I need a little more automation at a reasonable price.

This week I was putting together some booklets for a seminar I am running. It was a multi-step process that began with printing the material in a half-page format. The paper then needed to be cut in half, with care, so that the pages would be in the right order.

Then there was the binding – a two-step process in itself. There were holes that had to be punched and then the paper had to have the curly rings inserted into the holes.

The first part went smoothly; I have a program that arranges the pages in the order they need to be in.

From there I needed a little more automation. I didn’t have a cutting machine that would cut more than about 7 or 8 pages at a time.

The book was about 100 pages double-sided, so to cut the paper for one book took about 5 cuts. I don’t have an electric cutter either, so it required some arm effort on my part.

For this project, to get a cutter that would cut my time down (pun intended), I might have to mortgage my house.

I remember when I was a kid, my dad was in the printing business and he would take me to work sometimes.

I got to see some pretty wild printing presses and cutting units. There was one machine that just put numbers on invoices.

Back in the day, invoices came in triplicate – that’s three together with a carbon between each page. That meant that each invoice needed the same number stamped on each sheet, and then they had to be glued together.

This machine was like the old mouse trap game. There were little vacuum-like tubes that would suck one sheet and move it over to be printed. Then another set of tubes would move it to the assembly section, waiting for the other paper to be numbered and added, then the invoice would be glued along the top.

That was just one page! It was amazing to watch this machine, and listen to it make all kinds of noise while paper was flying from one part to the next.

If back in the sixties they could have a machine that did all that, how come now it costs so much money to punch holes in paper so it can be bound?

With my cut and assemble job, I had to be extremely careful because the machine was finicky and would only punch holes through a maximum of 10 pages at a time.

Oh, and if I made a mistake, and the puncher was misaligned on one section, I basically had to scrap that whole book!

There should be a cheap machine out there that can punch holes in paper with a press of a button, and can handle 20 to 30 pages at a time.

We’ve made so much progress in so many areas, with new discoveries and great advancements in technology … how about someone spending a little genius power on book binding?

Here’s the thing: The more automated our world gets, and the faster technology changes the things we do, the more we want all of life to be faster, easier, effortless. But there is no short cut to growing your relationship with God. It’s going to take time and you have to put in the effort. Keep at your routine of meeting with God daily.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What in your life would you like automated? Leave your comments below.