a Blast(er) From The Past

This might entertain you. While visiting with my sister and brother-in-law during vacation, she invited me to borrow a boombox from their office so I could listen to some of the CDs I had just bought. Well, imagine my surprise when the boombox in question struck me as looking strangely familiar ... it turned out to be one I used to own! If I remember correctly, it was actually the first device I had ever bought that was capable of playing CDs ... at least the date of manufacture stamped on its backside (November 1989) seems to confirm that presumption.















It was dusty, scuffed, and tired-looking, but to my surprise that old JVC beast sprang to life as nimbly as I remember it doing back in the day, and played CD after CD without the slightest glitch. Sure, the sound was a bit tinny, as those players couldn't help but be, but there wasn't any of the hum or crackling or distortion in either of the speakers that the machine's condition made me expect to hear. After twenty years, a good 16 of them under what I suspect was decidedly less TLC than I give my electronics, it still runs perfectly. I'd like to see the consumer electronics they manufacture nowadays stand the test of time so well.

Oh, and on a totally unrelated note, I thought you might want to know that I spent a recent evening updating all the links that had gotten broken when I changed my blog's URL a year and a half ago. I know, I know, it's about time, right? Well, it was just one of those things I'd never gotten around to. All the MP3 links, most of the YouTube videos, and many of the pictures I posted back in the day are dead or gone, but at least you can navigate to other articles in my blog.