Slow Ride

So I won’t bury the lede here, I own a lot of movies.

And yes, they all bring me joy. Further, despite the misleading numbering system used by my cataloguing software, I have almost twice that number of physical discs lying around the house, as well as assorted VHS tapes, Laserdiscs (HAN SHOT FIRST), and vinyl records. I’ve more than once considered starting a podcast series to plow through them all, in addition to the books and CDs I own. I even got so far as to register a Patreon, before everything blew up over there.

Compared to the mass of paper and plastic I move every few years, my digital footprint is almost non-existent. Yet my acquisition of ‘things’ has slowed dramatically in the last few years, and I have begun the slow climb into the 21st century. I bought only two cds of music last year, compared to a dozen or so digital albums. Almost every movie I purchase comes with a digital copy, and I’ve picked up a few “odds and ends” movies exclusively in that format.

Frankly put, having lost everything a few times, collecting things is a hard habit to break. But I am getting better, and here in the post-prosperity economy I’m spending more time creating content than consuming it. So what purchases I do make now are subject to a higher level of scrutiny, or price adjusted for maximum effect.

Case in point, Profiler tells me that I bought only 13 new releases in 2017, and 32 titles total. Of the expanded set, some were gifts, some nostalgia, some were upgrades to previous versions, and some were must-haves. Half a dozen of them were L’s pickups, and I’m certainly not begrudging her the franchise, given my own proclivities.

Some I watched right away, some after a delay, and some never. And since I just carried in a shopping bag of DVDs from a friend’s shelf, I should put some effort into rectifying that in the coming year.

And to think, it all started with just 5…