tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-350010312012-01-22T08:50:30.441-08:00Quartz Hill ChristmasEBlog for the Quartz Hill Christmas syncronized music and light display.RickWilliamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00029634356804374747noreply@blogger.comBlogger371100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35001031.post-21143556294734334202011-11-21T12:21:00.000-08:002011-11-21T12:21:00.732-08:00November 20th, 1022This year will be our 6th year with the display, hard to believe it has been that long since we have been animating the display. I remember when we started with one controller of sixteen channels and a few songs, and the only thing available in lighting was incandescent lights, now we have LED lights, Cosmic Color Ribbons, LED RGB Flood and Spot lights to name a few, the technology has made grownRickWilliamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00029634356804374747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35001031.post-5441139989859323852011-11-14T22:27:00.000-08:002011-11-14T22:27:17.434-08:00November 2011November 11, 2011
Welcome back! Our holiday season has started on Manzanita Drive! We began setting up the display two weeks ago, actually we started prepping the yard two weeks ago, have to edge the grass, trim the bushes, and rake the leaves before we began.
As of today most of the house elements are up, the controllers have been installed, we have yet to set the yard display up……..I’m not sureRickWilliamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00029634356804374747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35001031.post-25602485499597293952010-11-15T22:34:00.000-08:002010-11-15T22:34:33.130-08:00November 15, 2010November 2010
What a month! I thought last month was busy. I have been takingn every Monday and Friday off this month giving me 4 day weekends just devoted to getting things completed and staged for setup, it’s actually relaxing to go to work now, since I only work 8 hours on the job, versus my 18+ hour days at home. This year I actually have used my time off wisely and completed a lot of the RickWilliamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00029634356804374747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35001031.post-58470089874841805862010-10-31T12:10:00.000-07:002010-10-31T12:10:24.875-07:00October 2010October 2010 - Holloween
Busy, Busy Busy! Every available minute is being spent on the displays final builds. We have placed orders for the final materials that will be in our show. I’m on my holiday schedule now, taking every Monday and Friday off in the month of November, this should give me ample time to finish up all the projects and start getting things setup. My plan is to start setting RickWilliamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00029634356804374747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35001031.post-73095600676413242242010-10-04T10:34:00.000-07:002010-10-04T10:38:35.357-07:00October 2010Well crunch time is here! Our display for the 2010 season has been designed, the sequence channels configured, and the sequencing has begun. Many of the plans we had will not make it in the display this year, and others may still get cut, depending on our available resources, but the elements we have, will be dramatic and awesome visually. I have 4 new songs that I’m hoping to get completed this RickWilliamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00029634356804374747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35001031.post-66937534858939726752010-06-13T10:46:00.000-07:002010-06-13T10:46:12.661-07:00June 2010June 2010
Not many Christmas developments in June, we have been just too busy with family obligations. Of course, Christmas is never far from our thoughts. As of June; my funds for Christmas 2010 have dried up, so further expansion for this coming season may be with what we have already purchased, which is a lot of new technology and features, I was just hoping we could have done more this RickWilliamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00029634356804374747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35001031.post-18781508531872652562010-05-25T18:07:00.000-07:002010-05-25T18:13:12.187-07:00May 2010
Display Status:
New C9’s and Strobes have arrived: Our order of 150 C9 LED’s retrofit bulbs and another 24 strobes arrived from Action Lighting. I must say, at first I was not too impressed with the C9’s, but once I setup a test strip, I was impressed with the colors. I have yet to test them on a controller yet, but the specs do say they are dimmable and will do what we need. One niceRickWilliamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00029634356804374747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35001031.post-10893504523584168892010-04-04T19:32:00.000-07:002010-04-04T19:39:48.391-07:00April 2010Little League: what a start! We actually started out season at the end of February, but due to the nature of this blog and how it is written, it’s always one month behind. Our first game with the mighty Major Dodgers got off to a great start, although we thought we weren’t going to play due to the rain, we did eventually get the game going. We knew we had a weaker team, so we soften up RickWilliamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00029634356804374747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35001031.post-21533739976965130482010-02-28T21:18:00.000-08:002010-02-28T21:28:47.547-08:00March 2010OK, not sure what has happened, but our web statistics are going through the roof! We had over 2,300 unique visits, with 4,122 page views in January 2010 alone, that’s darn close to our highest visit count in any one month since we went live back in 2005. February is also blazing with visitors, shoot, I might have to start providing add space