Well, it's been a great week... but all good things must come to an end, and it's time to announce the winners!
And figuring out exactly how these winners would be selected was a new challenge entirely. I was going to figure out some kind of spiffy electronic randomizing raffle picker thing (or see if I could find one to download)... but that just didn't seem right. Once the computer takes over, how do I know that it's a fair drawing? I don't. So I decided to print out everybody on perfed folder tabs, and have the names drawn out of a hat (or, more accurately, a CD spindle cover). Since my email program was set to color-code the incoming emails, I decided to color-code the names to draw...
After printing out all the names on tabs, I double-checked to be sure everybody was there, then headed out to a girl I work with so that she could draw the names. It was at this time I began to panic with thoughts like... "oh crap! what if the same person wins all the prizes!" and "I forgot to ask people where they live so I can know whether or not to ask for shipping charges!" and a dozen other things that put me on the verge of a meltdown.
But it was all worry for nothing. Within three minutes, I had the winning names and nothing scary happened. Well, ALMOST all the winning names... I forgot to draw a second name for the "Lurker" prize, and then realized that I forgot to be sure that the "Rock Box" winner had 5 comments (which, thankfully, he did). So I drew the last name myself when I got back to the office, then set about matching the color-coded names to the prizes they had just won.
If you don't want to know (or would rather be surprised when I send out notifications later this afternoon) then stop reading right now...
NOTE: to protect readers who prefer to remain (somewhat) anonymous, I am using first names/last initial (or pen names, if I know them). ALL WINNERS WILL RECEIVE A CONFIRMATION EMAIL LATER TODAY!
25 T-SHIRT GIVEAWAY WINNERS: Gerry D., Neil T., Karla K., Sven P., Gledster, Patrick S., Kimberly J., Mark G., Melissa L., APHS, Craig S., Mr. Jerz, GirlOnAGlide, Troy D., Harold O., Uncle Horns, Delmer W., Down With Pants, Todd J., Firda B, Anthony M., Kachina C., Tony C., Karin H., and Alessandra D. (note: the remaining 26 people who entered this contest will receive "half-off" coupons for the shirt of their choice).
Dave's "Read & Watch" Big Box of Fun: James B.
Dave's "Taste of Home" Big Box of Gourmet Foods: GirlOnAGlide.
Dave's "Other Man's Treasure" Big Bag of Geeky Stuff: Art N.
Dave's "Hard Rocker" Rock Box: theMike.
Dave's "Hard Lurker" Bag: Patrick S.
Dave's "In Person" Thank-You Gifts: Jeff, Karen, Kazza, Kimono, and Perry.
(Note: James and Kazza won T-shirts as well but, since their prizes already included them, I drew two different names for the T-Shirt drawing. If either of you want an extra shirt, that's fine by me!)
And there you have it. Congratulations to everybody who won, and better luck next year to those who didn't!
IMPORTANT!! I have a LOT of work left yet to do. I have to notify winners, get addresses and shirt sizes, collect shipping charges, place a shirt order, pick up the shirts, then buy packing materials and protective cartons to get everything ready for shipment. I promise, promise, promise, to make all of this happen as quickly as possible. Hopefully everything will be ready this week so I can spend next weekend packing and addressing and such. But please do not expect for mailing to happen before Monday, May 2nd!
Thanks again everybody!
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This is better than any New Year’s Eve extravaganza ever. Congrats to all the winners and congrats to YOU, Dave, for keeping so many interested and entertained. Now, bring on the flaming clowns!
*YaY* Guess who’s wearin her T-shirt to work the day it arrives hehe. Congrats to all the winners! Kudos to you Dave (aka His Holiness aka Mr. Funny-Cartoon maker man)for hosting a most generous and exciting Blogiversary week-o-fun.
Awesome. It was totally cool of you to even do this, and congrats on a successful blogoversary. Any idea on the total amount of entries?
Thanks a ton Dave!! For the great blog and the great prize! Mostly though thanks for the daily entertainment.
OH OH OH!! I won a tee-shirt! I won a tee-shirt! *cabbage patches around the computer room* OH OH OH!!
— Wait a minute. I’m whiter than white.
Thank god no one can see this… this is sad…
OH OH OH!! I won a tee-shirt! I won a tee-shirt! *cabbage patches around the computer room* OH OH OH!!
— Wait a minute. I’m whiter than white.
Thank god no one can see this… this is sad…
OH OH OH!! I won a tee-shirt! I won a tee-shirt! *cabbage patches around the computer room* OH OH OH!!
— Wait a minute. I’m whiter than white.
Thank god no one can see this… this is sad…
OH OH OH!! I won a tee-shirt! I won a tee-shirt! *cabbage patches around the computer room* OH OH OH!!
— Wait a minute. I’m whiter than white.
Thank god no one can see this… this is sad…
OH OH OH!! I won a tee-shirt! I won a tee-shirt! *cabbage patches around the computer room* OH OH OH!!
— Wait a minute. I’m whiter than white.
Thank god no one can see this… this is sad…
OH OH OH!! I won a tee-shirt! I won a tee-shirt! *cabbage patches around the computer room* OH OH OH!!
— Wait a minute. I’m whiter than white.
