Rebecca A. Foster

I read this blog post about a memorable mix tape, and it reminded me of the box of mix tapes (and mix CDs) boxed up in my storage space. I got my first mix tapes from A., in high school. He was the rebel, I was the studious good girl, and twain we met over debate class and mix tapes. His tapes leaned heavily on b-sides of The Posies and Fugazi, with Nitzer Ebb  and obscure Japanese-release-only Depeche Mode songs thrown in for good measure. My friend C. made me mix tapes in college, mostly songs by alternative bands he found rummaging through second-hand record stores; I'd never heard of most of them, but he did introduce me to Henry Rollins, something I'll never forget. He sent them to me through the mail and I loved getting that recognizable padded envelope. We never dated, but I'd like to think a man who will go to the post office for you thinks you're pretty great. The creme of my mix tape cookie was S., who made me mix CDs by the dozens, full of alterna-rock...

I used to try to override my intuition with non-logic, mostly because I didn't want to believe the things my intuition was telling me were true. In China, I learned to embrace intuition. It's a very large part of Chinese culture, to accept things that cannot be explained and reasoned and logically construed. Often this was frustrating for me; "This makes no sense!" came out of my mouth on maybe an hourly basis my first year there. Once I let go of everything having to make sense or be logical, I was much happier living there. Then it became another of our catchphrases, "TIC." This is China. That explains it. And that's enough. -That person approaching you across the parking lot in an unsafe manner? Yeah, it's good to be suspicious of that person and tell them to back off. You're not rude. Nice people don't approach girls alone in a parking lot. -That guy who tells you he is single, but so many clues point to him not being completely hones...

A few things this week that made me laugh: 1. A random male student I know asked if he should call me 'Lady Rebecca' or 'Madam Rebecca'. I told him it was okay to call me just 'Rebecca.' But in retrospect, how fun would it be to be called 'Lady Rebecca'? I missed my big chance! (Titles are very important here. Everyone has a title, and you cannot mess them up; I'm not his teacher, so he wasn't sure what to call me.) 2. Remember last weekend I went out of town? On the long-distance bus home, T. and I were listening to Spanish music on his iPod through shared earbuds. (For those unfamiliar with Spanish music, it's very cheesy and dramatic.) He speaks Spanish fluently, but I'm only about 70% fluent in my listening skills, so at one point he began translating the song lyrics for me. Picture it: a long period of silent listening, then he suddenly starts saying things like "My heart can't live without you, our history together will...

I have terrible taste in music. My main criteria is whether I can sing it, dance it, or drive fast to it. Pretty low standards. I have this song on my iPod running playlist and it always gives me a little burst of energy. Suck it, music snobs, I know it's bad. I love it. (Warning: Brits are excellent wordsmiths, bad music video makers.) Also, it makes me want to wear silver hot pants and shake my booty. Is that so wrong?

Probably third in line behind my video iPod and YouTube for technology that makes me happy: WiFi. I rarely go anywhere anymore that I can't connect to WiFi. Next stop, a more portable PC. Mine is an IBM ThinkPad. Not huge, but still a little bulky to be hauling around. At Will's house we can watch YouTube on his TV through Wii. And when people took turns playing Wii, I chatted with some friends and updated my flickr pic descriptions with his WiFi connection during my rotation out. YouTube, Wii, and WiFi. Pretty much my technology trifecta. I'm not addicted to the Internet, but I am now accustomed to having the ability to access information on the spot. And to keep in touch with friends, no matter where I am.

I have a video iPod. I bought The Office Season 3 Pass on iTunes, but I already had Season 2 on DVD. And thanks to Macrovision, I don't actually own the DVDs I buy. Who knew? But by using cladDVD.net.3.5.6 and SUPER ©, I can remove the Macrovision protection (cladDVD) and then convert the video file to an mpeg-4 file that will play on my iPod (SUPER ©)*. Viola, Season 2 of The Office on my iPod. I can't imagine traveling anymore without my video iPod. And now I can add my favorite movies and tv shows without having to re-purchase on iTunes. cladDVD: http://www.softpedia.com/get/CD-DVD-Tools/CD-DVD-Rip-Other-Tools/cladDVD-NET.shtml SUPER ©: http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html *if you know a better way to accomplish this task, please share with me!