Author: Matt Maldre

I’m looking for a super small flatbed scanner. One that has a bed size of 4×6 or 5×7. And I’m not talking about those pen scanners. It needs to be a flat scanner. I want to take my scanner out…

Based on the item I posted yesterday, “Discover your Jedi Name,” If the standard name is six letters long for each word, how did Yoda get his Jedi name to be just four letters? Maybe his real name is “Da…

In order to get your Jedi first name: 1) You must take the first 3 letters of your last name. 2) Then you must take the first 2 letters of your first name. To get your Jedi last name 1)…

Let’s say you are going to drink a bottle of soda over the course of two hours. Which soda would be more flat? A) One where you put the cap back on after every sip. B) One where you keep…

Pure attacking isn’t the only name to game of Dodgeball. How you control your balls is a key element to the game. Although some advocate throwing the ball right away from the start, you have to be careful not to…

Podcasts are the hot new thing on the internet, so I grabbed chicagocast.com. Will I do anything with it? I dunno. Maybe I’ll sell it. Maybe I’ll do a weekly or monthly chicago podcast. Some ideas for the Chicago podcast:…

On the top of the 34-story Tribune Tower in Chicago flies an American flag. I don’t see any other taller buildings in Chicago sporting an American flag. Are there any buildings in the world taller than the 463-foot Tribune Tower…

I was playing around with ways of visualizing 365 days a year. One of the graphics takes a line rotates around it around 365 times. It actually made some interesting patterns on my screen. So here’s a little preview of…

The game of Dodgeball is great for devising creative ways to attack. Here’s a few ideas. Aim for the best throwers first. You want to get them out, so they don’t eliminate any of your players. Point at a certain…

The season ending episode of 24 last night had agent Jack Bauer to be handed over to the Chinese government for prosecution for his secret mission. Jack was surely doomed. But then he pulls of this death scene where he…

What if there was a tax on gum? Apply the current cigarette tax onto gum, and each individual piece of gum will cost $0.28 each compared to $0.30 per cigarette. Here’s how the formula used to figure it out: Cigarettes:…

On the postcard that tom sent to me, he put the stamp sideways which yielded an interesting pattern across this dude’s shirt. It almost looks like he is behind bars, or is wearing a striped shirt. And it’s really quite…

How to strike your opponent more consistently. The lookaway: Don’t look at the person you are throwing at. Either do the lookaway off to the side or ceiling. Or look at another player while throwing. Looking off court, might not…

Last April I posted a challenge to anyone to find a postcard where the primary subject matter is a beach in Chicago. Tom stepped up to the challenge and mailed me a postcard of a Chicago beach. It’s totally features…

Sometimes I wonder if people can hear my headphones, they are the bud kind that get embedded into my ears. I take them out of my ears and I can’t hear them, so I’m assuming that nobody else can hear…

Pepsi Lime is just regular Pepsi with a tad wee bit of lime. If I were to take a taste test, I would have just guessed it was regular Pepsi. I guess that’s why they put the word “Pepsi” first…

What stuff should you be bringing with you to your dodgeball match? Wear shoes with good treads, you don’t want to slip, that would be deadly. Wearing team uniforms does actually intimidate your opponents. If your team shows any signs…

Kramer adopts a four-lane highway and decides that the lanes are too narrow so he puts black paint over the lane-lines one and three and a four-lane highway becomes a two-lane comfort cruise. What if this actually happened? Would this…

The first ever ferris wheel was done for the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. The previous worlds fair was in Paris, and the Eiffel Tower was the talk of fair. How brilliant the French were! How forward thinking. America could…

Here is a in-depth series of dodgeball strategies to improve your game and destroy the competition: 1) Pre-Game 2) Equipment 3) Throwing Techniques 4) Attack Strategies during the Game 5) Ball Control 6) Distractions 7) Catching (click any of these…

There’s a new dance song by DJ Otzi called “Burger Dance” Here’s the German: Oooooooooohhh…. The Pizza Hut, the Pizza Hut, Kentucky fried chicken in the Pizza Hut, the Pizza Hut, the Pizza Hut, Kentucky fried chicken in the Pizza…

I want to know when Monster Trucks are gonna come to Chicago. The United States Hot Rod Assocication calendar doesn’t have Chicago listed for the coming year! You gotta love this on their site: “Giving a new meaning to the…

The Olympic countdown is on! A shirt that says “292 more days” would be cool. Whenever you wear it, you could look up what would happen 292 days from now. Update April 9, 2022 — 6,193 days later: I like…

While riding in my work’s elevator at the Tribune Tower, I couldn’t think of any other elevators that had the same button design. Have you ever seen the same elevator button design in two different buildings?

1. Open up the lid, 2. Gently blow into the ant farm. 3. Watch ants go WILD. Often the ants in a little ant farm will get all lathargic and lazy. Doing this trick will breathe life back into them.…

These two look so much like twins that they would make for a fun sitcom where they switch places. TWIN SWAP! Coach becomes the pope, and the pope runs a bar. What shenanigans would happen?

(idea from erik, the unlikelymoose)

A 800 meter building called “Burj Dubai” is being built in the United Arab Emirates. That’s just HUGE. To compare, the Sears Tower is 443 meters. It’s to be completed in November 2008. This photo was taken by me in…