#data archiving

you should download and back up all your data regularly and that includes ao3 stuff

download the stories you posted

download the stories you bookmarked

(optional: organize them with a program like calibre)

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additionally:

don't reblog this with "my stories aren't worth saving" - i think they are if only as a reminder of the thought and intention you put into something, but if you don't feel that way then this isn't for you and you can keep scrolling

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how do i download a fic?

open the story on the web (you should be using the web version of ao3, always; there is no ao3 app)

click/tap "download" at the top

save your file of choice

do whatever you want with it, the point is you saved it

Elegant suits for a stroll

723a Jacket suit of a herringbone pattern, high closure, tapered back, two slit skirt

692a. Jacket suit of striped fabric, two rows of buttons, large lapels, the skirt has a long front track with pleats

701a tailored costume from Shetland, collar of nutria, two rows of buttons and the front jacket ends are rounded, the skirt is rounded too

I want to preface this by saying that THIS IS ALL MY OPINION, and absolutely doesn't matter in the long run.

Anyway, this is a light rant on the archiving of the cassettes as far as the consideration of recording levels, dynamic processing, and tape head azimuth. When I was a little younger, the only access I had to any Teddy stories was that old website with the black background and yellow text with the .WAV files. As far as I recall, those didn't sound particularly fantastic which is alright, considering that these may have been the only way many got programmed material for their teddies as well at that time. My main concern is these newer archives. What I notice most is that many of them are "brick walled" (a dynamic processing technique in which audio is compressed to a set dB [volume] limit). This is not the way to go about it, because when trying to play back these tapes, the volume of the program track has the potential to be too loud, which can make Teddy and Grubby's faces go crazy. Turning down the volume to match the programming volume would make the stories too quiet, resulting in a huge headache. The other concern was tape head azimuth, which is far less important. Azimuth, in this context, is the alignment of the playback head to the signals (tracks) on the tape, enabling clear and proper playback. In a lot of these, the azimuth is slightly off, causing it to have a higher noise floor and muffled sound, almost like a veil is over top it.

I run the risk of sounding like a crazy person, but as someone who is obsessive over proper archiving and audio recording/production as a whole, it is a bit of a pet peeve.

Dead Air Archive is a collection of recordings from micro cassettes across the world. Such tapes were typically used in answering machines and dictaphones. As such they most often contain voicemails, and memos to one’s self or documentation of work.

When listening to these on my own time I was awe struck at the feeling it conjured in me. Getting a contextless view into the every day banalities of someone’s life. Someone you will never meet, and listening to these recordings these etchings of the mundane and extraordinary parts of their lives. Captured in a fully candid and genuine form.

Some are seemingly unremarkable, field notes of grandmas happy birthday wishes. But even these recordings tell a story of a life you will never live, nor be privy to. A contextless look into world from a completely new view, presented as is, with candor.

Then again, some tapes are extraordinary. From heart wrenching accounts of infidelity or relationship issues, to piecing together the flaws and issues that the speaker or owner of the phone line dealt with on a daily interpersonal basis.

…

Whatever, I’ve said enough. At the end of the day this project is for me, but I hope some of you will see the beauty I have found in these tapes, that without this project, would have been left to disintegrate and accrue into the next generations of life.

So far, I've managed to re-encode a singular folder that was about 13.72 GB.

I still have many other folders to go, that all total up to about 109.12 GB.

I'm going to be here forever.

On the bright side, re-encoding the videos as AV1 fixed some of the corruption that caused a lot of them to become unplayably stuttery.

Also, what I have finished re-encoding was once 10.15 GB. It is now 7.70 GB. So, while it is taking forever, I have managed to save over two whole gigabytes by simply running my videos through a program that essentially makes my computer get hot.

Default: 122.97 GB

AV1: 56.28 GB