What? There was a dude that sat inside R2-D2 and operated him? What? I always thought R2-D2 was radio controlled. Three-foot eight-inch actor Kenny Baker says on his website, "What do you do inside R2D2? I sit inside and listen to instructions, it can be very noisy in there at times, so you have to be alert. I have two levers to enable movement from side to side, but the I can only move 3 inches at a time."
When you see "spudart," how do you read it? spu-dart? spud-art? I'm shocked whenever someone seriously reads it, "spu-dart." It's as though this person does not understand the english language.
spu dart?
What is a "spu?" And why would you say "spu" before the word "dart?" That makes absolutely no sense. Granted "spud-art" doesn't initially make a whole lotta sense either, but at least it's two english words. A "spu" is a nothing. It's not even a word.
I was on the phone with my hosting company, data393. And the guy asked me--and i'm serious--"is your email the one at S, P, U, dart dot org?" And i'm like, "you mean SPUD ART." And if i could, I would have slapped him in the face."
We all know that D.O.R.K. means Dynamite Outtasight Radical Kid. But what's the acronymal comeback for D.U.M.B.? Acronymfinder only lists three items:
• Duke University Marching Band
• Deep Underground Military Base
• Disasters Usually Motivate Backups
(BTW, D.O.R.K is not in acronymfinder. go figure, that's just dumb! hahaha)
The pointy top of the Prudential 2 building in chicago is much like a pencil. Stellaroxy recently fav'ed one of my photos on deviantart, and this pencil photo was sitting next to it. They make a nice pair.
I'm about to reach 1,000 cheers given on 43things.com. (43 things is a website where you post goals, and help others achieve their goals). Recently I also got 4,000 webpages bookmarked on delicious, so that got me thinking about all the numbers of different activities I do online:
Other stuff:
• 44,466 instant messages sent from home since September 12, 2006.
• 11,762 Google searches since January 2006.
• 4,642 emails sent from my work email since April 17, 2006.
• 2,036 emails sent from my home email since January 6, 2005.
• 589 contacts in my address book.
The 80th floor of the AON Center has fantastic views. As of now, it's the 3rd tallest building in America. (Sears Tower, Empire State Building, AON Center). The 80th floor is not open to the public, instead, it's leased to the Mid-America Club. I was granted access to this exclusive area, because my employer had our annual awards ceremony up there. It was the perfect day for photos in March 2008. Early enough in the year were smog is minimized, yet it was one of the first days of the year to have the sun shining.
Here's my collection of photos taken atop the AON Center:
Here's a fun little video shot with my $20 Vistaquest VQ1005. Look for more videos to be posted here soon. I've been shooting more with this little guy.
Riding around Chicago's loop on a brown line train. I set the camera on the window, and captured this neat reflection in a glass-clad building.
There are so many different baseball card sets, it's interesting to see the different designs from all the years. The cards from the 80s are soooo 80s design (check out the 87 fleer design pictured above). So are the 90s cards.
It would be nice to have a collection that has one card from every set. My brother and I loosely do that as we collect players from different eras. I've done Shawon Dunston, Mark Grace, and Geoff Jenkins. My brother has a monster Ryne Sandberg collection.
But here's a cool idea. It would be interesting to have just one binder, with just one card from every set. It doesn't matter if it's the same player. Just the simplicity of one card from every set. Maybe the one thread would be that they are all cubs players--where possible.
Give your smiley faces a number hat! It's great fun.
1:-) flattop or a confederate hat
2:-)
3:-) viking horns
4:-)
5:-) flattop with bangs
6:-) comb-over
7:-) parted
8:-) princess leia buns
9:-)
I couldn't think of names for 2, 4, and 9.
Whenever it comes time to do karaoke, I never know what songs to pick. I need to find some good dependable songs to do. Anybody have any favorite songs they like to karaoke?
Ever bookmark a site and then have a hard time finding it in your long list of favorites? You can organize your favorite sites with the website del.ico.us. By using tags, you can bookmark a webpage in multiple categories. Plus, your bookmarks are available everywhere, and you can share them with others!
