I can't believe I ripped the whole thing

So the new computer, like most new computers, has prolific hard drive space. Now after something like two months, with a complete disregard for disk volume, I have finished ripping every CD I own. All in all it currently amounts to roughly 14 gig of storage for 3465 tracks. Figuring a conservative 4 minutes for each track on average that yields a little over nine and one half days of uninterrupted music.

Another, more depressing way to look at it would be an average 10 tracks per album for 347 albums at an average of $14 each or mortgage payments for six months - roughly. Reminds me of the time of Sex in the City when Miranda explained to Carrie about down payments and shoes. Well, its not that bad, I know for a fact it's less than 210 albums. Still, makes it easy to understand why teenagers are such fans of Napster and Gnutella.

In my user profile here I list my favorite music as:

Melissa Etheridge, Genesis, Chicago, Indigo Girls, Patti Griffin, Lonestar, & Sheryl Crow

Musicmatch says that the seven top artists in my library are:

Genesis, Melissa Etheridge, Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Dire Straits, Indigo Girls, & Pink Floyd

So I guess I might not be the best auto-biographer. You have to count down 29 acts before you have all seven of the ones I initially list above. Do we learn anything from this? Well, one undeniable fact is that Lonestar's songs are all real short. Another might be that I have passed the CD buying prime of my life, which by the distribution of acts must have been around half way through undergrad. It also seems like Chicago might really suffer from being an early favorite as the largest number of their recordings I own are somewhere in my parents house on cassette - or even (gasp) on vinyl. Am I really that old?

What else? Dollar for dollar the best album value is absolutely "What is Hip" by Tower of Power, a double album clocking in at over 150 minutes. Ironically I believe I bought that album for the title track alone. Another undeniable conclusion is that although we moved into the house in July, I must not be finished unpacking as there are a few titles conspicuous in their absence.

Now of course I have caught myself looking at mp3 players. The other day in Bestbuy I gave a hard look at this Linksys 802.11b Wireless Music System which gives you wireless access to audio files around the house, either with its speakers or as an auxiliary component in a traditional system. Might be a good way to hear Air America outside of my office too. The IT guy at work is trying to convince me that rather than have all these files on either my computer at home or at work that I should just buy an iPod and bring them with me wherever. I wonder if Mitch gets a company discount.

Understand, an iPod is the very end of my list, and I'm not someone that spends their time burning CDs or composing custom playlists, still it's kinda fun to have all the tunes at my fingertips at one time. Now where did I leave that "Rites of Passage" CD? Must be in one of these boxes.