Nine days ago, I finally acquired an mp3 player. The reasoning was that I don't want to lug all my CDs to Japan, and I don't want to worry about my collection getting lost or stolen or whatever. So, I got one. I've spent the majority of my waking hours since then ripping CDs. And this morning, I finally finished.

Though my Daisies of the Galaxy CD, by the Eels, is AWOL. Or MIA. Or something. Anyway, I can't find it, and it's not there, and it's pissing me off since it's one of my most favorites. Most favorites.

Anyway, yeah. I ended up putting 368 discs on there, 4828 tracks. I left off about 25 CDs that have found their way into my collection over the years that I don't really care for anymore (if I ever did). In about 15 cases I didn't take all the tracks on a disc.

My collection thus comes to about 17.5 GB, total (which is slightly less than half the storage space on this mofo). Lessee, that would be about 1,098,400 seconds, or 18,300 minutes, or 305 hours, or 13 days, or almost 2 weeks of music.

In honor of this occasion, I'll list here the first 10 random tracks to come up from the complete set of music (minus Daisies of the [friggin] Galaxy). Here's hoping nothing too embarrassing comes up:

1. Bjork- Human Behavior

2. Tom Petty- Wake Up Time

3. The Beatles- If I Needed Someone [Coincidentally, this was one of the standards of the band I was in the last time I was in Japan, Love Sick Daddy. Yay George Harrison!]

4. Stone Temple Pilots- Where the River Goes [eh heh heh...]

5. Erik Satie- En habit de cheval - IV. Fugue de papier

6. Jimi Hendrix - Gypsy Eyes

7. Kick the Can Crew - Sayonara Sayonara (Karaoke) [I picked this up in Japan- the single release of a charming Japanese hip hop tune that was popular that summer. All (or most) singles in Japan have karaoke versions of all the songs on them. They do love them some karaoke over there, I tell you what...]

8. Tanya Donnelly- Life is But a Dream

9. U2- "40"

And numero dos...

Guns n' Roses- You Ain't the First [sigh... Oh well. I regret nothing!]

I didn't originally think I'd like using the random function on my entire collection, since I like the idea of listening to an album as a continuous narrative (stop me if I get too stuffy here), but actually I do like it a lot. It's like the feeling you get when the radio plays a song you know and love every time a new song comes up. It's fun, and a good way to get back to stuff you haven't listened to in a while.

In other news, I've been watching a lot of the History Channel, the Science Channel, and Discovery Health while I've been doing this. Last night I watched a show on face transplants, which apparently could happen in the near future. One of the things it talked about was a little girl in India ten years ago, who was working some kind of machine with a rapidly moving conveyer belt type thing when her hair got caught in it and her head got sucked into the machine. It literally ripped her face and scalp off. They showed pictures of her head sans skin, and of the skin that got ripped off her head (it looked like a latex mask, complete with wig). That was stomach turning, to say the least. Anyway, they actually managed to get the skin back on her head and she was fine. She looks a little odd now- her eyes are droopy in a weird way and she's got scars- but you'd never know she had her face ripped off as a child. Seems that case was what got them thinking that face transplants might be a possibility for severe burn victims and such.

Oh, and apparently in the 70s they cut out a monkey's brain and kept it alive in a glucose bath, hooked up to all kinds of different machines. Then they put it back in the monkey's severed head, hooked it up to machines, and the thing opened it's eyes, looked around, and tried to bite people and everything. It died a few days later, but man... Nowadays they could totally keep your brain alive in a jar if not for all the ethical questions involved...

I guess the point I'm trying to make here is, I've recently added a great deal to my stockpile of random pieces of marginally useful information.

I think I'm going to go to bed now.

it takes a second to say goodbye,

greyarea

Diaryland