Copier People and other Mysteries of the Workplace

Ok, we all know the copier people. Well, we all know them if we work in a sortof coporate workplace anyway. Those of you lucky enough (insert maniacal laughter here) to work from home may not be as familiar. Copier people are people who are constantly copying *something* - it doesn't really matter what. They're addicted to warm paper and the smell of toner. Who knows. But they're driving me crazy.

Those of you who know me know I've recently gone back to a sortof corporate job. Well, I no longer work from home anyway. I sold my company after the birth of my son to go back to work and spend more time with my son. Don't quite understand how that works? The short story is I'd rather get paid to work 8 hours than not get paid to work 23.5. So, here I am, in a cubicle again.

Anyway, to drag my ADD mind back to the topic at hand - which is actually a distraction from the work I *should* be doing - I hate copier people.

Why? Because after they've been to the copier - pushing all the little buttons and changing the paper feeder width thingys - it's darned near impossible to make a good copy the first time around.

You have to adjust the paper width thingies for one thing. And heaven forbid they forget to hit 'clear all' when they're done with their little totally customized copies. You just plain aint gonna win.

I waited 10 minutes to use the lovely copier they have here. It has a blue glowing backlit screen. Ahhhh, yummy. It makes a lovely soft whirring noise when it scans. Boy it's been too long since I've worked around one of these.

So, anyhoo, I finally get my turn and I walk up, press 2 (I needed two copies), put the paper into the little paper feeder thingies (also referred to above as the paper feeder width thingies), and click start. Weird things start to happen. And from 8 sheets of letter sized paper I get a half inch stack of legal sized paper with weird shapes of something that may or may not be copies of my originals. I'd tell you but the images are super small and I just can't see them.

So, I scoop up my half inch worth of wasted rainforest and try again. This time, I click the 'clear all' button and change the paper width thingies to feed my paper in the other way (portrait versus landscape here). And try again. I confidently press 2 (for two copies, keep up) and press start. Blue lights glow, soft whirring noises resume, the tangy aroma of toner fills the air. Four minutes later my 8 sheets of letter sized paper have yet again produced a half inch of wasted rain forest. This time letter sized though. And you can tell that the images are indeed mine. Only they're turned the wrong way.

At this point, and feeling a little like Charlie Brown screaming after chunking the ground and staring dazed up at the football, and having 3 people now standing in a line behind me (Huh???) I give up to come back to my desk. I want to await some private time to get to know the copier - you know, without the shame of being a computer geek who can't make two flippin copies.

Now, having fed my ADD monster need for distraction, I'm going to try to get some work done.

Chayton Group

Ok guys - here's the news announcement (though it was made in a private email to all clients) ChaytonGroup.com was sold as of November 1, 2005. If you're having issues, please use the helpdesk or visit tscinternet.com. There's an icon for their site and a link on the main page of chaytongroup.com.

I sold the company for various reasons - my health and a new baby have become priorities in my life. I'm not able to provide 24/7 support to clients and it's always been my goal to provide the best possible customer service. The folks at TSCInternet are great - I met them at Ryze.com. They're real people, very professional, and provide wonderful service. Please take a few moments to introduce yourselves to them.

I've also sold my other businesses for the same reasons. If you need to know who the new owners are for any of them, please feel free to contact me. Please understand that I no longer use or monitor domain based emails for chaytongroup.com or the other sites.

Techie Upgrades

Raiden was weighed today - on Nov 18 he was 3 mos so I guess he's about 3.5 mos old and he weighs 17 chunky chubby pounds. He was 7lbs 13 oz at birth so boy is momma's milk doing his lil body good. Ya'd think I'd be *losing* that weight but apparently it doesnt work that way.

I bought an mp3 player - finally. Its a 'zen nano plus' - in my experience thus far better than an ipod hands down. At just $20 more than the comparable iPod it holds a full G of music as opposed to the half gig in the iPod. It also has a built in fm tuner - not an add-on - and you can record directly from the radio. And it sounds fantabulous. I haven't had a chance to add my own music to it yet, I've been listening to the FM radio. I can't believe I've let myself go so many years without one of these cool beanio things. I love it. My hubby looked at it and said 'won't you have to hook it up into a player?' (yes, it's super tiny - about the size of a small pack of gum) and I grinned and said 'this *is* the player!' just add ear buds. Which I hate. They won't stay in. I've *never* liked ear buds. All in all, a great Christmas present to myself.

Anyhoo - just wanted to let you know I've finally taken a step up in technology :) I can't wait to download my iTunes stash to it :)

Updates...something

Ok, I know it's been forever since I've posted. But rather than drive you nuts catching up, I'm just going to post. You'll eventually catch up.