A Bubble Burst

[George Simmons]

I always seem to have gobs of stuff left over each year - things that didn't deployed and in some cases didn't even get opened.  Such was it this year again.  But this time I had an idea.  How about if I do a couple things inside synchronized to the music?  Boy, would that look neat!

 

So I opened up a couple 6ft trees and ran a string of 100 red, green and blue on each,  Then, I took the single strings of CCPs and CCBs that I keep as spares and put those on too.  I put one tree in a bay window seen from the street and the other in a corner seen just by us.  I dug out my spare USB adaptor, created a new network and connected the trees.

 

(I've wanted to try that for a few years already.  It actually looks cool as heck and I'll be keeping them in that role. Which means I need new spares.  It's always something ...)

 

I couldn't wait until my grandkids (age 7 & 5) came over and flipped out when they saw it.  They came.  They looked around the tree and through the window at the line of cars down the street.  They put and later retrieved presents from underneath.  They never said a word about the trees flashing in the parlor.  Not a single word.

 

As Sharon was picking up the remains of my ego after they left, she explained what I had obviously failed to consider.  Namely that they've never known a time in their lives where Grampa George DIDN'T have things all over the place lighting to the music at Christmas.

 

Darn kids always find a way to put you in your place, don't they?  And this time they didn't even need to say a word.

[Mega Arch]

Way too funny. Awesome story. Thanks for sharing.

Don't take it too personally though. Like Sharon said, it's normal for you to have everything blinky / flashy all the time. So it's kinda like you have morphed.

George - the human rgb.

[Archer]

I also liked that story and will keep it in mind as my 6 granddaughters (no grandsons yet) ages 4 and under grow up. They too will never remember a Christmas that had less than 100,000 lights at Pop Pop's so whatever I add will be expected and I'll need to keep that in mind. Thanks for the warning.

[a31ford]

Rolling On The Floor Laughing My Cute Little A&* Off.... (ROTFLMCLAO)

 

 

Greg

[dgrant]

This was my 3rd year. 1st year, the grandkids came and were wowed, danced in the driveway and so on. 2nd year, they still danced but they expected things now. This year, I added a pixel tree with pixel/ccr sequences from holidaysequences.com and they were wowed again seeing the characters from the movie "Frozen" and singing along...the real hit of the show! The cars then came too, all hearing about this house doing the Frozen songs. For a while, it was something else outside. Now, the real question is, how to impress the kids, next year? So George, you aren't alone. We all have to continue to impress the kids and that's not an easy task in these days of high technology. I've seen videos of your show and its impressive! As a suggestion, if possible, get the kids involved in doing some of the work, setup, sequencing and so on...so they get to be part of something they can be self-proud of.

[jerrymac]

Goes to show.  What we see as designers may be completely different from what the average viewer sees.  There are a few songs we see everyone do that wear thin on us, but those who come byy aren't burned out on the same song.   What is new to you is NEW regardless how many times it has been before by others.  

When we look at our display (or others) the smallest error of missed pixel stands out like a beacon, the the others watching it is not even percieivalble.   That fancy new effect we spent hours perfecting looks fantastic to us and is just another part to many.

Edited January 2, 2015 by jerrymac