Green Ciggies

Cigarettes are going green…

As seen in Toronto Life Magazine, du Maurier is advertising their cigarettes as reducing “impact on the environment”.

I saw this ad and I was shocked and appalled. Apparently it’s okay to smoke, as long as the packaging is ”green.” Anyone else see the absurd irony in this?

Cigarettes will cause cancer and imminent death, but hey – the environment is A-okay! It deeply disturbs me that cigarette companies have taken this approach when trying to get individuals to smoke their cancer sticks. Now, the so-called ‘benefits’ are being put on these ads, to reach the earth friendly individuals out there. For each extra sale as a result of this marketing campaign, though the environment may not be suffering, what about the impact on the health care system or the health of the individual smoker or those around them?

What happens when naive individuals transfer the green packaging on to the cigarette itself – thinking if it’s not harming the environment, how could it possibly be harming lungs?

I thought the next step in terms of cigarettes was to make the drugs, which are 100% harmful, illegal. Instead, cigarettes are now GREEN!

This world is a scary place, and it just got a little bit scarier.

Bad Service Rant

Recently I went to a restaurant called Maki Sushi – which serves all you can eat Japanese food – for dinner with a group of 7 friends. Though I enjoyed my meal, it ended with a kicker. After we all had given in our credit cards or cash to pay for our dinners, the waitress returned and informed us she had undercharged us – having given us the amount for a weekday dinner as oppose to a weekend.

I was shocked. Not only did she practically blame her mistake on us, but was totally disrespectful in the process. Here I was, having paid already, handed back my cash and told I had to give more. Since it wasn’t worth my time to deal with the small cost increase, I spitefully left every penny I could dig up to pay the additional amount.

In my opinion, when the waiter screws up, the difference in dollars should come out of his or her tips, not the pockets of the customers. Customer service is going down the drain these days. It doesn’t seem to matter that without the customer, the restaurant itself would not exist.

Needless to say, Maki Sushi has lost my future service.

Why Angels and Demons Sucked and Star Trek Kicked Ass

This is a little story about my friend called hype. Or how hype can make or break a movie in its entirety.  *Spoiler Free*

Angels and Demons as well as Star Trek had tons of hype surrounding them, and rightfully so. Star Trek‘s background involves tons of prior movies and television series. Angels and Demons was written by the successful Dan Brown, and as a prequel to the successful book The Da Vinci Code and the average follow-up film.

Star Trek. Star Trek has had hype for years in the making. The second J. J. Abrams signed on to create the movie, individuals all around the world started following the development of the film, finalized by the release. Hype. Hype. Hype. But then something miraculous happened, Star Trek was actually good! And despite the fact that movie goers went to watch the film with extremely high expectations, satisfaction was still delivered!

As an aside, I do not recall the last time I went into a movie with just so much hype and left thinking the movie was AMAZING. Star Trek changed all of this – I went in with high expectations as a result of the great reviews, and deep down I thought there’s no way I won’t leave without some sort of disappointment. As a fan of previous Star Trek movies and tv series I was ecstatic when I heard a new movie was being created, and I was even more excited when I heard that one of my favourite tv show creators was putting the movie together. With an all-star cast and crew and with so much hype surrounding the opening of Star Trek, how could there not be some sort of disappointment. But Star Trek and movie fans alike were in for a treat. A movie with so much hype was actually good and it delivered! And as raters usually harshly review films that have years of hype surrounding them, it was a shock for me to find out the film had great reviews,  a 95% rating on rottentomatoes and an 8.5 on imdb. For once, hype boosted the potential of Star Trek, turning it into a piece of art. A perfect finale was created to the years of anticipation with a finalized, extraordinary film, which I personally cannot wait to watch again.

Angels and Demons. Might I start by saying – what a mess. I read the novel years ago and loved it, having not been able to put it down. The suspense drove me crazy. And with the intense hype and controversy over The Da Vinci Code that came before and with the release of the aforementioned film, of course Angels and Demons came with a mass amount of hype. I often find myself overwhelmingly disappointed with films based on books, and I was hoping this one would prove me wrong for once. Then came the extremely poor reviews, so I doubted the movie, yet still went to see it. I sat there the whole time thinking of the immense hype that landed in bad reviews, and found myself biased when attending the movie. Thus I went in with no expectations. However, I still found it hard to enjoy the movie as I was expecting it to be below average. The film was slow and unexciting. As someone who has read the book, I expected a lot from the movie. Instead, I was bored, since I knew the final outcome and who was the “bad guy”. Though this usually does not bother me and I find I can enjoy the film anyways, I found this particular movie to drag since nothing really happened except for when the two minute climax took place.

The point I am trying to make is that had there been no hype surrounding the release of Angels and Demons, yet bad reviews followed, it would not have been as big of a deal. However, with so much hype, people were expecting greatness from the film, and when it did not follow these set expectations, the reviews were terrible. However, with Star Trek, the hype was perfect when the movie itself proved worthy of extraordinary reviews. Thus the reviews following a hyped up movie are hard to ignore, serving to set the stage for the release of the film.

Without a doubt hype can make or break a movie. While it played a huge role in the success of Star Trek, it had a damaging effect on Angels and Demons. The self-fulfilling prophecy was at play. I expected greatness from Star Trek and left satisfied. I expected a below average movie from Angels and Demons, and that’s exactly what I got. If the reviews were good for this film, who knows, perhaps I would have liked it – but that’s a different story altogether. Instead, the point is what hype does to a movie. The reviews following the opening of a hyped up movie result in what the movie is destined for – either greatness, as in Star Trek, or a complete flop, as in Angels and Demons. Whether we choose to let hype and reviews play a part in how we are biased when attending the film is our own choice, but without a doubt hype plays a strong role in the success of a film. And fans always become disappointed when a hugely hyped up film results in failed reviews and a poor movie in itself.

Next time, pass on the hype, or perhaps just actually make a good movie when expectations are set that high, oh Hollywood.

The Biggest Asshole, 2.0

So I’ve recently notice that many individuals have come across my blog as a result of search terms including ‘asshole’ , ‘the biggest assholes ever’ and ‘Donald Trump’. Apparently I am not the only person bombarded by these crazy personalities each and every day!

How is it that yet by human nature we’re still attracted to these personalities. We enjoy watching shows such as Hell’s Kitchen and Celebrity Apprentice, which is lead by anger-prone personalities? A fault in human nature perhaps…

I invite whoever lands here next to share their asshole of the day stories! A little rant if you will.