Not Very Bright

when i tagged 5 people in my last post maybe i was a jinx? Tyler's blog went kaput and he lost 6 months of posts. his comments had been going screwy for a while, but his MySQL database crashed and hours and hours of effort vanished.

also i wrongly tagged one of the blog urls. Brian Turner has moved his blog from Platinax.co.uk to ibrian.co.uk
ibrian is a take on the i,robot name because Brian is into all things sci-fi.

Worldcon 2005 - (c)The Scotsman newspaper

i love this picture of Mr Turner at worldcon 2005 and I'm tagging Brian individually. don't know if that's in the blog tag rules, but he's a lot brighter than i am so ask him.

one more thing...

merry christmas! :)

5 things you didn't know about me

i have been blog taggged by Vicious Summer. what does that mean? well, it's one of those viral thingummyjigs, a bit like a chain letter but more interesting as it is trackable (see the blog tag tree). plus you get to find out a few things about people you never did before. as you can see it can grow pretty quickly.



here are my 5 things you (probably) didn't know about me:

1. i am a child of movie stars, well movie extras. my parents were in a film called Rocket's Galore when they were ages 10 and 12. it's set on the isle of Barra
   
2. i'm a cat lover, 3 of them, Pushkin, Raku, and Gizma.
3. i had an audition for Braveheart in 1994, never met Mel Gibson and my acting sucks.
4. my favourite song is 'like someone in love' by John Coltrane, but i like the Bjork version too.
5. in my chequered past i used to life model so have no problem stripping. :D
   

my turn to tag others:

sprout appreciation (that girl)
Johan
McFox
Tyler Banfield
Brian Turner

ps. i've never even forwarded a myspace bulletin before.

Light Rainfall - NOT

here, in Scotland, you would think that we would be used to a little rain. apparently not. we talk about it a lot, complain about it a lot, about how it is a dreich horrible day, but over the last few weeks it has been raining more than usual making this festive season distinctly un-festive. christmas just isn't christmas without a frosty nip in the air.



even the erskine bridge had to be shut one day due to adverse weather conditions. drains don't seem to be taking this excess rainfall away, and there has been flooding in areas. getting to work has taken longer, what with the hordes of people rushing out in their multitudes, buying things they don't really need for people they don't really like (i'm not too fond of christmas shopping, have you guessed?).

the police even evacuated our building at work one night afraid that a nearby soft drink factory would lose it's corrugated roof, causing damage, or taking off heads (ok, i've seen too many movies). the roof did come off, at least a small part of it but winds died down before the rest of it could behead anyone. what is happening?

is it global warming? according to Richard Boehm, the chief climatologist at Austria's central institute for meteorology and geo-dynamics in Vienna, "We are now experiencing the warmest period (for this season) in the past 1,300 years." i found out that via a link from ill considered, a blog with lots of useful links about climate science.

are we stuffed? quite possibly. i want the frost back.

watching the cars go over the erskine bridge is rather calming. almost as calming as watching a full moon cross the sky. the photo is from Bulbgirl's flat, one of the best views around i might add. having no television in the flat makes the view, the main focus of the sitting room. seeing the cars pass from one side to the other can be quite meditative, coupled with the red rythmic flashing of the pylon lights.

is it to late for us to go back? who knows, but if you want to help, switch off your television when its not in use, same goes for your lights. switch to some energy saving bulbs around the home, where you can and be happy that you've done your bit.

No Naked Lights?

am i a loser? that's one of the comments i got from someone when i posted a naked picture of myself, albeit with an energy saving bulb in front of my private parts. i decided to post the comment which was:

u loser what that picture 4

that is the second comment from that user. the first was just

u loser

he obviously wanted to elaborate on that comment and then proceeded to ask what that picture was for (4). apparently said commenter did not actually read the blogpost which stated that the money was going to charity. this would back up the claim from the commenter's profile which states: i don't read books.
i can only surmise then, that the commenter found my blog by typing in naked picture somewhere, and was sorely disappointed to find a pic of my bodkin rather than a naked picture of Britney Spears (see below).

	Is Bulboy a loser?
	Yes, a loser through and through
	No, Bulbboy is a winner
	Other (leave comment)
Counters

here is Britney without her panties (which i kindly drew in for her), the poor dear. once you get to a certain age your memory starts to go. =P

bulbcat #2

every flashaholic needs a fabulous flashlight protector. here is mine. his name is Raku, and we think that he is a norwegian forest cat. we could be wrong about this as most people think that he resembles a mini panda, or fresian cow.

i personally think that he may have landed from space. he is quite otherworldly with a temperament that is so laid back, he is almost catatonic. the flashlight he guards is my arc led (my favourite torch).

the title of this post bulbcat #2 because, yes, there are more of them. maybe they will make an appearance later. cats are wonderful animals, they enrich your life. that's not rubbish cat lover speak, but stroking a cat can actually lower your blood pressure, and make all things in the world right [and they guard your flashlight :)]. they do touch you (not just to scratch you), and become part of your family. every cat has it's own personality, and can be replaced physically by another cat but will always have a special place in your heart.

this blog entry was a response to Lever's post about his lovely cat Huey, who unfortunately passed away. To Huey.

