I gave my boss's boss LEDs this morning

Yesterday at my workplace, we had a baby shower for a guy whose wife is having a baby soon. Since I'm just an intern here, I didn't know about it in advance and didn't get him anything. Therefore, I stopped by Fry's on my way home yesterday night and bought a pewter 2D Mag-LED, 2 Duracell D batts, and a Nite-Ize drop-in as a backup/low-stage/power-saving option. My mom wrapped it and gave me a card in which to write a note, and I gave it to him this morning. He seemed extremely pleased with the gift.

Humorously, he wanted to try it in the dark, so we went into the kitchen to shine it around. This gave me an opportunity to compare a real light to those Eveready Economy Bright Light clones ($2 plastic 2D incan) we have scattered around in case of blackouts. The Mag-LED was so much better than the standard here that it would be funny if it wasn't sad.

Questions? Comments? Opinions?

Always nice to remember the Dad in a Baby shower too

I'm not sure the little one will use it much though

Nice gift, I'm not surprised he's pleased, :goodjob:

Ian

That's a helluva gift for an intern. That's very generous of you.
And don't knock those $2 lights; they're effective and serve the intended purpose, and they're always available when you need them (i.e. you don't see anyone stealing them and taking them home do you? ).

Of course, that MagLED probably cost more than all of the 'emergency' lights that they have spread out around the building as well

Brighteyez said:

That's a helluva gift for an intern. That's very generous of you.
And don't knock those $2 lights; they're effective and serve the intended purpose, and they're always available when you need them (i.e. you don't see anyone stealing them and taking them home do you? ).

Of course, that MagLED probably cost more than all of the 'emergency' lights that they have spread out around the building as well

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Actually...

They don't always serve their intended purpose. If the purpose is to have a light that would actually be useful in an emergency (blackout), these lights wouldn't work. The bulb could be blown, the batteries mismatched, the batteries dead, etc. Even if the light, bulb, and cells were new, there would only be enough good light for a 30- or 60-minute blackout.

And yes, they do walk away. They were restocked in all the rooms about a month before I got here, and by the time I was hired, there were only two left - and one of them (a lantern type) had loose wires and didn't work until I fixed it.

So much praise for my generosity! Not expected, but much appreciated.

Actually that sounds more like the norm. Unless a company's facilities department regularly checks and maintains them, they're pretty useless. And they serve no purpose when the employees take them home (which is not so uncommon in a lot of companies in this valley.) I did encounter a company last year that had a power outage due to an interior electrical failure. They had those plug in rechargeable lights all over the building (they had been there for about 5-6 years.) Sure enough, 90% of those lights failed to work when the power went out.

With regards to your generosity, yes, that is an above-average cost for a gift from most employees, and even more so if you're only there as an intern. You're going to give the rest of us workin' stiffs a bad name

TigerhawkT3 said:

Actually...

They don't always serve their intended purpose. If the purpose is to have a light that would actually be useful in an emergency (blackout), these lights wouldn't work. The bulb could be blown, the batteries mismatched, the batteries dead, etc. Even if the light, bulb, and cells were new, there would only be enough good light for a 30- or 60-minute blackout.

And yes, they do walk away. They were restocked in all the rooms about a month before I got here, and by the time I was hired, there were only two left - and one of them (a lantern type) had loose wires and didn't work until I fixed it.

So much praise for my generosity! Not expected, but much appreciated.

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It might interest you to know that I work at a junior college, so it probably isn't the employees who "end up" with the lights.

It's flashlight stuff, and from Fry's, too - those two factors can make any amount of money seem trivial!

It is a paid internship ("learning stipend"), and I got an allowance from my parents before that, so it's not like I won't eat for a week. I think around $40 was the general idea here. The father-to-be also got diapers, wipes, a diaper-changing tool belt (craft project), and a diaper disposal gadget. The flashlight setup I got him seemed like a good idea, and it was definitely worth it to see his reaction!

Ah! Then I'm surprised that any of the lights were left, even the broken ones . If it's not in an area that is generally accessable to students, it's probably still the employees, if they were left in a public area, then it's just plain foolish.

Don't undersell yourself to justify the gift, that was a very nice gesture on your part. People in the private sector seldom give $40 presents unless it's being written off on a company tab, and you certainly don't see $40 donations to gift pools, at least not very often.

TigerhawkT3 said:

It might interest you to know that I work at a junior college, so it probably isn't the employees who "end up" with the lights.

It's flashlight stuff, and from Fry's, too - those two factors can make any amount of money seem trivial!

It is a paid internship ("learning stipend"), and I got an allowance from my parents before that, so it's not like I won't eat for a week. I think around $40 was the general idea here. The father-to-be also got diapers, wipes, a diaper-changing tool belt (craft project), and a diaper disposal gadget. The flashlight setup I got him seemed like a good idea, and it was definitely worth it to see his reaction!

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My goodness...

I was expecting arguments about my choices (Mag, Nite-Ize, etc.), not a pile of compliments.

I feel all warm and fuzzy inside! :grouphug:

Oh! I didn't see the Nite Ize part. What did you do that for? Is that your idea of a Hi-Lo switch? :lolsign:

I'd have gotten him a 3 cell Xenon bulb instead for a backup.

Nah, you done good. That was a real nice gesture on your part.

... kissA$$!

Yeah, that's the super-cool 2-stage. I remembered a thread somewhere around here about a father who wanted a very dim light to check on his sleeping child at night, so I thought of the Nite-Ize Mag. Then I thought that he might want something a little brighter as well, so I got him the Mag-LED. I helped him put it together, and we put the Nite-Ize in the foam tailcap insert (I don't know what he'll do with the krypton bulb...).

Hey, everyone else got him a gift! I wasn't buttering him up for anything...

Very nice of you to do that Tigerhawk!