Isn't it cool how the words "do" and "doodling" sound very similar? Doodling is doing.
For the longest time I've wanted to make a webcomic. I have lots of random ideas. They get posted here as blog posts. cool cool. But a webcomic would be able to carry those ideas very well. I've planned and thought and planned and brainstormed. But never really got to the do part.
Yesterday I went to Blick (I miss Pearl) and got some doodling supplies:
A small sketchbook
A big sketchbook can be intimidating. I want to be able to draw my comic on the train. And I don't want to be one of those people with a big sketchbook who are like, "LOOK AT ME DRAWING ON THE TRAIN. I'M SO TALENTED." I got the smaller sketchbook to be a bit more discreet.
Photo-blue pencils
I get too concerned about what I draw for the webcomic ends up being too permanent. But with photo blue pencils, I can sketch and sketch, and then when i finally have what i want, I can just ink it in. (then scan the drawing in and easily photoshop out the blue lines)
Pencil sharpener
Since I will be doing sketching on the train, I will need a pencil sharpener. But I want a slim thin one. Can you believe that Blick didn't have a compact pencil sharpener. I think I looked at their selection for like 10 minutes in disbelief. Oh did I mention that my train ride is 30 minutes each way? That's why I want to draw on the train.
Stickers
They were hanging by the cash registers and they are so cute. I can't wait to use them for birthday cards at work. (When I sign a birthday card that goes around, I always put a sticker in there too). Every fun person should have a sticker file. Oh, and btw, this is not really related to the webcomic. It's just fun. Oh wait. webcomics are fun. So they are related. So there.
My setup
I have nine hard drives running. Three are main external hard drives:
-- One for work
-- One for photos/movies
-- One for music/laptop backups
Each of these drives has a backup drive sitting next to it. And I have a second backup sitting at another location just in case something happens to my apartment. So that means I have nine hard drives.
Dead AC adapters
This past week, I had two AC adapters die. Both the AC adapters are from the Icy Dock MB559UEA-1S.
You'd think it would be easy to buy a replacement AC adapter, but it's not. People just don't sell them, and if they do, you aren't assured that they will properly fit into your drive. So now instead of buying a whole new hard drive which costs about $100, I can just buy a new enclosure for $25.
Dead hard drives
Thankfully I've never had a hard drive completely die on me. Like I said, I have my drives double-backed up just in case. But a couple weeks ago, my photo hard drive did stop working. But DiskWarrior was able to fix the directory, and all the files were still there.
When DiskWarrior fixed the drive, I wanted to make sure that all the files were still there. I wanted to compare the files on the fixed drive with my backup drive. But I could not find a tool that would adequately compare files on two drives. Amazing. That's a blog post for another day.
I did have a hard drive arrive DOA (Dead on Arrival). I ordered a Iomega Prestige 1.5 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive 34474 from Newegg.com. The sucker didn't work. It was an experiement on my part to try buying an all-in-one drive. But it cost me. To return the item, I had to pay for shipping and a RESHELVING FEE. It end up costing me $30 to return the busted drive that never worked. I love newegg.com for their reviews, but I'm never buying from them again.
Good hard drive enclosure with Firewire
The ICY Dock mentioned above has Firewire 400, but I would not recommend it, because I've had two AC adapters from that model die. I do have three of Vantec NexStar 3 NST-360UFS-BK.
I've been very pleased with these enclosures. No problems. But Firewire 400? Macs aren't made with that anymore. It's tempting to get Vantec NexStar 3 NST-360FBSU-BK.
Firewire 800 would be nice. Double the speed. But in a few years USB 3.0 is gonna be around, so why spend all the money for Firewire 800 now?
1) The memory capacity of the hard drive
In terms of size, to me it's obvious to get 2TB. You'll always fill it up. Just get the biggest size that isn't a rip off. 2TB has been out for awhile now so it's a good price. If you can only afford something cheaper, then go for that. +++ Summary point 1: It's worth the money to get the 2TB.
