Kinko's gets Kancelled!

Kinko'a is long gone. I have to go to Fed Ex office today and something feels kinky. Well, something feels less kinky and that's the problem.

 I was written up in an article in Albuquerque the Magazine and my scanner is down. I will scan the article and then upload it to my Facebook page, probably making the picture my cover photo. I will be emailing the pdf of the article to various contacts and have a link to buy my books on amazon. This will be the second time I've been to Fed Ex office in six months.

Fed Ex bought Kinko's in 2004. I can't help but think back to 1998-2000 when I lived in LA and went to film school. There was a Kinko's on Sunset Boulevard. It was filled with writers and actors on the outside edge of Hollywood. There were also several homeless people trying to use the bathroom to consume drugs. The groups were not mutually exclusive.

I would type my script at 25 cents a minute. It definitely got me typing faster. Printing was always a little scary. I would scream if the printer jammed or my work was lost. I was nearly banned from the store after an outburst.

There were often gorgeous model/actress types stapling resumes to their head shots. One Australian model asked me for help printing out her resume after say g'day. Once she realized that I was as clueless at printing as she was, she said g'day again. G'day apparently is like aloha, it can mean hello or good bye.

I printed my first novel, Rattlesnake Lawyer at Kinko's in Westwood and then took it to my publisher. If only I had remembered to do a spell check, but that's a different story.

When I began my book touring in 2002, I stopped at Kinko's all over America. The Kinko's in Amarillo, Texas seemed to be filled with the same actors and models as the store in Hollywood. Perhaps they were copied and faxed. I did see some Russian mobsters doing some kind of deal online at the Kinko's in Phoenix. I don't even want to tell you what I saw at the Kinko's in Tucson.

The Kinko's in Albuquerque was where I used to go when I had to print something. The staff was excellent and was always helpful. The nice woman at the front desk barely spoke English, but she knew how to use adobe acrobat.

I now can do much of what I did at Kinko's on my smart phone. I have my own office now and my own copier. There is something bland about the name, Fed Ex Office.

Aloha Kinko's.