Been feeling pants lately.

I invested in a pair of headphones, canalphones to be precise. . . they fit snugly (airtight) into the canal and this position blocks out most external noise without sophisticated and bulky noise-canceling technology.

Of the few things I enjoy, listening to music would feature quite highly, more so recently for the way it blocks out the world while I am programming or typing, emptying my mind and blocking out the indiscriminate bombardment from family, workers, traffic; even my unhelpful droning, internal monologue.

It also means the daily commute doesn't feel like such a waste of time - I do get alot of reading done but much of the time my eyes are feeling tired from staring at the screen so I prefer to close my eyes and listen to music, and now this is possible whereas before I would have had to damage my ear drums in order to compensate for background noise of the tube.

After some research, I settled on quite an expensive pair, the acclaimed SE530's from Shure at about £240 online. It took a while to get used to having something lodged in my canals, and after a period of climbatizing to the initial discomfort and finding ear buds that fit snugly all systems were go. I was surprised to find one canal slightly larger than the other requiring a smaller ear piece but now I've discovered my asymmetry - it's much more comfortable.

The headphones aren't so great while walking or eating as you can hear the internal sounds thumping and crunching away which is not very pleasant. But for sitting still at a desk or on the train it is great.

A decent pair of headphones can reveal music in a way you've never heard it before and make you appreciate tracks you were normally dismissive of. It's as if the listening experience has been tailored for people using headphones but very few people actually appreciate the music through the intended medium but rather spew it out through cheap speakers, squandering the art of the engineer and producer.

I am also now more apt at psychologically manipulating my mood with the correct use of music playlists. Today my mind was full of negative thoughts until I popped the headphones in and now I don't seem to have space to think about anything. . . which is good for now