I'm in day 4 of my effort to clean out my bedroom. It's a rather small bedroom, so it's not a matter of climbing on ladders to dust of chandeliers and replace burned out light bulbs. No, it's a matter of unhealthy obsessions.
You see, I kind of became addicted to acquiring books, DVDs, and CDs when I was at NYU. I would have professors tell me to include "X" book/DVD/CD in a paper or suffer a bad grade. At first, I would argue that said book/DVD/CD was not available through the school library, but they wouldn't budge. So, I had to start buying what I couldn't borrow or steal. A lot of professors just assumed that all NYU students were rich. I was not, I'm still not, and I doubt I ever will be. Aside from the near-cripping debt, I find myself neck deep in stacks of books, DVDs, and CDs I've never read/watched/heard, let alone opened in some cases.
That's where The Chopping Block comes in.
The Chopping Block is an exciting new feature on the blog. Right now, I've pared the collection I have in my room by more than half. The portion I'm keeping is currently being organized and crammed into every bookshelf, wall shelf, desk shelf, nook, and cranny I have in the room. The other half is up for grabs very soon.
I will try to make this a weekly feature. It will work like this: I will force myself to watch a DVD, listen to a CD, or read a book I never watched, heard, or read before that is just taking up precious space in my room. I will review it for the site. If I don't like it, it's Up For Grabs. That means someone reading this blog has the opportunity to claim the DVD/CD/book for their own before I have to dispose of it by other means. All you'll need to do to get it is e-mail me what item you want and your shipping info; I'll take care of the rest.
I would like a little more interactivity with this feature, so I would ask whoever gets the condemned DVD/CD/book try to write a short review of it that I can post on the site. It's not required and if you don't want to, that's fine. I just think it would be fun to have another perspective on the media object I chose not to keep.
There are more conditions: if I find the DVD/CD/book interesting and would consider using it for a future article, it goes on The Waiting List. The Waiting List gives me six months to get what I need from the DVD/CD/Book before I'm forced to put it Up For Grabs.
If I like the DVD/CD/book, it's Reprieved. That means I keep it. I don't think it will happen that often as I assume there's a reason I haven't opened many of these items.
So that's the new feature for the New Year. I'll be setting up a page within the blog for The Chopping Block that hopefully explains this in a clearer way.