Xerox
Today I am grateful for bananas and other fruit that nourish me. I am also grateful for Oliver and our quiet morning time together.
It has been a fun journey through the alphabet, but I confess that I am ready to move on from the constraints of A-Z, self-imposed as they might be. I am getting closer. Xerox starts off the "x" words. It is both a verb and a noun. As a verb it means to copy something with a special machine. As a noun, it refers to a company that makes copy machines.
It got me thinking about the changes I have seen in the area of copy machines since I started in the field of education over 26 years ago. We still had ditto machines at my first teaching job. Those were fun, but messy. With a distinct odor. I remember creating masters for the ditto machine on typewriters. Copy machines of the Xerox nature starting becoming more prevalent, but were still expensive. Schools my size tended to only have one. At one of my jobs, we couldn't all access the copier. We had to fill out a form regarding number of copies and such, attach the originals, and send them off to a central office to be returned a few hours or days later.
Now, I am used to having a copier a short walk away, not to mention the printer I have with my computer at my desk, and the fact that the printer also serves as a copier. If it takes more than a couple minutes to make some copies, it is either a large batch, there's a line, or the copier is being difficult.
We expect convenience and speed with our copy needs. I confess to appreciating the ease, but it boggles my mind how things have changed in less than three decades. What next?
I am grateful for modern conveniences, but also somewhat wary of them. Easier is not always better.
It has been a fun journey through the alphabet, but I confess that I am ready to move on from the constraints of A-Z, self-imposed as they might be. I am getting closer. Xerox starts off the "x" words. It is both a verb and a noun. As a verb it means to copy something with a special machine. As a noun, it refers to a company that makes copy machines.
It got me thinking about the changes I have seen in the area of copy machines since I started in the field of education over 26 years ago. We still had ditto machines at my first teaching job. Those were fun, but messy. With a distinct odor. I remember creating masters for the ditto machine on typewriters. Copy machines of the Xerox nature starting becoming more prevalent, but were still expensive. Schools my size tended to only have one. At one of my jobs, we couldn't all access the copier. We had to fill out a form regarding number of copies and such, attach the originals, and send them off to a central office to be returned a few hours or days later.
Now, I am used to having a copier a short walk away, not to mention the printer I have with my computer at my desk, and the fact that the printer also serves as a copier. If it takes more than a couple minutes to make some copies, it is either a large batch, there's a line, or the copier is being difficult.
We expect convenience and speed with our copy needs. I confess to appreciating the ease, but it boggles my mind how things have changed in less than three decades. What next?
I am grateful for modern conveniences, but also somewhat wary of them. Easier is not always better.
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