Author: Matt Maldre

At rest areas on highways, I’m leaving these brochures for people to pick up. I’m hoping they will spur good conversation between friends and families on our highways. Here’s a few preliminary photos of the brochure as I’m designing it…

Hawaii is so cool, they should change the last two “i”s in “Hawaii” to exclamation points. HAWA!! or Hawa!!

Delicious.com is a great online bookmarking service. Use it to bookmark all the cool sites you find, and then in the future when you are trying to remember the name of a site, BADDA-BING BADDA-BANG! You can find it easily.…

Just look at how this paperclip box gets totally destroyed in my drawer. I’d love a cute paperclip box. Etsy? Help!

A bucket list going around on facebook has a line item “Have you ever shot a gun?” My brother and I both checked “yes” to it. Which caused curiousity among our friends, “When did you shoot a gun?!” Matt: Erik and…

When the only chocolate in my apartment is the empty chocolate-covered raisins bag in the garbage, it’s time for me to get some chocolate. I’m staring at the empty bag with hopes of chocolate in my head.

Pioneer court in Chicago on Michigan Avenue has been called one of the world’s best public squares in existence. Surrounded by great architecture on the south with 333 North Michigan Avenue and the London Insurance Building, on the north with…

Budgeted for highways and transit in the stimulus bill: ‚Ä¢ $27.5 billion: US highways ‚Ä¢ $8 billion: high speed transit ‚Ä¢ $6.8 billion: city transit (source: prorebulica.org) I’d rather see the highway and transit numbers flipped. We don’t need more…

C-SPAN asked 65 presidential historians to rank the former 42 former occupants of the White House on ten attributes of leadership. My favorite leader–the croquet president–ended up being the 10th worst president ever. Hey, at least George W Bush is…

======================== February 14 a thankful homeless person It√¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s gotta be really hard to be homeless and have to constantly ask for money or food all day long, only to have people reject you all the time. That√¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s one of the…

When you read “cc” what do you think of? (other than carbon copy). I like to think it says “cool cool,” as in, “I’m gonna cool cool you”

Matt is wondering how the mysterious cut got on the top of his head. Brain growing too big? Aliens inserting special chip? That was a status update on my facebook profile last year. The responses were funny, so I saved…

Yesterday I rode six different buses, so I thought it would be fun to shoot one photo for each bus. To church: –49 Western southbound –66 Chicago eastbound To my sister’s: –8 Halsted northbound –22 Clarck northbound To my apartment:…

My first answer is: None. and the location is nowhere. Actually my answer is: a doodle, inked onto the inside of my hand from a pen. Stays for less than one day. The doodle would be a smiley face. Actually,…

A friend over at Rule29 recommended Chris Botti a jazz musician (reference: Something New For Your Music Radar). I’m digging on Chris Botti now. It’s funny how when someone recommends music to you, it sounds much better than it just…

Funny combinations result in the dock of the Mac’s newest operating system, 10.5. When a folder is put into the dock on a Mac, it will layer all the icons in the folder. Here is the Adium icon on top…

photo courtesy reallyboring via creative commons license I’m not sure if I agree entirely with Chicago Tribune’s architecture critic Blair Kamin when he says, “You let go of the past if you can build something better.” Specifically he was talking…

Walking down the corridor in Chicago’s Grand Avenue station, the train starts flying by. One of the windows on the train is totally smashed. The pattern created is incredibly exquisite with beautiful lines emanating out from one spot. I didn’t…

FYI. A google image search for “cutest hermit crabs” has ZERO results.

In the past two years of Congress the word “spending” was said 3,677 times by the top ten users of the word. Compared to 175 times by the top ten users of the word “saving.” In the Congressional Record for…

Here’s the story of how I captured the 42nd most interesting photo taken on flickr for January 22, 2009. While sitting at work in the Tribune Tower, the TV was tuned into WGN’s coverage of the Inauguration. As I listen…

I’d love a facebook app that shows which of my friends has the most friends in common. For instance, my brother has 59 mutual friends with me. Tom Saaristo and I have 27 friends in common. Jeff Millies and I…

Funny how back in the day there were all those hats and shirts that said 01.20.09 in anticipation of Bush’s last day in office. It’s amazing how Obama was able to take control of 01.20.09 and outshine the fact that…

I should start signing my emails with maπ Or I could be all sly and sign them ma3.14 Or even more dorkiful: ma3.14159265358979323846264338327950288 419716939937510582097494459230781640628 62089986280348253421170679821480865132 823066470938446095505822317253594081284 811174502841027019385211055596446229489 549303819644288109756659334461284756482 3378678316527120190914564856692346034 861045432664821339360726024914127372458 700660631558817488152092096282925409171 536436789259036001133053054882046652138 41469519415116094330572703657595919530 921861173819326117931051185480744623799 627495673518857527248912279381830119491 298336733624406566430860213949463952247 37190702179860943702770539217176293176 752384674818467669405132000568127145263 560827785771342757789609173637178721468 44090122495343014654958537105079227968…

Chicago hit 9 degrees below zero last night. Antarctica in its summer reached negative 13. That’s just four degrees difference! Where are are the penguins! I want some penguins walking around Chicago. Last year in 2008 we got within 14…

It’s highly dubious that “impactful” is not a word. There are no results on google for a definition search on impactful.

photo courtesy srhbth Philly has its own style pizza? Does it involve putting a pizza inside a hoagie? Please help us solve this mystery by giving your speculation about what is a Philly-Style pizza.

October 2008. A week after the Chicago Cubs disgraced themselves in the playoffs. Less than one month before the Obama election. I’m hungry. For lunch. I leave work and walk through the the Tribune Tower lobby. Occasionally in the lobby…

Image from shutterstock.com Sporting events 2008: Summer Olympics 2009: The second World Baseball Classic, The Women’s Professional Soccer league will debut Winner: 2008. Nothing trumps the summer Olympics Politics 2008: Presidential election 2009: Nothing Winner: 2008. Obama! Chinese Year 2008:…

Do you like the sound of fun little bell-things? You might like Terry Riley’s Celestial Valley. But please keep in mind it is only good played at a low volume. When I first heard this song, it sounded pretty neat,…

Do not eat Chex Mix before you work out. Ugf.