Sights, Sounds, Thoughts

You should hear me complain how noisy my hostel mates are. I'll go on ranting non-stop like politicians in Malaysia nowadays. It'll be so bad you'll wish you were deaf.

Or rather, you'd wish I was deaf. If I were deaf I wouldn't have heard anything to complain about.

I'm proud to tell you that your wish has come true.

Or at least, partially.

Yes! I've gone deaf. Partially I mean.

That night I was digging my ears merrily. Merrily because of the satisfaction one feels for seeing all those disgusting things leaving our precious ears. But all the bliss was short lived, as I accidentally pushed my earwax deeper into my right ear.

And poof! There goes all the noise from my ear, to be substituted by a constant buzz.

"Ooops!" I said to myself. I tried to dig the cotton stick a mite deeper in, but it was useless.

But that night, I slept like a log. The first time for many weeks. Of course, the endless buzz in my ear is good enough to hypnotise me any time, but the piece of stubborn earwax managed to block almost every single decibel from reaching my eardrum.

The next morning, I plugged in my right earphone to my right ear, and was surprised to find that I only received like 10% of the original volume.

The Ultimate Being has made hell paradise!

Seriously, it's not so bad being partially deaf. Many famous musicians, like Elliott Yamin, Lugwig van Beethoven, and Phil Collins had hearing impairment. And they lived with it.

Of course, I may have to ask people to repeat everything they say from time to time, but I just can't ignore all the advantages of being partially deaf due to earwax clogging.

Firstly, by clogging up just one of my ears, I can preserve my awareness to the surroundings and keeping my main mode of communication. Secondly, by making it temporary, I can always assure myself that sooner or later, I will get better. I know this because this is the third time this happen to me. Thirdly, by clogging up my right ear rather than my left, when I bang on the piano, the melody part got muffled up, reminding me to give more emphasise to my right hand rather than my left. And of course, I can expect to sleep better from now on.

So, old men go deaf because of inelastic eardrums or build up of earwax? A little of both, I'll say.

PS. - OMG, I'm suffering the same problem Beethoven faced - Tinnitus. It is described as a constant ringing in one or both ears, due to many factors, such as bla bla bla and bla bla bla and wax build-up! Gawsh, am I gonna be as famous as him? *Stares into space, and then pops back to reality* Nah I doubt it.