Author: Abdullah Yahya

Affordable Hi-Fi Audio Headphone Setup

So, I’ve been trying to get more out of my music in terms of sound quality and experience. 6 years ago, I thought $30 Sony in-ear earphones were just as good as $200 earphones. Clearly my ears were not trained to know any better. As time went on, I slowly began to notice the difference between quality speakers and crappy ones. I still wanted earphones for their small size and I eventually settled on the BeatsX (bluetooth) which cost $109. The BeatsX are definitely much better than my $30 Sony earphones. Then, as time went on, I noticed that music played in my car sounded better than my BeatsX. One particular experience is the surround sound feeling you get from music in your car. With 6 separate speakers, the sounds from different instruments would appear to come from different directions in a very harmonious way. Since I wanted that experience at home, my research led me to a sound factor called soundstage. The soundstage is a speaker’s or headphone’s ability to add spatiality to the music you’re listening to. Rtings.com explains soundstage in detail and sorts headphones by soundstage. You can see the explanation and ranking at

https://www.rtings.com/headphones/tests/sound-quality/soundstage

With this ranking, I just went down the list and picked the best headphones in my budget. Here are the prices for the top 4 headphones as of this writing:

Continue reading Affordable Hi-Fi Audio Headphone Setup

Easily Create Curved Arrows on Mac Using Preview

When you need to annotate a document and explain certain parts of it, using arrows can be very helpful. If you’re on a Mac, adding arrows, both straight and curvy, is very easy using the Preview application. Here’s how to do it

  1. Open an image in Preview
  2. Open the Toolbar (View > Show Toolbar)
  3. Click on the “Sketch” icon (3rd from the left) so that it’s highlighted blue

  4. Choose a line thickness

  5. Click and drag to create a curved line with an arrow just as you would with a pen without lifting the pen. This will result in a curved arrow.

  6. If the curvature doesn’t look right, adjust it by moving the 3 control points.

  7. Then add some text by clicking on the text tool (last icon with the letter A)

    You can also create straight lines by drawing a line. Preview will detect that you are trying to draw a line and make it straight for you.

How to Survive Ramadan By Not Feeling Hungry

Many people dread Ramadan — especially in the US since we don’t get to work half days — because working when you are hungry is challenging and can sometimes give you a literal headache. Every year, I research foods and try to find the right combination of types of food to eat right before fasting each day (around 4 AM). This year, 2018, I believe I’ve come up with a good list. Based on the USDA’s Dietary Reference Intake calculator, I should consume each day

  • 38 grams of fiber
  • 69 grams of protein

Since we normally eat twice in Ramadan, once in the early morning before beginning your fast and once at night when breaking your fast, we can split these daily values (DV) up, e.g. in half, so that my target for breakfast in the morning would be

  • 19 grams of fiber
  • 36 grams of protein

Fiber gets processed slowly in your stomach which makes you feel full longer. Protein is an essential source of energy.

So here’s my list:

One cup of oatmeal

I like the Simply Balanced Organic to-go cups of oatmeal available at Target. These cups cost $1.49 each and are super convenient to prepare in the morning. Just add water, microwave for 50 seconds, stir, eat, then throw away the cup. There are 3 flavors:

Cranberry

Continue reading How to Survive Ramadan By Not Feeling Hungry

Easily Unclog Drain with Hair and Grease Drain Opener

Recently my shower drain wasn’t draining water as fast as it used to. I normally use Drano but heard about the good reviews that Hair and Grease Drain Opener got which also comes with a money-back guarantee so I gave it a shot. Turns out it worked perfectly the first time. Here’s what I did:

  1. Poured 2.5 cups of the Hair and Grease Drain Opener liquid down the drain
  2. Waiting 6 hours (you can also just wait overnight)
  3. Boiled a pot of water
  4. Poured the boiling water down the drain
  5. Clog was gone

How to Lose Weight By Eating Foods with Low Energy Density

There’s a very simple formula for losing weight. The total number of calories you consume from eating must just be less than the total number of calories you burn living and exercise. However, the problem with this is you need to eat enough to feel full so you don’t eat too much. Therefore, there are two key things to focus on when deciding what to eat:

  • foods that have a low energy density (low on the energy density index)
  • foods that make you feel full longer (high on the satiety index)

To understand energy (calorie) density, look at the picture below. Both desserts have the same amount of energy (calories) but the one on the left is heavier and contains more mass (grams) which would make you feel full longer.

