2007 — 17 May: I've been a bad, bad, boy!
I foresee a mite of upheaval in my future, caused by more than a mite of laziness in my past. Since it purely concerns my music collection, (and [more specifically] the 2,500 or so non-classical CDs) casual readers are advised and welcome to drop out right now, before their eyes glaze completely over. Just look for a heading further down the page, to see if I ever get off this topic today.
"It all started when"... I noticed (long after I should have done) that some of my CD titles were missing from my MP3 collection. How could that be? Idiot child that I am, some of my CDs were stored up in the loft after archiving to minidisc, but before ripping1 to MP3 (which latter process only started two or three years ago "when I had the technology"). Compound that with the fact that all the MP3 management software (when working its magic on the MP3s' ID2 tags) seems to prefer to file items like Artist name in what I would call simple alphabetical order where I've long preferred the "surname first" route, and we have a first-class recipe for chaos when it comes to reconciling my database listing, my MP3 files, and my physical CD collection which, to make matters worse, is randomly scattered through numerous packing cases in aforementioned loft, rather than obsessively filed in neat order on the shelves downstairs.
What shelves? There's no damn room!
Did I mention that the CDs are also re-packed in pairs in "double" cases with typeset labels? No? Well that just adds to the fun. Now, I suspect, might be a good time to re-rip them with a higher sampling rate, too. And/or a different sampling technology. And perhaps even to scan the cover artwork? Unless I lose the will to live. Jolly good job I'm retired.
Good morning, Ms Postie!
Whatcha got there for me?
- Spots by S Clay Wilson, every bit as fine an artist as the divine Robert Crumb, IMHO, and just as gloriously politically incorrect
- A talent for war by Jack McDevitt, data from an "ancient computer file" uncovers a fraud
- Polaris by Jack McDevitt, a future version of the Marie Celeste mystery by the look of it
- Seeker by Jack McDevitt, a riff on the familiar lost colony theme according to the blurb
These are the three tales of Alex Benedict: "one of the pre-eminent antiquities dealers in the galaxy" and the author is a new one to me. However, I liked what I saw and read on his web site when I browsed it last week.