I went grocery shopping this morning, and as I was leaving the store I noticed a new fixture near the entrance. The redbox dvd-rental kiosk. So I took a look at it and was amazed. All you have to do is enter your email address and swipe your credit/debit card, and you get to rent a dvd for $1 a night. No late fees, every night you keep the dvd, you get charged another buck. So if you just watch the movie on the night you rent it, you don’t have to pay for the rest of the rental period like you would at a Blockbuster or Hollywood Video. I don’t think that I have seen a deal this good before on movie rentals.
I may have been a little over-excited by the fact that the whole process was automated. I think that if there was a sales clerk involved in the process I would have been more skeptical. Is it wrong of me to be so trusting of machines, since a robot war could be coming some time in the future? It took about 2 minutes for me to commit to the rental upon seeing the redbox kiosk. I ended up renting a title that wasn’t in stock last night at the Hollywood Video. When it comes time to return it, all I have to do is stick the dvd back in the slot that it came out of.
Thank you, red dvd-renting box. I am glad to know you.
so…finally more blogging…i was in need. this does sound cool. given the choice between dealing with people or avoiding them completely we most often choose the latter. our society is going to hell in a handbasket.
i can’t end on that cheerless note.
so i’ll say happy birthday today bro.
birthday boy eh? well happy birthday to you! congrats, you’re old now. (i know this cuz i am in your age bracket)
as to the redbox phenomenon. mikey you are a glass is half empty lad aren’t you? machines don’t have to be of the Skynet variety, it is entirely possible that machines will be our friends, dispensing meals in little pills and changing your clothes as we pass through the chute that sucks you up from your bed and deposits you at said breakfast pill nook, ala the Jetsons… perhaps the machines can dress you like a half way civilized suburbanite, and you can get rid of the drunken pirate-at-port look you so envy…
To respond to your blog and also to Ade’s comment:
Why is it so hot here and why are we going quite so fast in a thing so rickety as a handbasket?
There’s one of those redbox things in the Giant across the street from Strangeland and the first one I saw was actually in Adams Morgan. I have no way to correlate and quantify these machines, but they appear to be numerous. It’s CRAZY! I do like the idea of having them and also your idea on a robot war. That would be very cool.