I should have taken photographs of my den before starting. It was a sight to behold. I had to kind of walk in sideways and be careful of papercuts to my toes or otherwise snagging my toes on cables and crap along the path on the floor. 20 years of just putting something in there "temporarily" had produced a severe avalanche hazard, so I decided to grab the bull by the horns yesterday and start cleaning things up.
I'm taking a break now, and it looks like I barely have made a dent. But I was able to get into a cabinet at the bottom of one of my bookcase sections I haven't been into in years. To give you an idea of how long ago it really was, I found a bunch of 8 inch floppy disks in there. You probably don't see them very often outside of the Smithsonian.
Also found a ton of old herp newsletters from various organizations I belonged to in the mid to late 90s. Couldn't bring myself to toss them in the trash bag, but I guess that will have to happen sooner or later.
Kind of nostalgic to find old pricelists I made in the mid 90s. Back when we used to have to mail them out and the internet was just something you heard about in techie magazines. Also stumbled onto a bunch of old National Geographic mags that I hadn't read, but I'm keeping them till I find time to read them. Those things never seem to lose their appeal, no matter how old they are. And you know what I like about them? I believe they are the ONLY magazine I have ever got that is completely linear. I don't have to jump to page 97 from page 13 to continue on reading a story. You can read a NG from page 1 to the last page without that damned jumping around. What usually happens is that I rarely can read a magazine cover to cover in one setting, so when I read one that forces me to leapfrog most of the pages to continue the story I'm reading, I will just forget that I need to go back to an earlier section in the magazine, and miss reading the entire center section completely. Whoever thought of reading that way, anyway?
I think what really started this was somehow my travels on YouTube brought me to some videos on keyboard synthesizers. So I listened to a bunch of them and it kind of got my blood percolating about that. Yeah, I used to play keyboards in a band many moons ago, and matter of fact I remembered that I had an Ensoniq ESQ-1 synth stashed away under the bed. Been there for about 18 years or so, I guess. So I mentioned it to Connie last night that I was thinking about puttering around on the keyboard again, and she immediately jumps up to help me drag the synth out from under the bed. Of course, I didn't know where the cables were or the sound cartridges, and in order to do that, I would need to poke and tug around in the stuff in the den, and that's when the fear of the avalanche raised it's ugly head. Funny how something so innocent can get you into trouble.
So now I'm cleaning out the den, and NOT playing on the synth. Just as well, I guess, because I did get it cranked up and apparently there is an internal battery in there that is stone dead. I'm hoping that it's the cause of the keys acting weird and not the years of abandonment I inflicted on it.
Well, sure hope my fingers are still limber enough to play the keyboard. Not that I was ever any good at it, but heck, I only have to please myself and try to keep from driving Connie bonkers with the screeching that I may create from that thing. But perhaps this will whet my appetite for the new fangled synths that are now available. Those things are pretty amazing, so perhaps I can camouflage my naturally low talent with overwhelmingly dazzling technology.
I'm taking a break now, and it looks like I barely have made a dent. But I was able to get into a cabinet at the bottom of one of my bookcase sections I haven't been into in years. To give you an idea of how long ago it really was, I found a bunch of 8 inch floppy disks in there. You probably don't see them very often outside of the Smithsonian.
Also found a ton of old herp newsletters from various organizations I belonged to in the mid to late 90s. Couldn't bring myself to toss them in the trash bag, but I guess that will have to happen sooner or later.
Kind of nostalgic to find old pricelists I made in the mid 90s. Back when we used to have to mail them out and the internet was just something you heard about in techie magazines. Also stumbled onto a bunch of old National Geographic mags that I hadn't read, but I'm keeping them till I find time to read them. Those things never seem to lose their appeal, no matter how old they are. And you know what I like about them? I believe they are the ONLY magazine I have ever got that is completely linear. I don't have to jump to page 97 from page 13 to continue on reading a story. You can read a NG from page 1 to the last page without that damned jumping around. What usually happens is that I rarely can read a magazine cover to cover in one setting, so when I read one that forces me to leapfrog most of the pages to continue the story I'm reading, I will just forget that I need to go back to an earlier section in the magazine, and miss reading the entire center section completely. Whoever thought of reading that way, anyway?
I think what really started this was somehow my travels on YouTube brought me to some videos on keyboard synthesizers. So I listened to a bunch of them and it kind of got my blood percolating about that. Yeah, I used to play keyboards in a band many moons ago, and matter of fact I remembered that I had an Ensoniq ESQ-1 synth stashed away under the bed. Been there for about 18 years or so, I guess. So I mentioned it to Connie last night that I was thinking about puttering around on the keyboard again, and she immediately jumps up to help me drag the synth out from under the bed. Of course, I didn't know where the cables were or the sound cartridges, and in order to do that, I would need to poke and tug around in the stuff in the den, and that's when the fear of the avalanche raised it's ugly head. Funny how something so innocent can get you into trouble.
So now I'm cleaning out the den, and NOT playing on the synth. Just as well, I guess, because I did get it cranked up and apparently there is an internal battery in there that is stone dead. I'm hoping that it's the cause of the keys acting weird and not the years of abandonment I inflicted on it.
Well, sure hope my fingers are still limber enough to play the keyboard. Not that I was ever any good at it, but heck, I only have to please myself and try to keep from driving Connie bonkers with the screeching that I may create from that thing. But perhaps this will whet my appetite for the new fangled synths that are now available. Those things are pretty amazing, so perhaps I can camouflage my naturally low talent with overwhelmingly dazzling technology.