Thank god no one can see this… this is sad…
OH OH OH!! I won a tee-shirt! I won a tee-shirt! *cabbage patches around the computer room* OH OH OH!!
— Wait a minute. I’m whiter than white.
Thank god no one can see this… this is sad…
OH OH OH!! I won a tee-shirt! I won a tee-shirt! *cabbage patches around the computer room* OH OH OH!!
— Wait a minute. I’m whiter than white.
Thank god no one can see this… this is sad…
Hmmm Mr. Jerz asks a good question… I’ve trashed all the non-winning entries (as promised), but it’s safe to say that no prize got over 75 entries, which is really odd given the number of hits my front page has been taking lately (42,000 this month so far). I dunno. Either people don’t like contests, thought it was a joke, or lived outside the USA and didn’t want to pay shipping charges (very, very few international readers entered anything, to which I am not surprised).
Or perhaps a few of my readers are visiting the front page of my site thousands of times each day, I just don’t know. Unique visitor counts are over 70,000 for the entire site, but maybe that’s just Google searchers looking for porn? It’s difficult to piece something together that makes sense when looking at the ratio of unique visitors to entries received.
What surprised me most is that I thought for sure I would be flooded with people who I’ve never heard of before. This didn’t happen. A large percentage of the entries were people that had either commented or emailed me at one point. Only a few “lurkers” and “newbies” surfaced to enter.
All in all, it was a good contest. I’ve learned a few things that will make next year’s celebration… different… in many ways.
Different? Very mysterious!
I wish you all the best as you enter your third year of blogging. I look forward to more travel posts, P-Book love and HR Cafe visits.
And thanks for the t-shirt.
Congrats to all winners – me included 🙂 – and a big thanks and happy blogoversary to Dave, Oscar and the Monkey!
I can tell you that I didn’t enter all of your contests because I wouldn’t want a prize that I couldn’t use or wouldn’t mean something to me. Does that make sense? I wouldn’t enter a contest just to hopefully win a prize, I would want to win something that I would really appriciate, understand and treasure. The tee-shirt thing is super cool for me because I wear jeans and a tee-shirt every day as part of my uniform.
So… Maybe other people are like me:>)
In many ways, I am pleased that things turned out as they did. If 10,000 people had entered, that would have been completely overwhelming. I can’t even imagine how I would have dealt with it (75 was plenty!).
I am glad to know that some people didn’t enter for a prize they didn’t want… another fear of mine would be people who didn’t even bother to take a look at a book or video before tossing it on eBay. I mean, I’m happy if people want to sell something they don’t want on eBay so they get SOMETHING for their trouble… but it’s more fun if people actually give a prize a chance first. 🙂
Dave, you rock way harder than the “Hard Rocker” Rock Box that I happened to win. Thanks for the prize, but even more thanks for keeping me entertained for the past month (when I first found your site). Can’t wait to see what’s to come in the coming year.
I forgot. Today is my birthday and that was a great birthday gift.
Congratulations again to Dave, and to all of the winners! It has been so much fun to follow along and see what Dave had up his sleeve each day.
And Art, happy birthday! :0)
I only entered for the t-shirt because they’re cool and i’m cool so i figured we’d be a match made in heaven.
The big-o-box of goodies prizes were genius but i didn’t enter for any mainly for 2 reason. A. The scary shipping palava. B. I figured others would probably enjoy them more than i would and me being me i’d have probably felt guilty winning them. Especially the finale prize ‘cos i’ve already got both a shuffle and the 101 album. lol
So chin up, even if some ppl didn’t enter it doesn’t mean they didn’t enjoy the ride!
p.s, is there any chance of a t-shirt that says something like “20% Straight: Lets go bowling”.
Yay, I won a t-shirt. 🙂 And the
Is it next year yet?
There we go… I’ll have a pair of shirts. “20% Gay… Where’s My Parade?” and “20% Straight, Let’s Go Bowling!” Then you’re covered no matter where your orientation might take you!
Uh. Unless you’re 50/50, I guess. But if you WERE 50/50, that means your dating pool is twice as big as most people, so a T-Shirt is probably the last thing on your mind.
WOO HOO! A new t-shirt! I never win anything…Thanks Dave, you surely are the coolest guy in Cashmere and the most generous blogger in this great blogosphere of ours! WOO HOO!
I found this blog today when I was googling for a monkey image. Yeah I found the image but it is really a pity that the contest is just finished. it would be nice have one of those “big box o’..” prizes. next year? well your blog is already added to favorites (not for the next year’s contest) but somehow I just can’t keep interested in anything for long time. so I hope to see the next one. Whatever, congrats to you and to all those lucky winners.
I have been fortunate to meet Dave in persona nd I can tell you all he is a very nice man and also very generous.
Keep up the work and make sure you keep bloggin well past the 1K mark. It’s the first thing I check each morning at work
Awwww… The Ref is just saying that because he knows full well that flattery works wonders on an evil genius and his psychic monkey when they are on the verge of world domination!
I was really suprised to see I had won a t-shirt, thanks to Neil T (who also won) who blogged about the site and thanks to Dave for the generosity. I’ve looked back through the archives and like what i see and am now a regular reader.
I didn’t enter the other comps as I was emigrating at the time and didn’t have computer access.