Blame it on the lighting

[Piffany]

Sometimes I hate kids...I really really do.

We have a regular 'guest' (oh dont call them customers!) in our store, a real winner with leathery brown over tanned skin and Gwen Steffani platinum blonde hair. This lady saw fit to squirt out 5 pasty blonde boys in rapid succession and I thankfully dont know all their names but two are "Atlas" and "Agassi" (Do we sense a theme here?).

Well little "Atlas" is a holy terror every time he's in the store, Screaming, crying and temper tantrums are the norm. One day in my lane (woo lucky me), little Atlas was maintaining his position on the top of my hit list, when his mother piped up to me...

"He never acts up anywhere else, your store lighting is what makes him act that way...."



She was dead serious....

[Eric the Grey]

"He never acts up anywhere else, your store lighting is what makes him act that way...."



She was dead serious....

You could have looked up at the overhead lights and muttered something about maybe that's why you feel like strangling people while you're at work...



Eric the Grey

[PepperElf]

"Oh. That's probably it. We installed ultra violet light bulbs to keep out the vampires."

[Kittish]

"Oh. That's probably it. We installed ultra violent light bulbs and kept the vampires."

Corrected for my amusement.

[Javarod]

While unlikely, it is actually possible. Fluorescents give light at a different wave length than incandescents, and there's even a small difference between types of fluorescents (holy crap there's a lot of different types, i assembled them for specialized equipment in a factory, and we were always getting different types of ballasts (transformers) to handle specialized (or just plain weird) requirements), so its possible that yours are different and in such a way to effect him, but highly unlikely (actually it means he'd have to be different too).

[Dreamstalker]

I can somehow "sense" bad bulbs (whether through visual flicker or the normally-audible-only-to-dogs transformer buzz both of which make me slightly twitchy. Not to the point of violence, just like "something in here's bugging me and I should go soon".

I've also been known to predict a dying CRT monitor or TV just by listening to it on mute, so I'm probably in the "weird" camp anyway.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Atlas and Agassi? Why? WHY???

[Pezzle]

I've also been known to predict a dying CRT monitor or TV just by listening to it on mute, so I'm probably in the "weird" camp anyway.

I had to get rid of every CRT I had. When flat panels came around, it was like a dream come true. I can still hear that damned high pitched noise but fuck not like a CRT. I could tell when someone entered or exited the room based on the change in pitch from a CRT muted or otherwise.

[wagegoth]

Fluorescents are a problem for people with certain neurological issues, including people on the autism spectrum.

[Sharsarannon]

Fluorescents are a problem for people with certain neurological issues, including people on the autism spectrum.

I'm a pretty sensitive autistic, and flourescents only ever annoyed and depressed me. I just find the color spectrum irritating. It reminds me of being shut into windowless classrooms and medical facilities. Ew. If it flickers it can make me downright cranky. I HATE flickering lights.

If she were a responsible parent, and her son WAS autistic, she should know better than to bring him with her to a place that "causes" him to act out like that. If it really is the lighting making him act like that, it's likely distressing him and he'd be a happier child for never going into your store again.
However, I call BS, on grounds that whether the lighting is annoying him or not, she should be a decent enough parent to remove her child from a place when he acts like that, whether for his own benefit or at least to save the customers.

[Sharsarannon]

Atlas and Agassi? Why? WHY???

Sheer pretentiousness.

[earl colby pottinger]

LCDs

I had to get rid of every CRT I had. When flat panels came around, it was like a dream come true. I can still hear that damned high pitched noise but fuck not like a CRT. I could tell when someone entered or exited the room based on the change in pitch from a CRT muted or otherwise.

Most LCDs use small tube fluorescents as their back lights, you probably notice the same problem using bigger laptops too.

However, while limited in number of models, some LCDs now have LED back lights - in other words - NO HIGH FREQUENCY SOUNDS. Do some searches, you should find something available in your area.

[Pezzle]

Most LCDs use small tube fluorescents as their back lights, you probably notice the same problem using bigger laptops too.

However, while limited in number of models, some LCDs now have LED back lights - in other words - NO HIGH FREQUENCY SOUNDS. Do some searches, you should find something available in your area.

Oh I will take you up on that. My current LCD is a ViewSonic that I've had since 2004. I can still hear the noise, however it is nowhere near as bad as when I was using a 17" CRT for a monitor and a 23+" CRT for a TV. Nowadays I just keep a white noise generator going in the background and it cuts down on the pitch, but I'll look into that. I'd heard about them.

This is also why I refuse to live in a house by high tension wires/lines, and dislike fluorescent bulbs (though those new curly compact ones actually don't bug me at all, so i guess that's cool). And damnit people, fix your squeaky brakes :P