Yesterday's post was the 1,500th post on spudart.org. Whoa. That's a lot of posts. I try to make one post every weekday, and I've been doing this for almost six years now, so I guess it makes sense I'm up to 1,500.

Thanks to everyone who regularly comes to spudart.org. It's so nice to have people reading my thoughts.

I'd like to go through all the coins in my apartment and gather up 1,500 pennies. (That's just 15 dollars) I'll photograph them and post the photo here. UPDATE: photo now posted. FYI, this is a 64 ounce container, so 1,500 pennies fills up a little bit half of that.

America's Funniest Home Videos becomes A LOT more funny once you own your own video camera. (hint, watch the show with the sound OFF, their stupid commentary ruins the videos).

Whenever there is a Cubs or Sox game during work, we turn the game on the tv, but with the sound off. The game is over now, but AMFV is on now and I'm lloling at the videos.

I'm looking for a simple cheap camcorder to put videos up on YouTube. Of the 16 camcorders on amazon under $100, there are two groups to compare. The big and the small.

The small:
There are four camcorders between 3 to 19 cubic inches in size.
The RCA EZ101 Small Wonder and the popular Flip Video Camcorder are both the smallest, but they have no flip-out LCD screen. The VistaQuest VQ1005 is certainly small, but it has no LCD screen and no sound. That leaves us with the winner, Mustek DV 9300 at 18.096 cubic inches (pictured above). I'm buying this inexpensive mini one.

The big:
The rest of the 13 camcorders are between 98 to 252 cubic inches. Way too big. Get the Mustek DV 9300.

Here's a complete list of digital video recorders under $100 sorted by size with the smallest first. (If you don't see the list, click the comments to view the entire list).

Those toy vending machines with a joystick-controlled claw are just too much fun (as I've blogged earlier.) Recently I defeated the claw machine twice in one day at two locations to win these two stuffed animals. I rule the claw machine!

Here are the two stuffed animals that I won:

(this video is shot with a $20 VistaQuest VQ1005)

On the south side of Chicago, my family would always sing a second part of the song Happy Birthday to You. First we would sing the standard:

Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday dear Chriiiiiiiiiiis,
Happy birthday to you!

Then immediately after that, we would pick it up a notch, speed up the rhythm of the song and sing, and sing with more intensity this part:

Many more birthdays to you,
Many more birthdays to you,
Many more birthdays dear Chriiiiiiiis,
Many more birthdays to youuuuuuuuuuuuu!

And yes, the "youuuuuuuuu" part would be sung until all the candles are blown out. My family ROCKS! In fact, now when I sing happy birthday with other people, it's always shocking how people do not sing this second stanza. So I quietly sing it to myself, or be a dork and sing it out loud.

There's an artist in Germany Jerszy Seymor who adds milk to potatoes, heats up the liquid, and it turns into plastic! Amazing! Then he makes little chairs and stuff out of the plastic.

Nora Schmidt of kidsmodern.com wrote about Jerszy's work, here's a clipping:

However, what at first looks like a playful experiment is based on a very serious idea. How is it possible today for people to live an autonomous life and take care of their own needs? Seymour, who grew up in Canada, looks for answers at a design level.

After many years of experience as a designer of objects in plastic, which were partly produced with complex moulds, Seymour, who clearly attaches a great deal of importance to freedom, asked himself the question of how designers can free themselves from the restrictions imposed by production. With his do-it-yourself experiments he has released himself from production processes which are becoming ever more complex and opaque, reflecting afterwards on the design autonomy which this provides.

The interpretations of this piece are rather out there. So the fact that he dribbles the plastic instead of using a mold talks about design autonomy? Uh no. Design autonomy does not come from freeing yourself from your tools, but becoming so familiar with your tools that they become an extension of yourself. Where you become so good with your tools that you can fully express yourself using those tools.

Merely cutting yourself off from modern technology is just a cop-out for not spending the time to learn the tools. And then to say it's in the name of freedom? It's freedom from having to work. Not freedom of expressing yourself, because you only do a crappier job expressing yourself when you don't know your tools.

Every artist of the potato knows the importance of getting into the dirt and using the tools at your disposal. If one were to dig holes in the ground, would one say, "oh I'm not using the shovel for my expression of freedom?" No the artist of the potato gladly uses the shovel to dig dirt.

Idaho state quarter. Quick--what do you think?

Potatoes, right? I'd LOVE to see a potato on a United States quarter. It would be the coolest state quarter ever. Everybody loves the wheat penny. But a spudquarter would be even better!

