TLC puts the C in Static

Mood: Slightly better than yesterday
Currently listening to: The dull and creepy sound of air conditioning

Having been a fanboy of webcomic MegaTokyo for a reasonable while now, I have always wondered if the whole deal with static affecting computer parts was really true. I had never really attempted at putting a computer together before at my life until today (Geek's things-to-do list, #15).

As I used my trustworthy stanley knife to cut open the box containing the tower, which has been called a variety of other things, such as: case, rook, fortress, skyscraper, bird's nest and top-of-the-world, I was greeted with a metallic box wrapped in a plastic bag and cushioned with some white foam (I was unaware that foam came in any other colour, but behold, at work I was greeted with a large quantity of pink foam which is used to cushion hard drives in their bulk box). I turned the cardboard box upside-down to slip it out, as anyone would have logically done, and then proceeded to strip the tower of its plastic wrapping. At this point, I was zapped. This wasn't your everyday run-of-the-mill light static discharge. What I experienced was one hell-of-a-mongoose-beastly discharge. It was big. I could literally feel the force of the discharge pushing my fingers away from the case. The only bad thing about this experience was that there was no lightshow.

And so, after being shocked by the static discharge (ha, ha, ha, pun intended?) I start taking away the side panels so I could install the hard drive, DVD-rom and floppy drive (I honestly don't know why ANYONE needs a floppy drive anymore; nobody could take one even if you paid them). While I'm innocently trying to get the "fake" drive panels off the case (which looked very real and funky), I cut my finger along the metal frames inside the case. I must concede I was "asking for it" when I stuck my hand in there without even looking where it was headed.

So anyways, to cut a long story short, I install the floppy drive, and then I install the DVD-rom. Now this is the climax of my epic tale. I picked up the hard drive, which was wrapped in some strange dark, transparent, hard plastic pouch which looked like it was polarized (like sunglasses). Sealing the bag was a rather amusing sticker which said:

The content is made in Thailand

The pouch said something like this (I will photowhore the pouch when it's time to finish work and go home):

DY3650 Static Shielding
Bag

DOU YEE LOT NO.
06060053

REUSABLE CONTAINER
DO NOT
DESTROY

ATTENTION

HANDLE ONLY
AT

STATIC SAFE
WORK

STATIONS

ELECTROSTATIC

SENSITIVE

DEVICES

FRAGILE

HANDLE WITH
CARE

Now, I could not get over the hilarity of this warning label. DO NOT DESTROY? I honestly couldn't think of how anyone could possibly destroy this hard plastic quasi-aluminium polarized plastic silky shiny pouch thing. Heck, I'm not even sure if a nuclear bomb could destroy it. But, who would have thought, there was a slight incision where you were meant to tear it, and I, being the tank that I am, had a go at it and succeeded in tearing it. However, me being able to tear it is besides the point. I am still unable to understand how anyone can destroy this pouch, like, vaporize it or something. This stuff is made from some off-world material, seriously.

And just some miscellaneous information: no, I did not take off my clothes. ;3