If you’d like to get updates to this list via twitter, follow my @mattscomments Twitter account. @mattscomments is focused solely on the comments on that I leave on articles across the internet. Phthursday Musings: Make Way For Goslings Speaking of lists, I have a screen on my iPhone dedicated to apps to try. They usually end up sitting there untouched. Years later I look at that screen and wonder what all these apps do, and why I downloaded them in the first place. Sidenote on the duck sculpture. Wikipedia says: A replica installed in Moscow was a gift from United States First Lady Barbara Bush to Soviet First Lady Raisa Gorbachev. Stored on: May 10, 2022 Phthursday Musings: Believe In Things You Don't Understand My brain started to explode trying to imagine a Moholy-Nagy inspired artwork that looks like Gina Ekiss' "Jazz" Solo cup. Stored on: April 22, 2022 Warhawk Almanac: Opening of the Library | The Andersen Library Blog The students formed an assembly line to move all the books in one day? That's incredible! Stored on: April 10, 2022 Contextualizing Cornell Notes in the Note Taking Traditions | Chris Aldrich Hmmm, this is an idea I need to explore—the waste book. To admit that many of my notes are just not worth going through would be freeing. Stored on: March 24, 2022 I play as the Atour Riten character on Twitter (@atourriten). I just tweeted that line about Beings holozine. Then, curious how many other people have quoted it online, I googled Beings holozine. Your blog post here is one of the few results. I love that this post is from 2007, and I'm now finding it 14 years later. I truly feel like Atour Riten uncovering the corners of the galaxy. Stored on: March 24, 2022 Cubs Minor League Signings: Kyle Johnson and Eric Stout Eric Stout is the only MLB player ever to be born in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. Stored on: March 19, 2022 Phthursday Musings: Yo lo he perdido - by Phil Huckelberry Speaking of "Since I was on the radio at least weekly, I’d be playing bands I was going to see, and then playing bands I’d just seen."... You'd think these days with podcasts that technology would find a way of people being able to host their own "radio show" online. With podcasts, you can't include the songs in the podcast episode because of copyright and artist royalties. But what about making a Spotify playlist? But then the playlist wouldn't include the personality of the radio host making comments between songs. It would be so cool if Spotify let people upload audio segments. And then put those audio segments as tracks in a playlist. I suppose, one *could* put a podcast on Spotify with all the audio segments. But then that podcast by itself would be REALLY weird. All the audio segments would be talking about songs that are about to be played (or have already played). But the podcast itself would not have the songs in it. You'd be relying on people listening via the playlist instead of the podcast. Yeah, confusing. But it would be SO cool to make a "radio show" playlist with comments between songs. Or it could be branded a the "mixtape" playlist. Just like in the days of making mixtapes where you could record yourself talking between each song. It makes me sad to see how many college radio stations don't have enough students signing up for shows. It actually blows my mind that kids these days don't sign up to be DJs on radio. (Did I comment about this on meta-spiel recently? Feels like I was talking about this recently with someone online). Kids these days have so many other ways of listening to music, like, of course, Spotify. But what if having a radio show as as easy as making a Spotify playlist. And then doing a little audio recording between some of the songs? This whole process would lose the "live" aspect of hosting a radio show. There's something about sitting in a radio station room, playing music, then doing the comments live. Then picking the next song, live. There's a certain flow and creativity to hosting a radio show. Or does that freak kids out? Do they like how digital media lets them edit and choose? To have a curated thinking process of how you produce things? And that's another point. Everyone talks about how the internet is like a stream. It's constant and now. But the internet has allowed us to be less live. To be more curated. To have the moments of thought in a message conversation. (instead of the live, thinking on your feet conversation style with a person). Ok, where was I going with all this? Oh, the radio show hosting on Spotify with audio commentary between tracks. Yeah. I think that might actually work pretty well. People can listen to the week's playlist whenever they like (for our on-demand generation). Radio shows are so tied to a time schedule. People