Your experience trying to help muggles.....

If your helping to help, there are no expectations of any return so no hurt feelings.

I was suprised how quickly i wore horns….

I did tell her that i am a flashlight enthusiast and i know a fair bit about flashlights. I also asked her if she wanted some advice. She said yes, thank you.

So i did.

You don’t approach a random person with out some circumspect.

I do all my own work around the house/plant and would qualify as an pro apprentice in plumbing/electrical work. I really don’t mind helping someone if they are buying white teflon to connect their gas pipe…and warn them that if they should consider professional help unless they are really sure what they are doing. So I help if I see something wrong/mistake.

In this case, she really meant if i was a schill. I didn’t expect anything, but i don’t expect my honesty and help to be stepped on.

Oh well…back to sharpening my horns…

IT CANNOT BE DONE! :smiley:

Why ya think I file down mine, just like The Hell Boy?

That’s when you whip out your own light, show all the whiz-bang features, and ask if she’d be interested in anything like that, even if it costs X.

If not, “Yeah, that light’s fine, buy it.”.

Sometimes it’s like trying to explain baseball to a dog.

Y’know, just thinking. All deference to the SC31 aside, sometimes there needs to be an idiot-light. People loved the hotwire Maglite because it was twist-on, twist off, twist to flood, twist to spot. Period. One brightness, one control, yet built like a tank.

My first “mod” was to drop a Magbulb into a Taskforce 2×AA light. Rubberised all over, thick enough to fit C cells so nice’n’grippy, simple stoopit on/off like for any hotwire bulb. Toss the retaining cap, shave the reflector-hole ever so slightly to press-fit the Magbulb, done.

Decent brightness overall, 4× the runtime compared to before, constant brightness and color throughout. Perfect for the muggle.

So we need something like an S2+ with, again, a simple on/off. 1 mode. Gee, maybe a twisty, just like the venerable Mag, only fullsize, not like a Jet-I/-II or any AAA light. Like maybe an S2+ but without a tailswitch, just a cap. Use TCLO as a twisty function. Throw in a moderate-width TIR to compromise between flood and throw. Say, 600lm-700lm.

Make it like the River Rock I have which use 2 C cells. Decent runtime, doesn’t stress the cells, decent brightness.

Wanna go crazy?, give it a rubber sleeve like those LuxPros I got. Maybe all over, not just the grip. Dial down the output if heat becomes an issue.

So… 2×C, rubberised, twisty, maybe 500lm, 1 mode.

Who’s in?

Well, at least the dog can fetch the baseball……

My mistake……from day one, I got a lot of help in this forum. Sure, disagreement in certain areas, I think you and I had a bit of one in of the threads, but overall, I’m thrilled to be part of this community. With that in mind, why not help someone else? My wife was trying to empty the store over at the curtain area, God forbid if I put my two cents in, so I had a bit of time.

Six months ago, I wouldn’t bother……

Back to sharpening my horns!

OK so now we have a bit more context that was not in your OP. I stopped giving away free advice long ago, but every once in a while I come out of retirement. Today is one such day. Never, ever, offer advice unless it is asked for. Now if she was on the side of the road and had a flat, by all means, help the lady out. But there is a difference between advice and help, and knowing the difference can help reduce grief exponentially!

Big no-no!

Ya, she might have said yes she needs advise to be polite to you.
But then you talked too long and involved too much details and places to go, I don’t think it is a useful advises for her anymore.
The better advise is to get the best one in the store for her application.
And her 15 minutes are also wasted too if she doesn’t think your advises are useful.

Don’t sharpen your horns, instead smile that the muggle missed out!

I totally get the situation you were in. Homer is a place many people ask for and need advice. The problem wasn’t what you did, it was the fact that you were talking about a flashlight! Under the same circumstances but about a wrench, a gas pipe or a ladder it would’ve been different.

Most humans view a flashlight like a broom or a plunger. Something they need, is cheap, isn’t worth thinking about and is something they already understand and know how to operate. To her, it was like you offered advice on a plunger and after she accepted, you went on a 15 minute rant about the ergonomics of the handle, the duabilty of the various types of silicone and what great advances there have been in plunger technology. She expected something like: that ones on sale but i own this other one and think it’s well worth the extra $5. You spent more time than a homer helper normally does explaining a fridge and even tried upselling her on muliple different places where she could buy an ultra plunger 6000 with anti-splashback technology built right in! It’s likely she asked herself “does anyone actually care about plungers this much!? Or is this guy trying to sell me something?” Hence, she asks and by your reaction is assured that there are people in this world that care THAT much about flashlights. I’m certain she felt bad but also sorry for you at the same time.

People would not only understand but expect that exact situation if it were about a gun, a phone, a car, a restaurant etc. When it happened over a flashlight (which to her is as important and thought about as a broom) you became an alien from a different planet or were secretly a ninja salesman in disguise who preys on unsuspecting victims in box store flashlight aisles!

