WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

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It’s time.

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[claps twice]

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Hello and welcome to the final installment of this year’s
No Effort November.

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Once again I’m testing various ways to fix the horrors of
modern LED christmaholiday lights.

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Since it’s been a couple of years since I’ve done this and the channel has grown a lot since then,

00:00:19.918 --> 00:00:22.630
allow me to fill you in on this madness.

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I love Christmas lights.

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I don’t go all out like Clark Griswold does

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but decorating with electric lights on strings has always
been perhaps my favorite part of the holiday season.

00:00:32.538 --> 00:00:34.460
I also like LEDs.

00:00:34.460 --> 00:00:39.042
The light emitting diode is a fantastic invention and it’s only been getting better and better.

00:00:39.608 --> 00:00:40.657
Except...

00:00:40.741 --> 00:00:44.390
in this particular application where they make my eyes burn

00:00:44.390 --> 00:00:49.293
because apparently people are still impressed
by copious amounts of monochromatic blue

00:00:49.293 --> 00:00:52.300
and haven’t realized how hideous it is yet.

00:00:52.300 --> 00:00:54.490
Now, white lights?

00:00:54.490 --> 00:00:56.687
We’ve got these down pretty good.

00:00:57.316 --> 00:01:05.040
Well, except for the fact that we still only put a few diodes in the circuit on one end to protect the lights from reverse current flow

00:01:05.040 --> 00:01:07.775
and thus they’re only half-wave rectified.

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I can see that these are pulsing just looking at them.

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It’s even worse in my peripheral vision.

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That still needs work no doubt but this color is a fine warm-white,

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particularly when you consider how dirt cheap these are.

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You would think that somebody in charge of the manufacturing of mass-market Christmas lights would think to themselves

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“Hey, what if we just made a whole bunch of white LEDs,

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you know like in the days when lights were always white?

00:01:35.112 --> 00:01:39.232
And then to give them color we put differently-colored caps over them

00:01:39.232 --> 00:01:42.828
to filter that light and make colors the ol' fashioned way?

00:01:42.828 --> 00:01:48.258
That might even cost a little less because then we could just make 12 trillion white LEDs

00:01:48.258 --> 00:01:53.017
instead of 6 trillion white ones and then 1 trillion each of a bunch of other colors.”

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Much to my chagrin that still hasn’t happened,

00:01:55.847 --> 00:01:59.898
so I’ve been sticking to incandescent lights for my multi-colored needs.

00:01:59.898 --> 00:02:04.889
But in the meantime, I’ve been testing various methods of hand-coloring the lights

00:02:04.889 --> 00:02:07.445
and here we are yet again.

00:02:07.445 --> 00:02:10.556
In 2018 I tried using ordinary paints.

00:02:10.556 --> 00:02:15.603
I was hoping to use something that was pigmented rather than dye-based for colorfastness.

00:02:15.603 --> 00:02:20.631
That just didn’t work at all because it was too hard to get the correct coat thickness.

00:02:20.631 --> 00:02:27.631
But, I discovered that just coloring the bulbs with Sharpies did a pretty good job at replicating the look of incandescent light sets.

00:02:27.631 --> 00:02:32.760
However, those lights quickly faded in the Western sun.

00:02:32.760 --> 00:02:37.467
Only a month (of the shortest days of the year, mind you) made them pretty dull.

00:02:37.467 --> 00:02:43.430
I mean, I really wasn’t expecting much in the way of longevity 
but hoped for a little better than that.

00:02:43.807 --> 00:02:47.259
In 2019 I tried transparent model paints.

00:02:47.259 --> 00:02:54.280
That appeared to work a treat except for the fact that my bottle of yellow paint was apparently super old and wasn’t working well.

00:02:54.280 --> 00:02:59.850
I ended up mixing in just a smidge of red paint and this improved the color quite a bit.

00:03:00.227 --> 00:03:04.356
I don’t remember if I ever did what I meant
to do and put a video up on Conenxtras

00:03:04.356 --> 00:03:06.545
about how well they held up over the … wait.

00:03:06.545 --> 00:03:08.502
I can just look into that.

00:03:08.502 --> 00:03:11.140
Wow, I did, apparently!

00:03:11.140 --> 00:03:12.659
Heh, look at that.

00:03:12.659 --> 00:03:16.403
Uh, but so that everyone knows, they actually held up quite well.

00:03:16.696 --> 00:03:18.361
In fact, here they are!

00:03:18.361 --> 00:03:24.419
I couldn’t even notice a color difference between the half that got a UV protective clear coat and the half that didn’t.