on the site.More Controllers: Light-O-Rama RickWilliamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00029634356804374747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35001031.post-67818052903508319562010-02-01T08:56:00.000-08:002010-02-01T09:06:46.028-08:00February 2010What a month! We received our 4 AC controller kits, all have been assembled, tested, and ready for enclosures. The new controllers will bring our controlled channel count to 128, enabling us to do quite a bit of new things with the display, which we will begin, building this month.We are also testing a few new kits; the Blizzard and the Rainbow Runner. The Blizzard really excites me RickWilliamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00029634356804374747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35001031.post-21088620063401524002010-01-01T00:38:00.000-08:002010-01-01T00:41:06.478-08:00January 2010Wow, it’s been awhile since I have written anything in this BLOG.As many of you know we did not have the display this year. We had a stream of problems that made the display impossible to put up, at least to my standards, and I felt it best not to stress myself trying to get it working.Thank you to everyone whom called, emailed, and stopped by inquiring about the display. The big RickWilliamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00029634356804374747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35001031.post-34287113127909246252007-11-01T12:28:00.001-07:002007-11-01T12:28:54.720-07:00Pre-SetupNovember 1, 2007The season has come upon us once again! It’s hard to thinks it’s November already and it’s still in the high seventies…….Southern California’s a tough place to live!As I said in an earlier blog, I am taking Mondays and Fridays off for the month of November for display setup. We received our two new controllers, I built one and Bubba built the other one, I messed mine up RickWilliamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00029634356804374747noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35001031.post-86535863780014428892007-07-19T10:09:00.000-07:002007-07-19T10:33:41.996-07:00July 2007What a baseball season for my two younger boys; Nate and Chris.The Quartz Hill High School Freshman team went 12-0 for regular season and 20-0 for the complete season, total domination. This is a team to watch; several talented kids make up this team of 19 players, everyone contributed to their success including the great families of these boys. It will be a great pleasure to be a part RickWilliamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00029634356804374747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35001031.post-72346168516231684972007-04-20T22:58:00.000-07:002007-04-25T21:03:05.403-07:00The City that stole Christmas!Have you ever wondered what you would do if a city took your civil liberty and religious rights away? I have actually considered the idea a few times and wondered how I would handle the issue, but never in my wildest imagination have I ever thought it could possibly happen to someone.Below is a letter I wrote to another enthusiast whom has been discriminated and RickWilliamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00029634356804374747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35001031.post-1175370373419787112007-03-31T13:39:00.000-07:002007-03-31T16:39:25.903-07:00March 2006Spring has sprung, time has changed, and Baseball is in full swing for us.We just returned from a week of Spring Training in Phoenix, Arizona, nothing but baseball, baseball and more baseball with perfect weather. If you enjoy baseball in a minor field setting this is a definite trip to plan next March, the price is right for tickets ($4.00 to $20.00), a definite family event. We RickWilliamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00029634356804374747noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35001031.post-1172438058177398842007-02-25T13:13:00.000-08:002007-02-25T13:27:23.476-08:00February 2007The lights have finally come down, been pack away and have put away. I had to throw away quite a few older props and lights to make room for all the new stuff I bought this year.Baseball has begun again for us, Nate made the high school freshman team, and Bubba moved up to the minor division of little league with me as a coach (I never learn) but it should be a very busy year until RickWilliamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00029634356804374747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35001031.post-1167250310280949232006-12-27T11:04:00.000-08:002006-12-27T12:11:50.666-08:00Christmas 2006What a year! The display has grown from 16 channels and 8 ,000 lights last year to 48 channels t0 13,000 lights today. We found several obstacles this year that delayed the final completion of the display and we have started planning for Christmas 2007 as we speak. We will expand by another controller, maybe two. We purchased another 10,000 lights during the sales this year.Chris RickWilliamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00029634356804374747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35001031.post-1166074850345036332006-12-13T21:24:00.000-08:002006-12-13T21:43:04.530-08:00Show - Day 19The display has been running for 19 days now. No problems have come up and traffic has been good although it is picking up as we get closer to Christmas.The Toys for Tots bin has been out every night, we have had at least three families generously donate toys. I'm hoping this will continue through the season.The web site is getting hits from visitors on average of 130 per night. RickWilliamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00029634356804374747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35001031.post-1165176178356292672006-12-03T11:42:00.000-08:002006-12-11T21:35:57.576-08:00Show - Day 9The display has ran without any problems since Friday November 24th. We continually add to the display when time and temperatures permit. We had a cold spell hit us last week taking us into the teens, very cold in my opinion, so we did not do much to the display. Last Thursday things started to warm up for us while the rest of the nation went into the same deep freeze, several other RickWilliamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00029634356804374747noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35001031.post-1164642328797196012006-11-27T06:53:00.000-08:002006-11-27T07:45:30.643-08:00Show - Day 3Really quiet today, I did get to sleep in until 9:30 AM. We did not get much done at all today, I re-sequenced 3 of the 4 songs I planned on redoing, better some then none. Re-sequencing the music is taking almost as much time to complete as it did to create the original sequence.Chris and I watched the show from the truck again tonight, we went out about 8:00 PM, hoping to catch the RickWilliamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00029634356804374747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35001031.post-1164527527889729922006-11-25T23:32:00.000-08:002006-11-29T09:46:45.280-08:00Show - Day 2The Sign is complete!We finished the Merry Christmas sign today, Finally! I have worked on this project daily since the end of September, the letters are works of art, I just hope they last! The should with 3 coats of resin, 7 coats of paint and 7 coats of clear coat, I don't think I have much to worry about. I will be posting a step by step how for this project on RickWilliamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00029634356804374747noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35001031.post-1164441056517232102006-11-24T23:35:00.000-08:002006-11-25T12:22:08.610-08:00Show - Day 1Today was the official opening of the display.We did not work on the display much today, we were up very early (Black Friday) and at the stores by 7:00 AM, we did get everything we wanted, I would list here but the kids may actually read this.......Sorry Nate! Dad isn't that old. I did however find several new 6" light balls at Walgreens and snow flakes at Lowes, another 1000 bulbs toRickWilliamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00029634356804374747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35001031.post-1164352599404579002006-11-23T22:25:00.000-08:002006-11-23T23:16:40.413-08:00Setup - Day 18The unofficial opening of the show ran tonight from 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM.It was a tight schedule we managed to get things running, it was a bit cold but we sat through the whole show. I still have quite a bit of work to do on last years sequences, updating them to 48 channels will take some time, glad this is a long weekend.Last night I was able to get another sequence completed (A RickWilliamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00029634356804374747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35001031.post-1164271003328060022006-11-23T00:12:00.000-08:002006-11-23T00:36:43.336-08:00Setup - Day 17I'm getting tired, soon I can rest.Today we finished the wiring the bushes and the static part of the display. We ran a few test just to make sure everything worked, no glitches. We had to make several custom SP2 cords, glad I had another 250' of wire. 40 bushes wired for lights independently, it's a really cool sight to see.I wanted to count the footage of all the cord we have RickWilliamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00029634356804374747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35001031.post-1164213136756961852006-11-22T08:10:00.000-08:002006-11-22T10:17:12.086-08:00Setup - Day 16Sick day today, not much got accomplished in the yard. I was able to get some rest and tweak some sequences. We sent out the press release to the Antelope Valley Press and the Daily News last Sunday, informing them of the display, our cause, and the hours.We where able to run a few tests tonight again, everything ran perfect. We have several new songs this year, I am very please RickWilliamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00029634356804374747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35001031.post-1164087754828185382006-11-20T21:19:00.000-08:002006-11-21T08:41:22.866-08:00Setup - Day 15Monday, November 20, 2006 - Amazing how the year has flown by, like the miles on my truck! Things are really getting exciting now, the neighbors are getting a taste of the show as we test, many have stopped and said how much they enjoyed it last year and pry for any new changes this year........I'm not telling, they just have to wait and see or read the previous days of this RickWilliamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00029634356804374747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35001031.post-1163996369043313602006-11-19T19:36:00.000-08:002006-11-21T08:45:00.676-08:00Setup - Day 14Two weeks since I officially started setting up the display, 1 week of that was 15 hour days (75 Hours) and the second week was 3 hours per day (15 Hours) and two weekends (30 Hours), well I'm about at 120 hours of labor into this.........Crazy isn't it!Why do I do it? Well I have many reasons, the three most important are:It's my hobby, this is what I do all year. Now it's really RickWilliamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00029634356804374747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35001031.post-1163929375159237932006-11-19T01:20:00.000-08:002006-11-21T08:46:13.776-08:00Setup - Day 13PANIC sets in!Wow! What a day, sure glad it is over. If you read yesterdays post, maybe you remember that I came up short on my power feeds to the controllers, well I did and the full realization set it and I was not pleased, how