Overture's Keyword Selection Tool is neat. You type in a word and it tells you how many times people have searched for it in the past month.
For kicks I typed in "matt".
Matt gets a ranking of 705,907. (Erik gets 77,951).
Here's the top six Matts on overture:
40,904 matt hughes (professional mixed martial arts fighter)
38,021 matt costa (rock singer/songwriter)
37,262 matt damon (screenwriter/actor)
35,073 matt redman (Christian worship leader and songwriter)
21,093 matt hardy (professional wrestler)
20,554 matt nathanson (folk singer/songwriter)
Half are singers. One-third are professional fighters. That's pretty neat.
As the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago slowly rises from the ground, everyone can immediately see a huge construction flaw. The main materials used for the construction of the tower are giant toilet paper cardboard tubes.
Donald Trump was rumored to say,
"In our economic environment we have to be both financially and environmentally aware. The usage of cardboard tubes from toilet paper not only saves us money, it also saves our environment. I'm quite proud to admit that all the tubes come directly from my personal bathroom. Yes, that's a lot of cardboard tubes, but I'm able to continuously supply them all, because I'm full of crap."
I have played croquet with 37 different people so far. I want to play with 100 different people. It's a new item on my to do list. How many people have you played croquet with?
I've posted before about putting trains, pizza, and ice skating into your instant messages and cell phone text messages via ASCII art. Now here's some animals ASCII art found across the internet that fits on one line of text that you don't have to turn your head sideways to see.
\-o-/ Bat
><> Fish
><(((('> Fish
/><{{{{"> Fish
ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmo' Millipede
----{,_,"> Mouse
~~~~~~^~~~~~ Shark
__@/ Snail
/-o-\ Spider
/\o/\ Spider
///\oo/\\\ Spider (or some kind of bug)
_/\, Worm
_/\__/\__0> Worm
And it's fun to do a mirror image of two animals facing each other
----{,_,"><",_,}----
Are they kissing or facing off WWE style? "I'm gonna git you, sucka!"
Or even better yet, let's have a mouse face off with a worm!
----{,_,"><0__/\__/\__
Thatsa one giant worm!
Got any more ascii animal art? Leave them in the comments below.
Places I'd like to sit
--Under the ledge on the Mushroom Islands
--In the cockpit of an airplane. Doesn't have to be actually flying.
--Directly under the St. Louis Arch
--In a race car. Doesn't have to be actually moving.
--On a tandem bike.
Three cool places I've sat
--On a bedbunk on a submarine.
--Front row seats behind home plate at Wrigley Field.
--In a kayak on a river.
There's something about sitting. Sure you can visit a place. But to actually sit down in it gives a higher level of intimacy. Plopping your dairy aire on the surface of the place gives you a sort of connection. Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry offers a submarine tour where you actually get to go on a WWII sub used by the Germans to shoot down numerous Ally ships. The entire tour is spent walking and standing listening to the tour guide. But I sat my little butt down on one of the sub's bunk beds. An experience to be had for sure! I felt like a German submariner. Eins Zwei Drei!
In the comments below, please answer the following: Name three specific places you'd like to sit.
And three noteworthy places where you have sat.
It's summertime and temperatures in Chicago are getting around 100 degrees. It would be so much fun to have a snowball to throw at someone right now. So next winter, I want to pack like six snowballs and keep them in my freezer for the next summer. I added this to my 43things to do list.
Just merely sticking a few snowballs in your freezer might cause a problem, cuz what if they melt? Water everywhere! Deni H had this comment on someone's 43 people page:
make some and wrap them up in plastic wrap and put them in a freezer bag. Then put the freezer bag in the freezer.
The rain soaked windows of the "That's Our Bag" store in downtown Chicago left a great opportunity waiting for someone to draw something on the windows. I was talking on my cell phone with my girlfriend and drew some faces on the windows. I have to admit I felt like I was at a loss for something to draw.
