The Scan Film or Store Christmas Quiz

The Scan Film or Store Christmas QuizMince pies. Carol singers. Absolute bedlam on the high street. It can only mean one thing – Christmas is approaching. And fast! But don’t let the thought of all the presents you haven’t bought yet depress you. There’s one thing everybody loves about the run up to the Big Day, and that’s the annual Scan Film or Store Christmas quiz.

This year, we’ve taken our inspiration from the silver screen and put together a list of quotes from 10 of our favourite Christmas films, along with a few trivia hints to help you identify them (and give you something to talk about at the office Christmas party). Get all the film titles right and you’ll be in with a chance to win a bottle of champagne and a box of mince pies to help you celebrate / cope with the in-laws / tick another item off the present list.

So, do you think you’re up for the challenge?

Ready, steady, quiz!

What are the titles of these 10 popular Christmas films?

1) “We elves like to stick to the four main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corns and syrup.”

The star of this 2003 movie had to eat so many sweet products during filming that he ended up getting headaches from the sugar.

2) “Look, Daddy. Teacher says, every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings.”

This 70-year-old film may be a firm favourite, but two of its writers called the finished work “horrid” and refused to watch it when it was released.

3) “Blast this Christmas music. It’s joyful and triumphant.”

The prosthetic make up worn by this film’s star took around eight hours to apply and was so uncomfortable that he needed counselling from an expert in torture-resistance techniques.

4) “No! No! I want an official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle!”

This story is partly based on a book called In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash, a collection of short stories written by Jean Shepherd for Playboy magazine in the 1960s.

5) “You’re skipping Christmas! Isn’t that against the law?”

This film won the Young Artist Award for ‘best family feature film’ in 2005, but was also nominated for ‘worst film’ in the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Awards.

6) “Now I have a machine gun. Ho ho ho.”

The all American hero of this popular action film, set at an office Christmas party, was actually born in Germany in 1955 – unlike many of the actors playing the movie’s German terrorists.

7) “I gotta tell you, Santa, there’s something about this place that doesn’t seem quite… kosher.”

The central theme of this Christmas film was inspired by the retail hysteria over the Cabbage Patch Dolls during the 1980s.

8) “A sequel. That’s it. We’ll bring it out on March 25 and we’ll call it… Christmas 2!”

The role of BZ in this film was offered to Harrison Ford, Burt Reynolds, Dustin Hoffman and Johnny Carson, before finally being accepted by John Lithgow.

9) “If I could work my will, every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart!”

Released in 2009 and featuring the voice of Jim Carrey, this was the first Disney animated movie to release in IMAX 3D – and Carrey’s first film with Disney.

10) “Okay, this is extremely important. Will you please tell Santa that instead of presents this year, I just want my family back?”

This family film took $17,081,997 in its opening weekend in 1990 and stayed at the number one spot for 12 weeks, and in the top ten until June the following year.

How to enter

It’s really very easy. Just SCAN through these FILM clues, then STORE your answers in email format (see what we did there?) and send it to info@scan-film-store.co.uk. Remember, we’re looking for the film titles please! All entries with 10 correct answers will be put into a hat (by which we mean random number generator) and the winner chosen at random on 15th December 2016. You’ll receive your prize by 23rd December 2016, ready for the big day. Good luck!

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Why storage is cool (stick with us on this one)

Scan Film or Store - why storage is coolMinimalism. It’s a big thing right now. People are decluttering left, right and centre. Stuff, it seems, is no longer cool.

Just ask The Minimalists, Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus. Joshua was leading an outwardly successful but ultimately unfulfilling life as a corporate executive when he discovered that what he needed was not more but less.

He soon converted best mate Ryan to his way of thinking. Ryan took a pretty drastic approach to his conversion. He packed up literally all his belongings as if he were moving house, draping dust sheets over big items like furniture. The deal was this: each day he would unpack or uncover only that which he genuinely needed. At the end of 21 days he would throw the rest away.

