Year: 2017

[Update: Apple has explained they do have a heated roof. Blair Kamin of the Chicago Tribune reports: “The roof has a warming system that’s built into it,” Apple spokesman Nick Leahy said. “It needed some fine-tuning and it got re-programmed…

Instead of ribbon, I use yarn. Every single gift I’ve given the past five years has been decorated with this same yarn. Today our supply ran out, so I biked to Hobby Lobby to buy a new bundle of yarn…

ART ASCII art bitmap art ceramics felt found objects HDR photography LEGO mosaics mail art modern dance oil pastels origami pencil rubbings printmaking public art sculptures Artists Alexander Calder Anselm Kiefer Bruce Nauman Camille Pissarro Christo and Jeanne-Claude Christopher Richard…

I love having several fictional Twitter accounts–the Death Star librarian, an Ewok, a baby Ewok, extreme croquet player, and so on. These fun accounts can work in tandem for some pretty silly responses to tweets. The Chicago Tribune digital editor…

Velcro. Wouldn’t that be a great name for your child? Velcro, I’m stuck on you! I like to joke around with my wife that our 18-month-old daughter’s name is Velcro. Sometimes I’ll tell my daughter we almost named her Velcro.…

Most of us are familiar with Google’s reverse image search. Pick any photo online, and Google can find a photo that is similar (or identical). It’s a very fun tool to play around with. I’ve used it to: Search for…

Type a search into Google for “Where is the next…” and it will auto-complete your search with three suggestions: Solar eclipse World Cup Olympics All three are global events. Large global events. Although aren’t solar eclipses more of a local…

Do you have a modem that is really slow? Then you have pigeon! If it takes a long time to load a webpage, you might as well load that page via a carrier pigeon. Thus, your modem is like a…

The most important command given to Neil Armstrong was to make sure he collected moon rocks as soon as he landed on the Moon. Just moments after stepping onto the moon and saying, “one small step for man, one giant…

The Pluto flyby is incredible! NEW! Enjoy this #Pluto flyby video, made with data from our historic #PlutoFlyby. pic.twitter.com/viHjvnfXw6 — NASA New Horizons (@NASANewHorizons) July 14, 2017 I WANT TO LIVE ON PLANET PLUTO. Yes, I am calling it a…

All the 4×6 prints you can imagine for free! All you have to do is order your prints through the Shutterfly app. Sounds great, right? Almost unbelievable. What would you do with unlimited prints? Here’s a few ideas: Mural: Take…

A message I sent to a vending machine company: We have a vending machine on the 3rd floor of the Tribune Tower in Chicago (435 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611). Almost every day I get a Pay Day bar.…

Every time you join a group on meetup.com, you get asked a set of questions for your profile. The Glen Ellyn Clay meetup has some fun questions, so I had fun answering them. What are the top 3 things you would…

Of the 18,4888 photos archived in the Art Institute of Chicago’s collection, are there any you’d like to see displayed in the museum? This one by Jeff Mermelstein would be a good one: “Book in Mouth, New York City” Photographed in…

Tucked away in the Art Institute’s archives are thousands of wonderful photos. 18,488 to be exact. Whoa! You can explore these 18,488 photos on the Art Institute’s online collection. Are there any photos you’d like to see displayed at the…

Amazon discounted a bunch of Comixology comics on the Amazon storefront! Wait… Amazon, Comixology? Amazon owns the online comic store and app, Comixology. Any comics you buy on Amazon, you read with the Comixology app. What is Comixology? Comixology is…

Google Trends ranks the cities that search the most for Star Wars. Budapest (100) Melbourne (99) Sydney (95) Los Angeles (89) Dallas (77) San Francisco (76) Berlin (76) Houston (73) Chicago (73) London (69) Toronto (67) Paris (62) New York…

It’s kinda funny to type in the url bar: art.art Art dot art. So arty, you have to type art twice! That should become a word. Art-art. Or simply Artart. In the art world, there’s high Art, and then the…

Want a .art domain? It’ll cost you. Depending on the simplicity of the domain name, the price will adjust accordingly. The domain spud.art will cost €1,466.44 ($1883.94) OUCH! The high price kind of makes sense. Price the domain according to…

Every day write one line summarizing that day. I call it the one-line diary. Easy to update. Easy to read. Easy to update Longer journals can be daunting to write. Bullet journals can be intense with all their code and…

Tulips are coming out of the ground in Chicago, and it’s only February 23! Doesn’t that seem really early in the year for tulips to be sprouting? What is the average first day for tulips to sprout in Chicago? We…

The story of my quest to get a domain that ends with .art Ever want your domain to end with “.art” instead of “.com”? Now’s your chance! The domains ending with .art are available now. In fact, some sites are already…

The shapes of a Calder sculpture are so bold and graphic. They make for a great canvas to write upon. A loyal long-time fan of Spudart is the super Tom Saaristo. He’s been a wonderful encouragement all the way since the…

Transform your fast food paper bag into an origami creation that will change the way you eat food, and how you view your time. While sitting in the McDonalds next to the Trump Tower, I folded my McDonalds bag into…

ACEO on eBay Artist sketch cards are so much fun to collect. Tiny little sketches done on 3.5-inch by 2.5-inch cards. Search “ACEO” on eBay. ACEO stands for Artists Cards Editions and Originals. You’ll find thousands of such cards. Usually these…

Arriving at my desk this morning, these stored printouts had fallen out of their envelope. They are printouts of the surface of Pluto. Last year I printed these strips with the intention of wrapping them around objects in public spaces.…

What is the difference between creativity and innovation? Two innovation experts give their thoughts in this two-minute video. I somewhat disagree with their definitions. They infer that innovation better than creativity. Andrew Papageorge, co-founder of GAPzip, says in the video:…

25 Ewoks roam the forests of Twitter. They range from the cute and adorable to the heavily ironic and twisted. Which Ewoks should you be following on Twitter? Let’s go through the Ewok village to uncover the best Ewoks on…

Walking down the alley in suburban Oak Park, Christmas trees lay next to most garbage cans. The alley becomes like a Christmas tree lot, post-Christmas. Need a Christmas tree? Take your pick. Most trees are lightly used and varying degrees…

Tree mulchers are crunching all the Christmas trees on curbs and in alleys. The plethora of trees will soon be a handful of wood. How much mulch does one Christmas tree produce? I’m guessing about six handfuls of mulch. What’s your…

When you throw away your tree, make sure to literally THROW it away. Walk your tree out to your curb / dumpster / alley. Stop about 20 feet short of where you would normally place your tree. Then try to…