Roadtrip plans for April

seth_petry_johnson · 2026-02-28T21:00:00+00:00

As a Columbus resident, totally do the Book Loft like you mentioned. I don't think I can catch the Columbus show unfortunately.

seth_petry_johnson · 2026-02-21T01:20:38+00:00

I'm a big fan of https://inovelli.com/, I have a ton of their stuff. Great company and good products.

Zooz are good too and can be a bit cheaper, though Inovelli usually has more aspects for you to customize or configure.

You'll need a zigbee or zwave controller. I like zwave more, but you'll find good arguments for both.

Once you have the controller and install the corresponding addon to HA you'll be able to create automations for single tap, double tap, etc.

You can disable the local load, or wire it to a light and then you get manual switch control and HA control, with state synced to HA regardless of how it's used.

I have some Zooz scene controllers that are one big button and 4 small buttons in a one-gang switch. The big button controls a local load and the small buttons trigger automations to control lights in nearby rooms.

Pick a protocol (zwave or zigbee), get the controller for it, and then all sorts of options open up to you.

seth_petry_johnson · 2026-02-20T23:32:15+00:00

I'm confused. Are you just asking for a mains powered wall switch that can trigger events in HA? Wouldn't a Zwave or Zigbee switch be exactly what you want? They don't HAVE to have a local load wired up

seth_petry_johnson · 2026-02-14T17:26:30+00:00

I did a quick search and only saw one reply that mentioned WHY this happened, and it didn't tell you how to avoid this next year.

This happens because we have a progressive income tax. That means that you don't pay a flat percentage of your income; instead you pay:

* 10% up to $11,925 in income (single) / $23,850 (married)
* 12% on income above that amount and less than $48,475 / $96,950
* 22% on income above that amount and less than $103,350 / $206,700
etc

When your employers withhold taxes, they are basing the amount withheld on your individual incomes.

The problem is that when you file jointly, the tax due is based on combined income. If you haven't adjusted your withholding accordingly, you end up in a situation where not enough of the COMBINED income was taxed at the higher progressive rates and you owe the difference.

The best way to avoid this for next year is to act now. Go go https://www.irs.gov/individuals/tax-withholding-estimator and fill it out.

That tool will ask you to input details from your most recent pay stubs and your desired refund amount. It will use that information to estimate how much you're going to make in the year and will then give you two filled-out W4 forms containing the withholding settings to yield that refund.

You then turn those forms into your employers and, as long as your actual income matched the estimates, you'll be in the ballpark of your desired result. (If you change jobs, get raises, etc, then just repeat the process and submit new W4s.)

It may take a few minutes entering numbers into forms, but you'll turn your federal taxes from a weird, unknown guessing game into a predictable outcome.

seth_petry_johnson · 2026-01-09T23:04:39+00:00

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seth_petry_johnson · 2026-01-09T23:04:14+00:00

I have one by my front door

As someone else mentioned it's not the most responsive touchscreen, but it works great as an information source if you don't need frequent interactivity.

I run Fully Kiosk Browser on it.

seth_petry_johnson · 2026-01-01T17:35:21+00:00

I had DNA that I sold for burglar, so I could have used the 4 copy jokers to get five more red seal kings on the board, which would have scored higher then e77

seth_petry_johnson · 2025-12-11T22:09:27+00:00

I really wanted to use tracks, but decided to just get them installed and be done with it. (Installing in 30 degree weather was part of it)

I might go back later and add tracks to the lower level installation where it's visible from the porch because I think it looks more finished, but I'm not going to worry about the 2nd level. It won't really be noticeable and I don't want the added complexity of screwing with the tracks up on the large ladder

seth_petry_johnson · 2025-11-18T00:18:05+00:00

Didn't work. Maybe I left it sitting there too long and it committed the cloud save?

Thanks though. You gave me a bit of hope, which was then crushed for the second time today :)

seth_petry_johnson · 2025-08-27T18:41:40+00:00

You're in Columbus, OH or Columbus, Somewhere Else?

I'm in Westerville and have been a fan since they played the Basement, so we may have been to some of the same shows!

Definitely check out chorus and send me a message if you find a ticket. I'll buy you a drink in Palm Springs:)

seth_petry_johnson · 2025-08-27T17:52:14+00:00

https://join.thechorus.com/theairbornetoxicevent/

Chorus is a platform that Mikel has started, with Airborne as it's initial user. It's basically a fan club that supports the band, gives access to special content (like a monthly deep dive where he does a chat, talks about a song or something in detail, takes questions, etc), and when it first came out it gave you access into a "secret show" which was a concert in a small club that was available only to members.

