The Physical Media Packrat Manifesto

I recognize, of course, I'm from a different era.

I'm a collector of media. Physical media. Ever since the age of the Columbia House cassette era. I dutifully sent in my penny and occasionally bought music, enough to help me meet my agreement, but not tons of it. I was into certain types of media, and that usually meant stuff Columbia didn't have.

I'm also a buyer of books. Physical books. Yes, they are a storage headache. In my study, I have over a hundred linear feet of bookshelves, and that's still not enough. Some of the books are weighty enough they are a physical pain to read, but I still have them.

We also have a lot of DVDs. And a few months ago when my wife suggested we go through our CD collection and get rid of a bunch, I rebelled, boxed them up, and have them stored until I can figure out where they're going to go.

I have a small collection of digital music, somewhere. But again, I'm of a mind that if I want a copy of something, it's going to be a physical copy if I can find one.

That means scrabbling around the discount DVD bins at the big box store. That means finding people who're selling books that are out of print, and occasionally buying new stuff because I know I want it and I don't mind paying full price once in a while.

But whatever I have, it's mine. Only a natural disaster, not DRM or tricky digital policies, can take it away from me.

So I read Janus Rose's "The Digital Packrat Manifesto" with some interest.

As mentioned, I'm not a complete dinosaur. We purchased "The Wild Robot" from Amazon Prime not too long ago. It's definitely a movie I'd watch again. So I'm going to watch for a physical copy.

The only physical copies we're actively getting rid of are cassette tapes -- I don't think I have any of my cassette music anymore) and out VHS tapes; we're slowly working through that collection and replacing them with DVDs. Again, physical copies as much as we can manage.

Yes, they can be a storage headache. One of my summer projects is doing to be to redo our DVD shelves because what we have are sagging and no longer have enough room for the DVDs we have. But that's a small price to pay to keep physical copies in the house.

The day may come when physical copies of what's new are no longer available, and that'll be a sad day. But I'll keep packratting physical media, because once I've got it, the powers that be can't take it away from me.

The Packrat's Conundrum

I've written here about all the stuff I cling to -- books, papers, photographs, nes clippings, other miscellaneous paper goods that just sit in boxes waiting for me to open them, riffle through them, get frustrated with my inaction with them and then shove the boxes back into their storage places. I'm trying my darnedest to organize and cull the stuff I keep, but it's tough.

For example, my recent project involved pulling an apples box out of storage. In this box are about eight years' worth of personal journals, some mere computer printouts but most hand-written, and in many cases hand-doodled. (I was about to write "hand-decorated," but that gives way too much credit to my doodles than they deserve.) I've simply taken the computerized stuff, scanned it into the computer and made PDFs of the mess. The other stuff, including two years' worth of letters I sent my family while I was on my mission in France, is more problematic. I've already scanned in the journals, and am working on the letters now. The conundrum: Do I hold on to the paper records, or just satisfy myself in keeping the digital copies? Both options present pitfalls. If I keep the written records, I have to deal with their bulk. Perhaps they are more pleasing to riffle through, but I can't remember the last time I did so. Will my posterity want to riffle through them, or will they be happy with the digital copies? One flod, and all the paper is gone anyway. But again, if I keep only the digital copy, I risk losing them in some other way, either through fire or simply having the storage media crumble or become outdated.

So what's a packrat to do?

Share a bit of the memory, I suppose, while it's fresh, and before either paper deteriorates or digital copy is lost. So, behold: One of my favorite letters home.