![\"\"](\"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/CDs.jpg\" "\\"CDs.jpg\\"")
I\u2019m putting that politely.<\/p>\nI\u2019ve been sorting and tossing stuff, (Not nearly enough as I should have been,) my progress has been, umm… Uneven.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m putting that politely.<\/p>\n
Part of the issue is that a lot of the stuff is Jerry\u2019s, some of it is mine, and some of it is Pre-Fire. The latter is stuff that I had no idea still existed, and that I\u2019d written off in the weeks following the fire because\u2026 it was easier to erase everything from my memory rather than be frustrated by looking for something I thought I had, only to remember it was one of a thousand things I\u2019d lost.<\/p>\n
Nonetheless, every once in a while amidst all the papers, statements, and partially melted items, stuffed in dusty boxes some of which had been inhabited by mice while everything was stored in a storage unit, I\u2019ll find something of interest.<\/p>\n
Yes, I\u2019m wearing gloves, and a mask, and trying very hard not to create a dust cloud of ash and soot.<\/p>\n
Items of recent interest happened to be a large spindle of CDs and DVD that contained data.<\/p>\n
In the fire, all of my computers were destroyed. With them, all of my data, photos and music. My CD collection was slagged, as were most of the DVDs when the living room burned.<\/p>\n
After the fire, I was able to pull a bunch of my music collection off an iPod. It too had been damaged, but the drive spun up long enough to recover the music that had been stored on it.<\/p>\n
However almost anything pre 2008 was lost. The spindle is of particular interest because it looked like some of the CD\u2019s contained photos. Several of the photo CDs were damaged beyond recovery. But those that did mount properly, allowed me to fill in missing years of memories from our life together.<\/p>\n
Some of the photos are bittersweet and more than once I\u2019ve been misty eyed. We were so young, so hopeful and looking back despite everything we went through, we had a good life together.<\/p>\n
Further into the spindle, I found 5 DVDs. On those, I found my music library. It appears that I\u2019d made a backup in 2004. In those days you had to purchase the physical CD then plug it into the CD on your computer and let iTunes rip the files processing them into MP3 or the later M4a formats.<\/p>\n
Since money was always tight, I didn\u2019t spend a ton of our budget on music, but generally speaking, the music I had was stuff I really enjoyed.<\/p>\n
The loss of my CD & DVD collection was one of the things that hurt the most.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Finding these discs was kind of a whooping & hollering moment. I\u2019ve never fully replaced my collection, because I didn\u2019t remember all the CDs in the collection, and had nothing to work from except seeing a title in a store I recognized. As streaming came into its own, I\u2019ve replaced some albums by searching for a bit of music in iTunes that I suddenly recalled. The problem with that is, if I ever choose to stop paying for iTunes, I\u2019ll loose access to those albums because I\u2019ve never bought the albums, instead I\u2019m essentially renting access to them.<\/p>\n
All the DVDs mounted. I now have 19GB of recovered music.<\/p>\n
Now the job is to reintegrate my original collection into my current music library avoiding duplications, and preserving the higher quality versions. From what I\u2019ve seen, at least part of the collection I\u2019d updated to m4a from mp3.<\/p>\n
Given hard disk constraints (and expense) in the early 2000\u2019s there are few really high quality aiff format files. That being said, since I\u2019m not an audiophile the m4a format plays just fine on wireless speakers. If I was after a totally \u201cLossless\u201d experience for a particular album, the only way to go is with vinyl or some form of original master.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Apple offers a \u201clossless\u201d experience via headphones or hardline speaker connection via either their internal DAC or one that is externally connected.<\/p>\n
Honestly, that\u2019s overkill for a heathen like me.<\/p>\n
The discs that didn\u2019t mount all go into the trash. Those from which I\u2019ve managed to recover data will be stored on a new spindle and put away in the event that I need them again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The box they\u2019re stored in will be properly labeled this time.<\/p>\n
When I find things like this, I can\u2019t wait to find out what\u2019s stored, or if it\u2019s recoverable.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In other words, it\u2019s a distraction. I delude myself into believing that I need to review the materials, instead of continuing the sorting and tossing. After all if discs don\u2019t mount or work properly then I can in clear conscience throw them away…<\/p>\n
Same reasoning I used as a kid when I didn\u2019t want to clean my room…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019ve been sorting and tossing stuff, (Not nearly enough as I should have been,) my progress has been, umm… Uneven. I\u2019m putting that politely. Part of the issue is that a lot of the stuff is Jerry\u2019s, some of it is mine, and some of it is Pre-Fire. The latter is stuff that I had … <\/p>\n