Custom ORACLENERD T-Shirts

Jeff Smith has said for some time now that I need to market the t-shirts better than I do. Selling them has never been a priority. Yes, it's pretty cool seeing the t-shirts out and about. It's cool that people can express their inner oraclenerd like I seem to do on a daily basis. The real reason I put effort into t-shirts and the like, is katezilla.

Recently we got hit with a couple of things: 1, a $190 iPad app for Kate and 2, her ABA therapy co-pays finally came due. For #1, I ran a GoFundMe campaign and encouraged you to buy t-shirts. The GoFundMe campaign raised $420 in less than a day, more than covering the cost of Kate's iPad app. I used the remaining funds to make a payment on #2, her ABA co-pays. I also sold about 10 shirts just after that post and close to 20 in total since.

I am constantly humbled at your generosity.

What does all of this have to do with the title? Well, people have asked for shirts either through Twitter, IM or email. Shirts with specific sayings or different styles. Two weekends ago on a Friday night, Don Seiler suggested a hoodie. Living in Florida I had never thought about it, but he lives in Wisconsin where it gets a little cold. We went back and forth on twitter, I would go on Spreadshirt and spin something up, screenshot it, and send it across the wire. On Monday I had a final product and I named it after Mr. Seiler.

Mr. Seiler (picture) ordered one and so did Mr. Smith. Awesome.

The Don Seiler Hoodie	The German Austrian

The other shirt there is the German Austrian edition. Martin Berger was responsible for that one (I have a Cyrillic and Russian version in the hopper for Greg Rahn).

Late last week I talked to Lisa Dobson. She got one last year for OpenWorld and wanted a new one, with a twist.

The Lisa Dobson	The Lisa Dobson Pink

Upside down logo (she's British). So I named it after her. Note, the pink version is only available in the US, that brand isn't carried on the European Spreadshirt site.

So, if you have an idea (Mr. Seiler has designed two now, the long sleeve baseball jersey and the hoodie), send it to me and I'll spin something up for you.

How could I forget the APEX version (Joel Kallman)? Or the OBIEE version (Adrian Ward)?

Because I'm forgetful. I'm sure there are others.

Just so it's clear, there are two shops: North America and Europe. They're not exactly the same as it's two separate systems, but I'm trying to keep them in sync.

Send me your suggestions...all proceeds go to a great cause katezilla.

katezilla + AAC

About 8 months ago one of the staff at Sydney's School suggested we let katezilla try out one of the Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) iPad apps. My parents let us use their iPad (v1) and bought the app that was suggested, My First AAC.

She's mostly used this at school, only really getting into it at home over the last month or three.

Fortunately, she has outgrown it. I say fortunately because it's great for her, but "bad" for us. I like to joke and say that Kate will have to pay for her own college and wedding as she's spent all of our money (I've been saying this since she was two). Of course, it's not true. I would spend all the money in the world on Kate if I had it.

So she's outgrown the current app. Her teacher has suggested that we upgrade to Proloquo2Go. Here it is on iTunes.

$189.99

Now, our insurance has been great, a lot better than we initially expected. Most of her therapy is covered...but we've learned recently that we've missed her co-pays...going back to January. Ugh. Would have been way easier to deal with on a weekly or monthly basis, but staring at it with 6 months, not so fun.

More bright side, her tuition has gone down this month and for the upcoming year. Yay for that!

So how can I help?

Great question. I figured I'd do a t-shirt drive to help pay for Kate's AAC app. Oracle OpenWorld is coming up and if you're going, you need a shirt. Even if you're not going, you want one of these...I know you do. Go here if you're in the US.

I've heard from a few of you that shipping across the pond is simply cost-prohibitive. It should be easier for you now, I created a European "shop" which you can find here. No more excuses. Go buy one.

Easier:
There are a few others (and I obviously need to study my geography a bit better).

Go buy one. Please.

(Apologies to those in other countries, India for example. Or continents, Latin America. Working on that. Hit me up if you're going to OOW, I'll bring some shirts with me so you don't have to pay for shipping.)



