Paradise Kiss Episode 12 - Ending!

Spoilers!

So recently, I watched the last episode of Paradise Kiss and the ending was totally not expected. I expected that Yukari would have ended up with George, but that wasn't the case at all. After watching it, I wished that the story would continue because it was beautifully written.

Kaori vists George on Christmas Day, only to find out that she had interrupted George and Yukari, and Yukari was not at all pleased with it. However, Kaori tells George to go London to pursue a career as a designer, but George tells her about his plans to be a make-up artist and his desire for breaking up Paradise Kiss. This proceeds to him talking to his father, where his father agrees to sponsor his overseas study in design.

On New Years' Eve, Yukari and George arrive at a festival watching the sunset. George tells her that he is planning to go to Paris to pursue design and asks Yukari to come with him. With tears in her eyes, she declines and tells him that she has just started her modelling career in Japan and cannot come with him. George smiles and tells her that it was the right decision.

Ten years later, Yukari is engaged to her classmate and first crush - Hiro. She tells readers avidly that she is going to be married in two weeks and that they have been sent tickets to a broadway play in New York - a play whose costumes were designed by George Koizumi.

As I said before, the end was not expected for me. I had expected a typical, happy ending where the two main characters would end up together, but that was not the case. However, it was the lack of the typical happy ending that made this anime/manga so wonderful. I don't believe that it was sad, but it was very realistic. Although I love seeing George and Yukari together (they are so cute.. xD), I think it was better for Yukari in the end to marry Hiro and not George. She needs a lover that is willing to shower her with a lot of affection and love and someone to spoil her. In my opinion, George is unable to do all of that for her.

I recommend everyone to watch this and then read the manga! The anime is okay, but the manga is just simply amazing.

iPod: Overrated?

The answer to the question is, yes, iPods are, in fact, very overrated. This is coming from a person who owns one too. When do you not see a person walking down the street or on the bus with a pair of white Apple stock earbuds in their ears? These white earbuds have become one of the symbols of society - you see them so often that you just want to buy another type of mp3 or switch out your headphones atleast. Don't you get that feeling? When you buy something that's worth well over $270, you would atleast expect the device to come with a decent pair of earbuds right? Well no. Sadly for all you audiophiles out there, you would have to dish out more money to buy a pair of decent earphones.

Due to Apple's successful marketing campaign, most people don't place iPods in the mp3 category anymore. They always ask, "should I get an iPod or a mp3 player?". Even Future Shop, which is a major retailer of electronics in Canada, have the category "iPods and Mp3 Players" on their website. This just shows how ridiculously popular these things have become.

The main attraction (well the thing that attracted me to buy one) is the simplicity of the whole thing. It has a nice, sleek, and clean feeling to it when you browse through your music collection via the clickwheel. That's it. There's nothing else nice to say about it Oh, maybe besides the fact that right now, it's one of the biggest portable music devices you can get: around 160GB. Unless you're one of those people who have a ton of music, it's just not worth it, trust me. I have a 80GB Classic sitting at home with about 50GB of free space. The 20GB I used up consists mostly of videos that I'll never watch. Should've bought a nano.. :(

Honestly, when my iPod breaks, I'm never going to buy another one ever again. Perhaps, I'll be investing into something like the Samsung P2!

Earphones and the Sennheiser CX300

As we all know, earphones play an important part of our everyday routines - especially if we listen to music. The Sennheiser CX300's are one of the most recommended earphones for people with a low budget. They come in a variety of different colors - Silver, White, Pink, and Black (my favorite, personally!) with an asymmetrical wire design.

Nowadays, prices of earphones vary between as low as $2.00 to as high as $300.00! That is quite the gap, but I assure you that there is a noticeable difference between the earphones on the higher end of the spectrum, versus the $2.00 ones you find online. Heck, I even found a huge difference between the $50.00 Sennheiser CX300's and my cheap earphones imported from China (The currency I'm using is CAD, by the way!).

Now onto the Sennheiser CX300. As I've stated before, they're one of the most recommended earphones on the internet today. Trust me, search around and you're bound to find atleast one person on each website that has these or would recommend these! But why are they recommended so much? It's mainly because the quality you get versus the price you pay. Retailers, such as Future Shop and Best Buy (for you Canadians), sell these earphones at approximately $100.00 a pair! However, if you opt to online shopping, you'll be able to find authentic pairs for around $50.00 shipped! Fake versions don't work as well, the quality isn't the same, and they'll probably break down on you in a couple of months.

With real Sennheiser CX300's, you get a year's warranty and 3 different, hmm, rubber silicon pieces that go inside your ear. Make sure you find the best fitting one (I use the smallest ones!) pair in order to get the best sound because then they'll be able to seal properly. These aren't noise-isolating, as in the headphones transmit waves to counter the incoming noise. They just do a really, and I mean REALLY, nice job of sealing the sound inside your ears! But still, when I'm typing on the keyboard with these things in my ears and my iPod at the lowest volume, I can't hear myself typing at all!

The bass is great. Maybe I just haven't tried any of the really expensive earphones yet, not that I'm in any position to buy them *tear*... but with these I'm able to hear sounds in the background that I've never heard before with my other earphones! Personally, it feels like a mini surround system in your ears! So if you listen to music and you still own those lower-end skullcandies (no matter how nice they look!) or cheap earbuds, it's time to break out that wallet and get yourself one of these! Remember, try to avoid ebay and third party amazon sellers! Yes, I'm promoting these like everyone else. So sue me :D