ARE computers flammable? I feel like they’re probably not?
This depends entirely on how much uncooked rice you have shoved in the floppy drive.
…Ok I feel like there’s a story behind this.
There is, yes!
After I quit school, I worked briefly as a computer repair tech. Going to people’s houses or businesses, fixing their various bugs, etc. While I would rapidly decide that field was not for me because of the one businessman who needed multiple “cup holder” replacements (you know, you push that button and that plastic holder thing with the hole comes out … I think it is technically call the “Cup Depository Tray”? CD, right?), he is not the most memorable encounter. No, that goes to one of the nicest ladies I ever encountered on this job.
She called us out because her computer had stopped turning on, and wouldn’t even make a noise when she tried to push the button. One day it had just shut off while she was using it and stubbornly refused to come back on, and could we please see what we could do to fix it?
So I go out there expecting some wire had gotten loose and there was no power getting to the machine or something. It happens sometimes if a machine gets banged around enough, or if someone fiddles with it wrong or is careless putting it together, computers are finicky like that. But as soon as I get to the box itself, I know it isn’t that simple, because of the smell. I have smelled computers with dust all up in them, that isn’t uncommon, but this is just vile and, more importantly, entirely new.
I am now more curious than afraid, so I open it up and there is a mass of goopy off-white mush spilling all over everything, parts of it are burnt to circuits, there is almost nothing untouched by the mass. But by far the worst off is the A drive. That is the obvious source of the problem, and the thing has … not “exploded”, but more burst from the pressure of whatever this stuff was.
So I ask the woman if she had used the floppy drive recently and noticed any problems, and she says no, not until the whole machine stopped working. But I come to find out what she used it for.
Turns out this woman was a devout Shinto practitioner and believed that her computer (among other things) had a soul that needed to be respected an honored. Which, fair enough. But she chose to honor it by feeding it a grain of rice every time she had to wake it up and disturb its rest. For years this kindhearted woman had been putting a grain of rice into the A drive every time she turned it on or woke the thing up from sleep mode. And eventually that was enough pressure to break the drive and start spilling out onto the internal bits, where the heat melted it all and caused no end of problems.
After that it was a simple enough thing to explain that there are better ways to honor and take care of your computer’s needs, what with virus scans or defrags and the like, but that poor device was entirely lost.
I guess the moral of the story here is that you can try your best to be good and still wind up hurting people? Maybe? Or else it’s that even the most horrible out of context problem isn’t nearly as frustrating as one middle aged jerk who won’t freaking listen when you tell him that CD trays are not for your dang coffee cups!
The end~
ok but im so taken with the fact that she was feeding her computer to apologise for waking it up?? thats so sweet????
I’m reminded of a story my friend told me years ago. He used to do in-house support at IBM and while I don’t remember all the details, one of the cases I heard about was an employee bringing in a company laptop with a slice of bologna in the optical drive. Apparently the employee’s toddler had decided the laptop was hungry and needed a snack. Gotta admit, the kid’s spacial perception was pretty spot-on.
Again, well-meaning and strangely charming, but ultimately pretty damned terrible for the hardware.
It’s finally, finally here *___* After months of work, Here’s my first comic ever, “Ozymandias”, based on the poem by Percy Shelley. If you want to support me, you can buy a hi-res PDF of the comic, along with some sketches, a very small 1 page tutorial, and the full-res PSD on gumroad for 2 dollars here:
Shoutout to all my closeted trans and nonbinary followers. You and your gender are still valid, even if others are not aware. I hope you stay safe and have a nice day.
so i’m still thinking about the update and how dex’s reaction to the double dibs is …not just a joke. like yes it’s defs part of the enemies to friends to lovers thing that nursey and dex seem to have going on and it was humorous (i laughed) but i also keep coming back to this specific piece of dialogue right here:
and like the “–i can’t.” gosh i just…idk if i’ll say this right but those two words /kill/ me. cause this is dex still coming to terms with himself, still grappling with that internalized homophobia, imo at least.
we’ve seen this sort of develop as we’ve seen more of dex: there’s been that baking euphemism that first popped up in “tadpoles” when he offensively uses baking as a metaphor for being gay in reference to bitty. in the tweets, he had that moment when he asked if “1 in 4 maybe more” was really true, which i think he was talking both about others (the internalized homophobia is alive and well my friends) as well as himself in that moment (another way of him asking “am i gay?” without knowing how to).
but then he’s also shown to have regular convos with shitty talking about politics and gender and whatever else comes up. that baking metaphor comes up again: he bakes at hausgiving (“my brother won’t let me live this down”). he’s rethinking this world-view he’s been fed (his brother not letting him living baking and what it represents down suggests there’s a lot of homophobia at home) and challenging his position, starting to think differently.
then in the year 3 tweets the baking euphemism yet again: dex likes baking, he’s good at it, it’s something that makes sense to him, he helps bitty out in the kitchen regularly. while a very indirect way of saying it (maybe i’m reading too much into it lol), but if we follow dex’s original comparison of baking=gay, ngozi seems to be suggesting to the reader that dex is now no longer just accepting others, but that he is also gay and starting to accept himself. he’s starting to be okay with himself, and some of that internalized homophobia is chipping away.
that brings us to “dibs flip” which most people have interpreted as dex and nursey reacting to rooming with their crushes which isn’t a faulty interpretation imo. ngozi sarcastically suggested she doesn’t ship the frogs, and she’s talked about nursey and dex’s relationship in the same coy way she has talked about zimbits before they were canon. (whether nurseydex happens before bitty graduates is debatable but i think ngozi wants us to pair the two romantically). so anyhoo what i’m saying is: nursey and dex like-like each other lmao.
and dex’s reaction here screams some form of that remaining internalized homophobia. “–i can’t”: he can’t deal with these emotions he’s feeling – he hasn’t dealt with them cause it’s scary and it’s one thing to hypothetically be into dudes…it’s quite another to specifically want to kiss one and to have to live with him and see him all the time everyday.
this is way long what happened but i just. wow!! i feel a lot about dex learning to love himself especially in regards to this update cause he’s getting there but he’s still scared and unsure and boy!!! okay