All of it.

Just let that sink in for a moment.

Crazy, right? But the pair now have 4 million people regularly reading their blog, and they’ve been featured everywhere from the New York Times to the Wall Street Journal.

Japanese decluttering expert Marie Kondo takes a slightly different approach in her book The life-changing magic of tidying up. Although the first two thirds is likewise dedicated to divesting oneself of earthly possessions, her rather charming method involves keeping only those things which ‘spark joy’.

It’s all very inspiring, but not necessarily as easy to apply to an office setting as it is at home. After all, while toner cartridges and A4 envelopes don’t spark huge amounts of joy in most people, they’re pretty essential in the workplace.

What you can do, however, is get rid of some of that excess paperwork. Those musty smelling box files full of forms and letters and reports that haven’t seen the light of day since perms were in fashion are neither joyful nor essential, and are in fact costing you rather a lot of money in rent.

If you’re worried you might need them one day, get them scanned or at least store the originals offsite to create a more Zen-like atmosphere in your own office.

Ideally though, chuck them. Actually don’t chuck them, get them securely destroyed (you don’t want confidential information showing up in the papers or on a competitor’s desk, do you?).

We can help with all of the above, so get in touch today and we can chat about the best options for your business.

Just don’t expect us to help you clear out the kitchen fridge. We don’t do mouldy sandwiches.

Remember when floppy discs seemed high tech?

Nothing makes you feel quite as old as realising you can’t listen to the first single you ever bought without getting hold of equipment that today’s teenager would classify as retro. Or vintage. Or antique, even. Charming.

Technology certainly has moved on. Would your younger self have believed that one day we’d be able to buy, store and play music on our phones, or watch movies on handheld screens the size of greeting cards? You’d probably have dismissed the idea along with Marty McFly’s hoverboard and Martin Bower’s teleport bracelet.

Much as we love the progress that has been made in these modern times, we can’t help looking back with fondness at some of the tech dinosaurs that have become extinct over the years….

Cassette tapes

Remember listening to the radio and waiting with your finger poised above the record button so you could tape your favourite tune when it came on? Without any of the DJ’s introduction, if you were really skilled. Fun times. Less fun was having to find a suitable pencil to wind the ribbon back in if it got chewed up in your old cassette player.

VHS and Betamax

Long before the PC vs Mac gang wars started, it was all about Betamax vs VHS. Whichever side you were on, there were definite disadvantages to the whole video thing, from the crazy convulsing picture when you pressed pause, to the chance for your mum to record over your favourite episode of the A-Team because you forgot to label the cassette.

Reel-to-reel

Is it just us, or do reel-to-reel tapes make you think of spy films? No? Just us then. These bad boys actually date back to the 1920s, but there are still plenty of them out there today, mostly boxed up in attics and warehouses for lack of anything to play them on. Sad, isn’t it?

Floppy disks

Now these made us feel like proper techies, and not in a bad way. “You need a copy of that report I wrote? No probs, won’t be a tick… no, no need to fire up the printer, I’ll just copy it onto a floppy for you.” Genius. Especially when they added that little ‘write protection’ tab so no one could wipe out all your hard work.

Ah, nostalgia. If only we could go back, right? Actually, scratch that – no one needs to live through shoulder pads, mullets and Milli Vanilli again. But it is nice to take the occasional trip down memory lane, if only to laugh at the clothes you once thought made you look super cool.

That’s where we can help. At Scan Film or Store we can convert old analog audio and visual material into DVD, CD, external hard drive or USB format, which won’t snap, tangle, unravel, fade or lose quality. That way, you can listen to or watch your old music or video footage on any modern machine, and ensure that your memories will last well into the future.

If you’d like more information about how we can convert your old analog material to a digital format, just get in touch.

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How long do I need to keep my business records?

How long should business records be kept?“How long do I need to keep my business records?” It’s a question we’re asked fairly often – but probably not often enough.

