Doom 3 as PSA

[elfs]

Every morning, I make coffee. I use a blade chopper to chop the beans into something vaguely resembling a coarse drip grind and then prepare it in a french press. Some days I make decaf, some days I make the real stuff. I'm learning to live with my addiction without letting it rule me, and we seem to have reached a compromise.

I like very oily beans, so after tapping out what I can from the chopper into the press, I'll reach in with one finger and scoop out the dusty residue that collects along the stainless steel sides of the chopper bowl. Every time I do this, I'm habituated to pulling the electrical cord out of the wall, lest the chopper mysteriously start up on its own and injure me.

Every time I do this, I have a flashback to the scene in Doom 3 where you find a recording from some poor sap, reporting on how a machine grabbed someone else on his team and started mangling the victim's arm, and kept doing so even after they unplugged the machine (spooky!).

I don't know why that serves as my PSA. After all, his machine kept working without power. But it is what reminds me to unplug dangerous machinery before sticking my hand into the works.

Comments

[featheredfrog.livejournal.com]

I have a food processor like that. Of course it's because I reversed polarity on the safety interlock switch when the hopper "let it work" shaft broke.

I even put a label on it "Remove Power before opening!" I've come too near joining the seven-finger society too often to chance things like this.

[wendor.livejournal.com]

I think you're safe as long as you remember not to flip the switch on the back from "Normal" to "Evil" (or am I the only one whose appliances have that?)

[qtplatypus.livejournal.com]

The caffine addicts I live with swear that a burr grinder is fair better an option then a blade chopper, though he is preparing espresso so different factors may be involved.

[gromm.livejournal.com]

My guess is that PSA is some psychological acronym that I'm not familiar with. Even Google couldn't find anything better than "Public Service Announcement" and I had to dig to find that one.

[pieforeveryone.livejournal.com]

You might be overthinking that one. "Remember kids, when dealing with evil appliances, unplugging them just ISN'T enough. *The More You Know*"

[srmalloy.livejournal.com]

Burr grinders don't raise the temperature of the beans as much to get them to the same level of grind. For the vast majority of coffee drinkers, this isn't going to make a difference, because the taste change is subtle, and they wouldn't be buying beans that it would make a difference with.