Elfster
Dave Cowper (27)
Not merely satisfied for bagging the Sydney Morning Herald for their rather ordinary coverage of Rugby (when you get the idea that they think it is wonderful), I thought I would start a thread that would allow me to vent my spleen on some other profoundly important topic. To release some steam on a Monday morning, alert the Gods to life's ills and try to get some proper order in the natural ranking of things.
Today's rant is packaging. Mordern packaging...as from my days back in the halcyonic golden summers of my youth, packaging was fair and practical.
These days it resembles some sort of sick peverted joke. Just scratching the surface, three examples stand out: soap, CD's and the packaging of lollies/ chocolates et al.
I don't want to name a particular soap brand, but there is one: Imperi...no wait, let's call it Metric Vinyl to avoid bringing up names, that now has three layers of packaging. For a soap. The box is covered in plastic, there is the box itself and when you get past that you find the individual soap thingies wrapped in plastic. Why?? Who thought of that?? The damn thing is just soap, soon to be thrown into some dodgy soap holder in a shower or something to live the remainder of its life in water. The effort to get to thing thing is probably more than the value of the thing. If there is an expression that is past pointlessness, you could use it here. Grumble...
If you have ever tried purchasing a CD these days at the various stores and wonder where all the shop assitants are I know where they are. They are out the back covering all the CD's in various shrink-wrapping joke. You buy a CD, rush home to play it and it is locked in by various superfluous and irrelevant (much like using those last two terms together) plastic wrapping. And more to the point, hard to open plastic wrapping. Is it possible to open these things by hand or teeth...no. Kitchen knives or scissors are required...even then just manageable and often resulting in damaged hands or damaged CD cases. For heaven's sakes various music stores...we are doing you a favour buying the CD's...there is no need to lock them up in some fiercely protective packaging. The joke is already on us buying music rather than down-loading it. Don't rub our noses in it.
For the last example I probably need to digress and mention Max Planck and the concept of Quantum Theory. In which particles (electrons from memory) jump between levels in a discrete manner...all-or-nothing...that it requires a certain energy level for them to achieve it and then it all just happens. Or something like that. But it segues nicely into confectionary packaging. These packets of your favourite sweet are now designed so that you can not easily and delicately open them. You know, the sort of tear at the top, so that the interior goodies are easily accessible. No the current design of the package is such that the packet exists in only two states. Totally un-opend, closed and shut or in a miasma of pitiful, shredded remains as "successful" attempt at opening results in the packet disintegrating and you diving for the lollies before the scatter to the winds. These days opening a packet of "Maltesers" is a geographic display of a volcanic eruption of small chocolate balls. If the "3 second' rule was applied to the lollies hitting the floor I would never have sampled lolly in the last few years. (And in terms of packaging for lollies I won't get into that eternal question of why it is only the most noisy of packets that are sold in cinemas....).
Hmmm...rant over. I think it has made me feel better. At least until I find some other issue with modern society to rail against.
Today's rant is packaging. Mordern packaging...as from my days back in the halcyonic golden summers of my youth, packaging was fair and practical.
These days it resembles some sort of sick peverted joke. Just scratching the surface, three examples stand out: soap, CD's and the packaging of lollies/ chocolates et al.
I don't want to name a particular soap brand, but there is one: Imperi...no wait, let's call it Metric Vinyl to avoid bringing up names, that now has three layers of packaging. For a soap. The box is covered in plastic, there is the box itself and when you get past that you find the individual soap thingies wrapped in plastic. Why?? Who thought of that?? The damn thing is just soap, soon to be thrown into some dodgy soap holder in a shower or something to live the remainder of its life in water. The effort to get to thing thing is probably more than the value of the thing. If there is an expression that is past pointlessness, you could use it here. Grumble...
If you have ever tried purchasing a CD these days at the various stores and wonder where all the shop assitants are I know where they are. They are out the back covering all the CD's in various shrink-wrapping joke. You buy a CD, rush home to play it and it is locked in by various superfluous and irrelevant (much like using those last two terms together) plastic wrapping. And more to the point, hard to open plastic wrapping. Is it possible to open these things by hand or teeth...no. Kitchen knives or scissors are required...even then just manageable and often resulting in damaged hands or damaged CD cases. For heaven's sakes various music stores...we are doing you a favour buying the CD's...there is no need to lock them up in some fiercely protective packaging. The joke is already on us buying music rather than down-loading it. Don't rub our noses in it.
For the last example I probably need to digress and mention Max Planck and the concept of Quantum Theory. In which particles (electrons from memory) jump between levels in a discrete manner...all-or-nothing...that it requires a certain energy level for them to achieve it and then it all just happens. Or something like that. But it segues nicely into confectionary packaging. These packets of your favourite sweet are now designed so that you can not easily and delicately open them. You know, the sort of tear at the top, so that the interior goodies are easily accessible. No the current design of the package is such that the packet exists in only two states. Totally un-opend, closed and shut or in a miasma of pitiful, shredded remains as "successful" attempt at opening results in the packet disintegrating and you diving for the lollies before the scatter to the winds. These days opening a packet of "Maltesers" is a geographic display of a volcanic eruption of small chocolate balls. If the "3 second' rule was applied to the lollies hitting the floor I would never have sampled lolly in the last few years. (And in terms of packaging for lollies I won't get into that eternal question of why it is only the most noisy of packets that are sold in cinemas....).
Hmmm...rant over. I think it has made me feel better. At least until I find some other issue with modern society to rail against.
