When composing a text message on a cell phone, the easiet letters to use are the first ones for each number:
2: a
3: d
4: g
5: j
6: m
7: p
8: t
9: w

So using just a, d, g, j, m, p, t, and w; how many words can you form?

I got 137:
a, aa, aam, ad, Ada, Adad, adad, Adam, Adapa, adapt, adat, adaw, add, Adda, adjag, aga, Agag, agama, Agawam, Ajaja, ajaja, am, ama, amaga, amapa, Amma, amma, amt, apa, Apama, apt, at, Ata, atap, atma, atta, aw, awa, awag, awat, awd, da, dad, dada, dadap, dag, dagga, dam, dama, damp, dap, data, daw, ga, gad, gag, gaj, gam, gamma, gamp, gap, gapa, gat, gata, gaw, gawm, gwag, jag, Jaga, jagat, jam, jama, Jap, Jat, jaw, ma, maam, mad, madam, mag, Maga, magma, Maja, Mam, mamma, map, mat, matta, maw, mawp, pa, pad, Padda, paga, pajama, pam, pap, papa, papaw, pat, pata, patta, paw, pawpaw, ta, taa, tad, tag, taj, tam, Tama, tamp, tap, tapa, tappa, tat, tatta, taw, tawa, Td, twa, twat, Wa, wa, waag, waapa, wad, wag, wagwag, wamp, wap, wapp, wat, watap, watt, waw, wawa

Granted most of these words seem to be gibberish.

Some fun combinations: adamdad, adaptmatt, damtag, dampjaw, datatap, jawpaw, japwatt, madjam, mammagamma, tatmap

After the two-hour delay Chicago commuters experienced this morning on the purple, red, and brown lines; I suggest you send an email to: ctahelp@transitchicago.com

Here's my letter. Feel free to copy and send it to the CTA. The more voices, the better. Imagine 50 people sending them this letter on the same day. That should really get them to consider doing it.

===============
Dear employees of the CTA:

I strongly suggest you implement a service where users of the CTA can subscribe to a cell phone txt message service. Whenever there is a problem on the CTA (such as the brown/purple line issues today), people will get a txt message saying that the brown line service is not working beyond Armitage.

This would be so easy to implement.
1) Get a provider that will allow you to send out one txt message to a mass of people.
2) Have a signup box on your website where people can subscribe by entering in their cell phone number
3) When an major CTA delay comes up, send a txt message out to the group.

Here's a list of SMS wireless companies (SMS is basically another name for text messages on cell phones):
http://dir.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Business_to_Business/
Communications_and_Networking/Telecommunications/Wireless/
GSM__Global_System_for_Mobile_Communications_/SMS__Short_Message_Service_/
===============

My brother was working on a really big photoshop file and he got a dialog box saying "erasing hole".

ERASING HOLE! YOU CAN'T ERASE HOLES! YOU CAN ONLY FILL THEM! Can you erase a hole in reality? Cuz a hole is emptiness. How can you erase what is not there?

The Chicago podcast meetup group is having their first meeting at the Michigan Avenue Apple Store on Tuesday, October 3, 2006 at 7:00pm.

So far 19 people have RSVP'ed "Yes." You can sign-up at: http://podcasting.meetup.com/72/events/5061382/ (or you could just show up).

Here's the podcasts of the people who are coming:

Nat Kealen
podcast homepage: www.evilavatarradio.com
iTunes: 121060914

jtl
podcast homepage: www.cheapdateshow.com
iTunes: 91297390

Leigh Hanlon
podcast homepage: www.chicagoscope.com
iTunes: itpc://chicagoscope.libsyn.com/rss

Denise
podcast homepage: www.homespagoddess.libsyn.com
iTunes: 182799401

Tom
podcast homepage: www.gdcradio.net/gamasutra_podcast
iTunes: 152571094

Dsquared
blog (no podcast found): www.daviddalka.com/createvalue

Josh McAdams
blog (no podcast found): nexus.colum.edu/user/iverson

Matt Maldre
blog (no podcast yet): www.spudart.org

If you have a podcast or blog and are attending this meetup, please leave the link to your podcast or blog in the comments below.