2) The physical size of the hard drive
2.5-inch drives are for laptops. 3.5-inch drives are used for externals. It may be tempting to get a 2.5-inch drive to be versatile. You can put it a laptop, and you can buy an enclosure for it too. But there aren't that many 2.5-inch enclosures. You have many more options for 3.5-inch drives. Besides, how often do you really crack open your laptop? +++ Summary point 2: Get a 3.5-inch size drive
3) The type of hard drive
What type of internal connection should the hard drive have? There's IDE, SATA I, and SATA II. You don't want IDE. That's old. And there's really no difference between SATA I and SATA II. Both work together. Both are actually about the same speed when you do speed tests. +++ Summary point 3: Get either SATA I or SATA II
4) The type of enclosure
The different external connections for an enclosure are: USB 2.0, Firewire 400 (IEEE 1394), Firewire 800 (IEEE 1394b), eSATA, USB 3.0. Here's them broken out:
USB 1.0
-- 12 Mbps
-- First Mac with USB 1.0: 1998
Firewire 400 (IEEE 1394)
-- 400 Mbps
-- First Mac with Firewire 400: January 1999
-- New Macs no longer have Firewire 400 ports!
USB 2.0
-- 480 Mbps
-- First Mac with USB 2.0: June 2003
-- Very standard
Firewire 800 (IEEE 1394b)
-- 400 Mbps
-- First Mac with Firewire 800: June 2003
-- Macbook Pro, iMac, Mac Mini, Mac Pro all have a Firewire 800 port. the Macbook and Macbook Air do not have Firewire 800.
eSATA
-- 3,000 Mbps
-- Buggy
-- No way to connect to Mac
USB 3.0
-- 5,000 Mbps
-- No macs have this yet
So when it comes time to buying an enclosure, what do you want? For now all you want is USB 2.0. Don't bother with Firewire 400 or 800. Macs no longer have Firewire 400. The enclosures that have Firewire 800 cost twice as much. When USB 3.0 comes out, your Firewire 800 enclosure is going to be old news. +++ Summary point 4: Get USB 2.0
Side point
Since you'll be getting USB drives, you'll need a hub. I like this seven-port hub, because the wires don't come out the back. It can sit flush against the wall.
If you are looking for more hard drive space, buy an external case and the hard drive separate. Many times when a hard drive fails, it's just the case that fails. You want to be able to easily take the hard drive out of the case and slide the hard drive into another case to troubleshoot.
Boom. You are done. You can go ahead and buy these setup now and be happy. Want more details, check in tomorrow to read the further options when buying external hard drives.
What if you took a rope that is 30,000 feet long and attached it to the jet? Better hang on tight, cuz they fly around 500 mph. For some reason i picture the rope dangling down all the time, but if the plane goes that fast, then you'll be trailing BEHIND the plane, rather than dangling BELOW the plane. But it sure would be fun if you could dangle below the plane dodging buildings.
The sheer length of the rope is impressive too. 30,000 feet is 5.6 miles. If you are standing there with a five-mile-long rope, it'll take a while for all the rope to finally start liftoff with the plane.
Oh maybe it should be a long rope attached to a hot air balloon. That's a much better idea. Can you imagine just seeing someone go by your window hanging onto a rope? And then you look up in the sky and you can barely see the hot air balloon. It would be cooler if a person could dangle below the jumbo jet, cuz that's like REALLY high in the sky.
A bunch of professional bicyclists from around the world race through Beverly Hills neighborhood on the south side of Chicago. The race is mere blocks from where I grew up! The race track through the neighborhood is a little over one mile long, they go around it 50 times.
The really cool part is that a bunch of people from the neighborhood all come and watch the race from people's lawns. You can stand on anybody's lawn and go right up to the edge of the street and literally feel the breeze. People are out there drinking and kids are playing. More people should know about this event, it should become just as popular as the south side irish parade. It happens every year in July.