24 Presents

not 24 presents but 24 as a present. what 24 am i on about? the incredibly, fantastic, must-watch-another-episode-straight-away tv show that stars Keifer Sutherland. i was given series 5 as a birthday gift. so no flashlight but it was the next best thing.

Keifer plays the part of Jack Bauer, a tough ex-special forces soldier who works for the government, CTU, the Los Angeles counter terrorist unit, to be specific. if you haven't seen any i heartily recommend you do, right now. Jack Bauer is a man who know the importance of a flashlight, and whips it out multiple times through out series 1 to 5. he also point, shoots, shouts, uses Mac hardware and runs about a lot.

a coat was gifted to me by Bulbgirl, good for the wintry weather, and to cover up my little naked bodkin. it's a really cool coat, by that i mean warm and very smart, has a touch of 40s elegance, while being 3/4 length. my height is only average, just over 5' 8", so not gifted in the vertical stakes there. usually longer coats wouldn't suit me, but this one i can carry off. Keifer Sutherland seems quite a small geezer as well. do you know what height he really is? sites on the net seem to have him pinned down at somewhere between 5' 6" and 6'.

someone must be lying.

Birthday Suit

i'm 31 today. yes it's my birthday but don't worry, my clothes are back on and covering up my birthday suit.

has it been over a year already that i have been blogging? time passes so quickly. once you get beyond a certain age time seems to speed up. a while back i could remember thinking that 2000 would never arrive, and here we are almost 7 years into the noughties (do they still call this decade that?).

a whole year blogging. a year ago i awoke in Italy. what have i done since then?

• helped customers find thousands of correct lightbulbs
• not done a whole lot of oil painting this year
• some DIY
• been diagnosed with fibromyalgia (near as dammit)
• inserted an insole to correct short left leg length
  
• impersonated a police car with a blue led
• took photos of Bulbgirls broken bits
  
• started a college course in web design.
• quite a college course in web design.
• learned lots on internet forums

more importantly what do i want for the coming year?

• pain free days
• continue blogging (what would make my posts better?)
  
• learn to make better web pages
• paint more
• move nearer my studio (so i can a paint more)
• and to hopefully receive a flashlight (yes another one) for my birthday
  

*hopes* (off to eat cake) :)

Naked Picture: Bulbboy in the Buff

this is not myself in my living room. this is in a store, a public store. members of the public were not in at the time though (thankfully). it was after closing time.

why i am naked i hear you ask? is it because i'm completely shameless? that may be the case but is not the reason. i bared all for charity, cash for kids specifically. if it's good enough for Calendar Girls (the movie) it's good enough for me.

a few others went naked too. well, not really really naked. most of the other participants from other departments in the store wore swimming costumes, and suchlike. i was the first to be snapped and i was led to believe that others would follow suit (or should that be suitless?), and disrobed completely. i used to do a spot of life modelling so i'm not bothered either way, but i don't have any leanings towards naturism; it's too cold in scotland most of the year. :)

the pictures were taken by Emma Flynn and Jaclyn Smith, no not from charlie's angels but two young photographers who also work in other departments.
See more of Jaclyn Smith's photography here.

Have you had any long exposures lately?

mug mug mug

ok, final post about this bleedin' mug. here is a picture of the mug that did this damage. why have i posted the same pic 3 times? it is because the mug broke 3 times. this information only came to light recently.

it was a small gift i got Bulbgirl because she liked it. the stripy pattern was very pleasing to the eye and i know that she likes stripy things. apparently number 1 mug broke and she didn't want to tell that she destroyed the gift i got her. replacing the drinking receptacle with an identical one, history was to again repeat itself and number 2 mug went the same way as number 1 mug *kaput*. at this point telling me was really out of the question. only after the third and final smash was i to be told that the mug that did the final damage was actually a third reincarnation.

would i have been told this information if the damage could have been hidden, and the mug replaced again? probably not. what put a spanner in the works? aside from the damage to bulbgirl's finger that was not so easy to hide, was another problem: the mugs are no longer available. maybe plastic isn't so bad.

funnily enough monks left a comment about the mug looking evil, and just days later he was almost attacked by none other than a stripy mug! watch out people, mug karma in action!

question: have you ever told your loved one little white lies, about breakages etc. for their benefit?

