Jan 8, 2008

Family Resolution: Use my new voice recorder

One my holiday gifts was the SanDisk Sansa e280 MP3 Player.Marc picked it because I had asked for an MP3 player, and also mentioned several times that I would love to have a digital voice recorder to capture the gems that Alex spouts on a regular basis. The voice recorder idea was inspired by an old Thingamababy post, and I was thrilled that the Sansa has a built-in recorder.

Of course, I've now had the recorder for close to a month (it was a Hanukkah gift) and have yet to use the voice recorder feature. I haven't even read the instructions for it. And there have been more than a few occasions when I've thought, I need to record that! Like when Alex was singing "Jingle Bells" every day - few things are cuter than a little boy belting out "laughing all the way" followed by "ha-ha-ha"!

So there you have my family resolution for the year: Use my voice recorder. Often. Because there are going to be memories that ought to be preserved forever.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Because there are going to be memories that ought to be preserved forever."

Call me weird, but this phrase strikes terror in my heart. Digital media, for all its convenience, is creating new archival challenges. It's one thing if you're the Smithsonian, and it's your job to keep everything. But what about the rest of us? How should we store our digital media? Will the file formats of today be readable by the digital readers of tomorrow? Will our children keep all our files or just delete/throw them out? As one who has been putting off dealing with several years of photos and scrapbooks and now has made the switch to digital photography and rarely prints anything, I'm really wondering where it's all heading. And although I deal with audio every day, I haven't given much thought to the challenges of archiving personal audio. Let us know how it goes.

Having said all that, I should also say, the thought of your son singing Jingle Bells brings a smile to my face too! Good luck with the new voice recorder and I hope it's entirely satisfactory.

Christine said...

I bought this very same player for my hubby last Christmas, and I must say that I had no idea that it had a voice recorder. Silly me!
I am now off to find where my husband keeps this toy.... I'm afraid he may never see it again!

Chief Family Officer said...

@Mary - I hadn't given it much thought. Digital either will or won't last, much the same way all of the pictures from my own childhood have badly faded and the negatives are (maybe) somewhere ...

@Christine - I won't tell your husband if you don't! Have fun with it! :D