{"id":1174,"date":"2007-07-30T14:28:00","date_gmt":"2007-07-30T21:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/juliashih.com\/blog\/?p=1174"},"modified":"2007-07-30T14:28:00","modified_gmt":"2007-07-30T21:28:00","slug":"1174","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juliashih.com\/?p=1174","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

I *Heart* Late Fees<\/strong>
<\/strong>
I have a problem. I can’t return a video on time. I thought I would solve the problem by getting Netflix, and sometimes I’m crazy obsessed with Netflix efficiency, where I’ll time how long it will take me to watch something and how quickly I can get it in the mail to get another one, so the rental-fee value of the number of DVDs I’ve watched surpasses the monthly Netflix cost. But then at some point, I’ll fall into my Netflix K-hole where I’ll hold the same DVD’s for 6 months because I just can’t drum up enough interest to watch them. During this time, I’ll also rent movies from the Hollywood Video which is a 10 minute walk\/2 minute drive from my house. The problem is that 9 out of 10 movies I rent will be returned late. Sometimes it’s just a day late. Sometimes it’s 2 months. Sometimes it literally takes me 2 months to watch a movie in 15 minute increments (this always does films a disservice because inevitably, I’ll recall these films as being “boring,” even though I recognize the manner in which they were viewed may have contributed to my inability to become immersed in the experience). Sometimes I watch the film right away, but just can’t bring myself to remember or physically make the effort to bring the video back. Sometimes I don’t even watch it. Like the $40 I paid Hollywood Video in late fees last year for Alice in Wonderland which I never even watched.<\/p>\n

I admitted this problem to someone I knew a few years ago and he said that not being able to return movies on time is an actual symptom of a psychological issue. “Like being a serial killer?” I ask, thinking about the dude from American Psycho. No wait, he was obsessed <\/em>with returning his videos on time.<\/p>\n

When I finally returned Sexy Beast after needing two calls from a live rep at Hollywood Video asking me nicely, I started thinking about that conversation I had years ago and wondering what it was that made it so hard for me to return my videos on time. I mean, if I’ve already watched the movie, and the store is so close, and I’m in fact at the Starbuck’s next door five days a week…<\/em>why can’t I make that extra little effort to return a freakin’ video? Why do I get so freaked out when I then have a massive late fee often worth more than the DVD itself?<\/p>\n

I did some research and this is what I found:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2006\/12\/30\/business\/30instincts.html?ex=1325134800&en=a46c0c7842abc8f3&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.hbs.edu\/research\/pdf\/07-099.pdf<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Somewhere in all this, I need to find out why I irrationally procrastinate in this realm, and how to overcome it, because I’m sure Hollywood Video would appreciate it if I could just be a better person.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I *Heart* Late FeesI have a problem. I can’t return a video on time. I thought I would solve the problem by getting Netflix, and sometimes I’m crazy obsessed with Netflix efficiency, where I’ll time how long it will take me to watch something and how quickly I can get it in the mail to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/sbl5mn-1174","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juliashih.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juliashih.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juliashih.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juliashih.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juliashih.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/juliashih.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1174\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juliashih.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juliashih.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juliashih.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}