I'M CONVERTING

Well, okay. It's not really ME that's converting. It's my mp3 files that I'm trying to convert. And, it's no easy feat, let me tell you. Unless maybe you're a computer geek, I guess.

Many months ago, I won an item on eBay that 1.) I love and 2.) would otherwise cost hordes of money. It's a 3 disk seminar from The Learning Company entitled VICTORIAN BRITAIN. So up my alley. This company apparently puts onto disks several hours of fabulous lectures, seminars, courses, etc. Kinda like attending a college class, except instead of a stunning college aged kid sitting next to you, you're sitting by yourself in the car, in your house, or wherever. Big difference, if you ask me.

In the meantime, I was so excited the day the disks arrived. I couldn't WAIT to pop them into my CD player and begin the course on one of my all-time favorite topics... British History. Yippee. I opened the package, took the CDs and placed the first one into the CD player in my bedroom. I was thinking: what a great way to fall asleep. Listening, learning and just like in a real college class, starting to doze. Uh... not so fast, Linda.

No sooner had the CD begun to play than I realized... EEKS. NO SOUND. HUH?? I GOT SCREWED? Actually, no. I saw immediately that the disk was spinning and playing. What I didn't see was that the CD was in an .mp3 format and not in a .wav format. Thus, no WONDER the player couldn't decode the lecture. Duh. Thus... how to resolve the conversion problem??

I tried several different methods, including copying the CD onto a new one and then converting it via my burner software. Hmmm... didn't work out so hotsi totsi. I went to method 2, but that didn't work either. After a LONG time of trying to figure out the best way to get my desired results, I concluded that what was needed was to copy the CD onto my hard drive and THEN do the conversion. Bingo. It worked. Except NOW... instead of 24 condensed .mp3 files, I have now instead, 24 HUGE megabytes of .wav files. Which means, I'll have to copy all these files onto what? About 28 zillion CDs?? Geez. Serves me right for being the last American on earth not owning an iPod.

So... while I'm thrilled the format conversion is now complete, I'm almost imagining that all spiritual leaders, can TAKE HEART. Were reLIGious conversion such a challenge, everyone would surely stay put. Which probably would make priests, preachers, rabbis, etc. all very happy.