Slightly Ridiculous

Here's a dumb experiment.

I am not superstitious. I laugh at people trying to bring luck on themselves and their endeavours, or at people that avoid places, situations or objects that could fuck their luck up.

But every time I get a zit on the right side of my nose, which is probably the only place where I get acn. It was also the source of important awkwardness back in my teenage years as it was the only place where it would reach such epic proportions. Back then, it seemed like it would always pop out when I'd be about to meet a cool girl, so, being a pavlovian creature, I ended up associating this particular skin defect with meeting the next girl of my life.

As I grew in confidence, if not in size, I came to accept such temporal skins imperfections. But everytime the zit would be back, I'd be convinced the next girlfriend was around the corner.

I thought I wasn't superstitious.

Today, the zit is back, and my first thought was of the girl I'll meet (probably this weekend, as I'm interviewing a bunch of university students for tree-planting jobs), but my second thought was to doubt the actual accuracy of my prophetical acne, for you see, I can't remember if it actually works or not. Seems like it did, but I can't put my finger on one encounter predicted by the magic zit. A little like when you have a feeling of déjà-vu, but you can't remember when it happened because, well, your mind plays tricks on you as it never occured!

So here's the little experiment, and the reason why I'm blogging about it. Recording my actual skin outbreak will allow me, in the future, to confirm or infirm the nose zit/girl theory and finally free myself from this rather ridiculous superstition.

And if it actually works, well, cool, but I'll have to test it again next time. In a world where such zits actually predict potential sexual/romantic encounters, I'd rather not think about the implications of a nose zit when I'll be married. Note to self, never allow future wife to read this blog.

"Yes your honor, I'm requesting a divorce as my husband cheats on me. Proof? he has a huge zit beside his nose!"

Now that I'm done with this experiment, let's remain on the teen theme. I'm not a fan of McDonald's, I eat there about once a year and I usually regret it soon after. But this McDonald's France advertisement does convey teenage awkwardness very well, and I find the girl's struggles to find her style rather cute, fitting with the French slogan, "Come as You Are". Oh and I love the song too (Time Machine, by Rinôçérôse)...

Yeah, it's weird, I know, but fuck it, the marketers got me this time! Here's the vid:



Arghhhh, shame, shame on me! I'm posting a multinational junk food chain ad here!!!

Time to go check my brain, then my zit, then my online dating account.

Life...Na-Na-Nanana!

Hey reader, did I tell you about my life, nowadays?

No?

Weird, I'm sure I did...Oh well, it's probably because I have none. It consists mostly of sleeping at really weird hours, doing nothing, procrastinating, getting to bed at even weirder hours because I'm doing nothing, but I don't want to go to bed yet as I have been procrastinating and unproductive. Then, I read on politics, visit the same 5 websites, revisit the same 5 websites to see if there's anything new (turns out, there's nothing new, the world seems to stop moving when you stop moving...Or maybe it's just that visiting the same website every 20 minutes doesn't give quite a lot of time for the webmasters to update their content, mostly when the subjects treated are limited or heavily specialized)

Huh... where was I? Right, in my room, doing nothing.



I do things though. Saturday, I went to see the Montreal Canadiens' last pre-season game. They lost 3-0, they didn't push it to avoid injuries, quite boring.

I also go for a few drinks once in a while, but my favourite neighbourhood bar, La Promenade just closed down as it has been bought by a trendy bar owner from the Plateau Mont-Royal to get it a little hipper. I hate how they are slowly "gentryfying" my neighbourhood. I fled the Plateau for that exact reason 7 years ago and now, just like a bad Zombie movie (where the Zombies would wear stylish thickly-rimmed glasses and palestinian scarves, thinking they reached the ultimate of cool despite not being able to sustain a conversation for more than 5 minutes, spending their school loans on expensive beers and hit the food bank to save a few bucks), it keeps coming back to kill me, slowly, softly, fashionably. (Yep, I'm judging...)

Granted, Chez Baptiste is not the most bourgeois of establishments, but it does have that "Plateau" feel (nothing against the Plateau itself, it's just that some people made it a parody of itself), with foosball tables instead of pool tables, slightly more expensive beers and cluttering the place with a shitload of busy tables. I do appreciate high quality beers, but I already have a pub for such drinks, with the best terrasse(patio) in town and I don't like my next door tavern to be full of people full of themselves screaming while holding metal rods...

But hey, back on doin' nothin'.

So, there's actually a few things I ought to be doing. First, I should write back to my treeplanting regional manager to send him my non-production day hours, as it's basically worth $2,500 and it should have been paid a month ago by now. But the fact it hasn't is completely my fault (And Microsoft's fault, as my new computer didn't come with Office and I couldn't open my boss' Word document. Also, I love to blame Microsoft for random stuff, I mean, they kind of replaced God, right? Oh, no, wrong, that's Apple that does the religious sect stuff...My bad!)

Funny story. This morning I was too lazy to get out of bed but I wanted to visit the 5 websites, so I extended my arm to my table and dragged the laptop in bed, forgetting that my iPod and my camera were attached to it. Both fell off the table, which stands higher than the usual table. I was quite disappointed to see that my iPod was not broken and my camera was slightly broken. In the iPod's case, because I can't wait to dump this fucking Apple product in the recycling bin and get another company's mp3 player, but I was still relieved I wouldn't have to spend money just yet, and in the camera's case because it's such a solid and efficient camera, despite getting slightly outdated, that I'd never expected I'd break the little battery cap thingy. Nothing some scotch tape wouldn't repair, but I really did expect the expensive, disposable, unreliable and fragile piece of crap that is an iPod to break first.