Mug smashed finger pic

more fingers this time. although not with lights at the end of them, a la ET the Extra Terestrial. Bulbgirl eventually relented and let me take photos of her fingers to show you good people. i know you'd want to see what was under these bandages. Bulbgirl said that it was definitely worse than the slice i received a few months back, and she was absolutely right. she made me get checked out at the hospital in case what was popping out of my finger was important and would stop me making art. but would she do the same for herself?

after rinsing the wound for some time, what did she do? inform someone? go to hospital? no, she finished washing the dishes! did she go to get it fixed up after that? no, she went "for a wee lie down" to see if it would stop bleeding. only after soaking a dishtowel with her blood and the arrival of a friend who convinced her, did she seek medical attention. why do ladies do that, look after others more than themselves?

here is my hand steadying hers as i took the photo. you can see how bruised and swollen the finger is. of course i only show you these in the interest of public mug safety but Bulbgirl wants everyone to be clear that she would rather not have her hand posted on here, and is just going along with my 'sick fascination.' that's love for you. =P


and finally here is the mug in question. it was lovely and held many a tasty cup of tea but alas is now gone. :(

question(s): do women have a higher pain threshold than men? or are they just as stubborn?

Shhh.....Secret FingerLights

have you heard of the secret? well if you concentrate really hard you can make light come out of the end of your fingertips! only kidding [but that's what i wish i could make happen :)].

the secret is actually a pay per view kind of movie which puts forward the idea that we attract into our lives all that we want, what we put our attention comes to us. it's a bit like taking Napolean Hill's book 'Think and Grow Rich' and repackaging it for the mtv generation.

what i would really like would be to attract a flashlight like Luke Skywalker can attract a lightsabre. woosh...from the ground straight into the palm of my hand. this might be a bit much to hope for, but i can dream...sigh. remember... this is from someone who in their annual letter to Santa many moons ago, specified that they wanted a real lightsabre and not one of those toy things you can get in the shop.


what have you attracted into your life lately?


image from thesecret.tv

Bulbgirl Slice

Bulbboy returned home last night to an empty flat, a bloody empty flat. Bulbgirl was not there and the flat was in darkness. where was she? and what foul play had gone on? before my eyes was a trail of blood, some small blobs and some bigger. it led to the bathroom, with some splatters on the sink. two spiders sat in the bath staring back at me, to add to the creepiness. obviously i was a little unsettled by this (not the spiders, the trail of blood).

phoning Bulbgirl's mobile phone was futile as it was turned off. had she been kidnapped? i phoned my parents, had she gone there? not there either. i decided to sit and wait it out. Bulbgirl is, by her own admission, clumsier than your average person. at the start of this year she broke her wrist and was wearing a green cast for a while. the wrist is not totally healed and gives here a little trouble now and again.

determining that she was either :

1. in casualty or
2. had just gone down to the corner shop to get some sticking plasters

i thought i'd wait and would hear soon enough (phoning the local hospitals seemed a touch dramatic). about half an hour later Bulbgirl returned *hooray* with 2 fingers bandaged up. she was washing a mug and it self-destructed slicing through two of her fingers. why oh why she did not think at that moment to take pictures i do not know. apparently it was an even better (for better, read bigger) slice than mine. the bandages are allowed off in 2 days time, we shall see then and compare.


the wound was a two-toweler-double-flapper. not really the technical term but descriptive, as she had to use 2 tea-towels to soak up the blood while waiting 4 hours at accident and emergency. "flapper" because both fingers had a flap of skin. the poor thing had to endure a nurse pulling out tissue and bits of mug. the hand had to be X-rayed to make sure that no ceramic was left in the wound. at least they didn't lose the X-rays!

having lost quite a bit of blood, Bulbgirl was a feeling a tad faint and light-headed so had a chocolate bar to give herself a boost. i made here a well deserved cocoa and she tried to get to sleep, before the painkillers wore off.
the mug she was washing had been chipped a few days earlier so was obviously left a little structurally weak. let this be a warning to you folks, shards of a mug can be just as sharp as a knife! :o

Jack Palance and Tony Tyler both Dead

while reading the latest issue of MacUser today i learned of the death of Tony Tyler, a regular contributor to the Shutdown column at the back of the magazine. he was 62, not very old by todays standards, but he managed to pack an awful lot in as is told by his friend and colleague, Charles Shaar Murray in a touching obituary here.

yesterday another dinosaur passed away also. Jack Palance had a tough guy image with a face to match. lately he was known for his roles in the City Slickers movies, for which he won a best supporting oscar. Palance also played the part of mob boss Carl Grissom in Tim Burton's Batman (my favourite role of his).

both giants (6' 5", and 6'4" respectively), and both will be missed.

