Lots of Activity to Serve as Distractions

I am checking out 4 shareware demos that I downloaded...Book collector, CD collector, MP3 collector, and Movie collector, So far, I like the software but do not like having to rekey all the names. It seems surprising that the software will not import data already keyed into a spreadsheet. I think I will email the authors to see if there is any easier way to get the info in. My movie spreadsheet already has 900+ titles. My CD listing only has about 200 listed. But still, re-keying seems like a lot of wasted effort. The book list is okay because not much has been done, so far. I will draft the email right now! My karaoke song list has about 4500 songs.

I sent the email. However, I have been working in greater depth with 2 of the software and I am impressed. The instructions on the Book Collector indicates that I have to type in each book name. However, I discovered that all I have to do is to list the IBSN (in fact I can list multiple ISBNs) then click on one button. The software will automatically search Library of Congress and Amazon for book information and download a picture of the cover. Wow, that is incredible. On Thursday, D and I typed in a bunch of books and the related information. It took us over 30 minutes. I redid that work in less than 60 seconds. There was another stack of books which also took less than 60 seconds to input. I am definitely buying these two programs. I still have to check out the Movie Collector and the MP3 Collector. I am looking forward to the seeing how these programs work. I thought that the retyping would be tedious, but actually I end up with more information and virtually no typing (other than the ISBN for books and putting the CD in the player for the CD info). I am not sure the Karaoke collection would fit under any of the software. I will have to just leave it in it's current format.

I took Dick to the dinner and then the airport. He said that a part of him regrets taking this trip. Me too! I do think he will have fun, though. Also, when he comes back, I think he will appreciate home even more than before.