As you know, Lunk, I was away from your board for two years or so because I was homeless during that time. During that period, I had to re-think some things. Mainly,I changed my attitude about my possessions. You see, when one is homeless, a big headache is lugging around your possessions. That's why I had to weed out many things. That attitude also now includes that I do NOT add new things.
The other Sunday during I always meet my friend downtown, he and I talked about possessions. My friend, Dan, is very impulsive when it comes to buying dvds and it's gotten to the point where he has a backlog and has a hard time finding a place to walk in his small house. In my case, it's even more imperative that I don't add to my collection since I live in an apartment.
I says to Dan that if you watch one hour of a dvd per day and since there are 365 days per year, then you would need just 365 hours worth of dvds. Well, at least that's how it works for ME because on the average I watch one hour of dvd per day. And if you watch two hours worth of dvd per day, it's 2 X 365, which comes out to 730 hours in your collection. Speaking for myself,that's the most I would have. Because beyond a certain point, most of the dvds would remain UNwatched.
In Dan's case, it's even worse because he's bought many dvds which he has Not even watched Once! As a Tibetan monk once said, "If your cup overflows, stop pouring!" Dan has the backlog because he also buys sets which have a TV-SERIES entire run, so it really adds up.
When I tell Dan that most of those dvds are movies which can be seen on Cable TV, he says that he buys the dvds because they have Extras,that is, interviews and behind-the-scenes features. But then I counter that now Channel 41(the FX channel) even run the Extras. For example, I've seen both X-MEN and FANTASTIC FOUR on the FX channel, and they had the extras.
Let's face it, the More dvds that one buys, the Less time he has to watch them.
In my case, I won't collect every episode of even a series I like. For example, I love STAR TREK (the KIrk and Spock version) but I have only six episodes of it on vhs. Why? Well, because those are the only episodes I watch REPEATEDLY. Why should I collect episodes which I won't watch at all? So those have been weeded out.
So in my case, I only collect those I watch repeatedly. As I said, I would watch two hours worth of dvds per day at most, so that comes out to 730 hours. So far,I have MUCH LESS than that,so I can still afford to add more.
Another part of my self-imposed restriction is the idea of watching so-called DISPOSABLE tv-shows. DISPOSABLE meaning a tv-broadcast that you enjoy watching only ONCE. A good example is the show COPS. I enjoy watching each broadcast just once, and that's it. So by watching Disposable shows, I don't get tempted to add unnecessarily to my dvd collection. Also it's the idea of getting NEW things but withOUT adding to my collection. In other words, to get NEW pleasures withOUT adding to my collection.
The reason I developed this attitude is because I was homeless, as I said, and so experienced the headache of lugging all my possessions.
As the monk, Lobsang Rampa said,"The more possessions you have, the more troubles you have."
The point about the 365 hours is that you can run through your entire collection in a year's time, so that at the end of the year, you can run through it again, so you get to watch each episode AT LEAST ONCE A YEAR.
Lunkhead's Lair
Stooge & Monster Forums