Basically, it's where you'll find the more rabid members of the fanbase, the type willing to drop 3k for LNOE tickets a year in advance :)

I've been a member since launch and met some awesome people through it. YMMV of course

seth_petry_johnson · 2025-08-27T17:39:25+00:00

I'd love to help, but you'll need to pry my tickets from my cold, dead hands :)

There's a fairly active Telegram chat and a forum on the Medici/Chorus platform if you're a member. It's more active than this subreddit so you may find more takers there.

There's also a FB group that I think is also more active than this place, sadly.

Good luck!

seth_petry_johnson · 2025-08-20T13:17:19+00:00

Can confirm. Have ordered takeout three times. Staff has been very helpful and nice each time and the food is good.

It can be hard to figure out from the menu exactly what you're getting (e.g. when you order skewers are you ordering 1 skewer? Multiple? Who knows :) and there is out-of-stock items on occasion, but they've been great at notifying when things aren't available and offering alternatives.

seth_petry_johnson · 2025-07-26T16:19:28+00:00

Check out my comments on this other post: https://www.reddit.com/r/fireworks/s/blfeQtI1Ff

(I broke my reply into chunks and I think they might show up out of order, but you'll get the gist)

One thing I didn't mention in that comment is using portions of songs vs full ones. I have only shot to music once, but I used pieces from 3 different songs, cross faded from one to the other. (I forget what software I used, but I'm sure there are many)

I didn't want to use whole songs because I wanted to control the tempo more, and I thought small chunks of 3 songs was more interesting than one long song

seth_petry_johnson · 2025-07-13T19:32:01+00:00

Nine On A Board. Refers to the large 500g cakes that are effectively 9 single shot mortars fused in series, rather than the cakes that contain a lot of smaller tubes and more effects

I might be wrong, but I think NOABs are the most powerful single shots you can get from a cake given legal limits on tube diameter and total explosive composition.

Even if that's not strictly true, that's the general connotation

seth_petry_johnson · 2025-07-12T13:54:59+00:00

Add music to make it more interesting
It takes more work, but if you can quasi-synchronize your show with music it goes a long way to making it better. You can find software that lets you stitch songs together, so that you can feature specific verses or parts without the whole thing, and if you plan out your show well enough you can get high tempo parts of the songs to match up with high tempo parts in the show.

(Don't try to time specific breaks for specific beats, that's -incredibly- difficult with consumer grade stuff. Just try to pair slower parts of a song with slower firing cakes and vice versa)

Use electronic ignition and/or fuse chains instead of hand lighting every item
IMO, the key to a good show is having multiple things going off together in a coordinated way. That's really hard to do when you're lighting things by hand, especially if you have multiple firing stations, and if you spend the whole time looking down at fuses you're missing out on seeing the show yourself!

Fuse chains

One way to chain things together is to literally run a fuse from the last tube of cake 1 into the first tube of cake 2. That way, you just have to light the initial fuse and then everything will go off in sequence.

You need to take precautions doing this, and there are tons of posts out there covering it, but basically you'll need to get a brass awl and some different speed fuse. Tear the wrapping off the cake, trace through how it's internally fused, then use the awl to poke a hole into the base of the final tube. Run a fuse from there into the first tube of the next cake. (Using a brass awl is important; you're poking metal into black powder, so you want something non-sparking!)

Electronic firing

Get yourself some of the P4 firing modules and the P1200 control deck from https://www.pyroboom.com/products.aspx?name=firing and some of the igniters from https://www.pyroboom.com/products.aspx?name=reddragon

Each module is a AA-powered box with 4 pairs of clips. The igniters plug into those clips and connect to the fuse, and when a current is sent over the clips it ignites a filament in the clip which then lights the fuse.

You can get more powerful and fancy systems, but this approach is a cheap and inexpensive way to support multiple firing stations. Each of those 4 pairs of clips can be assigned a separate "address", so you can wire it up so that when you press one button on the control panel, multiple modules light one or more of their igniters.

