Found at Spokey Dokey…
… have you ever wondered what the Fullmetal Alchemist’s email inbox looks like?
Day: February 28, 2004
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Digital Archiving, The Old-Fashioned Way
After basically spending two days flat on my back, I wanted to do something. “Hey,” I thought to myself, “I can add the CDs I’ve acquired in the last year or so to my music catalog!”
Way back in the Dark… that is, the DOS Ages, I registered a little piece of software called Playlist. Its sole purpose was to allow one to efficiently catalog one’s music collection. There were other catalog programs out there, but Playlist was dirt easy: It stored every previous entry for each field, so adding new media from the same artist (for instance) could be accomplished with a minimum of keystrokes. I put 154 CDs into that thing… and the reason I know the exact number will be explained shortly.
Eventually Playlist “went Windows” and earned a new name: Visitrax. Because registered users of the old program could run the full version of the new without paying a second fee, I happily made the transition and hurriedly entered the other 150-some-odd CDs in my collection.
With all of the excitement this past year, somehow I lost track of my Visitrax install. More importantly, I lost track of my old Playlist install directory… in which I had a text file containing the registration code! Eep! I looked on all four of the household computers, I searched through old email archives, and poked around on the various backup CDs. Nope. Somehow when I transitioned to the new PC I managed to leave my only copies of Playlist and Visitrax behind. Damn!
Finally, in desperation, I decided to attach every IDE drive on my shelf to one of the computers to see if I could salvage something from this mess. On (of course) the very last drive in the pile, I found what I was looking for: The Playlist directory with the registration code and (bonus!) the most-recent database… from when I was using Playlist.
Oh well. At least I have those 154 CDs entered in. That only leaves about 200 and some-odd to go… and this time, I’m making more intelligent backups. Argh.
By the way, if you’re at all inclined towards building a catalog of your music, I highly recommend Visitrax. The current version pulls data from CDDB (freedb, actually) for you, and also integrates with Winamp by allowing you to associate a track with its digital version if it’s on your hard drive.
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Owie. Owie owie owie owie.
Long story short? On Wednesday I did something stupid, something that more than three years of working pack-and-ship taught me not to do. I lifted and twisted, and my lower back went into the most intense spasm I’ve experienced in years. I ended up on the floor of my office grimacing and cursing and quite upset at myself.
I sort of got through the rest of that day by sheer force of will, and figured I’d be okay the next day as long as I took it easy that evening.
Ha! As if!
At about 11:30 Thursday morning, my back got worse. I couldn’t transition from standing to sitting or vice versa without incredible pain. As much as possible I stayed in my chair at my desk, and then slowly made my way home.
Friday morning, I tried to get out of bed. No go. I called work to say I wouldn’t be in, and I stayed in bed or on the living room couch all day and night. It was much the same for most of today, though now I’m more-or-less able to get around and function normally. Bending at the waist is still a no-go, for the most part, at least not without considerable discomfort.
Ah well. I needed the rest and (enforced) relaxation, right? Hopefully I can continue to recover tomorrow so I can be functional at work on Monday…