spring cleaning!

I'm in the mood for another ration of simplification. Every time I think we've simplified our lives to a point where we can't go any further, I re-evaluate something that is taking up space in the house that we don't use very often.

Right now, I'm eyeballing our media collections - CDs, DVDs, VHS, vinyl, and even cassettes. I am a HUGE music fan, so it goes without saying that the idea of living without a music collection is a tragedy, but I've begin investigating the whole iPod phenomenon. I even downloaded iTunes and started backing up some of my discs to the hard drive. I've got two major snags right now, though. First, my PC is having trouble starting up, so I am leery about moving my entire music collection to the digital domain when the hard drive could take a dive. Second, some of the tracks that I tried to rip from CD came out with skips and other digital artifacts that I can't accept. I have heard of better success using a different encoder than the one that is built into iTunes, but the instructions for adding the Lame encoder to iTunes are about as clear as mud.

Compounding the urge to purge is the fact that we are contemplating putting our home up for sale. Every time that we move, I reassess what I really want to pack up and what i want someone else to pack up and take away. Unlike most people, I don't plan on replacing these items, though. Anything that goes will be gone for good.