The AIGA Chicago (American Institute of Graphic Arts) is asking: Can you be a designer and not know it?

That's a tough call. I like to say that I'm not a designer. It gives me a fresh approach to my design work where I don't get bogged down with being stuck in a box. It allows for a sense that there is so much more. Designing? yeah, i do that, but i'm not a designer.

But this question flips the situation around. Where someone is doing design and is totally unaware that they are a designer. What immediately comes to mind are people using desktop software like Word. Sure some people think they are designers. Snooty hootin-palootin designers will disagree that Word users are designers. But sure they are. Or the people who make signs to go up in their storefronts. (actually, don't even get me started on storefront signage... that'll be a post for the future)

So of course, people can be designers and not know it. But, it's a more rare situation where you are a good designer and not know it. That would be a great case, because then you don't have someone who has a big head about it. They are just merely doing it. Perhaps they are so much more focused on being something else, and design is just way of expressing what they do. But they can express themselves in beautiful ways where the message and design totally work together.

Doing research is a process of discovery. Just as working on an artwork leads to discoveries.
As the research unfolds, the researcher is guiding along to new worlds.

Letting the work take its own path, but also guiding it.
* Art: Allowing the paint to make mistakes and working from the mistakes. Working directly from the results of the painting moment by moment. Make a mark. Observe the mark. React to mark by making another mark. Observe the mark made. React to that mark by making another mark...
* Research: Find one resource. Read the resource. Let that resource guide you to another resource. Read that resource...

Finding. Discovering. Adding. Collecting.
Research:
1) Finding resources.
2) Discovering resources.
3) Adding more resources.
4) With more resources constantly being added, the scope of the collection of resources change.
Art:
1) Making art.
2) Discovering the result of painting one section.
3) Add more painted sections.
4) With more painted sections constantly being added, the scope of the painting may change.

Finishing.
When do you stop working on the painting?
When do you stop researching a project?

Well, not a REAL cover of Jeep Magazine. They were doing this photo thing outside the Tribune Tower last week where people can get their photo taken by this "dirty" jeep. Actually the dirt was made out of oatmeal, paint, and something else that i forget.

I like how the Jeep has the headlights perfectly cleaned off. And the tire tracks have no mud on them.

The park bench: a place to watch, meet, and greet. Sharing a bench with someone. It's not your own personal seat. Chairs are so individualized. Sitting on a bench with someone is consoling, like non-starters in a game. Sharing a bench can be loving.

Benches are the place of interaction. They are a staple setting in comic strips as a backdrop for conversation. Or if just one person is sitting on the bench, it becomes strikingly contemplative.

Three years ago on September 28, 2001 the first spudart.org blog post was made using the old Blogger system. The post entitled "Long Live Long Tables" is one of my all-time favorite posts. It touches on the social aspects of long rectangular tables.

Here's a couple more long table trivia:
Cologne, Germany has a long-established annual event called "Longest Table in the Worldî ("L”ngste Deesch der Welt") where the local restaurants, pubs, and shops set up tables side-by-side in front of their establishments offering both locals and visitors plenty to eat and drink.

The largest table cloth is 1,838' 7" long and 5' 3" wide in Brazil on Dec 7, 1999. (that's 2.7 city blocks). I like how the people are all excited with arms in the air. weeeeee!

When outside and looking at windows of tall buildings, you'd think that you would be able to see stuff occuring inside the building. But you rarely ever see see any activity. It seems fairly lifeless.

But humans outside the building define the character of the building.

The doorman really humanizes the building and speaks of the building itself. The doorman gives that building a real human touch. He activates the entrance to the building.

How can a building help to define its character through human activity? Include a storefront, a restaurant, some benches, patios, ashtrays.

Also smokers can behave as the representatives for the building. The constant lingering of smokers sets the stage.

Instead of this cold lifeless facade.

It seems like this is calling for some sort of poem.

We've had a lot of sick people in the office lately. And i'm going to the doctor tomorrow for my toe.

break of seasons
brings
breaks in body

we need to make some "Change of Season" soup.

maybe it should be
change of season
brings
change of body

hmm, i like the break better. it gives more impact.

