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This little iPod thingy now has all my music

The kid at Office Depot scratched his head.

"Well, yeah, I think we've got one that big," he said. He pointed to the vast area behind him. "Somewhere...somewhere over there."

"You're sure?" I asked. "Because I fought all sorts of traffic to get here and I don't want to go home empty-handed."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure," the kid said.

"Pretty sure? or for sure?" I replied.

"Okay, I'm sure." The kid gave me one of those "you'd better buy something or else" looks. I, however, smiled in return. I resisted the urge to asked for directions a second time.

Ten minutes later — which included some serious prices versus quality type of thinking — I purchased the small piece of computer equipment and left.

I'd come to Office Depot on a quest.

It had recently become apparent that I needed to upgrade my home-based Mac and this included a great deal more hard drive space. Now this isn't that big of a problem, because in my 45 years on this earth I have installed many hard drives and wasn't worried about the process.

I was worried, though, about finding a drive large enough.

You see, I was on a quest; like Don Quixote I had charged myself with the task impossible. And despite the urgings from family and friends, alike, I charged ahead.

I was going to digitize all — read that literally — all my music and store it in iTunes and on my iPod.

I know, you're laughing.

Go ahead, because I have more than 3,000 vinyl records and close to a thousand CDs. But no matter, because the directionally challenged youth at Best Buy sold me a 1-Terrabyte hard drive — the digital equivalent of the Library of Congress and King Solomon's mines all rolled into one.

After I arrived home, the set-up was easy. Actually it took more time to unwrap the drive from its plastic-covered tomb than it did to set the whole thing up, plug it in, and turn it on.

Once the little white light came on, I saw a new icon on my Mac — and there, in that tiny little box, I know I had found an empty treasure chest. It was the electronic equal to a blank canvas and I was going to fill it with sound.

I grabbed stacks and stacks of CDs and began loading. Elvis, Buddy Holly, the Cars, Elton, Jimmy Buffett (lots and lots of Jimmy Buffett), Hank Williams, Sr., and even Johnny Cash all found their way to their new home.

As I write this, I'm about half-way finished. Loading the CDs is the easy part; the more difficult adventure — which I'm saving for last — will be converting all those vinyl albums to a digital format.

That will require another new piece of equipment — a newfangled turntable which automatically digitizes the record as it plays it. Which means that I'll have to listen to all 3,000 or so of my albums.

Damn. What a horrible thought.

Spending the weekend playing old records and listening to the music of my youth. But once the project is finished, all that music will be stored, labeled, catalogued and listed by artist, album, genre and even length.

Yeah, I'm liking my little iPod thingy. No matter what the kid at Home Depot says.

Comments

Br. Jack+, LC said…
Holy crap! I didn't know they made an iPod that large. Also, you might have to do a little editing for some of the music (something I'm sure you're not worried about) to make sure all of the data is listed. FWIW, I have all of my music on my iPod and I am running Ubuntu Linux. I even have all of the artwork. It takes some doing when it's a large collection, but, after it's done, it's really very nice.

Keep my posted, brother, on how this works out.

Jack

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