Have you heard? Polaroid has decided to stop making film. THIS IS CRAZY. How can you just stop making an entire film medium? It’s like art stores deciding to stop making paint. It doesn’t even make sense.
The other day a friend and I went down to the pro camera store to buy some Polaroid film. We were planning on walking around and taking some photos. This is when we discovered that Polaroid has already decided to stop selling film in Canada. I didn’t realize it meant they would stop making the film period. There were ten packs of film left in the store and literally no more being shipped. I bought three of the last ten packs, used two, and saved the other. Now I wonder if I should even use it, I feel like there’s all this pressure. I have one of the few remaining packs of Polaroid 600 film left, that’s pretty important.
Also, sitting in my fridge as we speak is an unopened 100-pack of colour 4×5 Polaroid film. It’s pretty old at this point (expired January 2002) but sometimes that makes for cool results and people go looking for that sort of thing. Needless to say, I’m going to hold onto this for awhile.
You can go to the Polaroid website where they have a running tally of the remaining film left in stock. About a week ago it was in the thousands. I just checked today and there were 10 packs of 600 film left.
TOTAL INSANITY.
If you are as outraged as I am, check out www.savepolaroid.com. They have info on fighting to get Polaroid back. Importantly, they do not want to save the company Polaroid, but rather the film as an object itself. Check out their statement:
On February 8, 2008, Polaroid Corporation announced that it will discontinue production of all instant film. This site will document the aftermath of this announcement and will serve as a home-base for the effort to convince another company to begin producing the cherished technology that Polaroid has so carelessly abandoned.
This site is not about saving Polaroid, the company, rather the remarkable invention of Edwin Land, the instant film that made Polaroid a household name.
Sign the petitions! Write to the companies! Let them know you love Polaroid film and you don’t want it to disappear!
Question: Is it gross to bring a book with you to the bathroom in a public place?
My vote is yes.
There are rules about public bathrooms. Basic rules that keep everything functioning smoothly and everyone feeling good. Failure to follow these rules could result in chaos and anarchy.
I have to admit, I have a bit of a crush on Michael Kuss. If you’re Canadian, and watch CityTV you already know what I’m talking about, am I right ladies? He’s the new(ish) weather guy and because he’s new and has 312 new weather tracking stations across the GTA (note: I am exaggerating, I think the actual number may be closer to 12) they are advertising the hell out of him. Add to this the fact that CityTV repeats commercials to the point where I feel like I am trapped in some sort of mind control experiment and basically it’s impossible to NOT notice him.
It doesn’t hurt that he is super cute. Or as I, and creepy old guys, like to say, “easy on the eyes.”
Sigh. I also should mention that I have a weird weather fetish obsession so basically a cute guy + weather updates is kind of like porn eating chocolate for me.
Today is one of those days where I’m happy I’m not a smoker anymore because it’s so ridiculously cold outside. Can I say that yet? That I’m “not a smoker anymore”? I’ve technically not been smoking for 20 days, which is not even a month yet. It feels like forever, not because I miss it or anything, but because I don’t even think of smoking anymore so it seems like the days when I constantly thought about smoking was another life entirely.
It’s because of Zyban, the miracle pill. Before quitting everyone kept telling me how difficult it was going to be for me, how horrible I was going to feel, how hard I would have to try to stay strong, etc. But honestly, it wasn’t that hard. I only felt a little bad on the first couple of days, but nothing too intense. I had a bit of trouble sleeping, and admittedly, it felt a little weird to not be constantly smoking, but other than that I was a-ok.
In no way, however, am I suggesting that this is on account of my strong will power or strength of character. I fully acquiesce all credit to Zyban. Prior to Zyban, had I not smoked for 5 hours (more likely even less) I probably would have felt like ripping someone’s face off. Maybe even my own face. In other words, I would have been really, really angry and felt really, really bad. With Zyban though I was able to stop smoking altogether and pretty much not feel a thing. I don’t even understand how it’s possible, but it definitely works. I have no idea how I would have quit if I were not taking it.
This is not an advertisement for Zyban, I promise. I’ve heard a lot of bad stuff about it too. People having panic attacks, getting rashes, seizures. Bad stuff like that. Admittedly, I had a bit of a panic attack on the first night, I think anyway. My heart was beating really fast and I kinda thought I was having a heart attack. But it went away. Eventually.
I am just getting a little irritated when I tell people that I’m taking Zyban and they’re like, “ohhh-ho-ho watch out! I have a friend who took that and she ended up growing a tail AND all her hair fell out AND she went insane and jumped off a building!” Yes, I know there are side effects, and I willingly took the risk. So I have insomnia for a couple months. If that means I never smoke again, I think I can handle a couple months of discomfort.
Anyway, I’m not going to get all preachy and be one of those ex-smokers who tells people who smoke how I quit and therefore how everyone should quit. When I was a smoker (20 days ago, ha ha) I hated those people. Honestly, I’m just saying, I was a pretty intense smoker. I smoked more than anyone I know. If I can quit, ANYBODY can quit. I’ll leave it at that.
Oh and here’s a heads up that I wasn’t aware of before I went on Zyban: you cannot drink alcohol when you’re taking it. So not only do you have to quit smoking, but you also have to quit DRINKING. Which frankly, is much worse. Not only am I boring and have no social life now, but I have also realized that all my friends are actually quite boring too. You’ve been warned.
This is super cool, it’s a virtual barber shop where you get a virtual haircut. Make sure you have headphones on to listen to it. Why it’s on YouTube, I don’t know since there are no visuals. But it’s so realistic sounding that you don’t even need visuals. As one YouTube commenter wrote “THIS ILLUSION = WIN!” Seriously, check it out, it’s cool:
Alright so despite the fact that I swore I would never again have a personal blog, I broke down and signed up again. It might be because I’m bored and I’ve been sitting here with nothing to do. It might be because I just ate half a container (yes, container) of gummy bears and it’s altered my brain chemistry. But mostly I think it’s because I kinda miss writing about the random stuff you can write about when you have a personal blog. I don’t even think there should be a theme, unless utter random nonsense can be considered a theme.
So on that note, today I’m going to write about a horrible, horrible, horrible movie I saw last night called “Good Luck Chuck.” I realized when the movie started and Dane Cook was the lead that it would probably be really horribly horrible, but still, I held onto the hope that it might be at least mildly entertaining and watchable, you know, in a stupid kind of way. But I was wrong because while it was indeed stupid, it was neither entertaining nor watchable.
Without elaborating on why I hated it so much, I’m going to focus instead on a growing problem (at least in my opinion) that isn’t being addressed: WHY DO COMEDY’S SUCK SO MUCH THESE DAYS?
There are, of course, exceptions.
But in general, every time I feel like watching something a little more light-hearted and that doesn’t have to do with death or war or massive government conspiracies or outer space, I turn to the comedy section aka the romantic comedy section aka rom-com’s. And I am usually disappointed. I’m not looking to rom-com’s to provide me with the meaning of life or even make me want to contemplate the meaning of life. I know going in that they are a little on the dumb side, but they’re cute and funny and sweet and when you’re finished watching them you’re supposed to feel good and warm inside like you just ate some really delicious soup.
In the closing credits of “Good Luck Chuck,” without giving too much of the plot away, there is a scene where Chuck’s best friend (who’s character, had the movie been good, would have ruined the entire film) is house-sitting while Chuck and his girlfriend are away. He’s sitting on the bed with his topless girlfriend who has three breasts (Note: he is a cosmetic surgeon who, of course, focuses his energies on giving women breast implants. Apparently a women with three breasts has blown his mind and obviously he has instantly fallen in love with her and proposed to her. Also note that this information, when revealed in the movie, is completely useless and pointless and does nothing to further the plot or make any kind of point whatsoever. Basically, I’m pretty sure they just wanted to have a scene where a woman had three breasts.) and they are watching homemade porn that Chuck and Jessica Alba (I thought she was better than this for some reason) have made. She works with penguins and is obsessed with them, blah blah blah. Anyway, we watched in horror as Chuck aka Dane Cook simulated sexual acts with a stuffed animal penguin and Jessica Alba, in a fake sexy voice, provided the penguin’s dialogue off-screen (ie. “yeah that’s good, you know what I like…” etc.)
This didn’t make me feel warm and good inside like I had just eaten really delicious soup.
I think the thing that I can’t stand about this new breed of romantic comedy’s (see also “The Heartbreak Kid” with Ben Stiller which I just recently saw as well) is that it’s just all about shocking the audience with how raunchy and disgusting and perverted they can be, and to be quite honest, I am really growing tired of this kind of comedy. Can we please try something even mildly intelligent or witty for a change? I mean, I know when people fall or something hits them in the face or they get a stain on their pants in the crotch area it’s funny, but there’s only so much of these gags I can take in one film. I was under the impression rom-com’s were for mostly marketed towards straight women, and I suppose secretly guys as well (because who doesn’t like a feel good comedy, come on now. I saw you wipe away a little tear there at the end, tough guy.) But do other women even like this crap? I mean, does seeing Dane Cook having sex with hundreds of women on the screen at once ala The Brady Bunch split-screen really appeal to anyone? Anyone at all? Woman or man for that matter?
Anyway, I don’t know what’s going on in Hollywood but there is clearly something amiss. Me and the BF discussed it last night and came to the conclusion that’s it’s probably a lot easier these days to make movies, therefore, a lot of bad movies are being made just because they can potentially make money. Even if they suck so bad that your dog could have made a more interesting film if you strapped a video camera to the top of his head and ran around the park chasing a ball and smelling other dogs bums.
If you have a movie that’s supposed to be a rom-com straight girls will want to see it, and they will drag their boyfriends along, who will want to see it because Jessica Alba’s in it and for about .2 seconds of screen time she is pantless. Instant cash. Regardless of whether or not there is any actual content worth seeing in the first place. Sometimes I think these famous people and hollywood types must be laughing all the way to the bank. I mean, if you’re involved in the making of one of these films, you can’t actually have convinced yourself that you’re doing anything meaningful but participating in a cash grab. Right?
It’s sad and depressing, but sadder and depressing-er still is the fact that I keep watching these films, hoping that somehow I’ll find the gem amongst all the, well, crap. I’m still waiting and I like to laugh. If you have any recommendations for me, please pass them on.
In the meantime: Jack Black: Looooove. Bonus: John Cusack: Cuuuute:
