In addition to losing my iPod Nano and shuffle, I lost my fancy noise-cancelling headphones. Mine were in-ear headphones, and so not those conspicuous giant-ass Bose ear-muffs that would be somewhat noticeable if I had left them on a gym locker room bench. Although, knowing me, it's not impossible to think that I would be that stupid.
So I bought myself some fancy new headphones and got them in the mail recently. Like many electronics, it came in that evil hard plastic packaging. You know the kind? I'm talking about that hard-as-titanium, thick, no-one's-getting-inside-this-thing plastic that is soldered together like an iron sarcophagus. Who the hell designed this?
With packaging in general, I am by no stretch an "elegant" package opener. I tend to tear at packaging with grubby hands like a 5 year old. I have a friend who actually designs packaging for chewing gum, among other goods, and one day, when she gave me a pack of gum, we had the following conversation:
Me: "How the hell do you open this?" (I had just ripped open the entire box and all the pieces of gum had fallen on to the floor.)The hard plastic though is worse. There are no "instructions" to follow to open these things cleanly or in any way that avoids injury. No way. You're always reduced to hacking away at chunks of plastic like a caveman trying to open a can of food with a rock. It becomes a battle. Screw the headphones. I just want to beat the packaging. Thirty minutes later, with jagged shards of plastic all over the floor, bloody fingers, punctured wounds that would put paper cuts to shame, and a now-blunt samurai-quality butcher knife, I've finally won.
My friend, D: "You just ripped the box! Don't tear at it! You're supposed to open it here. See the instructions!"
Me: "Well I don't think it was designed very well."
At least I can bask in victory.
5 comments:
At that price, those headphones had better tickle more than just your ear drums. ;-)
I have the in-ear plugs too for my Nano because my mis-shaped ears won't hold the regular ear plugs.
The best way to open those hard plastic packaging is to use a really sharp pair of scissors to trim the edges off the packaging.
I read it on Martha Stewart Living *blush* (there goes my manhood) and it really works.
I saw a product advertised on late night television designed for opening just such packaging. It was one of those cheesy "call now!" type ads.
Were those Shure headphones? If so, then I know exactly what you're speaking about. That is some of the worst (toughest to opn) packaging I have ever experienced. The plastic almost bent my scissors. And I really know, because I've owned 3 sets of headphones from them.
Yep. They're Shure.
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