Author: Matt Maldre
4,090 posts
Artist and designer. Sharing creative sparks to brighten your day. Inspiring curiosity, play, and new ways of thinking. Blogs at spudart.org, mattmaldre.com, 57hits.com, and christiannotebook.com.
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All cicadas have a “speaker” embedded in their bodyThe loud sound from cicadas comes from their body part call the tymbal. No wonder cicadas can make all that sound, it looks like some sort of speaker!
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Dragons and dramatic clouds make any photo hilariousPrompt: "Make a high-contrast grayscale version with dragons and dramatic clouds"
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Driving around the entire border of IllinoisIf you ever wanted to drive AROUND the state of Illinois, here is a map that literally goes around the outline of Illinois. 22 hours, 12 minutes.
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Now page (for May 2024)Updated April 30, 2024, from Glen Ellyn, IL USA Family Make annual family photo albumsPrint photo albums are so great, but they also take so much time selecting the images and laying them out. I would still like to work…
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The only three jobs that will survive artificial intelligence according to Bill Gates
Via marca However, he does argue that in the near future there will only be three jobs that will be “immune” to AI, stating that the only ones that will ‘resist’ this new wave of technology will be energy-related jobs,…
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Ancient Egyptian funeral shroud kinda looks like Tron’s master villain MCPStumbled upon a striking visual parallel: an Ancient Egyptian funeral shroud & the Master Control Program from 'Tron'. Both showcase faces at their core but are centuries apart in creation. One rooted in the past, the other in digital dystopia.
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Sparkle tapeI love my sparkle tape. It adds extra pizzazz to wrapping presents. It also looks really nice sitting on my tape reel in the basement.
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AI detected that someone else painted an additional character in a famous Raphael masterpieceIt’s already a bit obvious that the character in the background of this painting is painted by someone else. But now AI has confirmed it by analyzing the microscopic patterns of the brushstrokes, along with the color palette and shading.…
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Michelangelo’s scribble on a Post-it-like, small paper squareThis scrap of writing/drawing by Michelangelo was expected to sell for between $6,000 and $8,000. It sold for $201,600. The small work depicts a block of marble, with the word “simile,” or “similar” in English. It is believed to have…
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Evernote nearly doubles in priceWow. That’s a price hike. My Evernote subscription jumped from $63.99/year to $113.99/year. Last year people have been complaining about the price hike, I was getting prepared to leave Evernote, but then I checked my subscription price, and saw it…
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Character limit for gmail filterIf you keep your gmail filters under 1,469 characters, you'll be ok.
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Jazz and visual art: Dave Brubeck and Joan MiróEver wondered how a painting sounds? Explore Dave Brubeck's unique jazz interpretation of Joan Miró's artwork.
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Instead of 50 states, what if America had 122 states based on weather?What if the states were more balanced in size, ordered around population centers, and took weather into consideration?
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Stuffing chocolate easter bunnies into a backpackWhen chocolate Easter bunnies are on 80% discount.
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Ewoks assist photographing solar eclipseYou know who loves solar eclipses? Ewoks.
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Mr. T as bodyguardIn the year 2000, I bought a homemade Cabbage Patch Mr. T doll from a new-ish site called eBay. Now, he sits as the bodyguard to the bedroom of my 4-year-old and 7-year-old daughters.
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St. John the Baptist’s tooth is at the Art Institute of ChicagoHow to use BlueSky to discover wacky artworks in a museum's collection
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Celebrating a palindrome day with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich4/2/24 is the first palindrome day of 2024. It's also National Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich Day. You can make a PBJ into a palindrome sandwich. It's all about the order of how you apply the peanut butter and jelly.
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Less social media usage on April Fools Day?
Ever find yourself hitting the brakes on your social media scroll the second you are tricked? You’re not alone. April Fools Day transforms my usual social media dive into a no-fly zone. It sets me on edge questioning the validity…
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Black Hole looks like a logoI can’t stop thinking about this image of a Black Hole. It very much looks like some sort of logo, but I can’t figure out which logo. Chat GPT tells me it looks like the Firefox logo. But no, it…
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Chocolate powers spudart.orgEver wonder about the connection between creativity and chocolate? 🍫 My latest blog post dives into how a year without chocolate might have impacted my blogging and creativity.
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Clark street’s car-free success cut short by envy
Ending the car-free magic on Clark Street feels like a step back. When streets prioritize people over cars, everyone wins.
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Personalized tracking system for artworks in the Art Institute of Chicago’s collectionImagine having a bullet list of your favorite artworks at the Art Institute, ready for your next visit. Plus, get alerts on display changes. I might actually be able to write a program that does this.
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What towns have been most excited about Lollapalooza over the past ten years?Lollapalooza just announced their 2024 lineup. What towns searched for Lollapalooza the most?
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Blogrolls making a comeback?Why I'm putting a blogroll back on my homepage.
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How do you spend your time waiting for Customer Service?When I'm on hold with customer service chat, this is how I spend my time.
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Soil temperature contains the recent weather historyObserving the fluctuations in soil temperature can be intriguing, as the soil acts as a record keeper of recent climatic events. Which makes sense, the soil absorbs the rain. The soil absorbs the cold. It absorbs the heat.
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Remaking the Eiffel Tower every day with a creative promptWho knew the Eiffel Tower could wear so many different hats? Each day, a creative prompt reshapes its familiar lines into something new.
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Graphic designers’ keyboard is like a musical instrument
When working on a computer, and you are doing repetitive work like saving a bunch of files in a particular rhythm, do you sometimes feel like your keyboard is a sort of musical instrument?
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Dollar Tree is on the stock market?How many of the shoppers at Dollar Tree have any stock, period?
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Collecting links in bios from TwitterIs there a tool that will compile a list of all the websites from the Twitter profiles of everyone I follow?
