Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Happy Birthday Ray

1,000,000 shirts by 2013, spreading Ray's message about the power of "Shine." That's our vision and we're sticking to it.

But first, great dialogue yesterday about Ray, the content of our blog, and the purpose of our community. Join me sometime this Sunday if you want to continue yesterday's discussion or if want to see what's on the mind of others. I'll open up the floor for discussion early Sunday morning and you chime in as interested. No rules. No structure. Just a simple dialogue among friends and stakeholders. Thanks again for your interest in our community. I hope to see you there.

So how are we going to do it? 100,000,000 shirts by 2013? Slow and steady and with lots of creativity and hard work on our part. That's how. We're starting with the simple goal of printing as many shirts as we can for $800.00. We'll sell the first run of shirts at cost and then use that money to print a second run of shirts. We'll sell the second run for profit and use the money from those sales to print a second design. On and on we'll go until slowly Ray builds a following of fans.

Shirts will appeal to anyone who shines or to anyone seeking the perfect gift for someone they know who shines. They'll go to friends, colleagues, neighbors, graduates, sons, daughters, honor roll students, and the baby sitter who takes such good care of your kids. Even groups can get in on the action by letting us custom design a Ray shirt for your soccer team, your walking club, your Bunco friends, or your favorite alumni reunion.

To get the ball rolling, we thought we would return to the very activity that got this party started - Tug of War.

Yes, Ray's birthday falls on the same day as National Tug of War Day. Newcomers to our site will be interested in knowing that Ray Wattson got his name, one year ago today, after a long and strenuous game of Virtual Tug of War. Want to know what names, other than Hal and Luigi, Ray was up against? Click here to see last year's post.

In honor of Ray and his birthday, I thought could tug over the inaugural Shine t-shirt design. Here's how it will work. We will have three brackets of tugging.

Bracket #1: Design 1 v. Design 2; 4:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.
Bracket #2: Design 3 v. Design 4, 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
Bracket #3: Winner Round 1 v. Winner Round 2; 2:00 p.m. - midnight CST

Here we go, Round #1...

Design A

OR

Design B

Winner from Round #1 is.....Design B!!! Here we go for Round #2!

Design C
OR

Design D
Okay, so the winner from Round # 2 was Design D! Here is our final round of the tug-of-war for today...Round #3!

Design B
OR

Design D

Signing off until tomorrow...

40 comments:

Chaotic Kristi said...

I prefer #1 but for readability I will vote for #2

I read all of yesterday's dialogue and I must say that Claudie's post (explaining intent) was right along the lines of what I was thinking I was here for... I'm home... I'm staying!

heather said...

Happy BirthRAY!!!!!

I can't believe tug o' war was a year ago I remember sitting on the edge of my seat and fielding phone call after phone call from Claudia as we found out what name our friendly little light bulb would have. I'm so glad Ray won...could you imagine how limited our name choices would be if Luigi had taken the cake?

My vote? #2...it is easier to read and Ray matches the font.

Anonymous said...

go rAAAAAAAAAy!

cassie p said...

i dont really like either but im gonna vote for design A (the first one).

Robin said...

I'll vote for B!

Happy BirthRay!

Tera said...

I'm here early today. Have a doc appt at 10 so not going in to work until late. So I said good night to you all yesterday...and hello today!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RAY!!!

My vote for the first bracket is 2. I think it's easier to read. 1 is more fun though :)

Ray, are you doing anything to celebrate your 1st birthday? Think about all of the things you've done over the past year...thats a lot for any 1 year old!

Kat said...

I will vote for B. I like both of them though!

Katie said...

I vote for design number 1!

Happy birthRay, Ray!

Claudia said...

Anybody else going to vote in Round #1? One hour left.

Cheryl Houston said...

Just got into the office after an orthodontist appointment with Drew. I love that he's so excited about braces.

I am voting for #1.

Unknown said...

Design B

Happy Birthday Ray!!

amy said...

B for me.

Robin said...

D

Unknown said...

Design D, definitely.

heather said...

My vote is for D

Katie said...

Design D for me, too.

Peggy said...

Hello- are we celebrating the tug o war of naming Ray which occured July 21, 2008? or his birthRAY which was decided as 9-7 ...
Sat Feb 28, 2009 post
Let's Take a Stroll Shall we

It's easy for it to happen to me these days, but I'm confused?

Kat said...

I like C!

Chaotic Kristi said...

D

Tera said...

i vote for D

Diana Leilani said...

I vote for C!

Claudia said...

I vote for "C"

Cheryl Houston said...

hi!

C!

Bye!

Erica said...

I vote for D

heather said...

Final Round

my vote is D.

I'd also love to see a shirt with lower case black letters and just Ray being yellow it might make it more masculine to appeal to our guys...just a thought.

Boone said...

My vote: B

Unknown said...

I personally like D better, but I don't know how many males would wear a shirt with curly letters. So I am going to go with B.

Tera said...

My vote is B!

Are we talking a million shirts by 2013 or a billion? I swear yesterday said a million but today says a billion. WOW! That's a TON.

And I LOVE Heather's idea.

I also had this idea...
What if we made a Ray series? They could become collectors items. Maybe do 10 or 15 designs and put in the bottom corner or on the tag of the shirt 1 of 10. Hurry now before they're gone!

Claudia said...

I vote D.

Heather's idea is good.. no great.

Tera... you are a can-do person and I love it. Thank you for joining our Rayvolution! We will meet tonight and mill this idea around.

It is definately million, NOT billion (that's 2014).

I make a move to keep voting open until later tonight. No rush. How about midnight CST

Cheryl Houston said...

I vote B.

heather said...

Let's keep it open late, no reason not to!!!!

So a million shirts? Here I was gearing up thinking okay a billion shirts how can we make that happen?!?

Katie said...

I vote D. The post is changed to mirror keeping the poll open late!

Heather, as I told you this AM, I LOVE the idea!!!

1 Million shirts...here we come!

Chaotic Kristi said...

ooh, that is hard... I voted for both in their own rounds!! umm...still... B is easier to read... so B it is

Robin said...

B

Tera said...

"1,000,000,000 shirts by 2013"

That def. says 1 billion. 3 too many 0's.

I feel much better about a million. Whew!

Brian K. Root said...

My vote is B... no matter the color, Ray isn't a very "masculine" character. I think it's the boots.

Anyhow, I think it's a cool idea to aim for a million shirts. Definitely a lofty goal, but definitely within reach.

cassie p said...

I vote for design "D"!!!

Anonymous said...

I like the first one Design B. My husband steals my shirts and would never wear the other shirt.

Misty said...

B...squeezing it in just in time..Happy Birthday Ray!

By the way...Thank you Peggy for my CUTE card and sweet message inside..made my day!!

Cathy said...

I would choose the #1.. It's cool to look at.

and I would like to say....

Happy happy birthday Ray!! Be good always.. :)