Would one of these sound amplifiers work at a Major League ballpark to hear what the players talk about in the dugout?


Educational Insights Sonic Sleuth
$24.99
--Works up to 300' away
--Frequency controller blocks noise over 85 decibels


Sound Receiver WN-077 Spy Listening Device
$29.48
--Eavesdrop on conversations discreetly up to 80 feet away
--Is there a frequency controller on this?


Spion Orbitor Electronic Listening Device
$59.95
--Adjustable Frequency Controller reduces unwanted background sounds
--Built-in recorder stores 120 seconds of anything you hear
--Amplify sounds from hundreds of feet away
--You can clearly hear conversation-level sounds from a discreet distance of 300 feet!


Bionic Ear Listening Device
$179.95
--Hear a conversation 100 yards away
--Increases sound by up to 40 decibles
--Output jack records sounds
--Omni-directional microphone w/windscreen

It's rather sneaky that claw vending machines take dollar bills. If they only took quarters, then I wouldn't be as likely to play them, because I don't always have change on me--let alone two quarters. Plus the dollar enables the player to have two attempts. Just playing the game once is like eating a potato chip. You can't have just one. And you know it. So having two tries is much more realistic.

The game tempts you into thinking, "Oh i have TWO tries. Surely I can get something with TWO tries." But of course those claw things never quite work. Nevertheless, the sheer entertainment value is worth it. OOOOOH BOY! THE CLAW IS DROPPING! OH MAN! I DIDN'T GET IT.

But the excitement gets even better when you actually get the prize! Literally. It is VERY EXCITING. Like, I-can't-believe-I-just-won-so-I'm-gonna-yell-and-scream-that-I-just-won-
-and-it's-alright-cuz-people-understand.


Plus when the prizes are a pig and this wack-o football players, how can one resist?

This coupon expires 10/31/2006. It got it in an email from LEGO.

How many times can you get a bouncy ball to bounce off the walls and floors inside the elevator with one throw?

Q101 stole my video and put it on their "cool" "chicago site" whatswrongwithchicago.com to promote their station. At that site, scroll down to see "DANCE BATTLE"

That's my video that I shot and put up on youtube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oq6iQLJ2f_g.

I'm debating how to write my letter to Q101. Here's what I have so far:

===========
Just letting you know that someone stole my video of the dancing superheroes and submitted it to your site. You have it labeled as "DANCE BATTLE"

The original video that I shot, edited, and uploaded is at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oq6iQLJ2f_g

It would be nice if there was something designed into your site that would give credit to who shot the video. Don't get me wrong, I do think that it's kinda cool that my video is on your site. But, it's one thing if site was non-profit with fun vids/pictures of chicago stuff. However, this site is one big ad for Q101. So the fact that Q101 is taking other people's items without giving credit is kinda crappy.
===========

What do you think of the letter?

The other day I learned not to bounce my bouncy ball on the escalator. I knew it was a bad idea, but figured that one bounce wouldn't hurt.

So halfway up the ride, I gave it one bounce and it deflected weird off the grooved surface, hit the side glass wall, and bounced down to the step below. As I gave chase, it proceeded to skip down the steps and I started running down the stairs on the up escalator, but eventually gave up as it quickly picked up speed and hit someone in the back on the downwards escalator and I turned around and pretended it wasn't me as I giggled.

The dude (Marco Hort) who fit 210 drinking straws in his mouth graced the cover of the sell sheet I designed when Tribune was syndicating Guinness World Records as a column to other newspapers.

Now he's back breaking the world record again. This time he's fitting 264 drinking straws in his mouth.


I'm glad to see good ol' straw boy Marco Hort still gets his kicks jamming straws in his mouth.

(image from ArchitectureChicago Plus blog)

The Blue Cross-Blue Shield Building in downtown Chicago at 300 East Randolph is going to double its height by adding another building right smack on top of it. According to the ArchitectureChicago Plus blog, The 32-story tower was finished in 1997. But now 25 floors are going to be stacked on top by 2010.

