Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Triathlon Day 2: Virology


Welcome athletes for the second leg of leg of Highlowaha's 2009 Triathlon. Prize money of $100.00 $50.00, and $25.00 is still up for grabs for first, second, and third place winners!

Today's event is dedicated to Cheryl who is celebrating her 40th birthday! Cheryl is a valued member of our community; a co-producer of our daily fun; and the artist behind the 40+ renderings of our blog's beloved mascot, Ray Wattson. If I could, I would present Cheryl with the ultimate gift - a chance to live out her lifelong dream of being an artist.

Far fetched? Maybe not with the help of our 25 triathletes.

Today we flex our creative mind.

An article in this summer's edition of UNT's publication, The North Texan, tells of a successful young alumni who recently designed the cover of a Metallica album - an album which, by the way, received a grammy for "best recording package."

Emily attributed much of her success to the teaching techniques of faculty in the College of Visual Arts. Professors routinely required that students develop 100 tumbnails for every project they were assigned. Rationale, according to another student?... "Your first couple of ideas are the ideas that everyone else is going to have. You have to keep working at it."

We have a project. Help Ray Wattson spread his word far and wide.

That's Ray's message. Whoever you are, whatever you do, Shine! Mediocrity is out and excellence is in. Out with short cuts, loop holes, and excuses and in with work so exceptional that you and everyone around you radiates.

1,000,000 shirts by 2013. That's our project. We do that and Cheryl gets my big white box, tied with a red bow, and filled with her life long dream of reporting to work in an art studio.

100 ideas. That's the teaching tactic faculty members in UNT's College of Visual Arts insist is essential to pushing past the mundane and eventually discovering the one winning idea. The idea that... Shines. So, today each triathlete will flex his/her creative mind by developing a list of 100 ideas about how Ray Wattson's message of "Shine" can go viral. Smoke signals, sky writing, Paul Revere? You tell us.

1,000,000 shirts. 100 ideas. 1 happy birthday girl.

Entries emailed to info@highlowaha.com by 10:00 p.m. CST.

Got a minute to spare before heading off to start your list? Check out the slide show of yesterday's impressive mosaics.


Signing off until tomorrow...

34 comments:

heather said...

Happy Birthday Cheryl!!!


The mosaics were awesome!!! Way to go everyone.

For those of you who submitted a mosaic but are fairly new to the HLA community be sure to check out the "You might also like" link at the bottom of the post that contains RAYVOLUTION...it will help explain "Shine" and "Ray" and everything else you need to know for this challenge.

Cristine said...

Happy Birthday Cheryl!!

Great job everyone on the mosaics.

So each person has to come up with 100 ideas. No repeating right??

Ok we'll give it a shot.

Jessie said...

Awesome Mosaics!!! Ready for the second leg!

Jessie Freeman said...

I forgot to say Happy Birthday Cheryl!

Katie said...

Happy Birthday, Cheryl!

The mosaics were amazing!!! Great job everyone! I can't wait to see the lists that are generated!

Claudia @ Highlowaha said...

Each individual must come up with 100 ideas, but certainly I expect there will be some overlap of ideas between people.

Icing on the cake if there is no overlap between people! That would be a minimum of 2500 ideas!

cassie p said...

wow, this ones gonna be hard! the mosaics were all really good. I barely got mine in last night...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHERYL!!!!!! :-)

Katie said...

Cassie, the great thing about this, is you can be thinking of ideas and jotting them down all day! Then, you just compile one big list at the end of the day!!! You can do it!

Cheryl Houston said...

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes! Today's my day to compete for HLA even though I couldn't resist the m&m challenge yesterday. That was fun and I love everyone's designs!!!

Cassie, you can do it!!! Everywhere you look today you're going to be thinking "How can that say Shine?"

:)

Melanie said...

You people are amazing! Happy Birthday Cheryl!!!!

For all of the ice cream lovers in our community, tomorrow is Miracle Treat Day at Dairy Queens around the nation. A portion of every blizzard purchased will go to the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. Visit http://miracletreatday.com to find participating locations.

