Christmas update #1
December 20th, 2005 @ 8:05 by NormMonkey
From the its-raining-deer department:
CHRISTMAS LIGHTS
The Christmas Light Project is 100% completed, deployed and operating. Pictures coming soon. I learned some cool stuff that’ll help me build the dimmable version next year. I spent too much money and now own more extension cords than I’ll ever need. Seriously. I have enough extension cords that I can fly an electric jet from here to Vancouver and back.
I’ve invested a fair bit of money, probably around $150, on this project (more if you count stuff I bought that I ended up not using). Fortunately, the last time I gave money to charity I gave enough to cover the silly pen-gadget thing I bought awhile ago, plus enough to cover what I ended up not using, plus a little extra[1]. So I’m a little bit ahead on the gadgets vs. charity game. Which, if you know me and gadgets, you’ll know is a good thing.
(how’s that for a tangent?)
Anyways, I figure I’ve spent too much on this for it to be just a one-time thing. $150 for something I use once for ten days of Christmas and that’s it?! So instead I’m considering it an investment. For next year, I’ll improve upon the design with dimmability. After that I’ll expand a bit more, maybe replace the blue LED strings with tri-colour LED lighting… ten years from now I’ll be able to one-up that crazy guy whose house lights up to the music … you know the one, you saw the email that went ’round teh intarweb.
CHRISTMAS IS COMING
There’s a tree-stand in my freezer, eggnog on my back porch, and a turkey in my living room. Uhh, hey, waitaminit. Anyways, you know what this means. That’s right, Christmas time has come once again. A time for being woefully behind on your Christmas shopping! A time for keeping your neighbours awake with Christmas lights! A time for arguing with your family! … or something.
Anyways, there it is, I’ll let y’all know how holiday celebrations at Team Norm HQ goes this Christmas… with pictures to follow. Oh, yeah, and here’s the stuff on my holiday ToDo list:
* Upgrade laptop
* Do DARPA photos
* Work on RouteStudy
* Work on panoramas
[1] I decided awhile ago that if I buy a gadget and I don’t get good use out of it, I have to donate the cost of the gadget to charity.
