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This is my blog about creating a startup LED flashlight business. I'm a designer, fabricator, and strategist and I'm passionate about making ideas real. I believe that products are about people, that they should be built to last, deliver real value, and that we need to do a better job than we have in the recent past.

Most of my career has been contract or freelance work and I've crafted products and strategies for both big international companies and startups. I also used to work in the "industry" fabricating special effects for film and TV, along with the occasional hot rod. Bottom line, I love making things.

I'm starting this blog so you can follow along, from day one, and see what it's like to start a business, or fail in the process. Only time will tell, but I hope you find this interesting enough to stay tuned, comment, link, like, tweet, and (most importantly) participate in turning this idea into something tangible and valuable.

For a good place to get started with general info about who, what, why, etc., check out the "Stickies" on the left side of the page. Thanks for stopping by and please don't hesitate to ask questions and get involved!

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Saturday, June 7, 2014

Contest: LeVar Burton Records Your Message on My Voicemail

Hi folks,

In my attempt to bring more awesome into people's lives, I just had to share this with you. Reading Rainbow is coming back via Kickstarter! Don't click away yet! : I pledged at the $400 level and LeVar Burton is going to record the voicemail message on my phone. I know, so awesome right?! The only trouble is, I have NO idea what I should have him say. So now, IT'S A CONTEST! Just submit your idea on my Facebook page to enter (link).

Yes, this LeVar Burton
The Rules: 

  1. One submission per person, so make it a good one :) 
  2. You must submit on Facebook, mainly because it's the best way to do this "in public" 
  3. Obviously nothing rude or offensive...just have to say it
  4. Be creative, I have a business phone and personal phone but only one gets THE voicemail. 
  5. Feel free to describe the what/why of your idea, beyond just what you think he should say. 
The Winner: 
  1. The winner will be the idea I like the best :) 
  2. The contest will be open for at least 30 days
  3. It will stay open as long as it takes to find a great idea
  4. Or until LeVar actually needs to make the recording
The Reward: 

You can choose between...
  1. Alpha Ready-Made flashlight (w/ battery & charger) 
  2. Alpha Pen (EN/Ti/special edition brass) 
  3. Lambda Top (one off) with a hand-machined tungsten ring
The Reading Rainbow Kickstarter: 


The show was launched in 1983 and canceled in 2009. I was surprised to find it lasted that long, but it means a lot of people "still" know the show. Even some people who are still kids! I haven't watched it since I was little. Really, I swear. Anyway, they are raising money to bring the show back, not to TV, but to the internet, and deliver it to kids for the price of FREE. We have a little boy that just turned 2, and I think it will be pretty cool for him to watch Reading Rainbow some day (for free) and I can tell him it's possible because of people like you and me.

Reading Rainbow raised their first Million in 11 hours! 
Yeah it's a kids TV show, but I have really specific memories of it. I mean, who can't hum a few bars at least?..."take a look, read a book." Clearly a lot of people can, because they raised over $1M in 11 hours and are up to $3.5M after 11 days. Please consider backing Reading Rainbow (Kickstarter Link) and please submit your voicemail idea to my Facebook page (contest link in case you missed it before) !


Posted by Jason at 9:51 AM

1 comment:

  1. UnknownNovember 11, 2014 at 7:59 AM

    You have a cool idea! But I think you have to post a specific duration period, so that interested participants will have enough time to prepare their flicks and submit it to you. Anyway, how did the contest go? I’m curious as to who the lucky winner was!

    Lucius Cambell @ Skild

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