Pop Me, Baby, One More Time: The Bubble Calendar!

I personally think the actual concept is great: the calendar is made up of essentially a gigantic sheet of bubble wrap (yup, the same stuff you use when you pack up that pretty vase to send to grandma halfway across the country so it won’t break . . . until the post office gets its hands on it, anyway). The months are written across the top of this sheet and there is a bubble for every single day of the month. At the end of the day, you pop the bubble – thus, keeping track of the days.

Sure, it would be a fantastic way to teach children about keeping track of dates and the model of the calendar itself. But popping a bubble for each day? There’s something so final about that – and if you had a really shitty day, you wouldn’t want to just “pop” a little bubble, you’d want to get out a knife and stab that bubble to death, until there wasn’t a breath of air left. And then there’s something about popping a bubble for each day . . . if you do it in the morning, are you popping that day’s cherry? (Sorry, I had to insert a lame sex joke there.) And, really, how would this go over in an office, especially one which employs many people? Everyone likes popping those packing bubbles, so every single person would want to have their turn “popping a bubble,” right?  If that were to be the case, would you assign days for bubble-popping? “Judy, you take January 15, Steven, you can have January 16, etc.” – what a nice way to bring worker productivity down even further, ha ha! And, of course, there is always the possibility of the Office Asshole: the person who stays late and pops every single bubble in one night, thus revoking the calendar’s purpose and taking away the fun for everyone.

This calendar would never last around my house.  If I were to hang this thing up at 9:00 AM on January 1, every single bubble would be popped and tromped on by 9:01 AM. My seven-year-old son wouldn’t be the only one to do it – I can’t keep my hands off bubble wrap. There is something so satisfying about it – hearing the bubbles crinkle and pop with a final puff of air. Isn’t it fun to take a gigantic piece of bubble wrap in your hands, wring it out like you would a washcloth, and hear a million little bubbles just let go at once??? Sheer joy!

Oh, wait, maybe that’s just me . . . no, wait, I can’t be the only person who likes popping bubble wrap!  There has to be more – that’s why they made a whole damn calendar out of the stuff, right??  Bubble-wrap poppers of the world, unite!

I See You: Transparent Post-Its

I love all things Post-It.  I have Post-Its in every conceivable color of the rainbow.  I have the little Post-It tags that you can use in books to mark your place.  I have the lined Post-Its for writing notes or grocery lists.  Yes, my life is a Post-It!

So imagine my surprise when a friend of mine sent me an email about transparent Post-Its.  As in, Post-Its that you can see through!  Are you reading an article or book, have some thoughts/ideas, but don’t want to mark up the page?  Simple – slap one of these babies on the paragraph/passage you want to focus on and highlight/make notes until your hearts content!  I’m assuming that since they’re ideal for highlighting and marking on with a Sharpie that they don’t allow ink to bleed through.

Another thought: Does your office have a window?  Well, how about a great way to make it snazzy – write your notes on a bunch of these Post-Its in a variety of ink colors and stick ‘em to the window.  Then, when the sun shines – volia!  Instant color and cheer!  And a creative way to save and read your notes!

I haven’t tried these yet, nor have I seen them in the stores – strictly internet viewing at this point.  Does anyone have these?  If so, are they fairly useful, or is it just a way for 3M to feed yet another Post-It obsession?