Thursday, August 7, 2008

Perfectly preposterous pictures

August 7, 2008 - When you are looking for that perfect gift, a small token of appreciation for the people in your life who do so much for you, sometimes merely by being in your life, where do you go? Do you go to the mall? Or the craft store? Do you stop in at the drug store and get the perfect card? How about getting that great picture of them printed and framed? Of course the problem with that is... the picture you think is the best picture, will undoubtedly be the one they really hate.

Pictures are a funny thing. Indeed people don't always look like themselves in pictures. When you reduce one's four dimensional self to a two dimensional image, surely they will just not look the same. It is as though when you take depth and time out, you lose the essence of a person. Are our best features found in the space and time that the camera just can't capture? But with the right lighting, and the right lenses, it is possible to get that perfect picture... but it may not be the perfect gift. No matter. Today is Say "Cheese" Day. Pull out your camera and take a few pictures. Don't shy away from the camera today. Even if you don't look your best, looking back on photos of good times in your life is always fun. So I guess today would also be a good day to go out and have a good time.

Today is also Particularly Preposterous Packaging Day. I swear I do not make this stuff up. Perhaps this is a day to thank the manufacturers for all those fabulously impossible packaging options. You know the ones. You buy something, you get out to your car with the intent of opening it to use it, and without a box cutter or a pair of industrial scissors you are just not going to get it open. How about the packaging that is twelve times the size of the item - but the box looks good? And my favourite packaging... a tiny item shrink wrapped to a cardboard backing the size of a school binder. I wrapped a gift for my mom once in a box, wrapped up in a box, wrapped up in another box with a rock in it. It took more time to package it than to unwrap it. Was that preposterous? Perhaps. But it sure was fun. My mom in retaliation (or to keep me from opening all the presents I find and then re-wrapping them) uses a preposterous amount of tape on packages. Seriously? If she were her and I was me... I would do nothing different. Without all that miles of tape, I would be opening the box to have a quick peak. Oh yeah, mom? I opened every present every year and had a quick peak. Thank god for all those acting classes.



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