In many ways, I am strange, and I am certain that the people around me would agree. Certain things bother me. For instance, the volume has to be on a number that can be divided by 5. Of course, I have loosened up on that. The thermostat has to be set on an even number. The list is longer, but you probably get the point.
This psychosis also includes things that are not numerically based. This is the story of one of those.
I am not a fan of renting a movie and watching it on television. It makes me feel isolated. I am sitting here with my wife, and a rented movie is playing on television. However, it still makes me feel funny.
These days, we have On Demand and all sorts of ways to access movies, but this feeling goes back to the olden times of VHS. It continued through DVD and Blu-ray. Heck, just writing this makes my heart race.
It goes back into my single life. While the bachelor life had its moments, there were also times of being at home alone and not having much to do. This time of loneliness led to times of feeling disconnected from other people. Watching a rented movie made me feel even more disconnected.
When I watched a rented movie, I knew that I was the only person in the world watching that movie at that particular time. Over time, the action of watching a rented movie made the feeling of isolation grow.
If I watched a scheduled television show, then I knew that other people were watching it. That made it an almost communal event. There was a connection through the television. It was the same thing with going to a movie theater. Being in a room with other people, makes the movie experience a communal event.
Renting a movie is a solitary action because it is only happening on one television in the world.
I know that it is strange. I have a family. However, I still cannot shake the old feeling of isolation while watching a rented movie.
SBI: A Thinning Crowd 
We never watch rented media. Garry has his reasons, I have mine. Garry doesn’t even like watching our own DVDs. He’d rather record it from TCM. I’m sure he has reasons why he does it. Mine are more basic: too many bad movies have damaged equipment, especially the old tapes. I haven’t recovered from tapes. Yet. And as for Garry … he was single for a very long time and I suspect he has similar reactions to you. Too many years alone with a TV, a movie, and take-out Chinese.
We didn’t have much take out Chinese in our town. Other than that, it may have been a similar path.
Renting a movie is a solitary action because it is only happening on one television in the world.
Holy cheese grater, Batman. I can’t relate from personal experience but your observation is really, technically true and profound. Does the idea of renting a TV series disrupt the space-time continuum in your mind? ^o^
Absolutely. Watching something that no one else is watching creates a disconnected state of being.
We all have our quirks. I’ve found that acknowledging them tends to make me obsess less about them (most of the time).
If I haven’t acknowledged most of them, then other people have acknowledged them for me.
I’m in an interesting quandary. For several years I downloaded from the net. Pirates. You could get anything. Music, Movies, Games. FREE!!! Suddenly they’ve shut all this down and I’m faced with having to buy stuff – or actually go to a Movie !! LoL. I can tell it’s a lot more expensive now. I feel better now though. That I’m not a crook.
You were a pirate. Did you wear an eye patch?
Naw … cowboy hat. Me and a million other people.