European towns have been built over and over. So-and-so country comes and takes over. They rebuild over part of the town. Such-and-such country comes hundreds years later and they rebuild over the part of the town. And so on. There are many levels of stratification.

When you go to the grocery store and buy a cup of yogurt. (or as Piero said, "yo-GAIRT"). The cashier scans it in which tells a computer in the back for them to restock that item on the shelf. When they restock the item on the shelf, they scan something in to tell the purchaser to buy more yogurt. When they buy more yogurt, that tells the yogurt company to send more yogurt... and so on. Again, levels of stratification.

"Think about what goes on beyond the simplicity."

Source: 9/23/2004 talk by Italian designer Piero Lissoni at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago

At the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago on thursday, September 23, Piero Lissoni an Italian designer/architect gave a talk "DESIGN MATTERS" on graphic design, product design, and architecture. His english was quite broken, and at first I was starting to fall asleep. But there were actually many interesting nuggets within the talk.

I wrote down seven interesting quotes and topics given by Piero that will form a Monday series here on spudart.org. Every monday morning for the next seven weeks will feature a segment called "Piero's Proses"

Seeing that baby carrots are too loud to eat at work as a snack, i'm trying shredded carrots. They are great! Only thing is that they are a bit messy if you grab a bunch at once. But eating one shred at a time works great.

It's also reminiscent of Big League Chew.

There are 6,142 congregations in the LCMS (Lutheran Church Missiouri Synod). Here are the twelve most common names:

source: lcms.org

What do you think the red stuff in this photo is?
ïÝPhoto at regular size
ï Photo blown up in one section

(photo by Lisa of Mount Prospect, IL)

"for the first time in debate history, a light will flash to alert television viewers when a candidate is obviously grandstanding or filibustering." from the chicagoist

I don't get it. Who's in control of this light? What purpose does this light really serve? Wouldn't it be distracting to the tv audience?

The last post about Designer conversation questions to ask a design firm reminded me of this list of questions to ask while interviewing:

1. On a typical day in this position, what do you do?
2. What training or education is required for this type of work?
3. What personal qualities or abilities are important to being successful in this job?
4. What part of this job do you find most satisfying? most challenging?
5. How did you get your job?
6. What opportunities for advancement are there in this field?
7. What entry level jobs are best for learning as much as possible?
8. What are the salary ranges for various levels in this field?
9. How do you see jobs in this field changing in the future?
10. Is there a demand for people in this occupation?
11. What special advice would you give a person entering this field?
12. What types of training do companies offer persons entering this field?
13. Which professional journals and organizations would help me learn more about this field?
14. From your perspective, what are the problems you see working in this field?
15. If you could do things all over again, would you choose the same path for yourself? Why? What would you change?
16. What do you think of my training and experience in terms of entering this field?
17. With the information you have about my education, skills, and experience, what other fields or jobs would you suggest I research further before I make a final decision?
18. What do you think of my resume? Do you see any problem areas? How would you suggest I change it?
19. Who do you know that I should talk to next? When I call him/her, may I use your name?
20. Where's question #20?

Source:
www.artistresource.org/jobhunt.htm

The AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) has a series of discussions called the Small Talks. Each small talk is held at a different design firm. The design firm gives a half-hour to hour-long presentation about their company. Background information, their culture, some examples of their work. And then it's open to questions by the audience. Sometimes the questions are slow to come out, because people dont' know what to ask. But there are good questions that bring up interesting discussions. So i'm going to archive all the questions asked at these small talks.

• In this market do you go out and find business or mostly rely on referrals?
• How do you handle doing proposals--how much information do you include? Have you been burned for including too much and not getting the job?
• Do you use digital or film?
• What do you look for when hiring photographers?
• Do you feel that you are understood by your clients?... Who you are as a firm (type of work you do) but also the work you do for them. Is your work understood?
• Do you use brand briefs? (if the design firm does branding)
• Do you find your clients want to seperate out your costs?
• How many options do you like to present?

