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I’m that guy who owned a lot of tapes, replaced them with DVD’s, only to start replacing them again with Blu-rays. Although, about fifteen years ago, I stopped there and started buying digital. I love it. I moved house a lot since then and only recently settled, but moving my collection was no longer a problem. Movies I bought in HD are now in 4K. I’ve sold off a lot of my old collection of physical media, with the exception of a few rarities.

I’ve slowed down a bit now, with money being tighter and streaming services filling some of the gaps, but I still have a look at the $5 movies and grab some of the gaps in my collection. The terms and services say we don’t actually own these movies and they can be removed from the library, but this has never happened to me. Has anyone experienced this?

One was just making fun of my middle name once. It’s a really ordinary name too, Eliot. But bullies be bullies. Anyway, I said something along the lines of “oh yeah? And what’s yours? Princess?” I’m not great at comebacks, I’ll admit.

Anyway, his friends heard this and started laughing up a storm. Bullies don’t have the best friends either, I guess. And then they just started calling him Princess. I think it stuck as a nickname, because I’d overhear them from time to time. “Hey, Princess”.

I’m sure some of you have better stories.

I don’t feel anything for fictional characters.

When I was four or five, I was watching A Country Practice with my parents and something odd dawned on me. The people never acknowledge the camera. I asked my parents why and they explained it was all made up. Scripts, acting, the lot and made to look real. Then it all just clicked.

From that point on, I never felt anything during a movie or tv show. It didn’t even matter how violent or disturbing the themes were, I always see it as the product of imagination. I’m impressed by effects, direction, acting and appreciate when I see them going for an emotional response, but I don’t feel it myself.

If a character is in pain or dies, it’s part of the storytelling process. If the violence is bloody and realistic, I’m impressed with the effects. If the disturbing themes go too far, all I see is the filmmakers trying to push the envelope.

I see threads like “what character death hit you the hardest” or “what film disturbed you the most” and these sentences don’t mean anything to me and I don’t understand how anyone feels this way.

True stories can have some resonance, like watching the news, but even then I wonder if I’m being “blindsided”, if you will, and it might make me research the event of the film after watching.

Anyway, rant over.

When I was four or five, I was watching A Country Practice with my parents and something odd dawned on me. The people never acknowledge the camera. I asked my parents why and they explained it was all made up. Scripts, acting, the lot and made to look real. Then it all just clicked.

From that point on, I never felt anything during a movie or tv show. It didn’t even matter how violent or disturbing the themes were, I always see it as the product of imagination. I’m impressed by effects, direction, acting and appreciate when I see them going for an emotional response, but I don’t feel it myself.

If a character is in pain or dies, it’s part of the storytelling process. If the violence is bloody and realistic, I’m impressed with the effects. If the disturbing themes go too far, all I see is the filmmakers trying to push the envelope.

I see threads like “what character death hit you the hardest” or “what film disturbed you the most” and these sentences don’t mean anything to me and I don’t understand how anyone feels this way.

True stories can have some resonance, like watching the news, but even then I wonder if I’m being “blindsided”, if you will, and it might make me research the event of the film after watching.

Anyway, rant over.