The always great Tom of Xanga posted about how eggs are so expensive at two bucks for a dozen. But really, aren't eggs cheap?

I always thought eggs were incredibly, incredibly cheap. But then again, i don't bake cakes or use mayo. How many eggs does it take to make a cake? Does it take like 12 of them or something. I have no idea.

But really, to pay one or two bucks for 12 fragile eggs and have them transported all safe without a crack, from the chicken's butt to the shelf on the store is rather amazing.

It's kinda like paying 42 cents to mail a couple sheets of paper to another city thousands of miles away. I'm glad to pay 42 cents, so i don't to walk thousands of miles to give someone a couple sheets of paper.

(Image courtesy Taekwonweirdo via Creative Commons license)

Huh?
Protesters march down Chicago’s Michigan Avenue. I look out my 14th floor window in the Tribune Tower to see banners saying “Free Tibet.”

Tibet? Honestly, I have no idea what Tibet is about. Heck I don’t even know where Tibet is. It just sounds like some cute country. After a little bit of internet research, here's what I found:

A summary about Tibet:
Tibet has been ruled by China for 10 centuries. But China never really did anything with the area. They just kinda let it hang out and have the Dalai Lama govern the area. Tibet did try to declare their sovereignty in the early 20th century. From wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibet:

Tibet proclaimed its independence from China in 1911, right before the fall of the Qing government. However, "at no time did any western power come out in favor of its independence or grant it diplomatic recognition.”[4] The People's Republic of China (PRC), citing historical records and the Seventeen Point Agreement signed by the Tibetan government in 1951, claims Tibet as a part of China (with a small part, depending on definitions, controlled by India). Currently every country in the world recognizes China's sovereignty over Tibet.

Then in 1950 China invaded Tibet after the Communists come to power. They decided to show everyone they truly own Tibet. The Tibetan army destroyed in battle at Chamdo. In 1966 all religious practice is outlawed, over 4000 monasteries are destroyed, and monks are either imprisoned or "re-educated."

My interpretation:
The violence from China is definitely wrong, and worthy of protest. But China does technically own the land. Kinda sucks. It's like when someone owns an old house. They don't do anything with it and leave it rot and decay. Then you get someone who moves in and decides to actually do something with the house, then the owner is like, "heyyy! what are you doing!? This is MY house!" So they decided to beat everyone up, and totally trash the house.

With China's violent actions towards Tibet, you got people wanting Tibet to be free. They kinda have a case as the Tibetan army, led by British-trained officers, defeated Chinese army in 1918. Tibet and China signed a peace treaty; but China refused to ratify treaty. China has always "ruled" the area. Sometimes they let Tibet do their own thing, sometimes they slam their fist down. Should Tibet be its own country? I don't know.

Please correct me if I'm wrong about any of these statements. I'm just a newbie who always thought Tibet just sounded like a cute name.

Other sources:
http://www.freetibet.org/info/facts/fact18.html
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-71442/Tibet
Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Timeline of Tibet

It's fun to take a phrase, convert it to spanish and then back to english. We termed that the freetranslation cycle. But what if we took our Pledge of Allegiance and converted it from English to Spanish to English to French to English to German to English to Italian to English to Dutch to English to Portugese to English.

ENGLISH:
I Pledge Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
and to the Republic for which it stands,
one Nation under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

English-Spanish-English-French-English-German-English-
Italian-English-Dutch-English-Portugese-English:
I promise in the flag the faithful one of the United States
and to the republic for that itself for,
pushs a God of the nation
I short I aim onscheidbaar with the liberty and the justice for everybody.

There are now 14,000 comments on spudart.org!!!
Here are the all-time top ten commenters on spudart.org with the number of comments made:

2,074: Tom
1,502: Unlikelymoose
1,237: Laura
249: Lisa
201: Andy
134: Eliana
119: Sparx
78: Crissy
73: Angie
71: Fred
71: Kara

These people account for 5,809 of the comments. That's 41% of the total!
Thanks to everyone who comments on spudart.org!

(photo courtesy of sparx)

Monkeys across the country are coming out in huge packs voting for presidential candidate Barack Obanana. Pollsters Franklin J. Schaffner says, "We are noticing the increase in primate attendance. I'm glad we installed those monkey bars above the voting booths, because the chimps like to vote with their feet."

