While I won't offer up excuses for the lack of activity, I will offer up some explanation. I've doing a lot of the mundane this summer. No big vacations, no significant events. Some recharging of the system and some shedding of the past. I'm just trying to figure out how all the pieces fit together as life moves forward.
My last significant blog entry surrounded the ending of the NHL playoff season. While I was pretty disappointed with the final result, it was almost a relief when it was all over. Being a Red Wings fan means LONG seasons. The last two lasted from the beginning of October all the way into mid-June. The playoffs are an emotional roller coaster ride and they take a lot out of me. Following a team that often ends up playing late games on the West coast makes it that much tougher. However, there isn't much I like to watch better than NHL hockey so I'll begin the process again in a few short weeks. More on that in upcoming posts.
I've kept my blog entries about the NFL to a minimum. I've become more than a bit disgusted with the NFL, in general, and my favorite team, the Denver Broncos, in particular. A proud and consistent franchise has been filled with turmoil this off season and I'm not at all happy about the decisions or direction. While I could have shared my misery here, I decided to keep it mostly to myself. I almost considered kicking the NFL to the proverbial curb but in the end I decided it's claws were in too deep. I've taken a step back from the league. We'll see if the new season changes my perspective at all. I will put forth some predictions in the next week. Here's a sneak preview, THE BRONCOS WILL SUCK!
Perhaps by now you are asking yourself "without sports to watch and no travel plans what the hell did you do with the summer?" The answer is I took on two significant projects. Neither of which I expect would excite anyone outside myself.
First and foremost I decided to reeducate myself. For far too long my career education has been at a standstill while technology has been moving at an alarming rate. My previous lack of commitment to reeducation was mostly by design. In software development, technologies come and go. Often times it is a waste of an effort to learn something that will quickly be rendered obsolete by newer, "better" approach. For this reason, I frequently sit back and let the technology take a foothold first. When the techniques are widespread and tools are stable, then it is worthwhile to jump in. Things finally stabilized in the last couple years and I knew what I wanted to focus on. It is pretty much impossible to know everything well in my field. Instead you have to narrow focus to a few specific areas.
With this in mind, I found software project to work on in my spare time (no sneak peek yet) and purchased about a dozen books about the different technologies that will be used for it and my paying gig. I've been working my way through these texts all summer long. With over 3000 pages behind me, I've learned a lot but I've only just begun applying that knowledge. 3000 pages is just a start. Another 3000 await on the bookshelf, including some for this Labor Day weekend.
The other monumental task (I never seem to do anything small) has been digitizing my rather large collection of cassette tapes. For 6+ years all the music I collected on cassette tape has been sitting in a box in one of my closets. Without a cassette player hooked up for the last 4 years and pretty much idle for 3+ years before that, much of it hasn't been heard in 7+ years. There was a lot of it I really wanted to reclaim and hear again especially now that I frequently listen to music at work and on the go (hikes & travel). Getting this all into a digital form would be ideal. I'd already purchased significant storage space and ripped all my CDs. However, CDs were simple compared to cassettes. I had all the tools I needed. I just need to commit the time. Now was that time.
This task started in late June and continues to this day. In fact, a cassette is recording to the hard drive now and another is being broken in tracks and cataloged as I type. With 250+ cassettes representing 400+ recordings, it has been a laborious task. Approximately 50 tapes remain. The process involves:
1. Recording (analog to digital) cassette to hard drive.
2. Split cassette into individual songs/tracks. A couple tools help with this process but it is still time consuming.
3. Labeling each track (artist, album, song). Tools help tremendously here.
4. Adding to media library.
The whole process takes an average of 25 minutes of my time per cassette side, a majority in step #2. Some take longer (noisier live recordings) and some are quick (clean CD recordings) Meanwhile the PC and cassette player are running 4-5 hours just about every day doing step #1. I do have to force myself to take time away from this task or I'll go stir crazy. However, I think the time has been well worth the effort. There is a ton of music I still enjoy quite a bit that has been unlocked in the last couple months.
I didn't travel much over the summer because I was watching my budget, Crimson was busy with volleyball and had some other plans fall apart. We did find time to take in some whitewater rafting on the Ocoee and I just returned from visiting family in Winnipeg. I am starting to think about a fall trip but need to determine when Crimson's volleyball season ends before finalizing anything.
Here's a couple pics from the rafting trip. That's Crimson on the front of the raft, "riding the bull" and me in the red up front.
I'll leave it at that for now. Textbooks and cassette recordings are calling.
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