Your only mistake was assuming that a normal person understood what in the hell a flashlight enthusiast is! People make curtains, show off their curtains, ask for advice about curtains, design and buy home reno magazines that feature curtains. You just exposed her to a world she didn’t know existed, or that she ever would’ve expected like with a gun or a car. Lol we’re so foreign to the rest of the world that we could show them a 100 000 lumen 4 km throw flashlight and instead of understanding us more, they’d ask “why? what’s it for?” because to them if it makes light enough to see in the attic, then anything more powerful or fancy is as useless, silly and unnecessary as a plunger that works like a normal plunger but has a special turbo mode that plunges your entire drain system for the mere price of $250 when a normal, all you’ll ever need plunger is $5.

Don’t stop helping, just realize that if your not talking to a cop or an SandR person you’re going to be perceived as a lunatic who gets excited over a plunger!

Nah, was a Nate Ford reference…

Hjeh, that was “the solution looking for a problem”. :laughing:

I did sales at Rat Shack when I was a kid. Learned early on, don’t sell someone what they want. Sell ’em what they need. They want the biggest-ass antenna that could pick up Mars, they’ll be getting ghosts from Philadelphia stations as well as local ones. Sell ’em the antenna that’s right for the area.

So when Ms Muggle pokes through the LED Lensers and Coasts and whatnot, and asks you if this is a good light, just smile and say “Sure”. If there’s one that really sucks, sure, point out the better one, and dumb down the explanation to something they could understand. “This better. Shinier. Light up more.”

But try to get them to see the wisdom of rechargeables, and chargers, and adapters, and USBs, and B’harni knows what else, and they’ll just glaze over and think you’re a con-man trying to swindle ’em out of their retirement funds.

The Plunge 6000 is just soooooo last year. I prefer the Plunge 8000 Pro. It has a self seeking sound detection looking for holes to unplug. Just make sure you disconnect the batteries if you have too much gas……

I agree with your take on this. About a month ago, in another forum, I got triggered by a moron who thought his phone light was enough in an emergency. Sure, go ahead and change your tire at 4 in the morning by the side of the road with a phone light. Or looking at that dark alley that you must go through…that may or may not hide that nut case that will rob you, or far worse…

Really, this attitude is atrocious… If a guy thinks his phone light is adequate, then so be it. Why is he all the sudden a moron? This is exactly the attitude that turns people off. These are grown adults - they got this far without us holding their hands; I’m sure they’ll manage the rest of their lives.

Even referring to non-flashaholics as “muggles.” Really, like these are lesser people? What are we - enrolled in Hogwarts or something? Not everyone is as smart as you - you don’t need to remind them. :smiley:

Your wife might be able to clear out a curtain aisle, but the day she has friends over and busts out of the closet going off about her new swiff-a-sweeper 5000 plus black edition with carbon fibre handle, synthetic horse hair bristles, rear view mirrors, active personal cooling fan and a patented trigger fire personal misting system for keeping you cool even in the most gruelling sweeping situations._. Well that’s the day her friends contact the local asylum instead of book marking the link to her latest and greatest homer depot find!!

Dude! If professor Snape catches you talking like this he’s going to feed you too the Hufflepuffs!!!

I’ve always liked the acting style of the late Alan Rickman… He was great as Hans Gruber in Die Hard - probably my favorite villain!

LOLOLOL this got me thinking and prompted me to start a new thread dedicated to FLASHLIGHT ENTHUSIASTS pick up lines! Lol

Check it out and throw in some good ones!
https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/55957

I can count on one hand how many women I know personally that care about flashlights. Yep. None. Putting Flashlight and Enthusiast together in an attempt at a pick up line would get your man card revoked in my neighborhood. You save that stuff for the stuff you tell them about after the first year of marriage. They might run too fast to catch before that. :smiley:

Well, can you imagine going up to a woman a the local Home Depot, and telling her “I’m a Flashlight Enthusiast!” Oh… Wait… Sorry Spartan, had to throw a good ribbing in there :smiley: How she did not think you were a high-functioning autistic person, I will never know…

But no, not even after the first year. This is for when they don’t know why yo sneak down to the basement at night, then they catch you in your makeshift lab, putting a light into you home-made integrating sphere, when you told her you were changing the p-trap to the kitchen sink when you bought those PVC fittings.

I swear on my life THIS IS NOT WHAT YOU THINK! Well, what is it then!? Its a hommade integrating sphere imade to measure lux so I can post detailed flashlight reviews that impress and inform all my friends on my secret flashlight enthusiast forum._. Wife gives blank stare and says “I’m not sure what’s worse”

Nahhhhh just remind them that with your BLF GT you’ve got enough throw to ensure you will see her and you will catch her