Travis Smith: my resume, bio and photos back to the main blog page
Tracker Pixel for Entry

Closed Door Policy

posted at 1:45 am
on Jul. 18, 2006

Comments: 4 so far

Permalink

 

Previous entry:
Am I Serious?

Next entry:
Travis Goes to a Business Lecture

Having a brother-in-law in the house for a month has been surprisingly painless.

Almost completely painless, in fact, but I can’t very well fill a blog post talking about the things he hasn’t done.

Matt does have one quirky and annoying habit.  He always closes the bathroom door.

This is a very good thing when he’s in the bathroom.

But it’s a very, very bad thing when he’s finished.

(I can hear you whispering “Travis has lost it, he’s crazy” from here, you know.)

First of all, when the bathroom door is always closed, you never know when it’s occupied.  This leads to lots of knocking, and some embarrassing moments.  I also fear it’ll lead to the ultimate embarrassing moment, if I assume that a closed door doesn’t mean occupied.

Second, a closed door can also mean “Warning, Explosive Fumes”—now, there’s no way to determine if the premises are safe for humans.  And if he leaves the fan on to clear the occasional miasma, with the door closed, the fan can’t be heard, so it runs all day.

Third, I always go to bed last.  I turn off all the lights and head upstairs in the dark, so as not to disturb the sleepers.  Not to disturb them, that is, until I PLOW into the bathroom door in pitch darkness as I head to brush my teeth.

You’d think I’d figure it out by the third time, but no, I never remember.

As an ancillary note, he doesn’t always lower the seat.  Now, I detest the guy-bashing that swirls around seat raising or lowering.  I firmly believe that a man and a woman living together need only to agree on a common, uniform seat state, whether that’s up or down.  Neither the guy nor the woman has priority here, so long as an agreement is reached.

And I think best of all is to close the toilet lid entirely—that way, you don’t drop the book you’re reading into the toilet, not that I’ve ever done that and certainly not in Grade 6 with a Robert Heinlein library book. (Damn, that sentence ended way too late.)

So all I’m saying is that it’s a little odd that he’s got a 56-and-0 record for door closing, but he leaves the seat as open as the source code for Firefox.

Matt goes back to Boston on Friday to set up Hop Studios East.  I’ll be sad to see him go… but I might just leave the front door open when he leaves.



 
 

Who has mentioned this item?

Keywords:  •   •   •   •   •   •   • 

 

Previous entry:
Am I Serious?

Next entry:
Travis Goes to a Business Lecture

Overheard

“Oh boy! Another great opportunity for personal growth!”

...who said it?

“I’m not bitter about what happened to me as a child, and my mother was instrumental in keeping me from being so. ... She taught me to be grateful for my life regardless of what that entailed, and that’s directly related to the image of Christ on the cross and the example of sacrifice that he gave us. What she taught me is that the deliverance God offers you from pain is not no pain—it’s that the pain is actually a gift. What’s the option? God doesn’t really give you another choice.”

...who said it?

After over a decade of user testing, it is clear that the way we search the web is similar to the way we would search our home for valuables as it was burning to the ground. Frantically.

...who said it?

“We must shift the focus of companies back to the customer and away from shareholder value ... The shift necessitates a fundamental change in our prevailing theory of the firm… The current theory holds that the singular goal of the corporation should be shareholder value maximization. Instead, companies should place customers at the center of the firm and focus on delighting them, while earning an acceptable return for shareholders.”

...who said it?

“We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible.”

...who said it?

Comments

 

 

 

 

 

You told me it makes mold grow! Had i known about your book-dropping-in-shit-bucket problem i would have tried harder.

 

Posted by matt
  at 5:22 pm on Jul. 18, 2006

 

 

 

I'd like to hear from Matt: What's behind this strange behaviour? Did you throw a library book across the room when you were in Grade 6 only to have it accidentally fly through the open bathroom door and into the toilet? If that's the source of it, I would suggest that Travis' closed toilet-seat concept is a more elegant solution. Of course, some people just think washrooms look "dirty" and want to hide them... Or maybe that's just what you guys do down in the States?

Anyway, I'll also be sorry to see you go, Matt! Take care!

 

Posted by Jason
  at 11:53 am on Jul. 20, 2006

 

 

 

We've had guests before who were also closed-bathroom-door folk, and I've never understood this strange behaviour. For us, it raised an additional problem: Roxy's litter box is in the bathroom.

Eep.

Please wish Matt well for me, I was glad to meet him!

 

Posted by Mandy
  at 1:10 am on Jul. 26, 2006

 

 

 

Again, a womderfully humorous read!
Too bad about that library book...
Here's a little fact to help you on your "close-the-lid-completely" crusade.
Everytime you flush the comode...bacteria from whatever was just deposited floats up into the air. From there, it eventually settles on the surfaces in the bathroom. This may not seem like a huge concern...unless you happen to have your toothbrushes out on the vanity.

 

Posted by Liz
  at 6:24 am on Jul. 26, 2006

Add a Comment

 

 

Name:


Email:


Location:


URL:


Submit the word you see below:


 

 

 

Your comment:


Remember my personal info


Email me about follow-ups


 

Syndication Links


Click here for the main
XML feed for this blog.



Column only



Side links only



Quotes only

 

I'm Listening To

see more at Last.fm

MetaBlogs

AboutBlogs

Clients

Humor

Journalism

Los Angeles

Mac

News

Personal 1

Personal 2

Photos

Politics

Other A-F

Other G-Q

Other R-Z

SocialNetworking

Tech 1

Tech 2

Travel

Vancouver 1

Vancouver 2

Vancouver 3

Vancouver 4

BizBlogs

Back to Main

 

Powered by
Expression Engine

 

Copyright 1995 - 2012 Feb 07

 

 

Want Column?

Enter your email address:


It will NEVER be shared.
Unsubscribe

You can scroll right easily by holding down the SHIFT key and using your scroll wheel. (Firefox users trying this will end up jumping to old Web pages until a) Firefox releases a fix, b) they change their settings like so.)