But no. Idaho decides to be "different" and they didn't put a spud on the quarter. Idaho, you suck.

If I could, I would make my own handmade Idaho potato quarters.

I don't own a car, so when I have a chance to drive, there's a whole new world of social phenomena exposed to me (which will be a blog post down the road--joke intended--down the road). One of the social phenomena is how street names become much easier to remember.

Waiting at a stop light and noting what street and number it is. Sure that can happen on the bus or train, but I’m usually burying my face in a book or in some internet printouts.

For instance, I just realized that 5600, a factor of 8 (thereby should be a major street), is actually Bryn Mawr Ave. BRYN MAWR? WHAT? Uh right. I never thought of Bbbrrryyynnn Mmmaaawwwrrr (said in long drawn-out sarcastic tone) was a major street in Chicago. Ah well, now thanks to car, i realize that is. Congratulations Bryn Mawr, the street with two words but only one vowel.

Chicago has such a nice grid of streets. Every eight blocks is a mile. And every four blocks is a major street. Very organized. I made a goal on 43 things to memorize all of the major Chicago street names.

Wikipedia has a nice list of the Chicago numbers for the streets. Although they break it up into two charts. One with just the streets every mile. And one for secondary streets. I just combined them into one list.

9600 N (Golf Rd.)
8800 N (Dempster St.)
8000 N (Oakton St.)
7600 N Howard St.
7200 N Touhy Ave.
6800 N Pratt Ave
6400 N Devon Ave.
6000 N Peterson Ave, part of U.S. Highway 14
5600 N Bryn Mawr Ave.
5200 N Foster Ave
4800 N Lawrence Ave.
4600 N Wilson Ave (not a half-mile)
4400 N Montrose Ave
4000 N Irving Park Rd.
3600 N Addison St
3200 N Belmont Ave.
2800 N Diversey Ave
2400 N Fullerton Ave.
2000 N Armitage Ave
1600 N North Ave.
1200 N Division St
800 N Chicago Ave.
0 N/S Madison St.
1200 S Roosevelt Rd.
1400 S 14th St. (not a half-mile)
1800 S 18th St. (not a half-mile)
2200 S Cermak Rd.
3100 S 31st St.
3900 S Pershing Rd.
4700 S 47th St.

8800 W East River Rd.
8400 W Cumberland Ave.
8000 W Pacific Ave.
7200 W Harlem Ave.
6800 W Oak Park Ave
6400 W Narragansett Ave.
6000 W Austin Ave
5600 W Central Ave.
5200 W Laramie Ave
4800 W Cicero Ave
4400 W Kostner Ave.
4000 W Pulaski Rd. (Formerly: Crawford Ave.)
3600 W Central Park Ave.
3400 W Kimball Ave (not a half-mile)
3200 W Kedzie Ave.
2800 W California Ave
2400 W Western Ave.
2000 W Damen Ave
1600 W Ashland Ave.
1200 W Racine Ave
800 W Halsted Street
0 E/W State Street
400 E Martin Luther King Jr Dr. (King Dr.)
800 E Cottage Grove Ave.
1200 E Woodlawn Ave
1600 E Stony Island Ave.
2000 E Jeffery Blvd.
2400 E Yates Ave.
2800 E Torrence Ave
3000 E Commercial Ave (not a half-mile)
3200 E Brandon Ave.
3600 E Ewing Ave
4000 E Avenue C

Avenue C cracks me up. You know you are far out when you are at Avenue C!

There's a seriously wrong Mr. T doll up for sale on eBay. In fact, this is the second time this doll was posted, because it didn't sell the first time around.

It would be fun if you email the seller of this item and ask why Mr. T is wearing a ski outfit with rainbows. I would love to see this person get like 50 emails (but in reality I would be happy with just two). Please paste your message in the comments of this post.

Here's what I wrote:

===============
Listen up, sucka! I see you got a Mr. T doll for sale on eBay. Why he wearin dat ski outfit. Fool know that T don't ski, let along wear no rainbow outfit. He ain't got no gold chains neitha! As Mr. T once said, "I believe in the Golden Rule — The Man with the Gold . . . Rules." And it cost 50 frosties? Instead, how about I give you two cartons of milk?
===============

If you need some Mr. T inspiration, here's an incredible Mr. T quotes page with .wav files.

Chicagoist recently made a long post about the photography rules on the CTA and how they are still convoluted.

