So many movies, so little time...

[jsteinhauer]

I'm wasting away a day of my life pretty much on the internet, playing a couple of video games, drinking some homebrew and letting my yellow nape play. If I do stuff, I have to cage hime. The sun conure is caged, because he constantly gets after the yellow nape or gets in my shirt and scratches the heck out of me. The Jardine's is in the bathroom sleeping. I did go fill the gas tank and go to the post office to mail a trader's copy of Righteous Kill, but now, here I sit, and it's -2F outside right now. I see a layer of thin ice across Lake Superior for the first time this winter.

Anyway, on topic, I have over the course of five years become addicted to watching movies at home. It started during my last year of training, which was in Houston. My wife could not come with me. So that's when I first subscribed to Netflix, three ata time, and began watching three movies every weekend. Now, I've got a 55 inch flat panel, somewhat dedicated space, 7.1 speakers and we have Blu-ray movies, and it's become much worse. I buy at least a movie every week and keep the Netflix six ata time plan. I've recently pared my Netflix queue down from 500, where it had been for five years to less than 400. The act of paring down that list was disheartening. They were after all movies I though I wanted to see, but came to grips with the fact that with new movies coming out every week, I will never get to see most of them. I probably watch four movies per week on average, but it's still not enough.

How do you come to terms with the fact that you will die before getting to see all of the movies?

[Purplegrasshopper]

Originally Posted by jsteinhauer

How do you come to terms with the fact that you will die before getting to see all of the movies?

Therapy, my friend. Therapy.

[Crim122]

My roommate watches a average of 4 a day...


But I used to spend all my paycheck except whatever was left for bills, gas, groceries on blu rays. I would go 2 weeks without any money but 3 new movies. I hated it and I have been able to stop myself from buying movies, I havent bought a blu ray since November and I am saving up until I get my HTS to get more lol.

[camper]

I don't worry about it. The movies I REALLY want to see, I make time to see them. If I decide there is only time to watch one movie tonight, the choice is the movie I most want to see tonight.

If I know I'm not going to watch a movie, I don't buy it or put it on my list. I used to be that way about TV shows, and my DVR would fill up and I'd be guilty that I never watched it so it became a chore to watch stuff I recorded...and I didn't enjoy the shows anyway. Now, I watch stuff when I get to it and with the exception of Lost it's only when it's on or when I have the time...or am in the mood.

Just don't let it dictate your life or free time, and you do that but not putting it as something that's so important that you feel burdened by it. It's meant to be recreation, not work.

camper

[jsteinhauer]

Originally Posted by camper

Just don't let it dictate your life or free time, and you do that but not putting it as something that's so important that you feel burdened by it. It's meant to be recreation, not work.

camper

This is really meant to be tongue in cheek. I don't really need therapy. It really comes from the irrational reluctance to remove titles from the Netflix queue. It just doesn't make sense to have list of 500 movies, when you watch two or three rentals a week and find two or three new titles every week that seem worth a watch.

[quexos]

Same problem with videogames, books and so on.

[jsteinhauer]

Originally Posted by quexos

Same problem with videogames, books and so on.

I used to read a lot of books, and I suppose I felt the same way. I mostly read outside, though, and I just don't sit outside here.

Before I bought the PS3, I was worried the videogames would be addictive, but I've not found that to be the case. It's hard to put them down, once you start, but it's pretty easy to resist turning them on. I already have too many hobbies, interests and responsibilities.

[joegs300]

im in the same boat. im trying to sell some blu's.. because i simply dont have time to watch it all given i have 70+ and also a netflix addiction. dang!

[jsteinhauer]

Originally Posted by joegs300

im in the same boat. im trying to sell some blu's.. because i simply dont have time to watch it all given i have 70+ and also a netflix addiction. dang!

You know, I NEVER used to buy movies, until I saw how easy it was to sell/trade them. I keep a fairly small collection of things that I know I can watch more than once. But given that by purchasing one movie, I can sell it for a fair price, or make multiple trades down the line from it, I feel comfortable blind buying one or two movies almost every week. I've been doing this for over a year, and the part of my collection that remains for sale/trade stays pretty close to about 10 titles. Most of my Paypal proceeds these days goes to charitable donations to a parrot sanctuary.

[fighthefutureofhd]

i don't really have that problem. there are many movies in theaters that i wanted to see. but they're either on blu-ray or will be and i will watch them soon. if i can. if not then so be it. there are even many, many more movies i have yet to even see period. not a big deal for me. don't let one aspect of life control you.

