3/31/2002
fantasy baseball league
Today was the baseball draft for my brother's and my fantasy baseball league.
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3/30/2002
toll raise
They are raising the Illinois Tolls from $0.40 to $0.75 ! My brother came up with an idea to put stickers on quarters protesting this ridiculous raise. Here's our favorite slogan... "Free Roads Forever"
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3/29/2002
digital frame
My brother, sister and I are getting my dad a digital frame for his birthday. It's a 5"x7" LCD screen in a picture frame that he can hang up. It plugs into the phone outlet, so we can download pictures to it. Hopefully, it will work good.
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3/28/2002
new groundhog croquet
The new Groundhog Croquet strip is up now!
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3/27/2002
zorbas
I have the urge for good ol' greasy spoons Zorbas today. Zorbas is a restaurant in Normal, IL with cheap eats for breakfast.
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3/26/2002
skeletor's look-a-like
http://www.davezilla.com/archives/compare.jpg
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3/25/2002
quark is watching you
Quark 5 Multiuser license agreement Peter Anton spotted this interesting tidbit in the Quark 5 Multiuser license agreement: "End User acknowledges that QLA UTILIZES A SECURED COMMUNICATIONS LINK BETWEEN END USE AND QUARK, VIA THE INTERNET or technology which may hereinafter become available, by virtue of which license files are made available to End User and information concerning End User's usage may be transmitted to Quark. End User may elect not to use Auxiliary Licenses in which case End User’s rights are limited to Purchased Licenses."
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3/24/2002
no more bloodmatch belt for me
I lost my croquet bloodmatch championship belt at Punishment today
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3/23/2002
croquet punishment
tomorrow is the first big croquet event of 2002! Punishment at Kreten Kourt. Check it out our club at: http://www.spudart.org/chicagocroquet.
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3/22/2002
who else had your book?
actually wouldn't it be fun to be able to get the list of people who have checked out the same book as you? That way you can contact them and talk about it! idea! idea! I'm gonna put a little flyer into every book i take out at the library. It will have my email address and the person can email me if they wanna talk about the book. Rock on. ooo yeah. ooo yeah.
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3/21/2002
lifetime of books
I would love to see a list of books that I've taken out at the library for my entire life. I've gone to mostly chicago public libraries. So you'd think they would have a database with all those records. Wow, that would be one awesome list to see.
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3/20/2002
neat books at Harold Washington Library
getting that neat book at the library gave me an idea to post a list of all the neat books that i find at the library. That way, you can go there and take them out!
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3/19/2002
storm troopers
Were the storm troopers in Star Wars human or robots? I think they are humans.
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3/18/2002
Got an excellent book from the library today
"Dialogues in Public Art". It's a book that i've been wanting to get from my amazon wishlist. But now I can read it and get a preview! yeah! rock on! Anyone want to get one and read it at the same time as me?
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3/17/2002
upper case numbers
We have lower case and upper case letters. Why not lower and upper case numbers? John Weistroffer pointed this out to me while we were discussing why upper and lower letters exist. Then we figured that the numbers before the decimal point can be upper case, and the letters after it can be lower case. Thay way we don't need to put the dot in there to indicate a decimal.
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3/16/2002
snow
i kinda miss the snow. it's fun to take pictures in the snow.
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3/15/2002
squeeeeeeky floors at the art museum
Another note on the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. They recently installed new floors this winter on the second floor. I'm not sure what material they are made out of, but it's kind of a plastic rubbery material. When you walk on it, you shoes squeak SUPER LOUD. It's soo loud that it almost overtakes the artwork. But they have to be all cutting edge and not use the traditional wood or carpet.
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3/14/2002
art museum for free
I went to Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art today. It's only free on tuesdays and today being thursday, you're supposed to pay. When you pay, you get a little metal button to wear. It's not a pin, but a clip-on button, so they can fall off kinda easily.
When walking up to the MCA, I always scope out the sidewalks and curbs for any fallen buttons that let me get into the museum for free. In fact, alot of my time in the museum is spent looking for these buttons. It's like a fun game. You can walk around without the buttons and the guards don't say anything. It's more for the treasure hunt challenge.
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3/13/2002
new pda?
Considering getting a new pda (like one of them palmpilot doo-dahs). I had one a couple years ago, but it's been busted for a couple years now. Check out what I'm looking at.
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3/12/2002
Kicked out of the Amoco Building
Today i got kicked out of the Amoco Building in Chicago. I wasn't really inside the building when i got kicked out. I was standing right next to it taking pictures. The Amoco Building (or AON Center as it's now called) is like the 10th tallest building in the world. So I thought it would be neat to shoot some photos standing right at the edge looking up.
After shooting lots of pictures, a security guard told me, "You aren't allowed to take pictures of the building."
I found that rather odd and asked her "Do you mean I can't take pictures of the inside lobby?" I figured that they wouldn't want somebody documenting how their procedure for examining people inside. And I knew this was a reaction to the heightened security measures from September 11.
She replied, "You are not allowed to take ANY pictures of the building."
Finding this rather extreme I questioned, "No pictures at all?" How can you just elminiate people taking pictures of a building?
