Adorable adoptable puppies.

R.I.P. Tape Decks In Cars: The End Of An Era Arrives

If some of your fondest memories include road-tripping across the U.S. while flipping cassette after cassette of your favorite tunes, the next sentence will make you very sad.

According to the New York Times, new cars will no longer come with a pre-installed tape deck.

"For the 2011 model year, no manufacturer selling cars in the United States offers a tape player either as standard equipment or as an option on a new vehicle. The most recent choice for a factory cassette deck was the 2010 Lexus SC 430," the Times reports.

Cassettes, once a dominant audio format, are now but a novelty. Indeed, 2010 not only saw the end of the tape slot in cars, but also saw Sony ship its last batch of cassette Walkmans.

The Times indicates that CDs may be spinning their way into obsolescence, right behind compact cassettes and their eight-track predecessors. "The iPod and its ilk are easing the journey along the path to the increasingly popular concept of file storage known as the cloud -- that place in the Internet ether from which music is streamed, generally through a Web-connected mobile device that communicates with the car by a wireless Bluetooth connection," writes the Times.

I haven't had a tapedeck in one of my cars since 1998 or so.

Today I need to do my nails, clean up the kitchen, decide on an interview outfit, and clear some things off the DVR.

I guess I should start with the kitchen so I don't mess up my nails.

I should also send my resume to a few people who have offered to take it to offices.

Aw, babies.

Those dogs I posted about yesterday were on the local news last night so I'm betting they'll have no problem finding a good home.

It was crazy hearing the story - this woman saw them running along the shore and then realized the ice was breaking underneath them and when one went in she stripped off her coat and skirt and dove in herself. The dog was already entirely limp by that point. Harrowing.

And someone else had seen the owner taking the collars off the dogs and leaving. Jesus fuck what is wrong with people.

I haven't had a tapedeck in one of my cars since 1998 or so.

I have a tapedeck in my car, but it's pretty old. Still, that's how I play the iPod. I imagine those newfangled cars have that taken care of...

I know that Noah is really caught up with being tall enough for the ball pit, so I'm really impressed that the tyke kept his cool. He's a big boy, even if he's not as tall as he wants to be yet.

Jesus fuck what is wrong with people.

Seriously. What. But everything is RIGHT with the woman who saved them and the people who will give them good home(s).

My car has a USB port for connecting the iPod. It's also got an audio input jack that I can connect to the headphone jack on my cell phone to listen to Pandora in the car, but that's kind of a pain to set up, so I usually only use it for long trips. (Listening to Pandora requires connecting two wires from the phone to the car, starting the Pandora app on the phone, and then adjusting the volume on both the phone and the car to get it right.)

The other crazy animal thing I have seen lately is this:

[link]

I can't imagine having my apartment burn down, being able to see my cat through the window, and NOT being allowed to get my cat. Like, I serious might break in!

But they did save several cats, so that is good.

It's only within the past year or so that the cars I've rented while mine is in the shop have had an earphone jack for iPod usage. Which is irritating. I hate even a day of driving without my tunes.

Happily my last two phones have had standard audio output jacks, although I don't use Pandora on them anywhere near as much as I should.

I just got an "I love you! Come back!" message from noreply@message.myspace.com. Uh, I had a myspace account? And it thinks my name is Carla?

This actually seems very possible, since it looks like I set up a myspace email alias. Why do I do this?

I use a tape adapter to listen to my mp3 in the truck, but it's sort of cranky. And it's harder to find them these days when they break, too.