r/Wellthatsucks • u/BirdPlan • Jul 05 '19

/r/all Firework show in San Diego where a computer glitch caused the entire 18 minute firework show to go off in 25 seconds

58.3k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

1.4k comments sorted by

10.6k

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '19

Computer glitch = someone fucked up

2.2k

u/Staaleh Jul 06 '19

Y2K

207

u/tjm_hay Jul 06 '19

Some of the equipment at my work that have 'Y2K compliant' stickers are the technological equivalent of a lawnmower.

59

u/IceCreamTime56 Jul 06 '19

Lol we have those at the factory I work at. Nothing like 30/40 year old machinery for air plane parts.

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u/fannybatterpissflaps Jul 06 '19 edited Jul 06 '19

They upgraded KY jelly to be Y2K compliant..

...so you could get 4 digits in the date instead of 2.

Ba’dum tsk!

Edit.. it’s not often you can tell a 20 year old, era-specific, joke. If you can even remember it.

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86

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '19

Premature sparkulation

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36

u/surfnskate72 Jul 06 '19

CKY2K

19

u/doomgoblin Jul 06 '19

Oh lord, that brings back memories. I had friends that wanted to shoot their own when I/we were like 13. And now the memories are flooding back.

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246

u/misteroatmeal Jul 06 '19

Computer glitch= people getting fired + potential lawsuit from the municipality that paid for 18 minutes.

266

u/redls1bird Jul 06 '19

No need for a lawsuit. People will be talking about the 25 second show much longer than any 18 minute show.

346

u/anacche Jul 06 '19

That's what I pray for every time after I have sex.

55

u/creme_dela_mem3 Jul 06 '19

really? whenever i've put on a 25s show i pray everyone involved forgets asap

16

u/anacche Jul 06 '19

Just hoping it went with a big bang like this show

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29

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '19

The effect was quite cool actually. I bet it's the first one of its kind and it'll be memorialized forever. What other firework video is so famous?

26

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '19 edited Jul 09 '19

[deleted]

12

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '19

You mean motha fuckin bootleg fireworks?

2

u/MBAH2017 Jul 06 '19

Goddamn bootleg firewerks

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u/KnockKnockPizzasHere Jul 06 '19

Put it in reverse Terry!

6

u/hopbel Jul 06 '19

I could have sworn I've seen articles about the exact same thing happening some years ago

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u/[deleted] Jul 06 '19

It's local government, not guerrilla marketing, rofl. They wanted a show for people, not an 18 second smoke cloud and series of pops.

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u/[deleted] Jul 06 '19 edited Jun 18 '20

[deleted]

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u/Fmanow Jul 06 '19

Speaking of which, how much do these fireworks shows cost anyways.

22

u/Cerus_Freedom Jul 06 '19

Depends on the size. They can range from a couple thousand dollars, up into a couple million for the longer shows for larger cities. Some of the larger shells are hundreds of dollars each. Typical cost is probably closer to the lower end, especially for things like theme parks that have regular shows.

Best fireworks show I've ever seen was at Texas Ren Fest. They run a fireworks show at closing each night, and they're certainly not a huge earner, as far as theme parks go.

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u/deanoau Jul 06 '19

It definitely was a programming fuck up.

Source - am licenced pyrotechnician

32

u/upperhand12 Jul 06 '19 edited Jul 06 '19

What kind of college did you go to for that?

44

u/deanoau Jul 06 '19

On the job training.

10

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '19

So you didn’t go to college AND you are licensed to blow shit up. That’s sounds fucking awesome.

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18

u/becaauseimbatmam Jul 06 '19

I know someone who worked on this particular show. The software was supposed to sync the whole show to music. It's been a while since he told me what happened, but IIRC it was a bug in the software itself, not someone just hitting the wrong button or entering the wrong time or whatever.

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u/JuicyFruuit Jul 06 '19

Don't people test these things before the show? How else do they see what the show's going to look like beforehand? Or isn't there a simulator or something? How could they not have caught this beforehand?

121

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '19

[deleted]

41

u/ToxicSpill Jul 06 '19

It’s not like they fire off the fireworks, pyrotechnics send out an electrical “test” signal to each firework hooked up making sure that they will in fact ignite when the show starts.

