Any recommendations on alternate lighting, or other nifty tricks?
Turn yourself flourescent and make everybody else sit in the dark.
My dad just never turns on the fluorescent light in his ofice; he has a few incandescent floor and desk lamps instead. Says it helps a lot. Also, I've found that flat panel monitors are easier on the eyes than CRTs.
"Also, where can I get some healing sun crystals?" Jeebus, ogged.
Fluorescent lights are evil; it's something to do with cycling (they flicker, sort of, at a very high speed, like a strobe light on caffeine). Also, I can hear them.
Desk lamps with incandescent 'natural light' bulbs should help.
Well there are a few things that *might* help.
First off all fluorescent lights are not equal. If they buzz they need to be fixed. Also there should be very little flickering. If you are noticing a flicker then you can try a diffuser that spreads the light over a wider area so you are seeing more of the light as a reflection off of objects. Also, directing the desk lights towards the walls so you can have indirect light helps.
And the colors - a lot of the older bulbs have a very strong blue component that is not very 'natural'. You can get bulbs which have more reds in them.
The advantage to fluorescents is their efficiency of course. Luckily they are doing some very promising work with LEDs that may be very efficient and very pleasant.
My personal bugaboos are the orangish lights they use for street lamps and in many manufacturing situations.
During my drive back from the DC meat-up, one of the rest stop bathrooms had some freaky flourescent/paint combo that turned my face in the mirror green. Not greenish. Green. I looked like Swamp Thing.
You guys partied after I left, didn't you?
This year I was faced with seasonal affective disorder, combined with getting a new job that meant working in the evenings under fluorescent light, with two CRTs in front of me.
I'm on the verge of suicide right now.
7: If by "partied" you mean "got oiled up and wrestled naked," then yes.
Also, I can hear them.
I can see pale people. All the time.
Adam, SCMT thinks you're a weenie.
Completely untrue. I think suicide is the most altruistic of the species-strengthening culling mechanisms that natural selection has devised. If you decide to go that route, Adam, I think you are extremely generous.
I happen to have personal experience on this subject.
I used to get headaches regularly at work, and I bought a natural spectrum desk lamp and used it as the lighting at my desk and the headaches went away.
I'm a fan of natural spectrum flourescents.
I've replaced all the bulbs in my home with sun-a-lux and I can say that from personal experience they're the best natural spectrum bulb I've seen.
Less blue, and warmer than most natural spectrum bulbs.
Expensive, but highly recommended.
Correction: what I'm using at home is, specifically, the sunwave compact flourescent at the above link.
They are bright. The 26 watt bulb is probably brighter than you will need, I recommend sticking to the 15-23 watt bulbs for most applications (the 20 watt really is the equivilent of a 75 watt standard bulb.
Thanks, Nick, just the kind of advice I'm looking for.
I live in utter darkness, hoping one day to find the light.
No love for my helpful suggestion in #1? Merry Christmas, Ogged.
You should try burning your candles at both ends.
Museum security guards complained bitterly about working the Dan Flavin retrospective. My head was splitting after spending an hour walking through.
I should probably mention that I have a window office. La de dah.
And luckily some of the coldest days in MN are also the sunniest, and the sun off the snow can be nearly blinding.
Is Flavin that guy who puts up fluorescent fixtures? I remember seeing one of those at MoMA, it was a pink bulb installed vertically in a corner. I thought it was just a weird way of lighting the exhibit until I saw the title card on the wall.
. . . and performing under a spotlight an hour a day chases the SAD away.
Yep, Flavin.
That's a pretty poor Frink imitation.
Wait, I don't get it. Is that a Simpsons reference? If so, you should be ashamed of yourself, potentially.
Except I didn't quote the Simpsons, I made a lame, lame, bad joke out of how "Yep, Flavin" sounded to me in my head.
Oh, come on, you can't let Jonah Goldberg ruin the Simpsons for everyone else.
This reminds me of that Simpsons episode where they become so famous and ubiquitous that everyone gets sick of them.
BTW ogged, I was thinking about your comment about being in a shared office environment and realized that, while you could just remove the flourescent rubes above your desk and bring your own lamp to work you really should try to talk the office manager into spending the several hundred dollars it would take to replace all of the flourescent tubes with natural spectrum lights.
If they were willing to spend money on ergonomic chairs you should be able to convince them that lighting is an ergonomic issue and will improve productivity.
I'm sure you can find citations for this fact if you google, but the one that came to my mind is here (Page 88 -- Page 89)