Year: 2012

A group called “Chicago the Beautiful” is producing thousands of of free art to distribute for the public. The name of the project is called “The Free Art Machine.” There are plenty of ways to participate. 1) Be a part…

Ask any question to the “Ask a Librarian” and the Chicago Public Library will answer your question. I’ve done this about five times now, and even if they don’t have a resource in their system, they will point you to…

Do you think the #1 trading card manufacturer (topps) and the official trading card pricing experts (Beckett Media) would respond to you if you had questions for them? I tweeted a different question every day for nine days to these…

The image of this ewok sketch card makes the ewok look like he’s melting. I contacted the eBay seller with the following message: Oh no! The ewok is melting! I don’t have a question about this auction, I just wanted…

Oh wow. This is so cool. A family in Oak Park set up their own little library in their front yard. I totally want to visit and contribute a book. If you were contributing a book to a “Take a…

Ahh, the days of paper companies. With the 20th anniversary of the UniSource paper show in Chicago, the AIGA is releasing several posters. One of the posters outlines all the paper company acquisitions in the past 20 years. It’s a…

Oh man, that’s so sweet! One year ago today, I declared on twitter that “the new word for ‘sweet’ is ‘savory.'” Next time something really nice happens, don’t say, “sweeeeet.” Instead say “savory!” Try it right now! I’m sure you…

Imagine your favorite MLB team finishing in second place. Not too bad. You might even get a wild card chance. Now imagine if your team finishes in second place the next year. Kinda frustrating that you get so close, but…

Going to a White Sox night game with one week left in the season, and the Sox 1.5 games from first place is an interesting experience. The fans were attentive to the game, but quiet. When they introduced a US…

Take a CTA train, have six artist groups each decorate the interior of a car, let passengers ride the train for one night; you have the premise for “Art on Track” which has run one night a year for the…

Can Myspace get people to come back and rejoin their network? Check out their video: Josh Burns blogged, “The New Myspace“, and this is my comment I left on his post: I will personally always join any social media network…

Using a pen or a pencil feels weird to me now. I use a stylus on my iPad now more than I use pens and pencils. Will our children start to feel the same way? How do people use their…

Apple purposely creates long lines for the iPhone. No duh. They’ve been doing this for years. Just now people are starting to realize this? Just look at any day in the Apple store on Chicago’s Michigan Avenue. They always underman…

Simplicity. Something covers of magazines today often lack. Multiple headlines cry for your attention alongside a primary photo. Editors hope one of the headlines will grab your attention while standing in line. You don’t have to pick up the magazine…

Chinese for “face book” is: 臉書 (according to google translate). If you go to 臉書.com, Chrome brings you to xn--rovv01d.com, which is an available domain. “Amazon” in Chinese is: 亞馬遜. The 亞馬遜.com brings you to: xn--nlqs61nl3f.com (also available). “Linked in”…

Oh the print publishing world, often they just don’t understand the digital world. Lovers of paper and ink. I come from that world. From 1997-2007 half my job was designing for print and working with printing companies. The other half…

Well-worn baseball cards are a beauty to behold. Just like old furniture, you want the worn-look to be kept. The agedness is a value. There’s a certain art to getting a baseball card to be aged nicely. Why aren’t worn…

You rarely see a book cover on the Kindle. Every time you open a new book on the Kindle, it brings you to the first page, bypassing the cover. Does the cover serve a new fuction with eBooks? Find out…

The Oak Park Public Library has one of the best photo streams on flickr. This hand-picked selection of six photos proves to the world that the Oak Park Public Library truly has it going on! Cakes for loan! I want…

Maybe part of America’s economic problems is related to the rising salaries of professional sports players. Their salaries are completely wacked. Thus high-level execs of companies feel like they should be making lots of money too. Thus the average worker…

The word tortoise is quite a mystery. Tortoise is a weird word. Tortoise. Tortoise. Just look at it. Tortoise. Tor-toise. It almost sounds dainty. But it’s for a clunky turtle. Etymonline.com doesn’t reveal much: 1550s, altered (perhaps by influence of…

One thousand Nigerian kobo pennies is worth six cents. Why is it so hard to be able to buy a handful of Nigerian kobos? They are worthless. A few years ago I expressed a desire to have a penny from…

There are 12 nations in the land of Calendria, one for each month of the year. Of which nation would you like to reside? Janurria Febrarian Kingdom of March Aprilaan Maysia Republic of Junistan The Julh Augustica Septembrila Octsburg North…

All the weather we get comes from whatever Chicago’s Mother Nature is making for dinner. On hot days, she forgot to turn the oven off. In winter, she eats only ice cream for dinner. Sometimes she spills when rinsing the…

I LOVE all caps, they are fun and expressional. ALL CAPS! YEAH! Check out these all cap all-stars: Blog posts Website addresses to adapt all caps and exclamation point features It’s so much fun to type the website address as…

Here I try to give a nice optimistic quote on quotesdaddy.com; and then in the related quotes, Albert Einstein butts in with his juvenile quote. My quote: “Don’t get jealous, instead get vicarious.” Einstein’s quote: “If one studies too zealously,…

Social Media Week is in Chicago (and 13 other cities worldwide) on September 24-28, 2012. It’s full of great talks. Here’s the ones I’m signed up for: Tue, Sep 25 8am-10am

Mars Pathfinder has a $3 stamp. How cool would that be to peel that rover off Mars and then mail it to someone? It would be like you are controlling the destination of the Mars rover.

I’d like there to be a website that collects images of all the artwork being shown in Chicago art museums and galleries. Here’s the next best thing. A google image search for each of the gallery districts in Chicago. I…

If you could add one letter to the end of your last name, what would it be? Here’s how my last name would look: Maldrea: Sounds like a continent! Maldreb: An ameboa? Maldrec: The rec center! Maldred: Painting the town…

That one panel where calvin throws the water balloon is brilliant. All the action summed up in one panel. Other comic strip artists would have put the “HEY SUSIE!!” in another panel. But here Watterson takes both actions–the before and…