If you have any interesting questions to ask a design firm, please post them in the comments here

At this very moment 09/22/2004 at 11:30am is the Autumnal Equinox where there is exactly 12 hours of light and 12 hours of night at the equator. (thanks to tom's blog for reminding me).

It's noteworthy that this equal night/day thing is also occuring when just happens to be a half moon.

Both of these half phenomenons are all based on right angles. Here's some fun diagrams.

The moon is at a right angle with the sun and earth.


The sun is at a right angle with the earth and its celestial equator. I wonder where the moon would be in this diagram.

Creative Behavior had an interesting article, "Creativity (unrelated) Edges" here's some excerpts:

[Creativity] is located in the brain supra ëfuzzyí center and we are invited to travel, poke and dwell on its edges.

Fuzzy
Intangible. Just the name itself makes a lot of people queasy and donít we know, how an uncomfortable a term, a place, to be this is for clients, bosses and number crunchers. They would rather all steer clear off and usually most, do. But us, as designers, we need to set up camp right in its midst.

The mind works wonderfully in that area. But fuzzy is not a ëtaskerí. Nah, you need to become an imagination wanderer. Anything attempted to do a ëhardí focus and the elusive fuzzy idea wanders off nowhere to be found.

I like the how "fuzzy" relates to creativity. Fuzzy in terms of creativity can mean two things:
1) Fuzzy means something is not in focus. The mind works in the fuzzy area. The gray areas where things aren't quite defined (as explained by this article).

2) But what this article did not touch on is how fuzzy can also mean something that is fuzzy or shaggy. Like hair. What makes an object (or person) fuzzy? Little strands of hair. It's a land of beginning growth. Yet overall it's soft. You can move and shape it. Like fur or suede, it can change to the touch.

Another interesting excerpt from the article:

If you are alone ñ you need to discipline your mind to answer the client / project objectives with the same kind of overflowing spontaneity. Creativity is part intangible fuzzy unstructured leading to rational logic structuring.

It's like a beard. You can let it grow wild, but then you need to give it structure by trimming it. Cuz otherwise it can become one big ugly mess.

Here's a list of upcoming chicago events I'm considering attending. Anyone interested in coming with, just lemme know.

Wed 9/22, 7pm, Free
Establishing yourself as an indepedent artist. Practicing Chicago artists share their experiences and perspectives about professional success in a panel discussion.
Izzo/Jones Arena For the Arts, 1806 W. Cuyler, 312-670-2060
Free

Wed 9/22, 9 PM
"MIRTH OF A NATION" May Contain Nuts: A Very Loose Canon of American Humor features writings by the likes of Roy Blount Jr., Mark O'Donnell, and P.J. O'Rourke; on this leg of the promotional tour Kevin Guilfoile, Stephanie Brooks, Sara Hope Anderson, and Amy Krouse Rosenthal will read their contributions to the anthology. Hosted by editor Michael J. Rosen.
Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, 773-227-4433
$12 includes a copy of the book

Thu 9/24, 5:30pm
Chicago Critical Mass bike rides
All you have to do is show up with your bike
sstart from Daley Plaza, Dearborn & Washington
Free

Thu 9/23, 6pm
"DESIGN MATTERS" Italian designer Piero Lissoni speaks on "recent trends in interior and graphic design" for this series.
Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E. Chicago, 312-397-4010,
free with general admission of $10

Thu, 9/24 (this is when it starts, i don't know how long it runs for)
Spike & Mike's Twisted Animation @ Music Box
Music Box Theatre: 3733 N. Southport. (773) 871-6604.
No word yet on what the films will be, but they're offering free 3-D glasses for use in one of the films. So that should be interesting. 18+ show only.
Cost?

Sun, 9/26, 9am
Dog Jog 2004
Montrose Harbor, 4400 N. Lake Shore Drive
I'm thinking of just showing up to take photos. I'm not paying the $20.

Sun, 9/26, 8am-5pm
Chicago Antique Market, Randolph Street and Ogden Avenue, 1400 W. Randolph St.

Here's a nice growing/rooting/soil metaphor on the Z¸n Partners website. (i'm a potato, so i gotta like it)

What distinguishes z¸n partners from other design and communication firms?
We work from the inside out. Our work grows directly out of business strategies. We are not decorators who make things pretty. We are business parters who root abstract esthetic concerns deep in the rich soil of strategy and planning.

