And now to undercut yesterday's sad heart felt post with a rant about the idiots I encounter when trying to do something good for my students.

Apologies lest any of you actually ARE former Kinkos employees as my deep hatred of them stems completely from my experience with the 78th st and lexington branch. There might be some decent, hard-working smart Kinkos employees somewhere, but I'm guessing, and it's just a guess mind you, that the smart ones get out early lest they be driven mad by the others who seem like they might be a good argument that spending so much time around toner fluid can cause brain damage.

Instead of requiring a business writing book or books, I put together a booklet of prompts, articles, and scenarios to help the students. It is a win win situation because it is copied thus the cost (around $10) is acceptable to the students who often spend upwards of $60 on a single textbook which may be barely used. Because I design the book, we use about 97% meaning they see this expense as useful and don't mind schlepping it to class. It allows me to tailor their assignments and edit them semester by semester depending on the class dynamic (I put together the textbook after the first week of classes-after I have already received from students a detailed statement about the types of work/assignments they are most interested in).

The downside is that it means I must 1. go to kinkos and place the order which seems like a 10 minute task but actually takes an hour because of how long it takes a kinkos employee to actually get around to writing down your order 2 go to kinkos to pick up the order, which involves another hour waiting around to just pay for the damn things and schlep them all the textbooks back to my apartment 3 schlep all the textbooks to class with me, thus preventing me from carrying any other material on the way to work 4 realize that the idiocracy of kinkos only gave me one box of a two box order thus I am short 6 textbooks which also disrupts my entire class plan 5 go back and wait another hour to explain to them the mistake and hope they still have the other box with the rest of my textbooks 6 bring the REST of the textbooks to class and hope the asshats finally got things right 7 vow, while in a bath with a martini, to go to the staples copy center next time.

Sure it's my fault for not counting the textbooks before I left, but after waiting for an hour to get my order I just wanted to go home and watch Law and Order.

Labels: kinkos