All that you can’t leave behind
I’ve recently (finally) burned the majority of my pictures to backup DVDs. I kept the ones that were halfway decent or better, but I have some that are utterly unnecessary to keep.
Unfortunately, that meant I needed someplace to put twenty archive DVDs. I don’t have cases handy (working on it, believe me), but in the meantime, I have a half-dozen CD binders from my college years that I figured I could misappropriate. So I tracked down a couple of them (a guy couple — three (I had this argument with a female friend in college; I asserted that “couple” meant “2 or 3”, she took the monogamous definition. Oxford English Dictionary agreed with me… just sayin’)), and began consolidating. WOW I have random stuff kept.
I don’t know if I should keep some of these CDs for resale as antiques:
- Random bootleg copies of programs I never actually used or installed — and I couldn’t tell you why I “acquired” them in the first place.
- Old copies of Windows Platform SDKs — multiple copies of multiple different ones.
- The first professional code I ever wrote (VB5 source code).
- The code I wrote to get that first gig.
- Celine Dion CDs. I think they were my first girlfriend’s, but I’m not sure…
- A 3dfx Driver CD.
- An AOL 5.0 CD.
- Real Media installation files — from when EVERYONE used Real.
- ALL of my college application essays.
- It gets more depressing (even compared to Celine Dion).
I just don’t know — when should I get rid of these never-to-be-needed-again remnants from my misspent youth? Mind you, I’ll keep Diablo, and Starship: Titanic, and the Microsoft Developer Network disk of 16-bit operating systems. And the Celine Dion CDs.
I once had a collection of discs very similar. I’ve slowly misplaced or thrown them away over the years, and I have never missed them. The antique market for aging discs is awful, and whatever small moments of nostalgia I might get aren’t, for me, worth the effort of storing the darn things.
And… AOL? You still have AOL CDs?
I miss the days when they came on (reusable!) floppies. 🙂
Man, I have a NETSCAPE CD from Barnes and Nobles. I have a CD sporting terminal applications that came packaged with a ISA modem. I might even have the ISA modem, but I’m not sure…
You’re probably right, I would never miss most of them. But I’m sure as hell keeping the games! The legitimate ones, at least…
Not that I ever expect to play them, mind you…
Hm. I shred CDs and prints of photos for that matter. But that’s just me. You can’t keep your shredder for long though if you’re doing it at home. I recommend the shred bins at your office for the CDs. Photos just require a pair of scissors. I know it sounds weird, but if it’s a BAD picture of me or something like a dance I went to with an awkward exboyfriend, I don’t want someone at the dump to see it and feel bad for me. I always feel bad if I see an old photo and wonder why it was thrown out. Though now that I type it out I guess people finding my shredded photos might thing that the crazy people on 106th street are full of rage against their past. Wow. I still say SHRED SHRED SHRED! It also gives one such a sense of accomplishment.