Right now in Chicago it's 6 degrees outside and nobody is wearing a scarf over their face. I must have passed 100 people and I was specifically looking to see if anyone was wering a scarf. None. Zip. What is wrong with you people? It's SIX degrees. A scarf will keep your face warm.

I like wearing a scarf over my face, here's why you should wear one:

1. It keeps your mouth and nose oh so toasty warm.
   
2. It enables you to sing "Bear down, Chicago Bears" without anyone noticing.
   
3. You can pretend to be a secret ninja. Who doesn't want to be a ninja!?
   
4. If you don't like being a ninja (you're weird if you don't, but anyways...), it's just fun to wear something around your head. It's like a transformation. Zoooosh! You are now somebody else!
   
5. It can be fun to match your scarf with what you are wearing.
   
6. You don't worry as much when someone coughs. "ah-HA! I have protection from thine germs!"

Next time you are walking to work, sing the "Bear Down" song. It really sings well with walking. The beat goes in sync excellently with a brisk marching walk.

When walking in downtown Chicago, I like to wear a scarf over my face and sing the song out loud quietly to myself and stomp my feet.

Bear down, Chicago Bears, make every play clear the way to victory;
Bear down, Chicago Bears, put up a fight with a might so fearlessly.
We'll never forget the way you thrilled the nation with your T-formation.
Bear down, Chicago Bears, and let them know why you're wearing the crown.
You're the pride and joy of Illinois, Chicago Bears, bear down.

The Chicago Bears fight song, Bear Down, Chicago Bears, was introduced in 1941. Though Jerry Downs is listed as the composer, it actually is a pseudonym for Al Hoffman.

Recently I gave 13 recommended design links to a graphic design student:

Advertising:
A must for anyone interested in advertising.
www.adrants.com

Publications and newspapers:
A must for anyone interested in publications and newspapers.
www.newsdesigner.com/blog

Illustration:
The essential illustration blog.
www.drawn.ca

Salaries:
www.designersalaries.com

Online portfolios:
Although I like custom portfolios on websites, there is an advantage to posting your work on sites like www.coroflot.com and www.creativehotlist.com. Because portfolios are standardized, it's easier for employeers to search through people's books. The more places you can get your work out, the better.

General design blogs:
http://xplane.com/xblog
www.cameronmoll.com
www.underconsideration.com/speakup

Cool stuff:
(aside from the standard www.core77.com), there's the lesser known www.stylehive.com which brings in an interesting community aspect to style.

Designers network:
There's a new site that aims to bring graphic designers together through social networking. www.designerid.com

Adobe Studio Exchange:
THE place to get free photoshop brushes, actions, filters for all of adobe's programs.
http://share.studio.adobe.com

Do you have any other sites to recommend? Please drop a link in the comments.

Walgreens no longer has a toy section in its downtown Chicago stores. With the redesign of Walgreens floor layout last summer, they completely eliminated their toy section. So now other than the Lego Store on Michigan Avenue, there is a complete absence of toys in downtown Chicago. How sad.

Here's the gradual disappearance:
* Toys R Us on State Street (closed Summer 2003?)
* FAO Schwartz on Michigan Ave (closed January 2003)
* KB Toys in Merchandise Mart (closed January 2004)
* Tribune Tower's toy store on the 14th floor (closed December 2005)
* Walgreens (closed toy sections Summer 2006)
* Game store in Nordstrom's Westfield Mall (closed January 2007)

Tribune Tower had a toy store? On the 14th floor? Well, kinda. Back in January 2004 I made a blog post about toy store closings: "Toy vacancy in downtown Chicago" where I said that I was gonna open up a toy store at my desk. Haha. But then in December of 2005, I was part of a company-wide cost-cutting layoff. I returned back to Tribune in April 2006 (they just couldn't keep me away!), but this time around I'm trying to keep my work desk less cluttered with stuff. But...

PLEASE! CAN SOMEONE OPEN A TOY STORE IN CHICAGO!? If someone knows of any toy stores in downtown Chicago, please let us know in the comments of this post.

When you spell out the letters to "you" out loud, it actually becomes a sentence, "why oh you." Here's some other words that when spelled out loud, the letters become sentences:

our: oh, you are
out: oh, you tee
gut: gee, you tee
ago: a gee oh (sounds like "a geo")

and my favorite:
up: you pee

Here's a handy graph of how many Chicago bloggers are using blogspot, livejournal, typepad, xanga, and diaryland.


Almost half of the 2,000+ Chicago blogs registered at chicagobloggers.com use Blogspot. I'm rather shocked that so many people are using that system--over 900 bloggers in Chicago.

