Vacation day 13: OMG, vinyl LPs!

[altivo]

The sheep shearer didn't show. This is the second year in a row that he has not arrived on the day when he said he would come. Last year he was rescheduled for the next week and did show up then. We're expecting the same thing now. But if he misses or can't make this Saturday, we have a problem. We are not available ourselves for any Saturday after that until June. Unfortunately, shearers are not easy to come by. We only know of two or perhaps three who work in our area.

I've been wanting to get at my LP records, which have been stored in crates in one of the barns for years. I thought now that I've figured out how to convert them to MP3 format, I'd have access to some favorite things I haven't been able to listen to for a while. The conversion process is easier and yields much better quality than I ever expected. My mate was puttering while waiting for the shearer, and dug out my three crates and hauled them up to the house. Dusty on the outside, musty on the inside, but they have survived storage well enough. More than 300 LPs are in them, I had no idea there were so many. He has another nine boxes of his own out there, which means we have well over a thousand of the things. I wonder if there is any market for this stuff? Most of what I have is classical and folk music, so probably not. But some of it is classic rock from the 60s and 70s. Beatles, Moody Blues, Cream, The Who... And most of it is in excellent condition. Jackets in pristine condition, records unscratched and playable...

Since the conversion process involves playing each album once in real time, it would take months to convert all of this. I'm going to have to pick items that I really want and focus on them.

Oh, and after dinner we watched the rest of the extra material on the Narnia DVDs. Much as I've enjoyed fursuiting, I do not want to go through the makeup process that Tumnus or some of the other characters had. I'm too claustrophobic and even I don't have the patience to sit for three hours while someone glues individual hairs to my skin. The minotaurs apparently had it the worst. They were almost totally blind, and their heads were full of servo motors and radio controlled robotics that were operated by puppeteers at a distance apparently. Sounds distinctly unpleasant.

The part about how they made Aslan and the Beavers was fascinating. Don't skip over this stuff, it's as good as the film itself.

One more day, and then back to work. Eww.

Comments

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

I hope your turntable and need are in good nick :)

Do you have The Who - Eminence Front in vinyl? It'd sound great on vinyl.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I don't recall that one, no. Tommy, of course. And that Roger Daltrey album where he was turned into a centaur on the front... Ride a Rock Horse? I was never much into rock music actually. Too loud and pushy. There's a lot of Moody Blues though, five or six albums. About a quarter of the whole probably is old rock stuff.

[calydor.livejournal.com]

If they are in mint or near-mint condition, you might want to browse through eBay Wish Lists. They could be of interest to collectors.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I'll keep that in mind.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Oh yes from someone in the data recovery biz, don't rely on "burned" media only. CD/DVD rot is becoming more prevalent.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, what do we have as an alternative that's affordable? I hear other people complaining constantly about failed hard disks, especially the large ones. So far I don't think I've had a hard disk failure on any of my machines, and I started microcomputing in 1982. But they seem to be everyone else's bane. I've replaced a couple that were acting suspicious, and several just to upgrade capacity, but I don't remember ever having one just die and lose the contents.

[heavens-steed.livejournal.com]

*nods* Oh yes, I watched the Narnia DVD extras :) I find it amazing just how much work goes into any film like this. Much like in the process of the Lord of the Rings films, the amount of detail that goes into everything from props, to costumes, to make up is absolutely astounding. I found it amusing when the head costume designed talked about making all the horse rear-ends for the centaurs as the bane of his existence :) I don't see what's so bad about that ;)

As for your LP records, I'm sure there is a collector's market out there somewhere. And believe it or not, I not only know what a record is, I've actually listened to them before! Sure, it was back when I was a little colt, but still... maybe you won't feel quite so old ;)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I wish he would have showed more about the "horse butts" as he put it. Most of it was CGI, and you saw the centaur actors just wearing the green tights so their lower halves could be inserted later. But the costume guy was talking about actual prosthetics. Where did they use those? How were they made?

I've had some discussion with vakkotaur about the possibility of making a centaur fur suit. I believe it can be done, and would involve frames and pulleys just as they hinted at on the DVD. The result would be unwieldy but credible.

[swampy.livejournal.com]

Very interesting! I've also got boxes full of old vinyl which is currently in storage in my parents attic. I could get hold of some of the music easily in other formats, but there are also some rarer records which are simply not obtainable now...mainly hippy rock from the 60s. I may look into converting these records to MP3 at some stage in the future!

[altivo.livejournal.com]

One word: Audacity. Free open source software for both Windows and Linux, gives you all the editing and filtering abilities you need.

[chibiabos.livejournal.com]

Ohhh eeee ohhh, ohhhh whoah!

Today begins day 3 for me and I'm already more sore and tired than I've ever been. I was pretty sore after helping to build big cardboard sales displays for Memorial day on Friday, and I haven't had a long solid work day like I did yesterday in a long time. I didn't get home until 11:30 p.m. (after leaving for work at 10 a.m.). One of the route sales representatives at my job suspiciously seems to have abandoned two of his stores on Friday, judging by the condition of those stores yesterday. At least today, no matter how busy they were, there won't be much I can do in those stores since I burned through most of the backstock yesterday and they don't get sales rep service on weekends (just us lowly part time merchandisers). I am very stiff and sore, especially in my shoulder and hip, haven't been this sore from working since I started out as a temp and worked overtime then.

So no one's showed up to shag shear the sheep, eh? Shearers must take a page from farriers for their reliability.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

That stuff is getting to be the way all of the American economy operates. The WalMart way of doing business: no full time employees, no benefits, higher profits as a result. Everyone shoves it off on someone else.

Actually, in our experience shearers are much less reliable than farriers. But yes, both can pretty much rely on a captive clientele. There are a growing number of farriers today, just as the horse population is on the increase, so competition is a bit more in that field. Sheep numbers in the US are static or declining I think. Shearing is not a particularly difficult skill to learn, but it isn't high paying work either, and like your job, it often entails feast or famine, long hours with limited rest at some times and no work at all at other times. Consequently, most shearers have day jobs and do shearing as a weekend thing. There is an investment in equipment too. I'm guessing it takes about $500 to buy the tools to get started, plus you need a truck or other utility vehicle. The best money comes from larger flocks. Getting someone to do our six sheep is almost like asking a favor. He's been charging $25 for setting up the equipment, and $5 per sheep. He works fast, and can finish all six in perhaps a half hour. That sounds like good money until you take into account the travel and the price of gas. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if he raises his rates this time around, when we finally get him out here.