I have trouble memorizing long verses, but when they are six words long, it's much easier. Not only is six words shorter, but you can break them up into a structure of 3x3. Or 2x2x2. They are handy little phrases just to think about walking down the street or with various empty times during the day.
I've been meaning to make a website or blog or something with them. Then it hit me. With twitter, it's the perfect medium. Twitter is short and quick. These verses are short and quick. People like reading their Twitter daily. Once a day, I could send out a verse.
I set up a twitter account called sixwordverses for daily tweets for phrases in the Bible that are six words long.
There a couple other tools that are handy to create these tweets. I have four sites bookmarked in one folder on Firefox. Every week or so, I launch all four sites at once by doing a "open all in tabs" for these four bookmarks:
1) Google docs. I keep a running draft document of verses to post. (This is where I also write my spudart.org posts, so it's nice to stay within the same platform).
2) hootsuite.com enables me to schedule a group of tweets to automatically post to a future date.
3) bit.ly for the URL shortening. Not sure if i'm staying with them. Sure, they have URL tracking. But I want all the stats on one page. Right now I have to click on each URL to see the info.
4) studylight.org for the Scripture references. I like the idea that someone can click on the link and then be able to easily read the whole chapter for context, or even click on some of the commentaries for that verse. In high school I was always so impressed by how much the Bible is able to cross-reference itself. It's truly a true book of God. I like to think that someone else might come to realize that as well as he/she goes through studylight.org.
Go ahead and check it out. Sixwordverses on twitter. Please follow me. :)
On twitter, you are limited to 140 characters per tweet. If your message is too long, there should be a site where you can paste in your text and it will shorten the text down by changing "to" to "2" "and" to "&" "one" to "1" and so on. Then if it's still not short enough, it'll take out some of the vowels.
161 characters: (21 too long)
I don't know about you, but it would be great to have a service to make my long messages be under 140 characters. When I'm writing I use lots of words and words.
136 characters (4 under)
I dunno bout u, but it'd be gr8 2 have a service 2 make my long mssges b under 140 characters. When Im writn I use lots of words & words
I like how the Millennium Park logo treats the MP letters. My name is Matthew Paul Maldre. I greatly appreciate the MP treatment. That got me curious who has matthewpaul.com.
He's a great web designer. I sent him the following email:
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hey Matthew Paul. I'm also a Matthew Paul. Only my "Paul" is my middle name. I was just looking to see who had Matthewpaul.com. I'm glad you bring honor to the name of Matthew Paul!
Rock on.
Matthew Paul
===============
Matthew Pauls rule. Yes, we do. I feel bad for the Erik Justins of the world. I mean, erikjustin.com is an alright site. But not as nice as matthewpaul.com.
Does anyone have a site with your first and middle name? If so, what do you think of it? (leave your thoughts in the comments below, thanks).
Samurais! Cigars! Electric guitars! Here's a way to spice up the international baseball tournament we know as the World Baseball Classic.
Have players wear uniforms designed according to the warrior outfit of their native country. The warrior outfit will be determined by the first result of a Google image search for COUNTRY NAME and WARRIOR.
Take the championship game, Korea vs. Japan.
Google gives this as the first results for Korean Warrior:
How freakin cool would that be to have SAMURAI warriors with big huge blades?...Playing baseball!
Japanese Warrior:
This Japanese samurai would totally annihilate the Korean one.
How about the Venezeula and USA who lost in the semi-finals?
Google gives this as the first results for Venezuelan Warrior:
Wow. Venezuela would have their players running around dressed as cigars. I wonder how they would do against the weiners in Miwaukee's sausage race.
USA Warrior:
And then TEAM USA would be a bunch of power rock electric guitars. HOW COOL IS THAT? Baw-wowwow-waaaaah!
A few other noteworthy uniforms would are Chinese Taipei:
Dude, a guy in a Judo outfit kicking the crap out of like, twenty guys!
But Team Netherlands takes the cake for their Netherlandian Warrior:
Dude, it's a freakin' cannon. Talk about total destruction. What batter can hit a ball shot out of a cannon?
Bud Selig, I ask you please, implement native warrior uniforms in the 2012 World Baseball Classic.
Is it just me or does it seem lately that Google docs goes BONKERS on the auto-save? It auto-saves after every sentence. And seemingly every 30 seconds. And I can't type while it auto-saves.
It's like Google docs is very worrisome. "mustsave--mustsave--mustsave"
"Oh no! Let me save that again!"
*two seconds later* "Ooooh. you typed another character! I better save that for you!"
Okay, Google docs, It's very nice of you to be considerate and save for me. I appreciate it. But can you lay off on the saving? k. Thanks.
