Originally posted by: destrekor
as far as the noise.. i'm the opposite as I welcome the awesome sounds of exploding air.
I've always been a firebug and pyromaniac, so the thunderous booms are fun. I also enjoy the sheer unpredictability of them, so I always get caught off guard if I'm not watching the storm, and I sit and laugh at myself for jumping because of thunder. lmao
I was so picky about fireworks, I only wanted ones that would flash - smoke bombs were just useless, and I hated the noisy ones. As a kid, I was scared of low-flying airplanes and helicopters, as they were too loud.
And I tend to like predictable, consistent things, orderly things.
Now as far as pyromania goes....
I loved playing with a magnifying lens. The biggest I ever had was an 8.5x11" Fresnel lens.
My fantasy project now: a few miles away lives an old guy who sold satellite dishes back when they were about 10' in diameter. The fun project would be to offer $20 or something around there for one of the old dishes that have been laying around his yard for several years now, and then either attack a bunch of small mirrors to it, or else figure out a way of coating it with a smooth, reflective surface. I'll just use 500W/m^2 as an estimate for available sunlight (maybe it's really hazy, or wintertime in a northern latitude). A 10ft dish would concentrate up to 3,648 watts into a small spot. Think of how hot a 30W soldering iron gets.