00:03:24.419 --> 00:03:26.516
Oh right, I did that, too.

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So, what’s in store for this year?

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Well a few things.

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But first!

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I ran to Warrlllmart to get some plain white lights for 'sperimenting on

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and for giggles got this matching set of colored lights to see if I could maybe swap the caps over.

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Sometimes that’s possible but it’s really hit or miss, but folks…

00:03:46.671 --> 00:03:49.363
I might be able to tolerate these.

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For one, I didn’t notice in the store that this is the objectively supreme combo of red, green, blue, and yellow

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with none of that orange, pink, teal, magenta, or purple nonsense

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but also this yellow isn’t a monochromatic yellow.

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That’s a white diode under a yellow cap!

00:04:07.846 --> 00:04:11.566
So it actually pops in brightness, just like the old sets.

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We’re ¼ the way there!

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The blue, green, and red are still monochromatic
but this is real progress.

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What’s more, in the last video I said I probably wouldn’t mind LED sets that much 
if they could just tone down the blue and well…

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they didn’t tone it down on any individual light
but they reduced the number of them in a set!

00:04:34.247 --> 00:04:39.321
There are fewer blue lights in these strands than the other colors, and honestly?

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I plugged these in and thought 
“I… could deal with this.”

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Now I’ve since returned to the store and can report that regrettably it’s only these 50 light sets that are like this—

00:04:52.529 --> 00:04:57.275
the 100 light sets had orange, too, but I didn’t plug them in to judge them.

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Actually it’s real slim pickin’s at my local Warrrlllmart this year but anyway I’m just saying that this combo ain’t half bad.

00:05:05.411 --> 00:05:08.835
Still, this ain’t gonna stop me from seeking
perfection.

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Remember, this is what I want to emulate.

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These beautiful sets of mini-lights.

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Given that transparent model paint was the winner last year,

00:05:17.287 --> 00:05:22.817
I ordered a couple of different varieties of transparent craft paints to see if they might be any better.

00:05:22.817 --> 00:05:23.793
They were not.

00:05:23.793 --> 00:05:27.528
I gave up with this set after realizing this was a finicky pain,

00:05:27.528 --> 00:05:34.991
and while the other set of paints was much more promising it was also quite thin and would have required multiple coats to get a good color.

00:05:34.991 --> 00:05:38.653
If this were any other month I might have stuck with it but no.

00:05:38.653 --> 00:05:43.807
Actually if I do this again I’m gonna get an airbrush and try applying the paint that way

00:05:43.807 --> 00:05:47.445
because I think that might solve a lot of headaches but anyway...

00:05:47.445 --> 00:05:49.173
I also tried dye.

00:05:49.173 --> 00:05:51.037
As in fabric dye.

00:05:51.037 --> 00:05:57.097
I saw a comment about this stuff being effective for dyeing plastics so I thought it was worth a shot.

00:05:57.097 --> 00:06:04.564
It showed some promise but also the clear plastic I actually wanted to dye...

00:06:04.564 --> 00:06:08.508
doesn’t seem to tolerate the high temperatures required all that well.

00:06:09.200 --> 00:06:11.539
And also just wasn’t taking to the dye.

00:06:11.539 --> 00:06:17.576
Even if this did work, it would have been a pretty finicky process
since it would require removing the bulbs,

00:06:17.576 --> 00:06:21.820
which I discovered the last time I did this isn’t very smart.

00:06:21.820 --> 00:06:27.306
But I forgot about that discovery and removed ‘em all from this
set anyway when I first started this year’s nonsense.

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When will I ever learn?

00:06:30.121 --> 00:06:32.564
So now I bring you to this year’s winner.

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And it’s something that can be obtained just about anywhere,

00:06:35.577 --> 00:06:38.523
is easier to apply than anything we’ve tried so far,

00:06:38.523 --> 00:06:41.671
and can be had in many, many colors.

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Here are the results on a completed strand.

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This product gives a frosted look which isn’t exactly common
in the mini-light space but isn’t unheard of, either.

00:06:52.029 --> 00:06:57.634
And honestly in some ways I prefer it because, 
while these mini-lights have gotten pretty good,

00:06:57.634 --> 00:07:02.928
they still throw light rather directionally and frosting the plastic helps tame that.

00:07:03.578 --> 00:07:05.118
What is this product?

00:07:05.118 --> 00:07:06.780
Nail polish.

00:07:06.780 --> 00:07:10.442
Yep. Just cheap nail polish and nothing more.

