power outage as blessing

So I mentioned yesterday that a power outage knocked out all the lights in our building. Because my library space gets almost no natural light, I dragged a floor lamp from an empty office into the room and plugged it in right next to my desk.

It ruled. This lamp produces just about the right amount of light to illuminate the whole area by my desk, and it doesn't cause the hellish glare that I live with when the overhead flourescent lights are on. Whenever I can get away with it, I leave those off -- there are three softer spotlights in the celing that provide enough light for me. But nine times out of ten, a student will decide they want more light and flick them on.

I was so taken by the softer light of the lamp, though, that I got the boss to come see its loveliness. And she was so impressed that she immediately agreed to order two more lamps. Placed strategically, and along with the spots, they should light the room well enough that the flourescents should never be needed. And my eyes rejoiced. They can't arrive soon enough.

news anchor silliness

CNN's space correspondant is named Miles O'Brien.

I find this extraordinarily amusing, and I'm not the only one.

He was on The Daily Show on Thursday and did beautifully. I highly recommend the interview if you can catch it in reruns.