When America messes up so much that people get tired of living here, we'll joke about moving to Canada. But really. Canada?
A) It's so far away.
B) It's Canada.
But what if we lived in Europe. Couldn't you just move to another country much easier? There's countries all crammed together. The proximity of countries is kinda like our states here. But do people in Europe do that? Do people in the Czech Republic grow weary of Václav Klaus that they move to Poland?
I love the book store in the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. They have such a great selection of books. I found nine books that I want. Yes, NINE. Here they are:
Usually when I'm shopping, I'll find a book--MAYBE two books--that I add to my wish list. But here are NINE books that are just SUPER DUPER GREAT.
I've posted 22 tr.im URLs on twitter (I'm user spudart). What gets the most clicks? Drama and iphones!
41 clicks
It's kinda funny that the Chicago trolley service is ELIMINATED! http://tr.im/chicagotrolly Note: People love drama. Oh no! Service ELIMINATED! Maybe I should do ALL-CAP tweets more often.
37 clicks
@RebelliousBird did my video convince you to get an iphone? http://tr.im/iphonevspaper Note: iPhones. People love 'em.
Play a fun game at work on your whiteboard. Have people guess what the first 70-degree day will be in your city. We started this competition about a month ago. Guess what today is? THE FIRST 70 DEGREE DAY IN CHICAGO!
Guess who had the closest guess?
:-) I am one dollar richer. After winning the dollar bill, I wrote the following on it:
We are currently looking for a new whiteboard game. If anyone has any suggestions, please suggest it in the comments. Let me say this, we are not doing a NCAA bracket. Sawwy.
According to urbandictionary.com, the 2nd definion for my initials MPM is "Common typo for lol. Most of the time it happens when you don't look at the keyboard or when you are typing really fast :p"
Let's all take in a good laugh. Look up your initials on urbandictionary.com and leave the definition in the comments. But if it's dirty, I don't really want to hear it. Then again, I wonder if the first definition for MPM is dirty. hm.
AIGA is a great resource for graphic designers. But the annual membership fee is $315. Ouch. $315 a year. I recently wrote a letter to the AIGA asking if they have considered lowering their annual fee. This isn't an exciting email (as I will often spice up my inquiry emails). I just wanted to post this online for the public to see.
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With these harder economic times, I wonder if it has been discussed at AIGA to lower membership costs. I was a member from 2000-2005 as my workplace paid for the membership. As budgets got cut, our membership was eliminated from the budget. AIGA truly is a great resource. But I personally have a hard time justifying the $315 annual fee. Just as a comparison, I am a member of the Chicago Artists Coalition as their membership fees are more reasonable: http://caconline.org/register.asp?destination=membership
It would be nice to have a setting on Twitter to get only @replies sent as a text message to my phone. Getting tweets from all my friends would be crazy. But getting just the @replies would be really nice.
Is there a setting for receiving only @replies on my phone?
Nope. But if we get enough feature requests, we may just add it for you. Send us one!
I would love for people to flood Twitter with requests to be able to get only @replies as text messages. Here's what I recommend putting in the request box on Twitter's request page at twitter.zendesk.com/requests/portal/new:
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I would like a setting for receiving only @replies on my phone. I see your help page says it's not possible, but if you get enough requests, you'll add it. Here I am requesting it. Please add a setting for receiving only @replies on my phone. Thank you.
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Wow. They moved the entire Sears Tower over to Navy Pier. And they built a huge dome over it. A few questions:
1) How did they get the Sears Tower to fit inside Navy Pier?
2) If there is a dome over the Sears Tower, then isn't the dome America's tallest building?
3) What are they doing with the land left over from where the Sears Tower used to be?
If I may make a suggestion for question 3. They could fill the entire empty lot with a unique collection of all the mini souvenir statuettes of the Sears Tower. Each one would be different, and it would fill the entire lot with different interpretations of the beloved Sears Tower (now located in Navy Pier).
Outside Tribune Tower in Chicago today is a promotion by Cricket Wireless and Samsung. I know this because I work on the 14th floor of the Tribune Tower and all I hear today is the guy on the loud speaker, "Come everyone make a call on the WORLD'S LARGEST working cell phone brought to you by Cricket Wireless and Samsung."
"WHO WHO wants to be a part of HISTORY? Who wants to step up and make the next call? Come on and make a text message with the WORLD'S LARGEST cell phone." After hearing this about a HUNDRED times at work, we joked around how it would be funny to go down there and send a text from this phone; then we'd have the phone number of the WORLD'S LARGEST cell phone. But certainly they would have that phone number blocked or restricted, right? Of course they would. Of coooooourse they would...
