We got a DVD player for Christmas and finally entered the 1990s. Up till now we've been watching movies on my laptop computer, which isn't all that bad, but it requires some set up time to stick it in front of the couch, and the picture and sound could be better. So it was a great moment when we got a real live DVD player to hook up to our 1970s TV.*

Meanwhile, we started watching college football bowl games, including their incessant commercials for Blockbuster Total Access. We're well aware of the competition going on between Netflix and Blockbuster, but this was the first we'd heard of the fact that Blockbuster's online/mail-order DVD rental system allows you to take movies back to the store instead of mailing them out and waiting for a new one to come back. Shelly even appeared a little intrigued, so I looked up the prices on the web, and they actually seem sorta reasonable.

Now, as you can tell by my 2006 Entertainment Consumption post below, I'm not a huge movie watcher. But I REALLY don't watch movies in the theaters, and there are a lot of movies around that I wish I had seen. Signing up for something like this seemed sort of like a gym membership: pay someone money as a motivation for yourself to do something you've been meaning to do anyway.

So we signed up. We're in our free trial period, which allows us three movies at a time, as fast as we can turn them back in (we're planning to only pay for one movie at a time). So true to form, I'm trying to get as much for my money (or non-money) as I can. Whereas last year I only watched 20 movies from January 1 to December 31, this year I've already watched six movies in 12 days. I certainly won't keep up this rate, but I betcha I end up with more movies in 2007 than in 2006.

I'll tell you right now two of the things I really like about the system. First, the selection for online rentals is wider than you could get in any store. I slapped a DVD containing thee "Muppet Show" episodes on my list, and I'm excited to see some other TV series as well (I still don't understand why modern video rental stores don't have bigger TV show sections).

Second, and far more important, the system REQUIRES you to make a list of movies you want to rent. Since I was a kid and video stores were invented, I've thought this was a good idea. I don't really like the feeling of going to a video store and looking at every title around and still feeling like there was some movie I told myself I wanted to see, but I can't remember what it was. Making a list is a great planning tool, and even if it's just used for trips to the video store, it can save you time. Or at least reduce that nagging feeling that there's somethingyou're missing.

* One day, when we get the money, I'm going to completely revamp our entertainment system and get some crazy cool flatscreen HDTV and mount it on the wall above the fireplace, get TiVO, get satellite TV, and all sorts of other things. For now, we own a DVD player!