Staying Alive (So Far)

I was hoping to post something, anything noteworthy to reassure (?) you all that I haven't died yet, however, nothing much has happened. We are both still sick. I have missed church two weeks in a row and today was my first attempt at going back to work since the Saturday before Easter... and I am paying for the effort dearly. I have not had to go back to the hospital, but this past Friday was the first day I didn't need my rescue inhaler at least once. We are both still coughing quite a bit.

 

The only thing that has really happened is on Saturday a friend and I drove to the nearest city to wait in line for Record Store Day -- my first ever. I wasn't really interested in any of the official RSD releases, but I'm always down for the opportunity to go to a record store. We had planned this months in advance, and it turned out to be my first real excursion since my asthma attack on the 7th.

 

I left with four vinyl albums and nine CDs (plus a tenth CD that my brother wanted). None of it was stuff I had been looking for for decades or anything, but I knocked a couple of songs off my iTunes wishlist and got some 'starter' albums for the Beach Boys and the Supremes (both artists I have long been interested in learning more about but never pursued). I also added to my late '90s/early 2000s dancepop collection.

 

Also on the music front, I've also lately discovered the wonders of the Internet Archive and been using it to find new music to love. I found some '80s/'90s Japanese jazz fusion and a treasure trove of Christian alternative and rock albums that have been on my wish list for DECADES but remain elusive even on Discogs.

 

I've been going through the to-listen pile as well. Even though my music habit slowed a LOT during the years I worked in fast food, apparently I managed to accumulate a few titles from the local thrift store that went straight into the box with the other records and never actually got played (some of them were still in the original shopping bags with the receipts). So far I've imported heavy hitters like Servant's Light Maneuvers (can't believe I've been sleeping on this album for five years -- this one was an immediate favourite), Paul Clark's Aim For The Heart (which is perfect for my recent love of early '90s jazz and weather channel vapourwave), Leon Patillo's Dance Children Dance, and David Edward's Get The Picture from this 'source.'

 

I haven't 'synced up' my computers yet with all the new music, but my guess is I'm closing in on the 6800-song mark.

What I mean by 'synced up:' I import CDs and vinyl directly onto the MacBook Pro, which has a CD drive and Audacity but is too old for internet; and I download new iTunes Store/Bandcamp purchases onto the MacBook Air, then use an external drive to manually shuttle music and album artwork between the two.

 

I have a Smart Playlist on each computer called 'Updates,' and it's set to include all songs added after a certain date. Whenever I want to 'sync up' my music library, I start by going through that playlist on one of the computers and adding those tracks to the external drive. Then I go to the other computer and copy over the tracks from the first computer, then copy new tracks from the second computer onto the external drive using the playlist. Then I go back to the first computer and add the new tracks from the second one, referencing the Update playlists on each computer to ensure I've got all the tracks. Once I've got all the new tracks on both computers, I change the date on both Update playlists to that date, so all new music added after that goes on the playlists until I start the process over again.

 

It's a bit complicated and time-consuming, but to me it is absolutely worth it to keep things organized and to ensure that all my music is readily available on both my main devices. Mirroring my music library in this way also ensures that 1. I have downloaded copies of all my music, they're not just on some cloud somewhere where they could be deleted at any moment, and 2. I have a full, up-to-date backup of my music library in three places: the Pro, the Air, and the external drive itself. I have heard far too many horror stories of people losing decades of rare music to drive failure.

 

I've also been reading quite a bit, since my lungs are too easily exhausted to do much else. I dug back through my childhood and read some old obscure mysteries that I used to borrow from the library all the time as a kid. It's been a very enjoyable experience so far.

 

I don't know how to wrap up this post. My ear is killing me and so is my throat. No amount of tea is helping. I'm just so tired of being sick. But so far I am breathing okay.