Just remember that, once you have completed the task of throwing them all away, you will suffer a catastrophic disk failure on your main computer and have your iPod stolen on the same day.
I break mine by various methods and then throw them away,
I went through a phase where I through out all my jewel cases and kept my CDs in binders. (This was pre-MP3 era.) Then I got upset about the wear and tear on my cd insets and went out and bought 500 new jewel cases.
Don't do it. Horde. Horde. Horde.
Get rid of them. It's not even irreversible, since you can always get new binders or cases (but you won't want to).
We chucked all the jewel cases, for binders, over ten years ago. Never looked back.
There must be someone who makes art out of old jewel cases. Or at least craft.
Keep them. Put them in your mom's basement if need be.
CA has ripped all of our cds to FLAC, tagged them à la his own RainManesque system, and put them in boxes in a closet.
We listen to everything via SlimServer.
Dump the cases. I assume you've already got the liner notes filed in the binders with the CDs; if you're particularly fond of the back-cover paper, it's pretty easy to remove and store those in a stack on the shelf with the binders (they're usually a little wider than the liner notes, due to the end material).
1 - I'm not going to throw away the disks, just the cases.
Also, let's hope I don't need to re-rip them ever. I recently realized that a large number of my CDs have been sitting on a shelf right above a big box o' magnets.
CDs have been sitting on a shelf right above a big box o' magnets
Magnets don't affect CDs; you're thinking of tapes, oldster.
Horde. Horde. Horde.
Yeah you can buy those guys off with shiny objects.
There must be someone who makes art out of old jewel cases.
There's a pickup truck I see around town which is entirely covered with CDs with the unmarked bottom side showing. They overlap, like fish scales. Shiny!
(I assume the CDs are all those AOL disks they used to mail out & similar. Or maybe bad gift choices from a beloved grandparent.)
We live in a nearly post-magnetic-problem world. No floppies, no tapes; optical media and flash aren't affected by magnets; LCDs instead of CRTs.
oldster
Also, what's up with your ancient, double-posting website?
We were all trying not to comment on your shaky oldster hands, slol.
17: yeah but just wait until the revolution comes and we have to replace all the ram in our laptops with core memory.
Look, someday you might need the Swami Records sticker that came inside the Hot Snakes CD. You just don't want to throw that shit out. You need to keep it, tucked neatly inside the liner notes. Jeez.
We were all trying not to comment on your shaky oldster hands
You're an apophatic paraliptic, you are.
BTW, I was wondering why so many people are commenting now, when I realized that you're all at work, poor lambs. I have the day off, for which I give thanks to the hegemonic powers of Christianity. (Which also probably just forced me to use "lamb" reflexively.)
23: I have a day off in theory. In practice, well, academia. So I'll just procrastinate a lot.
Sell them on E-Bay. There must be someone out there who has downloaded all your albums and burned them on CD and would like to have a factory package to display them in.
Sell them on E-Bay.
Ooh, good idea. People will buy anything. They wouldn't cost much to ship, either.
And you'll have delayed all that plastic getting into a landfill by at least one iteration.
Aren't you banned?
That was thread-specific.
You have a box of magnets? That's cool!
Donate them to a DIY band who make and release their own CD's.
thanks to the hegemonic powers of Christianity. (Which also probably just forced me to use "lamb" reflexively.)
Don't worry about it, Duchessa di Gamberetti, we appropriated the "paschal lamb" symbolism from your people in the first place.
I have so much crap that I wish I could sell on eBay so it won't end up in a landfill (and because people will buy anything). I just have no time to sell them and they're all (like jewel cases) below the threshold of what those "sell your stuff on eBay" places will take. If only I could get my littel brother to do it for me or something.
The box of magnets is because I collect magnets from every place I visit. If I don't see a magnet I like, I'll make one out of a keychain or non-magnet trinket from the gift shop that I like better or something like a shell from the beach using my box o'magnets and hot glue gun.
31: No one ever says "dumber than a box of magnets". But why?
I'm a philosopher because I ask those kinds of questions.
I'll make one out of a keychain or non-magnet trinket from the gift shop that I like better or something like a shell from the beach using my box o'magnets and hot glue gun.
Cute or obsessive? I can't decide.
For some reason I had this sort of magnet in mind. I think I'm going to start my own box of magnets!
32 is a great idea. Freecycle or Craigslist can probably find somebody to come by and take them off your hands.
