Abigail M. Schilling

I recently did a lot of TDIH research while reading a book which was not a period piece but refused to give years--only historic events. I constantly found myself looking up Wikipedia and BBC articles. I learned a whole ton about Princess Diana this week.

So I figured why not embrace history? Today in 1789 the French revolutionaries stormed the Bastille. Crazy French. That was just not a good thing for the country. I'm not sure if being complacent was a good thing either (I just don't know enough about France) but man, there was a lot of violence there for a while.

And you know, while we're talking about politics that reminds me of communism. And communism reminds me of my Kinko's experience today. I go to Kinko's a couple days a week for work-related errands. My local store is helpful and to the point. They always call me when my job is done and take care of everything quickly. Their only problem is they're not a 24 hour store.

So tonight I had to go to a different store. A bigger supposedly better store because it was open 24 hours. But the majority of the bigger (better) store is self-help. Meaning you're just supposed to walk up to a machine and do the job yourself. Nevermind the fact that you may not know how to use a computer (and we'll charge you a use-fee per second to make you feel even more at ease) or the fact that you might actually be willing to pay to have someone take care of it for you.

I'm that type of person--the one who pays more to have the dudes (communists!) take care of it. See, when I handed them a disc and quickly listed the specs of my job they looked at me blankly. They seemed confused as to why I'd be talking to them. They seem confused as to why I couldn't operate the machine myself.

See, this store works like Ikea. They save money by hiring a couple incompetent people and hoping you can figure things out on your own. See? It's communism.

Also, it's the middle of the night.

Happy Bastille Day.