aren't as used to the regiment of consuming a particular piece of media at a particular time, because that's when it's on tv, or on the radio. I'm rambling. Time to hit the post button on this comment. Stored on: March 18, 2022 Phthursday Musings: From Cruising Altitude To You That "100th birthday" White Castle logo is pretty fun—especially how the zeros of 100 are the sliders. The candles coming out of the logo are a nice celebration. At first I thought the candles were in relation to the birthday cake. But I think those candles are for the 100th birthday.... OH WAIT. IS THIS SPECIAL BIRTHDAY CAKE IN CELEBRATION OF THE 100 YEARS OF WHITE CASTLE? Oh maybe. It would have been really cool if they removed the white outline that separates the candles from the White Castle building. Then it would literally look like the candles are part of the architecture. Stored on: March 10, 2022 Tribune Tower | The Tribune Tower is a neo-Gothic skyscraper… | Flickr I love how I can still see the paper I put up in my window. I had a desk facing the river from 2001-2005. I put up a yellow sheet of paper in the corner of the window to help me identify it from the street. Eventually, that sheet got faded to white. And then from 2008 to 2016, I had another window desk with that same view. On the same floor. Right next to the other window. I put up a red sheet of paper (slightly larger than the yellow sheet). That turned to white as well. Both windows were on the 14th floor. In your photo, it would be the fifth window from the bottom. (the 9th & 10th windows counting from left to right) Stored on: March 8, 2022 2022 Topps Opening Day Baseball Checklist, Team Sets, Box Info, Odds I loved the lenticular cards from the 2012, 2013, and 2014 Opening Day sets. Stored on: March 7, 2022 If only the post office canceled stamps with swaths of colorful paint! Stored on: March 4, 2022 celebrating two years @ gonoodle – Chris Thilk Oh wow! You are the Director, Content Programming at GoNoodle! My daughter loves these videos in her kindergarten class. Stored on: March 3, 2022 Phthursday Musings: Connection - by Phil Huckelberry "Worse, parents of kindergartners and first graders but not also older kids, they’re starting off with no familiarity with the community norms." Yeah, that would be me. My oldest started kindergarten this school year. I have no idea how parents normally interact with each other. Regarding the dophin-window idea: That's really cool! In March 2020, I participated in the "Teddy Bear Hunt" where people put a teddy bear in their front window. From what I recall, the campaign didn't get a ton of tweets. I monitored #teddybearhunt for a few days just to see anything interesting. We didn't see any teddy bears in windows around our neighborhood. I'm glad your dophin window project got participation. Stored on: March 3, 2022 Phthursday Musings: Here She Comes, That Rainy Day Sun I'm looking forward to your thoughts on baseball. Right now I'm disappointed in both sides—owners and players. Also, I didn't even know that you organize his posts by "musings" and full posts. Now that I look at your archives, I see some have "Phthursday Musings" and others just the title. Huh. I should have noticed that earlier! Stored on: March 3, 2022 The 2022 Winter Olympics was the least-watched winter games in US TV history | Diverse Tech Geek I’m curious how this Winter Olympics did on Twitter/Facebook compared to previous games. I’m not sure what metric would be used. Tweets/retweets? Likes on Facebook posts? Just curious if people talked more or less about these games as compared to the past. Stored on: March 3, 2022 Where to buy DRM-free digital comics | Diverse Tech Geek Nuts. I think I missed the timeframe to download my comics from Amazon/Comixology. I'm in: Your account > Comixology settings > View your Comixology books; but I don't see a "download" or "backup" option. Stored on: February 28, 2022 Welcome back to halfway up the mountain! Mediocre: from medius "middle" + ocris "jagged mountain". Stored on: February 23, 2022 Phthursday Musings: Scam Likely - by Phil Huckelberry More Thad Bosley, please. Check out the trivia on the back of his 1985 Topps card. For those who do not have access to this card (even though you have internet, you have access, but whatever, I'll type it out here) Who holds the N.L. record for most consecutive games played (1207)? ➤ Steve Garvey Yes. On the back of a 1985 Topps card for a CUBS player is a trivia fact about Steve Garvey. These same cards which are the cards featuring the 1984 players and teams. Thus, Topps made the choice to put the Cub-killer Steve Garvey's trivia on the back of a Cub's card. Now, that sounds like some sort of scam! Stored on: February 22, 2022 How to read digital comics (2022 