< /Web Design Course >

a couple of days ago i decided to pull out of my course in multimedia and web design. i'd only be going for a couple of months but it was becoming apparent that this was not the course for me. having been surfing forums for a while and reading other blogs online, i've come across some pretty cool people that make a living online, make friends online, and seem to have fun while they are at it. i remember reading something Chuck Palahniuk wrote about air friends: (paraphrasing)

relationships developed with people that have the same interests as you, will on the whole last longer that relationships with people that are based on location (eg.neighbours).

he called neighbours "air friends". once neighbours move away from each other they don't have that common bond to keep them talking to each other. the web on the other hand can link people with the same interests across oceans and continents, whether that interest is bulbs, flashlights, making web pages or whatever.

the book i bought is sams html & css in 24hours, 24 one hour lessons written in an easy to read reference that teaches you to build a web page quickly and then tinker with it.



this seems a better approach than what the college was proposing: slowly building something in macromedia director week by week and then our efforts would be uploaded to the college server. i thought i was going into an environment where people would be exited about the web, but to my surprise the 3 tutors were not actively involved with running a website online. the environment was not very conducive to stimulating creativity imho.
coupled with a fibro flare up, the thought of dragging my weary body for a total of 3 hours roundtrip bus travelling time each day, and having compulsory breaks that lasted half an hour, even if you wanted to stay in and work on something finally clinched it for me.
so it looks like it's going to be books and forums from now on. see you online. :)

Grudge 2 Conjuctivitis

did you have a happy halloween yesterday? hopefully ghost and goblins didn't get you.
i watched the trailer of the movie Grudge 2 and it found it pretty scary. the close up of the eye shot reminded me of when i had conjunctivitis recently. i went in to the cinema to watch a film and experienced an itchy eyeball. by the time i got out my eye was a little weepy and feeling bruised under the lid. not a pretty sight. thankfully it didn't last too long. a few days.

mmm....lovely.

One Click Too Far (Neck)

do you click your neck? does your neck click on its own with very little help? mine tends to click quite a bit. i used to visit the osteopath a lot more and he would vigorously twist my head one way and then the other. this twisting motion would always be accompanies by loud clicks. the trick is to let yourself be completely relaxed and put your faith in the osteopath, as he twists your noggin like an edison screw bulb. some people can't relax and clam up, tightening their neck muscles which is counterproductive.

last week a return visit to the osteo was necessary. as well as the usual fibro related pains, my neck had obviously clicked too far. it felt like something structural rather than nerve related is the best way i can put it. on the massage table he clicked my neck as before but didn't quite get it. i found it amazing the way the clicker could tell as well as the clickee, that it hadn't gone far enough. in action movies many foes are dispatched with a deft spin of the head; this is like a more gentle form of that.

more gentle massage at the base of my skull, and top of my neck followed in order to relax the muscles, but they didn't seem to want to relax as they have done so many times in the past. so with my head in his hands the osteo pulled that old 'pull off the sticking plaster' trick which parents do to their kids to stop them squealing in pain.

i'll pull off the plaster on the count of 3. one...*pulls plaster*

this wasn't verbalised in any way, neither was there a count. just a momentary pause and then a very swift snap of my neck, and it felt more loose. i was surprised at how quick this wrench was. he then repeated on the other side.

things get worse before they get better, it's an old saying and probably true. the neck was tender for the next few days before easing up a little. i might need a follow up appointment. even he was a little surprised that i've had these problems for so long (sigh, and still so young). most people tend to start to get better. a chiropractor i saw before, actively wanted you to come back over and over again. this osteo on the other hand wants you fixed and out the door, only to come back if you feel you need it. he did a stellar job on Bulbbgirl and she has never needed to go back. have you ever visited the osteopath and heard you bones crunch?

Put your clocks back!

yes it's that time of year again. the clocks go back and darkness will be falling earlier.

just think of all those lights going on all over the world, millions and millions of them!
daylight savings time ended today at 2am. now we should think about energy savings time instead. :)

which of your lights could be changed over to energy saving bulbs? using compact fluorescent bulbs, can not only save you energy, but save you money in the long term and save your precious (time as they last a lot longer than ordinary incandescent bulbs or halogen bulb).

Kitchen Worktop

we had a kitchen fitter in today, not to fit a kitchen but to fix a kitchen. the person who did the work before was supposed to be an electrician, plumber and joiner in one. bit of a tall order. i wasn't the one who hired this 'professional', but was just as disappointed as Bulbgirl to see the results. finding a decent tradesperson is difficult enough, but finding 3 in 1 would be nigh on impossible, IMHO.

instead we had a chap by the name of Scott Cook come in and install a new part of the worktop. he had a router and jig, and did the business. funny though when phoning around for a quotes from joiners that some didn't seem to own a router. call me stupid but if you are going to fit a kitchen, i would have thought that a router would be a pretty essential tool? suffice to say tradesperson number one didn't own a router and didn't even measure properly before sawing into our beech worktops. needless to say tears were shed, not mine though.

while talking with Scott the joiner, i found out that he didn't have a website and wanted to get on the net 'eventually'. so i found him a domain name www.glasgowjoiner.com and put a few details of his on there, coupled with a link to a blogger blog so that Scott can update it himself. maybe i will help him out more with it when my web design course progresses a little. :)

Danger Hot Bulb!

some people are regular radiators, that is they are warm all the time. my hands are usually pretty warm, and Bulbgirl's feet are usually pretty cold.

