The Art Institute posted a one minute video of Roy Lichenstein's wife talking about her husband's show now showing at the Art Institute. Out of the 3,745 views, there was one comment. Just one word in the comment, "Lovely."

To join on the one-word comment fun, I submitted, "Delightful."

Please continue the one word comments on this video.

In my past experiences of hiring people, we've had ranging lists of types of experiences in different areas; and we've found difficulty in finding candidates with the right mix of knowledge in these different areas. Which rather perplexes me, because with more people unemployed, you'd think there would be tons of applicants that can fit all the things you need.

Yeah, we want it all. And you can't have it all. But what if you could?

It seems that during our unemployment times, it's coming to truth that education is REALLY key. We need people with knowledge in lots of areas. People who can write AND code. People who can edit AND design. People who can market AND sell. I'm glad we have liberal arts education that teaches people in all various areas.

But I'd like to see America have our working force continue to learn lots of different skills. It's what our industry is demanding. Therefore we need to supply that demand with our working force.

Richard Branson, Chairman of Virgin Group, says in his article, "Richard Branson on Office Ties and the Company Dress Code,"

"It used to be that the one male in the room with an open neck (which was usually me) would be self-conscious about it (which wasn’t me). Nowadays, however, I am delighted to note that it’s the man wearing the tie who is most likely to be the odd person out."

I agree with Branson that wearing a tie makes you the odd person out. I've noticed this at conferences recently, that nobody wears ties anymore. And that's part of the charm of why since last year I've worn a tie to work every day.

Perhaps Richard Branson's business has a different culture, but I feel like the tieless shirt is a fashion that became fashionable 15 years ago. For him to pomp around like he's all cool shows that he's out of touch with the regular American public. We've already gone to the tieless shirt fashion, and now we are back into wearing ties--not because we have to, but because we want to.

In my business culture (the non-CEO culture), ties are no longer necessary, but if someone wears a tie, it's because of one of two reasons:
1) Have to: The person has been wearing ties all their business career, so they simply continue to wear a tie. It's the type of person that Branson thinks about.
2) Want to: The person never wore a tie to work, and now wears one, because it's an expression of his personality. He likes to be professional, but he also likes to be stylish and have fun with his outfits. It's no longer a requirement, but it's a mode of self-expression. It's another piece in his outfit arsenal that allows him to put together a creative and sharp ensemble.

I was tooling through the comics reading platform of graphic.ly and found there are over 500 free graphic novels. Here's 14 I added to my library.
















To view 9 more (including a Mr. T comic), view the full blog post.

A friend posted this picture of someone with a "murse." Murses get made fun of, because they they remind people of purses. But let's try to get some respectable man bags out there. Stand behind your man bag. Be proud of your man bag. You can't be proud of a piece of crap bag.

I am a urban man bag aficionado. Let me give you the tips of the trade from my decade experience of shopping for urban man bags, from a straight male perspective. That one in the photo is HORRENDOUS.

Here are six guidelines to buying a man bag that you can be proud of.

1) No big logos.
That big swirly piece of crap logo is totally stupid.

2) No big ass plastic clips.
That screams SUBURBAN!!

3) Simple form.
This thing can't make up its mind what shape it wants to be. Round? Rectangle? Trapezoid? It's a mess.

4) No overabundance of tons of straps.
Along with having a simple form, the man bag needs to be simple in form.

5) No overbundance of outer bulky pockets.
Along with cargo pants, bulky pockets went out of style five years ago.

6) Exceptions.
You may ignore all the above rules if you are shopping for camping bags, hiking bags, or other nature-related activities. I am talking strictly about bags for urban use.

Here's a fine man bag:



Note: No big logo. No plastic clips. Simple form. No straps flying all over. No bulky pockets. And it's the perfect size of an iPad. Now THAT'S a man bag.

Last week I ordered this INCREDIBLE illustration on a yellow/orange tshirt.

With Kerry Wood retiring in the middle of the season, he won't have any more stats for fantasy baseball leagues. But what if there was some sort of retirement league?

Stats could be kept on:
-- Appearances at the ballpark
-- Number of times the person appears on camera on TV while at the ballpark. (Scottie Pippen would rule at this in the retired basketball league)
-- Number of autograph sessions retired player participates in
-- Points for volunteer event appearances
-- Appearances doing commentary on TV/radio

What other statistics could be used for retired players?

It would be cool if there was a public way for people to read books at the windows of these unused storefronts. Books would probably be too long, so perhaps one-page articles or stories. Maybe even a short news story about the community.

I was standing on the Lawrence red line train platform looking at the Borders when I thought of this idea--mostly because that Borders building has been used for other literature events. Chicago Book Expo 2011 was held in that Borders building (also known as Uptown Goldblatt's Building).

I created a nuclear arms race between Starbucks, Caribou, and Dunkin Donuts. Last week I tweeted the following to ALL THREE AT THE SAME TIME.

