Although as of this writing, it's changing over to the less historically celebrated "Ice Pellet Day", which will gradually slide into "I Should Probably Go Shovel Again Anyway Day", "Damnit, Now it's Just Cold and Crappy Out Day", "I Believe the Puddle I Stepped in Just Soaked Through to my Sock Day", and finally culminating with "Now I Have to Wade through Three Inches of Slush to go Grocery Shopping Day".
Hey, the joys in this life are fleeting. So any chance to wheel out my favorite mic-in track of all time is worth a hastily tossed off blog post, right?
For those who don't know, Stark Effect defines a mic-in track thusly:
a recording made on a PC using MusicMatch Jukebox, a music utility packaged with many new PC's that allows the user to record from the microphone input of the PC's sound card and save the recording in mp3 format. The default filename is "mic in track" followed by a number.
The real fun, however, starts when the following detail is revealed (Also from Stark Effect):
If that user also happens to be running a file-sharing program (WinMX, Audiognome, Kazaa, etc.), and shares the directory in which the mic in track is stored, then these personal recordings can be easily downloaded from the user's computer. The vast majority of them are either silent or uninteresting, but many are like Christmas presents giftwrapped in nondescript serial numbers. They represent unique examples of audio vérité.
Thanks as always to the Evolution Control Committee for first revealing the incidental art of mic-in tracks. Download a bunch and read more about them here.

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