Lifts Again
I had another run in with a lift today, in the same building that has ethereal pings, and it got me to thinking.
While in an elevator I like to try and do something constructive, like read something, or check my diary, or write a text message. And today was like any other: I stepped into the elevator - once I had figured out which one was actually on my floor - and then proceeded to do something vaguely useful. I heard the ‘ping’ and the undecipherable announcement as to which floor I was on, and walked out. Only to find that I was on the first floor, and not the third. Thankfully the person walking into the elevator called out after me, otherwise I would have had to do something horrible like wait for longer, or maybe even walk!
The main reason I didn’t really click that I was on the wrong floor was that every single floor in that building looks exactly the same. Getting out of the lifts you could be on any floor in the building. It’s not until you find the floor number until you realise your error. Only problem is that the floor number is brushed aluminium, and mounted on a stucco wall painted grey. How the heck am I meant to see that before the doors close on me for ever?
I realise that architects and the like have trouble with designing buildings. Hell, as far as I’m concerned I’ll leave it to them! But you’d think the interior designer (do they have interior designers for office blocks? Or do they just use lots of brushed aluminium and glass, and fill the rest with grey paint?), or someone with sense would say “Hey, this number is hard to read, maybe we should backlight it, or make it white, or some other damned sensible thing.”
With all these Occupational Health and Safety requirements around these days (half of them superfluous I reckon), surely there’s one for “well presented/lighted floor numbers”? Or maybe I need to start paying attention whilst in elevators…
August 29th, 2006 at 11:01 pm
I really don’t see the point of having elevator access to the first floor at all, and don’t get me started on the mezzanine. Maybe they could have it so that you need prox card elevator access to these floors so that disabled students could use it, same as you need a prox card to get to level 10.
Solves the problem all at once.
Oh, and yeah, pay more attention. Heh.
~SST
August 30th, 2006 at 6:48 am
you could count the floors while you stand there waiting….and watch the numbers which really arnt that hard to read…
August 30th, 2006 at 2:28 pm
Why doesn’t everyone go and pick on the architect, eh? Because we have absolutely NOTHING better to worry about then the colour of the floor numbers when we are designing a building… put your 21st century, ‘must always be doing something’ mentality on hold for a second, keep your phone in your pocket, and just stand there, counting the numbers and relaxing.
August 30th, 2006 at 9:29 pm
shot sach… try humming terrible, terrible, addictive tunes from the worst sit-coms or tv/radio ads, just to annoy those in the lift… or do one of my favourites and do some constructive and talk to yourself outloud, remind yourself what it is you still have to do, then add in something like “oh yeah, gotta get the blood stains outta the carpet as well [look around] if they stay any longer i’ll have to pay for real cleaner.” and walk out on the right floor after a few minutes of amazing silence.
and SSt i didn’t know you had a prox card… you must be very “special.”
August 31st, 2006 at 11:00 am
When i’m in lifts I think of “scenes-in-lifts” : Bridget Jones, Gibbs’ little chats with Ziva on NCIS, Turk singing into his dictaphone (Scrubs) etc. etc.
Try it next time, it’s fun! Although may contribute to inability to locate correct floor, v distracting…
September 1st, 2006 at 11:23 am
Dear oh dear GeM, Gibbs’ chats in lifts were mostly with Agent Fornell from the FBI, as I recall there have only been one or two “little chats with Ziva”, apart from that time she killed a guy in the lift, but that’s a whole different story….
Generally looks like I should just pay more attention in lifts then huh? No more texting in lifts for me, its recital of tele-drama theme tunes and counting the numbers…Yay.
September 1st, 2006 at 11:37 am
NO DAMNIT THERE IS ALWAYS TIME TO WORK ON A AARON NEVILLE IMPERSONATION WITH DICTAPHONE IN THE LIFT…
“I don’t know much… but i know i love you.” - Turk, we love you!
September 1st, 2006 at 4:14 pm
Ziva’s cooler than Fornell, hence me remembering those scenes more clearly.
Second only to Abby. *Caf-Pow!*
September 1st, 2006 at 10:15 pm
There’s a fantastic prank in an episode of the Lano and Woodly show involving lifts to floors that all look they same. Perhaps something might be lost in the retelling, but basically it involved Lano and Woodly pretending to be cleaning outside the lift as passengers entered. As soon as the doors close, they would then race up the stairs to the next floor and resume the same positions they were in before just as the lift doors open. This was repeated a number of times with confusion beginning to grow on the passengers faces. Eventually they were caught out after the lift doors were opened on the same floor they had just closed on, exposing them in the act of running up the stairs.
September 2nd, 2006 at 12:11 pm
God bless Lano and Woodley. Nicely retold Michael.
I heard of a plan a while ago to put TVs in lifts. I’m not too sure that’s really a good idea: lifts are one of the final bastions of the advertisement-free utopia we all dream of.