December 27, 2004

• I would have to say I'm most attached to my creative stuff from my early teen years: drawings/cartoons and original SF writings. Seeing those now in my jaded/dulled years reawakens something in me.
• There's a couple of things from my very early childhood that evoke strange memories/sensations. A couple of the Little Golden Books which (thankfully) my parents got me loads of (encouraging my love of literature) & some of the particular colours used in illustrations in one or two other books from my pre-school years that evoke strange sense-impressions of pleasure. There is also a little red plastic lunchbox full of marbles that I have hoarded since I was a toddler that was somehow a valuable treasure for me. Even today the crunch of the marbles clicking together in my hands evoke waves of nostalgia. I don't have other mementos. I deliberately destroyed such things after about the age of 16 when I decided to follow a path of not being tied to the material world. In some ways that has been destructive & sad, in others, a blessing.
• my penis
• I'm a total pack rat but I end up moving every year so most of the stuff I have has been weeded out as necessities and very important sentimental items (and the third sub-group of stuff that came along when I got tired of going through all my stuff while packing). The oldest thing I have is my no-nose teddy bear from when I was a baby.
• Soft bunny! My first stuffed animal. His fur is worn threadbare and his nose has fallen off and been resewn 3 times. But he is still my bunny. Also, the little golden book "Home For a Bunny," which is not only a beautiful children's book but a beautiful commentary on finding real, compatible love and the true meaning of home.
• I have a small, stainless steel ruler my dad gave me when I was ten. If I lost that I would be upset.
• My first teddy. It's called "rabbit". It looks like a Godnosewhat.
• I get to go through estates and it just amazes me the stuff people throw out. I was in a big ass house up in Evanston and one of my guys found a red velvet photo album containing 40 cabinet cards. I brought it to the son of the deceased and said "Here, you may want this". He looked it over and said "Nah, that's just memories. toss it."
• Growing up, my family used to have what we called "The Fire Rule." If the house was on fire and we had the time to grab something, there were a few items we were instructed to save (each of us three kids actually had a list). Now, however, the only things that have real sentimental value to me are my four photo albums and my daily journal from my high school/college days, so those are the things I'd grab if the house was going up in flames. Oh, and I suppose I'd grab the fiance too, I guess.
• My father's class ring, and my grandmother's wedding ring. I keep them together on a cord just so I could grab them both quickly in case of fire. Also, photo albums.
• My brand new shiny christmas mini ipod. *strokes it quietly* Seriously tho-- I find I have a lot of things that I feel I ought to be attached to. If someone took them away I would be highly irate...but then I'd probably get distracted and forget about them a week later. My philosophy is usually c'est la vie, let it go. I would hate to lose some of my jewelry...a ring made out of an old earring of my sisters, a spoon ring purchased at some crazy hippy music festival..everyday stuff like that. I have some nice inherited gold/diamond stuff from my grandmother, but I fear losing it would be more painful because it's valuable...not because of the emotional attachment. I don't wear them much, and they aren't my grandmother. I would kinda hate losing the journals I've kept on and off since I was 8.
• A small (2 x 5) "day" bed made by my great-great-grandmother's first husband in Ft. Byron, Illinois. A footstool made my my great-aunt Margaret. Photographs of my family dating back to the 1800s. A copy of "Trilby," by George du Maurier (Harper and Brothers Publishers, 1890) ferreted out and purchased specially for me by my wonderful Uncle Raul a few months before he died, and the note from him in it. It's sentimental, but I don't think of these things as mine; they belong to the my cousins as well. And their kids will get them when I die.
• I honestly can't think of a thing. Practical reasons, sure, there's lots of stuff, but nothing sentimental. I think that makes me a robot. Or serial killer. Or serial killing robot.
• all glory to the serial killing robot!
• My blanket. I still have it in the top drawer of my dresser. I actually was looking for something earlier last night for a party and came across it. It still carries feelings of nurture for me.
• I have a few carvings my uncle made for me when I was kid. I suppose those are the things I'd most want to keep from harm, along with a couple of paintings and some rare albums I've accumulated. I'm not a hoarder, so losing a lot of things wouldn't bother me much. Oh, I guess I should add my grandfather's skull to the list.
• coppermac? w? t? f? I invite the telling of the story. No. I beg for the telling of the story.
• I swiped a clipboard from high school which I've used ever since, covered as it is in old high school doodles of axes and such. I'll have it to the end of my days.
• I feel a little better now for saying the teddy bear I had as a kid. I've been going through this big "oh no, women who own stuffed animals are social lepers" phase, so I'm comforted a bit. Thank you. So yeah, the teddy bear I had as a kid. I'm also fond of a photograph of infant me, my mom, her mom (my grandmother) and her mom (my great-grandmother), because that impresses me, and helps to assuage this feeling of being disconnected from that side of my family. But my mom actually has that photo at the moment. I should swipe it back.
• I have my childhood teddy bear. I don't think I'd rush to save it from a fire, but it is special. I almost always wear my engagement ring because it was my mother-in-law's mother's ring and is valuable money-wise too. I'd feel awful if I lost it, mostly for my in-laws' sake. My family has never been big on sentimentality but #2's family is heritage-rich and I love being part of that. I think I'm fonder of the tales of his great-great grandparents than he is.
• My hand grenade.
• Maybe it's just a function of having to unpack every damn thing I own from my recent move, but I can't think of a thing. It actually makes me kind of sad.
• Danger: when I was 5 or 6 I found a squirrel's skull and kept it. When my grandfather saw it, he was a bit put off, so I asked him (snarkily) if I could have his skull when he died. Somehow, no-one found it amusing at the time. Later, though, it became one of those family stories that gets told every once in a while. It came up, of course, when my grandfather died. I don't really have the skull, but I guess I could always go and dig him up....
• My parents just gave me my grandmother's old "good" watch for Christmas. It's really pretty (it winds! it ticks! vintage-y goodness!), but mostly it's special because my grandmother was really cool. I also have a diamond pendant that was the first piece of good jewelry my grandfather gave to my grandmother. I'm not generally a fan of shiny expensive rocks, but I do love the sentimental attachment.
• I finally went and picked up the furniture last weekend. An old dresser with a marble top that's in need of some refinishing and repair, an old antique washstand that likewise needs some loving care, and an old quarter-sawn oak filing cabinet that my parents restored (it was partially charred and had its finish ruined in a house fire). But the best treasure of all, what means more to me than any of that, was in the top drawer of the washstand. A 45-size record, recorded sometime in the '60s, of my grandmother singing in a gospel trio. She died on my birthday, while I was in Mexico on my honeymoon, and had been withering away from Alzheimer's for a very long time, so this was the first time I'd heard her voice in years, and that voice was younger and stronger than I'd ever heard it in my life. I didn't know she'd ever cut a record. She had a gorgeous voice. I want to preserve this thing. I want backup copies. So I'm going to derail my own thread and ask: what's the best way to convert vinyl to digital?
• Turntable, amp, PC. There's a bunch of good software to clean up audio pulled from vinyl, too. That said, for something like this I'd be inclined to ring around local studios and see what a pro engineer can do for you and how much it would cost.
• Got all three elements. I was actually really asking about the software. I had thought about calling places around here in Little Rock to see what they had to say pricewise, but I thought I'd try my hand at it first. Though a sound engineer may be the way to go -- there's a lot of crackle that needs to be cleaned up.