(italics added)

A time and a place
Capturing a certain feel of a time period

Extreme
Lots of hand lettered type squeezed into one space

Industrial Strength
-Dymo (those Dymo stamp machine things)
-Stamped in steel (dog chains, phone booth)
-Industrial Strength (photo of a place, stencil on sidewalk)

How about those dots
Spelling words with candy. Each person in a stadium holding one colored card above their head, Lite Brite

Hand Lettering at its Best
Very fine detail... the Architectural Digest logo. The two R's are slightly different. And the two C's are slightly different. All the faces on Swiss Army Watches are hand lettered. The 6 is slightly wider to provide an anchor. The 0 in the "10" is slightly condensed, so it doesn't stick out.

So I can't letter
Very rough

Humanity through calligraphy
-Warm and mellow: special handwritting on wine. Swooshy.
-Honest Bob: Real writing. Validates the message.
-Too cute for words: humanity again. Cute handwriting by kids. innocent.

These are notes from the talk "Non-font Typography" given by Allan Haley at the Lindenmeyr Munroe Paper Show on 9/16/2004 in Chicago. Alan Haley is director of new typeface development for the Monotype and ITC Typeface libraries. There's an article very similiar to his talk at mires > design for brands

1) Take any 3-d object.
2) Look at this object without moving the object or yourself.
3) Pretend that this object is now a 2-d painting. Look at the very edge of the object where it meets the space around it. (without moving the object or yourself).
4) Note that there's so much detail in that very edge of the object. Right at the very edge of that object there's all the information about that side condensed in such a small section of your perspective.
5) Now go back to treating it as a 3-d object and turn the object around to view the side. See, now all that stuff on the edge before... it's all right there. All that stuff on the side was crammed into the very outline of the object.

I realized this while doing some photoshop work on a seashell. The background was being trimmed out and also part of the seashell where it was the very edge. It made me a little sad to realize that all that information about the side of the object was being lost. Such fine subtlties.

Here's what was selected into the 2004 Graphic Design:usa 2004 annual

The Zap2it Consumer Ad campaign:
Zap2it Ad 1, Zap2it Ad 2, and Zap2it Ad 3


and the Lola folder

Background on the awards:
Every year the Editors of Graphic Design:usa invite thousands of United States-based advertising agencies, graphic design firms, corporate inhouse creative departments and publishers to enter their best work in their national design competition.

This competition honors new, outstanding graphic design, advertising art and marketing communications created by American graphic designers and art directors and at the same time provides a vehicle for exposure to clients, colleagues and the business community.

Now in its 25th year, this competition is among the most prestigious, as well as open and democratic, of all such events. It is also among the most selective as only 12% of entries were honored this year.

Winners of the 2004 American Graphic Design Awards competition will be reproduced in Graphic Design usaís Awards Annual, published in December 2004. This edition will be seen by more than 100,000 ad agencies, corporate clients, publishers, graphic design firms and others during the course of the year.

What is also interesting is what items I submitted and did not get picked:

Guinness World Records


KRT Campus mailer


News in Motion kit

Lincolnshire, Lincolnwood, Lincoln Square, Lincoln Park, Lincoln. Surely Illinois is the Land of Lincoln!

Do you use one side of your mouth more often to chew than the other?

I use the right side of my mouth much more often. In fact when I use the left side of my mouth, things taste more... it's a different sensation.

