Author: Matt Maldre

The trick to finding the cheapest hanging file folders is to go onto froogle.com or shopping.yahoo.com. Now don’t just go searching for “hanging file folders.” OH NO! That won’t get you the best deal. Instead do a search for: 14115…

Yipeeeeeeeeee! That’s a decuple-e yipee. Most yipees are just a double-e yipee. And then there’s the triple-e yipeee which is more fun! And the quadruple-e yipeeee is super fun. And the pentuple-e yipeeeee is super duper fun (also known as…

Hey. I’ve only got a few designers on my buddy list. I’m looking to add some more. Are you a designer and would like to get a random IM every week or so? Instant message me today on the AOL…

Hey, my illustration of a gummi bear made it into the mental_floss magazine blog. They wrote a post called “The Many Uses for Gummi Bears” where they included an image of my drawing and the following text: Gummi Bears are…

Spongebob Squarepants! The fun does not stop! One of my favorite things to do on IM is to message someone and get him/her to sing the Spongebob Squarepants theme song with me. Here’s how (when reading this, assume “me” is…

Transformers Monopoly board game: collector’s edition is going to be available in May 2007. I wonder how they ranked the transformers. Obviously Optimus Prime and Megatron would be Park Place and Boardwalk. But where would Soundwave rank on the board?…

Great. This is just great. Now we have remote-controlled live pigeons with implanted micro electrodes in their brains–by the Chinese! These pigeons are able to be controlled by the whims of crazy Chinese scientists. No word on if these are…

DesignSponge posted an interesting work of art by Doris Salcedo. The comments on this post are rather funny, because there are many people upset over this artwork for varying reasons. One person thinks it’s “a waste of space.” Another one…

You can make your croquet set out of plastic water bottles and dowel rods. Brilliant. Read the how-to at the DIY Network episode DIK-201. Surely this must make for the most lightweight croquet set ever. (other than mini croquet sets…

Which player has the best name in the Minor Leagues? Minors Moniker Madness

Is there a book with a compilation of the Bazooka Joe comics? In high school I collected Bazooka Joe comics and covered my entire locker door with those comics! (see photo above). The only thing that comes close to a…

Bazooka Joe has a new blog where they have posted images of baseball players chewing Bazooka Joe gum. So far they have Freddy Sanchez of the Pittsburgh Pirates, David Wright of the NY Mets, and Dontrelle Willis of the Florida…

Here’s a line graph showing the historic trend of the first class postage stamp rate increase since 1945. It seems like stamps are rising in cost so much lately. But it’s really been a historic trend since the beginning of…

Manilla files never stand a chance agains the might and power of hanging files. Hanging files have super functional metal hangers that rip manilla files to shreds. Sure Manilla files are beautiful in their simplicity. But they are all form…

Goal: In the winter put snowballs in my freezer for the summer. Done! This is so much fun, everyone in Chicago should do this while we still have the last of our snow left. It’s really cool to be kneeling…

Chicago is currently making a bid for the 2016 games to the U.S. Olympic Committee. Show your support by voting on the official Chicago bid website at: chicago2016.org. When you vote it asks you to describe, in 25 words or…

Are there any daily devotional studies out there that also have a monthly calendar companion? It would be nice to have a calendar up with some bible verses that reinforce what the devotional is covering for that month.

Whatever you hold in your hands will influence whatever activity you are doing. When I’m reading a book with a pen in hand, I will read slower and digest more what the text is saying. When I read a book…

My employer is very good at finances. We run a very high profit margin, everything in the company has to run a tight ship financially. Which could be good for my job security. Sometimes I think it’s because the finance…

Take the word “yipee!” so fun and happy. YIPEE! But just change the “p” to a similiar sounding “b” and the word has totally different feel to it. Yibee. It sounds so sarcastic.

A ton of plastic pink flamingoes just appeared in downtown chicago. AirTran is doing a promotion for their increased flights from Chicago to Florida. There’s one teal flamingo running around Chicago (I guess there’s an AirTran person moving it around…

Here’s a photo of Chicago Cubs’ Alfonso Soriano posing during “picture day.” It makes me wonder if this is a Chicago Cubs internal “picture day” (for marketing materials) or a MLB.com “picture day.” Given the ivy background, I would think…

My twin brother, Erik, showed me his avatar on Yahoo Games. Boy howdy it is menacing–especially compared to mine!

Alexander Hamilton is featured on the American 10-dollar bill. The source of this image is John Trumbull’s 1805 portrait of Hamilton that belongs to the portrait collection of New York City Hall. Here’s animation featuring the portrait overlayed on top…

Something I’ve been pondering lately. What is the difference between the questions, “Who am I?” and “What am I?”

Imagine if nickels were made mostly from copper. Oh wait. They already are! According to CNN, nickels are made mostly of copper, and that pennies are made mostly of zinc. How bizarre. You’d think it’s the other way around, that…

Tribune Media Services (my employer) occupies four floors in the Tribune Tower: 13, 14, 15, and 16. I work and spend 99.5% of my time on floor 14. Visiting the other floors is like visiting a parallel dimension, because they…

We in Chicago just had 22 consecutive days below 32 degrees. That’s the longest streak in 23 years. 1984-85 had a string of 33 below freezing days (whoa, 33 days). You’d think this was one of the coldest 3-week periods…

Meevee.com is cool. You can save a bunch of your interests as keywords and it will give you a tv grid with just the shows with your interests. I added dodgeball as an interest, so now it will include any…

It’s fun to look back at all the different Macintosh models you have used. Here’s my list: Mac Classic (1993-1997) This was the first Mac that I learned Photoshop on at an Art Institute class. Also used at college to…

In general people look kinda dopey when their mouth is open for an extended time and they are not speaking or breathing heavily. What if a comic strip had a character where his mouth was always open? It would look…