I Hadn't Thought of That

Over a year ago I was telling Dave Reedy how I wanted to get all my old photos, 8mm movie films, and VHS tapes digitized. The conversation went something like this:

Dave: Why do you feel that it's so important to digitize everything?

Scott: Because each picture, and each frame of each movie, represents a preserved moment in time. When a photo or movie gets lost or destroyed, that moment is gone forever. It cannot be re-captured.

Dave: Well, then...based on that reasoning, you should always carry a camera with you and take pictures of everything.

Gee. I guess so. I hadn't thought of that.

(I have obsessive compulsive personality disorder. It took me a few minutes to decide not to start carrying a camera everywhere.)

Most of the photos, movie reels, and tapes are still deteriorating in boxes. And here I am today...just like Calvin in the last frame of the comic.

How do you eat a digital elephant? One byte at a time!
I did start organizing things about a year ago. I bought a half-terabyte external hard drive and had everything from every old hard drive that I owned copied to it. When I got the external hard drive back, I noticed that virtually none of my 2,000+ mp3 files were there. (Where did they go??? I know they were on at least one of the old drives!) Well...at least I had the few VHS home movies I had managed to digitize. (Most of my mp3 files could be replaced. The digitized home movies could never be replaced at the same level of quality; magnetic tape deteriorates over time.)

Then one evening last summer as I was copying VHS movie files to my PC and working on them, the external drive stopped working. No warning...just stopped. I turned it back on, and the entire VHS movie file folder was missing! I spent the next 24 hours downloading recovery software, finding the files, and "restoring" them. Except...the audio and video aren't in synch on any of the "restored" files. Oh well...at least I still have the VHS tapes. They are all now 15 to 27 years old, but I have them.

Where do you hide a digital elephant?
Here is what made me think about my half-terabyte external drive: As I was typing the beginning of this blog, I thought of a nice "moment in time" that would illustrate why I want to digitize everything. It is a short 8mm film clip of Brenda (on our wedding day) holding my baby niece, Angie. (The same niece who kindly encouraged me to start blogging.) Great idea! I'll include that video clip in this blog!

About twenty years ago I put most of my 8mm movie films onto VHS tape by projecting the movies onto a screen and videotaping them. (There are much better ways of doing it today.) About five years ago I digitized the VHS copy. The digital version of the 8mm films is on that external drive. (The "synch" problem isn't an issue with the digital versions of my 8mm films, since they don't have sound.)

Brenda -- who is in a constant state of lovingly organizing my things so that I'll always be able to find them if I ask her -- told me just the other day where that external drive presently resides. However, I don't waste precious brain resources trying to retain information that is subject to change every few days. And Brenda is at Julie's house (90 miles away) for the next day or so.

I looked for the drive, but I cannot find it. I know...that seems ludicrous, since we live in an 8-foot by 29-foot RV. Brenda is that good at what she does.