I thought it would just be fun to go down and at least participate in this promo and have my coworkers hear me using the WORLD'S LARGEST cell phone. We can hear everything that is going on anyways, might as well have them hear me doing it.
After a short elevator ride down, I arrive outside at our court. There's only one person in line ahead of me and he's playing Wii bowling on the phone. He's got a Wii controller in his hand and he throws a strike! FREE TSHIRT! I ask one of the cricket girls if the has a bowling app. She said, "no, only the world's largest phone can do that."
The Wii bowler gets his tshirt and i'm next up. The announcer dude asks me, "What's YOUR name!?"
"Matt. and I would like to text my buddy from the world's largest cell phone."
"We have MATT here and he's gonna text his buddy!"
One of the cool things is that the actual buttons on the phone work. And they are HUGE. I literally have to walk across the stage as I punch in his phone number. Then I punch in the text.. "Hey, Im on da wrlds bggst fon" Then they had me hit this big red button and BOOM! it's sent. They hand me a free shirt. And i'm happy to have the experience.
But here's where the story gets funny.
I go back up to work all happy having been a part of cell phone history. Upon arriving back at work, my friend says, "Matt, where were you? I called the phone back!"
I can't believe he CALLED the phone back!
My buddy explains, "they were rather surprised, and kinda said off the phone, 'I didn't know we were taking incoming calls.'" Through bursts of laughter he continues, "Yeah, I asked for Matt and they said you weren't there anymore. So I just kinda hung up after that."
I still can't believe he called the phone back. Granted, we joked about it before me going down there. That's funny that I wasn't there. They were looking for me. Actually, in retrospect that would have been cool to have been called back by the world's largest cell phone.
There you have it. I am now in possession of the phone number to the WORLD'S LARGEST cell phone. What should I do with it? I'm tempted to txt them. "Hey, turn down the volume on your phone, your neighbors can hear it."
Hey, could you vote my story up on windycitizen.com? Cool. Thanks!
Give me back that filet-o-fish.
Give me that fish!
Give me back that filet o fish.
Give me that fish!
What if it were you hanging up on this wall?
If it were you in that sandwich you wouldn't be laughing at all.
The McDonalds commericial taking over the nation.
Take a look at the URL that McDonalds is promoting: filetofish.com
It's supposed to read: filet o fish .com
But it looks like: filet of ish .com
Mmmm nothing tastes better at McDonalds than some ish. Lemme get some good ish.
Or better yet it looks like: file to fish .com
Really! I can get my fishing license at file to fish.com?
I love that commericial so much, here are some more filet-o-fish vides on YouTube:
Some teenagers react the commericial in front of a cashier at McDonalds. It's pretty hilarious.
Patting burgers.
Something tells me this girl is patting this burger a little too much.
How to say "filet-o-fish"
Filet-o-fish challenge
Eat 10 filet-o-fish sandwiches in 7 minutes.
It's great that Comcast's Customer Support are on Twitter. They respond right away to your problems and guide you in the right direction. However, in the middle of helping you, the support team is also twittering to each other about going out to drink. Here we have the Comcast Director of Digital Care as "Comcastcares" telling "ComcastBonnie," "Or are you stopping for a Beer? It is the kickoff of Philly Beer Week."
So just keep in mind the next time you call Comcast, that they are actually making beer plans while helping you.
Greetings people of Borders. I heard recently that you are planning on closing the Borders bookstore at 830 N Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL in January 2010. Here's how to save your location and increase your sales.
I'll give you the solution right up front:
Add more cashiers so customers do not choose to abandon their books and leave.
The situation:
We all know that Borders is losing customers to people who buy books from the internet. But when you buy books from the internet, you have to wait for it be shipped. The Borders bookstore on Michigan Avenue in Chicago is extremely popular. There is always a line to purchase.
Borders Unique Selling Proposition:
What makes Borders unique is being able to buy the book RIGHT NOW.
The problem:
When a customer has to wait in line to buy the book, they will simply leave and purchase it online. Don't make your customers wait. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I thought of buying a book at Borders, but then changed my mind when I saw that line.
It's a real problem:
It's a real thing. It happens all the time. Let me ask you, how many unshelved books are there by around the register area. I bet if you ask the employees of the Michigan Avenue store that there are a ton of unshelved books around the first floor. Customers are abadoning their purchases, because of any wait in line they have to withstand.
Don't block your biggest feature:
You are creating a roadblock to your customers completing their purchase. You are blocking the your PRIMARY feature that you offer to customers. Books RIGHT NOW.
