what did you do today? (2008-2015) (closed)

[Major Tom]

I don't know much surf music beyond the Beach Boys, "Wipeout", and one particular number by the Ventures.

How many iPods does it take to carry around 10,000 CDs? I know a guy who stores each decade of his favorites on individual iPods...

I figured that I'm going to need about 5.5TB of hard drive space to store all the music at full CD quality with all the artwork. If I put them on iPods, that wold be about 35 of the biggest iPods currently available.

Being a collector of anything isn't the greatest idea. That old adage of owning stuff instead of allowing it to own you certainly applies here. Better to live lightly and let others be the curators.

 

[Major Tom]

Brushed my kitty this afternoon. When I brush her, I'll sing...

She's a very special girl...
She's a super freak
Super freak
She's super freaky
Meow...

......

I met Rick James once and asked him to record a message for my (then) girlfriend. I put the message on her PC so that every time she turned it on, instead of hearing the usual Windows theme music, she heard "Hi (her name here), this is Rick James. Is it true you're a super-freak?"

She loved it!

 

[Major Tom]

Not a physically active day, but very enjoyable. SO came over. We ate hot crusty French bread, drank red wine and watched a documentary about Annie Liebowitz, titled "Life Through A Lens".

Oh - and watched and played with the kitty too. Since taking her in as a stray a few months ago, she is fast becoming an integral part of the family

 

[ksr]

Yep...ugly thing isn't it....hope he doesn't come back.

This may sound odd, but I kind of like possums. They seem like such shy, quiet creatures. I had one in my backyard a few times one year, in fact I saw it running across the top of the fence. The funniest thing is what happened when I showed it to my SO. He basically said something like "OMG, we really have a problem, that's the biggest rat I've ever seen!"

I had to get online and show him photos of possums to convince him it wasn't a rat!

 

[happy2bretired]

This may sound odd, but I kind of like possums. They seem like such shy, quiet creatures. I had one in my backyard a few times one year, in fact I saw it running across the top of the fence. The funniest thing is what happened when I showed it to my SO. He basically said something like "OMG, we really have a problem, that's the biggest rat I've ever seen!"

I had to get online and show him photos of possums to convince him it wasn't a rat!

They are very rat-like but sooo much bigger. I did have fun on my camera safari watching it tho. In my robe trotting around at 6:00 am in my yard and the neighbor's yard. If it heard my dog or saw me, it would just freeze and play possum. I finally figured out that the dog had to be quiet and I needed to be hidden from it's view before it would start walking again. It looked quite at home walking on the top of the fence. I do hope that it made it's way back to the storm sewers...where I think it came from.

 

[TromboneAl]

I figured that I'm going to need about 5.5TB of hard drive space to store all the music at full CD quality with all the artwork. If I put them on iPods, that wold be about 35 of the biggest iPods currently available.

Have you done any experiments to see what level of compression your ear can detect?

Also, on many CDs, there are only a few tracks that I like. Transfer only those

 

[Nords]

What do possums do to make themselves pests? Get into trash cans?

We have a mongoose regularly stop by our compost bin. I think he comes for the egg shells or maybe the fruit rinds. Whatever his reason, I tolerate him because he does a great job of mixing up the compost while he's looking for whatever he wants.

 

[Sarah in SC]

I'm a possum fan as well but maybe that is thanks to the Dolly Freed book Possum Living. We don't see many because we have dogs, but they can be a menace getting into stuff. My dad used to trap them and release them on a nearby farm when they'd come around. I think it would be cool to see a mongoose!

 

[Major Tom]

Have you done any experiments to see what level of compression your ear can detect?

Also, on many CDs, there are only a few tracks that I like. Transfer only those

I do use compression, but it's a lossless compression codec called FLAC. The files end up a bit smaller but with absolutely no loss of quality. Audiophiles love FLAC compression. I'm not willing to use any type of compression that introduces any loss of data. It's because of the same type of mild OCD that drives me to make high res scans of all the artwork on each CD booklet before I feel I can get rid of them. So although I gain space by mild lossless compression of each CD, I'm taking it up again by scanning all the artwork.

