Friday, February 22, 2008

Size Matters

Wednesday we went to K-stad to the office of VF (the local newspaper) with school and got to see some about how and where they work. The journalism info itself was lukewarm, but then we got to watch the presses. About eight or so giant machines printing all the pages of the paper at the same time, sending them to a machine in the middle that put them together and folded it, spitting out completed papers on a production line. They sounded like an airplane trapped inside a too small hangar, and there was this smell, like chemicals. They were blue, but loads of oily tubes and stuff stuck out everywhere and in places someone had patched them up with parts of newspapers, probably to stop leaks or something. And I watched these monsterous freaks of nature, and I really, really, really wanted to work with them. When I called mom, she said, of course working on a newspaper would be perfect for you. But I think she misunderstood.

1 comment:

Rik said...

Those devices are frickin' scary. The paper that runs free, that runs on a long strip in free air, looks like it could kill people with speed and sharpness.

Ask Love for an opportunity to try it, his father runs a printing company. They're not quite as big machines at a small company, but still.