Lost memories

I just read this BBC article about how data on optical discs doesn't last nearly as long as one might think (or hope), even irrespective of brand name. A friend of mine (who I trust quite blindly when it comes to topics like this) had told me a long while ago that DVDs don't last especially long and that hard drives are much better for storing one's data. Partially because of this and partially because it's just way easier, basically all of my data (excluding the obscene amounts of anime I amassed from high school through second year) lives on a couple of hard drives and my computers themselves.

Lately I've been thinking about this data of mine, and I've had this nagging inclination to buy another hard drive or two – or even one of those cute little home servers they're selling these days. In any case, this particular article, which in my RSS feed had the title "Lost memories", made me (good, impressionable reader that I am) think about how many photos and videos and other records of various things that I've experienced I've collected over the years. And it kind of hit me, how incredibly sad I'd be if I lost them somehow.

It's kind of odd, considering its increasing ubiquity, how fragile data is now. How instantly huge amounts of it can be lost. I think about the photo albums my mom has from when my brother and I were younger, or even from when she herself was my age (and younger), and... well, an album is the kind of thing you can hold on to for your whole life. I once put a great deal of thought and time and care into putting together a photo scrapbook for a friend who moved away. As much as I'd poured into it at the time, and as much as I'd hoped they would really, really like it, I realize now just how much something like that would mean to me to receive myself. How much it would mean to me years later, to have memories and messages from friends with whom I'd spent some amazing times, preserved in a single book that I could one day show to my kids. (Not that they'd be the least bit interested.)

I don't know where I'm going with this. Now (in addition to buying more data storage) I feel like making some kind of album of my own, to keep in physical book form. But... at the same time, part of me feels kind of strange about photos and other mementos. I'm not sure to what extent I really feel this way, but I have this notion that the things that really count shouldn't require any kind of physical reminders; that the most important things are the ones that shape you as a person – that change the way you see the world and what you do in it. Those kinds of things you carry with you, memories or no memories.

That said, I admit I am a much more sentimental person than most people would probably expect, and ("should"s or "shouldn't"s aside) I can't help but hold on to the physical things that mean something to me.

Towards learning to play guitar

I have started learning chords. It is hard, since almost nothing I know relating to music (or dance, for that matter) lives in my explicit memory. Chords names, unfortunately, must. I'm also trying to learn my way around my instrument a little -- scales (so far only the major scale) and just playing around with random tunes by ear, and... well... actually trying to remember what note each string is (this information refuses to stay in my brain for some reason... I guess because I never use it :|).

Up until now, all I've done is basically trained my muscles to produce a handful of songs, generally using tabs as instructions. (Even the song that I managed to figure out by ear: I wrote each bit down in tab form as I figured it out, and then learned each section using my crappy tab-like notes.) This, to me, has very little relation to knowing how to play an instrument. I want to be able to play a new song given a set of chord names, and I want to be able to improvise a melody over some set of chords being played.

So these two endeavours, learning names for things and learning my way around my instrument, are my current strategy for trying to learn how to actually play. I think part of the reason I never worked at either of these things before is that there are no discrete tasks with immediate payoffs at the end, as is the case with trying to learn individual songs. But now I am determined! By the end of the summer, I want to have considerably improved on both fronts. I just wish there was some good way to quantify and track my progress. :|