Random rant on scrapbooking
I got thinking about scrapbooking the other day. I really don't get it. Why are there whole stores devoted to this activity? I think everyone messes around with scrapbooks a bit as a kid. Either because someone convinces them that it's a fun hobby, or a teacher assigns it as a school project. It seems like it will be fun or interesting until you actually do it. The enthusiasm last long enough for you to gather a big box of stuff to be organized into a scrapbook and maybe long enough to fill maybe a dozen pages. Then you realize the tedium of what you're doing and set it aside (if you started doing it for fun) or slap together just enough to meet the minimum requirements of the assignment (if doing it for school).
The thing is, the effort of finding, organizing, and assembling a scrapbook pretty much guarantees that you'll lose any interest in the subject by the time you get it done. Unless it's something like a scrapbook chronicling the life of your child, or something like that, in which case you'll still be interested in the subject, but really hate the scrapbooking process. And when you look back on it, you ask yourself something like, "Didn't he do anything between the ages of 3 and 10?"
If you are actually single-minded, or masochistic, enough to actually finish a scrapbook, it's totally useless. You, by virtue of all the time and effort you put in, have no need or desire to look at it yourself, you know everything that's in it. And, trust me on this, no one else will ever enjoy sitting down and looking through it. They may do it to be polite, but they will resent you for putting them through it. They may not say anything, but you're being very cruel by putting them through it.
Save your money. Do something better with your time. Everyone will thank you. Maybe not out loud, but in our hearts we'll think of you as a better person. Oh, and the one thing we want to do less than looking through your scrapbook is hearing you talk about it. I thought it was time someone pointed this out.
What's that? How is a weblog not just an electronic scrapbook? Don't go there.