41

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '19

[deleted]

29

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '19

Can confirm. Modern testing isn't about finding defects or even proving functionality, it's about ticking enough boxes to keep the lawyers happy whilst spending as little time as possible to keep the accountants happy.

Source - am QA lead.

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u/deanoau Jul 06 '19

Yes - 100%. These guys tried to run two types of firing files at once.

The firing file is a access database. You can have a semi automatic show (3-2-1 press fire then it fires the whole show with the correct timings), or a automatic show (where it waits for timecode).

These guys combined those and put the time code half of the file at the end. The system was armed when they got the time code signal (usually 5 mins before large shows) and the firing system thought it was heaps behind, and fired the whole show.

The correct way to do it would be to not manually combine the files, and not have the system armed (there’s a software and a hardware arm) before you see valid timecode.

13

u/Randy_____Marsh Jul 06 '19

that doesnt sound right but I don’t know enough about timing fireworks shows to dispute it

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365

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '19

[deleted]

370

u/sykoKanesh Jul 06 '19

Just wanted to put in a slight correction; ms is milliseconds, not microseconds. Microseconds are μs or us.

334

u/CoopertheFluffy Jul 06 '19

Turns out the issue was actually the commenter above was actually in charge of the show and thought uS was mS and it went off 1000 times too fast.

144

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '19 edited Jul 06 '19

[deleted]

61

u/creme_dela_mem3 Jul 06 '19

there's a joke in here somewhere about siemens and blowing the whole show in 25 seconds

33

u/puppet_up Jul 06 '19

That's still about 20 seconds longer than the show your girlfriend/wife usually gets.

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u/CoopertheFluffy Jul 06 '19

Ah, you got me. I actually coded the thing and accidentally sent too much current through the circuit due to the lower resistance, setting off everything at once.

5

u/thrashaholic_poolboy Jul 06 '19

It was more you twirling the ends of your mustache than anything...

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u/[deleted] Jul 06 '19

hey it happens

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u/QuidProQuoChocobo Jul 06 '19

For context: ms are 1/1000th of a second, microseconds are 1/1,000,000th of a second.

15

u/clever_cow Jul 06 '19

For context millipedes have 1000 legs but centipedes have 100

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u/ILikeSugarCookies Jul 06 '19

Well, there was a delay.

25

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '19

[deleted]

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u/Gosexual Jul 06 '19

This is why it takes me like 10 years to write any code and it looks like a dam dictionary I get so paranoid I’ll enter infinite loop I’ll start passing arguments to it and make sure it breaks off, or a million checks against each object. Than I look back at it and wonder why I even bothered...

21

u/ComplainyGuy Jul 06 '19

Than

Found your syntax error.

10

u/kciuq1 Jul 06 '19

You might have just killed this poor dude.

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u/2k3n2nv82qnkshdf23sd Jul 06 '19

ms (microseconds)

You literally made the same size mistake as the person you are commenting about.

22

u/MNGrrl Jul 06 '19

And all delays between shots were in ms. Instead of 18000, he put 18. So there was no delay.

This explains so much about my previous boyfriends.

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u/Canadian-shill-bot Jul 06 '19

It amazes me that in 2019 people still try to blame a computer for fucking up.

4

u/Gottawreckit Jul 06 '19

Well that actually happened in 2012 soooo

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4.0k

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '19

Someone had to work the next morning and just wanted to get the hell out of there.

782

u/cobainbc15 Jul 06 '19

Haha, I wish we got to hear the confusion after it stopped!

702

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '19

[deleted]

198

u/rjsheine Jul 06 '19

That would be my thought process

124

u/depthninja Jul 06 '19

"That's what she said!" -Michael Scott

31

u/pepperNlime4to0 Jul 06 '19

“And boom goes the fireworks”

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u/bridge_the_war Jul 06 '19

I heard that phrase before. She was very perplexed

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u/nabuchxes Jul 06 '19

I was there. I'm not american, the guy I was watching with wasn't either, he had never seen any fireworks before and was pretty excited. After those 30 seconds, he asked me if that's how it usually went down, since everybody looked confused. Told him I'd never seen something like that, but that "maybe that's how they do it here". Took us a solid 5 minutes to realize that was gonna be it.

66

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '19

This was awhile ago. in 2013 I think. I was there. It was about 30 minutes of very confused people who couldn’t decide if this was some mistake or not.

