Extreme Christmas Lights In Orlando

tripmine writes "The Orlando Sentinel has a story about a geek who can't get enough Christmas light. 'This Christmas, tech-savvy people such as Hansen are increasingly building the biggest, most elaborate holiday lights in neighborhoods across Central Florida and throughout the country. They typically work in fields such as computer programming, Web development, engineering or audio and visual services and are armed with a technical knowledge that the average person lacks. They trade tips and stories on message boards and set up Web sites with step-by-step descriptions of how they installed their lights as well as pictures and videos of the finished product.'" Many cities have neighborhoods where the spectacle takes up blocks at a time, not just individual houses, too, as anyone who's strolled down Austin's 37th Street can attest. Links invited (in comments) to the best / worst light-spectacles you know of.

Good Thing It's Not in Boston

[imaginaryelf (862886)]

Or the police would've locked down the city already.

Re:Good Thing It's Not in Boston

[by Anonymous Coward]

Lady: Hey, what are you doing!
Officer: We believe this may be an improvised explosive device so it's being removed using a controlled explosion.
Lady: BUT THAT'S MY HOUSE!!!
Officer: Ok you heard her boys, book her, she admitted to being the terrorist.

Re:Good Thing It's Not in Boston

[QRDeNameland (873957)]

Popele were just acting rashionally when they saw a st4range device on important imfrasturcture.

Yeah, I have a hard time keeping away from the eggnog, too.

Re:Good Thing It's Not in Boston

[19thNervousBreakdown (768619)]

rashionally

I doubt this was on purpose, but it is an outstanding word. I propose that it means, "perfectly rational, if you are crazy."

Global warming

[Yusaku Godai (546058)]

What's the point to banning some incandescent light bulbs if this bullshit is allowed?

Re:

[orclevegam (940336)]

Who's talking about banning incandescent light bulbs? Several manufacturers are trying to phase them out, but unless there's something I missed it's an entirely voluntary thing.

Re:

[Yusaku Godai (546058)]

Just making a tongue in cheek reference to two or three stories down. And to be more precise, it's about banning the sale of certain types of bulbs.

Re:Global warming

[Deadstick (535032)]

unless there's something I missed

There is.

rj

Re:Global warming

[One Childish N00b (780549)]

What's the point to banning some incandescent light bulbs if this bullshit is allowed?

Shut up. This has been a year to end all years. We've been bullied into accepting bullshit laws left, right and center, we've seen our countrymen lose their lives in a neverending bullshit war, and the holiday season is the one time of year when we get to let our hair down and have fun without petty moaning getting in the way.

Yes, it's garish, and yes it's a "waste of energy", but you know what? I feel like getting up and going to work every day just to fall into bed and do it all over again tomorrow is a waste of energy, too, and I look forward to the fun and silliness of the holiday season, and things like this add to the fun. Pretty much everything else fun has been legislated to death, if we start legislating Christmas then we might as well give up the fight altogether and become mindless automatons retiring to our alcoves for 8 hours 'recharge' in between 365 days of work.

Re:Global warming

[orclevegam (940336)]

You know, the the celebration Jesus's birthday?

Interestingly enough there is no record of when Jesus was born. One of the original dates that early Christians believed was March 25th, which also corresponded with the date he was believed to have been crucified. Early Christians also did not celebrate the birth of Jesus because they believed saints didn't celebrate their births. The Christian church however has never been one to pass up an opportunity to subsume a competing religions holidays, and late December was a time when almost all cultures celebrated some kind of festival (Yule, Saturnalia, Sol Invictus, etc.). It made it much easier to convert people to Christianity if they got to keep most of their old holidays (see also Easter, corresponding to the Summer Solstice and many cultures fertility holidays [ever wonder about easter eggs?]).

Re:

[Basehart (633304)]

"Interestingly enough there is no record of when Jesus was born."

Interestingly enough there isn't even a record of Jesus being born at all. Assuming his mother was a virgin I'm doubting a birth was even possible, but hey what do I know.

Re:

[jackpot777 (1159971)]

Jesus was more likely the bastard son of an unwed teen mommy

Silent night, holy night
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon Jamie Lynn Spears and child...

Naaaah. Doesn't have the same ring to it!!!

Re:Global warming

[Rich0 (548339)]

Uh, the New Testament wasn't authored in Hebrew - it was originally written in Greek, which was the common language of the day (owing to Alexandar the Great's March across most of Western Europe/Asia).

What you are probably getting confused over is the fact that Matthew quotes from Isaiah - which was written in Hebrew originally. Matthew translated it when he quoted it (since he was writing in Greek - not that he was the first to translate the Hebrew bible to Greek).

The word used in Isaiah is probably best translated as young maiden. In using it to refer to the virgin birth Matthew translates it to Greek as virgin to go along with the rest of his account. It is obviously a more recent phenomenon than Isaiah, but it dates back to the first century - it isn't like this was a mistranslation from the middle ages. Matthew's intention of communicating that Mary was a virgin is very clear from the lengthy account of the whole story.

Now, if you think Matthew was full of it I suppose that is something else, but this isn't some invention of modern translators or anything like that.

How about an analogy (since this is /.): The US Supreme Court issues a ruling in English based upon some treaty written in French. It turns out that the supreme court choose to use a less-common translation of a French phrase in the treaty as part of its ruling, and quotes it in English. In the USA the only binding law would be the Supreme Court's ruling, based on the alternate translation from French. The Supreme Court's ruling isn't really a translation-error per se since it is also an original creative work, and the Supreme Court's intention wasn't to just translate the treaty, but it chose to quote a part of it in English to further some larger purpose. You couldn't look at the ruling 100 years later and say that the Supreme Court didn't mean what they said because the translation of a line of French was debatable - the Supreme Court clearly meant what they said in the bulk of their ruling, and the translation was in support of the larger work. Now, you could choose to disagree with the Supreme Court, and that is neither here nor there.

So, while Isaiah is likely to have meant "young maiden" it doesn't really change the fact that Matthew was trying to communicate "virgin". And if you really are just interested in historicity then you'd probably tend to put more stock in a document written after Jesus's birth than 600 years before it when trying to figure out what happened.

Re:

[Simon Brooke (45012)]

Uh, the New Testament wasn't authored in Hebrew - it was originally written in Greek, which was the common language of the day (owing to Alexandar the Great's March across most of Western Europe/Asia).

Saul of Tarsus was (probably) a native Greek speaker. Iesu ben Yussuf - the guy Christians refer to as 'Jesus' - was well educated and probably spoke some Greek. Everyone else in the New Testament story spoke Aramaic [wikipedia.org], a language closely related to Arabic; and that is almost certainly the language that Matthe

Re:

[myth_of_sisyphus (818378)]

Paraphrasing Christopher Hitchens:

"What is more likely? That god intervened in a virgin birth, or that a Jewish trollop told a lie?"

Re:Global warming

[lilomar (1072448)]

Um, not to be pedantic, but Easter is near the Spring equinox, not the Summer solstice.

Re:Global warming

[orclevegam (940336)]

Um, not to be pedantic, but Easter is near the Spring equinox, not the Summer solstice.

I stand corrected. However, the point still remains that Easter was used to replace pre-existing pagan fertility holidays.

Re:Global warming

[prandal (87280)]

Easter retains its Pagan origins, being celebrated on the first Sunday following the first full moon following the vernal equinox.

Re:

[Wooky_linuxer (685371)]

Easter is a Jewish Holiday, and predates Christians by some centuries at the very least. In most languages the term for Easter derives from the Jewish term Pessach. One may still argue that the holiday was celebrated in that time of the year so to undermine pagan celebrations, but it is unlikely this was arranged by Christians.

Re:Global warming QWZX

[Eternauta3k (680157)]

Canada.

So 90's

[Cthefuture (665326)]

These type of flashy animated displays are like flashing HTML text and all the other tacky crap from 90's web design.

It can be done a lot more tastefully.

Re:So 90's

[kylben (1008989)]

It can be done a lot more tastefully.

