Flashing Back

There's nothing like cleaning out your office to time-travel, is there? I found a shoebox full of random computer-associated things, and I'm going through a bunch of 3.5" disks to copy over what I want before I toss them, about which may I say:

• It's probably good to do this while I still have a computer that reads these.
• Does anyone still use these? Like, should I bother giving the unused ones to Savers, or will they just throw them out?
• Oh, but I'm SURE someone wants the booklet "Getting the Most Out of the Internet" from Earthlink.Third edition, copyright 1998. Like a museum. Why do I still have this?! Pitch! (Well, take a picture of the intro first, it's very throwback-Thursday.)
• How funny is it, in 2015, to see the label "old computer 2/12/98"? Very funny. Particularly when I'm using an 8-year-old computer that really, really needs to be replaced.
• No, I probably don't need my resume from past job searches, but ... 
• And hey, the book I was writing! Didn't know I still had that! Multiple versions! Backups! Supporting material! Who wants to see the roster I started for the Bruins team of my imagining? (The book was about the first women to play in the NHL: pretty funny given that there still aren't, but at least there are professional women's leagues now.)
• Oh, my god, that short story I wrote... And that one...
• Or the book reviews I wrote, when I lived in the NC (for the Rock Hill (SC) Herald). I know I have the tear sheets, but didn't realize I had the files still.
• And I found a picture of my friend and her kid on a camel, from 2004. Now, that's random.

Another clean-out item is the little netbook computer I had (remember that? almost 4 years ago), which I haven't used in the tablet era, or two years, and I figured I should just pass on to someone who could use it. I put it on Freecycle, and got about a dozen responses in half an hour. Someone's coming by in the morning to get it. Slowly, slowly, I chip away at the clutter and mess.