let there be dark!

We haven't been having such good luck with the lights here in SN3.3. 

(I told you this was a high-tech dorm... My address sounds like something off of the Jetsons. Any minute now I expect Rosie to come in and clean the place!)

(Actually, it would be great if she did, because I don't think that our bathroom received its scheduled cleaning last week. But I digress.)

Getting back to the illuminating topic at hand, a couple of days ago the bathroom light started flickering. It was like going to the disco, right in our own apartment! Thankfully none of us are epileptics, or we would've had a real problem. Being the intelligent students that we are, we submitted a maintenance request, hoping that the problem would be addressed sometime this millennium. (No, seriously.) However, after 24 hours of the dance party bathroom, we'd had about enough. So, being the resourceful students that we are, we decided to take apart the light.

Scratch that.

I decided to take apart the light.

You know, because I do things like that.

With the help of a screwdriver that one of my roommates happened to have in her possession (band directors always seem to have tools handy!), I went to work. The fixture disassembled as expected, and with the front cover removed I turned on the light to figure out which of the two bulbs was causing the problem. However, I now faced a small quandary. You see, normal light bulbs are apparently not good enough for our "dorm of the future". After letting the whole thing cool down for awhile, I went to work figuring out how to a.) remove the malfunctioning funky fluorescent bulb, and b.) not electrocute myself in the process. 

Happily, I was successful on both counts. After reattaching the cover, our bathroom is now slightly dimmer, but much less twitch-inducing. The offending bulb is sitting on the ledge above the sink as a not-so-subtle hint for the elusive maintenance staff. 

Or maybe Rosie will just take care of it.