It's great how this building is like a lego block and they can just add another lego block on top of it 10 years later. The Blue Cross building's neighbor, the AON Center is the nation's 3rd tallest building. What would happen if another one was built on top of it? Here's how it would look. Magnificent!

(photoshop work on AON center by spudart.org)

That was so much fun, let's take another image and double the height of the AON Center:

Haha! Double the fun!

There is a giant potato that orbits around Saturn and its name is Hyperion... Hyperion the potato! That's one large starchy tuber!

If I was planning a subdivision, I would make one that looks just like a monopoly board. Then you can market your community to tourists as the Monopoly town. And people could actually play Monopoly in real life scale. Although it would be hard to collect money from someone that is all the way on the other side of town. Hmmm. Maybe this wouldn't work.

Maybe it would be cool to make a park that was a micro-Monopoly. Each property could be six-foot by four-foot. That would make for a 42-foot by 42-foot board. World's largest Monopoly board! Oh wait. It's been done already.


930-square foot permanent Monopoly board in San Jose, California. www.monopolyinthepark.com.

To play on the board, it costs:
$300-$500: Schools (grades 6-12)
$300-$500: Families/Neighborhood Associations
$1000-$2000: Non-for-profit Organizations
$1500-$2500: Companies
(That's real American dollars, folks. Not Monopoly money)

The first price will get you:
--Site Rental
--20-Inch Dice
--Money/Cards
--Houses, Hotels
--Photo
--Tokens
--Calculator
--“PASS GO” Bell
--Plastic Stands
--Jail Bird Costume
--Jail Bird T-Shirts
--Game Docents
--Aprons

The second price adds in: Aprons, Game Timer, and a Sound System.

Is there anybody out there that Rock'n'Roll actually means Rock in Roll? I accidentally typed it that way in an IM the other day.

Google's index for the different spellings of rock'n'roll:
--40,000: "rock-n-roll"
--25,700,000 "rock-n-roll""
--46,100,000 "rock-n-roll"
So 1 in 1,160 have it "rock in roll"

Here are the 10 livejournal users who spell it "rock in roll" (hence the image used above--it's from one of those profiles.) I tried looking up "rock in roll" on myspace and friendster, but they don't allow you to search for exact phrases.

Tom Saaristo had an excellent post on his foodie blog about plastic disposable food containers. He suggested several options including Gladware, Ziploc, and his choice US Plastics. But I wondered how much it costs per ounce for these containers. Here's the results for the cheapest plastic storage sets:

