That's why you can't bring food or drinks into the library, you hamster felcher!!!!

This comment is spot-on - especially the part about the sense of entitlement. An excellent rant overall. Thank you.

Stranger, I like the way you think!

I often cringe when I hear such an argument, because, well there’s the word "accident."

(Note: I agree that your capped nalgene bottle is low risk, and as far as I’m concerned if it stays in your backpack and you’re not consuming its contents – then it’s about as safe as if it was in a fridge somewhere. I’m just taking issue with that kind of argument in a general way.)

On many an occasion, I’ve told a perfectly Reasonable and Conscientitous Adult “please do not bring any food or beverages into the equipment room. One quick accident will cost thousands to repair.”

The answer is invariably, “Oh, I’ll be careful.”

Disaster strikes and I am left to say “that’s why it’s called an ‘accident’.”

You may not be a rowdy dumbass. You may be Very Careful. But an “accident” is an unexpected happening that is not caused by any willful misconduct on your part.

You might be smart enough to know to keep your beverage covered, to keep it away from a computer – so yes, the possibility of disaster is diminished, but it still exists far more so than if you just followed the rules and didn’t bring it in there altogether.

The last big mess I saw, was when a Very Careful Person, an “I’ll be careful” person, with a covered travel mug, collided with someone who wasn’t watching where she was going. Said collision sent mug flying – big splash! – coffee everywhere (luckily it didn’t get into anything.) Even a Very Careful Person can not account for the dumbassedness of others around them or simply unexpected circumstances (neither of these two were particularly “at fault” for bumping into each other, it was just a random accident.)

Likewise, I saw a Very Careful Person spew a mouthful of coffee onto his computer screen when hit with a very unexpected sneeze. You plan on being careful, but you can’t plan for every unexpected thing.

I’m wondering how shorting out a monitor can bring down the entire library server (did the electricity cut out perhaps?) myself.

Wabbit I’m guessing that the short blew a circuit breaker somewhere and the mini-blackout required the server to be reboot.

My ex’s housemate once overwatered a plant that sat on top of the TV set ( :rolleyes: ) and the resulting short killed the power for their entire floor.