Color me antiquated

I ran into an "acquaintance" the other day on a leisurely stroll downtown. It appeared obvious that a chat would ensue so I reached into my pocket to stop my walkman cassette player. Somehow incapable of properly turning it off, I removed it from my pocket to get a better estimation to the problem and my obvious stupidity. Upon seeing the walkman, ACQ gave a mocking chuckle. "What?" assuming the laugh was directed at my obvious defect with electronics.
"What the fuck is that?".
"Umm, a tape player."
"You still have one of those?"
"Actually, I have about 8 in various stages of decay. Not sure why, should probably just toss the broken ones away."

Basically the conversation steered into the realm of me not owning an Ipod and the ridiculousness of listening to music on tapes. Ok, let's evaluate. I've had a Walkman since I could remember. The first tape I bought was Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" or maybe it was Meatloaf's "Bat Out of Hell", not important since both are classic. My tape collection has slowly grown from there. Clearly, I dabbled in latest raging media formats such as CDs and mp3s, but have since returned to tapes and records as my primary source of music.
At any rate, tapes are cheap as shit, cheaper than mp3's (unless you download of course) and they sound, well, more nostalgic, I hesitate to say better. Honestly, it really boils down to the quality of analog or digital system to accurately evaluate sound quality. And, well, a Walkman is not a high end sound system. So the argument on quality is pretty moot and probably in favor of the Ipod. My argument stayed in the pasture of personal preference. At its most basic, there is just something about that analog hiss that is really fucking religious to me. Plus a tape is tangible, a mp3, not so much.
Additionally, Walkman's are super cheap, 2 bones at your local thrift shop.
Making mixtapes is cathartic and the extra labor involved enhances the quality of the product. Making a tape is real-time dude, not point and click and you have a mixed "tape" CDr. Please don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with digital media, I imbibe lots of it. But when it comes down to it, I'll choose my Walkman over the Ipod. Mostly because I'm so fvkking kvlt.

E.