Command Decision

You wouldn't know it to look at me ... or at least I think you wouldn't know it to look at me. But I have an urge to scrapbook. I don't know where it came from, but I have made a command decision this day that I will no longer bother with the hobby. And I'm here to list all the reasons why I'm going to let it go the way of the wind.

Reason Number 1 - Acid-free paper. The first time I heard this term I was probably in my early teens and it pissed me off to hear that paper has acid in it, you have to get a special kind of paper otherwise your pictures will ... what'll it do? Somehow hurt them? ... Anyway, one time I was in a scrapbooking store and this woman was telling me the reason for using it - that construction paper would kill a photo in like 30 years ... or something like that. My response was, "Are you saying my decendants won't be smart enough to use a colour copier, or a scanner?"

Reason Number 2 - This is sort of a continuing thought from Reason Number 1. Let me say it straight up and clear. I don't expect things to last forever. Come on, not even diamonds are forever. Eventually, they'll turn back into boring coal. I don't expect my great-grand children to be charishing a scrapbook I made 100 years ago. And if they did want a copy, I wouldn't dream of burdening them with extra loot like that. A digital scrapbook makes way more sense to me, and best of all, it doesn't take up any tangible space out of your squarefootage, and everyone could have a copy - as opposed to only one person getting certain pics. I think they'd thank me for that. Also, come on, it's about time for us all to be living a little more in the digital world.

Reason Number 3 - 12x12 paper. When I first started scrapbooking, I was doing it on 8 1/2 x 11 paper, but now it's all about the 12x12 paper. Now, I admit that the larger format makes sense. There are more design possibilities with the larger page, less of a need for trimming pictures, etc. But to me, it means that I have to purchase more specialty items, instead of just using the office supplies that I keep on hand. It also means that I have to house the BIGGER BOOKS. Forget that crap.

Reason Number 4 - I don't have time to be all artistic with that. I definitely believe in artistic pursutes, but scrapbooking makes a mess on my kitchen table/bed/floor/what have you, and I live an incredibly fast paced life. I need the kitchen table clean, because people are eating at it. I need the bed clean, because people are eating on it. I need the floor clean, because people are eating on it. Got it? (it's just a joke though)

So, I start scrapbooking all happy like and I've probably been doing it for about 20 minutes (it took 1 minute to take everything out, and five minutes to get myself organized before I could get anything done), then once the 20 minutes has expired I'm called away by something a zillion times more pressing, and then my attention is completely taken away from the project at hand. Then there is a mess that takes 10 minutes to clean up when that space needs to be used for, oh, I don't know - SOMETHING PERTANENT TO LIFE! Then I've worked for 30 minutes on a project that I only actually got to work on for 14 minutes. That might seem nit-picky, but compared to the productivity I get when I'm doing something less messy, it's a horribly inefficient system. Now, I'll agree right now that if I wanted to do it hardcore, then there are lots of ways that I could raise my scrapbooking efficiency, but I think all my other reasons shout for themselves, and give an excellent sort of logic as to why I should just give up.

Reason Number 5 - There are SUCH cute photo albums available these days. I see them in stores all the time and I always have urges to buy them, but then I see the lovely clear protectors for pictures and I know that that's not my system for storing pictures, so I put them back on the shelf with a little sigh. But, if I give up scrapbooking, then I can buy them! Yay!

Reason Number 6 - I like photography. This might seem like a funny reason to give up scrapbooking, but let me explain why it's a perfect reason. Okay, so I often see people's scrapbooks and I think the little pictures and do-dads that they use to decorate the pictures with are cheesy and ugly - and I think they are often more colourful and eye catching then the pictures themselves. I think this is really bad when it happens. Isn't a scrapbook meant to showcase your family and friends rather then how much money you can spend for someone else to draw a little girl with a pig nose tying her shoe? I know, I'm such a crank! Anyway, I want the pictures I take to be the main attraction of any arrangement I might prepare.

Reason Number 7 - So I can get rid of all scrapbook related things in my house and free up some space.

So, in summation, I will be giving up scrapbooking as of today and I'm not the least bit sorry. I can feel some of my not-so-dead relatives revolving in their preemptive graves at this heretical statement, but I always was a radical broad, so I'm happy to live up to my expectations of myself.