Did I ever tell you how much those things cost to replace batteries, hard drives and earphone jacks? Oh, I hear you, "might as well buy a new one!"

Sure, that's what they actually say and do, they'd rather replace than repair. But aside from the fact that a battery or earphone jack should be cheaper than a brand new iPod, they know that their shit is so cheaply built that it costs nothing to replace it, and the only reason they can overprice such pesky things is because they market them very, very well to naive young kids with money to waste since they can't drink yet. I was caught too...

If objects could be douchebags, they'd be iPods.

Funny how I'm actually not pissed, but reading this post, it looks like I am. Actually, I'm in a really good mood (Doing nothing remains awesome, mostly when you can rub it in your friend's faces) and I have great people around. Won't say much on that side though. Besides, shitty stuff makes for funnier stories!

Oh well, back to bed, it's noon soon.

50 Years of Plastic Bricks

Another item too good to be missed...

The LEGO plastic brick celebrated its 50 years yesterday. It was on January 28th 1958, that Godtfred Kirk Christiansen (son of the LEGO company founder) was granted the patent for the stud-and-tube design of the automatic binding brick. World happiness ensues.



Medias around the world marked the occasion. For instance, Google (whose creators once used LEGO bricks as casings for their hard-drives) had a LEGO-made logo:



For the last 50 years, LEGO bricks have been used by kids of any age for creations as diverse as their backgrounds and ideas. From children's multi-coloured houses to "corporate workshops" passing, of course, by visual arts:



And here's Michel Gondry's award-wining White Stripes videoclip, Fell in Love with a Girl:

(click on image to watch)


So, happy birthday, multinational's patent! It seems that the anniversary of an inanimate, celebrated icon of mass-consumerism and globalization is indeed worth more of my time than very basic human problems!

Time to go play with my bricks...


Tupperfan's Guide to Useless Knowledge: LEGO is the second largest tire manufacturer in the world!

Good Old 1980's Advertisement Classic (and a parody)

Couldn't resist posting this.

Here's an old TV ad for Distribution Aux Consommateurs (Consumers Distributing), a company whose outlets would never have the inventory in stock, relying on catalogue orders, even in their stores. The concept failed and the company bankrupted, a few years short of the revolution brought by the "Information Highway" (internet).

The following videos are in french, but I posted a home-made english transcription:



English Translation:

It has to be worth my money.
(chorus: "C'est DAC", the french initials of the company, also somewhat meaning "agreed"...)
I'm working hard for my money.
(chorus)
It's worthy of my money.
Consumers Distributing!

The "C'est DAC" Catalogue
(chorus)
The quality, the prices, we agree
It's worthy of my money, Consumers Distributing!

Oh yes, we all agree, yeah, I do agree, agree!
Consumers Distributing, "c'est DAC!"

And now, the RBO (Rock et Belles Oreilles) parody, Distributors Contributing:



And here's the parody's english translation:

It's worthy of my money.
(chorus: It Sucks!)
I'm doing ads for the money.
(chorus)
Yeah it costs shitloads of money,
Distributors Contributing!

The catalogue is poorly translated
(Huge twit!)
It's full of cheap shit, oh yeah!
They are fucking ugly, Distributors Contributing!

Oh yes we all suck, yeah I do suck, suck
Distributors Contributing, It Sucks!

Time to continue my productive day-off!

Bad Product Awards

Been a while I haven't posted. I'm still busy and without a regular internet connection, so blogging is a low priority. I should get internet within the next week, so I'll try to resume my useless ramblings...

But here's a press release that caught my attention, as I'm quite interested by everything that touches consumerism.

In regards to Dasani, I used to laugh at tourists in Banff who would drink those expansive bottles when the town's tap water is actually coming from a source in the surrounding glaciers...

Global consumer movement announces winners of International Bad Products Awards

CI Press Release - Congress 2007

The world federation of consumer organisations, Consumers International (CI) today announced the winners of the International Bad Product Awards, to be presented at CI’s World Congress in Sydney, Australia, 29 Oct – 1 November 2007.

The awards aim to highlight failings of corporate responsibility and the abuse of consumer trust by internationally recognised brands. The announcement comes as 400 delegates from national consumer organisations and governments, convene in Sydney to attend CI’s World Congress.
This year’s winners* are:

Coca-Cola – for continuing the international marketing of its bottled water, Dasani, despite admitting it comes from the same sources as local tap water.



Kellogg’s – for the worldwide use of cartoon-type characters and product tie-ins aimed at children, despite high levels of sugar and salt in their food products.

Mattel – for stonewalling US congressional investigations and avoiding overall responsibility for the global recall of 21 million products.

With the overall prize going to:

Takeda Pharmaceuticals – for taking advantage of poor US regulation and advertising sleeping pills to children, despite health warnings about pediatric use.

Richard Lloyd, Director General of Consumers International, said:

"These multi-billion dollar companies are global brands with a responsibility to be honest, accountable and responsible. In highlighting their short-comings Consumers International and its 220 member organisations are holding corporations to account and demanding businesses take social responsibility seriously."
Download the CI press briefing

*Full details of each nomination can be found in the accompanying CI Press briefing, which can be downloaded here.



Time to go wish I was a kid again, so I could eat, play and sleep thanks to all that good stuff!