Between a Rock and a Staircase
Have you seen the piano stairs video? Really? Are you serious, cause it’s posted like everywhere. I even added a link from my Facebook account. Anyways you should take a look because it is pretty awesome and it reveals one of my big pet peeves; lazy stairs people.
Allow me to preface with my list of annoying lazy people things. First are people who take the elevator when they could easily take the stairs, next are people use the handicapped button to open doors, then it’s people who don’t turn off their computers at night, and finally people who stand still on the escalator.
Each is especially annoying in its own magic way (Seriously you can’t open the door with your hands? Cause the more you use the handicapped button for your own lazy purposes the more you increase the likelihood that it will break when a person who really needs it comes by – Or standing on the escalator? I know it isn’t the biggest crime in the world but if you don’t have a mobility issue what’s the point? I mean it is technically taking longer to just stand there than to walk up or down the stairs you realize). But what bugs me the most, more than the fact that it is a real sign of la-zi-ness, is the fact that it gobbles up energy.
Interlude - I want it to be known that I recognize the legitimate need to use an elevator. As I alluded to earlier, mobility issues, fatigue, travelling more than 3 stories, I get that; but using an elevator to go one or two floors (especially down) is simply too much. I was at a party a couple of weeks ago and this issue came up. A guest admitted that one of his great triumphs came from an elevator encounter. He was on his way up to something like the tenth floor when some people got off on the second floor. As the elevator doors closed he shouted out “Really sucks when the stairs are broken, eh?”. Classic.
Sorry, I really had to get that out. Anyways, I would love to calculate the amount of energy that is being consumed so that this ridiculously heavy metal box can carry up two flights of stairs. If ever there was a waste of resources, this is it. The sheer magnitude of environmental degradation that is inflicted on the planet to draw oil out from the ground just so that you avoid a little bit of cardio is mindboggling.
I would really love to have these piano stairs installed on the U of O campus. I know we don’t really have any escalators to speak of but getting people off the elevator is totally worth the installation cost of these stairs. I am just saying, people really need to start taking responsibility for the amount of energy they waste needlessly. And if we can also give people some much needed exercise during the day, I am all for it.
-jon
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