If i was Wrigley Company, I would buy the naming rights to Wrigley Field from Sam Zell. But I would name it Wrigley Spearmint Field one year. Then Wrigley Wintergreen Field another year. Juicy Fruit Field another year. That way I get to sell new shirts and mugs every year.

I'm sure Wrigley Big Red would not be welcome name. Although Wrigley Hubba Bubba Field would ROCK. Although I would change the name once every five years. Every year is too much.

Wrigley Company also owns Big League Chew. Why Wrigley does not sell Big League Chew at Wrigley Field is a mystery to me.

The complete lineup of Wrigley products that they could name Wrigley Field:

Lifesavers Field is a great name. Just amazing. Imagine the Cubs winning the World Series in Lifesavers Field.

One of my pink flamingoes photos has been selected to be published in a photo book: "Pink Attitude!" It was about a year ago that 10,000 Pink Flamingoes invaded Chicago. And now they'll be part of this pink book. That's neat. The editor for the book discovered my photo on flickr. Hooray flickr!

Winter winter winter
hanging around for much too long
people grow tired
people grow weary
too much snow
too much cold

Winter winter winter
it hangs around waiting for a hug
waiting for some love.

Does anyone want to be on my shopping cart race team this Saturday? If so, email me or IM me via AIM.

Details:
The Chiditarod Urban Iditarod - The most absurdly amazing shopping cart race in Chicago! Saturday, March 1, 2008 www.chiditarod.org

The Iditarod is the famous long-distance race in which yelping dogs tow a sled across Alaska. Chiditarod is pretty much the same thing, except that instead of dogs, it's people, instead of sleds, it's shopping carts, and instead of Alaska, it's Chicago.

When: Saturday, March 1 2008, 12:30pm
Where: Starting point of the race: corner of Damen and Shakespeare

At midnight on February 17, 2009, all full-power television stations in the United States will stop broadcasting in analog and switch to 100% digital broadcasting.

You will need a Digital TV converter to watch TV on your old analog TV set. The government is offering $40 coupons. Each household can get up to two coupons at www.dtv2009.gov.

The government recommends just four national retailers: Wal-Mart, Circuit City, Radio Shack, and Best Buy. Each of them offer only one or two options. Here they are:

Best Buy
Insignia NS-DXA1 Digital-to-Analog Converter for Analog TVs: $59.99

Radio Shack
Zenith DTT900 Digital-to-Analog Converter Box: $59.99

Circuit City
Zenith DTT900 Digital-to-Analog Converter Box: $59.99

Wal-Mart
Magnavox TB100MW9 Digital-to-Analog TV Converter Box: $49.87
Thomson RCA DTA800 Digital TV Converter Box: $49.87

You can't purchase any of these online. They must be done in the store (probably because they want you to redeem the coupon in-store). And I couldn't find any new ones offered on Amazon.com.

What are your interests? Would you like to be notified of events in your city that matches your interests?

Eventful.com has a TON of events. And you can create custom calendars based on a keyword. You can create custom calendars based on a set of keywords. It will notify you via email when there are new events.

AND! You could easily add it to your calendar via the iCal feed.

I made a bunch of watch calendars for Chicago with the following keywords: Antarctica, atari, badminton, dodgeball, Estonia, free hugs, hot wheels, laser tag, monster jam, Nerf, origami, paper airplanes, pinball, pinewood derby, Podcast, rock paper scissors, snowball, SpongeBob, wiffleball, WWE, and YouTube. Check 'em out at: http://eventful.com/calendars?q=owner:spudart.

Monster trucks. They are great.

Monster trucks in a small arena. Not so great.

Currently the Monster Trucks come to the bandbox AllState Arena every year in February. I've gone to see the show twice, and it's alright. Don't get your hopes up at the AllState. I heard some hardcore fans explaining that the Allstate Arena is a poor location for Monster Trucks, cuz it's so small, they can't get up to full speed and really fly. Instead they have to go in circles in this little coffee cup of a stadium.

The Chicagoist speculates that Monster Trucks might be coming to Soldier Field. Rock! To have Monster trucks roam free in the big Soldier Field. AWWW YEAH! MONSTER TRUCKS AT SOLDIER FIELD. LET THE MONSTER TRUCK GO FREE IN CHICAGO!

As Antartica experiences its summer season, Chicago gets hit with winter. Often it gets super cold in Chicago, and it makes me wonder if we ever get colder temperatures than Antartica. And I'm talking South Pole, Antartica.

On January 18, 2008, Chicago was just 14 degrees warmer than the South Pole at 3:50am.

January 18, 2008, 3:50am
Chicago: 9.8°
South Pole: -5.8°
Difference: Chicago warmer by 14 degrees

January 19, 2008, 6:50am
Chicago: -2.9°
South Pole: -18.4°
Difference: Chicago warmer by 15.5 degrees

This blog post has been recorded as a podcast on http://www.vocalo.org/node/14923 Go over there and give it a listen!

Check out the webcam of the South Pole.

It's -43.1° F at the South Pole. Wind Chill -72.2°F. And to think, this is their summer right now.

It's gotta be really hard to be homeless and have to constantly ask for money or food all day long, only to have people reject you all the time. That's one of the hardest things in life, when people reject you so much to the point that you basically don't even exist. I can see how some homeless people can be really bitter. It's hard.

