operation

Last night, my headphones died (RIP cheap-os). Or rather, one ear or the other would stop working, and I would have to jiggle the wire about to make it sound again. I got the bright idea to perform surgery to fix this rather annoying problem. So, armed with my pocketknife, tweezers, fingernail clippers, and duct tape (yes, Dad I did bring some), I set about operating on the headphones. I diagnosed the problem as a frayed wire near the plug-in jack. So, I decided to tweak around a bit--to no avail. Then, the power decided to die, as it so often does. So, I'm sitting half lotus on my bed in the dark, with a small flashlight in my mouth,* stripping wires with my pocketknife and trying to get them to cooperate with the tweezers. There are alternate morals to this story: either I should have brought a soldering iron, or I should have invested more in the headphones.**

This is why I do biology, not electricity.


*By the way, this is a bad idea. Let me explain. You see, moths and other curious nocturnal insects use light (naturally from the stars and the moon) to travel. By flying at 30 degree angles (which is easy with compound eyes) to the light source, they are able to navigate. This is the reason for the "moth to the flame" phenomena, where the moth circles to a seemingly-suicidal cremation. That being said, having the only light source in the room in my mouth attracted a great deal of insects. I quickly abandoned the idea.

**Have no fear, I left the gigantic pink skull candy headphones that I am trying to make my trademark at home. This pair was a four dollar purchase.