could I have missed this? I searched all the retail online flyers for pre-made 10/3 cables, bet price I could find was $ 99.00 per 100 feet and I needed RickWilliamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00029634356804374747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35001031.post-1163836030431255312006-11-17T23:25:00.000-08:002006-11-17T23:47:10.440-08:00Setup - Day 12Today started off really good, I arrived home from work and started in on my to-do list. pinstripped and sealed the last letter to the 'Merry Christmas' sign.I started to lay down the lateral power line to the lights farthest away from the controllers only to realize I need 120' per color (5 Colors) and I only have two cords this long, not a big problem.I move on to running the mainRickWilliamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00029634356804374747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35001031.post-1163740022531614912006-11-16T20:29:00.000-08:002006-11-16T21:07:02.766-08:00Setup - Day 11Today we had another productive day working on the display, but I did not meet my demanding schedule that was created, missed one line item, So now I will have to pick that item up on Friday. I am still scheduled for a dry run this Sunday, meaning everything is done and the show is ready..........Then I can start on next year.I was able to complete the Light post tonight, I am RickWilliamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00029634356804374747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35001031.post-1163655706821418182006-11-15T21:16:00.000-08:002006-11-15T21:51:30.870-08:00Setup - Day 10Today is Wednesday November 15th, day 10 of our setup. No pictures today, sorry.We where able to get the large 48" wreath down, tested and installed on the second story.Chris installed 300 more lights on the yard tree and still needs another 300. We tested the Rope light train and it's working perfect. I was able to work on the Candy Cane pole some more and finished installing the RickWilliamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00029634356804374747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35001031.post-1163569122787079102006-11-14T21:10:00.000-08:002006-11-14T21:38:42.810-08:00Setup - Day 9Today we where able to create the frame for the Toys for Tots banner out of PVC 1/2" piping and mount the banner to the frame. The banner will be a two part project consisting of a candy cane post with a globe on top. I purchase the globe from Lowes for $5.00 and the post was made fromrain gutter down pipe (Didn't have any PVC that large, sometimes you have to use what you have and RickWilliamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00029634356804374747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35001031.post-1163469970268730322006-11-13T17:46:00.000-08:002006-11-13T18:06:10.290-08:00Setup - Day 8Today is day eight of our setup, a lot has happened in the last week, I was actually hoping I would have been a little further, but glad to be at this point rather than further behind.Today was back to work, ARGH! so my time on the display will be a matter of hours per day, I will have to organize to get things completed in time. I Installed the controllers today, must say they look RickWilliamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00029634356804374747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35001031.post-1163314081353035002006-11-11T22:31:00.000-08:002006-11-11T22:49:17.116-08:00Setup - Day 6Today we did not get anything done on the display, it was sort of a day off. Drove down to Huntington Beach (110 Miles one) to watch my son not play in his teams baseball tournament, but when he did play it was at first base...hmmmmm, last time he played first base was when he was 10, maybe the coaching is a little confused on the players they draft and the positions they play?My RickWilliamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00029634356804374747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35001031.post-1163214446954689442006-11-10T18:56:00.000-08:002006-11-11T00:50:45.553-08:00Setup - Day 5Today was very productive, we got all the rope lighting installed on the roofs (300 feet total) and power cords wired to the ground and tested. We tested all the net lighting (38 Nets), found 15 that needed replacing due to fading or just bad beyond repair. We did get several nets installed on the bushes today, we went shopping for new net lights, OUCH! $8-$15.00 each, I think I willRickWilliamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00029634356804374747noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35001031.post-1163139846205396162006-11-09T21:50:00.000-08:002006-11-09T22:24:06.226-08:00Setup - Day 4Today is Thursday November 9th, Day 4 of my vacation - I am making headway on the display, but thought I would have been much farther along with things. I guess I will have to create a schedule next year as to what I wish to accomplish each day. I have all the C9's and ice cycle lights installed on the house and garage, Rope light has been sized and installed on the garage ridge RickWilliamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00029634356804374747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35001031.post-1159214853131122442006-09-25T09:32:00.000-07:002006-11-06T10:14:57.893-08:00Southern California mini-PLUS 2006The event was Saturday, September 23 rd in Quartz Hill California. Christmas enthusiasm from all points of California arrived to meet and discuss Christmas Yard displays, many of them meeting face to face for the first time. The event was a local event spun from the National Planet Christmas Symposium held every other year, giving local families the opportunity RickWilliamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00029634356804374747noreply@blogger.com0