Yeah, they could get about a million red, green, and blue lights and string them up in a grid, with a computer to control each light individually instead of entire strands. Then they could port Firefox into the code that controls the lights and just show the damn Trans Siberian Orchestra house video on it.

Re:

[orclevegam (940336)]

So very very tempted right now.

Why port firefox?

[jd (1658)]

The Chaos Computer Club's Blinkenlights project lets you hook up games like Pong to hotel lighting systems. With the better resolution and greater refresh rate offered by christmas lights, it should be possible to get Doom or Quake to play quite nicely over the side of a mountain or something.

Re:So 90's

[Belial6 (794905)]

When I first read your comment, I though you were just one of those people that just like to complain. Then I saw the video, and had to completely agree with you. The display shows little to no creativity, and seem to be just a "I bought more lights" display. We used to have a house here in Santa Rosa, Ca that had a big display every year. It had a tenth of the lights, and was dramatically more impressive. It had spinning carousels, elves making toys, and various other animated displays. Buying more lights isn't impressive. Show me something I haven't seen before if you want to impress me.

Re:

[anethema (99553)]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=rmgf60CI_ks [youtube.com]

Lots of lights, and older video, but still the coolest lights I've ever seen.

All I can say is...

[Foofoobar (318279)]

Where's my BB Gun? I'm HOPING to put someones eye out.

Re:

[Foofoobar (318279)]

Hell all it would take it a bucket of water on an unprotected outlet. Not that I'm trying to give anyone ideas or anything... but that's one way to take them out. If I was his neighbor, I'd be turning on the sprinklers full blast.

Cease & desists and/or lawsuits in 3.. 2.. 1..

[by Anonymous Coward]

FTFA:
Hansen's 25,000-light display is synchronized to five songs, which he broadcasts over an FM-radio frequency so passers-by can pick it up in their cars.

Radio broadcasts a/k/a "public performance" of likely-unlicensed music? So who's gonna get him first? The RIAA? The ASCAP? The FCC?

Takin' all bets!

Re:

[orclevegam (940336)]

Well, the FCC should have no claim, as most small transceivers aren't powerful enough to require FCC licensing. Now the RIAA (ASCAP?... maybe, but think that only applies to live performances) may have some sort of claim.

Rochester (MI) has some nice lights

[dpryan (123256)]

Rochester Michigan has a really nice light display setup on all of the stores on Main St. Here's a link [ledgenlighting.com] to a slideshow from the company that put them up. Not surprisingly, the lights cause gridlock for about a mile in each direction, but it's worth it.

Amazing dedication, big fat wallet?

[dada21 (163177)]

Who has money for the energy bill from Christmas lights? Our household is very financially secure, but I'm not looking to spend thousands over the season to run the lights. My neighbor, who isn't really decked out as much as some, said his bill will be over $600 more this months for his lighting scheme. OUCH.

I'm sure the environmentalists will cry foul, and I understand that philosophy, but for me, the lights are putting more demand on electricity, which means I'll pay a higher bill myself.

The wife and I do like to see the more extravagant lighting setups out there, but we have noticed that some homes aren't running them 7 days a week. Wonder if its an electrical bill concern.

Re:

[Bastard of Subhumani (827601)]

My neighbor, who isn't really decked out as much as some, said his bill will be over $600 more this months for his lighting scheme.

I'm surprised you can fit that many bulbs on a trailer.

Story time kids

[Yusaku Godai (546058)]

Back when I was in high school, my family lived in southern Florida. Miami, specifically. This kind of crap is extremely prevalent around there, and I'm not sure exactly why. At any rate, one year our neighbor, as usual, had up several thousands of lights, along with the usual array of motorized reindeer, inflatable Santa Claus, and of course a big plastic glowing Jesus (what Jesus has to do with a pagan/capitalist holiday I'm not sure).

Anyways, a huge ugly array of crap that probably took a lot of work to put up--a perfect target for neighborhood hooligans looking to spoil peoples' hard work, right? Not so. The neighbor's display remained untouched. Meanwhile over at our house, we had simply arranged some lights in the shape of a peace sign over our garage door. Within two days all the lights had been torn down and stomped on. Ah, America...

