No you CANNOT climb on my sneeze guard!

[bean]

Today a woman and her children came up to my counter to order some pizza. We have a glass wall about neck high (more to function as a sneeze guard than anything) - one of the panels is really loose and can come crashing down really easy. Yeah I know, it needs to be fixed.

Well lo and behold, one of her *things, er, kids, is trying to pull himself up on it! I immediately stopped what I was doing and told both of them "I'm sorry, but that panel is VERY loose, he needs to get off of that immediately, I don't want him to get hurt". The boy immediately stopped, gave me a nasty look, and went off to sulk - she apologized and said that he listens to strangers, but not always to her. I thanked her and also apologized and told her I just don't want him to get hurt. Hey, might as well be diplomatic about it.

She was nice about it, and I tried to be polite about it. I've knocked that panel loose before just wiping it down (thankfully I caught it before it hit the floor when that happened!)

Another customer today was a little short and kept grabbing on to the same glass panel. I didn't say anything to her, but I made sure she saw me getting the windex out before she walked off, and immediately started cleaning her damned fingerprints off of it before she had even walked off. Hello passive aggressive, but she was being a total bitch to me.

edit: ergh, I'm a pretty offensive person in general

[pbmods]

You could just run lines of copper wire across the sneeze guard glass and run a mild electrical current through them....

[OT: The other day I had to crack open a one-time-use camera in a black bag. Since I couldn't see what I was doing, I accidentally touched a couple of solder points on the circuit board. Holy CRAP did that hurt! I had no idea a AA battery could pack that much punch!]

[bean]

Oh god please don't tempt me

It already has 5 friggin 300 watt heat lamps pointed at it, you'd think the burn would be enough.

[AFpheonix]

Little kids that climb on my counter usually get a Mean Person Look and a "Are you allowed to climb on counters at home?"


After which they look rather sheepish and clamber down.

[Bliss]

[OT: The other day I had to crack open a one-time-use camera in a black bag. Since I couldn't see what I was doing, I accidentally touched a couple of solder points on the circuit board. Holy CRAP did that hurt! I had no idea a AA battery could pack that much punch!]

Did it feel really bad? leave your thumb numb or burned? even if it didn't burn you (you where lucky) you most surely discharged the flash's capacitor on yourself, it's the part that charges with a high voltage (and thankfully a low amperage) to fire off the flash, you wouldn't feel an AA battery with your hands, and only softly with your tongue (I test them that way, heck I used to test 9Vs with my tongue). I once did something similar. I was dissasembling a dissposable for parts, with my victorinox (made of metal) and the flash was charged. zzzap. I had the bad luck that I had a single point of entry (I was making contact with only the tip of a finger instead of my whole hand) so since the point of entry was so small the shock actually left me a circular small burn that lasted for two weeks there.

[ladyklack]

[The other day I had to crack open a one-time-use camera in a black bag. Since I couldn't see what I was doing, I accidentally touched a couple of solder points on the circuit board. Holy CRAP did that hurt! I had no idea a AA battery could pack that much punch!]

Those things really do hurt. The same thing happened to me a couple of times during my five years in the photo lab. The worst part is you can actually take the battery out and there is still enough charge left in the camera for one good zap.

[Becks]

It already has 5 friggin 300 watt heat lamps pointed at it, you'd think the burn would be enough.

NOTHING is enough to stop some people.

[tendomentis]

I used to take apart everything when I was younger, and I took apart my camera when it stopped working because I wanted to understand how the flash worked.

I had the half-sense to disconnect the power supply first, but that was my introduction the fact that flash capacitors retain their charge even after the power is disconnected. Left a neat burn mark on my right thumb.

I was in my weapons building phase then, so I immediately started trying to build a launcher that could charge and fire charged capacitor pellets....

[Dreamstalker]

Ooooh, shiny zappy weapon (I want one). I remember being fascinated by the plasma(?) globe in the electricity theater at the science museum (I still am, except now I try to figure out what would repel it and if it's possible to have all but a small section of the globe do so).

I managed to zap myself through USB once. I had my camera in my left hand and plugged the other end of the cable into my computer...ZORCH, I jump up and send my chair and myself flying and the computer reboots (it was fine after that, and the USB port in question has been working fine since). My right index finger and thumb stung like hell for about a week (my right hand is my dominant hand, so that was all manner of fun).

<topic> I was going to suggest something like pbmods did (rear-car-window glass with the embedded heating element, except find a way to make the filaments invisible). Maybe a localized burn would get their attention...or not. They'd probably try to sue.

[Linda]

I've burnt the skin off my thumb from the capacitor in a single use camera. I had to flick it across the lab to get it off and it took the skin with it. Ouch!
I've also had to have someone knock one out of my hands whe I was having a shock from it. My whole arm was spasming wildly!

[XCashier]

Little kids that climb on my counter usually get a Mean Person Look and a "Are you allowed to climb on counters at home?"

After which they look rather sheepish and clamber down.

That's a good one! I used to have to deal with stupid parents who put their child on the counters at work and absolutely could not comprehend that a four-foot drop to a hard tile floor would not be healthy for their child. (Or the fact that other people don't want their child's butt where their food was going to be placed! )

[Rahmota]

You know you could always run an electric cattle fence along the top. Just make sure you have it set down low. I've hit a few in my time and got sent for a loop. Also make sure you have plenty of leg clearance before trying to climb over one. I can assure you that is not a pleasant sensation.