One might find it shocking that there are only five myspace users in these stats. But that's not too suprprising, because I'd imagine most MySpace users aren't going to the effort of registering their blog on chicagobloggers.com, because MySpace blogs are more of an ancillary feature on the MySpace service.

But a revealing detail is that almost five times the amount of Livejournal users took the effort to register their site versus the Xanga users. And 97 typepad users. Whoa. I don't know anyone who uses Typepad.

The most popular Chicago blogs written by one person (according to alexa.com and google)

1. southsidesox.com
2. cosmicvariance.com
3. www.edbrill.com
4. popculturejunkies.com
5. www.timboucher.com/journal
6. almostgirl.coffeespoons.org
7. briangardner.com
8. chronicbabe.com
9. livemusicblog.com
10. makelovenotdebt.com
11. houseinprogress.net
12. toomanychefs.com
13. wiphey.com
14. whateverland.com
15. werty.net
16. johnsadowski.com
17. rachelleb.com
18. absenter.org
19. push.cx
20. zulkey.com
(spudart.org is #30)

Methodology:

1. I took all 2,124 Chicago blogs listed at chicagobloggers.com.

2. All the blogs hosted by blogspot, livejournal, xanga, etc; had to be deleted from the list, because alexa doesn't give a ranking for each blog, but instead gives the same super high ranking for all blogspot blogs. That left about 1,007 chicago blogs.

3. I recorded the alexa ranking for these 1,007 blogs.

4. Only the blogs with an alexa ranking of 1,000,000 or better was kept on the list. That brought the list down to about 80 blogs.

5. I ordered the 80 blogs according to the best alexa rankings. These rankings can be a bit sketchy, because if the blog's author has the Alexa toolbar installed, that would greatly increase that blog's rankings. I needed another stat to balance this discrepancy.

6. So I looked up on Google the number external links point back to each blog. If a lot of other sites link back to the blog, it shows there should be good content on the site.

7. I ordered the 80 blogs according to the best google link ratings.

8. I totalled out these two orders to create one master ranking.

Did your blog make the top 80 chicago blogs? Click on the comments and read below the fold.

Chicago Magazine recently did a bit on the local Chicago group blogs revealing how much traffic they get.

Unique visitors monthly:
--150,000: chicagoist.com
--93,000: gapersblock.com
--NA: chicago.metblogs.com
--10,000: ctatattler.com
--7,000: beachwoodreporter.com

There's a couple other chicago-based group blogs not mentioned in the article:
--yochicago.com
--coudal.com (although not chicago in focus, the group is based in chicago)

I just want to give a public thanks to Data393, the company that hosts spudart.org. They gave me great, honest, and fast answers when my site was briefly down today.

When the site was down, I asked them if I needed to upgrade my plan from $50/month (an old plan) to $130/month to have more RAM. They said that since I haven't experienced problems recently there wasn't any need. I bet most companies would love to just merely upgrade their clients and get more money. But the tech staff of Data393 really looked at my situation and said since I haven't had any recent problems I was just experiencing some high traffic. And they also said I should continue to stick with my current plan and just watch to see if I continue to get high traffic.

Thank you Data 393.

I recommend them to anyone looking to host a bunch of domains at once (up to 30). They are pricey, but you get great service. Here's a link to their Linux VPS hosting plans. (There is no affiliate link here, it's just an honest simple link)

What would be the top photo on flickr for a search on "very?" I thought it might be something very extreme. But instead it's a quiet photo that is very interesting.

Imagine if your middle name was "Very."

For instance, here's my name: Matt Very Maldre. It's like I'm so exemplifying the Maldre name. Very serves to reinforce that fact that you are so part of your family heritage.

Winning lottery numbers from 1988 to 2006

You've been seeing more and more graphs on spudart.org, because GRAPHS RULE RULE RULE. (That phrase has two meanings. One: "rule" as in they are really cool. Two: "rule" as in line.)

I've been carrying around an aluminum foil ball around in my pocket for that past week, and I've gotta say, it's been a ball!

I will hold the ball with my hand in my pocket and imagine various scenarios:

• I imagine it's a major league baseball that I was able to squish down with my bare hands.


• It's a globe of a planet, and my hand is exploring all the various craters and mountains.


• It's the moon. I was able to reach up and grab the moon and stick it in my pocket.


• It's a deadly time bomb that I have to hold onto or else it will explode.


• I try to squish the ball into a denser and denser ball until it's so small its density is like that of the sun where a teaspoon weighs like 12 tons or something ridiculous.


• It's a pokemon ball with a really small pokemon inside. I imagine all the sorts of creatures that would possibly lurk inside.

