But my badge never printed. After a few minutes I informed the curly haired man of this, and I watched as he brought up my name on the computer screen again and clicked print. I waited as badge after badge popped out of the printer, none with my name. So I asked another woman at the counter if she could print it from her computer. "I think there might be something wrong with his machine," I told her. She too brought up my name and clicked print. Still no badge.
By now the supervisor asked me if there was some problem. "Yeah, my badge doesn't seem to want to print." Well, he did the only logical thing and brought up my name on his PC and clicked print. Nothing. He clicked print a second time. Still nothing. He brought up my name again and tried printing it once more. By now I was starting to miss those old fashion name tags-- the ones that say Hello, my name is on them. "Can I just hand write my name on a badge?" I asked. "No, because the badges have a magnetic strip so vendors can swipe them and get your contact information." By now I was starting to miss old fashion business cards too. "Ahh, the wonders of technology at work," I thought.
"Sir, you're gonna have to have a talk with that curly haired man over there," the supervisor informed me. Then guess what the curly haired man told me? "It still didn't print?" he asked a bit surprised. "Let me print it from this computer which prints to a printer on the other side of the booth." That didn't help either. While I was at the other side of the booth several more employees attempted to print my badge from their computers to no avail. It was as if some cosmic force of nature for some mysterious reason was preventing my badge, and only my badge, from printing. Or perhaps it was just a software bug. Finally, the curly haired man gave up and advised me to just go upstairs and register from scratch.
As I headed toward the escalator to take me upstairs a security guard blocked my path. "You can't go up there, sir. You need a badge." "But my badge won't print," I pleaded. "Doesn't matter, you need a badge." I took the stairs up instead. I managed to get a computer right away at the same "registration" booth I past by earlier near the front entrance. Soon after I filled out the same form that I completed weeks in advance online and clicked submit, I heard someone call my name. "Phil, here's your badge." Had I not "pre-registered" I'd have gotten my badge in minutes. "Ahh, the wonders of technology at work," I thought.
