I don't know about you, but I hate going to a store to rent movies. For one, all you're going to find is mainstream drivel, and even if you like mainstream drivel it's just about impossible to find something interesting if you didn't go there for a specific title.

Not to mention the fact it is utterly and completely inefficient to go about renting movies that way. I mean you have to drive there, waste time hunting for something decent to watch, stand in line for 20 minutes only to be checked out by someone who looks like they would rather shovel manure than give you even the slightest smile, then drive back home only to make another round trip to the video store in a couple of days so you don't get charged a late fee.

You probably waste about 2 hours and $10 in gas in the process - and for what? A few hours of entertainment? That's just not worth it to me.

Hence one of the many reasons why I adore Netflix. According to their website, "If Netflix members drove to and from a rental store, they would consume 800,000 gallons of gasoline and release more than 2.2 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually." Not to mention how much oil is saved because they don't ship the movies in plastic cases.

And they have excellent customer service. I called today to ask a question that wasn't answered in their FAQ (specifically how much online instant viewing time each package receives), and do you know how long I waited on hold? About 3 seconds.

If that wasn't enough to "Wow" me, the representative who took my call, Vince, was very pleasant and treated me as though he had all the time in the world.

We had an interesting conversation about the DVD industry too. I mentioned that I would prefer to have a package that was just online instant viewing instead of part DVD and part instant viewing - but that isn't going to happen because those greedy film companies want to keep their massive DVD profits.

And being cut out of DVD profits is a big part of the reason writers went on strike. All this adds up to why I prefer to watch documentaries and foreign films - genres next to impossible to find in a video store.

In practicing responsible consumerism, I refuse to support gluttonous corporations - with very few exceptions, such as Evan Almighty. Even though I wasn't terribly interested in the movie, I saw it on opening day, in the theater (also something I typically abstain from), just because of the great lengths they went to produce the movie in a green-friendly way.

In a fashion I suppose this is great news for social enterprises. I suspect there are many more consumers like me who will support anything green-friendly or socially responsible, irregardless of the fact they don't need it, don't like it, and have to completely inconvenience themselves to get it.