POWER SURGE STORY

AS TOLD BY DAVID NINOMIYA

At my old job, we had to replace a printer, and it was attached to a really big surge protector.  To change the plugs, I had to crawl under the table and unplug the existing printer.  However, the power cord is stuck to the surge.  I mean like REALLY stuck.  Anyway, so I'm down there, pulling and pulling for like 2 minutes with nothing to show for it.  I'm not sure what to do because brute force isn't working, so I try to find a tool to pry it off.

In a misguided stroke of genius, I stupidly pull out my pocket knife, and try to force it out of the jack.  Stupid me, I forget about electricity currents, so my knife hits the metal part of the 3-pronged outlet and it short circuits the surge protector.  My knife has a black, charred part to this day.  Let this be a warning, unplug stuff before messing with them.

Anyway, that actually does loosen it, and I pull out the cord and try to plug the new printer in.  Unfortunately the surge protector starts making all these funky beeps, and my bosses hear this.

Did I mention, this is my first day on the job?  So yeah, not wanting to get fired on my first day of work, I make up some excuse, that, maybe the power from the new printer is taking too much energy, but I'll try to fix that somehow.  This buys me some time while I try to figure out how to solve the real problem, I short circuited it.  I figure it's just pulling it out of the wall socket and plugging it back in.  Didn't work..

I spend the next 15 minutes trying to read the manual and stuffs, didn't see the reset button the first time, so I try looking at all the manual's options and stuff, but to no avail.

So finally, as I'm about to give up, out of nowhere, behind another cord in the power surge, I see a small button.  It was a dusty power surge, so I didn't see the button.  I push it, then it finally stops beeping.  I then stand up courageously, and tell my bosses everything is fine =)


 
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