Enter at your own risk…it’s kind of a mess here!
The first picture is of me at my desk working on moving all our music from cds to the computer. We recently bought a Creative Zen 60 GB MP3 player as well as a 160 GB hard drive for backups. Our thinking is that all our music as well as our data will be on the new hard drive. Of course the new MP3 player will be a treat to use not just for music but for Spanish lessons and general goofing around.
The picture also shows (horrors) the boxes under my desk full of books and other stuff to sell on eBay. The cds on the floor are what remains to be ripped to the computer. The blue bone belongs to Henry, the schnauzer-poodle mix.
The following picture shows all the cd’s I have finished. This has been an amazing project, but we should be pretty happy with the result. I think I’ll donate the cds to our local library before we head down.
When we move to Mexico we’ll bring our little stereo from the kitchen which has a wire to connect to the MP3 player, and “presto” all our music will have moved along with us!
Billie
January 26, 2007I have one comment.
BACKUP
As a photographer with gigs of digital files, I’m a little paranoid about backing up. Hard drives go bad, computers get stolen, weird electrical things happen in Mexico.
I backup to an external HD that is never plugged in or connected to the computer except for backups. Actually I’m more paranoid that that. I have one external HD that is now full and is backup to another external. The full one will go back to Texas to be stored when we go in May. So actually I have stuff backup in 3 places.
Nancy
January 26, 2007Billie – you’re right. Everything on the external hard drive will be mirrored on Paul’s new laptop (!) which is large enough to accomodate it.
We’ll burn some DVD’s of the important stuff and give them to one of our kids to keep as additional security.
Malcolm
January 29, 2007Too funny…this is exactly what our house looked like for 6 months before we moved. A word of advice…for DVDs, CDs, and books, don’t sell on eBay, sell on Amazon used. Just enter your title, see what everyone else is selling for, and undercut ’em. You’ll do WAY better on there than you will on eBay. I think all told, we did about 5k just in books and CDs (we brought our movies, which have been a lifesaver). Sure, you’re mailing a lot more packages, but you will make 2-3 times the money that you would on eBay.
Malcolm
January 29, 2007P.S. On Amazon, you may find that you own some stuff that is considered rare that you didn’t know you had. For example, I had a couple of CDs by this obscure Japanese pop star, that I sold for over $80 apiece. If I hadn’t been able to see what the going rate was from other sellers in the Amazon marketplace, I would’ve sold ’em for $2 bucks on eBay. Using Amazon can be a real education in just exactly what it is you have. With luck, there will be a few expensive surprises (thank you, hardbound Bukowski poetry collection from an independent publisher).
Paul
January 30, 2007Thanks for the ideas Malcolm. I can’t part with my Bukowski books (or Henry Miller), but everything else is fair game.
Paul