Another roommate story, also not wow-related.
We were prepping for a party in the Geek House, and we had a light problem. The first floor living room in the Geek House has this little sun room projecting off of it — kinda a half room. Our problem was the light fixture in the sun room was very bright, but it was switched to the same switch as the ceiling fan/light in the living room.
We really wanted the fan on because it gets so hot when packed with bodies, but we really didn’t want the bright light of the sun room. I was lounging in the living room contemplating the problem with my sister, who happened to be over. The roommate was off in the first floor kitchen busily cooking, which she does for two days non-stop before a party.
I was thinking it should be possible to rewire the lights. Clearly the wiring came into the same switch, so we could just pull it out and rewire it. We’d just have to run down to the hardware store and get double switch or something. Of course, that means we’d need a larger box, which would mean cutting open the wall a bit more. Alternatively we could just cap the wire coming from the sunroom light, since we never, ever wanted to have it on anyway. It was bright and unattractive and we have floor lamps besides.
My sister disagreed, arguing that the simpler solution would just be to get a new light fixture — a cheap one — that has a pull chain for the light. Then we could just pull the chain and leave it off all the time.
Finally the roommate walked in to see us sitting on the couch staring thoughtfully at the ceiling.
Roommate: What are you doing?
Frostheim: Trying to decide what to do about the sun room light. We don’t want it on, but we really want the living room fan on. I was thinking we could rewire the switch. We could get a new switch from the hardware store. We’d just have to enlarge the hole…
Frost’s Sis: Or you could just get a new fixture with a chain on the light. Then you don’t have to rewire anything.
Frostheim: Or we could just cap the wire leading to the switch. Leave it permanently off.
Roommate: You just don’t want the sun room light on and you do want the fan on?
Frostheim: Yeah. It’s just too bright for a party atmosphere, you know?
Roomate sighs in exasperation, walks into the sun room, reaches up to take the cover off the light fixture, unscrews the lightbulb, and sets the cover back on.
Frostheim: Oh. Yeah, that works too.
Roomate: Okay, now get back to work.
Roomate: Still counting
Frostheim: 0
That was my thinking – unscrew the light bulb. For all the number crunching and awesome hunter thinking you do, you totally missed the obvious and easy solution.
/bonk
The hardships of thinking too much….
How many geeks does it take to change a light bulb…. ?
i love your roomate stories, they make the site just that much better. you should have some frostheim goggles with her in them, speaking of which, when’s the next one coming out?
We have at least four places in our house with no bulb in the socket for this exact reason.
How many Hunters does it take to unscrew a lightbulb?
1 and his gun ….he shoots it out
Priceless!
As an added benny, you could also replace the bulb with a lower wattage bulb to decrease the amount of light produced.
^ Or slap in some sexy colored mood lighting bulb? For that ” party atmosphere “
as soon as you stated the issue, i was like…just take the lightbulb out.
LOL. I kept thinking as I read the story: why on earth don’t they just unscrew the lightbulb? I thought your solutions were creative though, lol.
It takes one I gather. As much as would like to show that for once I surpass the awsomesauceness of frost and scream out loud that, of course taking the lightbulb out was the one and only obvious solution, I was already deep on my list of even fancier pieces of equipment that would achieve similar results with less effort (if slightly costlier) when the roommate burst my bubble
Funny story , thats why it pays to look at the task at hand from every angle theres always a easier way !.
Frost, your roommate is Teh Awesomesauce.
@Iirdan, none. Hunters aren’t afraid of the dark
Never sit around contemplating electrical decisions like this one with a non-hazy, sober mind. With a little alcohol involved, your first inclination would have been to assault and batter the lightbulb into submission. Or worse I suppose, which may have made for great reading on your local paper’s website. Trust in the booze!
Roommate wins.
^ is an electrician, my first thought was to disconnect the wires too
Too funny
Haha, the whole time I’m sitting here thinking “Why don’t they just take out the bulb?”
Are you an engineer?
Well after reading the story and comparing it to how I would do things. Frost might have been very manipulative and lazy at the same time. Staring at the cieling thinking “That light doesn’t need be on but the fan does, I need to take out the bulb but I don’t want to get up…I’m way too comfortable.” looks over at his sis, “she looks really comfortable too, besides probably couldn’t trick her into doing it anyway… hmm” hearing the roommate in the kitchen, a maniacal smile comes across his face “OF COURSE”. MWAHAHAHAHA
That was an awesome story….I laughed at the end.
Good times Frost. Thank you for proving that outside of WOW, you are still just a man. Don’t quit your day job! I personally was thinking an aluminum foil and duct tape light cover, but removing the bulbs works as well.
As I was reading the story, I was already thinking “Someone say unscrew the lightbulb before some terrible electrical event occurs.”
But no, things like that happen to me all the time. I’ll overthink and analyze a situation and how to say something, when I’ll realize a day afterwards I could’ve just said something in 2 seconds and be done with it. Another thing for me is that when someone asks me to do something, I will do it…literally. My mom wanted me to pick up everything off the floor for here in her bedroom. Little did I realize she only wanted the laundry and sheets from the bed off the floor, not the boxes of heavy books moved, the unopened box of some other heavy thing, the piles of bills my dad has left on the floor, and then move them to some side of the room. So much fun…
This is like getting tacs for a raid boss done while someone else instagibs the boss and has all teh awesome loots.
When NASA realized pens would not work in outer space without gravity, they worked non-stop to make a fully-functional zero gravity pen. The Russians used a pencil.