Monday, September 29, 2014

Phineas and Ferb


Apparently we watch this Disney Show too much around here.  If you've ever seen the show you know of the "evil" Dr. Doofenshmirtz who is always inventing a machine to destroy something.  All of his machine names have the ending "inator".  For example, the Changenator-inator, or the Baby-inator, or the Shrink-inator, or the Bake Sale Obliteratinator.  So, the reason I know we watch too much of this, is that my 4 year old was starting to use (inator) after everything.  When I would go running on the treadmill she would ask if I was going to go running on the "run-inator".  And when I would do her hair, she would ask if I was going to use the "curl-inator".
Apparently Dr. D has a big influence around here.  I find myself using these terms now a days too.  Try it.  It kinda makes things sound a bit cooler than they really are!

Monday, September 22, 2014

Video Stores

I miss video stores.  Do you remember Hollywood Video, and Blockbuster?  I even remember when grocery stores had their own little video collection you could browse and rent.  I know Red Box is super convenient, but I miss going to actual brick and mortar video stores and browsing the aisles.  I miss seeing what the employees listed as their favorites.  I actually enjoyed seeing what Joe, and Angie, and all of the other employees recommended as their favorite movies, because sometimes when I walked into the store I didn't know what I wanted to watch, and it was nice to have a recommendation from an actual person..
I know this is a silly thing to miss.  We have more video option at our fingertips then ever before!  With Netflix, Hulu, and all of the other streaming companies I could forever have some movie constantly playing.  Maybe that's the problem.  Maybe there are too many choices out there.  There can be too much of a good thing.  That good thing could even turn into perhaps a bad thing?  My kids as I type are all watching something different, because they can.  Two of them are watching different things on Netflix via our iPads, and one is watching a movie rented from Red-box.  I do put limits on the time they spend doing this, but something about them watching so much, or having so much available bugs me.
I remember the 'good ole days'  when it was a weekend treat to go to the video store and pick out one movie.  Yes, just one lone movie.  Now on the weekend we browse through our instant  queue that has hundreds, even thousands of options, and we can watch these movies back to back if we wanted.
One day in a few decades someone will say, "Hey, we should open an actual store where people can come and look at all of the movies and rent them".  And we will have to let that person know that it was done, and it died.
As I'm typing this I am thinking I probably sound like an old person right now!  I'm not that old, but I do miss those old fashioned video stores!