If you were carrying around a small aluminum foil ball in your pocket, what would you imagine it to be?

No suprise here that the book of John is the most searched gospel. I'm a bit surprised that there isn't any spike in traffic during Christmas. Maybe people are too busy shopping and involved with other activities during Christmas.

But there does appear to be a bit more bible-searching traffic during the Easter season.

Darth Maul Lightsaber


Pen

Just take a regular pen with a cap, add a second cap to the other side, and pow! It's like having a double-ended light saber!

Garrison Keillor wrote an interesting article entitled, "Newspapers give us style all our own." It's an excellent piece which I greatly enjoyed. Newspapers are classic. They do portray certain cool style when you are reading one in a cafe. Newspapers do need to stick around to have that visceral connection with the news.

But there's one thing that is in the back of my head. Instead of just being a consumer, I'd also rather be a creator, which the internet enables me to be both a consumer and a creator. Keillor mentions rule number five for reading the newspaper:

Always rip out a story or two and tuck it in your pocket. Not casually, like it was a recipe for meatballs, but with urgency and purpose. This creates an indelible aura of mystery.

Stick the story in your pocket? I'd rather post a link to the story on my blog with commentary. Just like what I'm doing here. And plus we can hear what the readers of my blog think of this article too. Comments, anyone?

There should be a list of the official team colors for professional teams. So I'm starting one here. I'm accepting the colors for any team in the NHL, NFL, MLB, and NBA.

Seeing that I'm a designer for the Tribune, let's start with the Chicago Cubs.
Pantone 294, Pantone 186: Chicago Cubs
This is a little weird, because the official Tribune Company blue is Pantone 293.
source: Matthew Maldre, Tribune designer

Here's a few more colors I found:
Pantone 294: Los Angeles Dodgers
Pantone 288: New York Mets
Pantone 288: Kansas City Royals
source: http://www.uniwatchblog.com/2006/09/28/sock-exchange/

Pantone 342: Masters golf tournament
source: http://www.ssur.org/articles/UniWatch/items/20040406_UniWatch.htm

In addition to leaving the color and team name, please also give a source where you got that color. We can only know how official something is if we know where that color number came from, otherwise, someone could just be guessing what the color is.

Let's start building a list of the official team colors.

Thank you

If you had to choose five podcasts to recommend to a person with a brand new interest in listening to podcasts, what would you recommend?

Here's my top five (in no order):
============

Slate Magazine Daily Podcast
Politics, popular culture, the arts and science. A daily selection of interviews and readings of some of Slate's best articles.
4 to 10 minutes


Bernie DKoven, funsmith
Games and toys, ideas and innovations, people and events that enhance our capacity for having fun
3 to 5 minutes


Walk in the Word with James MacDonald
This is the pastor of a church I regularly attend. Very good sermons.
26 minutes


The Accidental Creative
Methods on how to find your creative voice and establish that as a rhythm in your life
5 to 15 minutes


NPR: Story of the Day
Funny, moving, exceptional, or just offbeat. The best of Morning Edition, All Things Considered and other award-winning NPR programs.
5 minutes
============

What are some podcasts that you would recommend to the starting podcast listener?

Several movie trucks were lined up on Upper Illinois Ave in Chicago--just north of the Tribune Tower. Taped on one of the doors was a small poster for "Fred Claus" featuring Vince Vaughn. From the imdb: "Joe Claus, Santa's bitter older brother, is forced to move to the North Pole."

Does that mean we get to see some more fake snow in Chicago?

According to craigslist, the extras casting director of the movie is looking for someone between the height of "3'6" to 4'5" for the movie.

(The number of times Pepsi, Coke, Coca-Cola, Sprite, Mountain Dew were searched on Google)

Coke spikes in July 2006 with rumor of secrets being sold. Ok, so there can be a sharp spike in searches when there's a juicy news story that comes out--as with the case of the story that three people were accused of trying to sell Coke's recipe secret. But the weird thing is how the search traffic is still continuing to be much higher than normal. But it did die down in December as it also did in Decembers of 2004 and 2005.

honorable mentions for most searched sodas: mountain dew, 7up, dr pepper, monster energy.


It's rather cool to see the upstart of Monster Energy gain steam. Check out the chart of Monster Energy by itself and you'll see it's still increasing.

Mark May 6, July 7, and September 8 on your calendar this year!

May 6
05/06/07 08:09
03:04 05/06/07

July 7
07/07/07 07:07

September 8
09/08/07 06:05
11:10 09/08/07

You can add these events to your calendar as an iCal feed in Google Calendar or 30boxes!

