Mixed tapes

Ah, I long for the days of mixed tapes. If you gave a mixed tape to someone, then that person really meant something to you..be it a boy/girlfriend or a best friend. I now make people mixed Cd's, and that's cool, but they are so much easier to make. Man, think about it, the mixed tape was a labor of love, and that is why it meant so much to make and give one to someone. It took a long time to do...you had to put each tape into one deck on your stereo, and first find the song you wanted by ff or rewinding, and then you had to find the exact starting and stopping place for recording. If you let it go too far, you had to rewind the mix tape a little to record over the song you just let it play into, and that really pissed you off because you knew you were compromising just slightly the sound of the next song that would then go on the mix tape (i.e., whenever you recorded over something the sound was never quite as good). And heaven help you if you were recording a song off the radio to put on the mixed tape. You might wait 3 hours to catch a song on the radio, and the d.j. always talked over the beginning of the song, and that really burned your ass. Also, there were no convenient play lists to print off of itunes to place in the tape cover, so you had to hand write the name of every song and artist, and if you really had a wild hair, you tried to make a creative cover for the tape. Jesus, the person receiving it really knew they were special. Maybe , I don't long so much for those days, because that was a lot of work. I guess I long for the feeling I got when giving or receiving one of those tapes, because it was better than getting a Hallmark card. You really were caring enough to give the best...the best of your time, and creativity, I suppose.

Ready for Santa

The stockings have been hung by the chimney with care. We put up the tree and decorated it, and put out the rest of our holiday decorations. The living room looks festive and cozy. Ethan has declared it our finest Christmas tree ever (but we say that every year about each tree). I did this a little earlier than usual this year, because I love to enjoy the tree, and I wanted to do so for as long as possible. By the time Christmas day rolls around the tree will be dry as a bone, but oh, well.
Today is a snow day for the boys. Ohio County cancelled school. I, on the other hand, have to work this evening. Bummer dude. I just hope the roads out this way are cleared for when I have to leave.
Dave and I spent the past three evenings watching a Sci-fi production called Tin Man, which was a modern-day take on the Wizard of Oz. While we were entertained, and drawn in to it enough to keep watching, we are sure that there are several scenes that will be making The Soup this week. There were some really cheesy scenes, as well as some really awkward and poorly produced special effects. Also, I don't feel that the people at Sci-fi put too much effort into the name of the mini series. They called it the Tin Man, but really it's as if they said, "Well, there is a tin man in the original and a tin man in this one, and so that will be good enough." Neither movie's main focus is the character of the tin man. They knew they couldn't get away with passing it off as a complete remake of the original (that would have been blasphemous), and thus couldn't call it The Wizard of Oz. So, they might have just said Tin Man will do in the absence of something better.
I saw Beowulf with Kristen this past Sunday. They took some liberties with it, but I expected that. The 3D made for a cool viewing experience. I am looking forward to more 3D movies that we saw in the previews. Namely, Neil Gaiman's book Coraline is being made into a 3D movie, and also a remake of Journey to the Center of the Earth is coming out in 3D. I love going to the movies, and I don't get to go nearly as much as I'd like. Dave and I really want to see I Am Legend. I hope we get to go.