Cool things:
-- Being able to get some close-up action photos of cyclists zooming by
-- Bed mattresses wrapped around poles
-- Walk around the beautiful neighborhood
-- Talk to friendly people (if you are so inclined)
Leave a comment below and click the "notify" button, and when the race comes up next year, I'll give you advance notice of when and where it will be.
(If you cannot see the above video, please view it on youtube)
What should be done with the space left behind from Chicago's Pearl Art & Craft supply store on Chicago Avenue? One idea is to make it into an indoor ice skate rink. After making this video I know realize it's not as simple as throwing water down on the foundation and freezing it, because you'll crack the foundation. But still. it would be cool to have an ice skating rink there. Although the pillars do prevent a problem. Maybe they can wrap bed mattresses around the pillars like how they do on the south side of Chicago for the Beverly Hills Cycling Classic.
What do you think they should do with the old Pearl Art Supply store? Leave your ideas in the comments.
Japanese airport officials would not allow Steve Jobs to bring ninja stars onto his private airplane. In turn Steve Jobs vows to never return to Japan.
"Jobs said it wouldn’t make sense for a person to try to hijack his own plane, according to the report. He then told officials he would never visit Japan again, the magazine reported."
But seriously, I think the Japanese officials are right. Steve Jobs wears black all the time. Ninjas wear black. I could see Steve Jobs going all ninja on the plane and start throwing the ninja stars.
It's rather amazing how many of the single-letter domains have no websites behind them. The only ones with domains are q.com which goes to qwest.com, and x.com Paypal's Developer Network.
When you go to qdoba multiple times a week to milk their coupon offers.
"Oh man, I am totally qdobbing their offers this week. I know they probably only want you to go once a week, but I'm qdobbing this deal up." --source IM conversation, spudart with sparxmind and Lisa S.
The Museum of Contemporary Art recently asked on twitter, "Who are your top 5 favorite artists of all time, and why?" Great question. Immediate thoughts came to mine was Joseph Beuys, Edward Hopper, Paul Cezanne, Jackson Pollock. Pretty standard art history picks. Ok, what if I broke out a little bit more and picked the likes of Christo, Jorg Immendorf, Starn Twins, Laslzo Moholy-Nagy. Still pretty standard historical stuff.
Honestly, they don't inspire nearly as much as current artists do. Really. The art produced now is so much more interesting. Don't get me wrong, I love going to museums and seeing this classic work. But when it comes to creativity, these older artists aren't simply in comparison to what artists are producing now.
Here's five artists off the top of my head that are producing work that inspires me. Jay Carlson
Creative projects inspire me to do fun things theplug.net@theplug Jake Bronstein
Love his "50 cents per idea" project. Has many other great ideas. zoomdoggle.com@jakehimself Todd Webb
Optimistic cartoons always inspire me to do a comic strip toddbot.com@toddbotdotcom Chris McVeigh
Wonderful photos of LEGO minifigs chrismcveigh.com@ActionFigured Erik Maldre
Conceptual art, 2d and 3d doodle master unlikelymoose.com@unlikelymoose
In the coming months I hope to write longer reviews about each of these artists, but for now here's a quick teaser for my top five favorite artists of all time.
Who are your five favorite artists of all time? Please leave your list in the comments below. Thanks!
Sometimes when I have the answer to a coding problem I'm working on, I'll sit at my desk and raise my hand. "I have the answer!"Thu Aug 05 20:20:09 via TweetDeckMatt Maldre tribunematt
I've been peeing so much, I should just bring my laptop into the bathroom and work there. Then I could send p-mail.Tue Aug 24 21:14:23 via Ping.fmMatt's Health mattshealth
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.
from Newegg.com. The sucker didn't work. It was an experiement on my part to try buying an all-in-one drive. But it cost me. To return the item, I had to pay for shipping and a RESHELVING FEE. It end up costing me $30 to return the busted drive that never worked. I love newegg.com for their reviews, but I'm never buying from them again. 
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for the case. And a good hard drive is 
. Now let's cover the details on why I picked these choices. There are four main things to think about when picking an external hard drive. 
