The Promised Story of Work Last Week
So, I promised I'd tell about this over the weekend, but I'm running late. So sue me.
Last wednesday started normal. I got up, showered, checked my e-mail/lj friends page/webcomics, ate breakfast, and walked to work. When I got to work, I got to the third floor (where the lab I work in is) and found the thick fire doors closed. This had happened once several weeks before when a fire alarm had gone off (due to stupid placement of a smoke detector, basically). I figured this was something similar, and was happy that it appeared to have been dealt with before I got into work so I didn't have to wait outside. Passed several workmen on my way down the hall. Again, thought nothing of it, that happens sometimes.
Once I actually got to the computer lab I work in, I did notice several things. Several computer parts that had been sitting on the floor had been moved onto my desk and were in my way, and my computer was off (which never happens; they're unix-based machines and never have to be turned off). I also noticed the carpet looked washed, and figured that explained why stuff had been moved off the floor. Then I saw that there was still some black gunk on the carpet.
Which is when one of the guys who works in the same lab turned to me (I had been voicing my discoveries aloud) and said, "no, you don't understand, there was a fire across the hall last night." Apparently the fire had been put out quickly by the sprinkler system, but then no one could figure out how to turn the sprinklers off. While they hadn't gone off in the room we were in, it was obvious water had come in under the door and made the carpet wet. This is when I made the connection that my computer, which was not turning on, sits on the ground. As the other two people who work in the lab regularly came in, we found that of the six computers set up in the lab, three were on the ground, and of those, mine simply didn't turn on and the others wouldn't get past errors on the start-up screen. I went to find the guy who was in charge of the computers in the lab, and brought him back to take a look. While I was gone, the other people in the lab realized that there was a waterline on the outside of the computer cases. Apparently, there had been an inch of standing water in our room at some point the previous night, and the computers had been sitting in it.
Well, I went down to the public computer lab on the second floor, to find that the computers were working but there was definitely water damage on the ceiling and floor tiles, and many of the chairs and desks were wet. The computers were also a pain to work with, due to them running windows 2000 and my computer running some version of solaris (unix-based) and the program that allowed me to connect to the unix network (which houses the programs and data I had been using) was rather stupid. However, while I was down there, I heard the whole story of what had happened from other people who had found their way to the lab. Apparently one of the labs on the third floor had been studying a crystal, and had heated it up to 1500 degrees C in a furnace. At about 2 am, a wire connected to the furnace broke, and part of the crystal exploded out into the room. Directly into a cardboard box. The sprinkler system had come on immediately and doused the resulting flame, but the charred remnants of the box managed to block the drain that would have let the water escape. The water had flooded a section of the third floor, dripped down through the second and first floors, and pooled in places in the basement and subbasement, including the second lab of the people who had been working on the crystal.
So i got very little done wednesday and thursday. By thursday the building had taken on the look of one in a war zone - tiles missing everywhere, the trim removed, furnature pulled away from the wall and extra stuff piled anywhere someone could find a place to put it, industrial-strength carpet cleaners and dehumidifiers everywhere, the combined smell from their motors making me wonder if the smoke or heat sensors would trigger again.
Friday wasn't much better, but we attempted to reassemble the lab I work in, and found that while the other two computers that were on the ground had small shorts in them and were probably worthless, only my power strip was fried and the computer worked again with a new one. So friday afternoon was back to business as usual despite the disaster-area atmosphere
But yeah, other than that, I've been hanging out, rehearsed a whole lot last week for the A2BC trip to the Czech Republic, and we leave this wednesday. I spent time with Lauren every day over the weekend, since I didn't have time during the week due to rehearsal and I'll be gone for a week and a half starting in 2 days. Dinner at Raja Rani's and going to see 'Terminal' (very good, by the way) on Friday, fireworks with her mom and grandparents followed by the late showing of Spiderman 2 (also very good, it was my second time seeing it and I don't normal go see movies twice in theaters) on saturday, and a 4th of July barbecue over here yesterday.
