bright lights, gc's & desk chairs

it must be friday?!

in an effort to reduce its carbon footprint, my employer has launched a campaign to retrofit all lighting fixtures with more energy efficient bulbs. a facilities services crew passed through here late yesterday afternoon, standing on chairs in my office, moving a box of pr materials off the floor, lowering my keyboard tray nearly to the floor, and installing fresh bulbs in all six of the double light panels in the ceiling. entering my space at 7.25am this morning, i was greeted by the most brutal indoor lighting imaginable. aggressively bright, it is, and i bear the brunt of its directed hostility.

as if the brutality of my office lighting were insufficient, i was greeted by a list serve announcement of the newly launched blog created by a staff member whose job title i used to share and who, like so many of her colleagues, feels the "need" to hyper-professionalize and is now compelled to transcend the boundaries of her title's cross-campus organization and take it global, online.

finally, back in my corner of the building, they're all abuzz with the arrival of five different sample desk chairs, each available for a three-to-four-hour check-out (sign-out sheet and all). some immediately conduct brief test-sits, while others grumble about the lack of information on each model's specifications. i note, yet again, as i have at each stage of the "new space design process", that this is all concocted to provide us the illusion that our input matters, that we have a voice, that my vote for chair #3 is meaningless. we will all receive the chair they decide we should have, and they will all be the same.