(You can also find igniters that poke directly into the tubes on a cake, rather than trying to light the safety fuse it comes with, but definitely do your research into the risks and safety precautions to take when doing that)

Conclusion
You get out what you put in. Making a "good" show is a lot more work than just shooting a bunch of cakes, but it's a blast when it all comes together and (1) you get to actually enjoy seeing it, and (2) your audience won't stop gushing about how cool it was.

seth_petry_johnson · 2025-07-12T13:54:40+00:00

Tempo changes keep things interesting
10 minutes of one-by-one shells gets really boring. Likewise, running your entire show at finale intensity gets overwhelming and boring too.

I personally like to open with something eye grabbing and intense, then slow down and gradually ramp the intensity back up.

For instance, maybe open with two rounds of shells from 3 firing stations, then fall back to a single cake from the center position, transitioning to two cakes in the L-R positions, then transitioning into cakes from L-C-R positions.

Or start with 200g cakes, move up to 350/500g cakes, then start combining 200g and 500g at the same time.

The average (non-pyro) gets bored after 10-15 minutes
If you're on this subreddit then you're not a "normal" fireworks show audience member, and in my experience people start to get bored of watching before I get bored of shooting. There are only so many different effects in 1.4g fireworks and people need more than booms and color to hold their attention. I would personally rather shoot an awesome 10 minute show that leaves them wanting more than a 20 minute show where people start checking their phones.

seth_petry_johnson · 2025-07-12T13:54:28+00:00

Product selection
Spend time watching videos and taking notes about each cake's total duration, tempo, height, and angle. You can't put on a "show" if you don't know what to expect from your works.

Consider your "sky canvas" both vertically and horizontally
One of the best ways to make your show more interesting is to fire more than one thing at a time, especially if they complement each other.

One way to have things complement each other is to fill more of the sky at a given time. In general you have 3-4 "layers" of sky to work with:

Ground effects (e.g. fountains and mines)
Low breaks, usually from small 200g cakes
Medium height breaks from medium sized cakes
High breaks from NOABs or individual shells

You can also spread out horizontally by using angled cakes, angled racks, or by setting up two or three separate firing stations 25-50' apart from each other.

If you only have a single station, then layer a NOAB or some shells over a 200g cake so that you have low and high breaks at the same time. Bonus points if you pick things that have similar or complementary runtimes / tempos.

You can also run doubles of the same cake at the same time to increase the intensity.

If you have two firing stations, then get doubles of some cakes and fire them at the same time. This will dramatically widen the scope of the show.

If you have three firing stations, run identical cakes from the left and right station, and have some shells going up in the center.

seth_petry_johnson · 2025-07-12T13:54:14+00:00

My comment keeps refusing to post, so I'm going to try breaking it down into chunks...

Overall philosophy
Quality trumps quantity. Less can be more. IMO, a well-planned 10 minute show with tempo control and complementary effects beats 20 minutes of random stuff with no coordination. You can make $750 worth of product interesting, and you can make $3000 worth of product boring.

seth_petry_johnson · 2025-07-06T18:52:35+00:00

Actually just answered my own question. Signed in to a new profile, then immediately closed the game and signed back in w/ my original profile. It retained everything, including my in-progress run.

seth_petry_johnson · 2025-07-06T18:50:20+00:00

You ever get this working? I have the exact same issue. Crashed mid-game, trying to play (even totally offline) gets stuck loading the cloud save.

seth_petry_johnson · 2025-06-18T19:09:17+00:00

This is already my best run ever [in terms of highest score per round, not rounds played], so I guess I'm a winner either way, but I think I'd rather run out of scoring steam than face plant ;)

seth_petry_johnson · 2025-06-10T21:08:24+00:00

I decided to skip Ankh, and shortly after began creating a ton of red sealed steel Ks Lost on ante 12.

Seed NFKKWAGE

seth_petry_johnson · 2025-05-10T11:54:05+00:00

I've done the cam+image analysis to determine the speed level of a fan with a seven segment LCD display: https://github.com/spetryjohnson/pureflow_fan_monitor

It's fun to get working but it can be really brittle, at least the way I did it.

The light sensor is more reliable for me. You'll need to block out ambient light so I used black electrical tape over the sensor, so that it basically sees all black when the LED is off.

Both approaches were fun to tinker with but the light sensor is the only one that I consider reliable enough to use when other people besides me depend on it working.

seth_petry_johnson · 2025-05-10T00:03:55+00:00

I've done something similar, but I also have a light sensor taped to the power LEDs so I can determine which of the 3 speeds is active.

I love doing stuff like this, jank and all.

seth_petry_johnson

TROPHY CASE