Wasting Time
April 1st 2008
Over the years, many folks have wondered what on Earth I see in Star Trek. It's unfathomable to some why I would "waste" my time in producing fanzines, running a website, constructing models, and generally have a great time playing in the original series playground. My wife and I were sitting in the hot tub tonight talking about how my involvement in writing and editing and producing fanzines led to my real life career as a copier operator. It was producing fanzines that led me to a job at Kinko's in the first place. My first thought was to use the employee discount to produce the zines, and I was happy to make sure they were run correctly. I was promoted to manager of the Kinko's at the Georgia Tech library copy center within a few months, and soon I was learning how to repair and service copiers. After I left Kinko's to move to Southwest Georgia with my wife for her job, we turned over the publication of the zines to Bill Hupe, and I thought that would be the end of my copying career.
But it wasn't. For several years, I taught school in a nearby town, but it wasn't long before three in daycare exceeded my take-home pay, and I planned on being a Mister Mom. But when the local copy center took three days to make three copies of a newspaper clipping announcing the birth of my son Jeremy, and then charged me 25¢ for each copy, I realized I needed to get back into copying. All the local printshops were aghast. I was some damn Yankee (from Atlanta) upstart, and they did their best to compete with me. But again, I turned to Star Trek. This time, the philosophy of non-interference with the competitors, refusing to answer their indignation in kind, engaging in IDIC (or "live and let live" if you want to be mundane), and for fourteen years, my little copy company has grown and grown. Now we're the largest copy center in Southwest Georgia.
Today, I sat at one of the computers, doing a layout for a customer. Ironically, it's for a local science fiction club, and it's their first clubzine. They're amazed at how easy I made it look for them, and how good their clubzine looks. Yesterday, it was a cookbook for local research center (why a research center needs a cookbook, I dunno, but hey, it looked good, and they were delighted). Tomorrow, I've got to do 1000 student handbooks for a local technical school. In every single one of these jobs (and in thousands more like them), my experience as a fanzine editior has led to not only getting these jobs but making the customers happy.
So when I'm asked by Linda's parents or one of the boys' coaches why on Earth I would "waste" my time with Star Trek, I laugh and ask, "Who says I'm wasting my time?"
Randy
Free counters provided by Andale.