Some people assume they need to hold on to every last scrap of paper like a demented hoarder, and the consequences can be alarming.

Our director once visited a potential client who had records dating back to the Ark stored in the upper rooms of the company’s office.

The weight of these endless files was actually bowing the floor – and, in turn, the ceiling above the heads of the poor employees below, who daren’t venture into the store room for fear of the entire lot collapsing like something from a disaster movie.

As it happens, many records need only be kept for a few years – though there are others that you should hold on to for a lot longer than you might think.

Here are just a few facts for you…

  • COSHH records need to be kept for 40 years (which is the average lifespan of a bare eyed cockatoo, animal lovers)
  • Contractor time sheets should be kept for a year following transfer to your accounting system…. but those required for revenue purposes must legally be kept for six years.
  • Accident books should be kept for six years after the last entry (or Joe Pasquale will hunt you down and break your leg*)
  • Unsuccessful quotations should be kept for one year, but for successful ones it’s only until payment of invoice and audit.

And that’s just a start! Confused? Don’t worry. To make life a little simpler, we’ve compiled this handy guide which should help you figure out what you can bin and what you can’t.

Of course, that’s not the only way we can help. Because once you’ve decided what needs to be filed and what can be scrapped, we can do three things:

  • Document storage – so you don’t have to worry about the ceiling caving in. Our facilities are alarmed, protected and monitored 24/7, giving you complete peace of mind.
  • Document scanning – to create digital records that are much easier to access. We’ll even train you and your staff to use the software to maximum effect.
  • Secure data destruction – because chucking private client records and sensitive financial data in the skip behind the office is a really bad idea.

Give our friendly team a call today to find out how we can help you avoid a storage nightmare.

(*Ok, we made this bit up.)

Five ways to save office space

If your staff can levitate you could save on much needed office spaceWhen you rent your office by the square foot, a chance to save office space means a chance to save money. But how far would you go to shave a few inches off your floorplan to help keep costs down? If you need to save space in the office here’s 5 solutions (if you’re up for a challenge):

  1. Ban Office Chairs
  2. Build Bunk Cubicles
  3. Relocate to Outer Space
  4. Install Window Cabinets
  5. Create a Digital Archive

 

Read more in detail below:

Ban Office Chairs

Yes, all of them. Standing desks are all the rage anyway. According to Tony Randall of Randall’s Office Furniture, they can even help you lose weight. Who needs to rest their weary bones? Sitting is for losers! Stand and save office space, that’s what we say. And if you can find employees who are practiced in the art of levitation, so much the better.

Build Bunk Cubicles

Most kids prefer bunk beds to regular beds, so it’s surely only fair to say that your employees will have more fun working in vertically stacking bunk cubicles than they currently do in their frankly rather unimaginative ‘side by side’ layout. And just think of how much floor space you’ll save! Horizontal working is so passé, don’t you think?

Relocating your Office into Outer SpaceRelocate to Outer Space

Not only will you be celebrated the world over for your pioneering pluck, you’ll be able to store pretty much everything off the ground thanks to the lack of gravity. Do remember to invest heavily in ropes and chains though, to ensure your supplies (not to mention staff) don’t float away.

If outer space isn’t a possibility then Elon Musk could make Mars a new venture:

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/sep/30/elon-musk-spacex-mars-mission-volunteers

 

Install Window Cabinets

When apartment dwellers want a bit of space to grow flowers or herbs, they turn to their window ledges. So why shouldn’t space-starved office workers do the same? You may very well start a trend. Soon every office block will be speckled with filing cabinets stuck to their outer walls with ‘No More Nails’.

Create a Digital Archive

Ok, we’ll admit these aren’t the most practical of solutions, but there’s one more idea that is. How about scanning your paper documents to create digital records, or storing the originals offsite? Now there’s a thought! Funnily enough, this is something we can take care of for you.  Get in touch to find out how we can help you save office space without having to resort to drastic measures.