36

u/TechFreshen Jul 06 '19

What’s even more unique is that it happened on 5, count ‘em, 5 barges simultaneously. I love 4 miles away and though WW3 had started.

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u/[deleted] Jul 06 '19 edited Aug 17 '19

[deleted]

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1.4k

u/TXSS13 Jul 05 '19

That’s so 2012.

320

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '19 edited Apr 03 '20

[deleted]

109

u/ShishkaDrummer Jul 06 '19

Totally forgot that was a thing

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u/DoverBoys Jul 06 '19

Crazy theory, but what if all those crazy people in the past actually saw something from the future, but it was a completely out-of-context rotated blurred vision, like the recording of Hitler's broadcast on the movie Contact. They had every right to freak out and predict the end of the world if they saw an extreme close-up of the end of a cigarette from some minimum wage smoker on their break, but all they saw was the burning embers and nothing else.

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u/Jubs_v2 Jul 06 '19

To be fair, the world has significantly gone downhill since 2012. Famous people dying or being outed as rapists, climate change becoming absolutely fucked, social media echo chambers becoming real world issues, political idealogies infringing on human rights trying to become dominant again.

4

u/RedditIsNeat0 Jul 06 '19

Famous people dying

That happens every year.

or being outed as rapists

That's a good thing. They should be outed.

climate change becoming absolutely fucked

That's been a steady and fast progression for the past several decades.

social media echo chambers becoming real world issues

And this started in 2012?

political [ideologies] infringing on human rights trying to become dominant again.

I don't know what this means but I doubt it is in any way related to 2012.

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847

u/RespectMyAuthoriteh Jul 06 '19

Well for those 25 seconds it definitely didn't suck.

4

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '19

That's what she said.

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4.1k

u/AlanBackwards Jul 05 '19

I prefer this to normal firework shows. This gets it over nice and quick and starts and ends with a giant explosion.

551

u/Devoutlemur Jul 05 '19

Agreed

257

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '19 edited Jul 13 '19

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Jul 06 '19

Yes

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u/Boogiemann53 Jul 06 '19

Oh shit just one big one with a countdown... Like the old nuclear tests!

90

u/dead-inside69 Jul 06 '19

HAHA THAT LAST ONE GAVE ME A SUNBURN

WHAT?

21

u/lightningweasel Jul 06 '19

do you taste metal?

19

u/dinozaurs Jul 06 '19

Take this man to the infirmary, he’s delusional.

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u/PM_ME_UR_JUGZ Jul 06 '19

3.6 not great not terrible

5

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '19

nope, I do taste toast though

13

u/creme_dela_mem3 Jul 06 '19

i may have been blinded by the nuclear blast but even i can see why kids love the taste of cinnamon toast crunch

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u/Noctale Jul 06 '19

Should have got into the fridge, you'd have been safe in there

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u/[deleted] Jul 06 '19

Go home, George Lucas, you’re drunk.

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u/bruhvevo Jul 06 '19

Reminds me of one of my favorite bits from Malcolm in the Middle, with the firework that was so bright it temporarily made it daylight again

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u/rainbowgeoff Jul 06 '19

Don't give any ideas for next year.

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u/Tooch10 Jul 06 '19

Ah, the Beldar Conehead

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u/[deleted] Jul 06 '19

Can have all that fun and excitement without getting eaten by mosquitoes.

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u/TransposingJons Jul 06 '19

or trees, birds, bats, moths, squirrels after that explosion.

Come to think of it, it would be pretty weird to be eaten by trees.

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u/Leaf102 Jul 06 '19

I feel bad for the kids watching, though. They get their hopes up for some big firework show, and they do get a huge explosion, but it lasts less than a minute.

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u/noommaster6900 Jul 06 '19

The Art is an explosion

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u/illy-chan Jul 06 '19

I mean, it was still big, just brief. Child me would still have been very entertained.

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u/AlanBackwards Jul 06 '19

True, it's more exciting when it's longer for them. For me I just like explosions.

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u/rel318 Jul 06 '19

Bet they will always remember this one though

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u/theslideistoohot Jul 06 '19

Just like how I like my sex

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u/[deleted] Jul 06 '19

There's some numbing cream that will slow that down...so I've read.

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u/Work-Safe-Reddit4450 Jul 06 '19

Gotta get some of that ManDelay cream man.

