Lists, completism
Feb. 18th, 2005 08:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
peterbirksWhy are so many men completists? In a fit of momentary insanity a year or so ago I decided to convert my 600 or so videos to DVD. Needless to say my entire Video collection is neatly categorized because, well, that's what men do. But this newe DVD recorder would give me an opportunity to put everything IN ORDER. The episodes of Six Feet Under, or Northern Exposure, or The Shield (and so on, ad infinitum) that currently resided in higgledy-piggledy fashion on various videos could be neatly brought together.
Well, that was a year ago, and some progress has been made (by which I mean, about 5%). What I had originally seen as a five-year-plan is rapidly turning into a lifetime's work. And, more irritating, nearly all of the series have at least one episode missing. For the completist, this is akin to making the whole thing worthless.
And, when I think about it, what is the point? Am I ever going to watch these things again? Probably not. And if I were, why don't I just go out and buy the DVD collection? But it's the process, the getting of things into order. Men's brains must work in very mysterious ways.
Well, that was a year ago, and some progress has been made (by which I mean, about 5%). What I had originally seen as a five-year-plan is rapidly turning into a lifetime's work. And, more irritating, nearly all of the series have at least one episode missing. For the completist, this is akin to making the whole thing worthless.
And, when I think about it, what is the point? Am I ever going to watch these things again? Probably not. And if I were, why don't I just go out and buy the DVD collection? But it's the process, the getting of things into order. Men's brains must work in very mysterious ways.
Videos, and photos
Date: 2005-02-26 04:04 pm (UTC)However, I have oodles of old negatives and slides neatly filed in binders, which I'm very slowly scanning when I get around to it with my Nikon CoolScan V film scanner. I now have a digital collection of nearly 7000 still photos, including both scans and photos from digital cameras. All these digital or digitized photos are dated and indexed.
So, like you, I have a mammoth task before me that will probably never be completed. Fortunately, a lot of my old photos aren't really worth saving anyway.
Jonathan, near Barcelona