Why do I like to sit in corners? I'm not talking about being scolded and told to sit in the corner for something bad I've done. Instead, it's the option of where you like to sit in a room. The top ten reasons for sitting in the corner:

10.ÝIt's the safe zone (comfort)
9.ÝIt's the furthest away from the action (relaxation)
8. It's a focal point where two walls and the floor join together (aesthetics)
7.ÝThat is where the walls are most structurally sound (comfort)
6. It's easier to identify your relationship to the room and the room is identified. It's like being anchored to the dimensional qualities of the room. Instead of just floating out in the middle of cartesian space, you are more closely aligned to the apex of the cartesian XYZ structure. (concept)
5. You can do a corner kick like in soccer. (fun)
4. At work we used to have our weekly production meetings in this super tiny room. I liked to sit in the corner because then people wouldnt' have to climb over me to get to the other seats in the room. It was a little pet peeve of mine when people would sit right by the door, and then you have to maneuever around them to get to the other seats. (manners)
3.ÝThat's the place where you can see everything in the room (contemplation)
2. You might find something interested pushed over in the very corner on the floor (discovery)
1. It's better to sit in the corner where there is no prestige (humility)

"When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, 'Give this man your seat.' Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, 'Friend, move up to a better place.' Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." Luke 14:8-11

Here's an email I sent to Mount Prospect's Village Hall:

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Does Mount Prospect have a town flag?
From: "spudart.org"
Date: Tue, September 14, 2004 3:49 pm
To: pio@mountprospect.org

Does the great town of Mount Prospect, Illinois have an official town flag? What is a town without aflag? Surely Mount Prospect must have a grand flag. Perhaps it has something friendly on it,because it's such a friendly town. Not like that Dan Akroyd in Blues Brother where he said that, inits early days, Mt. Prospect was a tough group.

Maybe it's got some blue in it. A light blue. With two horizontal lines. Wait no. That is too muchlike Chicago's flag. uh...

I'd like to see the heads of Friedrich and Johanna Busse on the flag. Nawww, that would make theflag too busy. (get it? Busy... Busse)

Well, I hope Mount Prospect has a flag already, cuz i'm plum outta ideas. Well, if you need me to, ican come up with more ideas. But I still would like to know if Mount Prospect has an official flag.Please let me know if one exists or not.

-Matt Maldre, flag expert

With HTML, you can make a numbered list by doing the following:
< OL >
< LI >apples
< LI >bananas
< LI >cranberries
< LI >oranges
< /OL >

Which appears like this:

1. apples
2. bananas
3. cranberries
4. oranges

But is there a numbered list in HTML where the numbers go in reverse order? Starting with the biggest number first and ending with 1?

In 1592 and 1597, Japan's government sent warriors over to Korea and kidnapped their pottery experts in the "Pottery Wars." The deadly warriors brought the Korean potters back to Japan to introduce the new fancy ceramic technologies--the kick-wheel and the climbing kiln!

You'd think these Korean potters would be able to fight back. *SPINNING CLAY ATTACK* UGH! *FLAT SLAB CRUSH* OOF! But the Japanese warriors prevailed. And now the Korean potters with their pottery secrets were in the hands of the Japanese! But why were the Korean potters so ruthlessly taken away?...

Japan only had these simple wheels turned by hand to make pots. So slow. Talk about lame! Get with it Japan. But now with the NEW kick-wheel they could like totally mass produce pots. Now they could have pots everywhere! Pots in the bathroom, pots in the kitchen, more pots in the bathroom.

And that climbing kiln (also known as the DRAGON kiln) saved 'em alotta wood and work. Imagine it. The DRAGON kiln. Spewing fire. You can now see why Japan would engage in such pottery wars--to get their hands on the a-w-w-w-w-esome secrets of the DRAGON kiln.

The Korean potters also brought porcelian over to Japan, previously everything was done with celedon--in the CELEDON AGE. Now porcelian was the hot thing and that ushered in the white hot PORCELIAN age.

We currently live in the polymer age. POLYMER!

Sources:
ï Pottery: History of its Development in Japan by Takeshi Murayama
ï Ceramics at Hagi, Japan by Caroline Tulip
ïÝArt Institute gallery talk "What's New in Asian Art" on 9/14 by Robin Schnur

On their albums, Calexico is a wonderful balance of different layers of music (the marimba, piano accordion, trumpets, double bass, pedal steel, maracas). But in live performance, it was surprising how their lead singer, Joey Burns, took the central stage. In their albums Burns is just one part of the mix. But on stage he was the central focus.

Calexico's music is enjoyed in a more quiet subtle mysterious way. A loud concert may be alright for some of their faster more upbeat tunes, but once it becomes too loud the intricate melding of music becomes more of a competition for which instrument can be the loudest. Personally, I liked it when the trumpets took the stage.

