Pointless desk photo of the day:

Since I haven't had time to go out and take any good... oh, wait. Let me say any "good" instead. The quotes make it a bit more accurate.

All right, we'll try again. Since I haven't had time to go out and take any "good" pointless photos lately, you're being treated to a day of my job is weird instead.

Today's desk shot was taken, funnily enough, today. Also funnily enough, it wasn't posed. The featured objects are currently sitting on my desk in exactly the way you're seeing them. That's right: seven assorted flashlights and a bottle of really cheap and gaudy red nail polish.

I suppose you're going to tell me now that you don't have something similar on your desk?

If you look closely, you'll see that all of the flashlights have been painted with the nail polish. Well, all except for the fish. It has a red bulb in it already, so I didn't have to paint it.

And for those of you wondering why I have a fish-shaped flashlight on my desk in the first place... none of your business.

Some of you are probably asking yourselves two questions (or should I say at least two questions?). First, why did I feel the need to paint flashlights with nail polish? Second, why was I doing it at work?

I said some of you, you'll notice. I'm hoping that at least a fraction of my two fans know what red flashlights are useful for. For the rest of you, do you want me to wait until after you've googled red flashlight or would you just like me to assure you that painting flashlights with red nail polish isn't my latest hobby?

I can wait.

Really.









Ok, so now that we all know that red flashlights are used for astronomy because they don't destroy your dark-adapted vision the way that white flashlights do, I can tell you that should you want a red flashlight (and I know you all do now) you don't have to look for an expensive commercial model. Just get yourself a cheap flashlight and then either buy a red gel, a red filter, red cellophane (like they wrap gift baskets in), or some red nail polish. Presto. Instant do-it-yourself red flashlight.

They're not just good for astronomy, you know. They're kind of handy for night nature walks (or, I suppose, dog walks) in general.

In this specific flashlight-reddening case, I was layering on the polish pretty thickly because I wanted to dim down the flashlights as well. We'll be using them (I hope) in the mobile planetarium, and a bunch of grade sixes wielding bright flashlights -- even red ones -- will tend to make the stars disappear. Kind of defeats the purpose when that happens.

I haven't had a chance to test these yet except in the storeroom, but I expect that they'll do the trick. And by the way, I'm not sure it's a good thing that no one here even looks the least bit interested/concerned/confused anymore when I go into the storeroom by myself repeatedly and turn off all the lights.

You'd think they'd at least ask whether I tripped over anything.

This place is weird.

But then I suppose that's really not news by this point, is it?





I'm going to eat my lunch now. Have fun with your flashlights, and be sure to polish them in a well-ventilated area if you want to avoid certain comments from your coworkers.