Lines are not popular at Borders:
Why would you kill your most popular reason why people purchase books from you? Perhaps you have adopted the Apple strategy. You allow people to stand in line, because it makes your products seem popular. "Just look at that line! Everyone is purchasing! Let me join in!" It works for Apple, because people are willing to sacrifice some time waiting in line for a high-priced item. Plus many people do not feel comfortable buying a high-priced item online. But when it comes to buying a book, people do feel comfortable buying the item online. And they won't wait in line to buy a low-priced book.
There is no reason to let people wait in line. Add more cashiers. In our day and age, people don't want to wait. You have a huge advantage over the internet. Yet, you neglect this advantage. Add more cashiers.
Waiting five minutes is longer than five days:
You might think that a 5-day wait for shipping online is certainly shorter than a 5-minute wait in line at a Borders bookstore. But the difference is in the mind of the customer. The customer wants to be in control. The customer is comfortable with choosing to do 5-day shipping, because that is his choice. Waiting in line is not the customer's choice.
Your challenge:
Let me challenge you. Add more cashiers so there is never a wait in line. Your goal is to never a have anyone waiting in line. Call it the "Zero person line" or "No waiting policy." Let the public know that you are changing your position on waiting at Borders. Embed in the public's mind that Borders is THE place where you can buy a book NOW and never have to wait. See what happens to your sales in one month.
If you were do to this experiment, let your employees in on the strategy. Right now I bet they are demoralized by the fact the store will close in January 2010. But if you express to them the opportunity that the store might remain open if this experiment works and sales increases, then they will be extremely happy to hop on a register to eliminate any wait for a customer.
Your sales will increase. I have never in the entire life of this location ever walked right up to a cashier with no line. This is unprecedented in the history of this location. It's experiment that will prove to work. Your sales will increase for this store. Let it happen.
(Above photo: The chips after they were picked up off the ground)
Let's say you are sitting in one of the world's greatest public spaces on one of the area's first warm days of the year. Everyone is sitting outside having a good time. Enjoying the good weather, enjoying the people walking by.
You just came back from the grocery store with some stuff to nibble on for lunch and snackage. You decide to sit down outside the Tribune Tower and join all the people enjoying the fine day on Michigan Avenue.
You take out a bag of crackers and procede to try to open it. The bag is being stubborn and won't open. You take the bag from the other end and are determined to get to the delicious cheddar crackers inside. The bag won't give easily. You decide to amp it up and REALLY pull on the sides of the bag to get it open.
The bag EXPLODES. Chips go flying all over the ground. These are BRIGHT ORANGE round chips. They are really loud sitting on the ground. Almost the entire contents of the bag are on the ground.
Now what do you do?
A) Pick up the chips and throw them away.
B) Leave the chips on the ground.
Here's what I did.
I sat there in shock. It was quite amazed at the amount of chips on the ground. I was thinking about leaving them there. But it was such a mess. I don't want to leave my beautiful court in a mess. Plus, I don't want to feed the pigeons. Pigeons are already overfed by tourists. We don't need anymore crapbirds leaving their crap all over.
So I started to pick up the chips. A couple innocent bystanders said to me nicely, "Oh just leave them for the pigeons." To which I replied, "Oh, I don't want to feed the pigeons." Note, I withheld my rant from these observers.
I emptied the grapes from their little bag into my grocery bag and used that grape bag to hold the liberated chips. But now what do i do? Do I sit there and ignore my embarrassment and try to enjoy a little lunch? Yes, I swallowed my pride and ate some grapes. After telling this story to my co-workers they responded in horror that I would use my same fingers that picked up dirty chips to eat grapes. Oops. Let's stack on more embarrassment. Ha!
All in all, I find it a funny story now. I managed to even snap a little photo of the reclaimed chips before they were tossed away. I really wish I took a photo of the chips on the ground. It was quite a sight.
What would you do if you exploded a bunch of chips in front of a bunch of people?
On a side note, in Chicago's Pioneer was an Obama spending protest (photos). While I'm cautiously concerned about how this money is spent, I still support it. It's funny how people worship the market and think that the free market will solve all our problems. Uh hello. The market is what got us in this messed up place. Although one can argue it was the low-low interest rates set by the feds that started it. But it was the free market that got so entirely greedy. Giving out mortgages to reliable people wasn't enough. They had to give out sub-prime mortgages to people who couldn't pay it back. All because lenders and banks were making money hand-over-fist with mortgages.
That brings me to my point. The free market is what created this recession. When was the last time the government caused a recession? Is there ever such an example in American history? I'm a non-economic mind trying to wrap my brain around all this.
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.
