Offensive weaponry

Hello again... I've got lots in mind to post about, but I don't really have time to organise it all, so here's a little anecdote about something that happened to me yesterday.

I was in a classroom fixing a computer, as is my prerogative. There was a bunch of students in the room with a teacher supervising them. I'm busy working on one PC, when a girl comes across to me from the other side of the room and tells me that her mouse isn't working. I figure it'll be the standard problem that the mouse has gotten all dirty, but the students can't open them to clean the mouse because we glue them shut, because if we don't them the little blighters steal the balls. Anyway!

I go over to see this non-functioning mouse, and sure enough it's moving really badly and I can tell it's dirty. I start by unscrewing the base of the mouse with a big regular screwdriver. However, the mice that the network manager (my boss) is currently buying are horrible little things - presumably they're the cheapest available, as there's no other real merit to them. It's impossible to get the base off without prising it off with a thin implement. The best tool that I have found for this job is a tiny screwdriver that I have on my penknife, like the ones you get in Christmas crackers for fixing your glasses, you know?

So I take my penknife out of my pocket, open the corkscrew, and take out the tiny screwdriver that hides in there. At this point the girl sees that I am 'brandishing' a knife and starts yelling at the top of her voice "Miss! Miss! He's got a knife! He's got a knife in school!". So I'm panicking a bit and wondering what to do and thinking I'm about to get hauled over the coals on my third day for packing 3 inches of blunt steel which just happens to have three screwdrivers conveniently attached. Thinking quickly I tell the girl "It's OK, I'm allowed to have a knife in school to do my job", to which she says "Oh, OK then." and calms down as quickly as she freaked out, while the teacher looks on in a slightly absent minded fashion. I then get on and fix the mouse and go on my merry way.

Weird.