A Week of Training

I have mixed opinions about this week. During the day, I am hoping that it will be quite fun as I will be on two TSC training courses. However, during the evening I will end up in the library working on the assignment that I should really have been working on during the day, Th course runs from 10am-6pm which leaves 8pm-12am to do the assignment. Long days and ling nights for four days in a row is bound to screw with my body clock so I will be trying to cram in little naps left, right and centre.


Day one of training is all about the theory behind maintaining and servicing intelligent light, focusing primarily in the Martin Mac series of lights that are the most common lights used in the Students Union. Tomorrow should be a bit more hands on when we start opening up the cases of some of the currently very poorly lights that we have been accumulating. The main problem that occur with our lights are from heat related damage and being 'beered'. Because they are very bright lights, the bulbs get very hot and if the cooling systems get clogged up with dust and grime then things start going very wrong as they slowly cook themselves. The favourite phrase of the course leader was that the lights got "the right raving hump" which the nicer way of putting cursing the damn things for not doing what you tell them to do. Given the state of the venues in the union - especially in the roof where the lights spend most of their time I'm not surprised that they get as clogged up as they do. I'm not sure the roof trusses have ever been cleaned or dusted and it isn't uncommon for there to be several inches of dust up there. Apparently one of the other clubs in Sheffield notorious for being a bit on the grotty side used to hold foam parties once a week to clean the venue. Sounds like a brilliant idea to me!

Overall, it was a very good day, I think I've learned a lot of really useful stuff - no just about intelligent lights but about how to troubleshoot problems and some very helpful electrical safety stuff.

This evening was not quite so productive until about the last ten minutes of the four hour session when I had a mini brainwave. I didn't get a chance to fully implement the idea before the time management software on the library computers kicked me off at 12am so I will have to wait until tomorrow to find out just how much of a brainwave it actually was.