But on Valentines Day, I encountered a delightful woman. I ordered a quick egg McMuffin at McDonalds by the Chicago Trump Tower (yes, i know many roll their eyes at McDonalds and their ways, but anyhow) and the cashier gave me this valentines day coupon for one free sweet tea. (It' a new drink they are promoting). I was so pleasantly happy to get this valentines day coupon. For a FREE tea. I love tea! I love free things! And they are celebrating valentines day. It's just all very sweet.

I ate my mcmuffin, and was walking out of the McDonalds adoring my fancy new hologram stamped coupon for a free tea. It just made me really happy. But i'm not writing about the coupon. Instead, I'm writing about this homeless woman sitting in Wrigley Building Plaza. (Y'know that space between the two buildings). At first I just walked by her, cuz i was too busy looking at my coupon. But I realized that this is sweet tea. Who wouldn't enjoy a nice sweet tea? I went over to her and asked, "Would you like a free sweet tea?" And she just broke out this big smile, "Why yes! Yes I would! Thank you!"� And she just had this big smile on her face like it was so neat.

It made me so happy to share something that made me really happy. And I was also happy that someone would be so humble to be willing and happy to receive a gift from someone else. So thank you to this woman with her joyous thanks and heart on valentines day.

There are no Verizon phones that can record video over 320x240. Instead 640x480 video would be very nice.

Click the comments to view all the photo and video resolutions of Verizon phones.

pfuh

definition:
Interjection/Slang. (used to express disgust, disappointment, frustration, contempt, or the like).

example:
as in, "I certainly did not leave my planet Zork to Earth for the abundance of washers and dryers. Pfuh!"

In every apartment building complex, there should be an equivalent number of washer/dryers to units in the building. That is the best ratio.

e.g. My building has 35 units, thus there should be 35 washer/dryers. Instead my building has five. Last month I looked at an apartment that had 140 units with TWO--count em--TWO washer/dryers!

Nobody likes the stress of having all the units being used in a building. Sure, it's extra maintenance to have extra washers and dryers, but I bet people do laundry a lot more if there were extra machines.

Vote and help make city history for Decatur, Illinois as they pick the sculpture for the 2009 Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial. The winning model will be announced following Black History Month.

My brother and I voted for option #1, so our two votes accounted for the 16 it got so far. The leading option has just 62 votes! Let's swing the vote to get option number one picked! Vote today at the City of Decatur - New Sculpture Poll.

Every few days I'll check in on their poll and report the status. Let's see Monument 1 rise up in the rankings!

Below is a screengrab from my news feed on facebook. I have to admit I've fallen to the "You've Been Chosen" line in the sponsored ad.

"Me? Chosen? Wow. I'm special." So I clicked through the ad and signed up for this email newsletter from Thrillist. Although I have to admit the body text intrigued me as well.

Two great sites that need to be merged:

Amazon wish list
You can keep track of all the books you want to own or read by simply adding them to your wish list. When someone buys you an item on your list, it will show up to everyone else as purchased. Everyone in America should have an Amazon wish list. (here's mine).

Worldcat
Find any book in any public library in America. Why buy the book when you can first borrow it? Worldcat also lets you create a list of books that you would like to borrow. But I already have all my wanted books in amazon's wish list, over 100 books. It would be nice to import my amazon wish list into WorldCat.

Combo
Merging an Amazon wish list into a WorldCat account would enable people to see if any of their wanted books are at their local library. Wouldn't that be great?!

The Chicago Tribune published an article about the public art haikus appearing in CTA train stations. I was pleased that people's comments for this online article were mostly all haikus. So I wrote my own:

I like how seven
of the first eight comments are
some thoughtful haikus.

Too embarrassed to throw a snowball at some famous buildings or artwork? It's almost just as much fun to make snowballs and just leave them at a landmark or building. Oh wait a minute! This is kinda like making a snowman--only smaller and easier. Oh wait! You could stack three snowballs on top of each other and make a mini-snowman. Oh yeah. That would be cool. Mini snowmen all over the city.

Business people in downtown Chicago can be so... businessee-ee. Let's have some fun and throw snowballs at each other. Feel weird pelting a stranger with a snowball, then head on over to the Picasso or the Flamingo and take some target practice. Who knows, maybe someone will start throwing snow at you.

Stuck waiting while standing in slushy snow? Now you can pass the time creating rainbows! Just take either your left or right shoe (either will work fine), and stand that one foot on the edge of the sole, so your foot is not completely flat on the ground. Then slide your foot in an arc pattern on the ground. Be amazed as you turn dark icky slush into a glorious rainbow!

In the top 1000 baby names for 2006 there are twelve name variations based on Aiden: Jayden, Hayden, Brayden, Jaden, Caden, Kaden, Ayden, Braden, Cayden, Kaiden, Caiden, Jaydon.

Hayden the originator
The first name to appear in the top 1000 was Hayden, so you could say that all these variations are based on Hayden.

Braden the revivalist
By the mid-1980s, Braden was more popular and started the ressurgance of the name within the past 30 years.

Aiden the ruling king
Right now the most popular variation is Aiden leading the pack overall by being the 30th most popular name in 2006. It's weird how Aiden came out of nowhere in 1995 to become the leader.

Personally, I just get them all confused.