With my engineering roots, I can’t resist occasionally lobbing some props to fellow engineers (or Imagineers) who produce undeniable displays of creativity, even when I share none of the motivation that inspired their innovative adventures.
Take Christmas lights. As a teenager, I had no intrinsic motivation to hang the family Christmas lights. In my mind, hanging the lights had competition only with before-school snow-blowing as the most torturous task associated with miserable Midwest winters. Lights tangle. Ladders are a hassle and liability. And, inevitably, no amount of pre-hanging electrical testing will prevent one strand from inexplicably dying as soon as the decorating is complete.
But Ric Turner sees the winter differently. And he certainly has a better touch with electricity and lights. Take his recent project, turning his house and yard into an interactive Guitar Hero game sprinkled with over 21,000 lights.
Ric, you are engineering geek (guitar) hero of the week. I’m impressed by your imagineerativity. (Aren’t you impressed by my language innovation?)
By the way, I can safely compliment Ric only because I live too far from home to be conscripted into light-hanging service.
Read this explanation from Ric of how he created the lighting system.
And watch the video here:
