As part of our series on pop culture from 15 years ago – a continuing celebration of our 15th anniversary as Pegasus Lighting – here are 15 moments from March 1999 you may remember. Monica Lewinsky’s book on her affair with Bill Clinton goes on sale; the Dow Jones average beats 1000 for the first time; and The Matrix is released. Ah, the sweet 90s. Where were you?

1. Jar Jar Annoys Basically Everyone

At the Golden Raspberry Awards, better known as the Razzies, the award for Worst Supporting Actor went to Ahmed Best, who voiced the character Jar Jar Binks in STAR WARS: EPISODE 1, THE PHANTOM MENACE. Poor Jar Jar, you-sa not much appreciated by STAR WARS fans.

2. The Worst Picture of the Year

The Roth 401(k) combined elements of the Roth IRA and the traditional 401(k). In a traditional 401(k), you contribute income without paying taxes on it. You then pay taxes on the funds when you withdraw them during retirement. With the Roth 401(k), however, you pay the taxes upfront so that you can withdrawal funds tax-free during retirement.

 5. The Melissa Worm Attacks the Internet

At the end of March 1999, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above the 10,000 mark at 10,006.78. This was unprecedented! People made “DOW 10,000” hats and celebrated. In hindsight, people wonder whether that day represented the peak of our economy’s health up to that point or the peak of market excess that was responsible for the economic instability of the 2000s.

7. You Are the One, Neo

Legendary film director Steven Spielberg was once again named Best Director at the Academy Awards for SAVING PRIVATE RYAN. In fact, the director of early 80s movies like E.T. was on a real tear, just coming off of the JURASSIC PARK series and SCHINDLER’S LIST. He continues to direct great movies today.

9. Roberto Begnigni Is Exuberant 

Roberto Benigni won Best Actor for his role in LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL at the 1999 Academy Awards. His reaction immediately became more popular that the movie itself. I’ll have a glass of whatever he’s drinking!

10. Gwyneth Wins Best Actress

SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE was the most awarded film of the night of the Academy Awards. Perhaps the most touching award acceptance, though, was Gwyneth Paltrow’s. Try to watch her acceptance speech without getting teary. I dare you.

11. Lewinsky Tells All

In March, 1999, The Supreme Court of the United States upheld the murder convictions of Timothy McVeigh for the Oklahoma City bombing, which left too many dead and wounded to even go into detail here. It was a tragic and totally unnecessary crime, and the Supreme Court decision echoed the feelings of many Americans.

14. Stanley Leaves Us

On the day after we lost Stanley Kubrick, we lost another beloved American hero, the legendary baseball player Joe DiMaggio. His death was caused by lung cancer. He was 84 and sure saw America from an interesting point of view. The loss of this former star was felt all over the nation.

It’s fun to think back to these moments in the popular culture of 1999, even though not everything that happened was happy. Most of us lived through all these events and remember them well. Come back next month to see what we resurrect next.

Having power throughout your home isn’t something that you think about on a regular basis. In fact, when you flip the switch, you anticipate the light coming on. However, there may be a day when the power doesn’t work as expected. More precisely, you may find that the power in one room isn’t working while all other rooms are fine. What do you do when you don’t have power in one of your rooms?

The electricity that flows through your home powering the myriad of electronic devices your family owns is a system. There are numerous problems that can happen that could interfere in how the system works. Fortunately, when you have only one room without power, you can isolate the problem to that particular room.

Although there are many reasons you may not have power in one of your rooms, most of the problems will originate in the room since other rooms have power. The following are a few things you should consider when you are trying to isolate the problem.

Your breaker box is the point in your home in which you can safely interact with your electrical system. Within your breaker box are switches you can turn on and off to control the flow of electricity. When you have no power in one room, you may need to simply switch the breaker connected to that room off and then on again.

Many homeowners paint on occasion. In order to get a complete look for their rooms, they may take off the covers for their outlets and switches. If you have painted recently, then your switch or outlet may be the culprit.

Your covers hide all the wires running to your switches. If one of these wires were loosened while you were removing the cover, it could have caused the power outage.

A good number of the calls I get during an average day at work fall into two categories;   customers who call to have something installed in their electrical system, and customers who tried to install it themselves and are calling me to come and fix the mistakes they made.  There’s certainly nothing wrong with trying to perform basic electrical work yourself if you have a good grasp on proper electrical safety techniques and what you’re doing.  On the other hand, there’s nothing wrong with calling a top Dallas electrician to do the work for you either.  The best way to ensure the job is done right every time is to hire an honest, hardworking professional electrician who’ll stand behind his work.

Even tasks that can seem quite simple can be treacherous if you’re not sure what you’re doing.  This comes into play a lot when a homeowner is trying to perform a three-way switch installation.  It seems a lot easier to install than it really is; I generally recommend homeowners not attempt to install three-way switches without at least a electrician on the phone to walk you through the process.  Keep the following in mind:

There are tasks well suited for the do-it-yourself minded homeowner, though.  The easiest is wall outlet replacement, which is usually a very simple, straightforward procedure.   That doesn’t mean the haystack isn’t free of the odd needle that you can hurt yourself on, though.  Here are some of the more common problems I run into, along with some typical solutions or hints to keep them from happening to you: