Machines are taking over the world
Saturday, March 4, 2006
This week I worked a lot at the CVA office. On Thursday I spent most of the day meeting with Laurent, just discussing our options for the future and doing some intense planning for a training program for Muslim evangelism. But the rest of the week it was back to the scut work.
Every two or three months, CVA sends out flyers (10,000-20,000) and almost always, there is something inserted: an order form for something, a subscription card, etc. The new flyers were supposed to be redesigned, with a one page insert, divided into three sections that could be easily cut apart to form three different order forms. But by using only one page, it could be easily folded into the flyer, by using a new machine that automatically folds papers together. It’s really large and loud as all get out, but none of us mind, since we won’t have to do all of it by hand. At least, that was what we thought. Some brilliant thinker at the printer’s office noticed that the page was divided into three sections, and taking the initiative, cut the pages into three separate inserts. But our fancy paper folding machine can’t handle four pages at once—only 2. So, guess who got to stuff those blasted 10,000 flyers with three (count them!) inserts by hand? Yup, you guessed it.
Also, this week we were sending out the official tax receipts for all the donors to the ministry for 2005. We are talking about hundreds of letters! So first, we dragged out our big folding machine that also stuffs the folded letters into their envelopes. All well and good until one envelope got stuck to another and every envelope after that (about 150) was then filled with the wrong letter. So we had to take all the letters out and put them into the right envelopes. That took a long time! Then we dragged out another complicated machine that puts on the address and the postage (like a meter), as well as sealing the envelopes. Supposedly! It would not seal them. And about very 20 envelopes it would get screwed up somehow, and I would have to totally reset the machine. Then I had to seal them by hand, and they were the cheapest envelopes in the world. They wouldn't seal unless they were soaked with water, which made a huge mess. I felt like we would have been almost better off to do the whole project by hand, since the machines just sort of complicated everything! Remember the good old days before machines ran the world?
I just got highspeed internet with cable at my apartment; it’s scheduled to start over the weekend. Life is much more exciting, knowing that I have internet access at my fingertips and the ability to watch CNN. At least until those machines fail me, too, ha ha!
This week I worked a lot at the CVA office. On Thursday I spent most of the day meeting with Laurent, just discussing our options for the future and doing some intense planning for a training program for Muslim evangelism. But the rest of the week it was back to the scut work.
Every two or three months, CVA sends out flyers (10,000-20,000) and almost always, there is something inserted: an order form for something, a subscription card, etc. The new flyers were supposed to be redesigned, with a one page insert, divided into three sections that could be easily cut apart to form three different order forms. But by using only one page, it could be easily folded into the flyer, by using a new machine that automatically folds papers together. It’s really large and loud as all get out, but none of us mind, since we won’t have to do all of it by hand. At least, that was what we thought. Some brilliant thinker at the printer’s office noticed that the page was divided into three sections, and taking the initiative, cut the pages into three separate inserts. But our fancy paper folding machine can’t handle four pages at once—only 2. So, guess who got to stuff those blasted 10,000 flyers with three (count them!) inserts by hand? Yup, you guessed it.
Also, this week we were sending out the official tax receipts for all the donors to the ministry for 2005. We are talking about hundreds of letters! So first, we dragged out our big folding machine that also stuffs the folded letters into their envelopes. All well and good until one envelope got stuck to another and every envelope after that (about 150) was then filled with the wrong letter. So we had to take all the letters out and put them into the right envelopes. That took a long time! Then we dragged out another complicated machine that puts on the address and the postage (like a meter), as well as sealing the envelopes. Supposedly! It would not seal them. And about very 20 envelopes it would get screwed up somehow, and I would have to totally reset the machine. Then I had to seal them by hand, and they were the cheapest envelopes in the world. They wouldn't seal unless they were soaked with water, which made a huge mess. I felt like we would have been almost better off to do the whole project by hand, since the machines just sort of complicated everything! Remember the good old days before machines ran the world?
I just got highspeed internet with cable at my apartment; it’s scheduled to start over the weekend. Life is much more exciting, knowing that I have internet access at my fingertips and the ability to watch CNN. At least until those machines fail me, too, ha ha!