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.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

  1. Jonathan says:

    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. 🙂

  2. Andrew says:

    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…

  3. Andrew says:

    Not that I ever expect to play them, mind you…

  4. Kelly says:

    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.