Recently I've been doing more archiving work. Now that I don't have a
job (thanks, COVID-19), I can procrastinate on getting a new one and a
great way to do that is backing up my massive video disc collection.
The aim is to create my own virtual streaming platform that won't
easily go away. If Big G discontinues Photos, I may riot, although I
still have everything on external drives. But I don't have to worry
about Vudu or my digital library being compromised. And if I feel
super paranoid, I can do 2FA with my Big G account.

Most of my archiving is with DVD/BD backup, although I have also
digitized (?) a lot of my print books and converted my old Office
files to txt, pdf, or csv. It's amazing how much space can be saved.
It's also amazing to me how .doc is more bloated than .docx. I thought
the former, being older, would be more space-conscientious. Nope. I'm
also bummed that it took me until I was well into my 20s to learn vim.
Plain-text is so much simpler and easier than damn Office docs. PDFs
for embedded images and more complex text manipulation, but yeah.

Along the way, I've picked up some tricks involving touch to change
the converted video file dates to their release dates (handy), writing
a HandBrakeCLI helper script that uses some automation to edit and
create conversion queues. It's just really cool in a really nerdy way
to build your own scripts to automate so many things you do manually.
I could probably tinker with that helper and get it to match
interlaced video with a deinterlacing option (don't get me started on
how dumb interlacing is in the 21st century), but right now I don't
feel the need. Eventually I'll have to figure out how to rip my
Ultraviolet library of about 20-ish titles, but that can wait.

I hope everyone is staying safe out there.