Here's a list of upcoming chicago events I'm considering attending. Anyone interested in coming with, just lemme know.

Art Institute Talk: "What's New in Asian Art?,"
Art Institute Gallery 100
Tue, Sep 14, noon

Lester Fisher talk about his new book
Brent Books & Cards, 309 W. Washington
Wed, Sep 15, noon

David Bahlman presents "The Chicagoland Watch List."
Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington
Thu, Sep 16, 12:15 PM

"Interactive Public Art" Talk by SAIC sculpture prof Lisa Norton
School of the Art Institute, Betty Rymer Gallery, 280 S. Columbus
Thu, Sep 16, 4:15pm

Chicago Turkish Festival
Daley Plaza, 50 W. Washington
Sept 14-18, 10am-4pm

Yesterday someone told me something that I thought was quite poignant. To make sure I was spelling it correctly, I looked it up on dictionary.com and the meaning is a bit different than what I thought. http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=poignant.

Poignant was always to me a more joyful and wonderful adjective. What's surprising is the painful origins for this word. The first first meaning is "Physically painful." I've always thought of it being somethign from 1c. "Profoundly moving." Like when someone makes an excellent point that really drives home. Which I guess really is like the "to prick". Pricking... driving a POINT.

Chicago's Review Aug 30 - Sep5:
Tranformers Transfigured at Rotofugi. Summary: Nice effort, but disappointment.

Cool stuff, but there were like only a handful. And they weren't even of the real Transformers. They were of some Japanese anime robots. Granted Japanese anime robots are still cool. But they ain't no transformers that *I* grew up with. And the photos were pretty much just eye candy. The artist took photos of these toys and took them apart in photoshop and repeated parts changing opacity--which had a nice visual effect--and gave the illusion of transforming. But they weren't actually transforming. It seemed there was a lot more potential to explore their transforming aspect.

The artist statement was nicely written. I would have liked to seen more of those concepts explored in the artwork. The ideas of how kids were exploited by the cartoons. How transformers are like blah blah combination of gods and animals.

The show was displayed on one section of a wall in a Japanese toy store--which is very welcome in Chicago. And the effort to showcase artwork of Japanese toys is a nice beginning with the efforts
appreciated. I would like to see more work displayed with greater depth explored.

(and oh, somehow i made into one of the photos in the photo gallery)

Hey, will this be another feature on spudart.org? Every monday or tuesday (yeah, i'm late today is thursday) a preview of what's upcoming this week. And a review of what happened the past week. I try to make this blog about interesting ideas, and not so much a journal of boring life stuff. But Chicago can be pretty exciting. So how about a little diddy about Chicago events? Maybe it'll stick to the wall without leaving a mark.

Chicago's Preview Sep 6 - 11:
* 9/9, (thu) 6:00pm MCA panel discussion: Greening of Architecture
* 9/10, (fri), Art gallery season openings. The biggest art gallery opening night of the year with over FIFTY galleries keeping their doors open late. Only a few times a year are there more than twenty galleries open late.
* 9/10, 9/11, 9/12, (fri, sat, sun): Around the Coyote Each year, hundreds of artists, actors, performers, dancers, poets, and filmmakers participate in exhibiting and selling their work.

I was in a brainstorm meeting for a brochure. What kinds of folds shall we use? Gatefold? Double Gatefold? Frenchfold? Mapfold? Accordianfold? Barrelfold? (examples)

We are playing with all these different options of folds. Fold this. Fold that. la la la.

Then the best fold of them all...

The crumble fold!

Imagine. Getting a crumbled sheet of paper in the mail.

Can it be done? of course it can. Here's the tester mailings.
A) Very crumbled
B) Kinda crumbled
C) Crumbled ball in normal envelope.
I'm most doubtful of C not making it through. The envelope may tear like it did with mailing pennies.

I'm looking for a New King James Version bible with room to write notes in the margins. Any suggestions? It'd be great if it was like a slimline version. yeah yeah. i want a slim version, but with room for notes--kinda contradictory. But still, it would be oh so nice.