lately i seem to have been getting every cold and 'germ thing' going. my body temperature tonight was a little elevated. while watching an episode of the sopranos this evening, my hands were warming up Bulbgirl's foot.

your hands are nice and warm, she said.

i have a fever i replied. :P

My Voodoo Didn't Work

Bulbgirl and myself put an offer in to buy a flat. unfortunately it was not enough to secure it. usually people say it is standard to offer 10-20% more than the offers over figure. we offered more than the offers over price, a lot more, in fact over 60% more and it still wasn't enough. it would have been ideal, being only minutes walk away from my studio, so that i could get more work done.

what does any self respecting flashlight freak do to get an edge on the competition? resort to voodoo of course! when viewing the flat before putting in a bid, i noticed that the refrigerator had lots of magnetic poetry words stuck to it. the flat had been empty for 4 years so i figured that the original owner was not planning on coming back for these. the most house-like word was 'domicile' facing me so i took that one.

how could this lucky charm not work? i carried around this domicile in my wallet for a few days, but alas, it was not to be. we were outbid. not just pipped, but well and truly beaten. our solicitor told us that there had been 30 bids on the property, and she had never experienced so much interest in one property in her years of conveyancing. maybe someone at an earlier viewing took the magnetic poetry word 'flat' or 'house' which technically would have a higher voodoo rating.

oh well, onwards and upwards. we just have to keep looking for the perfect domicile.

Halloween Face Mask?

Bulbgirl commented that i am getting a double chin. i could have argued and said that it was just the way i was lying down at the time, the way my head was tilted, yadda, yadda, yadda...but she was/is right. my skin did seem more loose than normal.

having not been as physically active of late due to fibromyalgia, i seem to have lost weight. that's not a good thing. my trousers don't exactly fit me as they did before. this weight loss, only seems to be muscle mass loss, while my fat remains. that's quite a good thing i supppose as winter approaches, the padding should come in useful against any cold spells.

the skin around my neck seems unusually stretchy though. don't know if it was like this before but it now reminds me of the mission impossible trick of whipping off the face mask disguise. maybe this halloween i'll should go guising as myself?

is your skin stretchier? if you want to look at costumes much prettier than my visage checkout these halloween costumes from LaLaLingerie. my favourite is the mens vampire getup, appealing to my gothic sensibilities. :)

X-Rays: Missing in Action

William Konrad Röntgen discovered X-rays in 1895, and named them so because he did not know where they came from or what they were. that about sums up the description of my own X-rays, which i got taken in the hospital just over 2 months ago.

after being told to 'phone for the results', i was a little disappointed to find that they "had not come in yet, " code for: we've lost 'em! :O what can you do in that position? phone again. i did. and again, and again. my appointment with the doc was fast approaching so i was told to phone again just to make sure that they were in for my visit. my lower spine is still a mystery to me as the X-rays have gone on a mystery walkabout. the doc, covering for his colleagues said that they wouldn't be lost, they probably just didn't turn up anything interesting. interesting? commendable maybe, defending his workmates or the whole ramshackle system, but i'd rather not be lied to. stuff goes missing. it happens. i'd rather they just say: yeah, we screwed up, it wouldn't be the first, and it won't be the last.

a little truth (or transparency :P) would be nice. hopefully they wil turn up soon and help to shed a little light on my skeletal situation.

Bulbboy and the Bat

coming home from work this evening something darted past my head. at first, i though that it was a moth. it darted passed my head in the opposite direction, and then returned again on the other side of me. stopping in my tracks i realised that this was no humble lepidoptera attracted to me like a moth to a flame. it was actually a very small bat hurtling back and forth down alley ways between houses. my guess is that warm air from vents in the houses attracts insects, in turn providing a rich feeding patch for the hungry bat. either that or it had OCD.

Batman Begins came to mind. obviously having one bat whizzing around your head is not quite the same as Christian Bale having thousands of bats whirling around him like a tornado in the cave but it's the closest i've come to it. i then stood aside and watched it for a few minutes. it was incredibly fast and hard to keep up with. naturally i then continued homeward and told Bulbgirl to her shoes on . the only clue that i would give was that it was something to do with 'wildlife'. to my surprise, Bulbgirl was not as excited as myself at seeing the bat (which was still merrily doing it's thing). she was worried that it might get caught up in her hair. this didn't worry me as i saw a David Attenborough documentary once, and he said that it would be highly unlikely to happen. bats see in the dark using a kind of sonar.

the dark knight gave The Riddler a riddle in Batman Forever

"I see without seeing. To me, darkness is as clear as daylight. What am I?"
to which The Riddler responds "You're as blind as a bat!"

bats use echolocation to find their prey a navigate. so even in total darkness they will be able to avoid your hair. still, it's quite a hair-raising experience! humans on the other hand should carry an led flashlight for nocturnal outings. they make life so much easier. :)

