Books, DVDs, internet

One of the first things I wanted to do after moving to this new place was sign up for our local library. I love libraries. This is the 6th one I’ve been a member of in Sydney, and so far it’s my favourite; it’s part of a consortium of libraries around here, which means that on top of the books and DVDs at Kogarah library, I also have access to the books and DVDs at quite a few others including Ashfield, Marrickville and Mascot (to name just a few), and have therefore always (so far) been able to find what I’m after. The other awesome thing about the set up is that when the book or DVD I look for isn’t at Kogarah, I can request that it be sent there and they put it on a Collection shelf for me with my name on it.

At first I searched the catalogue hoping that what I was looking for was available at my library, but now I find myself hoping that it’s either not available or not at my library, just so that I can place a hold on it and wait for it to show up in my special corner of the Collection shelf, thus bypassing all of that annoying walking around and looking for things. It doesn’t even cost money! I’ve been placing holds like they’re going out of fashion, just for the thrill of feeling like I’m such an Important Person that I need someone else to fetch my books and DVDs for me. Picking up my stuff from the Collection shelf does for me what a massage or facial does for others (releases tension in my shoulders, makes my skin glow, etc.).

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I joined Quickflix for their free month-long trial. I managed to see five films that have been on my list for a while (listed in order of how much I liked them, from most to least): Moonrise Kingdom, I Am, The Social Network, Liberal Arts, and The Women on the 6th Floor. The last two weren’t as good as I was expecting, but I still enjoyed them. Knowing that Liberal Arts was written, directed and starred in by Josh Radnor was distracting; I couldn’t help but compare it to Garden State (do Radnor and Braff also look alike? I thought so until I actually looked at pictures), which is unfortunate for Liberal Arts because I reckon Garden State is close to perfect. The first two were better than I expected – I loved both, and I’m glad I had the chance to see them. Moonrise Kingdom confirmed that Wes Anderson is exactly my kind of movie-maker, and I Am is a documentary I think everyone should be made to watch and then talk about for hours.

They both have pockets.

I had no idea what The Social Network would be like, so I was able to watch it free from anticipatory baggage; I really liked it, in a wow-how-interesting way, and I thought the end was so good I wanted to track down whoever came up with it and high five them. I kept thinking about it afterwards, too, which surprised me. I like movies that stick with me.

Having DVDs arrive in the mail brings a similar feeling to the Fetcher and the Collection shelf at the library, although after the first month you do have to pay for the privilege, and it’s not that cheap.

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Did you know that some people have, like, 50GB of internet every month?! This blows my mind. We have 2GB. We don’t even get 50GB per year. But we can’t bring ourselves to pay more than $20 per month for internet, so until we get over that we’re stuck having to weigh up the pros and cons of every video we see posted before deciding to click on it: Who posted it? Are they trustworthy choosers of quality videos? Does it sound interesting/hilarious/inspiring? Does it go for a really long time? We cull a lot of clips through this process, and I think our lives are at least slightly better for it (I tell myself our lives are at least slightly better for it). Still, it would be really nice to be able to listen to this song a bazillion times over without having to worry about exceeding our data allowance: