No Christmas Music

I actually sort of feel like listening to Christmas music today. I have 2002 songs on my iPod, but 0 of them are Christmas music. How sad :(

Electrical Wiring 1, Cynan 0

So, the light in my kitchen over my table is controlled by a dimmer switch, and it was suppose to be a 3 way switch. However, the switch on the other wall did nothing, it wouldn't turn it on or off. So I decided to replace the switch with a dimmer switch. Luckily for me, I got 2 dimmer switches otherwise I still wouldn't have light in my kitchen. Of course being the engineer, I couldn't get the $18 3-way switches, I had to get the nice $25 "Smart" ones with LED, memory, and an auto dim to off feature!

These switches were smarter than me.

First, none of the circuits are labled quite right in my fuse box. Its not that they're wrong, the descriptions are vauge, like "kitchen" and "lighting" So it took me quite some time to get the light to turn off in the first place. However, i think the electrician that wired my place was on crack. When I turn off one of the ones labled lighting, lights in the kitchen, and on the wall in the living room go out (no, they're not in the same wall).

Then, I decided just to be sort of safe and check the switch in the double box next to the one i was replacing, since I had to take it out to get at one of the wire junctions. It was still hot, even though the other one in the box was not! Argh!

After I tried getting the thing to work and nothing seemed to be working at all, I called Green just to make sure I wasn't crazy with how it was suppose to be wired up. I wasn't, and it just wasn't quite working right. Partly because I'm a house wireing newbie, and partly because the dimmer switch they used wasn't actually a 3 way switch. They just wired it up a 2 way switch in such a way that the other switch did absolutly nothing. Also, some where in there I got tired of going back and forth to my breaker, so I just left it on for the last 30 minutes. :)

Needless to say, I still didn't get them working right. So I re-read the wiring instructions that came with the 3 way switches, they even had a bloody schematic in there and I still couldn't get them wired up right! I got to the last page, and found they had a 24-7 800 number to call for support. Any light switches that have a free 24 hour tech support might be either poorly designed, or poorly documented! On these, its defineatly the latter. I called the number, and with the guy's help had them working in about 5 minutes, only because he made me turn off my breaker before he would help me. In fact, all he did was ask me what color the wires were in the wall, and then told me where to hook them up at. Would that have been so hard to print in the instruction book?

Oh well, they're nice light switches now that they work, and I'll probably replace the one in my bedroom with one in the future as well. Or maybe I'll just buy a lot of X-10 stuff. /shrug

Holy comment spam!

I'm very glad I finally installed mt-blacklist as I got over 100 comment spams in the last 24 hours!

Most Useless Product Award

Goes to....the 1GSI Vortex Blender

Close Runners up:
Pacific Outdoor Equipment Tent Pegs.

Good Quote

This was in an article linked off /.

In the best of circumstances, passive resistance is damaging. When internal staffers have no stake in the success or failure of a project or have incentives but are so jaded that they view the incentives as not attainable, they work against the project’s success.

Pop Tarts vs. Toaster Strudel

Strawberry Pop Tarts aren't as good as Strawberry Toaster Strudels. This is true of all the fruit flavored strudels.

However, S'mores Pop Tarts blow the S'mores Toaster Strudels out of the water.

Happy Birthday to me!

Today was a good birthday! First, driving on the way from Bluffton to Winamac, I saw a Bald Eagle flying across the road which was awsome. Then I closed on my house out there. Sad to see it go, since I loved where it was, but I'm glad that I no longer have to deal with it.

After I drove from Winamac to Bluffton, mom had made me supper. Mmmmm, meatloaf, and Not So Bad cake! It was great.

Tomorrow I get to close on my place up here in Detroit, and be uber broke again :( Maybe I'll remember to bring my camera with me to take some pictures of the new place.