3 Things I Pondered Today
How does earning something feel?
Why does acting like a kid on your day off feel so good?
How is a company raising $42,000 for a tape player in a couple days a sign of it’s resurgence?
Sundays start of with errands for me and today I had to get appliances which I was actually excited about. That made me feel ancient but it was the reality of it. I have been saving a ton of money lately so buying stuff has been minimal and we were waiting for our current appliances to break before buying new ones. It gave us a year or so before we had to start doing so. In that I bought appliances today and used my debit card. It was kind of a big deal because I didn’t charge it or open a card to buy it.
Sometimes buying things might give you a quick satisfaction but I use the oven every single day and I really missed not having a double oven. When our appliance gave out I was determine to get one similar if not better than the one I had in my condo. For a year I kept thinking that my tenants had better appliances than I did but up until today I was unable to get the appliances I wanted because of cost. I also wanted to wait out until the holiday to get it because of the sales and it ended up saving us over $700 so it was worth it.
Part of the excitement was that with my double oven I can meal prep easier and it’s something so simple that makes a huge difference. I also had a moment of gratitude because I was able to buy this 100% on my own with money I earned. There was something extremely satisfying about that. I have been working so hard lately and being able to buy what I wanted and the exact kind I wanted was worth the wait. I will end up getting the other appliances spread out so I can continue to pay for everything in cash. I have been working towards eliminating all debt and the first step of course is living within our means. Thankfully the appliance purchase have a 5 year warranty so that’s a huge investment on our health and home.
It’s the second day this summer that we had friends over. It’s a bunch of adults but we went swimming and spent a lot of time hanging out and eating food. It really felt like being a kid. It was a great time and I was able to play DJ by putting on different songs I liked. I made sure to post the songs on Twitter and Instagram to share what I was listening to today. I kept thinking to myself this is what I would do as a kid and it felt super fun to act like a kid today while still working on my projects.
One of the things I noticed when I was on Twitter is that there was a Kickstarter that raised $42,000 for a bluetooth tape player in a couple of days. I also thought to myself is this a sign of a resurgence? I think it is. Raising $100 is nothing to sneeze about and raising $42,000 is a huge deal. I wrote this in response to the post on my favorite subreddit: “The fact that they’ve raised so much is kind of a big deal. I’m sitting here thinking to myself “Who is buying this?” because the only people I know of on the internet who like tape cassettes wouldn’t buy it because they know better. Which leads me to believe that the general population is buying it. That is the first sign of a resurgence. Same thing happened with vinyl when the tiny suitcase turntables came out. It might get the attention it needs to get other companies to step in as mentioned. The price is far too high for the technology you are getting but only the avid collectors know this. So the question is who is buying it and what does that mean for the future of cassettes?”
I think there is something bigger happening here. People want tape cassettes again. It’s coming back and it’s been back but it’s getting bigger. Not everybody can afford a $30 record but they can afford a $5-8 tape. It’s a matter of time before this gets bigger.