Short and Sweet WTF

Warning: This post includes a blinking gif. You can read it without the gif here.

Start Here
—User Manual

Epson. (The 21st century, one would hope). Quick Guide and User Manual. Somewhere, Hellifiknow: Printed in Thailand.

Although fiction seems to have a monopoly on literature that makes its readers go ‘WTF’, the realms of nonfiction are fully capable of holding their own—even, or perhaps especially, the most mundane sorts of nonfiction: the user manual. I was reminded of this fact today when attempting to realign my printer, so as to prevent the shipping label I was attempting to print from looking like a robot had attempted abstract art. When I was unsuccessful, I naturally consulted my useless—excuse me, user manual, as well as the (not actually) quick-start guide. Neither document offered any elucidation whatsoever, and only went into as much detail as was necessary to state the obvious.* I eventually solved my problem through a combination of trial and error, YouTube videos, and swearing at whatever copyeditor thought it acceptable to unleash these articles of literature upon the world.

How it got published: Better than nothing

Reviewed: 08.17.2016
Published: 08.18.2016

_{*This post was updated on 09.10.2016 with a minor edit for clarity and the addition of the animated gif.  The sentence originally read “Neither document offered any elucidation whatsoever, although one did direct me to the online, but for Mac users such as myself, equally useless, user manual.”  HoWTFP regrets the oversight, and wonders how the post was effin’ published.}