My Battle With Technology

Two days ago I was at work and was conducting a Google search. But instead of delivering my results, the screen said that ITD (the technology department on campus) had blocked me from the system for security reasons. So we called them to find out what the problem was. It turned out the computer had a Trojan virus... AGAIN... because horror of horrors, my computer had just had a virus a month ago! I never get viruses on my home computers, and no one else at work has been plagued with the pesky menaces... so why was this happening?!

Today I finally got my computer back, completely stripped down to its bare necessities once again. My hope was that maybe, just maybe, it would now behave.

Apparently, however, Technology had declared war upon me. I tried to make copies... but they ended up on legal size paper rather than the letter-sized pink paper I had put in. Ok, I did something wrong, I understand. But then when I told the copier to STOP my project so that someone else could get theirs done, it wouldn't! Ugh! Well, it did stop eventually, after wasting more paper than it should have.

Then I moved my attention to shredding. Though shredding is not my favorite task, I can usually accomplish it on pretty peaceful terms (the huge garbage bag from the shredder is a different story). Oh no though, not today, because the war was on. You see, when one shreds multiple pages together, sometimes the shredder suddenly likes to freak out and think it's too much. It handles it pretty poorly, curling up to a fetal position and refusing to shred any further. It's annoying but after much persistence (pressing the nifty red button twenty times), it finally goes through and the shredding can commence.

But today it was not that simple. While shredding, this happened, but it was much worse than usual. The paper had worked itself into such a wad that it was impossible for it to go through, like a nasty clogged artery. After myself and three other employees snipped with scissors, plied with pliers, and banged with hammers, the pesky clot was finally diminished and the shredding passageway was free once again.

After that, I was going to try out the copying again, but luckily the copier was unavailable up until it was time to call it quits for the day. Phew!

The moral of the story? Technology is evil. And I should write for The Office, because I have some great material.