You know what I hate, Mr. Anderson? It's the smell. I feel... saturated by it

[Pagan]

My company's server usually had dust in it. Why? Well, that POS had to run with the case side panels off. Otherwise, it would overheat

Heh. One place I worked, the server was in the cash office....that had no ventilation whatsoever. Combine that with our summers and many was the time that it was over 100F in there. We had to ice down the server or it would crash. And since I was the only one who could tolerate being in there for any amount of time, guess who got to take care of the server, change orders, drawer audits, etc.

- Bugs in systems (dead or LIVE)

There's someone on here that used to work at Blockbuster (I believe) that got a DVD case full of live cockroaches returned one time. I still get nightmares just thinking about that (severe phobia).

[An Haddock]

I saw a computer that actually died of smoke inhalation. The tar killed the fans, which made the computer overheat, and eventually killed the computer. It was in for a cleaning, and it was back when I ran my business. The tar was caked on so thick inside this computer that in areas, you couldn't see metal any more, and you could chip it off the sides of the case, and the fan housings like some horrendous sculpture.

I have no sense of smell, but I'd imagine that it smelled horrid. Come to think of it, my poor dog refused to come near me when I had the computer in my hands (ran the business out of my house) She gave me that "hi, but go away" look she gives you when she knows you're about to do something "mean", like shove a pill down her throat.

I couldn't even save the hard drive, as it was too caked in tar and the vent holes on top and sides were plugged causing a head crash. I just dumpstered the computer and quoted her on a new machine. Poor thing was only a year old, too.

Oh yeah... seen that happen. Usually it's more with laptops, though. Like I had a guy bring a laptop in that is used daily in a hair salon because it was overheating. Pulled the heat sink off (with laptops it usually gets stuck between the fan vent and the heat sink radiator) and pulled a clump of lint out of there that looked like it came from a clothes dryer. It was the third or fourth time in a month I'd done that someone.

So - laptop users - blast the dust out of your vents/fans WEEKLY. A $6 can of air will save you a $150 fan replacement.

[An Haddock]

There's someone on here that used to work at Blockbuster (I believe) that got a DVD case full of live cockroaches returned one time. I still get nightmares just thinking about that (severe phobia).

Jesus. That had to have done that on purpose, right? Could they even crawl inside a sealed DVD case?

[MapGirl]

My biggest reusable bag is full of pet fur. My roomate's cats turned out to like sleeping in it as it hung over the door.

ALL of my bags are covered in cat fur - and I do wash them, it just doesn't help Both cats like to sleep in them, and will drag them all over the house to make nests.

Though I live in an area without baggers at grocery stores, so no one but me has to touch them, I hope that makes it less bad.


As for smells I'd rather not remember, workboots. Dirty workboots. Covered in chemicals, mud, dirt, paint, tar, and more chemicals. If its ever been stepped in, I've seen it stuck to a boot that was getting returned. Never mind the smell from the *inside* of the dirty boots.

A stereo and speaker pair full of earwigs - a mix of living and dead, was one of the grossest things I've had to handle. A GameCube full of (mercifully dead) maggots is right up there too.

[Midorikawa]

A stereo and speaker pair full of earwigs - a mix of living and dead, was one of the grossest things I've had to handle. A GameCube full of (mercifully dead) maggots is right up there too.

...




Augh. How do people do that to electronics? I never got that one.

[MelodiousBubbles]

What's REALLY fun is cracking open a PS2 case to clean it for a friend who happens to smoke a different kind of cigarette quite heavily to find weed resin all through the damn thing. I had to look at them and basically say they were fucked and needed a new console.

Then they asked what they did wrong to break it

The smell... Well, it made me dizzy. Then again, that's what the smell of pot does to me in general.

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

There's someone on here that used to work at Blockbuster (I believe) that got a DVD case full of live cockroaches returned one time. I still get nightmares just thinking about that (severe phobia).

