Why?

So what's this thing all about, anyway? I recently decided to re-rip my entire CD collection (there goes the suspense of the blog name) after having already ripped the majority of my 600+ CD collection several years ago (the reason I say majority is because I had 70+ CDs stolen at one point and many of those CDs weren't yet ripped). Why did I do this?

1) Quality. I did a bad thing in that I just shoved each CD into iTunes and let it rip to it's default of 128K AAC. About 1/4 of the way through, I switched to 128K MP3, and at some point later, to 160K MP3. So I had several thousand inconsistent low-quality files representing my backup of the thousands of dollars I'd spent on the CDs over the years.

2) Principle. I'm getting quite fed up with Apple. I don't own an iPhone or iPad, but as a software developer, I don't at all like the stance Apple has in restricting how developers can develop apps for those devices. I do own an iPod Nano, but I'm close to the point of needing a new one. Since Apple decides to only allow me to update the device through the bloated iTunes and restricts which file formats I can put on it, I'm likely not to purchase another iPod.

So I've decided to re-rip my whole collection in a lossless, open-source codec without the help of iTunes. Just in case you're dying to know, I've decided on foobar2000 and flac as my new standard.

So why the blog? Well, as I started to re-rip one CD at a time, I've revisited where I was in my life when I bought each CD - at times wondering why I bought it - and thought it would be sort of neat to chronicle certain parts of my life through my CDs. It's strange - for some of these CDs I can remember exactly what it was that prompted me to buy and where I bought. So this will be a somewhat biographical and critical review of my life through music.

We'll see if it ever gets turned into a movie or if it just winds up being a journal that no one reads but me. Either way, I think I'll enjoy it.