Despite the increase for Barack Obanana, there is a lack of voters coming out for Hillary Clamshell, because frankly, who likes clamshells?

Monkey bars belong everywhere. In hallways. Along the aisles of CTA cars. In meeting rooms. Architects of the world, pay attention. Monkey bars belong everywhere! Start incorporating monkey bars into all your designs. Who doesn't appreciate a good monkey bar?

Can you believe that nobody sells curly straws on Google shopping?

(Photo courtesy of Sparx)

This block of ice is actually an alien from Mars. He's telling us, "You earthlings keep insisting that it's spelled martians. It's really marsians. We are from the planet of MARS, not MART." He also wants us to know that Marsians are actually ice creatures, and not flesh creatures, because in his words, "We are actually ice, cuz Mars is like, freakin cold, man. But you are right about the green thing."

Next time you see a block of green ice, make sure you say hi, and welcome him to our planet.

A columnist for the Chicago Tribune, Eric Zorn, doesn't understand Facebook. People's expectations are too high. They think it's some sort of savior or fix-it-all website. It's not. But it does enable you to keep in touch with your larger network.

People think it's dumb to keep in touch by updating your status. Or by doing some sort of profile or whatever. But it's a connection. Keep those connections alive, and it will help you in the long run.

From page 54 of “The Tipping Point:”

Granovetter argues that is is because when it comes to find out about new jobs — or, for that matter, new information, or new ideas -- “weak ties” are always more important than strong ties. Your friends, after all, occupy the same world that you do. They might work with you, or live near you, and go to the same churches, schools, or parties. How much, then, would they know that you wouldn’t know? Your acquaintances, on the other hand, by definition occupy a very different world than you. They are much more likely to know something that you don’t. To capture this apparent paradox, Granovetter coined a marvelous phrase: the strength of weak ties. Acquaintances, in short, represent a source of social power, and the more acquaintances you have the more powerful you are.

Please join facebook now and add me as a friend. My profile is at: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=669595533

Image courtesy from lrargerich via creative commons license

Earthquake hits! Cracks form in the ground! What are those cracks called? And it's not the "fault line." The fault line is the plates underground and stuff. I'm talkin' about right on the surface of the ground. Those cracks. I've tried searching earthquake crack on One look reverse dictionary and the dictionary.com reverse dictionary. But nothing.

The earthquake cracks just gotta have a name. What is it?

Add the following to your first name and become a knight!

--ington
--du loc
--alahad
--agnoet
--chefort

e.g. Mattington, Matt du loc, Mattalahad, Mattagnoet, Mattchefort.
Cool, eh?

Find more knight names at: http://www.lowchensaustralia.com/names/knights.htm

The South Pole has not experienced an above zero temperature since January 13, 2002. Can you imagine? Never having temperatures above zero? You'd always have to say "it's negative thirty" or "it's thirty below zero." You'd think they would have to say those phrases so much that they would just say the number and not bother with the "negative" or "below zero" part. So when someone says, "it's forty degrees outside," they actually mean negative forty.

Here's the highest temperatures per year at the South Pole (Amundsen-Scott, Antarctica):
2008: -6
2007: -1
2006: -3
2005: -1
2004: -5*
2003: -4**
2002: 3

* Wunderground.com actually reports 24 degrees, but that's an anamoly. There was a misreading on the gauge. Someone was breathing on it, or something.
** Wunderground.com reported 33 degrees for just one hour, but again, someone's breathing on the gauge.

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

A workspace where designers, writers, freelancers and entrepreneurs can consistently meet and get work done together. Working alone can get a bit lonely. I know. Tribune Company gave me a sabbatical for four months in 2006 where I worked by myself learning a CMS program, Drupal. I thought I’d love to be able to work from home. But then I found out that I greatly desired working with other people. A search for shared office spaces in Chicago came up blank.

The San Francisco Chronicle article “Shared work spaces a wave of the future" repeaked my interest in shared office spaces. This post will be a collection of spaces in Chicago. Feel free to post anything you know about here.

