I received my giant lightbulb today and it clocks in at around 9 inches. It’s a mere 200 watt equivalent and emits a wonderful 6500K wash of light. I tested it in the kitchen socket and found out that it needs to “rev up” coming to full power after about two minutes at which time one can no longer make out the television behind it. I moved it to my adjustable desk lamp to check its macro lighting capacity and found it didn’t fit. Six or seven hammer blows later it did but the light reflector wasn’t quite what it needed to be so I lined it with aluminum foil. I tried taking a few test shots but ran into problems where light leakage around the camera was enough that I was developing those stare-at-the-sun spots in my eyes. So until I develop a solution, the bulb is happily sitting in my ceiling fan as a my room light… allowing me to see through the drywall.
Month: January 2010
Morning Zoo Actuary
A relative thought I should combine my actuarial training and my people skills to start a morning talk show with me as Dr. Terry, the Feel Good Actuary. Each show would start with me reminding people with each day they’re alive they’ve set a new personal record and I’d then take calls from people who aren’t dead. I’d essentially get paid to sugar coat mortality statistics like “Only 8% of people with pancreatic cancer live more than 14 months. You can be that 8%!” I could also help people navigate life insurance questions and such. Finally, the show could serve as a sleep aid because I can’t think of anything duller on the radio than fielding insurance questions.
Cancelling Vonage
2010 has seen the death of the Robinson home phone line. Calling to cancel involved some amazingly helpful prompts:
- After wading through five minutes of menus and requests I got “tired of waiting? Call back later!” genius
- “It looks like you want to cancel your service. Are you sure you don’t want to switch to *more expensive plan*
The service person was fine albeit a bit mousy and I felt a spot bad during my this exchange:
Her: Sir, what’s your account number.
Me: The same as I mentioned when I initially called and it was requested by the automated voice prompts.
Her: *after a few seconds of silence* which was?
Me: It should be there, I can wait while you retrieve it. The voice prompts even verified that it was accurate.
Her: I’ll need it again for security purposes.
Me: Hm… In that it was already provided, I suppose you need to protect against highwaymen that waylay innocent Vonage customers after they enter their account number but before they indicate the purpose of the call with the intent of blackmailing them for their number back. Good, it’s *number*.
As sometimes happens, my exchange triggered a feedback request via email to complete a webform. The questions were a bit more leading then I’m used to and was waiting for:
What are your thoughts on Vonage?
-Great company
-Greatest company
Lightbulb Quest
After yesterday’s expedition into macro photography, I wanted brighter lights. The brightest I could find were 100 watt equivalent fluorescent bulbs so I hit other sources. I checked on-line and found bulbs up to 400 watt equivalent (85 watt fluorescent). I purchased one and only then did I notice the reviews that said it was “awesome, and unlike other bulbs of this type only a foot long!” Hm… So, my room may now have a lower clearance. I was curious to see to what extent and found a sub-community that’s interested in high-power daylight bubbles: pot growers. I think I have a source of a compact high-power 600 watt equivalent bulb, I just need to contact someone by the name of “ScoobieDoobie” to get it. Maybe his friend Al Toker or Reefer Sutherland can provide an alternative…