i was over at julie's place in the early afternoon, trying to fix her broken mac. it was a crash i'd never seen before, a black screen with an input/output error, that seemed to have affected both of her startup drives. we did manage to restart the machine with a system disc, so at least it's not the machine. julie was leaving for the weekend, so we agreed to pick up the repairs next week.

i spent the rest of my day waiting to pick up a craig's list item, a free ikea antifoni desk lamp in brookline. originally we were scheduled for 3:00, but the seller called to ask if we could push it back by an hour, since she was in the middle of moving to beacon hill. the address was on naples street, midway between allston center and coolidge corner. i showed up via motorcycle, and carried back the disassembled lamp in a backpack with the head of the lamp dangling out. close to home, my bike was acting funny, like maybe it was running out of gas. when i finally got back, it was making a loud noise, like maybe it was overheating.

i have a nostalgic attraction to the antifoni, since it was the desk lamp of choice when i worked at screen house many years ago. i already have an antifoni, but a floor model instead. what i thought to be a good lamp at the time, i discovered it was using 65 watt of power (via an obscenely large external transformer) to light a 40 watt halogen bulb. i was hoping the desktop model would be different, but like its larger sibling, it too used a large transform between the power plug. as a matter of fact, it used even more power, 70 watt to light 40 watt. i wonder if it needs a transformer because they're designed for european voltage (220-240) and needs to be stepped down here in the US?

i already have a pretty sweet desk light, featuring a translucent blue lamp head shaped like a glowing flying saucer. it was one of the first things i bought when i started working, back when i still lived at home and had disposable income. the good old days! i think it cost me something like $130, but i was willing to splurge. what will i do with my new antifoni? hold on to it for the time being. the fact that it's an electricity hog concerns me. i'll probably troll craig's list for a better lamp.