Back in Random Factoid #332, I wrote for the first time about using Netflix. It’s funny to read in retrospect because over the last year, it has become such an integral part of my moviewatching habits. Check this out:
“My dad recently got an iPad for his birthday, and he managed to get a free trial of Netflix through the iPad app. He told me about the offer, so I started fidgeting around and discovered a whole heaping lot of movies available to stream straight to the iPad. So I watched ‘Memento’ for the first time, and I loved it. Not just the movie, but the fact that I was streaming it!
Then I started scrolling through the other movies available to stream – and it had me at ‘The Pianist.’ I haven’t had time to watch it, but I certainly hope the free trial doesn’t expire any time soon! I’m dying to watch that and “Letters from Iwo Jima,” one of the two Best Picture nominees from the last decade I still haven’t seen.
And then, while still experimenting with the technology, I wound up ordering the discs of ‘Road to Perdition’ and ‘Hustle and Flow.’ Now, they are sitting on my desk. What my dad wants to do with them is up to him – the trial expires in a few days. Soon enough, they’ll start charging.”
Oh, the days when streaming was new and novel! It’s still exciting now, and I still have over 60 movies on my queue – most of which I intend to watch … eventually. Meanwhile, that other services Netflix offers, DVDs by mail … um, yeah. I’ve used it some.
Ok, that’s a lie. Today I finally made myself return “Traffic” and “Mulholland Dr.” because I didn’t have the motivation to watch them because they didn’t have to be returned to the library in 14 days or watched in the next 30 days on iTunes. So guess how long those two movies sat on my desk in their crinkled paper sleeves?
Six months. For a half a year, those two movies sat there unwatched. So clearly, I should stop using the DVD by mail portion of the family’s Netflix subscription unless I really want to see what I’m getting. We also made the decision to cut down on our monthly bill by moving from two to one DVDs out at a time.
