Achoo!

I've spent most of the last two days at work cleaning the shop. By "the shop," I mean the area in which we work on computers. Cleaning, in this case, means going through all the donated computers and salvaging their usable parts. Also inspecting most of what's on the shelves to determine what's worth keeping.

After innumerable trips to the dumpster, a buttload of boxes in my car to take to my parents (who are packing to move), and numerous cuts and scrapes on my hands that I don't even remember getting, I have reached a single, shining conclusion: Dust is the enemy of all that is good.

Mind you, I had evidence in this direction to begin with, given that we've lost at least two computers this summer because their vents were so clogged with dust that they overheated. But when I blow the dust out of a single, dirty computer, it does eventually settle. While I was blowing less dust around for the last two days, everything I've handled has been dirty. Everything. I've scrubbed my skin raw and sneezed so much I'm surprised I have any brain cells left. And it's not like I'm allergic to dust, either--it just gets into my nose and irritates it, and like anybody else, I sneeze.

Please dust your computer. Particularly the vents on the back. This has been a public service announcement.