Lovely Lava Lamp

lava lamps are cool in one sense, but hot in another.
the same could be said about google. they sent Shoemoney a lava lamp for participating in their MTV video adsense trials. lava lamps were first invented in the 60s by a chap called Edward Craven Walker. the waxy stuff or "lava" at the bottom of the jar is heated and expands, becoming less dense and moves up the jar. as it moves away from the bulb or heat source, the wax begins to cool, and begins to drop back down again. this slow psychedelic cycle is quite hypnotic, no wonder it was developed in the free lovin 60s!

what type of bulbs does it take? well you might want to take a look here to see if one of these is a spare for your light. just remember to replace your lava lamp with the same type of bulb it came with. bulbboy is often asked if the lighting dept stocks lava lamp bulbs, sadly we do not. unfortunately sometimes, the same customer will come back to me with a bulb that they have picked up and ask "

will this do?"

just because a bulb may fit does not mean that it should be used. choose the correct fitting, and wattage of bulb for your lava lamp.
also some die hard greeny customers ask if they could stick in an energy saving bulb in to their lava lamps at home because they want to save energy. again, the bulb may fit and give out light but because energy saving bulbs do not give off a lot of heat, and the wax will not flow.

also, keep your lava lamps well away from curious little kiddie fingers; they look like toys but are hot too handle.

Light Emitting Shirts

take a look at this video with shirts from Philips that emit light!



they use the new lumalive technology from Philips that use arrays of LEDs that are integrated into the fabric.
how cool are these shirts? i'm afraid i've got to get my hands on one.
*hopes*
just think, in the not so distant future we might not need to carry flashlights, we will be wearing them. :)

Fibromyalgia Treatment

a nice Dutch chap called Johan contacted me after reading something I posted a comment on another blog. after finding my earlier post about fibromyalgia he informed off me of a whey protein powder which boosts the immune system significantly and has helped many fm sufferers to ease their pains. Johan said it looks a bit like the stuff on this mirror. here is a quote about the ImmunoPro Rx:

ImmunePro Rx Whey Protein Concentrate is a unique product which may help aid the immune system. It is 100% pure whey protein. It is a primary-product of Fresh Milk, not a by-product and is the result of years of work to perfect a system that produces only the highest quality milk whey protein. There is no cheese produced in any part of the production nor is there any chemical modification or pH regulation of the milk or whey. The full range of the original proteins is intact and undenatured. The result is a superior product that contains exceptional amounts of the most important protein fractions. Additionally the essential fats bound to the protein often damaged in processing, are still intact in ImmunePro.

maybe i will try this soon, but having gone back to college recently i have become a poor student again so it will have to wait for the moment. are there any other fibromyalgia sufferers out there who have tried this or any other whey protein powders? let me know how you found it.
:)

Steve Irwin Crodocile Hunter Dies

Steve Irwin, the very popular Australian 'crocodile hunter' has died. It is thought that a Stingray barb penetrated his chest while he was filming underwater in Queensland. Known for his eccentric antics rather than just a straight delivery, Steve will no doubt be fondly remembered by millions of people, as someone who had a real passion for what he did.
He definitely was a unique, incredible human being.

Happy Birthday Dear Shawn...

Shawn Hogan, owner of digitalpoint.com is 31, and asked for people reading his blog to submit pictures of themselves with a sign or something that said "Happy Birthday Shawn".
here is my entry, but don' t worry dear readers, bulbboy is not a coke fiend. In fact quite the opposite; my doctor put me on a drug for six weeks, to see if it would help me with his diagnosis of fibromyalgia. it didn't help at all, and is now out of my system. unfortunately coming off it seems to have upset my sleep pattern again. oh well.

the substance on the mirror is actually 100% sodium chloride, salt. =P

Pluto declassified?

pluto is no longer a planet! how can this be?
2,5oo scientists met in prague and decided the fate of the furthest most member of our solar system. this planetary relegation is due, apparently, to the fact that pluto does not dominate it's orbit. instead it follows an eliptical trajectory that crosses the orbit of neptune. from this day on, in scientific circles at least, it will be referred to as a "dwarf planet". textbooks all across the globe will have to be changed to read "8 major planetary bodies".

is this any way to treat a planet that has been known since 1930. is it april 1st? all my life there have been 9 planets in our system. now the powers that be, want to change this, is nothing sacred? what will be next?

so what if asteroids bigger than pluto have been found?
maybe it's just nostalgia but in my book, once a planet, always a planet! on my continue to imagine light bouncing back off 9 planets.

Jason Kottke at kottke.org ran a mnemonic competition for the nine planets.
The entry that won the competition is:

My! Very educated morons just screwed up numerous planetariums.

my thoughts exactly. what about you?

The Godfather

My Godfather died just over a week ago. It was unexpected. He was in hospital for 2 weeks having all sorts of tests, and biopsies. Jaundice had turned his skin yellow, and his muscles were wasting away. He was a big man, not as big as Marlon Brando, but powerful. It was shocking to see someone I know go downhill so fast. He was diagnosed with stomach cancer on the Friday, and he died two days later, early on Sunday morning.

