Author: Matt Maldre

At first I felt kinda bad for city trees when they would shovel snow off the sidewalks and up against the tree. “Oh no! The trees are being buried!” But actually this must help the trees. The water underneath would…

While watching the tv show 24 on my ipod, I become a lot more critical of the show. “Oh this is such a plot device by the writers!” “Oh the acting!” But I’m not like that as much when I…

eBible.com is a site where you can bookmark bible verses and share your notes. Here’s the most bookmarked verses: 63 bookmarks: John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him…

Instead of treating “missing person” postcards like another piece of junk mail, try to think of someone you know that most closely resembles the person in the photo. That will help you to really think if you can recognize the…

(photo courtesy of tiseb) Estonian Independence day is a mere two weeks away. Let the celebrations begin! On February 24, 1918, the Republic of Estonia was declared free from Lenin and his monster Russia. It was actually the Germans who…

It would be really cool if museums would organize their permanent collections by color. Right now all art museums organize their permanent collection by style which does create for interesting connetions between artworks. However, it does get a little old…

In modern art museums the color field artists of the 1960s always tend to appear after the action abstract expressionists of the 1940s and 1950s. It makes sense because of the time sequence. But here’s another reason: After seeing all…

The Portland Press newspaper asked readers what comic strip they should run to replace the retired ‘Foxtrot.’ Here’s the results: “Wiley’s strip collected 180 votes, far outpacing the second-place comic – “Get Fuzzy,” with 92.” 180 votes. That’s it? Granted…

Page views according to alexaholic.com: Observations: 1. Flickr rules due to web 2.0 features. 2. Photobucket is rising due to ease of use for MySpace users. 3. Webshots is dying. 4. Deviantart still growing. 5. Snapfish stays low. I’ve never…

Here’s where Illinois ranks in terms of population among other nations: 13,881,427: Cambodia 13,547,510: Ecuador 13,013,926: Malawi 12,763,371: Illinois 12,525,094: Niger 12,293,545: Guatemala 12,236,805: Zimbabwe Here’s where Estonia ranks amoung U.S. States. 1,429,096: Idaho 1,324,333: Estonia 1,321,505: Maine 1,309,940: New…

Right now in Chicago, it’s 6 degrees outside, and nobody is wearing a scarf over their face. I must have passed 100 people, and I was specifically looking to see if anyone was wearing a scarf. None. Zip. What is…

Next time you are walking to work, sing the “Bear Down” song. It really sings well with walking. The beat goes in sync excellently with a brisk marching walk. When walking in downtown Chicago, I like to wear a scarf…

Recently I gave 13 recommended design links to a graphic design student: Advertising: A must for anyone interested in advertising. www.adrants.com Publications and newspapers: A must for anyone interested in publications and newspapers. www.newsdesigner.com/blog Illustration: The essential illustration blog. www.drawn.ca…

Walgreens no longer has a toy section in its downtown Chicago stores. With the redesign of Walgreens floor layout last summer, they completely eliminated their toy section. So now other than the Lego Store on Michigan Avenue, there is a…

When you spell out the letters to “you” out loud, it actually becomes a sentence, “why oh you.” Here’s some other words that when spelled out loud, the letters become sentences: our: oh, you are out: oh, you tee gut:…

Here’s a handy graph of how many Chicago bloggers are using blogspot, livejournal, typepad, xanga, and diaryland. Almost half of the 2,000+ Chicago blogs registered at chicagobloggers.com use Blogspot. I’m rather shocked that so many people are using that system–over…

The most popular Chicago blogs written by one person (according to alexa.com and google) 1. southsidesox.com 2. cosmicvariance.com 3. www.edbrill.com 4. popculturejunkies.com 5. www.timboucher.com/journal 6. almostgirl.coffeespoons.org 7. briangardner.com 8. chronicbabe.com 9. livemusicblog.com 10. makelovenotdebt.com 11. houseinprogress.net 12. toomanychefs.com 13. wiphey.com…

Chicago Magazine recently did a bit on the local Chicago group blogs revealing how much traffic they get. Unique visitors monthly: –150,000: chicagoist.com –93,000: gapersblock.com –NA: chicago.metblogs.com –10,000: ctatattler.com –7,000: beachwoodreporter.com There’s a couple other chicago-based group blogs not mentioned…

I just want to give a public thanks to Data393, the company that hosts spudart.org. They gave me great, honest, and fast answers when my site was briefly down today. When the site was down, I asked them if I…

What would be the top photo on Flickr for a search on “very“? Would it be something very extreme? Nope. It’s a quiet photo that is very interesting. Photo by ChristinaLutze. UPDATE, 1/19/2017 Ten years later, what is the top photo on…

Imagine if your middle name was “Very.” For instance, here’s my name: Matt Very Maldre. It’s like I’m so exemplifying the Maldre name. Very serves to reinforce that fact that you are so part of your family heritage.

Winning lottery numbers from 1988 to 2006 You’ve been seeing more and more graphs on spudart.org, because GRAPHS RULE RULE RULE. (That phrase has two meanings. One: “rule” as in they are really cool. Two: “rule” as in line.)

I’ve been carrying around an aluminum foil ball around in my pocket for that past week, and I’ve gotta say, it’s been a ball! I will hold the ball with my hand in my pocket and imagine various scenarios: I…

No suprise here that the book of John is the most searched gospel. I’m a bit surprised that there isn’t any spike in traffic during Christmas. Maybe people are too busy shopping and involved with other activities during Christmas. But…

Darth Maul Lightsaber Pen Just take a regular pen with a cap, add a second cap to the other side, and pow! It’s like having a double-ended light saber!

Garrison Keillor wrote an interesting article entitled, “Newspapers give us style all our own.” It’s an excellent piece which I greatly enjoyed. Newspapers are classic. They do portray certain cool style when you are reading one in a cafe. Newspapers…

There should be a list of the official team colors for professional teams. So I’m starting one here. I’m accepting the colors for any team in the NHL, NFL, MLB, and NBA. Seeing that I’m a designer for the Tribune,…

If you had to choose five podcasts to recommend to a person with a brand new interest in listening to podcasts, what would you recommend? Here’s my top five (in no order): ============ Slate Magazine Daily Podcast Politics, popular culture,…

Several movie trucks were lined up on Upper Illinois Ave in Chicago–just north of the Tribune Tower. Taped on one of the doors was a small poster for “Fred Claus” featuring Vince Vaughn. From the imdb: “Joe Claus, Santa’s bitter…

(The number of times Pepsi, Coke, Coca-Cola, Sprite, Mountain Dew were searched on Google) Coke spikes in July 2006 with rumor of secrets being sold. Ok, so there can be a sharp spike in searches when there’s a juicy news…

Mark May 6, July 7, and September 8 on your calendar this year! May 6 05/06/07 08:09 03:04 05/06/07 July 7 07/07/07 07:07 September 8 09/08/07 06:05 11:10 09/08/07 You can add these events to your calendar as an iCal…