Gems from Fixing Printers

I arrived at the library ten minutes after it opened this morning.  After dropping my coat, bag, and lunch in my cubicle, I headed to the 6th floor computer lab to do some printing.  I hate using the 6th floor lab because it generally never works right the first (or second) time, but the 4th floor lab was already pretty full and I didn't want to have to wait long for my prints (the person to printer ratio was high).  The sixth floor lab was empty (of course) and as I printed my first two documents I realized neither printer was making any noise.  This made me extra frustrated this morning because I had just tried printing two confidential documents for a student organization...and the computer was not allowing me to cancel the print job from the queue!  My two documents were each sent to one of the printers and sat in a long line of documents waiting to print (from other users who didn't take the time to get the printer fixed or tell someone the printers weren't working - frustrating!).

I headed down to the 4th floor to get help from the front desk and the gentleman said he'd be right up (he was on the phone) but thinks the printers are probably still warming up.  I knew this was probably not the case because they were not making any noise.  When I got back upstairs, I checked the printers. The first one said there was a paper jam.  I followed the instructions on the machine to clear the jam but there wasn't any paper stuck in it.  The last instruction was "open and close top" (the jam was in the back).  I think this step served to reset the printer or something...because after doing that it worked!  I think someone had unjammed it but didn't follow the instructions so the last step was missing.  I then moved to the second printer which had no lights on, the screen was blank.  I pushed various buttons, nothing worked.  I think determined it must not be turned on and went looking for the switch.  I could not find that switch!  I noticed a random square magnet on the part of the machine where all the wires connect and hoped that wasn't the reason...someone killed the printer with a magnet?!  Finally I stared at the front of the machine and noticed a power button (not switch like I was looking for) halfway down the machine.  1) What an odd place!  2) I was still looking for one of those good ol' black switches...apparently these machines have updated (even though the entire lab feels ancient).

The printers both started printing everything in their queues.  And from that, I got some nice gems:

Oh, and I found someone's letter to someone important in China requesting permission to travel so he can help his girlfriend be less stressed before her defense (PhD) sometime this spring.  Complete with passport number and some sort of Chinese bank info.  I tried legitimately shredding these documents with the shredder next to the printers; that machine made noise, but didn't take the papers so I shredded them manually and placed the bits into the recycling bin.

I feel like I've done my good deed of the day.  And I got some good laughs out of the birfday docs.  :)