Tag: Life

The shapes of a Calder sculpture are so bold and graphic. They make for a great canvas to write upon. A loyal long-time fan of Spudart is the super Tom Saaristo. He’s been a wonderful encouragement all the way since the…

When you throw away your tree, make sure to literally THROW it away. Walk your tree out to your curb / dumpster / alley. Stop about 20 feet short of where you would normally place your tree. Then try to…

Now is the perfect time to start making art. It’s the new year! Let’s make a resolution to make more art this year. Once a month, I’ll make a post asking people to leave a comment about whatever project everyone…

Have you ever thought about sending a postal package to someone, and wished you could send it for free? The hassle of having to go to a post office, wait in line, and pay x-amount of money. Blerg. I want…

Do you know someone who loves hot chocolate? Then you can give the Ultimate Hot Chocolate Package! The ultimate hot chocolate package is a collection of all the various hot chocolates you can find! In 2007, I gave my mom…

What if our culture had a custom where everyone wore a flower every day–including to work and on the weekends. People would wear the flower(s) on their shirt, in their hair, or maybe around the waist. (Men, too). We might…

What would you rather get when you finish voting? A sticker or a little sheet of paper? Today was the first time I got a sticker today for voting, but I rather miss the scrap of paper from Chicago. As…

Stepping outside the Tribune Tower with my new Nikon D610 around my neck. Lo and behold the tulips are starting to come out of the ground! Photographing the budding tulips on the median of Michigan Avenue has become a semi-annual…

For all the creative projects you make on your computer, you certainly want to have a good storage system. You want your storage system to be simple and easy. Not overly technical where you have to be a geek to…

Take all the articles you’ve read the past year. Imagine if you could automatically build a list the author names who wrote most of those articles? Would you find that sort of service helpful? On my content strategy blog, I…

Ever run out of ideas for what to write about? My cousin Peter was experiencing writers block for his blog. Here’s how to build up a list of ideas to write about. 1. Keep ALL your blog drafts in one…

In the coming weeks, a redesigned spudart.org will be launched. All 25,000 comments will be back on the site–including all the comments from Facebook. I’m also hoping that all the blog posts will be categorized and tagged. Although that feature…

OMG. I thought there would be zero results on instagram #gentlemansquirrel but there is this wonderful photo! Enjoying the view from my lady ships window. #snowday #gentlemansquirrel A photo posted by Montery Ephram Darvill (@mrmontydarvill) on Apr 15, 2013 at…

The Muppets comic book (2009-2012) is EXCELLENT! If you like the Muppets, go to your nearest comic book store and pick up the compilation, “The Muppets Omnibus.” (or get it from Amazon) It’s seriously one of the best comics to…

“You’re the dreadlock cactus,” says Jason DeVoll the photographer of this image, “I don’t care about ‘official names'” I say, “It’s alive!–oh wait, of course it’s alive. It’s a plant. ha. The sign looks so tiny next to this cactus…

Every year my company, Tribune Media Services, used to have award ceremonies. One of the awards was Rookie of the Year with the trophy/plaque thing being an actual Louisville Slugger baseball bat customized with the recipient’s name and his/her first…

Honeymoon is such an interesting word. The Japanese have a fun way of translating the word (as covered on my wedding blog). The French literally translates it as “moon of honey,” as seen on Etymonline.com: 1540s, hony moone, but probably…

How would you react to discovering that an indoor basketball court is inside a 9,500 square foot house in the heart of one of Chicago’s most expensive neighborhoods? RT @curbedchicago: This huge 9500 sq. ft. Lincoln Park home has an…

What if you found a masterpiece painting laying on a busy sidewalk? Certainly you would look at it. Maybe you might even pick it up, or photograph it. During autumn we have millions of such masterpieces laying on our sidewalks.…

Three wooden mansions floating on the Chicago River to be torched. Fire! Fire! Fire! For entertainment, everyone loves a good fire. A week before the festival, the wooden mansions sat by three Chicago bridges with a sign saying, “watch me…

You encounter what appears to be a wall of notes written by a crazy person. 23 sticky notes arranged on a grid by a seat on the train. Many reflective questions that question our perspective of life. Questions of self-awareness…

Do you love amazing views? Do you love amazing architecture details? The next place you should visit is–surprise! Walgreens. Walgreens recently moved 40 steps from its cramped quarters above the Billy Goat into the first and second floor of the…

(image via jesuisley.com) I find it easiest to be optimistic when you have a firm foundation and meaning in life. Everything else is just circumstantial. Anything that goes wrong is an opportunity to grow and learn. Three personal examples: 1)…

On the day of black, rainbows of color stream onto the Way of the Cross. Between all the kneeling and standing, chanting and silence, my booklet would become illuminated with splashes of color. As my girlfriend observed, “it’s like a…

In 2013, spudart.org had: 265,267 Visits 244,989 Unique Visitors 324,996 Pageviews Of those pageviews: 157,057 from google search 35,149 unknown 9,684 stumbleupon.com 7,699 bing search 7,455 yahoo search 4,916 answers.yahoo.com 3,972 reddit.com 2,653 search.mywebsearch.com 2,601 aol search some other sites…

Have problems with your Christmas tree? Consider a Christmas stick. Sound crazy? Yeah, it is, but I’ve been doing it for three years and I love it. Love your Christmas tree? Of course you do, Christmas trees are beloved. You…

A bit of wisdom at the end of the year: When January rolls around, you’ll know if your resolutions are serious enough to carry throughout the year. The inevitable question at cocktail parties around New Year’s is, “do you have…

Hey, remember 2006? Doesn’t seem too long ago, right? Well, starting next year 2006 will be closer to the 90s than it is to today. That means 2006 is more about the 90s than it is about 2014.

A friend recently asked online: How do i be persuasive at work without being seen as “difficult”, “uppity”, or “stubborn”? Is it the old “trick them into thinking it’s their idea” thing? Here’s my response: 1) Listen first. Always listen.…

Be who you want to be.

In my six years on twitter I have used smiley 🙂 136 times; frowny 3 times. ow.ly/jUxbi #twitterarchive thanks @jorisl — Matt Maldre (@spudart) April 9, 2013 I like that ratio. 97.8% of the time I’m smiley. Most twitter analysis…