10. You know where you are supposed to be Monday morning (and Tuesday morning, Wednesday morning…….)
9. It helps you identify your car when you take the kids to the video arcade on Saturdays (why does everyone have a dark green Honda SUV like yours?)
8. Parking permits let everyone know - in this tough economy - that you are among the elite: the employed
7. It gives you the perfect excuse NOT to trade cars with your spouse, making them drive the oh so uncool station wagon - while you get the Jetta.
6. The parking sticker helps you know which other employees have arrived for work that day.
5. Your parking sticker lets your boss know in a subtle way that you’ve arrived for work early, late or that you’re simply a team player with 100% attendance record.
4. Getting a new parking sticker every month reminds you that you are not going to get laid off - otherwise HR wouldn’t bother giving you your parking sticker.
3. A parking sticker can be a great way to network with people in your community. They’ll know where you work - so you can ask them where you work.
2. Your commute may be stressful, the morning getting ready for work may be a drag - but you know exactly where you go when you arrive.
and the #1 reason to be glad for your parking stickers?
1. Your company cares enough to give you your own parking space at work!
I have been researching noise canceling headphones. The Direct Sound Extreme Isolation Headphones from QuietHeadphones.com really do work. If you play their free white noise MP3 through the headphones you really can block out virtually all background noise. When I firsted started reviewing noise cancelation and noise reduction headphones I was hoping to find something that would be like pushing the mute button on the outside world. I soon realized that it is simply impossible to block all noise with earplugs or headphones. Of course, first I researched all the big brand names which use active noise cancelation which sample the ambient noise in your environment with little microphones then try to produce an “opposite” soundwave in your earcups to block the noise. This technique of noise cancelation can be rather effective under the right circumstances such as if the noise you are trying to block is a constant hummning noise like an airplane engine or an air conditioner. The electronics in the headphones can figure out what the right canceling soundwave to produce is, then it can just keep producing that same cancelation wave to cancel out the background noise. But if you are in an environment with spikey background noises like talking, doors slamming, phones ringing, etc. the active noise cancelation headphones don’t work very well. The electronics aren’t able to figure out what the propper “canceling” sound wave is fast enough and consequently you don’t get very much noise cancelation at all. Also worth mentioning is that these active noise cancelation headphones all require batteries. So if you use your headphones every day, expect be buying batteries about every month.
So next I decided to investiage passive noise reduction headphones like the Direct Sound EX-29 Extreme Isolation Headphones. These headphones work by physically blocking sound from reaching your ears. The earcups are packed with high-fidelity, studio quality speakers and a patented noise isolation foam. They have a closed back design so sound can’t get to your ears. With this sytle of noise blocking, these headphones can block both constant noises like airplane engine noise as well as spikey noises like office chatter and phones ringing. They also block more noise than active noise cancelation headphones. Active noise cancelation headphones block about 17dB of sound where as the Direct Sound headphones block 29dB of sound. Active noise cancelation headphones have a specific range and type of sound that they are designed to cancel. The Direct Sound headphones block sound across the entire sound spectrum.
Some other advantages to these passive noise reduction headphones is that they don’t use batteries and they don’t leak sound. Since they don’t use electronics to actively cancel sound, they don’t need batteries. This means you don’t have to keep buying and replacing batteries which is certainly a cost to consider when choosing your headphones. Also, have you ever been sitting at work or near someone using headphones and you can hear the drums and rhythm of the music they are listening too. Sometimes you can pretty much hear the entire song like their headphones are little annoying radios. The Direct Sound headphones do not have that problem. Not only do they keep the outside sound away from your ears, they keep your music in. Stage and recording musicians use these headphones so that the sound from their headphones doesn’t leak into their mic. For personal use, it’s nice knowing that you aren’t bothering the peopel around you. As a fun test you can put on your Direct Sound headphones and start listening to some music at a comfortable volume. Then take of the headphones and press the earcups together. You will be astonished that you can’t hear any music leaking out. It’s really an interesting test to try.
The folks at QuietHeadphones.com are very reputable. They are an authorized dealer of Direct Sound headphones and the only place you can find the shorter, 40-inch cord option in addition to the standard 9ft cord. If you are using the headphones with an iPod or at your computer you might prefer the shorter cord. If you need the added mobility like in a recording studio you might want the longer cord. You can expect fast delivery of your headphones and they have an amazing 6 month - 110% money back guarantee backing up all of their products. Right now they are also offering free ground shipping in the United States. So if you are looking for some noise canceling headphones or noise reduction headphones you should consider the Direct Sound headphones.
