Who Do I Think I Am??

This one's about to go 3-D.

THE PROMPT:

1. Read the article below. It's about the rise of 3D Printers.
2. Tell us what you would use your 3D Printer for: around the house, in your life, let your creative imagination loose!
3. Merit Badge for the most creative AND convincing entry!
4. Any questions, make sure you read the article first. It has a very good explanation on how 3D printers work.

http://m.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/exec-tech/d-printers-are-finally-bec...

Good evening everybody! Wow, that's a fun prompt for this "Funny Friday" episode of the "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" ! Coincidentally, at work today I did some work in our photo lab, and I can vouch for something like this being cool, admired by customers, and its final output being way too freakin' expensive for the crowd that shops at my store.

For those who don't have access to the entire article, basically you take this hard plastic, stick it in an oven-like contraption, download an image to it, and a thread-like substance creates that image in 3-D. Fairly simple, and yet kind of complicated. And while I'd love to have one of these in my photo lab, there is one solid reason I am against it.

Before I go any further, allow me for the sake of this entry to break down the categories of the clientele in our busy little photo lab:

PET LOVERS: These are people who still use 35mm film to shoot entire rolls of their dogs or cats. They're typically older, and/or just lonely.

VACATIONERS: More often than not, they're families who go away on exotic trips. They'll take 1,000 pictures on their digital camera, upload them to our website, and expect to get them in half an hour (note: our machine can make about 600 prints in one hour, so no, that's not considered "One Hour Service").

THE GENERAL PUBLIC: I suppose this would be the catch-all category for everyone who's just making random prints of random events that you're too busy to attend because you're making pictures of other people's memories.

PARTYGIRLS: A significant proportion of our customer base, actually. They take hundreds of pictures of themselves, usually posing in some kind of awkward stance in front of a mirror (no human spine should curve like that) in various states of dress (or undress) while making an exaggerated face meant to simulate the puckering of lips for a kiss, only it makes them look like a duck. Hence the term, "Duck-faced Girls".

Thank you for allowing me to explain a little bit of what our photo techs deal with on a daily basis. Now, back to my point.

The article doesn't state how much the final product costs. Given my knowledge of different photo gifts, let's say the pricing is at $100, give or take. I'm willing to guess that the only group of the four I listed willing to make that kind of investment on anything they take a picture of would be, you guessed it, the Duck-faced Girls. And that's where this system starts to get out of control. The article says you can use it to make parts for refrigerators and dishwasher. Duck-faced Girls don't want that, because they don't eat and they don't do housework. They go tanning and partying. Some even go to the gym. So what's the apple of a Duck-faced Girl's eye? Why, a replica of her gorgeous face, making the expression only she thinks is beautiful. She will come in, ask for help on the kiosk when she uploads her image, and will stand around waiting for it, while talking to her "besties" on her cell phone, bouncing back and forth between "impatience" and "expressing sympathy over her bestie's unplanned pregnancy". And one to two hours later, she'll have a mini-her that she can place on top of the bookshelf full of books she doesn't know how to read, just to show off to her friends how "pretty" she is.

Oh, and when (or if) she ever decides to settle down, it'll be with a man who thinks it's ok to bring that 3-D image of her likeness to bed with them. Thankfully, there are zero men out there who think this kind of behavior is ok.

MUSICAL BREAK!!

Let's salute all of those fine women for their photographic prowess one more time, shall we? I know, it's explicit, vulgar and crude, but the last image is absolutely hysterical and on-point.

VITAL STATS:

If this gets 10 WDC comments or a total of 20 WDC comments and Facebook likes/comments, I'll post my own Duck-faced picture tomorrow. That's my word.

I thought this was an interesting prompt...I also fear I may have totally flushed it down the drain.

Alrightey then...nothing of much importance happened today otherwise, so I'm gonna catch up a little with some people that actually wrote about 3-D printers instead of horrifying females, and go on my merry way. Peace, and GOODNIGHT NOW!!