Continue reading How to Lose Weight By Eating Foods with Low Energy Density

Travel Checklist / Tips

Money

  • Use a credit card with no foreign transaction fee
    • Amazon Visa Signature
    • Costco Citi Visa Signature
  • Set a credit card travel notice
  • If you need cash, just withdraw it from the ATM of a big bank. The currency conversion rate is just 3%. However, there are withdrawal limits.
  • Upon arrival, look for an ATM of a big bank at the airport to withdraw cash. The money exchangers will rip you off big time.
  • If you need to exchange cash at the airport, do so after you pass through immigrations near the exit rather than before passing immigrations. There are more options and the rates are cheaper there.
  • Get and set up a currency converter app

Booking Sites

If purchasing plane tickets, buy direct from airlines if the price is not much more expensive. It’ll be much easier to make changes and cancellations by dealing directly with the airline.

Hotels

  • If traveling within the US, consider Extended Stay America. Some nice features of it are
    • on-site laundromat
    • full-size kitchen
    • usually cheaper than regular hotels since house cleaning only comes once a week (daily housekeeping available for extra fee)
    • stable rates
    • unworrisome cancellation policy
    • free wi-fi
    • and more

For all hotels, make sure to notify the hotel if you will be arriving late.

If staying at Extended Stay America for a few days, be sure to bring

  • disposable plates and cups
  • disposable eating utensils
  • napkins
  • mini dish soap
  • dish scrubber

Pre-Departure Planning

  • Get and read a travel guide (Lonely Planet)
  • If travelling internationally, enroll in STEP (Smart Traveler Enrollment Program) and register your trip
  • Print a copy of all trip arrangements (plane tickets, hotel reservations) as a backup
  • Download a copy of all travel documents to your phone. You can do this by uploading them all to a folder in Google Drive and then setting the folder to “Available Offline”.
  • Make a Google Doc and Sheet list of
    • places to visit
    • opening hours
    • costs
    • directions
    • etc
      See template
  • Save each place of interest in Google Maps
  • Download Google map of all destinations for offline viewing
  • Download videos, e.g. from YouTube, to watch on plane, in hotel.
  • Check the weather forecast

Carry-On Bag

  • For your carry-on, if you can, just bring a backpack. It can be pointless to bring a carry-on luggage since max weight allowance is so low.
  • Within your carry on backpack, bring a thin, lightweight backpack to put under the plane seat in front of you. This will not take a lot of space and carry your in-air essentials like laptop, munchies, smartphone, earphones, etc.

Munchies

  • Trail mix
  • Chewy nutrition bars, e.g. Nature Valley Peanut Butter bar
  • Goldfish
  • Sunflower seeds (without the shells) in a zip-loc bag
  • Pringles
  • Beef Jerky + Cheddar Cheese (Costco)
  • Hawaiian Sweet Bread + Nutella + plastic knives
  • Disposable cup in which to put munchies for easy access

Toiletries / Bathroom Accessories

  • Hair dryer
  • Sunscreen
  • Plug adapters
  • Shampoo
  • Soap
  • Medium towel
  • Wet tissue / Bring fragrant-free wet wipes to wipe the sweat and dirt off your hands and face.

Swimming

Day-to-Day Clothing

  • Cap / hat
  • Visor
  • Sunglasses
  • Columbia thin, waterproof hiking pants
  • Wear shirts designed for hot and humid weather when traveling to hot and humid destinations. Golf clothes usually meet this requirement (PGA Tour Airflux – 100% polyester)
  • Walking shorts (cargo shorts with many pockets are good to hold many things)
  • If you’ll be doing a lot of walking, bring comfortable walking sandals. Test your shoes thoroughly before departing. What may feel comfortable at first may not actually feel comfortable after a few hours of walking. Maybe get a memory foam one, e.g. from Skechers.
  • Pickpocket-proof pants

Gadgets / Electronics

  • Power pack to recharge phone and laptop
  • USB adapters / cables, e.g. USB-C to USB
  • Voltage converter (220 -> 110)
  • Laptop + charger
  • Cell phone + charger
  • Portable digital luggage scale
  • Neckband Bluetooth earphones with plane plug adapter
  • Noise-canceling headphones
  • Extension cord and power strip (since houses and hotels in many countries don’t have enough outlets where you need them or the outlet is too high above the floor)
  • Mini USB fan. Some planes don’t turn the A/C until takeoff, and even then, it can still be very hot and stuffy in a plane. Since most planes include a USB port, having a mini USB fan can keep you cool while flying.
  • 3 prong to 2 prong plug adapter

Miscellaneous

  • Bring plastic bags to hold your wet clothes, dirty clothes, etc
  • Scissors
  • Gray duct tape
  • Clear plastic tape
  • Small tape measure
  • Black mock turtleneck long-sleeve shirt
  • Stretchy fleece-lined pants
  • For long plane rides, wear the black pants pictured. They are stretchy and all pockets are zippered so things won’t fall out.
  • For long walks, wear the beige Columbia pants.
  • For fashion and taking pictures, wear the white pants.
  • Use the small sling bag while exploring. When traveling by plane, put the sling in a larger backpack so you can take more stuff.
  • For colder weather, wear the black mock turtleneck long-sleeve shirt and fleece-lined pants
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