With Kerry Wood retiring in the middle of the season, he won't have any more stats for fantasy baseball leagues. But what if there was some sort of retirement league?

Stats could be kept on:
-- Appearances at the ballpark
-- Number of times the person appears on camera on TV while at the ballpark. (Scottie Pippen would rule at this in the retired basketball league)
-- Number of autograph sessions retired player participates in
-- Points for volunteer event appearances
-- Appearances doing commentary on TV/radio

What other statistics could be used for retired players?

It would be cool if there was a public way for people to read books at the windows of these unused storefronts. Books would probably be too long, so perhaps one-page articles or stories. Maybe even a short news story about the community.

I was standing on the Lawrence red line train platform looking at the Borders when I thought of this idea--mostly because that Borders building has been used for other literature events. Chicago Book Expo 2011 was held in that Borders building (also known as Uptown Goldblatt's Building).

I created a nuclear arms race between Starbucks, Caribou, and Dunkin Donuts. Last week I tweeted the following to ALL THREE AT THE SAME TIME.

They should offer frosting as a topping on coffees. @dunkindonuts @starbucks @cariboucoffee #getonit

It bothers me so immensely when Wrigleyville residents complain about "how hard" it is to get home on game days. Um. Wrigley Field was here WAYYY long before any of its residents. 100% of the people who live in Wrigleyville moved there after the park was built. Every person who lives there should know that living by such a park can make it challenging to get home.

ABC 7 Chicago did a story on how Mayor Rahm Emanuel is pitching a "Fenway Play" for Wrigley Field. In this story, ABC included a sound bite of a resident saying that "it's already hard to get home."

Closing down Sheffield and Waveland doesn't make any difference in your commute home. Those streets are basically closed on game day anyways. Only an idiot will want to drive down Waveland or Sheffield right by Wrigley on game days.

I lived 2-and-half blocks from Wrigley Field for three years during the late 90s. I never ever thought it was hard to get home. I took the red line home every day. Does the train get crowded? Yes. But it's game day. You know that is going to happen. Enjoy having a great major league ballpark in your neighborhood.

If you don't like it, then don't move to Wrigleyville.

1. Replaced incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescents.
2. Put all my computer equipment on two surge protectors.
3. Put the computer surge protectors in a desk drawer that is easy to access.
4. Every morning before I leave for work, I turn off the the computer surge protectors, therefore turning off the power to my speakers, hard drives, USB devices, and monitors.
5. I keep my freezer and fridge full of food.

Watch your monthly electricity usage on your electricity bill. Set a goal of trying to lower your usage below a specific number. Then it becomes a fun game.

Would you like to know how much electricity you use? ComEd offers your past 24 hours of usage history.
1) Go to comed.com
2) Go to the tab "My usage" and select "My usage history"



You will see a nice chart that presents your past 24 months of electricity usage.



I prefer my stats in kWh per day. I took the numbers and put them into a Google docs sheet; and made my own chart.



For the past six years, I've had a goal of getting my electricity under 5 kWh/day. I'm happy to say I've achieved that a few times.

Where do you keep your blog drafts?

I have a single Google doc for blog drafts. It has 41,558 words. It takes about 30 seconds to save. I'm gonna try Evernote again.

I'm gonna take that huge blog drafts doc and split it up into individual notes on evernote. I tried this in January 2011, and ended up with 149 blog drafts. I never ended up using Evernote, because 149 blog drafts was too much.

And now I have an additional 41,558 words. I wonder how many new blog drafts that will make. Hopefully this time it will stick.

(photo credit of Jabba the Hutt can by bevreview)

What happens when your logo looks like Jabba the Hutt? You start to learn the language of the Hutts, Huttese.

Achuta [hello]
Dolpee kikyuna! [I am a friend!]
Gooddé da lodia! [Good day to you!]

This might explain why I always liked the Gamorrean Guard when I was a kid.

In case you missed it, yesterday I posted about how other companies should have an experts bar. A few ideas come to mind: Disneyland and Wrigley Field. Read more about how this would play out at "Disney should have a genius bar with Disney experts."

The Museum of Contemporary Art's twitter account pointed me in the direction of a "Time Out Chicago" article about their new identity, "We are here at the Museum of Contemporary Art." The commenting is closed on the article, so I'm posting my response below.

I'm looking forward to the artist working spaces in the 12x12 gallery. This will bring me back to the museum every week to see what each artist is doing in the space. I especially like the idea of making pins from salvaged material from the MCA. I'd like to see what materials they will be offering.

As for the start of the article, it states, "It takes a lot to make people raise their eyebrows in a contemporary art museum," says James Goggin, the Museum of Contemporary Art’s director of design, print and digital media. In the past few years I've found that my primary objective for visiting art museums isn't to find eyebrows-raising experiences. I go to art museums for a garden experience. It's fulfilling, relaxing.

While I do enjoy artwork that shocks me out of my place, we shouldn't see that as the only purpose of the museum. If I go to the museum expecting to be shocked, eventually you won't be shocked anymore. It's sorta like a dog chasing its tail.