00:07:10.442 --> 00:07:15.896
Honestly this hits a pretty huge sweet spot for me when it comes to overall practicality.

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The bottles come with their own applicator brushes,

00:07:18.533 --> 00:07:21.558
the product itself goes on thick and uniformly,

00:07:21.558 --> 00:07:23.642
and it dries quickly, too.

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The only thing I wish I had was a deeper green—
I couldn’t see anything quite as dark as I was hoping to get,

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so this color is a little more like an apple green than I’d like.

00:07:34.884 --> 00:07:37.094
Still, though, it’s not bad.

00:07:37.094 --> 00:07:42.076
And the blue is letting plenty of light through even with a fairly thick coat.

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Now, when it’s wet nail polish is flammable
which might concern some of you out there.

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If you’re worried about that, just apply it when the lights are off.

00:07:50.803 --> 00:07:55.459
However, since these are LEDs and basically don’t produce
heat at all,

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I’m not concerned about that and would rather be able to see how well it’s applying.

00:07:59.578 --> 00:08:06.514
I also sacrificed some bulbs to test the flammability of dried nail polish and at least with these products,

00:08:06.514 --> 00:08:08.775
I wouldn’t call this a concern.

00:08:08.775 --> 00:08:12.996
Oh by the way I did this outside first, then found out it was safe enough to do in here.

00:08:12.996 --> 00:08:15.047
I mean, It’s - it's cold out there!

00:08:15.047 --> 00:08:19.035
Anyway, what’s burning here is the plastic of the light itself.

00:08:19.035 --> 00:08:22.532
The nail polish doesn’t seem
to have any accelerating effect.

00:08:22.630 --> 00:08:26.902
I will admit that I think this is a worse result than the transparent model paint

00:08:26.902 --> 00:08:31.585
(though I actually think the red on the nail polish
strand is considerably better)

00:08:31.585 --> 00:08:36.922
but I would consider this less of a hassle overall for a lot of reasons.

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It’s pretty much a “have right at it” kind of thing

00:08:39.765 --> 00:08:42.758
with no additional prep or equipment required.

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Plus you can get this is a wild array of colors in many common
stores so it has that benefit as well.

00:08:49.167 --> 00:08:55.963
A second coat did make the colors more intense so I would probably do two coats if I were committing to a run of these.

00:08:55.963 --> 00:08:59.443
And who knows how long this might hold up in the elements.

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We’ll find out, though!

00:09:01.467 --> 00:09:06.313
I didn’t get anysort of top-coat product and that would probably help these out,

00:09:06.313 --> 00:09:10.354
but also if these do well on their own yippee I guess.

00:09:10.354 --> 00:09:12.864
Now, I have a confession to make.

00:09:12.864 --> 00:09:16.437
At this point, I’m just doing this to prove a point.

00:09:16.437 --> 00:09:21.239
That these colors are just waiting to be implemented
by the manufacturers,

00:09:21.239 --> 00:09:25.963
and as I said in the last video, I don’t get why this isn’t a thing yet.

00:09:25.963 --> 00:09:32.924
I even suggested selling sets without caps and selling the caps separately for make-your-own-color sets

00:09:32.924 --> 00:09:36.237
and in these two years I don’t think that’s been a thing.

00:09:36.237 --> 00:09:38.868
Now I can sort of see why,

00:09:38.868 --> 00:09:42.622
maybe none of the Christmas light set manufacturers have
watched my video,

00:09:42.622 --> 00:09:47.838
maybe none of the mental energy I project towards them when I brush my teeth every night is making it,

00:09:47.838 --> 00:09:52.422
or maybe it’s just hard to sell a light set that’s incomplete like that.

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Perhaps getting UL certification on a set like that wouldn’t be easy, but surely something’s gotta be possible.

00:09:58.517 --> 00:10:05.245
I can’t possibly be the only person on this
Earth who is bugged by these garish colors.

00:10:05.245 --> 00:10:09.571
I mean, for one thing they still sell incandescent light sets every year!

00:10:09.571 --> 00:10:11.903
And like, I might be annoyed with that

00:10:11.903 --> 00:10:15.949
were it not for the fact that they’re just so much better looking than these.

00:10:15.949 --> 00:10:19.468
And that’s not, like, my opinion, that's an objective fact!

00:10:19.468 --> 00:10:27.354
Plus they only get about a month of use each year which also
happens to be during a part of the year where electrical demand tends to be low.