Call this insanity (and it is) but I rip everything - even the stuff I don't like. I was a DJ for around 20 years and developed an ability to appreciate, research and present music regardless of whether it was to my own personal taste or not. It's this same regard for the whole creative process that artists go through that causes me to want to hang on to it all. At least, that's what I tell myself. Truth be told it's probably more the OCD/collector mentality. I plan to archive everything on hard drive and keep a core collection of maybe around 3000 - 4000 CD's that I want to keep. However, I want all of it on hard drive as it's so much easier to access and listen to on the computer.

Uh oh. Long post. Sorry about that. With some things I just cannot be brief. I can stop it anytime I want. I really can......

 

[Sarah in SC]

Tom, thanks for making my compulsions seem somehow less compulsive, lol. I love that you have taken this on! Good luck with the "keeping 3,000 to 4,000 of them around for listening". Dang! And wow!

 

[TromboneAl]

Hello possums.

 

[Major Tom]

Tom, thanks for making my compulsions seem somehow less compulsive, lol. I love that you have taken this on! Good luck with the "keeping 3,000 to 4,000 of them around for listening". Dang! And wow!

Sarah - I'm glad that my compulsiveness makes you feel a little better about yours! I'll remember that when it's another lovely day outside and I'm wondering why I'm sitting here glued to the scanner

Here's what I'm dealing with. My main room (box sets on top in the first picture):




And the corridor to the bathroom:

There is another CD rack not pictured, but you get the idea. I've succeeded in getting the collection down from a peak of 10,000 to about 8,000 right now.

If I'm ever going to go full-timing in an RV, I'd like to not have to rent too large a storage space for this stuff!

 

[Sarah in SC]

Holy smokes Tom! Wow! So you were a dj to support the music collecting habit or the other way around?
Yeah that is not all going to fit in the RV for sure. I would actually like to get a bit compulsive about my photos, tagging them in Picasa and setting up a consistent naming convention for the folders. But I'm not facing anything like your house!
Very cool!

 

[freebird5825]

Just got back from a whirlwind trip (Sat-Mon) to MA to see Mr B's Mom for Mother's Day. She was so happy to see him, after all that transpired 2 weeks ago with his minor heart attack. We took her out to a real nice dinner at a restaurant overlooking the Merrimack River in Methuen MA.

I am now the proud owner of a murderous head cold , complete with major drainage from the head alternating with pounding sinus headaches. I have no idea how I caught this bug except maybe at the Legion installation dinner last Friday. Groan! It will be fluids and rest for this kid for the next few days.

I am semi-quarantining myself from Mr B, which means no kisses or handholding. I'll come up with a Plan B though.

 

[Meadbh]

Listed my house for sale. Priced competitively for the market. We will see.

 

[Major Tom]

Listed my house for sale. Priced competitively for the market. We will see.

*Fingers crossed*

 

[W2R]

Listed my house for sale. Priced competitively for the market. We will see.

Good luck!! Hope the market up there is more energetic than ours has been recently.

 

[steelyman]

I think I will call myself, from my landline, to see if I can figure it out. (I won't try the shoe trick, though! )

Edited to add: OK, that was pretty easy.

From The Land Of Bizarre Coincidences: today, I actually DID have to call myself. Why? Because I had left my cell phone at the grocery store yesterday and didn't realize I didn't have it until today. I've had a cell since 2001 and never once lost it... until yesterday.

I freaked out, to be honest. After not being able to find it, then calming down and thinking on it for a while, I decided to toss the dice and just call it... in case someone answered and could tell me where they were. And happy day, the customer service desk at the grocery answered! All's well that ends well, but that little baby is staying in my eyesight from now on

 

[Nodak]

Listed my house for sale. Priced competitively for the market. We will see.

Best of luck, I hope the market there is better than here. Mine's been listed for awhile now, I had two showings last week and am hoping it sells soon.

 

[freebird5825]

Listed my house for sale. Priced competitively for the market. We will see.

Hope it sells quickly for a fair price.

 

[Sue J]

Yesterday we had a nice Mother's Day lunch at my sister and BIL's house with our parents. Then we went to the Cleveland Zoo. I haven't been there in years. The weather was perfect and it was nice to be out. The zoo was crowded with young families and it made me appreciate that our sons are adults now and how much easier it is than when they needed strollers, snacks, diaper bags, etc.

