Month: July 2009

Musings

Are printers alive?

Has anybody noticed that printers are very emotional, moody beings that need to be talked to, cursed at, or even blackmailed before they print a page?
We had a small HP printer which was so emotional that we reached the point of patting the printer and talking to it before giving the print command. One bad word, and the printer would throw the printed papers all over the room. Let me list the reasons why I think printers are alive:

1. They usually play hard-to-get, and don’t print the first time you give the print command.
2. When you try to cancel a print command, they play high-handed and refuse to cancel it.
3. Sometimes, they become over-enthusiastic and print out all those copies you gave ages back, but cancelled ages back too.
4. After a lot of fuss with printing, sometimes you just need to restart the printer, and it would behave like nothing happened and print normally.
5. If you give it too many papers to print, it will try to find some fault with your command and stop obeying.
6. It loves throwing the papers it printed all over the floor instead of neatly stacking it in the allocated place.
7. If you have an urgent document to print, it will suddenly say that there is no ink or give all kinds of error messages.
8. Home printers are usually more fussy and non-professional compared to office printers.
9. If my printer happens to read this blog entry, it will never again print all its life.

So be good to your printer. Say good words, praise it liberally when a page was printed well, and don’t give it too much work. It helps to have a good relationship with your printer.

Musings

Travelogues are not my thing!!

As I mentioned in the previous post, I am reading the travelogue, “Travels with Charley” by John Steinbeck. And I hereby declare that I am not a travelogue person. I usually read a book from the preface and finish it at the very last page, without skipping anything in between.
But here, I am not compelled to return to the book. Reading that book has become more of a chore than a hobby. So it’s good-bye to travelogues, at least for the time-being.

But I am in no way underrating the author, John Steinbeck who won a Pulitzer prize for his novel “Grapes of Wrath”, and also a Nobel prize in the year 1962. John Ernst Steinbeck III is an American writer of German and Irish descent who wrote twenty seven books in all. One statement I loved in the book is ….that he is not one to compromise quantity over quality. He says that people, when they become old, they become laggard and over-cautious, thus compromising quality of life over quantity, or the number of days you would live.

Think about it… isn’t it so appropriate for every situation? When you buy lots of clothes for less money rather than one or two good clothes for more money? When you go to a restaurant and choose the low-price buffet over the a la carte? When you try and finish off a lot of work in a hurry without looking at the actual quality of work?… And so on…..

Musings

Reading….. is such fun….

It is nice to have a book, an interesting book, waiting for you when you have some spare time. I’ve always loved reading. When I was smaller, I used to dream that I could finish reading all the books in the school library or the municipal library and then brag to others that I have read it all….With age came wisdom and a realization that this is impossible.
Reading still remains the first love. In the last couple of months, I read 4 books and enjoyed it all.
Five boys – Mick Jackson.
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
The Final Diagnosis – Arthur Hailey
Travels with Charley – John Steinbeck

All four are very very different in their styles, story lines and speed. Five boys is about a small unsuspecting countryside to which a war comes quite unexpectedly. Pride and prejudice is the classic featuring love and prejudiced lovers. Final Diagnosis is the fast-paced life in a hospital with tragedies, victories, personal adventures, suspense, drama all packed into one. Travels with Charley is the first travelogue I am reading.
Have not finished reading this, and that is why I said it is nice to have an interesting book waiting for you when you have spare time.

And what joy! I have also got the next book lined up. “Twilight”, one of the four-book series from Stephenie Meyer. This one seems to be quite a rage among youngsters now. And I am yet to test and see whether I would still enjoy those books that youngsters love. Let’s wait and see….