Paper Cut

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Usually perfection can’t be attained.  Bare minimum for me:  An adequate result.

 I snail-mailed the last paper edition of my zine.  Why?  Not the computer but the printer.

 This Windows-compatible  printer is the third one I’ve owned.  All three were crap.  This one started to print faint copies.  I tried the usual fixes.  Nothing.  I searched via Google for other fixes.  They didn’t work.  Two hours wasted.

 I had to take my PDF file to a print shop.   Text was OK but the images were muddy.  A problem I could’ve fixed with the file if my printer had been working.  The file was uneditable so it couldn’t be properly fixed at the print shop.

 Online the images look great, in color, not B&W as with print.

 Since 1994 I’ve been cranking out my paperzine The Ray X X-Rayer.  No more.  I don’t want to waste money on another crap printer or take the option of trying to get adequate copies at a print shop.

 Online writing and editing can be a pain but not like producing hardcopy.   Paper jams, dried out ink cartridges, smeary copies – no more.  Stapling, folding, envelopes, stamps – forget it.

 There are holdouts in meatspace who are paper only.  I respect that but if they want to read my stuff they’ll have to do it online at this blog or at http://www.tinyletter.com/RayX .

 Good riddance to paper.

 Time and money saved.  One stressful activity gone.

 I’ll save my energy for more reasonable pursuits.  Like capturing a UFO.

Comments

X. Dell said…
Although I've only read the X-Rayer online, I feel a certain sadness that the hard copy version will be heading for the sunset. I guess that's progress.

I enjoyed issue 111, and am glad to see that you've put it online here too. This is actually where I'm more used to reading it. But hey! Any Pope in a storm, huh?
6:09 PM
Ray Palm (Ray X) said…
Which Pope? John Paul or George Ringo?

If computer printers were not from hell I would've continued with the hardcopy. The last one I bought was a laser printer and it was working OK until it crapped out without any easy way to get it working properly. I've got a new toner cartridge and that's money wasted because the printer still gives me faint copies. Too much money flushed down a black hole.

You can Google these keywords: computer printer from hell . You'll see I'm not alone in hating these demonic devices.

The inconvenience of a home printer outweighs the convenience. I'll use someone else's printer (like the public library) when I really need to and they can worry about it crapping out. The downside is that a "normal" person sees my weird writings which are intended to be read by a select few.

9:34 AM
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