us from our very first evening together.

Claddagh: Heart, hands, and crown. "Let love and friendship reign." With an emerald in the heart for our soul-home, Ireland, the Emerald Isle.

Wow, silence! Or at least very close.

Dalai Lama wisdom to come - soon! I also took a walk today to some other potential flats to live in but they weren't so great. Tomorrow I'll see another one where I hear they have authentic sunshine, a garden, rooms with balconies and they serve you Piña Coladas at sunset. Ok, I made up the Piña Coladas part but the rest is true I swear.

9 comments:

Patia said...

What an exquisite ring!

SJ said...

Wow! Nice ring! I've got a question about the noise canceling headphones. I've been thinking of getting one myself and there are several brands doing it. What are yours and how effective are they?

Buddhist_philosopher said...

Patia - thanks! I'm still rooting for you to get your fire-outlook job because I know it'll be great for you, but if not you'll at least (also) get to see the ring up close and personal at the wedding :)))

SJ - :) Thank you too! It was a very fun, collaborative effort between Kelly and me for initial ideas and then me and our jeweler, Ken Saunders in Helena.

My headphones are Logitech, probably amongst the cheapest you can find (around £50). But if you hold out and get them in the states they're about half that price. I got mine on sale in fact for $40.

Anyhow, they seem to work pretty well. I would love to be able to compare them with the higher-end ones like Bose though.

For the most part they are just like the headphones you'd wear to shoot a gun, they block out noise. When you turn them on they emit a light hissing sound and make the low frequency outside noise (which here is trains, planes, and automobiles) almost completely disappear. They are at their best though when used to listen to music - go figure though, combining the power of noise blockage, noise canceling hissy stuff, and really great sound quality from your own music.

Patia said...

I got some Panasonic noise-canceling headphones from Amazon.com. The reviews were good, but they didn't work at all for me. I got the slight hissing, but it almost seemed like noises were amplified instead of canceled. I returned them.

Buddhist_philosopher said...

Patia - yea, I read from people with these that that happened too - strange. I guess one bit of advice would be to make sure you can return them if they don't work.

Nienke said...

wow, that ring is special in so many ways. never seen anything like it :). i didnt even think a jeweler would make that him self, but duh sure he does, something like this you/he doesnt order from a fabric...

Nienke said...

eh factory* ;D

Buddhist_philosopher said...

Heya Nienke - yea, it was tough though. I had to go to two other jewelers who both said this design was impossible (fitting the Claddagh and the lettering on the sides). It's nice to have made a one-of-a-kind ring instead of just picking out the prettiest from a catalog or display case. I think that matches Kelly's and my personalities - very one-of-a-kind :) (grin).

Nienke said...

The jeweler definitely did a hell of a job! I did 3 courses in silversmith’s trading, but always ended up without nails :P

I do understand the uniqueness wish. I don't ever want to get married (i think) but if i would i wanted everything unique: the ring, the dress, the event :).