00:10:27.354 --> 00:10:31.759
Plus - these beautiful twinkling sets exist and the LED versions,

00:10:31.759 --> 00:10:34.989
while nice in their own way, don’t hold a candle to 'em.

00:10:35.560 --> 00:10:40.276
It turns out I’m not the only person who
dislikes these gaudy colors.

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There’s at least one other person out there,

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and unlike me they were willing to go the extra...

00:10:46.158 --> 00:10:53.290
thousand miles to start their own business manufacturing
LED replacements for these beauties.

00:10:53.290 --> 00:10:56.769
Quick note - this is a C9 set,

00:10:56.769 --> 00:11:05.451
and C9 is a bulb-shape designation that for some reason or another has hung around all this time to describe Christmas lights.

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You can still get these as incandescent sets, 
at least in my next of the woods,

00:11:09.993 --> 00:11:14.998
and they sure are pretty but holy cow are they not efficient!

00:11:14.998 --> 00:11:19.145
You can just *feel* the heat coming off of these.

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It’s not great.

00:11:20.860 --> 00:11:28.534
The folks behind Tru-Tone light bulbs, who are not sponsoring this and besides I don’t even have any that I could show you

00:11:28.953 --> 00:11:30.005
— yet —

00:11:30.005 --> 00:11:35.828
did the work of contracting with a light bulb manufacturer to make LED versions of these.

00:11:36.373 --> 00:11:39.162
And like, yeah! 
Why the heck not?

00:11:39.162 --> 00:11:45.968
We’ve been making LED filament bulbs for a long
time now and they’ve gotten really good and pretty small,

00:11:45.968 --> 00:11:51.689
so why not just make a little 5 or 7 watt equivalent bulb in this shape

00:11:51.689 --> 00:11:55.325
and then put a ceramic paint coating on there like we used to?

00:11:55.325 --> 00:11:57.763
I’m glad somebody’s thinking this through.

00:11:57.763 --> 00:12:04.097
Apparently they’ve gone so far as to mimic the little tent-shape filament most clear bulbs had

00:12:04.097 --> 00:12:10.841
and they sell clear as well as different colored tinted clear sets, too (in the C7 size at least.)

00:12:10.841 --> 00:12:14.511
Again, I don’t have any affiliation with these people

00:12:14.511 --> 00:12:18.083
but I like the way they think and I hope they succeed.

00:12:18.083 --> 00:12:23.382
They’ve even specifically put in the FAQ that no, they don’t use colored LEDs,

00:12:23.382 --> 00:12:28.882
all the filaments are warm-white 
and the color comes from the glass just like the good ol’ days

00:12:28.882 --> 00:12:31.360
so clearly they're after my heart.

00:12:31.360 --> 00:12:35.644
It looks like they’re doing pretty well as some varieties are sold out already.

00:12:35.644 --> 00:12:40.092
Sadly to those of you in 240 lands, they don’t make them for you yet.

00:12:40.092 --> 00:12:41.305
Here’s hoping, though!

00:12:41.850 --> 00:12:45.381
Oh, but did you ever have sets like this?

00:12:45.381 --> 00:12:50.373
I don’t know enough about your holiday light
norms over there but I kind of get the sense

00:12:50.373 --> 00:12:58.502
that mains voltage running through cheaply-made
light sockets intended to be stung outdoors isn’t exactly the norm.

00:12:58.502 --> 00:13:00.614
If the folks at Tru-Tone are watching,

00:13:00.614 --> 00:13:03.330
I would highly suggest a couple of things.

00:13:03.330 --> 00:13:11.275
One, could you pretty please maybe come up with some
sort of colored sleeve product for slipping over these mini-lights?

00:13:11.275 --> 00:13:17.149
I love C9 sets and use them, but I also like the mini-lights a lot, too,

00:13:17.149 --> 00:13:20.793
and I feel like this would be a fairly simple thing to manufacture.

00:13:20.793 --> 00:13:29.009
Plus it would allow for really easy color changes and you could potentially sell them for more seasonal occasions than just the winter holidays.

00:13:29.009 --> 00:13:34.543
You might find people really like the idea of changing the colors to all sorts of combos.

00:13:34.543 --> 00:13:38.601
Most importantly, though, it could end this madness.

00:13:38.601 --> 00:13:42.496
The other thing I’d suggest is a look at
search engine optimization.

00:13:42.496 --> 00:13:47.727
I had heard of your product last year and actually went looking
for it a couple of weeks ago

00:13:47.727 --> 00:13:52.393
but whatever search terms I was using didn’t pull you up right away.

