Have I mentioned how incredible Melissa is? She got me one of the coolest things I've ever seen. I've been wanting one for awhile, but just haven't had the extra cash laying around to spend on it. It's a turntable with USB outputs, meaning that I can digitize all of my old vinyl and burn it to CD or put it on my iPod.

I'm sure a lot of people my age wouldn't care so much about this, but I have a fairly extensive and somewhat rare record collection. I started grabbing up records at garage sales and flea markets when I was in high school, often buying records for a dollar each that I knew I could resell to collectors for fifty dollars or more. Pictured above is a rare Jimi Hendrix live album entitled Good Karma 1. It's on translucent green vinyl, and I have never seen it issued on cassette or CD. I also have Bob Dylan's Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid soundtrack with the original version of Knockin' on Heaven's Door. So, yes, I'm very excited. I also noticed while I was reading through the instructions that there is an input wher I can plug in a cassette player, meaning I can also digitize my ginourmous tape collection that has lived in my old closet at my parents' house for so long!

Unfortunately, due to working two jobs and trying to have something that vaguely resembles a social life, I haven't had much time to play with my new toy yet. I did manage to record and clean up Coltrane's Blue Train Tuesday night, and it sounds amazing. I just haven't broken the tracks out separately and converted them to mp3s yet. I'm hoping to have some time tomorrow during the day (I don't work Fridays on my day job) or Sunday afternoon. I'll keep everyone posted about how it goes!

Other than that, the air conditioner at my house stopped working yesterday, so I'm off to call and see if I can get someone out here to fix it...it's too damn hot not to.

JT out.