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The Safety Zone

The Simple Gift of Light Series #11 PPE, or Personal Protection Equipment, is a term learned quickly by everyone who works even occasionally in hazardous jobs. Going to a construction site? Grab your safety vest, protective eyewear, and hard hat. Hanging out fifty feet above a stage? You’ll need your safety harness. Headed to the […]

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1THING: New Build Front Porches

three doors demonstrating three styles of porchlights. The first is a standard light, described as "Glare, Slip, & Waste." The second is a lantern with light shooting out the top and bottom, described as "Safe & Waste." The third is a modified version of the first with most of the light directed downwards to the path. This is described as "Glow, Safe, & Wonder."

I go on a nightly neighborhood lighting patrol. Sort of. When our family divvied up the dog duties, I drew the just-before-bed nightly walk. Albus, our 9-year-old cockapoo, gamely trots around the block while I curse the neighborhood porchlights. Okay, I do not curse the porchlights. But I do wonder how my neighbors would react […]

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1THING: Plug In Dining Rooms

An illustration of two people sitting at a dining room table, depicted in profile. There are two doors behind each person. The left door shows a picture of space, including a planet with a ring around it. A text bubble above the door says "the great BEYOND" with an arrow pointing to the planet. The right door shows outer space also with a flying saucer.

Today we are going boldly into the great unknown, the vast universe beyond the dining room. Ahem. Sometimes I get a little carried away. Okay, often I get a little carried away. Especially when it comes to coming up with creative ways to talk about light and lighting. So please forgive me when I wax poetic – […]

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1THING: New Build Dining Rooms

An illustration of two figures with their arms around each others' shoulders. They are encompassed by a bright yellow circle behind them. Below them, script text reads "get comfortable with a lighting hug."

This post brings dining rooms into my 1THING: New Build series, but you’ll have to skip ahead or slog through some early morning musings to get there. Sorry. Blogging is a bit of weird phenomenon. Here I sit, week after week, writing about lighting with no deadlines, no paycheck, and no guarantee that what I write will […]

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GEAR TALK: Low Voltage Lighting

An illustration of an astronaut in a flying saucer with a glass dome. The top speech bubble reads "We come from the FUTURE..." and the bottom bubble reads "to bring you LOW VOLTAGE lighting." The words FUTURE and LOW VOLTAGE are bold and red. The astronaut looks very friendly.

My Gear Talk series is an excuse to geek out a bit while attempting to simplify some of the complex conversations we have about lighting. It is less about the theory, science, and application and more about the tools. And one of those tools has almost nothing to do with the photons themselves: voltage. We live in […]

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1THING: Plug In Bedroom Lighting

A silhouetted figure reading on a bed in a bedroom. There is a ceiling fan on the ceiling and a table across the room on the other side of the image. The ceiling fan has a light. A big, bright arrow points from the light to the face of the figure. White text near the light reads "this light can hurt you" and points with a thin, white arrow to the ceiling fan light. Script text below the image reads "How to make a bedroom more comfortable..."

When it comes to plug-in lighting upgrades in the bedroom, the bedside table lamp is a runaway favorite. Both useful and ubiquitous, this staple of decorative lighting needs no introduction. And devoting an entire blog post to them might be considered a waste of time. That means I will probably write about bedside lamps someday, […]

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Light Can Help You