00:13:52.393 --> 00:13:56.840
I’m not sure what all you could do about that, but I thought I’d let you know.

00:13:56.840 --> 00:14:00.281
In fairness I wasn’t trying super hard

00:14:00.281 --> 00:14:05.682
and I think I forgot your product’s name so I might have just looked right past it,

00:14:05.682 --> 00:14:09.731
so thanks to Vwestlife for tweeting a link a me.

00:14:09.731 --> 00:14:15.084
Oh, and while I know the world of supply chains is just a... mess right now

00:14:15.084 --> 00:14:17.158
and it’s your business, not mine,

00:14:17.158 --> 00:14:22.597
I hope you implement some way to pre-order what’s
currently sold-out for next year.

00:14:22.597 --> 00:14:24.609
But anyway, that’s it!

00:14:24.609 --> 00:14:26.098
What have we learned today?

00:14:26.098 --> 00:14:28.316
Well first, I’m eccentric!

00:14:28.316 --> 00:14:29.803
But we knew that already.

00:14:29.803 --> 00:14:34.647
Second, nail polish seems to be a pretty good product for coloring white LED sets

00:14:34.647 --> 00:14:37.702
so long as you’re OK with the frosted appearance.

00:14:37.702 --> 00:14:41.461
Third, there are some folks in Michigan who are easing my pain —

00:14:41.461 --> 00:14:46.466
just please please pretty please come up with some sort of color caps please.

00:14:46.466 --> 00:14:48.963
Oh right dye’s a wash.

00:14:48.963 --> 00:14:51.790
Uhh… but I think that’s it!

00:14:51.790 --> 00:14:54.929
I hope you all have a wonderful and safe holiday season,

00:14:54.929 --> 00:14:59.020
and when I see you next we’ll be talking about photographic printing.

00:14:59.020 --> 00:15:03.184
Which is great because we’ll get to talk about another kind of colored light!

00:15:03.184 --> 00:15:04.747
The safelight.

00:15:04.747 --> 00:15:06.498
Oooohhhh.

00:15:07.320 --> 00:15:10.974
♫ unexpectedly holiday jazz ♫

00:15:12.105 --> 00:15:13.583
It’s not great.

00:15:13.940 --> 00:15:16.183
Let’s see if we can get this green bulb to come back.

00:15:19.200 --> 00:15:21.619
Did you seriously burn out on me?

00:15:21.619 --> 00:15:28.213
I bought two of these sets to have just for spare bulbs

00:15:28.213 --> 00:15:34.251
and for whatever reason green is extremely prone to burning out.

00:15:35.907 --> 00:15:40.371
At… I plugged this in once, this bulb had a life of what, 10 seconds?

00:15:41.293 --> 00:15:43.153
It’s like it’s taunting me.

00:15:43.153 --> 00:15:47.246
That’s... this is the last green from my first set of spares

00:15:47.246 --> 00:15:50.858
so as of now I have just five green spares left.

00:15:52.241 --> 00:15:52.979
Jeh!

00:15:52.979 --> 00:15:55.062
And it’s only been getting better and better.

00:15:55.062 --> 00:15:57.057
Except in this…

00:15:57.057 --> 00:15:59.101
hhhhhh where’s the string!

00:16:03.230 --> 00:16:05.089
Should have planned that out.

00:16:05.236 --> 00:16:08.935
This is what you call a live fact-check.

00:16:10.863 --> 00:16:11.870
Yes.

00:16:11.870 --> 00:16:16.082
I couldn’t even notice a difference between the half that got a UV protective coke...

00:16:17.633 --> 00:16:18.709
Clear coat.

00:16:18.709 --> 00:16:20.657
Now, white lights?

00:16:20.657 --> 00:16:22.902
We’ve got… oh I grabbed...

00:16:22.902 --> 00:16:24.534
not color and white.

00:16:24.534 --> 00:16:26.774
I don’t go all out like clr…

00:16:27.452 --> 00:16:28.622
eugh.

00:16:30.152 --> 00:16:33.776
I'm really hoping that Tru-Tone comes through with some little light cap thingies.

00:16:33.776 --> 00:16:38.720
As much as I enjoy this silly tradition, I also don't want to spend an entire day painting light bulbs.

00:16:38.720 --> 00:16:42.240
And I never actually have - I just keep doing this for youuuu!

00:16:42.240 --> 00:16:45.111
Really breaking the illusion, huh?

00:16:45.111 --> 00:16:46.205
Well... whatever.