I did a count of the movies we have in our library: 254. Then I counted all the TV series seasons we have: 21. Then the concert DVD we have: 4. To sum up, we own a lot of movies.
I just realized I didn't count the VHS tapes we have.
To add to the previous summary, we own a LOT of movies. But oddly enough, we have been holding back on purchases of late. We recently picked up a couple movies the other day as our early anniversary gifts to each other, and it was the first DVDs we had bought in months. We used to buy DVDs every couple of weeks, but we are getting better at saving money.
The primary reasons why we don't buy movies a lot now?
1) We now have a car. Those things can be quite the money pit.
2) We have a toddler. See reason #1
3) Lack of time. See reasons #1 and #2
You would think that with a car it would make for more time to spend at home, but quite the contrary. Now that we have a reliable source of transportation, we can get around quite well, and quite often, thereby cutting out the amount of time we spend watching movies.
Don't get me wrong, we have still bought movies since our daughter was born, but she's happy with watching about a dozen movies ad nauseum. 101 Dalmations is still one of her favourite movies. She's not much for Sleeping Beauty or any other typical Disney Princess stuff. She loves Pixar movies (that's my girl!) and The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything.
Some movies I like to own, but there are many I would prefer to watch but not pay exorbant amounts to have that priviledge. I have found that Anime titles are particularly bad about this. Oftimes, you can pay $40 for a disk with very poor English dubbing (Ολ'αυτα ειναι κινέζικα για'μενα) and then you have the subtitles. Blargh. If I can, I get anime from the library. Steamboy was a marvelous film, and I would watch it again. Purchase? No. Another Anime I really like is Ghost in the Shell. An amazing cyberpunk tale, but I would have to keep in locked up so my daughter doesn't pull it out instead of Kung Fu Panda. Best to spend money on diapers instead. For now.
And then of course we have the taboo subject of rips and torrents. I rip my own discs so they will play on my PDA. I also have a few torrents of shows that I can't find on DVD such as ReBoot. I have bought as many of the discs that I could find, but I'm a little leary of buying any discs online. Got burned by Future Shop, and I know that's a poor example. I've done some good eBay transactions , but sometimes you never know what might happen.
And we come again to the lack of time. We don't have any movies still sealed in plastic - anymore - but there are some discs that I have not had the time to sit down and watch. Goodness knows there is sufficient laundry folding to keep me going through the entire first season of Get Smart, which I bought sometime in February. And even though my daughter hasn't shown a huge interest in Fraggle Rock, I still think buying the first three seasons was a wise investment. Now I just need to convince myself that I got a good deal for the box set of the Extended Edition Peter Jackson LOTR trilogy, and my consumerism will be sated.
At least until Sep 29.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Quick two years
It's a little odd going to my Brother-in-law's missionary homecoming today. I know he's been gone for two years, and I've been writing him most every week. But it just seems a little odd that he's home. It's one of those things that you just never thought would come, yet you knew was on the horizon. Can't really compare that to anything else. I was going to compare it to the birth of my daughter, but that doesn't even come close!
The greatest irony, is that it was oddly similar to keeping a blog. Why? Because he only ever wrote back to me once. He did write a note to us embedded in a letter to his parents once, and it was a birthday greeting for my wife. But the last week he was in the mission field, he wrote specifically to me. It was short, but well meaning.
When we met him at the airport, he thanked me for continuing to write to him although he didn't write back much at all. I told him it was much like keeping a blog. I didn't mind.
His talk today was very good. I shouldn't really compare it to other homecoming talks, because I haven't heard that many. The bulk of the talk referred to what he learned on his mission, which boiled down to five things:
!) Be Patient... with the Lord
2)
3) Diligence - go at your own pace
4)
5) Solve your own problems
Ok. My memory is a little shoddy. I would have taken notes if my daughter wasn't crawling all over me during the meeting, and I didn't feel bad taking out my cell phone to take notes with. I suppose I could have asked someone for a pen and paper. Hindsight.
But the strongest bit that I liked from the talk was this: "A lot of returned missionaries say their mission was the best two years of their life. I would like to say my mission was the best two years FOR my life."
Then we had the pie night reception earlier this evening. Great success, but I can't help but think we should have done it on a later day. Why? Because all the pies were cooked yesterday, ON THE HOTTEST DAY OF THE YEAR! The thermometer outside read 38C at the hottest point. Not to shirk in duties, but the saying holds true: "If you can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen." That I did. I hid in the basement for most of the day, and also entertained my daughter in the cooler areas on the house for as long as her interest could hold.
I jokingly implied we should have another pie night on March 14, and my Mother-in-law seemed to be in full agreement. Hmmm. Maybe we won't have it on the same scale as we did tonight with 50 pies. Then again, it won't be 30C in March. We shall see.
The greatest irony, is that it was oddly similar to keeping a blog. Why? Because he only ever wrote back to me once. He did write a note to us embedded in a letter to his parents once, and it was a birthday greeting for my wife. But the last week he was in the mission field, he wrote specifically to me. It was short, but well meaning.
When we met him at the airport, he thanked me for continuing to write to him although he didn't write back much at all. I told him it was much like keeping a blog. I didn't mind.
His talk today was very good. I shouldn't really compare it to other homecoming talks, because I haven't heard that many. The bulk of the talk referred to what he learned on his mission, which boiled down to five things:
!) Be Patient... with the Lord
2)
3) Diligence - go at your own pace
4)
5) Solve your own problems
Ok. My memory is a little shoddy. I would have taken notes if my daughter wasn't crawling all over me during the meeting, and I didn't feel bad taking out my cell phone to take notes with. I suppose I could have asked someone for a pen and paper. Hindsight.
But the strongest bit that I liked from the talk was this: "A lot of returned missionaries say their mission was the best two years of their life. I would like to say my mission was the best two years FOR my life."
Then we had the pie night reception earlier this evening. Great success, but I can't help but think we should have done it on a later day. Why? Because all the pies were cooked yesterday, ON THE HOTTEST DAY OF THE YEAR! The thermometer outside read 38C at the hottest point. Not to shirk in duties, but the saying holds true: "If you can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen." That I did. I hid in the basement for most of the day, and also entertained my daughter in the cooler areas on the house for as long as her interest could hold.
I jokingly implied we should have another pie night on March 14, and my Mother-in-law seemed to be in full agreement. Hmmm. Maybe we won't have it on the same scale as we did tonight with 50 pies. Then again, it won't be 30C in March. We shall see.
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