Jessie Freeman said...

This second task is a toughie so far! I hope to get 100 ideas by tonight's deadline! I can't imagine what tomorrow's task is going to be!

Peggy said...

Happy Birthday Cheryl!!!!!!!!!

eknoxuk said...

OK, so by go "viral" what does that mean exactly? Just catch on big, spread the word?

heather said...

That's exactly what it means Erica! Catch on big...spread quickly!

How can we make that happen?
I look forward to seeing everyone's ideas!

Claudia said...

100 ideas is no easy task, but we are elite athletes. We shine. If we can't do it nobody can.

Claudia said...

100 ideas is no easy task, but we are elite athletes. We shine. If we can't do it nobody can.

eknoxuk said...

Happy Birthday Cheryl! OK, I'm getting a bit fatigued at 15 ideas

Chaotic Kristi said...

okay... was awed to speechlessness this morning by all the mosaics!
Happy Birthday Cheryl... wow, what a pic!! HOT, I tell ya!
Okay, I am at work (go figure) and trying to come up with 100 ideas... only have 34 so far... (hits head on desk)....

Claudia said...

Erica and others...

Work through the idea fatigue. You can do it. Be whacky, be zany. No idea is a bad idea and one is bound to spark another.

Search magazines, bill boards, kids commercials, and typical household items. Ideas are everywhere.

You can do it.

Spanking Struble said...

Cheryl, HAPPY BIRTHDAY and you have to like a lady who is holding a beer in a picture. The best thing about a birthdays is the spankings, but in a good way:)
(Too much??)

Cheryl Houston said...

Not to stress you out but I was 81 when I left for lunch at 11:30...which was a surprise luncheon with some of the ladies in my office - pizza and cupcakes!!!

They got me a gift certificate to www.electriqueboutique.com - 40 year old strippers is not a good idea.

AND, thhere will NOT be 40 spankings today!

I have to go finish up my list.

Chaotic Kristi said...

Work through the idea fatigue. Search magazines, bill boards, kids commercials, and typical household items.

but 1)I am at work, not home, and 2 I dont watch TV and 3 my magazines are rubberstamping ones!

Argh!! I am only on #58

Cheryl Houston said...

Your past half Chaotic!

You can do it!

Cristine said...

Hmm Electric Boutique - interesting... i think that Matt has done my anniversary gift shopping at a similar location

Ok - Struble submission is in. I'm off to the pool, definitely need a break.

eknoxuk said...

OK, I'm at 95, closing in! Thanks for the support! I just had to grab a bottle of water and keep my eyes on the finish line;)

Jessie said...

You people are machines, I am at 54 and feel nauseous. I hope I get my second wind after I finish work!

Cheryl Houston said...

I turned in mine. Whew... Half of them are probably awful ideas but I had to write them down to get them out of my head so I didn't keep thinking them.

Go, Team, Go! You can do it! I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with!!

eknoxuk said...

Finished!! I'm ready to rest my weary brain the rest of the day now. Its a good thing that acid reflux medicine kicked in and the babies slept well last night! I don't envy the judges on this task!

Robin said...

Happy birthday, Cheryl!

I just finished! I had to write while sitting at Lazer Blaze. LOL I'm fried.

Chaotic Kristi said...

I finished mine at 3pm and emailed them over. Then I had to run the deposit to the bank before I went to lunch (hit Sonic for a recuperative iced tea). Now I am getting the work done that I DIDNT do while trying to think of 100 ways to spread the Ray virus...LMAO Not bad for a day's "work". The ideas got a bit far-fetched towards the end, lemme tell ya!

Diana Leilani said...

The competition is really on their toes here! I'm only at 75 but still plugging away and I just put some coffee on. :)

b.k.root said...

This is crazy difficult... I'm 1/4 the way done. I procrastinated. Oops.

Chaotic Kristi said...

I just had one... and I already turned mine in... ARGHHHHHH

Claudia @ Highlowaha said...

That's the beauty of this activity... once you get the ideas flowing they are hard to turn off.

Fork it over, Chaotic. We'll add it to your list.