Dear Diary #57: RIP Ikea RYET LED Bulb, AutoCAD/Microstation Learning

Dear Diary,

Finally said goodbye to my second LED light bulb. It was an Ikea 400 lumen RYET that I installed around last August in one of the most-used rooms. To be clear, the LED bulb didn't die, the flickering for less than 30 seconds after turning it on from a long rest -- so it was probably "cold" -- just got too annoying. After warming up, the light appeared stable and smooth. On the other hand, the flickering was getting worse and worse from the barely noticeable flicker weeks ago to the full on/off flicker right before I swapped it out. That's roughly a one year and one month life for a CA$ 2.00-ish bulb bought back in 2016 -- they were only CA$ 1.29 each on Ikea.ca last I checked in September 2017. Still not bad. On the bright side, there were two RYET bulbs in that fixture and the second one is still running strong. The other ten-ish 400 and 600 lumen RYET bulbs I put in last August still work fine too.

P.S. Cleaning the collection of dead insects collected on the light fixture's diffuser was tons of fun. Having to rub off the dead insects cocooned around the LED bulb itself was also fun. I'm beginning to wonder if those dead insects are trying to tell me something. Unless I'm remembering wrong, it has always been this bulb in this mount, out of the two used in the ceiling fixture, that died first. Wiring or heat problem? Regardless, I'm still glad I don't have to deal with a piece of crap CFL bulb exploding and spilling mercury contaminated particles everywhere.

Been thinking about learning Microstation and AutoCAD properly for a while but didn't care for the course prices at local colleges. After some research, I think I figured out a much cheaper way: buy a book or two, read them good, then buy a one month subscription or sign up for only one basic course to get access to the software. Proceed to cram and take notes. Not sure if I'll get to step three that costs the most. The books are actually reasonably priced and I can do the reading. Paying a couple hundred dollars for a course or a month long subscription is a bigger step.

To avoid having to wash my cup out properly, I've resorted to filling the container higher. Most of the stains are blobs of instant coffee mix so the hot water should melt it back down. I'm going to be especially happy when I fill it too high and spill a bunch all over my hand or the floor.

Later.