Template:Adminpick/January 2015

It wasn't long ago I noticed a strange noise coming from the air conditioning unit, in the wall of the living room. At first it was almost imperceptible from the other noises such a device would typically make. It started out as a slight clanking sound, only when it was first turned on. I had just accredited it to the age of the apartments and the appliances within.

Realistically they weren't all that old in the grand scheme of things, but without constant upkeep things break down and fall apart relatively fast. Everything in the place made at least some kind of noise. The washing machine shook, the dishwasher sounded like a jet taking off and the fridge would kick on every few minutes and hum so loudly I'd have to turn the television up to hear anything over it. So you can see how it wasn't such a big deal for the air conditioner to rattle a little. So I put it to the back of my mind as just something that comes with age.

That was until it started making it more and more often. I first noticed it when I turned it on and the rattling didn't just go away after a second or two.

"I had better tell the landlord so maintenance can come fix this," I thought. After about a minute it once again stopped and the thought faded into memory.

A few weeks passed and I began to notice other strange occurrences—scratching in the walls, the electricity flickering in and out, the occasional thump in the night. Again, things that could all happen due to the age of the wiring; maybe a mouse had gotten into the walls, or a noisy new neighbor had moved in. All pretty explainable, I thought. Besides, I worked a lot and really didn't have a lot of free time to do much, so it didn't bother me. But when things started to go missing in my tiny, one-bedroom apartment. I started to worry. (Read more...)