So as I am feverishly writing e-mails and following up on work, I notice a man at the copy machine that is near my cubicle. He’s a great and funny guy. Maybe about 65 years old, very smart… And I watch him pray to the copy machine. You know the stance: Standing with drooped shoulders, head down, staring at the machine as if it will speak to you with the truth of gods. Some people get mesmerized by this machine, and I found myself deep in tough about what it is that captures peoples attention and makes them so useless in front of mechanical devices. It’s as if they are in awe of the machine, or is it frustration?

There are always a few types of people when it comes to these things… The reverent and helpless, the masters, the procrastinators, and the copy-raged. We’ve already talked about the reverent. The masters are the people who solve every problem and have this (falsely attributed) aura of magician around the office. I believe I fit into this category. The procrastinators are the ones who know how to use the copier, but never let anyone else know so they don’t have to help anyone else out. They also sit at the copy machine trying to enlarge pictures of their face or making ridiculous amount of copies of something…. anything not to do actual work. Then there is the copy-rage people. They stand in front of the machine and offer up a scrappy irregularly sized piece of paper and expect it to run through the feeder. When the inevitable warning “BEEP” of the copier rings out, you start to hear BEEPS come out of the users mouth. They curse up a storm and sometimes whack at the machine. Then they try to retrieve their paper from the workings of the inner rollers and recesses of the deep. Either way, the masters get called again to save the day. And since I sit right near the copier I get to help everyone.

At least I am treated like a magician.