[late QOTW entry] Mix Tapes
Not Mix Tapes as such, but more like Everything-Torrents.

Once last year, when searching for goodies to BitTorrent, I discovered a set of Torrents of every single tune that had made it into the top 40 from 1965 to 2003. I found this when searching for a particular mp3 I had been trying to search for for 9 years (since I discovered what mp3s were and how easy it was to download them). At first, I was glad to have found the mp3, but a bit more digging around revealed that they had a set of Torrents of all songs that made it into the top 40 for a given year. My curiosity got the better of me. At first, I downloaded only the ones from around the time-period of my childhood but soon downloaded the lot.

Out of curiosity, I decided to browse through seemingly random songs from my early childhood. Some songs were familiar, but some I had completely forgotten about until I heard them again. One thing about music is that it tends to bind with memories from when you hear it. If it's a tune you've not heard in ages, it brings back things you are likely to have forgotten. With me, that was often the case.

My early childhood was a bit of a mixed bag to say the least. Many things had happened that at one stage I had either hoped I'd want to forget, or things that just didn't seem to make sense. Listening to these forgotten songs unleashed lost and disconnected memories that shed light on the things that had gone on before. For the first time, I was able to objectively look at my early childhood and fit everything together like a giant jigsaw - it explained why I was the way I was and why some things happened. I also remember long periods of being bored or under stimulated.

I now have very lucid memories of my early childhood, and can see with an adult's perspective the way a kid sees the world with a kid's perspective. Although nothing can truly prepare me for being a father, being aware of the way I saw the world as a kid now makes me look forward to rearing kids of my own.

As a bonus, I finally discovered the name of the song I danced to the first time I plucked the courage to ask a girl to dance at a school disco. I didn’t know what it was so couldn’t hear it again. I had heard it on the radio a few times, but never caught the name. Finally after 15 years of searching, I found it.

Length? It's honestly not worth placing 13 DVDs worth of mp3s in WinAmp just so I can make a crappy length-joke.

EDIT: This was pearoasted here.

( mistaspakkaman and the inedible shifting caterpillars, Thu 9 Oct 2008, 2:15, 3 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

ok then

( Gilgamesh gazed in wonder as Frampton came alive, Thu 9 Oct 2008, 2:52, Reply)

yes
and what was the song?
(Halfy By light alone, Thu 9 Oct 2008, 10:11, Reply)

^ ^
Zouk Machine - Maldon

EDIT: When I saw it on YouTube, I realised that this was actually the first time I saw the video.
( mistaspakkaman and the inedible shifting caterpillars, Thu 9 Oct 2008, 20:05, Reply)