You'd think getting my galley copied would be a simple thing. After all, I just wanted one single-sided copy and five or so double-sided. Since I had a coupon for Office Max, that's where I decided to have the job done. And so begins the saga.
Despite arriving there shortly after they opened, they couldn't have the copies done until 4pm. I'm like, huh? There was only one guy working, I'd have to come back at 4pm. Okay. Seemed kind of silly to me since they have multiple machines and all he has to do is put the originals in the feeder, set the features and hit start. The copier will do the rest. But I can be patient. I mean one day isn't that big a deal, right? And I have plenty of other stuff to do, like play online mini-golf.
Then, about 3:15, the phone rings. The copies won't be done until tomorrow. By noon. Now this simply does not work for me--at all. I can't lose another half a day on going through them. So I say to him, can you make the double-sided copies off the single-sided copy and let me have the originals? No, of course not because he went through the originals and turned every other page so that it would copy correctly.
I then very calmly explained that he had galleys and that the publisher only gave me X number of days to proof them. I couldn't wait till noon on Sunday (if they were even done by then!) So he said he'd see what he could do. Whew!
I actually ended up with my copies in my hands around 5pm. Hurrah! The first thing I did was check the galley to make sure all the pages were there. They were. Next I looked at my copies. Because he spent so much time turning every other page, all the double-sided copies are wrong. Sigh. Now, whoever is reviewing them is going to have to turn them to read them. If he'd just copied it exactly as I'd given it to him, it would have been perfect. Where did the idea come from that the pages had to be turned?
Of course, since it costs like $12 for each copy, I'm not having the job redone, but it's irritating. And no doubt it'll be irritating for the people who get these copies of TACV. I just have to shake my head. If I could have made the copies myself, I could have had the job done in maybe an hour and the pages would have been set up properly for easy reading. Just goes to show you, never let a copy expert do the job of a clerk. We clerks know how to get the job done right and quickly. :-) I used to work in Technical Publications--I have experience with copying.
In other news, I received my official "you won the Golden Quill" email yesterday night. Hurrah! Now I feel all official. And I'm going to get a plaque! Maybe this isn't a big deal to some people, but I never received trophies or plaques when I was growing up. Oh, sure, I have my National Honor Society pin, and I think I have a ribbon from 4th grade when my softball team finished fourth, but no cool hardware. The idea of a plaque leaves me ecstatic! It's going up on the wall of my computer room the instant I get it. :-)
I was playing with TypoGenerator again while I was waiting for my copies. After all, I can only play so many rounds of mini-golf, and this time, I was doing Mika's name. I'm only going to post one of the results.
MN Weather Report: 77 degrees. Humid--very humid.
