Thursday, August 11, 2005
Commitment:
I had some good thoughts that I should have blogged over the past few days but I was too lazy to come on here and type them. I'm going to back date a blog later today that I'm going to title "One." While I'm here, I might as well post what's going on today.
I joined Blockbuster rentals today. I've been a member for Netflix for almost a year now. Their service is pretty good, but I do believe that they try to slow down your rentals (throttling is the web term that was created to describe this practice). I believe I'm currently in their throttling zone as I've had 24 rentals in the last 30 days and there is no way they are making good money off me considering I'm on the 3 at a time plan for $17.99. For my Netflix news, I been following Manuel's Neflix Journal. He's frequent renter like I am, and his advice is that it's better to join 2 or 3 services rather than go to Netflix's 8 at a time service. One reason is you get better variety. I've noticed this to be the case with "Star Trek: The Original Series." Neflix has the original DVD release of Season 1 which had only 2 episodes per disk. For some reason, Volume 7 is not available. Since Paramount no longer releases this version, I assume that they can't get replacements. To watch the two episodes that I'm missing, I'm going to have to rent the new DVD version of ST:TOS (which has 3-4 episodes per disc), which Blockbuster carries and Netflix does not. Blockbuster also has the special additions of "Swingers" and "Rounders" which I'd like to see. Another reason is to join both services is you can get more DVD's by joing the 3 at a time plans from both Blockbuster and Netflix than you would by just increasing Netflix to 8 at a time due to throttling.
For some reason, I spent about 20 minutes figuring out how I could split up my rentals between the DVD versions to minimize the overlap. My conclusion is going to help me test to test the throttling theory. My plan is to rent 3 more ST:TOS episodes from Netflix (the rest of Season One I'll get from Blockbuster by skipping the first 3 disks and renting the rest). As they are about an hour and forty minutes long, I can watch the discs and return them to the post office before the last pickup, ensuring maximum efficiency. From then on, I'm going to rent short TV programs, IMAX, or World Poker Tour episodes from Netflix so I can also return those on the day same I receive them. I'll use Blockbuster more to rent movies, and TV episodes. As they are more reasonable price at $14.99 for 3 at a time, I'm more willing to kept those overnight and I won't be as considered about maximizing my rentals from them. If there is any way to test throttling, this is the way to do it. I'm really curious to see if I'm going to get permanently throttled and how servere the throttling will be if I'm renting 6-9 DVD's a week from Netflix.
My last thoughts ponder why I feel this need to get maximum DVD's. I think I'm not alone in this mentality or else others besides Manuel and I would not notice Netflix throttling. Until I got to the 20 DVD's in 30 days zone, I could trace no hint of throttling. I've seen blogs that think Manuel's wrong about throttling, but those people probably only rent 2-3 DVD's a week. With normal rentals, I don't think throttling is a problem. So why do I want to abuse Netflix? I think it goes with the "buffet mentality" that my parents developed in me. When I was a kid, I remember going to Sizzler retaurant for the "All-you-can-eat Shrimp." You'd get a bowl of friend shrimp and they'd bring you more and more bowls until you admitted defeat. I know there are many that just eat until they are satisfied, but I really did eat until I could no longer eat any more. My mother encouraged me to "get my money's worth" at Sizzler and also at a restaurant called "Boston Sea Party" (now out of business).
Another memory I have is of the A&W Restaurant in Woodfield Mall. When I was younger, free refills on pops didn't exist like we know them today. Now, it's very rare to find a restaurant or fast food place that doesn't offer free refills. Back then, before the free refill phenomenon, A&W offered free refills on root beer and diet root beer at their restaurant. (For those that haven't been to this place, it's basically like a Fuddruckers restaurant. You order burgers or whatever at the cashier and take your food to your table. Nowadays, they have a refill station near the registers. Back when refill first started, they had people walking around to refill your drink, or you could bring your glass to the cashier). My friend Joe A and I loved A&W. I remember that we once drank 10-11 glasses of A&W regular root beer.
With this kind of mentality, it's no wonder I've had weight troubles my whole life. Another contributing factor is that my parents encouraged eating from a young age. When I was about 5-6 years old, my father thought I was too skinny, so he encouraged me to eat more. Both my parents cheered me on when I ate the extra burger or finished my plate at dinner. Logically, my brain got wired to associate food with pleasure.
I could fill many more blogs with my struggles with weight and fitness but that's enough for now. I'm sure these issues will reappear in future installments. Right now, I think I'll go for a quick jog in order to help win the battle against obesity and inactivity.
Poscript: I don't feel like editing this into the main body, so I'll just add two notes here. 1) Some may wonder how I have so much time to watch so many DVD's. The answer is that I can play online poker while watching most television type DVD's. I only focus my full attention to feature movies and TV shows that I really care to enjoy. 2) Concerning my first blog: I watched the "World Poker Tour: Ladies Night" and was plesantly surprised to hear Jennifer Harmon (a big time poker pro) say that she never sets alarms for her daily routine and just wakes up whenever she feels like it. I guess I have been too hard on myself because I tried to be "normal" by getting up at set times. My system is not abnormal for poker pros.
