Collegiate Times

DIY Center

HOW TO: Prove your commitment by taking the time to go beyond CD-Rs and playlists and create an actual cassette tape. Available at drugstores, they are inexpensive and can be customized with spray paint, stickers and magazine clippings for a truly distinctive spin on your average mix. (Just make sure you cover the holes on the front and the tape with a layer of masking tape before you use any paint.) To create a mixtape straight from your computer, make two playlists that are each the same length as one side of the tape. Then plug your tape player into the output of your computer using a standard RCA cable, and play the mix as you record for each side. Make an insert out of cardstock with track titles and a personal
message, and let the tracks do the trick.

IF YOU’RE SINGLE: You have more time than ever to explore good music. Ditch “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” and tune into a mix with the same qualities of any good breakup: a little despair and plenty of spite.

NOTE: For those looking to end things but fearing confrontation, sit your dearest down for a listen to the “Break Up Mix” and save your own words for pickup lines.

Stop scrawling away standard favors, give coupons with consequences

Countless gift guides cite homemade coupon books as the quintessential, inexpensive and heartfelt gift. More often than not though, they come off as the quintessential and lazy emergency gift. Especially akin to this is “Naughty Notes” in Cosmo magazine, which revolve around coupons for inconsequential sexual favors.

Chances are, if you are desperate enough to leave around a coupon reading “Meet me in the shower, I’m feeling dirty,” you will need more than a quick rinse to clean up your relationship. After all, if Cosmo really has all the answers, then why is it constantly seeking out 364 ways to please your “new man” anyway? Forgo suggestive sonnets this year for statements that actually bear weight. Pump your lover for more than pleasure with coupons like “one thorough discussion about the future of our relationship” or “one list of everything that irritates you about me.” Show them you want to get serious with “one trip to meet the parents” or that they aren’t quite working out with “one day of tolerating your persistent antics.”

Whichever route you choose, rest assured these coupons are rooted in the key to any successful relationship: tender, loving passive aggression.

HOW TO: Scrounge up your classiest paper or card stock and fold in half, twice. Cut along the lines to create coupon-like strips of paper. Decorate as desired and neatly inscribe each with one “gift.” Create a front cover and fasten the stack together using ribbon, brads, staples, or a needle and thread.

IF YOU’RE SINGLE: Don’t feel left out. There are still plenty of coupons you can craft to improve your situation, whether it’s “one night of not calling the cops because of your deafening parties and late night Rock Band sessions” for your neighbors or “one phone call where I admit that I got a ‘D’ in chemistry” for your parents.

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A version of this article appeared in the Feb 11 issue of the Collegiate Times.