I made the decision to stash my CD cases at my dad's house, but it was a dumb idea -- in the six years since I haven't had even a tiny inkling of wanting them back. You can get any necessary information from the album liners off the net. And all that talk about album art is just record executives in the middle of the "bargaining" stage of grief -- it's not like badly-printed 4x4 squares of glossy paper are the sort of thing you're going to frame and hang on your wall. A digital version from iTunes is just as good.
"We live in a nearly post-magnetic-problem world."
Magnets will still kill your metro card, though. This is a problem if you have a purse with a magnetic clip, as my wife found out 3 or 4 times.
It depends on the sort of case. There are some non–jewel case cases worth preservation.
LP covers in particular, but for CDs as well.
A digital version from iTunes is just as good.
iTunes tends not to have artwork for most of the music I, um, procure, it being largely long out of print. rateyourmusic.com is pretty good for that, though.
OT: Michael Gerson, sometimes called The conscience of the Bush Administration (!!!) is leading the charge against Obama in my local paper. He's like David Brooks except Christian. Slick looking, but with a horrible Pat Robertson heart.
His nickname ought to discredit him all by itself, but things don't work that way.
These neodymium iron boron magnets are not only awesomely named, in congregation they look like an exhibition of Barry Le Va's recent sculpture! Who wouldn't be "attracted" to that?
Who wouldn't be "attracted" to that?
Don't art critics get sacked for lines like that?
'Smasher beat me to it. Here are some more neodymium magnets. The bigger ones can break your fingers if you're not careful. Even if you are, I suppose.
I'm going to try to freecycle/CL some of this but the problem is that I'm SUPER SUPER BUSY this next week and coordinating times to be home to give people the stuff is going to be tough.
Magnets will still kill your metro card, though
Not your RFID smartcard, though. Get with the times!
coordinating times to be home
Whenever we use freecycle, the stuff just gets left on the front porch.
Don't art critics get sacked for lines like that?
Since no one actually hires art critics (they just submit stuff, and it gets published when some writer inevitably drops a deadline), they can't be sacked.
They can be pelted to death by free cheese, however.
I've been thinking about a decorative piece for my room involving a magnet and a television (in honor of NJP).
You should just trash the jewel cases, I think. They are a great example of shockingly bad industrial design.
Someone may well be hiring an art critic soon.
God, those magnets are gorgeous - and surprisingly affordable! But my fear for my fingers outweighs my irrational WANT.
48: Zomg: "A small child recently lost his hand when his father left two # 31 supermagnets unattended. The child picked one up and when he approached the other magnet on a nearby table,
it became airborne and obliterated his small hand."
44: In the age of CoverFlow, I've become such a lunatic about properly set album art. Some time back in the fall, I spent a full day making sure every song was associated with an image and hunting down said images. (I went super nuts; new images had to be found for box sets that were associated with annoying rectangular album art.)
This was for iTunes. CA, who uses Amarok, had much less trouble.
A large number of magnets can also fry the chip in your watch. Twice. Fucking irritating when it's an expensive (ish) watch, even if it's under warranty.
Have little kids? Just bored at your desk? Have fun with a magnet, a battery and some copper wire.
"HOW TO - Make a homopolar motor"
One wonders how much the emergence of homopolar bears is contributing to the general population decline.
61: I noticed yesterday at the supermarket that "homogenized milk" comes up on the scanner as "HOMO MILK."
I actually delete cover art that comes with downloads after looking at it once.
Which is arguably silly.
62: Gawd, I used to irritate the crap out of my mom by loudly asking at the grocery store whether we were going to get some "homo milk" or not.
homo milk
Canadians actually call it that.
Well, white bears generally do come from the true north. So.
62: is it even possible to buy non-homogenized milk in this day and age? Does the younger generation have any understanding of the origins of the phrase "the cream rises to the top"?
69: It is. In glass bottles. For lots of money.
69: Ronnybrook Dairy -- sold at the Union Square Farmers Market in NYC and also through FreshDirect -- only sells non-homogenized, I think. So at least the children of the Manhattan bourgeoisie will know!
Dead metaphors are cool though.
Does the younger generation have any understanding of the origins of the phrase "the cream rises to the top"?
What about "I never eat a pig 'cause a pig is a cop"?
It seems no one has remarked on the problems posed by an all-computer-based music system for parenting, -- if you hope your kid(s) will pursue musical interests. I have almost all my music on my computer, but how's my kid going to learn about the music in that format? At best, by looking everything up online. But I'm not going to want my, say, eight-year-old spending so much time online (he's 18 months now), and yet I am going to want him to learn about the music he is, or we are together, listening to. The CD booklet (or the lp cover) is therefore crucial. But then you also want to make it easy to find the booklet; so you might as well put it in the jewel case and sacrifice the shelf space.