Name	Container Size	Container Name	Number of Containers with Lids	Total Cost	Cost per container	Cost per ounce
Ziploc Snap ’n Seal	32 oz	tall square	24 (it really is 24, see note under chart)	$10.97	$0.46 per container	1.4 cents/ounce
Glad Ware	64 oz	Rectangle Deep Dish	18	$17.18	$0.95 per container	1.5 cents/ounce
Glad Ware	48 oz	Round Big Bowl	5	$3.79	$0.76 per container	1.6 cents/ounce
Safety Lock	32 oz	round	1	$0.68	$0.68 per container	2.1 cents/ounce
Glad Ware	25 oz	Square Entrée	30	$17.18	$0.57 per container	2.3 cents/ounce
Glad Ware	24 oz	Rectangle Soup & Salad	30	$17.18	$0.57 per container	2.4 cents/ounce
Safety Lock	24 oz	round	1	$0.60	$0.60 per container	2.5 cents/ounce
Glad Ware	32 oz	Round Small Bowl	4	$3.79	$0.95 per container	3.0 cents/ounce
Ziploc Snap ’n Seal	32 oz	square	4	$3.99	$0.95 per container	3.1 cents/ounce
Safety Lock	16 oz	round	1	$0.52	$0.52 per container	3.3 cents/ounce
Ziploc Snap ’n Seal	56 oz	large bowl	2	$3.99	$2.00 per container	3.6 cents/ounce
Safety Lock	12 oz	round	1	$0.46	$0.46 per container	3.8 cents/ounce
Rubbermaid Plus 50-pc. Set	Round 8.2 oz 22.5 oz 11.8 oz 41.6 oz 16 oz 32 oz Square 20.8 oz 38.4 oz	Round and Square	Round 4 (8.2 oz) 4 (22.5 oz) 4 (11.8 oz) 2 (41.6 oz) 2 (16 oz) 2 (32 oz) Square 3 (20.8 oz) 3 (38.4 oz) (that's 526.8 total ounces)	$19.99	$0.83 per container	3.8 cents/ounce
Ziploc Snap ’n Seal	24 oz	tall round	4	$3.99	$1.00 per container	4.2 cents/ounce
Ziploc Snap ’n Seal	14 oz	round short bowl	30	$20.33	$0.68 per container	4.8 cents/ounce
Smart Spin storage system	24 oz 16 oz 8 oz	round	8 (24 oz) 8 (16 oz) 8 (8 oz)	$19.99	$0.83 per container	5.2 cents/ounce
Safety Lock	8 oz	round	1	$0.43	$0.43 per container	5.4 cents/ounce
Ziploc Twist ’n Loc®	32 oz	round medium	2	$3.99	$2.00 per container	6.2 cents/ounce
Food Storage 24-pc. Set	4 oz 8 oz 16 oz 24 oz 32 oz	Round	5 (4 oz) 4 (8 oz) 1 (16 oz 1 (24 oz 1 (32 oz) That's 124 total ounces	$9.99	$0.77 per container	8.1 cents/ounce
Betty Crocker 48-Piece Superseal Food Saver Set	Round 9 oz 16 oz 34 oz 48 oz Square 18 oz 32 oz 48 oz Rectangular 26 oz	Round, Square, and Rectangular	Round 5 (9 oz) 4 (16 oz) 2 (34 oz) 2 (48 oz) Square 2 (18 oz) 1 (32 oz) 1 (48 oz) Rectangular 1 (26 oz) (415 total ounces)	$35.99	$2.00 per container	8.7 cents/ounce
Glad Ware	4 oz	Mini Round	96	$34.35	$0.36 per container	8.9 cents/ounce

The runaway winner is the 32 oz Ziploc Snap 'n Seal. Not only is it the cheapest in cost per ounce. But it's the second cheapest per cost of container. The amazon page for it is kinda confusing, cuz it looks like you only get four containers. But you get SIX SETS of four containers.

The McDonalds across from the Trump Tower is where you overhear all the current news on the construction status on the Trump International Hotel & Tower, Chicago. I was standing in line behind a construction worker with a bunch stickers on his helmet showing all the different buildings in downtown Chicago that he's worked on.

Someone else in line asked him what floor they were on now. He replied, "15, but it's really like floor 18, because three of the floors have machinery on them." Then he said that according to the schedule they were eight days behind. He went on to explain that the schedule doesn't give off days for for rain and bad weather conditions. So in his estimation to a "REAL" schedule taking into account random variables, they are actually 22 days AHEAD of schedule.

Here's the official forecast for spring 2007 colors from Pantone. Which one of these colors is your favorite?