I had some good thoughts that I should have blogged over the past few days but I was too lazy to come on here and type them. I'm going to back date a blog later today that I'm going to title "One." While I'm here, I might as well post what's going on today.
I joined Blockbuster rentals today. I've been a member for Netflix for almost a year now. Their service is pretty good, but I do believe that they try to slow down your rentals (throttling is the web term that was created to describe this practice). I believe I'm currently in their throttling zone as I've had 24 rentals in the last 30 days and there is no way they are making good money off me considering I'm on the 3 at a time plan for $17.99. For my Netflix news, I been following Manuel's Neflix Journal. He's frequent renter like I am, and his advice is that it's better to join 2 or 3 services rather than go to Netflix's 8 at a time service. One reason is you get better variety. I've noticed this to be the case with "Star Trek: The Original Series." Neflix has the original DVD release of Season 1 which had only 2 episodes per disk. For some reason, Volume 7 is not available. Since Paramount no longer releases this version, I assume that they can't get replacements. To watch the two episodes that I'm missing, I'm going to have to rent the new DVD version of ST:TOS (which has 3-4 episodes per disc), which Blockbuster carries and Netflix does not. Blockbuster also has the special additions of "Swingers" and "Rounders" which I'd like to see. Another reason is to join both services is you can get more DVD's by joing the 3 at a time plans from both Blockbuster and Netflix than you would by just increasing Netflix to 8 at a time due to throttling.
For some reason, I spent about 20 minutes figuring out how I could split up my rentals between the DVD versions to minimize the overlap. My conclusion is going to help me test to test the throttling theory. My plan is to rent 3 more ST:TOS episodes from Netflix (the rest of Season One I'll get from Blockbuster by skipping the first 3 disks and renting the rest). As they are about an hour and forty minutes long, I can watch the discs and return them to the post office before the last pickup, ensuring maximum efficiency. From then on, I'm going to rent short TV programs, IMAX, or World Poker Tour episodes from Netflix so I can also return those on the day same I receive them. I'll use Blockbuster more to rent movies, and TV episodes. As they are more reasonable price at $14.99 for 3 at a time, I'm more willing to kept those overnight and I won't be as considered about maximizing my rentals from them. If there is any way to test throttling, this is the way to do it. I'm really curious to see if I'm going to get permanently throttled and how servere the throttling will be if I'm renting 6-9 DVD's a week from Netflix.
My last thoughts ponder why I feel this need to get maximum DVD's. I think I'm not alone in this mentality or else others besides Manuel and I would not notice Netflix throttling. Until I got to the 20 DVD's in 30 days zone, I could trace no hint of throttling. I've seen blogs that think Manuel's wrong about throttling, but those people probably only rent 2-3 DVD's a week. With normal rentals, I don't think throttling is a problem. So why do I want to abuse Netflix? I think it goes with the "buffet mentality" that my parents developed in me. When I was a kid, I remember going to Sizzler retaurant for the "All-you-can-eat Shrimp." You'd get a bowl of friend shrimp and they'd bring you more and more bowls until you admitted defeat. I know there are many that just eat until they are satisfied, but I really did eat until I could no longer eat any more. My mother encouraged me to "get my money's worth" at Sizzler and also at a restaurant called "Boston Sea Party" (now out of business).
Another memory I have is of the A&W Restaurant in Woodfield Mall. When I was younger, free refills on pops didn't exist like we know them today. Now, it's very rare to find a restaurant or fast food place that doesn't offer free refills. Back then, before the free refill phenomenon, A&W offered free refills on root beer and diet root beer at their restaurant. (For those that haven't been to this place, it's basically like a Fuddruckers restaurant. You order burgers or whatever at the cashier and take your food to your table. Nowadays, they have a refill station near the registers. Back when refill first started, they had people walking around to refill your drink, or you could bring your glass to the cashier). My friend Joe A and I loved A&W. I remember that we once drank 10-11 glasses of A&W regular root beer.
With this kind of mentality, it's no wonder I've had weight troubles my whole life. Another contributing factor is that my parents encouraged eating from a young age. When I was about 5-6 years old, my father thought I was too skinny, so he encouraged me to eat more. Both my parents cheered me on when I ate the extra burger or finished my plate at dinner. Logically, my brain got wired to associate food with pleasure.
I could fill many more blogs with my struggles with weight and fitness but that's enough for now. I'm sure these issues will reappear in future installments. Right now, I think I'll go for a quick jog in order to help win the battle against obesity and inactivity.
Poscript: I don't feel like editing this into the main body, so I'll just add two notes here. 1) Some may wonder how I have so much time to watch so many DVD's. The answer is that I can play online poker while watching most television type DVD's. I only focus my full attention to feature movies and TV shows that I really care to enjoy. 2) Concerning my first blog: I watched the "World Poker Tour: Ladies Night" and was plesantly surprised to hear Jennifer Harmon (a big time poker pro) say that she never sets alarms for her daily routine and just wakes up whenever she feels like it. I guess I have been too hard on myself because I tried to be "normal" by getting up at set times. My system is not abnormal for poker pros.