Here's another style... well, not really a style, but an accessory. I don't like having lots of things in my pockets, so the travel leg bag is quite helpful--and James Bondesque. WHAM BAM! Whip that cell phone out of your secret pouch on your leg. Wooootcha!

Actually I had an ankle pouch from an ad specialty trade show. It was the cooooolest (deserving of multiple o's in cooooolest). But it is now lost. But here are several other ones:
ï action pouch (as seen on TV!!!)
ïÝadjustable security ankle (complete with hairy leg)
ïÝtatical security ankle pouch for handcuffs (nice diagram)
ïÝBlackhawk C.A.P. Concealed Ankle Pouch from Pentagon Defense Products--so of course it has an acronym for a name
ïÝand my favorite: Blackhawk Tactical Concealed Tactical Ankle Magazine Pouch yeah, i want to carry magazine clips around with me. Actually, it looks like this would hold a cell phone nicely. *wooo-tcha--whips out cell phone*

Tip: Wear this fashion with bravado. Don't be all shy when pulling stuff out of your leg or ankle pouch. You ARE a secret agent. Yes you are! Secret agents love their gadgets and show them off whenever possible.

Here's a new spudart feature: beat-up coins. We all get 'em and find them amusing. Just how much our currency goes through from person to person. Here's three examples of beat-up coinage.

The coin on the far left has no ridges on it (click on the above photo to see all three coins). All quarters have ridges on the edge. But not this one.
The coin in the middle has been so destroyed beyond recognition. But then again, this was found on a construction site, so maybe it's some sort of metal circle thing they use. *shrugs*
The coin on the right has craters so huge, one could mistake this quarter for the moon.

A friend recently purchased a macintosh and made a post on her blog about how mac users are very passionate. Which yeah, mac users are among the most passionate consumer groups out there. Ranking with Jeep owners, VW owners, and yes, toilet paper users.

When people like their toilet paper, it's hard to tear them away from it. Me? I'm an avid user of the simple Scott tissue. What are you?

Some simple observations about red bull...
The tiny hole in the can makes it harder to chug. What's up wid dat? Here is a comparison of a coke can by a red bull can side by side. Hey now, let's be fair--the coke can is elevated up a bit further, so perspective doesn't wig out the comparison. (red bull's can is taller, coke is shorter and fatter)

I've never had red bull by itself before. It really does turn your brain on. Or maybe it's the weird combination that I just did. Had one at 2:30am. Went to bed at 4:00am. Woke up at 5:00am. Had another. Now it's 6:00am and when i lay in bed, all these ideas flash through my head--
like jolly donuts with smiles of glee
prancing and dancing so joyfully

So what? Well, now for the next few days (and hopefully beyond that too) spudart.org will have two to three new posts a day. (yeah, i can post in the future so they can automatically appear). weee-haaa! RED BULL! RED BULL! GET ON THE RED BULL TRAIN. wooo! wooo!

Here's another wrist idea. Got some old headphones that only one ear works? Or how about when you have to twist the plug around until the sound comes out? What a pain. Turn that headphone annoyance into some accessories!--a headphone cord wristband

1) Cut off the headphones right at the base, leaving the entire length of the cord--including the 3.5mm plug part.
2) Wrap the the cord around your wrist--should be about six or seven times.
3) Wrap the remaining couple inches of cord around the braclet to keep it from unraveling.

Tip: Keep the plug part at the underside of the wrist. It's a little more subtle, and it looks like you have an actual headphone jack coming out of your wrist--like yer some kind of robot or something.

During the summer the Levi's storefront on Michigan Avenue in chicago had a mannequin with the leg part of a sock cut off and then worn as a wristband. So on a cold morning in august (in the 50s), I was looking for some black socks to go with my black sweater. But I came across some old socks with holes in them. Instead of just throwing them out, I cut off the elastic part and made wristbands out of them.

Tip: Cut the sock so the entire length of the elastic makes a wristband. If you find it too long, you can fold it over. But it's nice to have the length of the elastic hidden underneath the sweater or shirt you are wearing.