In a way we’re all familiar with Karma, be it through the Western saying “Reap what you sow” or the saying “What you do comes back to you”, or the original Eastern religious belief. As a kid we learn these things in a very simple way: be good and Santa will bring you presents. But if you’re bad, you’ll get coal.
Where am I going with this? Well, a year or two ago someone who is now a good friend came by the office for one thing or another and we started talking about an old pet project of his: cigar bands. Or more precisely: customized cigar bands.
His idea was to make cigar bands with someone’s name on them, to make them an extra special little gift for his friends.
This idea grew and grew, and now we’ve just finished making 50-some boxes of cigars that’ve been completely customized in three different versions (black, blue and beige), from the bands to the box itself, not leaving any trace of the original brand anywhere.
If I had to guess how many hours we’ve put in the designs, getting the sizes of every “sticker” we use just right, I really wouldn’t be able to tell you. Our combined efforts have lead us to the extremely low number of €500, not counting the time required to customize for every name and the actual applying of the stickers and bands.
Recently I spent a couple hours at work on two separate evenings to do some simple photography for him. Every year he dresses up as Sinterklaas, has three guys play his helpers and wanted some new photos. In the end most turned out good (keeping in mind I’m not a photographer nor own the right camera for that kind of stuff) and I used some for holiday postcards and the likes.
On Wednesday he wasn’t supposed to come to the office, but he did, and he brought presents. They were “small gifts” according to him, and we weren’t allowed to open them until we were home. So, we kept them wrapped and I helped him get a couple more cigar boxes done.
When I got home, I checked my emails, read my RSS feeds and only then was I no longer able to keep myself from opening up my present.
Inside the box was… another box. Knowing he has the same sense of humor I have, I immediately thought I’d find several more boxes, each carefully wrapped, inside. My surprise, or shock even, was all the larger when I unwrapped the second box: it contained a clear, 2nd generation Philips LivingColors lamp (click the link if you want to find out more, it’s also pictured on the left, and I’ll of course explain a bit about it).
After having unpacked and hooked up the light, I sent him an SMS to thank him for the lamp, making a mental note to call or visit him to thank him again the next day. In return, as I knew it was one heck of an expensive gift rather than a small one, as he made me believe, I’d get him a ticket for this New Year’s lottery (jackpot of €27.5 million).
Here’s where the Karma comes in: he’d bought me the light to thank me for the extra work I’d put in the cigar boxes and the photos. Something I did not because I’d get something out of it, but because it was a nice side-project to have. Personally, I wouldn’t have minded getting nothing out of it at all, which made the gift all the more special to me.
So, what is a LivingColors lamp? Well, it’s an LED lamp (meaning it should last a long long time) in a glass casing, with a remote control to turn it on/off, dimming controls and a color wheel to … change the lamp’s color. Oh, and the color can be desaturated in quite a lot of steps to make it go whiter or completely white.
These lamps cost around €150 over here, last time I checked, and trust me, I’ve checked quite a few times as I’ve been on the look-out for a good LED lamp to put on my night stand. The price of admission has kept me from buying one though, especially as I don’t like to go shopping, and don’t know anyone who has one for me to try out.
What’s worse than paying good money for a product only to find out it’s not as good as you’d hoped? Sure, you can return it without question, but it’s still a hassle. And if you can try it out in a store, the setting’s nowhere near what your room’s like. But boy-oh-boy am I glad I got that lamp. It’s really bright when it’s full-on, but the dimming’s so refined it can be nearly off if you want it to be. And the ability to switch from, say, bright green to pale white or anywhere in between at the touch of a button is just amazingly sweet.
Had I mentioned the remote doesn’t have actual buttons, but it works like the old iPod’s wheel, as in “it knows your finger’s there”? And it isn’t an IR-remote but uses radio waves (a.k.a. RF-remote) so you don’t have to point it at the lamp at all.
Right now the lamp’s on a light auto-cycle, meaning it changes color every second (by default it’s slower, but you can make it go faster or slower), but normally I have it on a slightly desaturated yellow or green.
If I ever get €150 and don’t know what to do with them, I’ll go buy me a second one of those lights. It’s just that good, not to mention cool 
