not my week for electricity
so the electricians have done nearly all of the work in the studio. the outlets are all wired and the lights are all in. all that remains to be done is to install the dimmers. i had to order some special dimmers that won't generate any interference when used. i ended up going with the lutron nova line of dimmers, which is what other studio peeps have been using when they don't want to go all hard core with a variac transformer. unfortunately, the dimmers are on backorder and i don't know yet when they're expected in. and i've learned this week that for some reason electricians have a real aversion to the color black for plugs and switches. jerry and dave tried repeatedly to talk me out of using black plugs and to use dark brown instead, but i stood my ground. and i'm glad i did, because black plugs in metal boxes with metal face plates is HAWT.
the booth sconces look fucking awesome:
the lights in the main room are a different story. the lighting is too directional, leading to problems with shadows and being blinded from intense brightness if you happen to be standing in the wrong place. the fixtures are also too domineering. when you walk into the room, your attention is pulled right towards them, and not in a good way. and overall, even though it's 800W of lighting total, it's still very dark in the room. michelle and i are going to spend some time this weekend exploring other lighting options. bah. i thought i was *finally* done with this crap. oh well, these things happen, no biggie.
in other electricity-gone-bad news, i received the RME PCI card today. it's actually a main card and a daughtercard, and the person i bought it from decided to put both cards in the same static bag when packing the box. this is generally a bad idea, and the damage the main card received as a result speaks to that. check out the damage it sustained.