I now have 4,003 bookmarks on del.icio.us at http://del.icio.us/spudart. Sure, that's too many to look at, but check out the tag categories over on the right of that page--especially the "print" tag. Anytime I print something out to read, I tag it with print. If you are ever looking for something interesting to read, just check out that tag, it now has 1,002 items. :-)
Here's a fun question to think about. If you had a fight tournament in your office, who would win? Think of the arena as your workspace.
I'm not saying who would win in my office, I'm just saying it's fun to think about. Wait, I will say. It would be Marco. I can see him having the determination totally annihilate. Hi Marco! I know you're reading! Just don't attack me now that i'm on the south side of the floor!
Chicago's IBM building. It's a classic. Very simple black box. And now he has a good buddy across the street from him, Trump Tower. Of course IBM traditionally stands for International Business Machines. But here we are talking about two good buddies on the same block. There's a mystery about this fellow, IBM. Everyone calls him by his initials. But what do the initials stand for? IBM refuses to say. What do you think IBM stands for?
I think it's Ivan Burley Mauer. I liked using Ivan, cuz it's a strong name for this strong building. And Burley sounds, well, burly. And Mauer is German for wall. (and I picked German, cuz the architect is Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.) Feel free to leave your I.B.M. name suggestions in the comments. Thank you.
Are you on a PC and have problems when Mac people send you fonts? One of my co-workers on Windows was having problems with Macintosh fonts that would get sent to her for ad layouts. Here's part of an email that I sent to her about how to use Mac fonts on a PC:
There’s a few different approaches to a solution. I order them from what is the worst to the best solution.
3) Converting software
Because I’m starting off with this solution means that it’s the “worst” solution. But I don’t think it should be really that bad. There is software out there that should be able to convert the macintosh fonts over to PC. Not being on a PC, I don’t know how well they work. I’m afraid that little details like the kerning pairs will come out funky. When you go to load a layout, some of the lines might break differently. But here’s some programs:
MacDisk 4.5 for Windows, $54.87 (35 euros) http://www.macdisk.com/mden.php3
This is actually a program that enables Windows users to read Macintosh-formatted media (cds, floppies, zip disks). But they say, “MacDisk offers certain features to transfer and convert font files between the Macintosh and the PC.”
A decent (although kinda confusing) explanation about why sometimes the mac font files you get are actually showing up empty: http://www.macdisk.com/fontsen.php3 Basically that webpage says, “on the Macintosh, fonts are stored in the resource fork of the file. When files are transferred through a network, or by email, you often get therefore an empty file, the data fork. Transferring fonts between Macintosh and PC must be done using real Macintosh media... MacDisk manages all those data media.”
If you have further problems once you have a trutype font, they recommend Typetool: “try to open the file in a font editor. We use TypeTool by FontLab. From the editor, save the font to another file. The editor will save the file with a more conforming structure, which should allow the installation in Windows.” But remember, you first need to convert the Mac Postscript font into a TruType PC font.
My recommendation (if you are going with the converter approach):
I would recommend trying the CrossFont program. Not only can you preview to see if it works, they also say “Features include Zip and Stuffit support” which is really how you are getting these files. MacDisk sounds like it’s main thing is handling cds and floppies and old school 90s stuff. If it ends up that CrossFont can’t find the Mac files, you might need to get the MacDisk, because it sounds like that software is good at getting empty resource files.
2) Buying the fonts
If the clients use the same fonts over and over again, perhaps you might be able to purchase the PC version of the fonts. That way, things don’t get all wonky with the converting program.
1) Opentype fonts (best solution)
Virtually all applications and operating systems work with OpenType fonts. If your clients used opentype fonts, you’d be able to use the fonts on both a mac and pc. No converting. No buying extra fonts. All happiness. But honestly, I don’t see that happening, because once people have their set of fonts, it’s not like they are gonna go out and start changing them.
Sidenote:
And oh, The Adobe Font Folio is actually not an application, but it’s just a collection of fonts. The current version of Adobe Font Folio is version 11, and that has all OpenType fonts, which rocks, because those are the ones that are compatible with all operating systems. The new complete set is $2,599 which includes 2,300 fonts.
17 award-winning innovations for your home were recently featured on MSN. Here's my favorite three.
Ucan
I’ve been wanting something like this for so long. I’m glad to see someone else think of this. The recycle bin and garbage can should be sitting next to each other. And it’s so nice to have them in one unit, instead of a having all these cans sitting everywhere.