I think one of the reasons museums like shocking work, because it instigates thought, discussion, and media. The curiosity factor of "the museum has WHAT on display?" helps to bring visitors to the museum--in theory. However, I can't even recall the last time my friends or regular people ever used that as excuse to visit a museum.

I would say the great majority of the public are like me, in that they enjoy going to the museum simply because they enjoy the works on display. Therefore, it is like going to a garden. Sometimes there may be a surprise at a garden. SNAKE! But I don't visit gardens for the snakes, I visit them for the plants and flowers.

Why do you go to art museums?

UPDATE: I just realized the Time Out Chicago was written in 2011. I thought this was 2012. Oops.
The MCA has photos posted from this four-week exhibit, We Are Here: Art & Design Out of Context, Jul 5–31, 2011.

There needs to be an easier way of selling on etsy. Their posting form is way too long. There's a total of 14 fields to fill out.

-- Who made it?
-- Categories
-- Photos
-- Item Title
-- Description
-- Shop section
-- Recipient
-- Occasion
-- Style
-- Tags
-- Materials
-- Price
-- Quantity
-- Shipping

Seriously. 14 fields. I know these are all important to help people find your work. But really. I just want to simply post stuff. Let me post a photo, a title, and a price. DONE. If I want to add more stuff, then let me add it later.

In fact, it should be so easy I should be able to do it via my cell phone. With an experience as easy as Instagram. I guarantee you, if someone comes out with a super-easy way to sell stuff with your cell phone, it will become wildly popular.

(btw, this item is for sale on etsy, "Difficulty of selling")

Looking for a teapot in the Prairie School Style? Good luck. I was looking to buy my girlfriend a teapot for her birthday. She lives in Oak Park the Prairie School center, and she likes that style. I looked high and low for a teapot that is sorta like a Frank Lloyd Wright style. Or even in a bauhaus style.

Along the way I learned some lessons about teapots.

1) There are tea pots and there are tea kettles
You do not put tea pots on the stove top. You put tea kettles on the stove top to heat up the water, and then you pour the water into a tea pot to brew the tea. Who knew?!

From here on out in this post, I will call it tea kettle, because that's what I was really looking for. Something to heat water on the stovetop.

2) The best tea kettles don't have a seam on the bottom
The stainless steel tea kettles that have the wall perpendicular to base are bad. Those involve having a seam. The seam will rust or be hard to clean. The best tea kettles have a rounded curve where the wall meets the base.

3) Enamel tea kettles are better than raw stainless steel
According to many tea kettle reviewers on Amazon, stainless steel might rust. (Which blows my mind, cuz I thought stainless steel didn't rust). Enamel is better. But then, some reviews for enamel tea kettles said the enamel might flake off. I like the look of stainless steel better, so I went with that.

4) There are no Frank Lloyd Wright style tea kettles
They simply do not exist. Please, find one and prove me wrong.

5) Higher handles are good
Some handles on tea kettles get too hot and you have to use an oven mitt to hold the handle. That's dumb.

6) Low plastic handles are bad
You don't want the plastic to melt. That would be bad

7) Plastic covers on the blower-whistle part are bad
That can melt. And that would be bad.

8) Low heat tea kettles are a waste of time
Some tea kettles say that you have to put your tea kettle on a low flame. What? No. I want my water to boil and boil fast!

Ok, so to show how much research I did into both the form and the function of the tea kettle, here are the google searches I did over the course of five hours of research:

Christopher Dresser teapot
Danish Soholm Atelier Teapot
danish Teapot
do i put ceramic teapots on the stove?
frank lloyd wright tea
frank lloyd wright tea pot
frank lloyd wright tea pot -guggenheim
general electric tea kettle
globo teapot
Marianne Brandt tea
modern teapot
naoko teapot
Naum Slutzky tea
Naum Slutzky teapot
Object Creative - Tea
Otto Lindig
Otto Lindig teapot
russel wright teapot
russell wright teapot
Scandinavian teapot
soho teapot
Soholm Atelier Teapot
sorapot
Stelton Potter Tea Pot
Storia Teapot
Storia Teapot, Herman Kahler
tea kettle
tea kettle amazon
teapot design
teapot hello-tiger
toast indian teapot
walter gropius
walter gropius tea

Here's some nice tea kettles on my Modern Tea Kettles pinterest board. Do you have a tea kettle? If so, what type do you have?

We consume a lot. But what do we do with it? I explore these thoughts in a post, "3 keys to doing something with what we consume" on my blog about syndication.

Last week I met someone online that will be attending a conference with me on May 1 for Eloqua. We exchanged contact info via email, and it got me thinking about how when I meet him in person and I'll give him my business card, which will seem redundant, but also kinda, cuz it's an actual physical object.

When exchanging the real business card, can there be something extra that adds to the sensory experience? I'm thinking a cupcake.

Do you tell any online services where you are currently are? Foursquare, Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook Places?

What happens when a service aggregates all the locations of your friends into one service? Find out at "Where are your friends?" on my blog about syndication.