And I think that's about it. Hope everyone is having a good summer, I'm suddenly feeling like there's not all that much left of it.
Last wednesday started normal. I got up, showered, checked my e-mail/lj friends page/webcomics, ate breakfast, and walked to work. When I got to work, I got to the third floor (where the lab I work in is) and found the thick fire doors closed. This had happened once several weeks before when a fire alarm had gone off (due to stupid placement of a smoke detector, basically). I figured this was something similar, and was happy that it appeared to have been dealt with before I got into work so I didn't have to wait outside. Passed several workmen on my way down the hall. Again, thought nothing of it, that happens sometimes.
Once I actually got to the computer lab I work in, I did notice several things. Several computer parts that had been sitting on the floor had been moved onto my desk and were in my way, and my computer was off (which never happens; they're unix-based machines and never have to be turned off). I also noticed the carpet looked washed, and figured that explained why stuff had been moved off the floor. Then I saw that there was still some black gunk on the carpet.
Which is when one of the guys who works in the same lab turned to me (I had been voicing my discoveries aloud) and said, "no, you don't understand, there was a fire across the hall last night." Apparently the fire had been put out quickly by the sprinkler system, but then no one could figure out how to turn the sprinklers off. While they hadn't gone off in the room we were in, it was obvious water had come in under the door and made the carpet wet. This is when I made the connection that my computer, which was not turning on, sits on the ground. As the other two people who work in the lab regularly came in, we found that of the six computers set up in the lab, three were on the ground, and of those, mine simply didn't turn on and the others wouldn't get past errors on the start-up screen. I went to find the guy who was in charge of the computers in the lab, and brought him back to take a look. While I was gone, the other people in the lab realized that there was a waterline on the outside of the computer cases. Apparently, there had been an inch of standing water in our room at some point the previous night, and the computers had been sitting in it.
Well, I went down to the public computer lab on the second floor, to find that the computers were working but there was definitely water damage on the ceiling and floor tiles, and many of the chairs and desks were wet. The computers were also a pain to work with, due to them running windows 2000 and my computer running some version of solaris (unix-based) and the program that allowed me to connect to the unix network (which houses the programs and data I had been using) was rather stupid. However, while I was down there, I heard the whole story of what had happened from other people who had found their way to the lab. Apparently one of the labs on the third floor had been studying a crystal, and had heated it up to 1500 degrees C in a furnace. At about 2 am, a wire connected to the furnace broke, and part of the crystal exploded out into the room. Directly into a cardboard box. The sprinkler system had come on immediately and doused the resulting flame, but the charred remnants of the box managed to block the drain that would have let the water escape. The water had flooded a section of the third floor, dripped down through the second and first floors, and pooled in places in the basement and subbasement, including the second lab of the people who had been working on the crystal.
So i got very little done wednesday and thursday. By thursday the building had taken on the look of one in a war zone - tiles missing everywhere, the trim removed, furnature pulled away from the wall and extra stuff piled anywhere someone could find a place to put it, industrial-strength carpet cleaners and dehumidifiers everywhere, the combined smell from their motors making me wonder if the smoke or heat sensors would trigger again.
Friday wasn't much better, but we attempted to reassemble the lab I work in, and found that while the other two computers that were on the ground had small shorts in them and were probably worthless, only my power strip was fried and the computer worked again with a new one. So friday afternoon was back to business as usual despite the disaster-area atmosphere
But yeah, other than that, I've been hanging out, rehearsed a whole lot last week for the A2BC trip to the Czech Republic, and we leave this wednesday. I spent time with Lauren every day over the weekend, since I didn't have time during the week due to rehearsal and I'll be gone for a week and a half starting in 2 days. Dinner at Raja Rani's and going to see 'Terminal' (very good, by the way) on Friday, fireworks with her mom and grandparents followed by the late showing of Spiderman 2 (also very good, it was my second time seeing it and I don't normal go see movies twice in theaters) on saturday, and a 4th of July barbecue over here yesterday.
And I think that's about it. Hope everyone is having a good summer, I'm suddenly feeling like there's not all that much left of it.