Making Connections

"You'll cry. You're gonna cry. You always cry, see? You're crying." - Jecht, FFX

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It's my biggest link to the outside world, to friends and family at home.

And I can't open the box.

The dorm rooms at Lander Hall (and the rest of the dorms at the University of Washington) don't have wireless internet; you have to bring it in using ethernet cables and a hub. Unfortunately for me, the scissors I bought yesterday are nowhere to be found, and both my room-mates are out to breakfast, meaning I have to pull the cable out of a clamshell with my bare hands. Whoohoo.

Seriously, these things should be banned! They're dangerous. After trying to weaken the plastic by bending the casing in several different directions, I tried filing at it with a dinner knife. Still no good -- wait, there's a chip in the top, now! I pulled at it, and it began to tear... in a small semicircle. So much for that.

I start looking around the edges, turning it over to see if there's any way to get this open. Then I see the label. "Perforated for easy opening".

As usual, I'm blind to the obvious.

Not that it was easy, but at least I didn't have to pull out the dreaded chainsaw. The plastic shredded and ripped, usually not with the perforation, but it eventually gave way. I came out of it with a little plastic cut on my right hand, and a lightly punctured thumb on the left.

Problem solved! Next one to solve: what on earth do I do for lunch?

-Nathan Armstrong