Diaper Man!

Alyssa reminded me today that we can ask each other questions on PDD and get some great localized answers.  So, I have three questions to ask the collective PDD wisdom/snark base.   Yes three, but I’ll stick to two for now.

Question #1 I am blessed with a new baby that is coming sometime in the next several weeks.  For my first two girlies I used plastic diapers without any prejudice.  However, with this one, my partner has been advocating for the use of re-usable cloth diapers.  And I am going along on this, and not just because I have to, but because I want to.   In fact, I am washing my first batch of cloth diapers now (just out of the package).  I am interested in stories, experiences and advice on the reusable diaper front from a local perspective, I’m especially interested in stuff like logistics, tips and tricks, price savings, and if anyone has any theories of actual savings and environmental benefits, etc.  For the record, the plan is to breast feed this child, I know that makes a difference.  And, because she is on parental leave indefinitely I suspect she will be doing quite a bit more of the changing, but I will probably do most or all of the laundry, so the decision affects us both. I would also entertain general earth friendly baby advice, offers of free stuff you think we could use, and good infant activity ideas around the area as this will be my first new one in 6 years.

Question #2 Is almost completely unrelated, however, I hope it will produce some fascinating advice mash-ups.  Here goes, during my long period of unemployment and underemployment I archived nearly all of the wild goose music library onto a hard drive for eternal use.  Then, being broke I sold as many of those cds as I could to pay for stuff like food, bills and (until I quit) cigarrettes).  I also gave many that could not sell away because I just didn’t think I “needed” anymore.  So … things have been going just fine until … the last few weeks.  I got a new laptop and thousands of the dang things won’t play.  the reason is that over the course of the last few years I have used a number of junker computers and all of them are gone now.  The digital files are wma’s with DRM and the windows site says that I have downloaded the license too many times.  This is very troubling as it looks like those are just “ghost files” that I will never be able to play ever again, and being a (retired) DJ I still kind of need them sometimes, not to mention WANT to listen to them.  I have looked into a number of different ways of removing the drm on various bulletins, etc online and it all seems very confusing and many of them also seem very pirate-like.  I am not interested in slinking around in the shadows (much)  since these are all things that I prchased legally and feel like I “own” and I feel I should be allowed to use them on any coputer I own, or any computer anywhere for that matter.  So … looking for advice and experience with this matter as well.  Oh and if posible I would like to do this for free.  But would pay something if I knew what was the best way to proceed.