Guarden
I’m waiting to for the people at the taste of chicago’s july 3rd fireworks to start using this.
Rake N Take
Dude, so cool. It’s like a huge CLAW. This thing would be so much fun to use.
Last week the brown line had delays. I can understand delays, they happen. Things can break. A train might hit someone. Whatever. Crap happens. But when crap happens, they need to improve how they react. Here's my email to the CTA:
------ Start Message From: Maldre, Matt Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:25:22 -0500 To: ctahelp@transitchicago.com Subject: Six suggestions from the brown line delay this morning
I have six suggestions for the CTA as a result of the brown line delay this morning at 9am:
1) Have broadcast speakers give proper information.
Sounds simple, right? But today during the brown line delay between 9:00am to 9:20am, she gave two crucial incorrect pieces of information.
One, she said that the delays were only affecting northbound brown line riders. She never ever mentioned southbound riders. And southbound riders were the majority of those affected by the delay due to the morning rush into downtown.
She also told people to take the Lawrence bus NORTHBOUND. She even said that several times. “Take the Lawrence bus NORTHBOUND.” But the Lawrence bus only runs east and west. You need people who operate the broadcast equipment to know how the CTA system works.
2) Have the attendant inform riders waiting on the platform.
After waiting 30 minutes on the Western brown line stop, some CTA workers appeared inspecting the tracks. I figured that can't be good, so I left the station. While exiting through the turnstiles, a CTA employee—the attendant for the station--was telling people to not bother entering through the turnstiles, that instead they should take the Lawrence bus. Good for him, informing people at the gates, but you need someone informing people on the platform. There were fifty to a hundred people waiting on that platform, because of the misinformation being provided over the loudspeakers.
I told the attendant, "You need to tell the people upstairs this. They are all standing there waiting.” He said, "Well, it was on the speakers." To which i replied, "uh no. The speakers only said there were delays NORTHBOUND. All those people are going SOUTHBOUND." So then as i exited the station, he started to go upstairs. That's right. Even the CTA employees don't know the difference between NORTHBOUND and SOUTHBOUND trains.
3) When alternate transit means are recommended during a delay, increase the number of buses offered on that alternate route.
Upon arriving at the Lawrence bus stop at Western at 9:30am, there was a long line of people waiting for the bus. Sheesh. If you are going to tell all these people on the brown line to take the Lawrence bus, then by all means, run more buses.
4) When there are delays on the train, inform your bus drivers, so people do not transfer to the delayed train.
When the Lawrence bus arrived, the bus was packed to the front with people standing. No more room. But about half the bus emptied out to take the brown line. What? But the brown line is delayed? These people need to know! So I told the people, they were all shocked that the brown line was delayed. The driver did not tell them.
5) When a CTA employee is inspecting the tracks, don’t have him use a stick. He should be testing the bolts with his hands.
I finally arrived at the red line train at 9:45am after being on the Lawrence bus. While waiting for the red line to come, there was a CTA employee on the tracks tapping the bolts with a wooden stick. Yes. A wooden stick. How can he test bolts with a wooden stick? Wouldn’t you think he would bend down, and actually twist them to see if they are loose? This is how you get tracks that are bad. You have employees testing them with a wooden stick! You need to hire inspectors who are physically able to bend down and test the bolts with their hands.
6) When a train is coming, and a CTA employee is inspecting the tracks, have that employee get out of the way.
Another one that sounds simple, right? This same employee that was testing the tracks with a wooden stick was still standing on the tracks while both a red AND purple line came. Both trains were at the same point. He stood on the red line tracks forcing the red line train to wait while the purple line crawled by. What? That guy should be getting on the platform to get out of the way. He should not be forcing an entire train of riders to wait, because he simply does not want to get onto the platform.
Once the purple line train crawled by, he stepped over to the purple line tracks to let the red line go by. This goes back to hiring inspectors who are physically able to do their jobs. You need an inspector who can climb back up on the platform when a train starts coming his direction.
Spudart.org has lots of fun stuff by Matt Maldre, a 35-year-old Chicago Christian, artist, designer, illustrator, photographer, webmaster, entrepreneur, curator, goofball, and croquet player. Read more about Matt on the about page.
