Year: 2007

Take one baseball. One pen. Every person you know signs the same ball, for your entire life. Everyone you know would leave their mark, it’s like a compilation of everyone on one object. It would be interesting to see how…

Go to the bank, and exchange all the money in your wallet for two-dollar bills. Everyone loves getting a two-dollar bill. Why not make that your default bill of exchange? I’m gonna do this (it’s now on my 43things).

Here is a dollar bill that was found in Chicago and posted to foundmagazine.com. It’s amazing how someone spills her heart onto a dollar bill. A public item. But then at some point you have to actually hand your heart’s…

You can now measure the number of watts particular computers or appliances use. The P3 International Kill-a-Watt Electricity Usage Monitor just plugs right into your outlet and the unit’s large LCD display counts consumption by the kilowatt-hour, the same as…

Try to break this world record. With one hand, grab the most pennies you can hold. Your hand must remain palm-side down the entire time. And you have to hold the pennies for 3 seconds. Here’s a video of me…

Yesterday’s post was the 1,500th post on spudart.org. Whoa. That’s a lot of posts. I try to make one post every weekday, and I’ve been doing this for almost six years now, so I guess it makes sense I’m up…

America’s Funniest Home Videos becomes A LOT more funny once you own your own video camera. (hint, watch the show with the sound OFF, their stupid commentary ruins the videos). Whenever there is a Cubs or Sox game during work,…

I’m looking for a simple cheap camcorder to put videos up on YouTube. Of the 16 camcorders on amazon under $100, there are two groups to compare. The big and the small. The small: There are four camcorders between 3…

Those toy vending machines with a joystick-controlled claw are just too much fun (as I’ve blogged earlier.) Recently I defeated the claw machine twice in one day at two locations to win these two stuffed animals. I rule the claw…

On the south side of Chicago, my family would always sing a second part of the song Happy Birthday to You. First we would sing the standard: Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday dear Chriiiiiiiiiiis, Happy…

There’s an artist in Germany Jerszy Seymor who adds milk to potatoes, heats up the liquid, and it turns into plastic! Amazing! Then he makes little chairs and stuff out of the plastic. Nora Schmidt of kidsmodern.com wrote about Jerszy’s…

Idaho state quarter. Quick–what do you think? Potatoes, right? I’d LOVE to see a potato on a United States quarter. It would be the coolest state quarter ever. Everybody loves the wheat penny. But a spudquarter would be even better!…

I don’t own a car, so when I have a chance to drive, there’s a whole new world of social phenomena exposed to me (which will be a blog post down the road–joke intended–down the road). One of the social…

Chicago has such a nice grid of streets. Every eight blocks is a mile. And every four blocks is a major street. Very organized. I made a goal on 43 things to memorize all of the major Chicago street names.…

There’s a seriously wrong Mr. T doll up for sale on eBay. In fact, this is the second time this doll was posted, because it didn’t sell the first time around. It would be fun if you email the seller…

Chicagoist recently made a long post about the photography rules on the CTA and how they are still convoluted. Here’s my short and simple interpretation of the rules: No tripods No cables No lights No obstruct transit operations No interfere…

1. Take your name and spell it backwards. Maldre = erdlam 2. Try to make it into an actual word. erdlam = terd lame (If you can’t think of a word, try spellcheck.net, and it will suggestion word variations). 3.…

(Image under creative commons license from vanessapr) I dare you to name a sauce that is not good on hamburgers.

The Beachwood Reporter collected the following: “Descriptions of the taste range from shrimp to canned asparagus to not much at all.”– USA Today “They taste like almonds.”– RedEye “They taste like raw potato.”– Northwest Herald “I found them woodsy and…

A couple months ago I wrote about how holding a pen will make you think more when you read. Lately I’ve been holding a pen while walking in hopes of the pen inspiring me to think. But instead the pen…

What in the world is this supposed to be? “This is the vision at the very heart of our brand,” said London 2012 organising committee chief Sebastian Coe. (from Yahoo’s coverage). Seriously. I want to know what these shapes are…

If you have a candy jar at work with Hershey’s Kisses, you can make a little recycle box out of a sticky note, here’s an instructable on how to make it. Plus, it’s fun to see how much the foil…

Most favored to road team: Mike Everitt (Road team wins 61.8% of the time) Most favored to home team: Tom Hallion (Home team wins 72.2% of the time) Lowest average run total: Doug Eddings (7.9 runs per game) Highest average…

Have people at your work wear the following colors in one week: Monday: Orange (if one doesn’t have orange, then red is ok) Tuesday: Yellow Wednesday: Green Thursday: Purple (if no purple, then blue) Friday: Wild Card! (Note how the…

Does anybody have any good quotes? Every week in the newspaper spreads I design, there are two blocks for quotations. One of a humorous tone, the other is a “Words of Wisdom.” I search high and low for some interesting…

(Image under creative commons license from slightclutter) When is waiting fun? I’m compiling a list of things that are fun waiting for. Please feel free to contribute to this list in the comments of this post. I like to wait…

(Matt Stairs’ rookie card in 1993) I’m dedicating today, May 25, 2007 to the Major League ballplayer Matt Stairs. In the past week, the 39-year-old journeyman has hit 4 homeruns. That is hilarious for a number of reasons: 1) That…

Throughout college and six years after, I was a BMI (Body Mass Index) of 25.4 (5’11” 182 lbs). Technically 25 BMI is considered overweight, which seems a bit odd to me, but anyways. Then I lost 20 pounds through a…

(photo from Bright Star under creative commons license) Every year in October we carve pumpkins. There should be a summer ritual where everyone carves a watermelon! Check out the amazing watermelon carvings on flickr.

Welcome to the Gapers Block readers. One of my photos was featured on the Rearview of May 22, 2007. You can see the photo at flickr and read a nice story about my run-in with the security at the Northwestern…

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