While in McDonalds there was this dude in his 40s talking to himself loudly. He was talking about how this year is the "two double-oh-seven." That's a cool name for this decade, "the double oh's." And "double oh seven" just makes the year 2007 even better.

Sporting events
2006: Winter Olympics, World Baseball Classic, and the World Cup.
2007: No big crazy sporting events
Winner: 2006

Chinese Year
2006: Year of the dog
2007: Year of the pig
Winner: 2006

Year of
2006: Year of Mozart, marking the 250th anniversary of the birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
2007: International Polar Year
Winner: 2006 (although i'm leaning toward the international polar year, but let's get back to reality. Mozart's 250th!)

Oh no! 2006 has 2007 on the ropes! Just one more punch...

Number
2006: Six. Devil number.
2007: Seven. Number of heaven.
Winner: 2007

2007 comes back and delivers the death blow! 2007 is the winner! Despite it losing in all rounds but one, I just like how 2007 sounds better. Therefore 2007 wins.

Are there any more rounds of comparison between 2006 and 2007 that I missed? Oh, I got one.

Roman Numeral
2006: MMVI
2007: MMVII
Winner: 2007 (MMVII is a nice symmetrical number)

The number in parenthesis is the number of hits the post got in 2006.

1. list of four-letter words with three vowels (6,163)
   I'm just amazed that this is number one.


2. Wild Chicago Archives (4,353)
   No suprise here. WTTW should have kept this list on their site.


3. Pantone's color palette predictions for the 2007 Home (3,692)
   People love the color predictions.


4. bookmarklet for amazon (3,352)
   An odd post. I wonder how many people actually added this bookmarklet to their toolbar.


5. Wallbreakers: Kool-Aid Man, Incredible Hulk, Juggernaut, and ... (3,311)
   One of my favorite posts.


6. Seeing earth for the first time (2,529)
   Another fav.


7. Why stop at a perfect 300 bowling game when you can get 900? How about 1200? (2,495)
   People like to search bowling online.


8. Split the cost of a Custom Chicago Cubs Brick at Wrigley Field (2,488)
   Cubs!


9. Wrigley Field Garage Sale: The Complete Guide to Finding Cubs Game-Used Items (2,378)
   Cubs again!


10. Live updated comments on 2006 Winter Olympic Opening Ceremony (2,344)
    Heh. It's neat that people would read my silly comments on the opening ceremony.

I couldn't pick a favorite post from 2006, so here's my top 25 with notes:

• Seeing earth for the first time
  An interesting view of earth we normally don't see


• The difference between one million and one billion
  A baby is one million seconds old. A 31-year-old is one billion seconds old.


• Trains in your instant messages: one-line ascii art
  One of my most favorite ascii arts of all time.


• Nine observations about walking around public in Storm Trooper suit
  Gotta love it when people do crazy stuff.


• What happens when you stack every letter in alphabet on top of each other
  One of my favorite experiments last year.


• The south underside view of Jupiter's bottom
  Looking at planets' butts are so much fun.


• Solar Eclipses the perfect alignment
  Amazing. God is great.


• Ink Density Pattern on a Pringles Potato Chip
  Graphic designers will appreciate this one.


• New Toy Friday: Dart Gun Whiteboard Target
  One of THE most fun things you can do in your office.


• Sticky Note Village
  Oh wait. Another fun thing to do in the office.


• Wallbreakers: Kool-Aid Man, Incredible Hulk, Juggernaut, and ...
  One of the most fun lists ever!


• The "Two Legit to Quit" Challenge
  Classic.


• Top six things to do with a leftover pile of dirt
  Fun brainstorming.


• July is National Free Postcard Mailing Month
  Perhaps greatest idea of 2006.


• Places where you want to sit
  Another fun list.


• 10,000 comments on spudart.org
  A milestone for spudart.org.


• Size comparison of Wrigley Field and U.S. Cellular Field
  Interesting insight into the sizes of Wrigley and the Cell.


• Chicago skyscraper to double height
  My favorite photoshop job of 2006


• Design critique of the Chicago 2016 Olympics logo
  Chicago. Design. Olympics. What a combination!


• Yarn Monster Gallery
  Very cute post.


• Tribune Tower has twin buildings in Rockford and Elgin, Illinois
  One of my favorite discoveries.


• How to become a ninja using amazon.com
  I think this is very funny.


• A mile-long red carpet for Chicago's Magnificent Mile
  Best idea for Chicago in 2006.


• Least searched-for U.S. presidents
  Geekiest list of 2006.


• December 25: Day for crowning kings
  Interesting discovery and I like the meaning drawn from it.

What's one of your favorite spudart.org posts from 2006? Here's the archives.