(3:26:55 PM) Nat: posit:
(3:27:06 PM) Nat: I get quarters from the bank expressly for laundry
(3:27:20 PM) Nat: ergo they lose all cash value to me as soon as I withdraw them from the bank
(3:27:26 PM) Nat: THERFORE
(3:27:45 PM) Nat: they should stop minting "quarter dollar" on them and instead replace it with the text "LAUNDRY TOKEN"
(3:28:07 PM) Nat: they can still be worth 25 cents in other contexts
(3:28:14 PM) Nat: but at least we'll be able to laugh when we get them from the bank
(3:28:17 PM) Nat: QED.
Nat,
ReplyDeleteI have a good one for you...
My apartment complex has two laundry centers. Since the units come with washer/dryer hookups, and folks seem big about rental appliances around here, they don't get used all that often, and I usually have them to myself.
One center, the newer one, is coin operated. I don't use that one because it is far away. The older, original one, has been converted to use smartcards and an electronic credit card charging system. Problem is, every single Sunday morning, the charging machine turns itself off. I have to call the servicing company, and me and the same woman I talk to every weekend chat while she puts in the service order to (presumably) have a technician turn it back on remotely. Must be cheaper than fixing the darn thing. ;)
quarters, for laundry? no thanks. i have no real idea how old my washer and dryer are, but i think i've invested a couple hours and $25 in parts keeping them running over the past 10 years. quarters are for arcades and soda machines.
ReplyDeleteas for josh's weekly problem, it's probably a distant cousin of the elevators at my office. every 4th week i have to be in at 5:30am. before 7am, the elevators require a card for access. they've got a fairly random call order, but if you get the freight elevator (1 of the 3), you're screwed, as for some reason during card-access hours it won't stop on my floor. it's either take the stairs (oddly, no card needed), or send the freight elevator off someplace else, then call another. messed up, huh?
-GMT
Believe me, I'd rather have a debit card of some sort or my own facilities. One more year of this third-world Hellhole, though, and I'm off to a place that is apportioned with the basic necessities. Also fewer screaming children god I hate my neighbors.
ReplyDeleteWe don't have any comical union-regulated electronics at work or here at the apartments, but I can tell you that the main door to Taliaferro likes to reset to locked 24/7 every now and then. It seems like it's a couple months between resets, but there it goes. People will block it open with a box, but nobody ever calls it in, apparently.
Oh and Josh, I'm sure you remember the old days where every slight jar to the Francis Scott Key electrical system resulted in the fire doors closing.
Nat,
ReplyDeleteI do remember those stupid fire doors. They were almost hilarious. Flicker...slam. I also remember the doors in Taliaferro doing that occasionally, especially right after they finished the renovation.
Did they ever fix the elevator from hell in Art-Soc?
- Josh
where exactly are you referring to as a third world hellhole?
ReplyDeletei've got odd references to elevators at college park as well, tho move application than technical function. former friend and i used to, on occasion, eat lunch in the elevator along the side of the union that went down to the (at the time, not cut in half and vandalized with neon) bowling alley. last i heard she's a middle school english teacher, wonder if her students will end up learning that behavior as well as whatever the county recommends teaching these days.
oh yeah - finally sold the last of my nikon gear that the Girl didn't claim, and even more amusing, finally got a suitable replacement for my ancient g4/1g ibook. typing this on a brand new macbook. now, what to do with an ancient machine like the ibook that's over 400 days uptime at the moment?
-GMT
For a good laugh use the elevator in the Suth Campus Dining Hall. Used to drop you the last six inches and launch you the first six inches.
ReplyDeleteGod only knows which elevator is which in terms of your references - I barely recognize the inside of that building now from what it looked like when I started at Maryland 10 years ago. You could do worse than lunch in an elevator there, though - the tens of thousands of special groups that have to eat there make it unbearable about 7 or 8 times out of ten. I used to prefer taking the s.o. up to a window overlook in a stairwell; now, I'll go there by myself sometimes just because nobody will bother you.
ReplyDeleteThe elevator in ASY is not in any danger of ever working correctly. It'll take a buildingwide renovation before they gut that thing and replace it with something that functions at 100%; that said, the elevator in Tawes was not replaced in that renovation and they had two years to think about it. Despite the fancy wood paneling and the nice carpet, the idiot faculty in the writing programs still think of it as a freight elevator, often going so far as to ask where the other elevators are (difficulty: there are none).
BTW - I'm sure our next round of building-related fun will come with the *shudder* network refresh project. KEY was supposed to have been finished in November, initially. Then that was pushed back to February, since the contractors didn't start until the second week of the semester. Then it was "..." because they forgot about us, then at some point they started TLF and told us we'd be grouped in with TLF on the switchover. Meanwhile, here we are, approaching a year of having hangtags on our doors and no progress is being made in either building. I have half a mind to passive-aggressively mail OIT the hangtags i have from the meeting with a note that says "I don't think we need these anymore, right?"
Anyway, I'm not sure we need them to try to switch us over - rumor has it they've been plugging in the equipment in the closets incorrectly and giving newly switched customers a big fat "Network Adapter is not connected to media" or whatever.
the elevator i refer to had an exterior entrance on the side of the building facing what at least used to be called parking garage 1. no idea if either is still there the way they change shit at that place.
ReplyDeleteso, question for the week - I have a Leica IIIf, a Konica Hexar AF, a Hasselblad 500c/m, and a Yashica MAT 124G - which is the least terrible to photograph roller derby? yes, i know, the 'correct' answer would probably be 'sell a couple of those and buy a dslr', but i find zero fun in that. selling for other gear, sure, but it MUST be film. thoughts?
-GMT
Naw, everybody knows the correct answer is "sell the bodies and buy a micro 4/3 and use the lenses from ALL of them for that"
ReplyDeleteBut that's not "fun" that's "a lot of work for not much payoff."
I'd probably try my hand at the Leica, but I still enjoy trying to use my Pentax MX for things. Pre-focus and hope for the best, man, that's why they invented commodity 35mm film.
Which rollerderby you going to? I could google but you know? It's raining and I'm listening to terrible prog metal and commenting on a blog, i'm totally hip but too hip for google.
yeah..... i think i'll pass on the micro 4/3 deal, for about a zillion reasons. sure, you can get some nice shots with one, and they look great onscreen, but film just plain rules for prints in my part of the world.
ReplyDeleteas well, i could use the leica glass on a u4/3, and if i were truly stupid, probably the zeiss 80 from the hasselblad with the leaf shutter on bulb, but the Konica and Yashica are fixed-lens cameras so no luck there. the Konica would usually be the best bet for low light, having a very nice 35/2 with a leaf shutter and no mirror along with autofocus, but i dunno. this will require actual decent shutter speeds, and selective focus isn't something i trust it so much for. so yeah, probably the leica, tho again, focus will be a bitch as it's not new enough (1951, misses by 2 years) to have a combined rangefinder/viewfinder window. i could cheat and use flash, at which point either of the big square things would work other than being slow. we'll see, leica definitely gets the first shot.
the Girl is following the dc rollergirls, with the intent of making it to tryouts probably next time around. so yeah, i pretty much HAVE to show up with a camera, huh?
prog metal? if your metal is progressive, or COURSE it sucks - it's going in the wrong direction!
-GMT