I know at some point mp3s and itunes or whatever will take over. But it would be nice to give the kid a few years of browsing for music on a shelf and reading about it in a booklet. So I'm glad I saved those thousands of cases and booklets.
Possible future parents may need to rethink this. (Or I may need to rethink my naivety in assuming that I'll be able to keep my eight-year-old from spending most of his life online. Or that I'll be able to get him interested in any music that I listen to.)
For West Coasters, there's Strauss Family Creamery. It costs easily twice what you pay for ordinary 2%, but it's dee-lish.
how's my kid going to learn about the music in that format? At best, by looking everything up online.
Your future kid is going to be very used to learning about things this way.
eight-year-old spending so much time online (he's 18 months now)
By the time he's eight, all the hip kids will have wifi chips implanted in their necks anyhow.
wifi chips implanted in their necks anyhow
Speaking of which, this is the first T-shirt I can remember wanting in years. Ideally, of course, they would apply the same technology to a discreet monogram on the cuff of one's dress shirt. But still. My birthday's coming up.
What about "I never eat a pig 'cause a pig is a cop"?
One of my college roomates, a Mexican American from L.A.--totally sweet guy, parents had middle class jobs, was considering the priesthood--routinely and unselfconsciously used the word "pigs" instead of "police" or "cops". As in, "I found a guy in the park who had been mugged and beaten up [true story], so I helped him up and walked him over to the pigs so he could file a report."
This was one of those "learning from the diversity of your classmates" experiences that my alma mater touts so fervently.
Even more dispiriting, in our Islamosecularist future, the only thing children will know about psalms is that there are fewer of them in the Bible than the number of rhymes possessed by Everlast.
Neodymium magnets are fragile ceramic-- they chip really easily. Also, they're strong enough to scrape the fridge finish. Fun though. Don't buy big ones, they're too strong.
Current kids will discard their parents even more quickly than current adults have discarded theirs, I fear. The only route to salvation I see is for early maturation to be followed by early middle-age and middle-aged mellowing.
||
John, does your local paper echo the Washington Post? Gerson 's column there on Wednesday was headed A Speech That Fell Short. Today they ran Krauthammer's The Speech: A Brilliant Fraud. You can expect this in your local paper shortly.
|>
KR: have you ever dealt with a cop in LA?
in our Islamosecularist future
I have no idea what that means, but it kind of sounds like progress.
in our Islamosecularist future
That's what will happen when Islamofascism and Liberal Fascism finally merge and triumph over all. In other words an Obama victory (although his latest flip-flop to being a Christian all along messes that up a bit*). Never no mind, I'm sure Michael "Axis of Evil" Gerson and Charles "Shouter Down of Rabbis who Advocate Peace" Krauthammer can tell you all about that.
*Speaking of which, it is worth listening to some of the Wright sermons from which the various tidbits were culled by the racist fuckpigs from hell at FOXNews. Available on this YouTube channel.
KR: have you ever dealt with a cop in LA?
Certainly not at that age, and in truth, I still haven't. Like I said, it was an eye-opening experience for a naif like me.
My youthful experience with the police is pretty much summed up by the time two H.S. friends and I were drinking bourbon on the sidewalk one evening when the sheriff drove by. One friend was the son of the county superintendent of schools, and the other was the son of the county commissioner of highways. I made a move to cover the bottle of bourbon, and one of the friends drunkenly slurred "Do you mean to tell me you think that [sheriff's name] is going to fuck with a [his last name], a [other friend's last name] and a [Knecht's last name] in an election year?"
I'm boggling at 85. My youthful experience with police really wasn't anything like yours.
Another anecdote related to 85: Same friend (son of the school superintendent) is out drinking with the son of the owner of the John Deere dealer. They're sitting in a pickup truck parked out at an as-yet unbuilt housing development when the sheriff drives up. The sheriff looks in the truck and asks "What are y'all doin' out here?"
The superintendent's son (also a star athlete and an academic standout) says "Oh, we're just sittin' here talkin'."
The sheriff says, "Now look here, son. I know when you kids are out here at [housing development], you're either drinkin' or fuckin'. And under the circumstances I hope you was drinkin'!"
Heh.
Amongst other highlights, I had a cop shove his handgun in my mouth and dry fire it. To be fair, he though I was sleeping with his daughter (I wasn't, I was sleeping with her best friend, and didn't know about the relation. I slept with his daughter after, naturally). Another one did the same thing without the dry firing bit a year or so later, but he was just being a prick.
