Spudart

Chicago-based public spaces artist.

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This little Ewok has taken flight in the most unexpected places around my house.

Full story behind this flying Ewok on my blog https://www.spudart.org/blog/micro-mystery-ewok/

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Tracks' release dates on Spotify - Spudart

When you find a new song on Spotify, how do you know if it's a new song or one from ten years ago?

I wish Spotify would list the release date for every song. When I “discover” a new song, I want to know if this song came out this year, or I’m under a rock, and this song was from 10 years ago.

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99% of the time, when I end a sentence with ?!, I will go to the effort to put in a proper interrobang instead. Cool, right‽

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Stuffing chocolate easter bunnies into a backpack - Spudart

When chocolate Easter bunnies are on 80% discount.

It felt like the bunnies going into their burrow as I stuffed them into my backpack

Also, find out how a local Taco Bell is like the coffee automation system on the Moon in the graphic novel "Mooncop."

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Ewoks are great photo assistants during a solar eclipse https://www.spudart.org/blog/ewoks-photographing-solar-eclipse/

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In the year 2000, I bought a homemade Cabbage Patch Mr. T doll from a new-ish site called eBay. Now, he sits as the bodyguard to the bedroom of my 4-year-old and 7-year-old daughters.

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Ewok waiting

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Celebrating a palindrome day with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich - Spudart

4/2/24 is the first palindrome day of 2024. The best time to celebrate palindrome days? At noon, of course. Coincidentally, it’s also Nation

4/2/24 is the first #palindromeday of 2024. The best time to celebrate palindrome days? At noon, of course. It's also National Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich Day. #PBJday Read my blog post for how to make PBJ into a palindrome sandwich.

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Chocolate powers spudart.org - Spudart

Ever wonder about the connection between creativity and chocolate? 🍫 My latest blog post dives into how a year without chocolate might have

How a year without chocolate might have impacted my blogging and creativity.

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What towns searched for Lollapalooza the most? https://www.spudart.org/blog/lollapalooza-towns/

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Graphic designers’ keyboard is like a musical instrument

When working on a computer, and you are doing repetitive work like saving a bunch of files in a particular rhythm, do you sometimes feel like your keyboard is a sort of musical instrument?

I’m exporting and uploading a bunch of images. I have to go through the same movements to export each file, and then upload each file. It feels kinda like I’m making music on my keyboard.

Graphic designers might relate to this. Maybe there are other professions that do this too.

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Happy 312 day! — how Chicago got the 312 area code - Spudart

Why Chicago has the digits 3, 1, 2 in their area code

Ever wonder why big cities have simpler area codes? Back in the day, dialing lower numbers like "1" or "2" on a rotary phone took less effort. So, the most populated areas got the easiest codes to dial!

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It's quite rare for the 17-year cicadas to come during an Olympic year

Let's look at all the recent cicada invasions in the Midwest, and see if the Olympics happened that year. • 2024: Paris Games • 2007: No • 1990: No • 1973: No • 1956: Melbourne Games  • 1939: No • 1922: No • 1905: No • 1888: Per rhythm, the Olympics would have happened this year. But the Olympics started in 1896. No Olympics.

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"What do these sidewalks in their various states and conditions communicate to us about our values and priorities? What do they communicate about who belongs here?" —Tiffany Owens Reed of Strong Towns

“The Symbols in the City” by Tiffany Owens Reed of Strong Towns Or, let’s take sidewalks. So many of ours here in Waco are extremely skinny,

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When will the cicadas come out? Using soil temperature maps to predict their arrival - Spudart

Cicadas come out when the soil temperature is 65 degrees at 8 inches deep. A handful of tools will tell you the current soil temperature and

When will the cicadas come out?

Cicadas emerge when the soil temperature is 65 degrees at 8 inches deep.

A handful of tools can tell you the current soil temperature and forecast the upcoming soil temperature.

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This is a test. IFTTT puts the Flickr title, description, and URL into a caption field which is now hidden. You have to manually click on the image in Tumblr to see the Flickr title, description, and URL. So lame. Tumblr needs to add a "description" field to the IFTTT action recipe, so the text can appear properly beneath the image. (the official IFTTT account on Reddit explains.)

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