	Offical Pantone Color	My Comments
	PANTONE 12-1206 Silver Peony C= 3 M=13 Y=15 K	"My flesh" This is the nudie shirt color
	PANTONE 15-0326 Tarragon C=37 M=7 Y=60 K=0	"Shrek lives on" Tarragon. You gotta have the lime green of Shrek in here. The Shrek color will never die!!!
	PANTONE 16-3801 Opal Gray C=34 M=21 Y=28 K=0	"Messed up Gray" The Opal gray is nice, but it has too much yellow in it. Golden Apricot is a nice color.
	PANTONE 14-1041 Golden Apricot C=8 M=26 Y=70 K=0	"Standard Apricot" Golen Apricot is a nice happy orange color. Interesting how there's a bit of cyan added to the mix. Too bad it's not a bright orange. It's much more subdued. Just like all the colors in the palette except for...
	PANTONE 19-2924 Hollyhock C=55 M=97 Y=14 K=3	"Extreme Purple" HOLLYHOCK! The most saturated color in this group. All the other colors are being so wimpy and light. Hollyhock is the only one that can stand up and be the bold one of the group. I would have to say this is my favorite color of this group. It's just a gut level choice. I used to like purple a lot in high school, it might be growing back on me again. But I probably have this as my fav, because it's the most bold and different.
	PANTONE 13-0648 Green Sheen C=13 M=5 Y=72 K=0	"Acid Yellow" Green Sheen is an interesting departure from the Tarragon. Much more yellow. And it's an interesting departure from the color yellow. It's like yellow, but with a bit--just a bit of green added to it. It's like an acid yellow.
	PANTONE 16-3929 Grapemist C=57 M=28 Y=1 K=0	"Standard blue" The standard inclusion of blue within the palette. Blue is dull. Blah Blah blue. Grapemist could also be read as Grapem-ist. Why in the world is there just a 1% of yellow here?
	PANTONE 16-1220 Café Crème C=19 M=38 Y=45 K=5	"Hot Chocolate" This is actually a very nice color. It does match a good creme coffee. Although it reminds me more of hot cholocate. Man, that would be a rockin color, Hot Chocolate.
	PANTONE 16-1720 Strawberry Ice C=1 M=56 Y=29 K=0	"Strawberry Ice" To the extreme I rock a mic like a vandal Light up a stage with Strawberry Ice like a candle. Again with the 1% values. What's with the one percent of cyan? That is just poor color values. How can Pantone do that?
	PANTONE 14-4318 Sky Blue C=45 M=9 Y=8 K=0	"Sky Blue" Another inclusion of blue. What do I have against blue?

Source: "Pantone Unveils the Top 10 Colors for Spring 2007" on creativepro.com. I made an illustrator file with the swatches, if you want to import it into Adobe Illustrator. 2007spring-pantone.zip. View the rest of my color posts.

You can play a version of Monopoly that lasts just 30 minutes. Before the game starts, shuffle all the properties and deal out the entire deck. The official rule book that comes with the board game says that you only deal out two properties to each person. Hogwash. That doesn't save much time at all. Just deal the entire deck of properties out.

Strategies:
1) Build first
Since all the properties are now out, you need to build. And build fast.

2) Make a deal first
If you didn't get dealt a monopoly off the bat. Get one NOW. Don't even roll the dice. Make the deal.

3) Get orange or purple
The deal you should make are for the orange and/or purple proerties:
--Purple (St. Charles Place, States Avenue, Virginia Avenue)
--Orange (St. James Place, Tennessee Avenue, New York Avenue)
The cost of $100 to build per house is not too expensive, and you get a decent return when you build three houses. (Orange is the preferred color here, more on that in point five)

4) Trade off expensive properties
People get all attracted to the allure of expensive properties, but in Monopoly Express there isn't enough time and money to build a good number houses on them. Use the expensive properties as trade bait. I would definitely rather have a purple monopoly than a green one (green costs $200 to build a house).

5) Build three houses
Please oh please build three houses on each property and not two--or gasp--just one. One house on Virginia Avenue gets you a measly $50. Two houses earns $150. But three houses gets $450. DING! But the even better returns are on the orange properties. St. James runs 70, 200, $550 for one, two, and three houses respectively.

Build on orange and purple early in Monopoly Express, and you got yourself a winner!

A White Sox fan was explaining to me why U.S. Cellular bans upper deck fans from walking on the main level of their ballpark. The reason is that their main level gets too crowded. However Wrigley Field is a smaller ballpark that sells out its 40,000+ seats consistently (versus the sox who only sell half their tickets). So why doesn't the smaller Wrigley get too crowded on their lower level?

Then all incredibleness was bestowed upone me as this White Sox fan claimed, "U.S. Cellular Field is smaller than Wrigley" Uh. Right. Sure the Cell has less seats (about 1,000 less), but it's a monster of a concrete ballpark. Let's compare the two ballparks on top of each other.


