Ear Buds and their many Technical Difficulties

You know those Apple ear buds?  They're okay.  Mine are too big and people can hear what I'm listening to from five feet away. 

Recently, the grey rubber around the speaker of each bud started to peel off (that's how old they are).  After a while, I got sick of it and removed it because I don't want little rubber pieces floating through my ear canals and into my brain.  Not only would that damage my hearing, this blog would inexplicably become dedicated to the scent of rubber.

So the other day, my family and I headed up into the mountains to canoe.  I took my iPod and started fiddling with it at the gas station.  Since the protective rubber, which holds the speakers to the neck, is no longer in place, I can remove the speakers and pull them away from the neck.  This drags the cord through said neck in the process.  I did so out of sheer boredom.

I can honestly tell you the rubber is there for a reason, and a good one at that.  It holds the ear buds together, and keeps all sorts of assorted garbage away from the wires and such contained within the bud.  Garbage like link, dirt, and earwax. 

Needless to say, ear buds go in ears, where earwax is.  I cleaned the inner rim off with a tissue and restored the yellow color to factory-condition Macbook white. 

After fitting the speakers to the necks again, they promptly fell apart in my hands.

A word of wisdom: if you don't have grey rubber to protect your ear buds from imminent decay, earwax does the job just as well.