Grab the bus bar, boss!



  • Overpowered -- Grab the bus bar

    It was 1982. A geek (me) and a company vice president for a small map-making company went to an Army munitions plant to plan an installation of computerized mapmaking gear so they could keep track of their facilities.

    With the local artillery colonel as guide, we took a tour of the steam tunnels, into which we would need to run some fiber optic cables as part of our installation. Geek nirvana!

    We emerged from a tunnel into a giant factory room. There was a huge vat of bubbling purple goo there, into which ran two enormous bare copper bus bars. The colonel explained that it was an electroplating bath, and they were refurbishing some big artillery piece.

    And then the mapmaking company VP grabbed one of the bare copper bus bars. He explained that he knew it was only a volt or two, because his last job was in a factory where they did that kind of stuff with auto parts. The geek looked on with horrified amusement; he knew the VP.

    But the artillery colonel started chewing out the VP big time. After hearing that, the geek decided he would keep his hands to himself at all times on this particular job.

    These antics really screwed up that contract. The colonel asked himself, "if the VP is that big a jackass, what will the surveyors and installers be like?" He decided that all our company's people would be escorted by two sergeants at all times when we were on the post. Slowed us down. Took all the profit out of the job.

    The VP got a raise.

    The geek got disgusted and quit.



  • @OllieJones said:

    With the local artillery colonel as guide, we took a tour of the steam tunnels, into which we would need to run some fiber optic cables as part of our installation. Geek nirvana!

    Steam tunnels are geek nirvana? I toured those at my university and I just thought they were cramped and smelly.

    I bet Yami would like them, they're more steampunk than anything.

    @OllieJones said:

    These antics really screwed up that contract. The colonel asked himself, "if the VP is that big a jackass, what will the surveyors and installers be like?"

    The Colonel was 100% right. What kind of jackass walks into someone else's workplace and starts fucking with their shit? It doesn't matter whether or not he "knew" it was safe, he's still fucking with their shit.


  • I survived the hour long Uno hand

    Last weekend at our steampunk gathering I burned myself on hot steam. I'm amazed it took me this long to aquire that particular injury. I should probably not go poking around steam tunnels. Or touching wiring. Or really much of anything. I should probably live in a bubble.





  • @OllieJones said:

    The VP got a raise.

    They always do.

    @OllieJones said:

    The geek got disgusted and quit.

    Amazing: he wasn't fired first.



  • @OllieJones said:

    But the artillery colonel started chewing out the VP big time. After hearing that, the geek decided he would keep his hands to himself at all times on this particular job.

    Why didn't you get in there and defend your master's honor?!



  • @blakeyrat said:

    Steam tunnels are geek nirvana? I toured those at my university and I just thought they were cramped and smelly.

    It's an established fact that you're not a real geek and are completely unable to appreciate geekiness. I mean, come on, you don't even like command lines!


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