Tag: blackout

Lights Out, NOLA!!!!

backinphillyLeave a comment

By now, you have all heard about the blackout at the Super Bowl that almost changed the outcome of the game. The Ravens were on a roll, opening the second half with a kick return touchdown by Jacoby Jones and extending their lead to 28-6. The game was out of reach, and the Ravens were showing no signs of stopping. This one was getting out of hand.

Then, in the middle of the 49ers’ ensuing possession, someone decided that it was a little too bright in the Superdome. Time to go green and go blind!

There are many theories regarding the blackout in the Dome. Some say that the generators that were supporting the lighting for Beyonce’s halftime show may have blown a fuse. Some say that the off-sight generators powering the Superdome may have malfunctioned. But as you all know, I like to come up with my own theories. Some of my theories are very farfetched. However, this one makes some sense.

Check this out. In the first three quarters, Mercedes Benz did not present a commercial to the many viewers. In the fourth quarter, what do we have here? A Benz ad.

The air time was collapsed in order to draw attention to the Mercedes ads. While viewers were taking wing and bathroom break, hopefully not simultaneously, other commercials were running. As commercial spots were booked ahead of time, Mercedes made an effort to have their commercials appear while the game was actually happening.

I don’t know, guys. Seems pretty fishy to me. It’s a little more valid than Beyonce and the Illuminati having anything to do with it.

Blackout

yourgingerkidLeave a comment

I woke up in the dark. My sense of time had been lost and my eyesight had been compromised due to the unknown amount of time that my eyes had been blissfully shut. It was absolutely silent around me. The ringing in my ears was deafening and there seemed to be no sign of commotion anywhere. Where was everyone? I sat up and frantically looked for my phone, which I found beside me. It was 7:29 on a perfectly average Monday night on the Ojai Valley School Upper Campus, except for the loss of electricity.

No lights, no power, no preparation. I found myself mindlessly walking toward the lounge where forty-something girls stood scattered among the feelings of chaos. Dorm parents were ordering the students around like a sheepdog would herd petrified sheep into formations we call single file lines. There we were, forty-something girls, in the dark, trying to organize and comprehend why exactly they were all in the dark.

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OVS, are you blackout ready?

yrreskrapLeave a comment

Instant darkness. The excited yells of frantic girls could be heard across the Upper campus as Ojai Valley School experienced it’s first blackout of the year. Many of us did not know how to react. It was exciting for all-this chaotic, fortuitous occurrence meant that study hall was postponed.  A herd of girls began to stream out of the dorms, assembling into the blackhole, but they were soon told by the faculty that this was not a fire drill and that it was okay to be inside the dorms. We retreated. Back inside the black enclosures, people huddled together, walking to their rooms scouring drawers and closets for any source of light they could find: flashlights, cell phones, even laptops.

I was one of the few for whom this was a frightening experience. I have nyctophobia, meaning I am afraid of the dark. My first instinct was to grab my headlamp that had been so handy during dark nights camping out in the Eastern Sierras just two weeks back. It was just my luck when I snapped out of my frantic state and realized my headlamp was upstairs, in the storage room. It was a scary journey up but when the dorm parent on duty, Ms. Smith, opened up the room, I dashed in there to find the precious light source.

I walked back downstairs with a new sense of calm, the light from my headlamp illuminating the way back to my seat in the girls lounge. There, Mama asked passing girls where their flashlights and headlamps were. Apparently, we were supposed to keep them in our rooms, in case of emergency like this. Weird. In my four years at Ojai Valley School, this is the first blackout I have ever experienced. This was also the first time I have ever heard anybody tell me that I needed to keep an emergency headlamp just chilling in my room. The only girl I witnessed having a headlamp handy was Zooey. I guess we all didn’t get the memo.