Author: Matt Maldre

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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On the Chicago Craigslist artist board, someone posted about having a Nerf basketball tournament. Yes! It’s hilarious that this was posted on the ARTIST board. Can you imagine a bunch of artists playing nerf basketball?! lol. Is anyone interested? (artists…

I’m looking for a simple, cheap digital camera to take videos. Most older digital cameras are able to take short little digital videos. I used to have a Canon Digital Elph S110 that was a 2 megapixel camera that could…

Creativepro.com reports “Adobe has officially announced that it won’t release new versions of FreeHand — not even maintenance updates.” Heh. Good ol’ Freehand. Does anyone out there have any memories of this program they would like to share? Here are…

Here’s something that is lots of fun. Draw on your computer monitor with a dry erase marker. It’ll wipe right off! Read more about it in the blog post titled, “IDEA: Draw on your computer monitor.”

Literally, draw right ON it. Take a dry erase marker and you can start doodling right on your screen. Your co-workers might think you are crazy, but it’s an interesting exercise to see your monitor in a new light. If…

Here’s a classic from my video archives. My twin brother Erik “The Hammer” Maldre accomplishes the first ever half-court run in the Chicago Croquet Squirearchy of Gentlefolk by going through half of the court’s wickets IN ONE TURN! Here he…

Projectplaylist.com allows you to create a playlist of your favorite songs and listen to your friend’s playlist. Check out my project playlist. You can post your playlist on your MySpace profile. I have mine posted on my MySpace profile. You…

1. Bible It’s written by God. It tells the truth. It doesn’t hold back. Everything important that we need to know is in this book. 2. Mere Christianity “Lewis employs logical arguments that are eloquently expressed.” A great book on…