1) No Pink Floyd before noon.
I don’t eat hamburgers for breakfast and I don’t want to hear Pink Floyd north of noon. Pink Floyd after midnight but before going to sleep is acceptable but should be used sparingly.
2) Keep moving and get out of the way.
It’s really very simple: if you’re in the way, keep moving; if you stop moving, get out of the way.
3) Close one latch.
I worked on the camera crew for a movie once. Most of the gear travels in some sort of case or bag. It’s tempting to leave the case fully open if you only need something from it briefly or have to open and close it often. The problem is that someone else might not notice that it’s unlatched, try to move it, and spill your paycheck all over the parking lot. I was taught to live by the one-latch rule. Close at least one latch and odds are whomever is moving it (maybe even you) will notice that it’s not fully secured.
4) Garbage in = garbage out.
There are equivalents to this rule in many industries. I know it primarily from audio and video recording. Post-processing can’t fix a poorly-framed video, nor audio that was recorded way too hot. There are always some things you just have to get right the first time.
5) No balloons.
Balloons are floating garbage. They smell weird and they scare people when they pop and they end up as litter somewhere after they float away and then animals eat them or get tangled in the ribbon and die. No balloons.
6) Never buy restaurant-branded items at a grocery store.
Exception: There are no exceptions.
7) Pick up after your damn self.
I’m not always great at this but I do try. It is astonishing how many adults don’t, like, push their chairs in. Or put garbage into garbage cans. You know we’re living in a SOCIETY!
*** Originally published as List No. 21 of the 7x77 newsletter project.