I confess to not being a particularly social person. My idea of socializing is to read other people’s fanzines and letters they send to VoP. However, even in that social milieu I do not do respond nearly as often to other fanzines as my readers respond to mine. Every summer I have a bout of guilt over this, and I determine to be a better loccer, but that usually lasts until school begins in September, at which point I have no time for anything other than school work and the barest minimal fannish activity. Which means I better send a loc to all my trading partners while I have time the next two months!

I have a list of chores I should do this summer which are sitting on a notepad next to my computer. One of them is buy a new stereo system. I am listening to cds on a stereo which is 30 years old and has the unfortunate tendency to fade out periodically. That’s not the ideal way to listen to good music. However, I know nothing about stereos, nor do I feel like spending time researching quality and prices. Does anybody reading this have any expertise in this area? I am looking for a basic stereo/radio into which I can feed my cd player and turntable. I have purchased 100s of cds in the past decade, but I have no intention of replacing 100s of old records as well. I probably will buy new speakers too.