Update 2012/08/06 01:22 EST

Some people don't want or already have a t-shirt. If you'd like to simply donate, you can. Here. Actually, everything has a widget these days:

Update 2012/08/06 12:20 EST
Wow! Made goal in less than 12 hours. How awesome is that?



Finally, some katezilla goodness. Just in case you needed a reminder of why I do this stuff. She's interspersed throughout the video. The girl with the long black hair with a flower in it is one of Kate's friends.

More T-Shirts

Recently I was asked to create some merchandise that fell outside of my norm.

Specifically, I was asked to create a onesie, or piece baby outfit. I tried using my normal method of creating a simple png (pixel) graphic in gimp, however, when I tried to add that to something other than a regular old t-shirt, the application didn't give me the option to do so. Apparently I needed to use vector graphics. I should have known this, since I'm a design genius and all that.

I thought I could continue to use gimp and simply save the file as an encapsulated post script and upload it. Spreadshirt has a semi-automated system that, apparently, attempts to open the file. If it can't, it sends it off for review by their staff. Sometime in the next day or 2, I get an email telling me whether it has passed or not. None of my 3 attempts passed. In my rejection notice, they said I could send them the file directly and ask what's wrong. That's when I got a nice primer on vector vs. pixel graphics. I needed to use a tool like Corel Draw, Illustrator or Inkscape. I chose Inkscape, it was free and runs on Linux. Yay for me. Yay for OSS.

So here are my first 2 attempts at using vector graphics.

First, the custom order:



Next, the LOWER( ORACLENERD ) edition:



There's still time to get one before Oracle OpenWorld, just a little over 2 weeks away.

T-Shirt: Now in Pink

I haven't done much with the T-Shirt collection lately. For whatever reason, I finally decided to do one in pink.

You have one month until Oracle OpenWorld...and did I mention it goes to a good cause?

(ā'pěks)

My ode to Joel Kallman.

T-Shirt: DBA in Training

For motivation

Free Shipping for ORACLENERD T-Shirts!

For one day only, December 16th, tomorrow, free shipping on any orders from SpreadShirt.

Sadly, there is still no option to ship to India or Europe. I have been looking for shops in those locales that use the SpreadShirt API, but I have yet to find anything worthwhile.

Coupon Codes are:

USD$: SHIPNOW2
CAD$: CADSHIPNOW2



Once you get one, you can send me a picture and I'll include it in the "In The Wild" gallery.

T-Shirts: In The Wild

Since OOW has started and the Oracle Ace Directors have received their schwag, I figured I'd dedicate a page for the slideshow.

T-Shirt: Barcode

In homage to Google and the birthday of the barcode:



The oraclenerd bar code t-shirt:

Offset Costs to OOW?

I had an idea today (yeah, I know, scary).

What if I got someone to take ORACLENERD T-Shirts to Oracle OpenWorld and sold them there, on site? It would help me by getting the word (and the t-shirt) out, and it could help you as I would split any profit with you.

Not sure if it could be done or if anyone would be willing to do it...but hey, desperate times calls for desperate measures. If you are at all interested, let me know.

T-Shirt: MONITOR RANDOM SQL OUTPUT

For all those not in the US or Canada that have expressed interest in the T-Shirts, I'm looking for other distributors...specifically in Europe and India. The cost to ship to these locales is prohibitively expensive (I'm sorry for that). Hopefully I'll have an answer to this fairly soon.

T-Shirt: OUTPUT RANDOM SQL WARNING!

T-Shirt: Constraints

Just in case you ever forget what the 5 constraints in an Oracle database are...

T-Shirt: DBA

I've got a million of 'em!



For the professional DBA. Subtle and understated. (I'm trying to work on good marketing copy too.)

T-Shirt: Performance Tuning

This is what happens late at night...I start getting "creative."

T-Shirt: DBA Books

I wouldn't say I have nothing to do or that I am bored, I just like making t-shirts for some reason.



Since it's too small to read: