Flowers for Craig

The idea of sending Craig some flowers was mentioned in the "The Craig Thread...". That made me think of an idea for an alternative that he would really enjoy (assuming and hoping that he recovers).

How about an LED flower arrangement from his fellow CPFers. I'm thinking of some kind of funky home-brew creation (the funkier the better, with lots of lights and lots of colors) that would resemble a flower arrangement with small LED flashlights being the flowers.

I'm going to toss some ideas out for this, and they are just rough ideas, so please bear with me. Any other ideas and suggestions would be appreciated.

Seems to me that a "chassis" (perhaps a cage of thick rigid copper wires soldered together) could be made that would fit into (could be hidden inside of) a vase. This chassis would hold the appropriate number and type batteries, perhaps some kind of switch, and would be the place for the origination of a wiring harness that would supply power to the lights. The chassis would also provide a place to attach (solder) the individual flower stems. The flower stems themselves could also be rigid pieces of solid copper wire, bent at various angles to resemble a floral arrangement.

The wiring harness itself would terminate into individual pairs of wires that would have to be soldered onto the battery leads of each flashlight. Of course this would mean a bit of modding to the individual flashlight cases (drill a hole), but that is certainly not a challenge for the folks in this group! We could really load this thing up with a lot of stems, each holding several lights.

We would have to see if anyone in the forum would be willing to take care of the assembly process. Then everyone could ship their contributed flashlights to that person. The way I see this, the biggest constraints would be someone's time to assemble the unit, and shipping costs (kinda costly because we would have to do some overnight shipping).

I know this seems like a crazy idea, but to me, it seems so appropriate for Craig. I think it would serve to lift his spirits a bit.

I have several Photon 2's that I would be willing to contribute. I would also be willing to kick in some $$$ to cover some of the shipping costs.

OK, I have rambled enough. If anyone is interested, please reply to this thread, and if you have any ideas on this, please share them.

I will send money just let me know when and where. I think this is a great idea.

So I am a bit confused though (I know, normal for me)

Arrange flashlights into some crazy concotion or take a bunch of LEDs and have them sticking out all over the place? Think of it...like those fiber optic lights only LEDs instead of fiber optics, and probably less of them. We could get vintage LEDs (Think old dead calculators) new LEDs, surface mounts, etc. etc.

Well, it would be kind of like those fiber optic lights, but Phton type flashlights instead. We could do either flashlights, or discreet LED's, or a mix of both.

The idea hear is to come up with something funky that will cheer Craig up, and show him that the CPF is behind him 100%.

But no 2D maglights or Eveready industrials (The yellow ones) right? Just smaller lights...ok that makes sense--for some reason the first thing that popped into my had was this huge 2D-cell yellow plastic Eveready industrial light hanging off a piece of copper.

I really don't this is a good idea. I'm sure the hospital has some kind of rule prohibiting the use of non shielded electronics inside the hospital. Something about stray EM signals and very sensitive electronic equipment used inside the hospital. Also there is a concern about stray sparks.

Aso, you bring up a good point. While Craig would certainly find a few stray sparks entertaining, I doubt that the hospital officials would look very favorably on that!

Still might be a nice homecoming present for Craig though.....

Originally posted by aso:
I really don't this is a good idea. I'm sure the hospital has some kind of rule prohibiting the use of non shielded electronics inside the hospital. Something about stray EM signals and very sensitive electronic equipment used inside the hospital. Also there is a concern about stray sparks.

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">I would guarantee you that it would not be allowed. Cell phones are still not even allowed to be on (not just not used, but they need to be turned off) in the hospital because they may interfere with wireless heart and other monitors.

VERY nice thought however!

I am sure even printing out a get well thread and hanging it on his door would be appreciated (and a copy for him to read in his bed also!)

Ok well that just leaves the question of who has access to a 30,000 page/month printer

At first, I thought that a fiber optics "arrangement" sounded apropos because it lights up and is in an array of colors, and can be "accomplished"(purchased) quickly. However, a funky, custom-made, CPF "bouquet" would be more meaningful and fun.

The big question though (in my opinion), is how much time do we have to make this thing?

For another idea or starting point, how about if anyone wanting to contribute to the "bouquet," provide an LED "stem" or two. With only basic parameters (length/size/weight, etc.), contributing members could then submit their "creation" to one person, who would then arrange it in a vase and send it off to Craig.

The main problem with this "arrangement" is that the lights would have to be turned on individually, but on the other hand, once Craig is completely recovered, he would be able to "recycle" the lights and use them as he so needs/wants. Weight might be another problem...

Just my 2 cents.

I know that you all will probably throw dead batteries at me for this but... what about glow sticks? Make an arrangement of glow sticks mixed in with silks and then Craig can break the sticks and light it up himself?

*ducking*

Watch out...Roy has just moved into runtime graphs on D and C cell lights

(Maybe I should let this thread run awihle before I reply again)

I think the glow sticks idea sounds pretty good if we are going to send it to him while he's still in the hospital. Safe, non-toxic, colorful, etc. Any other ideas?

Or... (and I think this would be VERY neat!)... we could wait until Craig is out of ICU and then we can post his room number here and everyone can do their own thing... imagine his room FILLED with all kinds of balloons and plants and flowers and lights and candies and stuffed rats and fuzzy toilets... the hospital staff would go nuts and everyone would know, without a doubt, that Craig has ALOT of friends who care very much for him and wish him a speedy recovery. So what do you all think of that?

"1-800-FLOWERS" has proved to be a very reliable source of high quality flowers that I have used on several ocasions. They haven't let me down so far.

Brightnorm

How neat would that be to get like dozens of little gifts, flowers, balloons, etc. I like that idea. There are probably websites or toll free numbers you can call to have stuff delivered from wherever in the world you happen to live. Maybe people could post these in here as well, then you could chose which service to use to send him a gift.

**** edit **** Looks like brightnorm was reading my mind.

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. If someone can post the full hospital address/room number details when they are known, we can all send stuff individually.

Just imagine what the hospital staff will think when Craig starts getting deliveries from all over the US and the world..

Graham

Ok--sounds great, bit I still think somone needs to build him an oddball light. A long long time ago--in my very first post, I offered to build him a computer (This was before I figured out that threads could have more than one page and that Craigs Dell was already headed toward him ) but anyway oddball light:

If somone wants to do it, great, if we want it to be a group effort or what not I'd be happy to build it (Depending on how complex it is or isn't) and ship it and take care of all of that if somone helped fund it--but that's just one of literarly hundreds of options.

I just found the perfect thing - we can send him these..

What flashaholic wouldn't be overjoyed to receive these?

Graham

Tell me where to send money via Paypal for flowers/etc for Craig

Mike
www.inretech.com