He was known as 'Dickie' and is survived by his wife, five children and five grandchildren.

All my family are originally from the Isle of Barra, so the funeral was held up there after a funeral service was held in Paisley for those that couldn't make it to the Western Isles of Scotland.

The crossing from Oban to Barra on the Calmac ferry took 5 hours, and there was a short service in the church as soon as we landed in Castlebay. The church is at the top of the Pier Rd so the hearse did not have far to travel.

I last saw him on Thursday 27th July, and one week later he was buried in Eoligarry graveyard, near the remains of a medieval church. The single track road around Barra had a procession of over 60 cars to the cemetery. It's strange to think of him as gone, and never to see him again, but he was a good man and will be fondly remembered by all.

I have sixteen first cousins, two brothers and a sister, and all but one of us, could make it up to Barra. The last time I remember so many family together was in 1984 at my grandparents 50th Golden wedding anniversary, a huge party held at Dickie's house in Paisley.

Iain Mackinnon
27.11.1939-30.07.2006
Rest in peace.

Fibromyalgia Symptoms

my doctor thinks i have fibromyalgia. he thought of this when i gave him a little sketch of my body with crosses where the pain appears. with so many crosses the diagram looks a little like it has been used for target practice. "have you heard of it before" he asked. i'd heard the name but did not know nothing about it.

at the moment i'm still not totally convinced. although i do match a lot of the symptoms. it does seem to be quite vague. usually i have a mix of a lot of general aches and pains with some stabbing and shooting pains which can last a few seconds or for longer.

some reports seem to relate fibromyalgia to a lack of deep sleep. the doc gave me some pills to dull the pain and hopefully give me some restful sleep. normally i'm not one for taking any pills but i've tried quite a few things that haven't worked yet so i'll try these pills for 6 weeks and see.

the first few days have turned me into a pretty useless zombie and dulled my mind, so for anyone that knows me that is the reason. everything seems a little more bland though which is not a good feeling.

Stark Lighting

while visiting the Glasgow School of Art degree show last week i noticed a strange looking chandelier light. a first i thought it was made by a student, but on closer inspection i thought that they might have picked it up in a junk shop and cleaned it up. not so; while surfing ebay, goodness know how i came across the same lurid coloured light fitting. what are the chances of that? (well with me, probably higher than your non lighting geek). this would certainly add a je ne sais quoi to your room.

sold by seller design.plus the "gypsy rain" kronleuchter ceiling light is ideal for those situations where you want something fun and serious at the same time; a kind of baroque meets teletubbies feel.

another seller has the same light for sale with the name Starck in the description. it does look like something that Philippe Starck is bonkers enough to create, but i don't think it's his design. don't know if kronleuchter German for chandelier (babelfish doesn't think so) or a company name. maybe someone can enlighten me?

the work of a graphic designer caught my eye too. Dai Williams had on show a beautiful picture of what i think was a plane coming into land, shot from below. the lights were trailing like something from close encounters.
Dai also had a piece entitled everything i learnt at art school. checkout the show next year if you are in Glasgow because sadly it has finished for this year.

Star Wars Crazy

MacBook Lightsabre

Warning: Hot Bulb!

bulbs are hot. well, incandescent and halogen bulbs are. that is, if they have been turned on for a while. often in the lighting shop, a member of the public will take me over to a light and tell me it's really hot. my usual reply is to say "it's a light, that's been on for hours".

"surely it shouldn't be that hot, my lights at home aren't that hot", is the customers usual response.

obviously the customer believes what they are saying, but is it possible that we humans have poor temperature memories as well as a poor memory for colour?
i find it difficult to believe that at home, so many people spend their time touching lights and hot bulbs. of course they don't; at home we know that bulbs are hot, but when we go into a shopping outlet the same rules don't seem to apply. people like to touch goods before they buy, they want to feel the weight, they want to feel if it's a quality product or not, (they also like to open up a box check that it's all there, then take another unopened box,leaving a mess for someone else to tidy, but i'll leave that rant for another day) and often they are surprised that it is warm or hot.

it can also be a little misleading, that there can be hot bulb signs and the lights aren't actually hot. if that is the case, it may have started out with an incandescent 'hot' bulb, but a customer or shop worker has changed it for an energy saving light bulb and not removed the red warning triangle. the customer, having read the sign hot bulb, rather than be put off by this warning, is often compelled like a moth to a flame, to touch said hot bulb. filled with false bravado that the bulb is not hot then goes on to test more bulbs.
this course of action again usually results in "here mate, that light's hot".

bulbboy's friend succumbed to his desire to touch a hot light, and felt a sudden yearning for an ice-cream cone. two actually, one to eat and one to soothe his burnt finger. another department of our shop sells ice-cream cones. could there be a management conspiracy by the management to sell more ice-cream cones?