Huh. The cops in my town mostly just rousted us from whatever we happened to be doing on the beach: drugs, drink, sex, or some mixture thereof. And even then they would just pour out your beer, step on your pot, or tell you to get dressed and go home.
The cops in Sir Kraab's hometown were known to local kids as scary assholes. They would see "teens in car" and pull you over for no reason and then practically tear open the auto upholstery looking for something to bust you on. Seriously -- they would snap open all your cigarettes.
88: Motherfucker. This was in Canadia? (Actually, I guess the Montreal cops are known for fuckerdom -- but I don't know where you grew up.)
My HS experiences were mostly with sheriff's deputies, who were mostly drawn from our classmates' older brothers/cousins. These encounters usually took the form of them taking our booze/weed away from us and sending us on our way so that they could helpfully finish it for us.
79: They're not gonna have any clue what a "Sega" is, though.
88: !!!!!!!!
Cops in my hometown were pretty wussy. The worst they'd do is put you on a "list" of suspicious persons. I made it a goal to get on all the lists.
90: One Canada, one US. Not the worst thing done to me by police at that age. I had my moments too, though.
81: MY paper is eclectic, but Gerson has showed up twice recently. What a toxic mix of piety, slickness, and creepiness.
Neodymium magnets are fragile ceramic-- they chip really easily.
Well, boo fucking hoo. Serves them right for destroyer the hands of tiny children.
To be fair, he thought I was sleeping with his daughter
Psheew, that's okay then. For a minute there I thought he was a psychotic power-tripping bastard.
97: Well, yeah that too, but it's all part of how the game was played I guess. He obviously wasn't serious (pretty hard to explain away a body cuffed and shot through the mouth) but it was a message.
out drinking with the son of the owner of the John Deere dealer. They're sitting in a pickup truck
S/B "out drinkin' with the son of the owner of the John Deere dealer. They're sittin' in a pickup truck".
The pickup truck wouldn't have done it by itself, but the John Deere clinched it.
pretty hard to explain away a body cuffed and shot through the mouth
Now who's giving the police too much benefit of a doubt, huh?
Kobe things it would be `Jes a-sittin' inna pickup', John.
99: No, no, no! The narrator uses standard English, and the characters speak in dialect. It's like Flannery O'Connor, damn it!
Wobegon reported 6 or 8 misdemeanors last month, mostly bad checks. And we pay a full time pig for that.
of the sort who would force a magnet into your mouth, and then bring its twin up towards the back of your head.
"Oh, I don't know. Someone must have shot him, I gues"
"OK, that makes sense".
Now who's giving the police too much benefit of a doubt, huh?
Maybe ... but I don't think anyone (outside of hollywood) goes for that sort of bullshit dramatics if they're serious.
106: Hey, it worked for that Marine unit at Haditha, didn't it?
besides, dept. issue firearm, lots of paperwork...
Going back to the eBay portion of this thread, for just $25,000, you can see Willie Mays' willie (safe for work) in all its 1963 glory.
The cops in Sir Kraab's hometown were known to local kids as scary assholes.
My racist, homophobic ex-brother-in-law is a cop there. So, yeah.
Re: L.A. police: Shoot, now I am trying to remember the name of the mystery series featuring a female detective whose boyfriend is an (ex?) LA cop. She's a liberal, and there are long digressions with the crazy exploits he reports to her from his days as a rookie cop in the '70s. They seemed actually more true to me than the rest of the book. I always kind of suspected that they were transcribed more than written.
L.A. police: Shoot, now
I think they stopped using that motto.
Cops in LA are usually pretty nice if you're white.
Well, hell, Jesus--that fancy milk is available at the local natural food store. Plus ice cream, yogurt, and butter.
Speaking of awesome dairy products, btw, Nancy's cream cheese, if you can get it (I know Jesus can). So, so, so good.
Mmm, Nancy's. We go through huge quantities of Nancy's yogurt (which she makes with Chuck Kesey, brother of Ken).
I admit, I find her yogurt too tart--but I always buy nonfat yogurt, so that's probably part of it. I've decided, though, that I'm going to start trying to make my own yogurt and see how that goes.
Me too! It looks pretty easy if you can get the temperature right. I'll let you know if I come across any good tips.
Damn it, that was me. Personal info box now checked.
It does look easy. My goal is to get nice thick mild greek low- or non-fat yogurt. I'll let you know if I find a starter that makes really yummy results.
Yogurt is the default condition of milk, you know. Just keep pouring milk into the container.
A friend of mine said that when they professionalized the LA police they actually got worse. More arrogant, and more by-the-book when they could screw with people.
