2005.11.10
I've been redoing how I store my games. For a few years I've been putting "jewelboxed" games in a big folder, and last year I started doing the same for "DVD-cased". I kept the DVD-style cases and the CD booklets, though not the plasticky jewel cases. But then the other week I got an urge to put the PS2 and Xbox games back on the shelf. For some reason the ease in shelf-browsing really makes up for the lack of portability... (Ksenia thinks it's a form of showing off.) GC is my main "travel" system, so I compromised and put its cases on the shelf but kept its games in small travel folders.
Finally yesterday I wisened up and rearranged my new PS1/DC folder so it used the CD booklets to make a very nice browsable book. It's much easier to locate a game when you can see the well-designed cover rather than trying to read the CD imprint. And the trick is to put the booklets on the outsides of the 2x2 pages and the CDs on the inside, then you can flip through more easily.
For the record, gamecount-wise I'm in the low 20s for Xbox and PSone games, mid-20s for PS2, and low to mid 30s for Dreamcast and Gamecube. That's a lot of games over the years! There's also a N64 kicking around, which was THE system for me of the 90s, and an SNES, which was generally a retro thing for me.
It's striking how much nicer DVD cases look on a book shelf than CD jewelboxes. Hmm...come to think of it, maybe some of that's because they look like books! Duh. That never occured to me before. I think the grey plastic is less chintzy than the see-through stuff CDs usually use.
Link of the Moment
The very worst of audiophile excess. Boingboing was mostly amused by the $500-ish wooden volume control knob, but I think $30,000 for speaker cables just takes the cake. (Sort of like that cartoon where the kid is selling lemonade for a thousand dollars a glass or something..."but I only have to sell one!")
Quote of the Moment
We are alone, absolutely alone on this chance planet: and, amid all the forms of life that surround us, not one, excepting the dog, has made an alliance with us.Yes, via Google's custom homepage and its Quotations Page link