I'm no fan of roaches either but I know overreacting to such a situation serves no one well at all. Sadly, because bugs are not so uncommon occurrence at work we keep a supply of pesticides on hand to deal with it, so help is never far away.

[shogun401]

i had something nasty happen and the shop once. ya see we buy gear and stuff depending on their condition. i bought six dye spring loaded pods they were the opaque ones though. i give the guy his money and take them in back to check them out. turns out he never cleaned the damn things out after he was done doing a game. hello people anyone o nthis site who paintballs knows that the paint is perishable and stinks like hell when it goes bad. i would havew to say the smell is a cross between rotten milk and bad blue cheese.

[42_42_42]

Both of my grandparents smoked heavily. Once a year they would (or someone else in the family would as they got too old to do so) wash all the walls in the house. The rag and bucket water would be brown in no time at all. I swear you'd have to get a new bucket full of water every 2 or 3 square feet that was cleaned.

[Andara Bledin]

I'm no fan of roaches either but I know overreacting to such a situation serves no one well at all.

When they say "case full of roaches," they mean that the case was literally stuffed full of roaches. And it had to have been done on purpose, because there was no reason for any of them to have been in it to begin with.

^-.-^

[Pagan]

I'm no fan of roaches either but I know overreacting to such a situation serves no one well at all. Sadly, because bugs are not so uncommon occurrence at work we keep a supply of pesticides on hand to deal with it, so help is never far away.

You missed where I said I have a phobia. I can't really help "over-reacting" to them. I can't watch "Joe's Apartment" and one episode of the "X-Files" because of it.

Any other bug doesn't bother me. A child-of-the-earth, while creepy, doesn't even really bother me. Centipedes? Again, creepy, but don't make me freeze. Spiders? Hell, I let them roam freely. I only escort large wolf spiders out of my apartment.

[dendawg]

You missed where I said I have a phobia. I can't really help "over-reacting" to them. I can't watch "Joe's Apartment" and one episode of the "X-Files" because of it.

Those are nothing, compared to the final segment of "Creepshow."

[Pagan]

Those are nothing, compared to the final segment of "Creepshow."

If I can't watch the others, how the hell do you think I'm ever going to watch that? It's making me twitch just reading it.

[RestaurantDude]

I was asked to fix a computer by a coworker of mine, back in my restaurant days. I, being a geek, and not minding a bit of cash on the side, agreed.

She brings the computer in the next day, and i tossed it in the trunk of my car, and brought it home. Took the panels off, and the inside was FULL of tobacco tar. Every surface was throughly coated in that vile slime.

After calling and providing an estimate (this was going to be expensive), i ended up disassembling the machine, down to it's basest components, and cleaning every last bit. Took three days of cleaning, and the replacement of all the fans and the floppy drive to get that machine going again.


:sigh: That poor machine.

[mharbourgirl]

I've smelled a lot of really horrible things in my work experience.

Cleaning the kitchens in a university dorm at the end of the semester was moderately horrifying.

Emptying the grease trap of the grill at a fast food restaurant. The smell is indescribable, but thoroughly nauseating.

Worked for a seafood broker for a few months. Encountered fish I didn't know existed, and smelled 'em too.

But the smell to end all smells occurred at one job I only lasted four days at. A duck and goose hatchery. We had to check the incubators daily for spoiled eggs, and let me tell you an egg that has all kinds of purple and yellow mottling is pretty obviously spoiled. However. Great care must be taken to place the most colourful eggs in the big bucket. The pressure inside a rotten egg can be pretty intense, and eggshell makes marvelous shrapnel. I still have a couple of scars on my arm and one on my chin because I didn't get the lid on the bucket in time. Which was fine, as the bucket was convenient to throw up in when the smell hit me. Then I got the lid on, just in time to avoid a shower of eggshell and goop as more eggs exploded. Yeah. 4 days. I don't recommend that job unless you actually have no sense of smell, because I don't know how anyone can get used to that.