I used to be compelled to like every single song on any album I purchased. I may have mentioned this before at some point. That's not important, though, because it's still true. As I mentioned yesterday, I'm not known for my ability to keep only what I need. Today's fact comes via my CD collection. It's not a terribly huge collection, but it's big enough that there are plenty of CDs I never listen to anymore. On the one hand, I could say that tastes change. But the reality of things is such that, well, I had some really shitty CDs in my collection. Many of them were gifts, mind, so at least I wasn't spending my own money on them. But the fact that I kept them all these years doesn't excuse that I actually kept the wretched things. Was this based on the notion that, because it was given to me, I was obligated to keep it? Perhaps. Was this a brotherly status issue, i.e. whose CD collection was the biggest? Definitely. Was this because I wanted to keep the CD because only one of the ten or fifteen songs was any good? Yes.

And there was also the issue of my never wanting to admit that there were songs on CDs I owned that I actually didn't like. As if it would decrease the value of the thing to say that there may be one or two good songs, but the rest is total crap. Heaven forbid that I not like every single song from I band I like. No, that one song I didn't like would totally ruin me, and not allow me to enjoy the band anymore. Better to skip the song when no one is looking, lest I look like less than a true fan.

As of now, I'm officially cured. A nice chunk of my CD collection is bagged and ready to go in for trade. Um, yeah, probably not going to miss them. And who knows, maybe one of the 11-year-old lovebirds from the bowling alley last night will stop grabbing his "girlfriend's" "ass" and will instead buy some CDs from my teenage angst years, and his life will be changed forever. Here's hoping.