The empty apartment

That's how my apartment feels like right now. It actually feels more like the messy empty apartment... Waking up and going to a living room that doesn't have a bed any more, having breakfast without having to worry about having everybody awake, it feels a little strange. A little sad. But I'm sure this weird feeling will disappear pretty quickly.

Onto a lighter subject: Blockbuster here decided to make a bold move and end late fees. This seems like a strange thing, especially because when you rent something you still get "due dates". I was confused on how it actually worked, so I asked the person at the cashier and he explained the catch: there are no "real" late fees. If you don't return the movie by the date you were supposed to, you get a 7-day grace period. On the 8th day they consider as if you bought the movie, so they charge you the movie price (something like $20). If you return the movie within 30 days, they credit your account again with the movie price, minus a "restock fee" (to charge you for buying the movie back from you). After 30 days you can't return it any more.

Officially now there are actually no late fees, but there are catches to everything. It looks like, right now, that the only great difference is that they effectively increased all rental periods by 7 days. However, they say that they will note in your account if you return it by the due date and this might be used later for some kind of promotion, who knows? Anyway, I'm not a big movie renter anyway. I just thought it was an interesting move.

What I'm really interested in knowing more about, actually, is the on-demand TV that I have. I can "ask for a movie" for about the same price as renting it. The selection is limited, but who knows what will happen when people get used to this technology. Cable suddenly will become pretty expensive to have!