Here's my short and simple interpretation of the rules:

No tripods
No cables
No lights
No obstruct transit operations
No interfere with customers
No blocking doors
No blocking stairs
No blocking the flow of traffic at a station
No causing a distraction
No getting in the way of customers
No photos of tracks
No photos of storage rooms
No photos of work areas
No photos of end platforms

Yes photos of areas where you enter the station
Yes photos of where you pay your fare
Yes photos of where you wait for trains

1. Take your name and spell it backwards.
Maldre = erdlam

2. Try to make it into an actual word.
erdlam = terd lame
(If you can't think of a word, try spellcheck.net, and it will suggestion word variations).

3. Respell it backwards, and you now have your NEW NAME!
Emaldret

Here's a few more:
Spudart = tradups = trade ups = Spuedart
Chicago = ogacihc = ago chic = Chicoga
Saaristo = otsiraas = outside = Edistuo

I dare you to name a sauce that is not good on hamburgers.

The Beachwood Reporter collected the following:

"Descriptions of the taste range from shrimp to canned asparagus to not much at all."
- USA Today

"They taste like almonds."
- RedEye

"They taste like raw potato."
- Northwest Herald

"I found them woodsy and nutty at first, kind of crunchy. And there was a creamy peanut butter taste under them that was not unpleasant"
- ABC News

"Clam-flavored potato."
- National Geographic

"Potato with some flavor in it."
- RedEye

"At first it tasted nutty, with a finish like asparagus."
- Chicago Suburban News

"They have an earthy, potato-like taste.
- Chicago Wilderness Magazine

"They taste like cold canned asparagus."
- Inside the Mount, College of Mount St. Joseph

"They taste like avocado with a dash of clam juice."
- Northwest Indiana Times

"They're like a juicy almond."
- Sun-Times

"It wasn't bad, tasted a little like chicken," said sixth-grader Sam Freedland. "Not KFC or Popeye's though, more like the kind you get at Dominick's."
- Daily Herald

"They had a weird taste that I've never experienced before that I can only describe as disgusting," said 13-year-old seventh-grader Laura Zimmermann. "I'm trying to get the taste out now with the rest of my peanut butter sandwich, and if that doesn't work, maybe some chocolate."
- Daily Herald

A couple months ago I wrote about how holding a pen will make you think more when you read. Lately I've been holding a pen while walking in hopes of the pen inspiring me to think. But instead the pen becomes a twiddling item that I flip around in my fingers. It doesn't help me to think more, instead it becomes a mere toy. The pen takes on the persona of whatever you are doing at the moment. It will further emphasize the activity you are currently doing

--Reading: Pen will make you think more
--Walking: Pen will do a dance and become a twirling baton
--Talking: Pen will make you emphasize your words more by becoming a pointer
--Meetings: Pen will either help you pay more attention by taking notes, or it will distract you by becoming a doodle device.
--Standing: Pen becomes drumstick, tapping out the moments that pass by; emphasizing how you have to wait.

What other activities does a pen emphasize what you are doing?

What in the world is this supposed to be?

"This is the vision at the very heart of our brand," said London 2012 organising committee chief Sebastian Coe. (from Yahoo's coverage).

Seriously. I want to know what these shapes are supposed to be.

If you have a candy jar at work with Hershey's Kisses, you can make a little recycle box out of a sticky note, here's an instructable on how to make it. Plus, it's fun to see how much the foil adds up when you save it.

More than 20 million Hershey’s Kisses are wrapped each day, using 133 square miles of tinfoil. All that foil is recyclable, but not many people realize it.

Most favored to road team: Mike Everitt (Road team wins 61.8% of the time)
Most favored to home team: Tom Hallion (Home team wins 72.2% of the time)

Lowest average run total: Doug Eddings (7.9 runs per game)
Highest average run total: Jerry Crawford (12.3 runs per game)

Calls least strikes: Andy Fletcher (1.48 K/BB rate)
Calls most strikes: Doug Eddings (3.21 K/BB rate)

Calls most balls: Ed Montague (3.85 BB per game)
Calls least balls: Doug Eddings (2.06 BB per game)

These are based on the umpires that have called at least 20 games behind home plate.

I made a pdf file of all the 2006 Major League Umpire stats. Next time you go to a ballgame, print this out and bring it with you. It will give you a little more insight into who's calling the game behind home plate.

Have people at your work wear the following colors in one week:

Monday: Orange (if one doesn't have orange, then red is ok)
Tuesday: Yellow
Wednesday: Green
Thursday: Purple (if no purple, then blue)
Friday: Wild Card!

(note how the colors progress through the rainbox through the week)

Yes, this is dorky, but c’mon, it’s fun! Or at the very least, you could secretly do this, and not let anyone at work know! I'll post the story about this this idea came about in the comments.