Re:

[orclevegam (940336)]

Probably to make up for the complete lack of snow or really even cold weather. It's rather hard to get into the christmas spirit when it's 80 degrees outside, so people try to compensate by putting up ridiculously extravagant decorations.

Awesome

[Reality Master 101 (179095)]

Of course, it's all fun and games until the bus of epileptic kids drives by.

You think that's bad?

[jd (1658)]

If enough houses got together, they could make a great set of fake runway lights for aircraft.

You too can do this

[YrWrstNtmr (564987)]

Computer controlled, fully programmable.
Lite-o-rama [lightorama.com]

If you're insane and anal enough to do it right. Some of the displays are pretty impressive [lightorama02.com], though. In an over the top, freaky, kind of way.

Armed with technical knowledge....

[cc1984_ (1096355)]

They typically work in fields such as computer programming, Web development, engineering or audio and visual services and are armed with a technical knowledge that the average person lacks

..and lack social skills and good taste which others are armed with.

Bizare Christmas Decorations

[doombringerltx (1109389)]

Once I was with my family driving around looking at lights when we saw one house that had a huge nativity scene set up in their front yard. It had Mary, Joesph, the wise men, the whole nine yards. But it also had a huge fucking grim reaper behind the manager leaning over it all. I guess they were too lazy to take down the Halloween decorations all the way before setting up for Christmas, or they were just ape shit insane. Probably a little of each

Re:

[Black Art (3335)]

Now I know what I am going to do for next year.

Lights? Call me when you get a pair....

[PhreakOfTime (588141)]

Thats not creative at all. its just plain old boring.

Now, THIS [youtube.com] is original and creative. Id love to see the neighbors faces when this thing fires up on the front lawn! If some pinheads flashing lights annoy you, just pay them back with the wonderfully tuned sound of static discharge! Enjoy!

Ramen

[humankind (704050)]

I still prefer the more understated FSM Holiday Display [bsalert.com].

Merry Christmas, Hon'

[beadfulthings (975812)]

For pure unadulterated camp, you can't beat the display on the 700 block of 34th Street in Baltimore's neighborhood of Hampden. Each traditional row house is decorated to the owner's own taste and vision, and while they aren't particularly technical, they certainly do make a splash. They've been lighting up that block for so long that realtors feel it's mandatory to warn prospective home buyers that they'll have to light up, too. There's a pretty good sampling here [flickr.com].

Season?

[Dr. Photo (640363)]

"Around October, somebody was just walking around my neighborhood, and they told me they really liked our lights and that it really made the season for them," Hansen said. "If I am the one that triggers the season for somebody, then it really makes it worthwhile."

No, you misheard: you triggered the seizures!

I bet this guy drives a Prius and

[melted (227442)]

I bet this guy drives a Prius and talks about reducing his carbon footprint all the time, too. ;-)

are so doomed

[tero (39203)]

I don't think the human race will survive the coming global warming and after watching that video, I don't think we deserve to either.
The display gets full points for not having any taste though..

For those in the SF Bay Area...

[mpthompson (457482)]

... on Eucalyptus Avenue in San Carlos [google.com] the whole neighborhood gets involved with spectacular lighting displays. While not technically elaborate or geeky as the linked video, it is still quite a sight. Kids, young and old, certainly enjoy it walking up and down the street enjoying the hospitality of the home owners.

Of course, it's a sight that would make Al Gore cry, but he's an old Hum Bugger anyway.

Blink

[Frosty Piss (770223)]

They typically work in fields such as ... Web development

Got to do something with all those unused "blink" tags...

Re:

[fbjon (692006)]

Garish display of lights? Oh my, I looked at the videos and there was a link in the beginning that tops the light display. You haven't seen garish until you've seen this hell-hole [christmaswonders.com]. (NSFEyes, and probably NSFBrowsers)

Incidentally, is that message on the door, "Jesus, the reason for the season", common? Not only is it a painful pun, it's wrong too.