She said, "You just can't stand next to the building and take pictures, you can be by the curb and take pictures."
Not wanting to cause a ruckous, I walked away. In all reality, I would think that they wouldn't want people to take pictures of the building from the curb either, because then someone could be documenting how to drive a van into the building.
Every week on Monday, I post my new pictures to my site at: http://www.spudart.org/photo. So on March 18, I'll post the new "controversial" pics of the Amoco Building.
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3/11/2002
tribune over sun-times
Another reason why the Tribune Company is superior over the Sun-Times. (both are competiting newspapers in chicago).This afternoon I got some Subway for lunch and walked over by the Sun-Times building to eat, because it was close by. Upon arrival at the plaza outside the Sun-Times building, it was difficult to find a place to sit because of all the pigeon poop on the benches.
Once I found poop-free area to sit down, I started to eat my Subway sandwich. Then a bunch of pigeons started to gather around me. These are not your normal nice pigeons (if there is such a thing as a "nice" pigeon. These are pigeons that hang around this area, because there is a McDonaolds nearby. Therefore, their diet comprises mostly of McDonalds french fries. It is mostly evident by their ruffled feathers. These are a bad-ass group of pigeons. Extremely rude.
Being the only person eating in the Sun-Times plaza that day, they all concentrated on me. I had to leave. I walked over to the Tribune plaza (which is only a block away). And getting to the point of this post. The tribune is superior because they have pigeon-poop-free benches and there isn't a resident gang of nasty pigeons.
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3/10/2002
new smileys
I was trying to get AOL instant messenger to add new smileys, but it didn't work. Here's the instructions.
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3/9/2002
student design portfolios
I did a bunch of portfolio reviews today with a bunch of design students. One thing i found was that students with experience in film did an excellent job of explaning things in their portfolio.
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3/8/2002
whoops
Today i spilled some tartar sauce from my filet o fish sandwich on my shirt. It made me wonder if tv newsmen ever spill stuff on their shirts during commercial break. If so, would they have an extra one handy right away?
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3/7/2002
Another campaign promise
I forgot to add one of the most crucial elements to my campaign. One of the most controversial topics. The issue that will set me apart from the competition. The issue that will get brought up at every one single of my public debates. The cornerstone of my campaign...The destruction of all carrot cakes worldwide! Join the Carrot cake boycott club.
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3/6/2002
I want to run for office in Chicago.
My campaign would include:
* Bringing a white castle downtown
* Building more croquet courts
* Instituting 2-hour lunches, and 2-month vacation minimums
* Making Macintosh the official computer platform
* Eliminating the stupid wrigley bleacher expansion plans
* Metra Station at Addison
* Little Debbies on every corner
* Instituting public soapbox debates in public squares
* Making the museums free everyday
* Establishing Chicago as the official annual Atari competition center
* Bringing back pepsi clear
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3/5/2002
New mousepad wanted
My current mousepad at work is all dirty and grungy. Time for a new one. If you have a cool mousepad that you aren't using, please send it to:
Tribune Media Services
Matt Maldre
435 N. Michigan Ave
Suite 1400
Chicago, IL 60611
If you send me one, I'll mail you something fun in return. My only restriction is that the mousepad be uncoated. No slick surfaces. I want it to be a cloth-like surface. Thanks! I'll even post a picture of any new mousepads on my site!
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3/4/2002
Digital frame
I was laying in bed looking at the same old photos in my frames. I thought it would be nice to have pictures that can swap in and out digitally. The retail prices for those digital frames are still like $150-$250. But I've seen several on ebay that are going for under $30.
Something really cool is that you can hook some of 'em up to a phone line and send your photos to it via the internet. Your grandma without a computer can get a new picture from you every day!
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3/3/2002
What Pre-1985 Video Game Character Am I?
I am Mr. Do.
I am sedentary by nature, enjoying passive entertainment, eating when the mood takes me, and playing with my food. I try to avoid conflict, but when I'm angered, I can be a devil - if you force me to fight, I will crush you. With apples.
http://blog.ravenblack.net/quiz/videogame.pl
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3/2/2002
Analyze your logs
Just finished up my review of sawmill, a program that analyzes raw log files from my website. I would definetely recommend this program. It's so extremely versatile and customizable. You can even set it up to block out spiders and robots in your hit reports. Read the testimonials. You can also get it for free if you write some reviews.
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3/1/2002
Bobbin head doll for the ladies
This year the Cubs are offering bobbin head doll giveaways of Ryne Sandberg, Sammy Sosa, and Kyle Farnsworth. Kyle who?
I think it's funny that they decided to do a Kyle Farnsworth bobblehead. Of all the cubs past and present they decide to go with him.
But, the cubs marketing department must be very keen on a recent trend.
Since mark grace left, the ladies have had no cubs "hotties" to gawk at. Sammy the elf? Girardi the gnome? McGriff and Alou the elderly? No way Jose. Kyle Farnsworth is very popular with the ladies for the tight pants that he wears. The Lincoln Park Trixie association loves him.
Check out the poll from 5/16/2001
I think it's soo funny that the Cubs are doing a Farnsworth bobbin head doll for the ladies! I think this makes it a very quirky collectible with a funny story.
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