logomancer | Nov. 18th, 2004

Someone showed up today for fire safety inspection. He was looking around the room, and saw an extension cord I plugged one small DC transformer (6V @ 100 mA) into to get to a power strip it was barely unable to reach. He saw it, told robertliguori to remove it, and said they'd be back in 30 days to see it wasn't reinstalled. He then handed me a note. Things would've been fine, except for the bold print on the second paragraph:

As a result of the [fire code] violation, you have been referred to the university judicial system and corrective action is required.

So. Yeah. I'm boned, I think. Two JRs in two weeks (let alone one semester, year, or university career, not sure how many they let you have before they decide you're a Diseased Criminal Pervert and kick you out) will not be incentive for the Judicial Affairs Office to consider me a model citizen, or even a citizen, period. It didn't say what kind of sanction would be taken, but given my past record of "criminal behavior", I imagine they're more apt to throw the book at me. Bloody authoritarians.

And it's a stupid rule, anyway. No extension cords whatsoever? They provide a maximum of 10 outlets throughout the room. But of course you need more than two outlets at various locations sometimes (ie, the computers and the TV station). Power strips are available, but then you have transformer blocks, and they take up at least three outlets on one of those, thus cutting your effective use of that strip in half. I can understand the rationale behind the policy -- to keep people from overloading the extension cord, since that is a genuine fire hazard -- but one that was barely loaded? It doesn't make sense. All because some bureaucrat in RDP thought this would reduce dorm fires. As if the fire department comes much down here anyway for anything else except the pulls that seem to be a weekly routine in Pritchard, AJ, and Lee.

Maybe I can find a bigger strip over break. In the meanwhile, I need to get in touch with this person to see what kind of sanction they are looking to impose WRT this.