*hmmm................bulbboy wonders*

Spotlight on The Da Vinci Code

Well, less of a spotlight and more of a flashlight on the Da Vinci Code.
In the trailer for the movie we see that the lovely Audrey Tautou has what in her hand? None other than the Inova X5 which can be seen here.

What's is so good about it apart from looking really cool? It has ultraviolet LEDs in it. These are not very useful for your average flashlight user, but different products react differently to the UV light. Wandering around in the dark with a UV torch in hand is a little like being dropped on an alien world. It's the most useful useless gadget I own.
Did you know that cat urine fluoresces under UV light? You will probably have seen these torches being used on the police TV show CSI, but they are great even if you're not a cop.


Warning: Never look into the beam with UV lights because it is bad for your eyes. This warning on the sticker should serve as a helpful reminder. Don't take it off.

Are you one of the 3 people left on the planet who hasn't read the book?

Flashlight Trend

take a peek at this cool tool from google. it shows latest trends in searches from mid 2004. i searched flashlight vs torch, do torches get searced more often, why are there spikes in the searches for torches and not for flashlights?


well, a little further investigation, not much further-only to the right side of the screen, reveals that those surges were connected to the torch of the olympic games.

Try it for yourself and see what comes up.

Bulbboy Products!

be the first to buy bulbboy products or rather product, singular, as i have as yet only added one product to the cafepress bulbboy shop. do not worry, more delightful goodies will follow soon.

Lights Out

the last blog entry i made, could have been the last that you ever heard from bulbboy. it was almost lights out for me.
DIY disaster, or near disaster, which ever way you look at it.
i was plastering around a dimmer switch, fixing an area that was in need of repair.

the sensible thing to do would be to switch off all the power and remove the dimmer switch entirely before commencing any work.


jimi hendrix was playing in the background.
i mention this as it is a key factor.


again the SENSIBLE thing to do would be to turn off all the power.
bulbboy recommends doing this.....now.


all along the watchtower was playing, a version that even the great Bob Dylan called superior to his own, and i wanted to continue listening to it.
turning off all the power would not have allowed this.
so with dimmer hanging out by its wires i proceeded to plaster.
and i was so close, but yes you've guessed it.
one stray blob of plaster, and sudden reaction to avoid it, put my hand in contact with a LIVE wire and i got a zap!
oops!

a little jolt reminded me why we should abide by safety rules.
don't forget about them, not even for the music of mr hendrix. well, it would have been a good tune to go out to ringing in my ears.
but that is still no excuse.
would you have missed me?








by the time jimi hendrix was my age, he was dead.

How long should light bulbs last?

How long does a bulb last? Well bulbboy has been
going strong (mostly) for nigh on:


Different bulb last different amounts of time.
An ordinary 60 watt incandescent bulb is supposed
to last about 1000 hours. Usually you will see a
"rated lifespan" on bulb packaging. In bulb testing this
number is the median at which 50 percent of the test
bulbs had popped, and 50 percent were still lit.


So what does this mean in every day terms?
It all comes down to a bit of luck really. If lady
luck is on your side you won't have to visit the
bulb shop too often.
Does any bulb ever reach its expected rated life.
Answers on a postcard please...

It is always a good idea to have a few bulbs spare in
the cupboard, because

In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes (and bulbs popping).

ps. see how many days old you are at howlong.eu

Moonbeams and Toast

bulbboy was moonbathing. not every night has to be filled with beams from flashlights. now and again, oh about once a month, it's good to chill out and relax under natural light, at night time.

let any stresses of the day disappear as you
stare into the dark blue expanse of sky.
this can be done indoors, but for best effect,
find a large window to lie beside.
if you have double glazing, a ghostly 2nd and 3rd
moon can be seen either side of the real moon.

bulbboy finds that a hot drink and toast can increase
the enjoyment no end. watching the moon arc across
the sky is a wonderful thing to behold, and can lower
your stress levels.

feel free to try this lunar meditation under next months
full moon, or even over the next few days as the moon
wanes. enjoy!

Know Your Bulbs

don't you know a GU10 from a GZ10 or an E27 from an E14?
bulbboy says: know your bulbs!

why? the reason i say this is that many
people do not know what kind of bulbs
they have in their lamps at home.

i see countless numbers stop and stare
in front of a wall of bulbs, and stare,
and stare, and stare, and stare and...
...well, you get the message.

they aren't marvelling at all the different types
there are, the shapes, the fittings, or even at
the amount of light each can give out.
they are just plain baffled.

this lengthy decision process coupled with the
disappointment of buying the wrong bulb, and then
the prospect of having to return said bulb, it's no
wonder that some do not enjoy this process, those
who came expecting to buy "an ordinary bulb."

dear readers, there is no such thing as an ordinary bulb.
each one must be cherished for what it gives to the world.
it has a finite lifespan like ourselves,
and then it's time is done.

take a peek inside your fittings and make a note
of all the different types you have.
and then go and seek them out...

Hallelujah!