The Cleveland Zoo has a new state of the art elephant exhibit. African Elephant Crossing | Now Open Much bigger than before and it all looked better for the elephants. The whole place is lovely with walkways and flowers but I just find the animals sad and the whole "zoo" situation depressing. I know that most of them were born into captivity and that they don't know any other life. It just seems so unjust that they live in confinement so that people can stare at them and ooh and aah.

There were 2 bears who just paced back and forth in that neurotic, bored way that captive animals do. They have fake boulders and an imitation branch to interact with and to me it looks like they don't really like all that much exposure to screaming kids and camera flashes.

Is it possible that these animals think they've got it made because they get a food delivery and hours of people watching? Or is this as unnatural as it looks?

The primate building is from the late 80's I think. I remember when it was new and so much better than what was there before. Now it looks like a prison. It screamed of "captivity". Most of the animals were hiding or sleeping. The big gorilla was outside sitting on a rock (real or manufactured?) with his back to the spectators. Everyone oohed when he rolled over so that he could reach back and scratch his butt. Then he sniffed his finger. I was embarrassed for him.

While I enjoyed the day out with family I can't seem to get past the captivity aspect. I'm an animal lover and I know there is an education element to all of this. Then there are rescue situations where animals need human help. But I get to get in my car and go home and live my life. The animals will still be there years from now with their fake rocks and plastic trees, pacing, pacing, pacing...

 

[steelyman]

While I enjoyed the day out with family I can't seem to get passed the captivity aspect. I'm an animal lover and I know there is an education element to all of this. Then there are rescue situations where animals need human help. But I get to get in my car and go home and live my life.

There is a website called "Zencast" that distributes podcasts of what are called "dharma talks" that I have been listening to for a couple of years now and enjoy.

In one of them, the speaker mentioned a story about a lion in a zoo who had been caged in an area about 12 foot or so. He just paced back and forth. Later, the area for him was considerably expanded, and made much more "natural". But the lion continued to pace back and forth in the 12 foot area.

 

[Major Tom]

Holy smokes Tom! Wow! So you were a dj to support the music collecting habit or the other way around?
Yeah that is not all going to fit in the RV for sure. I would actually like to get a bit compulsive about my photos, tagging them in Picasa and setting up a consistent naming convention for the folders. But I'm not facing anything like your house!
Very cool!

Oh gosh yes, photos. Just last night I spent half an hour looking for a photo of my friend Grace to show to someone. I was thinking how much easier it would be if all my digital pictures were captioned and indexed. I could just type "Grace" into a box and all the pictures of her would pop up.

Not sure whether I should thank you for bringing this up Sarah. One more detail-oriented project like this and any chances I ever had of leading a normal life will be fast fading into the twilight

 

[Nords]

Gave another surfing lesson in Waikiki this morning. I love watching a new surfer stand up for the first time. They're both doing well enough that I'll be back Wed & Sat morning with more boards, and this time I'll paddle out on a board instead of on fins. They won't need much more help until we'll all be surfing together.

Our daughter turned 18 last fall and we're hiking Haleakala Crater soon, so we decided to visit the lawyer for a wills/medical directives checkup. (It's been nearly seven years.) It turns out that an 18-year-old Hawaii resident is considered capable of being an executrix, so we redid the paperwork. There's also new boilerplate in the medical directives. Later this week or early next week we'll go back for the witness party.

John Hancock sent me their paperwork to process Dad's long-term care insurance claim. I guess that's called "progress".

After over a solid week of rain (or a week of solid rain) the skies are finally clearing. Tomorrow we weed.

I am semi-quarantining myself from Mr B, which means no kisses or handholding. I'll come up with a Plan B though.

Even before you mention Plan B he's already probably wondering who you've been kissing & hand-holding...

From The Land Of Bizarre Coincidences: today, I actually DID have to call myself. Why? Because I had left my cell phone at the grocery store yesterday and didn't realize I didn't have it until today. I've had a cell since 2001 and never once lost it... until yesterday.
I freaked out, to be honest. After not being able to find it, then calming down and thinking on it for a while, I decided to toss the dice and just call it... in case someone answered and could tell me where they were. And happy day, the customer service desk at the grocery answered! All's well that ends well, but that little baby is staying in my eyesight from now on

This is one of those posts that I'll re-read whenever I consider carrying a cell phone...

 

[BTravlin]

Here's what I'm dealing with. My main room (box sets on top in the first picture):

Wow! Hope longevity runs in your family as you will need it to get that project finished.