Wired Cola

Lots to say. So much so that this is not the promised contest post-mortem. This is a set of off-the-cuff recriminations coming almost immediately after hearing the contest results.

I did not win. Many others did, notably the seriously deserving Rannie Turingan.

Had I won, this post would have been filled with grateful thanks to the many friends who contributed to this mad project to prove that nerdiness could have a creative expression, and the beginning of making it up to those people.

Instead, I need to blame those people.

I blame the Escape Velocity Cycling Club for supporting my bid with votes that were insufficient to sway the judges, and in particular "Tobin" Copley for being the champion of my cause with EV's board of directors, an effort which was not enough to make me a car-winner. Jak, Stuart, Lisa and Gord are singled out for specially cheering me on, in a variety of ways that let to no useful result.

I blame Ms. Mei, and her three generous co-workers who kindly and cleverly translated part of my Hypercube canvas into French. This tactical attempt to be eligible for judging as a French entry was apparently pointless.

My friends in the newsgroups rec.bicycles.racing and alt.sports.hockey.nhl.vancouver-canucks were loyal voters and advisers. Their votes and advice were not enough.

I blame my partners in the Hypercube contest and especially the Drive-In Everywhere plot: Dino Masson (who only deserves a little blame), Kris Krüg (who was fairly involved) and most especially Maria Petersen, who made it happen even when I was sure it was time to give up. Our collective effort did not move the judges.

I blame Fred G., who made great suggestions about how to win this contest, but wasn't pushy enough to get me to follow through.

Wei-Yuen loaned me his generator for the portable Drive-In. It worked, but I didn't win a car. In other words, he shouldn't have bothered.

I blame my good friend Amber (but I'll link to her hubby Greg's website) for making a cube-shaped cake, which was amazing, but clearly not amazing enough. I blame Casey, whose generous, effusive, and cute video endorsement of me made no difference. Sorry Casey, no ride in the Cube for you. Take it up with the judges.

I must of course blame the Twitterers and bloggers, notably Darren and the 604s (Hummingbird and Miss) for cross-promotion that was wholly inadequate for its intended purpose of getting me a new car. [UPDATE: Saskboy too]

The City of Vancouver was an impediment to some of my more lunatic ideas, and their effort, however benign in intention, is noted here.

TLO, as she so often does, supported me selflessly and generously, even going so far as to make special food and her own cube-song. But more importantly, she let me have the time and space and insanity to attempt this project. For all of that, her supportive efforts did not push our crazy project over the edge, and so she too is listed here.

I must single out keith Lim for special blame, even more so than my beloved bride. Keith, at a time when I was nearing mental burn-out and heading to a Greek vacation, more or less completely took over the canvas design for me, and drove the project forward with designs and ideas that I would have considered invaluable, had they actually led to the desired result. Indeed, I predicted they would be enough to push me over the top. I was wrong, and keith's magnificent effort was pointless, so upon him I lay penultimate blame.

I note here my voters, of whom my family are the most loyal examples, (and here I would to single TLO's Aunt Rose) who did their part, such as it was, but who could not convince the judges with their efforts.

I am sure I have forgotten several others who made special or general efforts to support my doomed quest for a Nissan cube. To those who I have not mentioned here, be sure I will be racking my brain for your names, so I can properly note your contributions to this failure.

But of course, I am not excluded from this crowd. There were dozens of possible places where my poor performance in this project may have been decisive. I am not sure what the sufficient conditions for victory were, but my work was insufficient. Here's some notable points of failure:

• I wasn't creative enough in my ideas
• I spent too much time working on three interesting ideas instead of one great idea
• I didn't self-promote my project in obvious, old-school PR ways like a press release to community papers
• I was lazy and unfocused when actually working on the project
• I did not execute: most notably, had I actually developed cubelog into a working, appealing prototype during the contest, I might have had a chance at victory. As it was, I attempted to sell an un-executed concept, and I don't think the judges were willing to take a chance on me.
• I didn't self-promote very well in clever, new-school PR ways like a steadier stream of voting encouragements, facebook groups, and so forth.
• I went on vacation just before the end of the contest. Sure, it was an awesome vacation, but it probably didn't help with that whole win-a-car thing
• I misjudged the interest the judges would have in a nerdy, arguably esoteric, highly experimental, and pretty technical project
• I was late to understanding how bad my canvas looked, and to copying the better design ideas of better contestants. Yes, the canvas' UI was flash-larious, but I should have been able to come to grips with it
• and many more...

It's impossible to judge which of these personal errors were crucial to my failure, but none of them helped. I cannot help but feel partially responsible.

And if you're not sure where this all came from, here's the archive of key pages:

• My Hypercube canvas (as long as it lasts)
• cubelog
• cube pro quo
• Drive-In Everywhere
• My resume of hobbies, a post I created when auditioning to be a finalist in this contest.
• My post-mortem post

So to everyone involved, I must say thanks for nothing. My less silly, more thoughtful post-mortem on this interesting experience should follow.