Just a few days before making these drawings, I saw these dirty window drawings by Scott Wade. They were the inspiration for my wet window drawings.
A few tips on how to get away drawing on wet windows:
1) Look casual. This one piece of advice is the mother from all the rest flow. If you look casual, then people won't bother you.
2) Don't be nervous. If you start looking around like you are doing something wrong, then people will question you. All you are doing is drawing some faces in a wet window. No harm done here.
3) Talk on your cell phone. It will further the look that you are just merely doodling on the windows because you are talking on your cell phone.
4) Just use your finger. Don't get all fancy and make people think you are ruining the windows by using some sort of device.
5) Take a photo. When you are done, take a photo of your work. And post a link to your photo in the comments here. :-)
Here's my away message for my email today at work:
I'm out of the office Friday July 13. Did you know that it's National Embrace Your Geekness Day. It's true! I'm not just a geek telling you this! Well, I am a geek telling you this, but c'mon, we all have a little big (or alot) of geek in us. I just hope you enjoy all 86,400 seconds of Embrace Your Geekness Day. While you're at it, why don't you reply to this email and let me know a way that you are a geek.
Oh, and work stuff. I'm returning back on Monday July 16. If you need immediate assistance, please contact Todd at 312-xxx-xxxx, xxx@tribune.com.
Here's something interesting to observe. Look at the lights wherever you go. What type of lights are they?
--Bright or dim
--Are they on the ceiling or on the ground
--Lots of lights or Few lights
--Diffused or Direct
--Square or Round
--Standard or Innovative
It's neat to see how places are lighted. Try it sometime.
Performancing.com is a site that helps bloggers improve. They provide insightful articles and a free fantastic stats service. Every blogger should join performancing.
(A continuing analysis of advertisements that appear in "The Trucker" newspaper.)
The text in the ripped part of the ad reads "WANTED: Honest, Dependable, Safe & Hard Working*" Raawr! Yeah! Right on! This ad definitely appeals to the machismo of truckers. Everything in this photo shows power:
--The dude is wearing a sleeveless shirt
--Arms folded showing off his tough forearms
--Proud to have a farmers tan
--Good ol' American jeans
--Legs spread far apart for a strong stance.
--Big rig wheels showing power
--The subtle keys hanging off his belt showing he has the access
--Big belt buckle
--They even kept the top of his head to show that he has a full head of hair. (would a truckers hat be too obvious?)
The elements of the design even point to strength:
--Bold arrows showing how much money you make
--Tough guy logo
--No nonsense fonts with courier. Don't even bother with any pansy fonts. Just pure true blue courier
But then the ad falls apart at the end with "For your comfort we offer" What! Comfort! That's not tough!
In overtime of the final championship match, France's best soccer player Zinedine Zidane headbutts an Italian player to get kicked out. Here's the video:
But then Zidane didn't stop there! The next day he headbutts the president of France Jacques Chirac
Ok, so maybe all postal mail cannot be free. But the post office should allow people to send postcards for free for one month every year. This month should be far away from Christmas, so let's pick July. What a great month! It would work great for vacationers sending postcards.
To kick start this National celebration, I sent the above postcard from my work to myself at home. Check out the cool fake stamp with the zero cent mark.
Now the question is what will happen to this postcard when I try mailing it from the Tribune Tower:
A) It will arrive to the assigned destination of my home, because the post office rules.
B) It will bounce back to me from the post office with a "return to sender" stamp.
C) I will never see this postcard again.
What would happen if you could mail letters through the postal mail for free? That would be fun. I'd miss stamps though. Stamps are fun. But it would also be fun to just dump a piece of paper with someone's name and address on it and have it be delivered for free.
Spudart.org has lots of fun stuff by Matt Maldre, a 32-year-old Chicago Christian, artist, designer, illustrator, photographer, webmaster, entrepreneur, curator, goofball, and croquet player. Read more about Matt on the about page.