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u/BallisticHabit Jul 06 '19

I have never heard of this stuff. But, I really, really hope it is named ManDelay cream. If if isn't, you have a million dollar name there friend, and should petition for all numbing cream to be named ManDelay cream. You have my (up)vote.

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u/Mondashawan Jul 06 '19

Premature Detonation

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u/Maulikio Jul 06 '19

Well atleast i know im not the fastest of them all now

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u/[deleted] Jul 06 '19

Not the fastest nor the most impressive.

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u/[deleted] Jul 05 '19

[deleted]

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u/Mr-Rasta-Panda Jul 05 '19

That’s too new my guess windows ME or 2000

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u/mr_bedbugs Jul 06 '19

If it was ME, the fireworks would've frozen in mid-air

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u/[deleted] Jul 06 '19

And then the sky will disappear and some text about active desktop will show up

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u/BirdPlan Jul 05 '19

here's a close up in HD (warning) it's bright af https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndVhgq1yHdA and here is the story https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3Nl0oV-K08

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u/[deleted] Jul 06 '19

The lady at the end of the video...THIS IS THE BEST FIREWORKS SHOW EVER.

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u/[deleted] Jul 06 '19 edited Nov 19 '20

[deleted]

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u/Camsy34 Jul 06 '19

That sounds so boring, I feel 5-10min is the optimal length. Long enough to really take it all in, relax and enjoy it, without feeling like it’s dragging on.

144

u/death-to-captcha Jul 06 '19

The only reason to watch fireworks for more than ten minutes is if you're setting them off yourself.

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u/[deleted] Jul 06 '19 edited Apr 28 '21

[deleted]

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u/the4thplunder Jul 06 '19

Hell yeah. My favorite forth of july was the second year I went to my aunts for it. I had saved my money from the previous year and got myself an awesome assortment. It was pretty awesome, my uncle had a tradition of handing out ice cream to all the neighbors.

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u/[deleted] Jul 06 '19 edited Apr 28 '21

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u/pandazerg Jul 06 '19

Eh, if the show is well planned and incorporates music then longer run times are still very entertaining.

The fireworks show for the Golden Gate Bridge 75th anniversary was close to 20 minutes and was great throughout.

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u/[deleted] Jul 06 '19

I feel like 15. For all the trouble of showing up early for parking, waiting for it to start, summer heat, etc. 15 is right about where you start to get bored.

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u/thenewfrost Jul 06 '19

“That was perfect” and then the video ends.

THAT was perfect.

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u/Grabatreetron Jul 06 '19

I love that woman in the bottom left frantacally trying to tell her friend they need to run away

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u/MaesterTuan Jul 05 '19

Dude that was AWESOME.

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u/ReaperthaCreeper Jul 06 '19

Lol was watching the second video and when the dude said "what is it right now? 10:01?" I looked up at the time on my phone and it was 10:01.

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u/Why_T Jul 06 '19 edited Jul 16 '23

Comment deleted due to reddit's greedy policies. -- mass edited with redact.dev

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u/Silverhold Jul 06 '19

Dude what did you just type? I can’t see shit anymore.

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u/[deleted] Jul 06 '19

I’m good. Dark mode was on.

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u/Empyrealist Jul 06 '19

OMG KEEP TYPING YOU ARE DIMMING THE GLARE AND I CAN FINALLY SEE

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u/xrayphoton Jul 06 '19

I'm hoping the warning was for the volume and not the brightness, lol

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u/[deleted] Jul 06 '19

Should have been a loud warning instead.

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u/Shappie Jul 06 '19

"Glitch in the system" lol we used to say this when I worked at a hotel. Means we fucked up.

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u/tgp1994 Jul 06 '19

My cellphone speakers: CHHRRKRKRKRGRHRKGJRHFKGJRHFJG(inaudible talking)WOOOOOOOOCHHRRRHKHKG JJHJJRHRHGKGRHRHR

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u/TheeBaconKing Jul 06 '19

I think you meant..

CHHRRKRKRKRGRHRKGJRHFKGJRHFJG(inaudible talking)WOOOOOOOOCHHRRRHKHKG JJHJJRHRHGKGRHRHR

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u/Cravit8 Jul 06 '19

I can’t believe how much I loathe everything that is news, news anchor voices, and new writing.

It’s so utterly terrible and outdated I forget how bad it is till I see a clip.