[JamesKurtovich]

I know what you're talking about. At one time in my life, I couldn't go a day without picking up atleast one movie from Wal-Mart or something.

[Blu-Benny]

just gotta make the time my friend.

[Clark Kent]

I own literally hundreds of movies I have yet to watch and about ten books I have been meaning to read. I really should stop accumulating so much.

[toef]

Originally Posted by jsteinhauer

You know, I NEVER used to buy movies, until I saw how easy it was to sell/trade them. I keep a fairly small collection of things that I know I can watch more than once. But given that by purchasing one movie, I can sell it for a fair price, or make multiple trades down the line from it, I feel comfortable blind buying one or two movies almost every week. I've been doing this for over a year, and the part of my collection that remains for sale/trade stays pretty close to about 10 titles. Most of my Paypal proceeds these days goes to charitable donations to a parrot sanctuary.

So how does this work? You figure you buy a movie, and get back enough from selling or trading it, that it works out to be cheaper to buy then trade/sell instead of rent?

I remember getting 2001: A Space Odyssey from you, sometime during the summer. I don't think you charged much for it ($11?), and I remember being surprised someone even had it for sale in the trading forums, because it seemed the kind of movie people would only buy if they wanted it, and if they wanted it, why would they get rid of it?

Anyhow, I know what you mean about the hobbies and not having time to get to them all. I see another of your hobbies (at least today) is making threads in the off-topic forum (though one of them, unfortunately, got locked right away).

I've actually recently though of getting into home-brewing, as its something my dad used to do when I was a kid, so I have that resource to learn from.

I've also recently become fascinated with flight, so I invested in X-Plane 9 for my Mac, and a nice Logitech controller to use with it (it's just a regular joystick kind; I insist I will never go full-nerd and invest in the yoke+pedal combination controller thing). I also got a nice RC airplane for Christmas, which I'll have to wait a while to use (mainly due to the weather, but also because I'm worried I'll destroy it... one bad landing = no more airplane).

I kind of wish I was a kid again, because even though a big chunk of my day was tied up with school/sports practice/piano lessons, I feel like I still had a lot more free time to do everything I wanted to do.

By the way, this whole thread reminds me of a certain Jim Croce song.

[Sussudio]

Originally Posted by jsteinhauer

How do you come to terms with the fact that you will die before getting to see all of the movies?

Wow i'm really depressed now.

[quirkmanly]

I often think about this sort of thing. Ultimately I resolve it in my mind by thinking I have a beautiful little family and an open bottle of Chianti, so everything else will fall into place.

As far as the specifics of movies go, I'd rather they just stopped making the buggers now so that I could at least catch up on all of the good ones.

[JJ]

I'VE TRIED

I've had a month off for Winter Break during courses, and I've yet to make a dent in my own collection that's left to watch.

[jsteinhauer]

Originally Posted by toefer

So how does this work? You figure you buy a movie, and get back enough from selling or trading it, that it works out to be cheaper to buy then trade/sell instead of rent?

I did not say it makes it cheaper than renting, but it does defer some of the cost, and makes buying more cost effective. There are movies I traded for that I never would have rented or bought that I thoroughly enjoyed, and that alone makes up for part of the expense. I also still get the pleasure of watching many new releases on pristine, unscratched, unsmudged disks.

One has to ask themselves, if they decide they don't want to afford new releases at full price. Can you afford them at half price? Because you can pretty much get at least half price (usually more) if you watch and sell them right away.

And sometimes, I trade a movie, then watch what I trade for, trade it, trade the next, trade the next, etc., etc. Those are like almost new movies at the cost of $1.86 each. You are right, if you claim that I don't own them and have them on the shelf, but realistically, how many times am I going to take Surfer, Dude off the shelf to watch again? On the other hand, I might take my pristine copies of POTC trilogy and watch them again and again. It's all up to me.

[Infrared Sight]

Wait, we are supposed to watch these movies we buy?? When the hell did this start? I thought it was just for decoration! Now I feel sad. Anyways, I try to watch at least one movie every 3 days as that is basically the only time I have for it. Try to get some tv shows in there as well. It does build up most definitely, but I still love owning the discs no doubt. Even if I do only ever watch it once or twice.

[quexos]

Originally Posted by jsteinhauer

I used to read a lot of books, and I suppose I felt the same way.

Among those you must have read Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye.
An interesting read I must say.