Here they are lined up with homeplate is in the same spot, so you can see the size difference.



If you took the Cell and blunked it down at Clark and Addison, the gigantor ballpark would crush the outfield apartments!



Look at how Wrigley fits inside the Cell. Now tell me which ballpark is bigger.

Upper deck ticket holders are banned from going onto the main concourse and lower level at U.S. Cellular Field. Not just banned from the lower level seats (understandable), but...
--Banned from walking in walkways
--Banned from visiting the shops
--Banned from going to the White Sox hall of fame
--Banned from the center field batters eye
--Banned from enjoying the ballpark
They are only allowed to go to the attic-like upper deck. A vendor at the Cell told me that they have been doing the banning for three years now. Why? They say it's for security reasons. Too many people go to the main level. What a freakin joke! They Sox can barely get their ballpark half full. There is plenty of room on the main concourse with its mall-like qualities of broad paveways.

The real reason why they don't let upper deck ticket holders go to the rest of the ballpark is because they don't want their ballpark to look empty. Where do you look to see if a ballpark is full or empty? You look to the upper deck.

The evidence of why the White Sox fear their ballpark looking empty:

1) Their ballpark IS empty.
In the past 10 years, they could only fill 49.4% of their park. And they didn't even field a terrible team. They finished 2nd or higher nine of the ten years!


2) 6,660 upper deck seats eliminated.
They are so afraid of their ballpark looking empty, they chopped off the top eight rows after the 2003 season. At a time when ballparks are looking to add more seats. The Sox are cutting them back.

3) 300,000 cars see the upper deck daily.
The only inside part of the ballpark visible from the I-94 Dan Ryan Expressway is the upper deck. Surely, you cannot have thousands of cars seeing an empty ballpark during a game.

4) Force people to stay in the upper deck.
Level 500 visitors are not allowed to go anywhere else in the ballpark except the upper deck.

5) Sacrifice in-park shop sales.
They are so afraid that their park might look empty, that they are preventing 15,400 upper deck seats from going to a shop on the lower level. Of course, they never fill out the upper deck. But let's say half the upper deck (since they can only fill half their ballpark. That's 7700 fans that can't go to the shops on the lower level.

6) Willing to make their fans feel like second class.
I have to admit as a Cubs fan I felt like an outcast at U.S. Cellular, but I really felt like an outcast by being prohibited to visit the rest of their park. And Sox fans have to endure the stereotype of being trailer trash. You'd think the Sox brass would want to uplift their fans, but instead they try getting their ballpark look a bit fuller by making the upper deckers feel like second-rate citizens.

The Cell is truly a prison.

It's rather comical how many screws are required to be removed in order to take a hard drive out of a Macintosh 12-inch G4 Powerbook:

• 2 screws on the outside right
• 4 screws on the outside back
• 2 screws on the outside left
• 2 screws on the ouside bottom
• 4 screws on the ram cover
• 1 screw inside the ram bay (removing the ram first)
• 3 screws inside the battery bay (removing the battery first)
• 2 screws hidden under the F1, F2, F11, and F12 keys (by far the craziest spots for screws, you have to POP OFF THE KEYS to get these screws)
• 2 hex screws on the top of the keyboard (so far all the screws have been removable by a really tiny screwdriver, but these hex screws required me going to the hardware store and buying the SMALLEST HEX WRENCH EVER MADE BY HUMANKIND)
• 12 screws on the motherboard (all of varying sizes, THIS MOTHERBOARD IS ONE SMORGASBOARD OF SCREWS)
• 2 more screws holding the hard drive bracket to the motherboard
• 2 more screws to hold the bracket to the hard drive

As if that wasn't enough screws to drive you screwy, they are all different sizes. So I put each group of screws into their own labled little paper boxes.

It was such an adventure that I felt like Indiana Jones going after the ark of the covenant. But once I uncovered that shiny silver box, there was nothing left inside--at least I didn't have giant rock-ball chase after me.