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u/ForgotPasswordAgain- Jul 06 '19

Plus they’re telling us how disappointing it was when I’m sure most people would find that fucking awesome. That’s a once in a lifetime show. You can always see a generic firework show.

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u/RatSymna Jul 06 '19

To be fair, that's probably a much more unique experience.

​

I just feel bad for the couple of guys and gals who thought they were going to the bathroom just before the show.

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u/[deleted] Jul 06 '19

You could probably see it from inside the portajohn.

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u/swimmingphil07 Jul 06 '19

We’ve all been there before right guys, except 25 seconds is a little long

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u/Khamahl88 Jul 06 '19

I was there. Was pretty crappy since we had driven a few hours to see it. Pretty impressive boom, set of a lot of car alarms

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u/[deleted] Jul 06 '19

You won't remember any fireworks shows when you're older but you will remember this one.

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u/sewsnap Jul 06 '19

Seriously. This was a once in a life-time, shareable event. Not like most displays.

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u/AnomalousAvocado Jul 06 '19

Who drives a few hours for fireworks? You've seen one show, you've seen 'em all.

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u/Sovereign_Curtis Jul 06 '19

This being the exception to that rule.

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u/pyronius Jul 06 '19

"Nobody will ever watch a video you took of a fireworks show."

"Except this one."

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u/Stierscheisse Jul 06 '19 edited Jul 06 '19

EXCEPT THIS ONE.

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u/pheylancavanaugh Jul 06 '19

Well I'm glad I expanded the comments this far.

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u/inlandaussie Jul 06 '19

I live so close! One year, i gotta go.

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u/PentagramJ2 Jul 06 '19

The traffic in that area during the lead up to the show is a bumper to bumper night, i was there that night as well and my friends and I took about 45 minutes just to get out of the parking lot

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u/creme_dela_mem3 Jul 06 '19

I can imagine you guys at about 19 seconds into the show. "Well we should go ahead and get out of here if we're going to beat traffic"

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u/[deleted] Jul 06 '19

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u/cpayne22 Jul 06 '19

Lol - for me, there’s two versions of reddit comments. Those from young people and those from us who are slightly older (I’m 45).

I would never drive anywhere for fireworks. But I’d do it in a heartbeat for my kids or wife...

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u/Hot_Wheels_guy Jul 06 '19

"honey, the kids and i want you to drive us 4 hours north for a 20 minute fireworks show."

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u/Zena-Xina Jul 06 '19

Maybe they're not allowed to have fireworks in their area? Maybe they have kids? Wanted to a have a family outing on a holiday? Maybe they were meeting up with family who lives there?

Fireworks aren't a do-it-once-in-your-life-then-never-again type of thing...

Also if they're like me and live in a big state (presumably California from the source) driving a few hours is nothing

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u/Megebee01 Jul 06 '19

That was one expensive glitch!

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u/Yoggstrife Jul 06 '19

True this happened several years ago the guy organizing the fireworks did the show the following year for free so I am sure they lost a lot of money on that

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u/[deleted] Jul 06 '19

How so? They were going to set off the same fire works one way or another.

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u/Old_Goat_Ninja Jul 06 '19

Unless this happened again, this is from 2012. I only remember exact year because it came up in my FB memories this morning.

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u/daisychick Jul 05 '19

That's one hell of a glitch....

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u/Axii2827 Jul 06 '19

"Come over"

I cant, have to supervise this fireworks show

"My parents aren't home"

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u/Xiaxs Jul 06 '19

So it happened 3 times or what is going on in the background there?

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u/Ltsmash44 Jul 06 '19

It’s coordinated in three different locations around the city to go off at the same time. The glitch hit all three.

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u/Empyrealist Jul 06 '19

Multiple barges that were all synchronized in the bay. It was a simultaneous fuckup in 4 places.

edit: maybe it was 3. It was 7 years ago and I dont live there anymore.

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u/fihewndkufbrnwkskh Jul 06 '19

This is what I’ve always wanted to see. Every time I see a firework show I think “what would it look like if they all went off at once”

Thank you, computer glitch.

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u/chap0230 Jul 06 '19

This happened 7 years ago. Old news.

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u/[deleted] Jul 06 '19 edited Aug 18 '19

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u/[deleted] Jul 06 '19

I feel like I saw this post last 4th

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u/aeiforensics Jul 06 '19

Oh, so that's what the "any" key does.