1807 W. Sunnyside in Chicago's Ravenswood neighborhood.
$250/mo: dedicated membership
$150/mo: floater membership
Details and photos: http://coworking.pbwiki.com/CoworkingChicagoRavenswood

7627 N. Greenview Ave, Chicago
Free: Get-togethers once a month
Details: wiki.workatjelly.com/Chicago

Directories:
• Co-working Chicago on pbwiki.com
• Some google map someone made

Print out cute photos from the internet and include them with your mail.
• Paying your credit card? Stick a hedgehog in with it.
• Submitting your student load payment? Slide a squirrel in the envelope.
• Sending in a rebate? That certainly needs a pug.

Backstory: I bought a couple bags of dark chocolate M&Ms at Walgreens, and out of the register comes a loooooong rebate for a free Real Simple Tote. How can I resist FREE?! I filled out the rebate and put it into an envelope, but the envelope seemed so empty. OH! Why not send them a cute photo from cuteoverload.com?! A trend is born. Share the love.

Listen to this blog post as a podcast! http://www.vocalo.org/node/14786

Dear offices that play music,

What does your office play? My office plays no music, but I find it interesting what other office force their employees to listen to. Sometimes it's just one station. Other times, it's a group decision. Rule29, a design firm in the west burbs of Chicago posted their top five album list from the past year:
5. The Killers
4. Eric Hutchinson
3. Maroon 5
2. Grey’s Anatomy Soundtrack
1. Walk the Line Soundtrack

What's your office play?

The iThink application on facebook brings up interesting debates. Here's one point someone was trying to make:

The most influential religion in the world today isn't Judaism, Christianity, or Islam – it is the worship of money.

I disagreed. Here's my reasoning:

To say money has more influence is to say that it has more power. Nothing is more powerful than God. There is more grace than sin.

Romans 5: 20-21 - The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more.

What do you think?

Chicago MUST have the lamest sticker EVER, because it's not even a sticker. It's a lame piece of paper. And it's not even in color. It's just in black and white. Part of me wonders if someone at my voting location stole all the stickers and just made up their own xerox copy. And then this person wallpapered his/her house with the real stickers. Jerk.

I should just make my own stickers and bring them to the voting location and ask them to hand those out instead. "I voted, so I rule." … and then in fine print underneath, "If you didn't vote, you drool." See, it rhymes. Here's how it would look:

I VOTED, SO I RULE
if you didn't, you drool.

A sweater with a pattern of question marks all over. I want one. So bad. Imagine wearing a question-mark-covered sweater all day. Would you go up to people and ask questions? Or maybe people would come up to you and ask questions. I'm on the hunt trying to find the rare and elusive sweater with question mark pattern. Any help is appreciated.

(painting by NAY)

People love quotations.
People love paintings.

I want to make paintings of quotations. And not your typical inspirational-lala-poster type. But something real. Like that artist named NAY that Erik Maldre featured on etsyart.com.

Heya art students, do you have any additional resources or links to share?

Background:
On Tuesday, March 4, Illinois Wesleyan University held an art panel discussion with six creatives, including myself. I'll be adding notes and comments to this post after the event.

For all the art students I'm bringing folders filled with printouts of resources, including information from the Chicago Artist's Coalition, the Juried Art Venue written by an alumnus, salary guides from the AIGA and Coroflot, 20 questions for interviews, and a list of student discounts available through magazines and organizations.

Notes about the event:
After the event I'll add more notes to the comments of this post. I welcome any students and participants of this event to write anything in the comments of this post (or feel free to contact me via email, IM, or facebook). What did you find interesting about the event? Do you have any additional resources/links to share?

My wrestling alias Stegosaurus Smash on Facebook is the wrestling champion in Tribune Company. Nobody touches me! Rar!

Check this out:


AWWWWW YEAH! TRIBUNE COMPANY WRESTLING CHAMPION. C'MON CHALLENGE ME. BRING IT ON! BRING IT ON!

Let's say you are sitting at home and you buy an mp3 off the iTunes music store. Then you go into work and you want to listen to that same mp3. It would be nice if you could pull up your purchased list and then redownload YOUR music again. But how the system currently works, when you pull up previous purchases, it only shows them as a list, no redownloads available.

Apple, I BOUGHT this music, I want it to be able to download it at home AND work, pleeeeeeeease.