Behind the Scenes
I figured that as one of the owners of this shop, I should actually post something...dunno if it's interesting or not, but what the heck...
AJ and I are going to miss your smiling faces for a few days this month because we're heading down to my old stomping grounds. Most of you probably don't know, but I grew up in South America, and graduated from high school in Lima, Peru. Some friends of ours talked us into returning there for a little R & R, so we decided to pull the trigger and do it.
I'm sure you can imagine just how hard it is for AJ and I to leave Star Clipper alone for any extended period of time, especially when we'll be incommunicado - I mean, can you get cell phone reception in the Amazon jungle? Actually, it turns out that you can, at least in Machu Picchu, one of the many places we'll be hitting. We'll be visiting Cusco, Machu Picchu, Nazca, Lima...I'm actually getting quite excited about it. I downloaded Google Earth (best freeware EVER) and putzed around with it, finding our hotels, restaurants we'll be patronizing, etc.
But back to the point - how can we leave Star Clipper alone for so long? I suppose we're leaving it in pretty good hands with Dan and Nick and all, but being total control freaks...well, y'know. I don't imagine they'll burn the place down.
Speaking of burning the place down, I'm very proud of myself for just installing a timer on the switch for the lights in the front of the store. Dan gets all the credit for the idea, but installing it was a royal pain in the butt. It turns out that of all things, our entire computer infrastructure runs on the same circuit as those lights, so turning off that circuit entails a bit of work: shutting down our database server, telephone server, music and backup server, powering down our wireless hub, and our cisco hub and our internet bridge, turning off the battery backups...cameras...it's a huge pain! And wouldn't you know it, the dang electrical box for the switch was too small, so I had to switch that out too! Anyway, now the lights in the front of the store will stay on into the wee hours of the night so all the late partiers can see what they can't buy until the next day. It's the little things, people!
Oh yeah, one more thing...some people think the store is too dim. I agree. You should soon notice a major change in the brightness of the shop in the next few days. We've found a solution that doesn't result in the heat problems we had with our old lights. Calculate the BTU output on 200 60 watt incandescent lights, and that'll give you some idea of what we were up against...
AJ and I are going to miss your smiling faces for a few days this month because we're heading down to my old stomping grounds. Most of you probably don't know, but I grew up in South America, and graduated from high school in Lima, Peru. Some friends of ours talked us into returning there for a little R & R, so we decided to pull the trigger and do it.
I'm sure you can imagine just how hard it is for AJ and I to leave Star Clipper alone for any extended period of time, especially when we'll be incommunicado - I mean, can you get cell phone reception in the Amazon jungle? Actually, it turns out that you can, at least in Machu Picchu, one of the many places we'll be hitting. We'll be visiting Cusco, Machu Picchu, Nazca, Lima...I'm actually getting quite excited about it. I downloaded Google Earth (best freeware EVER) and putzed around with it, finding our hotels, restaurants we'll be patronizing, etc.
But back to the point - how can we leave Star Clipper alone for so long? I suppose we're leaving it in pretty good hands with Dan and Nick and all, but being total control freaks...well, y'know. I don't imagine they'll burn the place down.
Speaking of burning the place down, I'm very proud of myself for just installing a timer on the switch for the lights in the front of the store. Dan gets all the credit for the idea, but installing it was a royal pain in the butt. It turns out that of all things, our entire computer infrastructure runs on the same circuit as those lights, so turning off that circuit entails a bit of work: shutting down our database server, telephone server, music and backup server, powering down our wireless hub, and our cisco hub and our internet bridge, turning off the battery backups...cameras...it's a huge pain! And wouldn't you know it, the dang electrical box for the switch was too small, so I had to switch that out too! Anyway, now the lights in the front of the store will stay on into the wee hours of the night so all the late partiers can see what they can't buy until the next day. It's the little things, people!
Oh yeah, one more thing...some people think the store is too dim. I agree. You should soon notice a major change in the brightness of the shop in the next few days. We've found a solution that doesn't result in the heat problems we had with our old lights. Calculate the BTU output on 200 60 watt incandescent lights, and that'll give you some idea of what we were up against...
posted by Star Clipper at Wednesday, March 08, 2006
2 Comments:
Re: Enhancing the lights.
And I qoute Karl Karlson from The Simpsons: "Aw, but the dank, Moe; the DANK."
Ok, it's not dank in there. But it is nice and dim, and I like it that way. Not antiseptically lit like a library, but softly dim, like a cathedral. Think about it. Star Clipper is my comics cathedral. I expect others feel the same way.
But in the interest of full disclosure, I have blocked out all the windows in my office at work. And I did the same at home. So maybe I like things a little darker than everyone else. But the cathedral comment stands.
Paul from down the street
Paul:
I totally get where you're coming from. Don't worry, it's not going to be industrial office bright, just enough more light to more easily read titles and more directed onto the books. It will retain its (slightly) organic feel.
-b
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