They should offer frosting as a topping on coffees. @dunkindonuts @starbucks @cariboucoffee #getonit

It bothers me so immensely when Wrigleyville residents complain about "how hard" it is to get home on game days. Um. Wrigley Field was here WAYYY long before any of its residents. 100% of the people who live in Wrigleyville moved there after the park was built. Every person who lives there should know that living by such a park can make it challenging to get home.

ABC 7 Chicago did a story on how Mayor Rahm Emanuel is pitching a "Fenway Play" for Wrigley Field. In this story, ABC included a sound bite of a resident saying that "it's already hard to get home."

Closing down Sheffield and Waveland doesn't make any difference in your commute home. Those streets are basically closed on game day anyways. Only an idiot will want to drive down Waveland or Sheffield right by Wrigley on game days.

I lived 2-and-half blocks from Wrigley Field for three years during the late 90s. I never ever thought it was hard to get home. I took the red line home every day. Does the train get crowded? Yes. But it's game day. You know that is going to happen. Enjoy having a great major league ballpark in your neighborhood.

If you don't like it, then don't move to Wrigleyville.

1. Replaced incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescents.
2. Put all my computer equipment on two surge protectors.
3. Put the computer surge protectors in a desk drawer that is easy to access.
4. Every morning before I leave for work, I turn off the the computer surge protectors, therefore turning off the power to my speakers, hard drives, USB devices, and monitors.
5. I keep my freezer and fridge full of food.

Watch your monthly electricity usage on your electricity bill. Set a goal of trying to lower your usage below a specific number. Then it becomes a fun game.

Would you like to know how much electricity you use? ComEd offers your past 24 hours of usage history.
1) Go to comed.com
2) Go to the tab "My usage" and select "My usage history"



You will see a nice chart that presents your past 24 months of electricity usage.



I prefer my stats in kWh per day. I took the numbers and put them into a Google docs sheet; and made my own chart.



For the past six years, I've had a goal of getting my electricity under 5 kWh/day. I'm happy to say I've achieved that a few times.

Where do you keep your blog drafts?

I have a single Google doc for blog drafts. It has 41,558 words. It takes about 30 seconds to save. I'm gonna try Evernote again.

I'm gonna take that huge blog drafts doc and split it up into individual notes on evernote. I tried this in January 2011, and ended up with 149 blog drafts. I never ended up using Evernote, because 149 blog drafts was too much.

And now I have an additional 41,558 words. I wonder how many new blog drafts that will make. Hopefully this time it will stick.

(photo credit of Jabba the Hutt can by bevreview)

What happens when your logo looks like Jabba the Hutt? You start to learn the language of the Hutts, Huttese.

Achuta [hello]
Dolpee kikyuna! [I am a friend!]
Gooddé da lodia! [Good day to you!]

This might explain why I always liked the Gamorrean Guard when I was a kid.

In case you missed it, yesterday I posted about how other companies should have an experts bar. A few ideas come to mind: Disneyland and Wrigley Field. Read more about how this would play out at "Disney should have a genius bar with Disney experts."

The Museum of Contemporary Art's twitter account pointed me in the direction of a "Time Out Chicago" article about their new identity, "We are here at the Museum of Contemporary Art." The commenting is closed on the article, so I'm posting my response below.

I'm looking forward to the artist working spaces in the 12x12 gallery. This will bring me back to the museum every week to see what each artist is doing in the space. I especially like the idea of making pins from salvaged material from the MCA. I'd like to see what materials they will be offering.

As for the start of the article, it states, "It takes a lot to make people raise their eyebrows in a contemporary art museum," says James Goggin, the Museum of Contemporary Art’s director of design, print and digital media. In the past few years I've found that my primary objective for visiting art museums isn't to find eyebrows-raising experiences. I go to art museums for a garden experience. It's fulfilling, relaxing.

While I do enjoy artwork that shocks me out of my place, we shouldn't see that as the only purpose of the museum. If I go to the museum expecting to be shocked, eventually you won't be shocked anymore. It's sorta like a dog chasing its tail.

I think one of the reasons museums like shocking work, because it instigates thought, discussion, and media. The curiosity factor of "the museum has WHAT on display?" helps to bring visitors to the museum--in theory. However, I can't even recall the last time my friends or regular people ever used that as excuse to visit a museum.

I would say the great majority of the public are like me, in that they enjoy going to the museum simply because they enjoy the works on display. Therefore, it is like going to a garden. Sometimes there may be a surprise at a garden. SNAKE! But I don't visit gardens for the snakes, I visit them for the plants and flowers.

Why do you go to art museums?

UPDATE: I just realized the Time Out Chicago was written in 2011. I thought this was 2012. Oops.
The MCA has photos posted from this four-week exhibit, We Are Here: Art & Design Out of Context, Jul 5–31, 2011.