edition) | Diverse Tech Geek Given how much digital has taken over many areas, I’m a little surprised that digital comic sales made up only 12.5% of all 2020 comic sales. Although, I suppose many people buy comics for their collectible value as a physical object. I like comics merely for reading. Maybe ages ago I would buy a #1 thinking it would worth something. But now you have to spend big bucks on a rare cover for it to really increase in any value. That #1 common might increase a bit, but not enough for me to store it and remember to sell it years later. I love digital comics for not having to store boxes and boxes of comics. I’d say 90% of my comics purchases in the past ten years have been digital. Glad to see Humble Bundle on this list. Lately, this has been my #1 place to by comics. I love getting a huge bundle of comics for cheap. Keeps my to-read list full. Stored on: February 17, 2022 Original Walking Bike - YouTube I keep wanting him to go faster. What would be considered too fast with this bike? I'd really like to see what happens when you go too fast. Stored on: February 15, 2022 54: Two Things About “The Gilded Age” - by David Friedman Where are the photos of the pink-tiled bathroom? Stored on: February 14, 2022 The $100 SS Baseball Card Starter Kit - One-Sheet Collections - Beckett News I'm really enjoying this series. So refreshing to see cards with a reasonable price tag. Stored on: February 14, 2022 This rings SO true. It's one the reasons why I LOVE having a blog. Being able to go back to previous ideas, and have a real record of them. It's just so invaluable. I love when things come up in conversation with friends online, and I'm able to pull out a URL and point to a place where I've written about a particular idea. I am making a screenshot of your minus post, and printing it out to go into my notepad. This will serve as a reminder to myself to continue to capture ideas. 🙂 Stored on: February 3, 2022 Whoa! That’s cool! Stored on: February 3, 2022 How to stream the 2022 Winter Olympics | Diverse Tech Geek I didn't know that I got Peacock with my Comcast subscription! Thank you for writing about this. Stored on: February 1, 2022 How is life different after becoming a dad? – Tim Toterhi – Minus As a dad of two young kids, I love this. Stored on: January 31, 2022 The Hot Iron - What I Learned The Weeks of December 2021 I enjoyed your "What I learned" series. As you know, your series inspired me to do a weekly "What I learned" as well. That only lasted a few weeks for me, because I found that the "related suggestions" on my site kept pointing to these "What I learned" posts. I'm guessing that this series was packed with such a range of content, that it able to make a bunch of matches with my regular content. On my site, I like having a bit more focused content. The learned series is a grab bag of items. I really enjoy reading your learned series, because it introduces me to many things I never knew. But as a blogger, I can understand why you are retiring it, for now, to focus on longer posts on specific topics. Stored on: January 27, 2022 Phthursday Musings: The Needle and the Amazing Feats Done That's a great point. Steroids is part of the history of baseball. And really, baseball is largely about history. You can't just remove the history from baseball. I've been on the fence about Bonds and Clemens in the Hall of Fame. But now your case here has convinced to welcome Bonds and Clemens into the Hall, warts and all. Stored on: January 27, 2022 Boxed Set Boom: Fleer Record Setters Baseball Cards of the 1980s Cards featuring "Record Setters", but nothing mentioned about records being set. How bizarre. I seem to recall encountering these cards in the 80s. At the time they confirmed my bias against Fleer, so I continued to not buy Fleer packs. Although I did enjoy the fact that there was a variety of card manufacturers which made collecting individual players more fun. I do have Fleer cards in my player sets, and I really enjoy those. I just wouldn't crack open Fleer packs. Stored on: January 23, 2022 The $100 Second Baseman Baseball Card Starter Kit - One-Sheet Collections - Beckett News The "One-Sheet Collections" is such a great series! I love the affordable theme! So refreshing to hear about cards that won't bust the bank. Stored on: January 18, 2022 Ewok watercolor by Mary Sloan Britton (@marycherrystrawberry) • Instagram photos and videos What a great ewok! The fun smile. The way his fur overlaps his headdress. The wood patterning on his stick. And especially how the watercolor pattern forms his fur. Stored on: January 17, 2022 2018 Topps US Winter Olympic Team Trading Cards Checklist, Details Is Topps producing 2022 Winter Olympics cards? Stored on: January 16, 2022 Phthursday Musings: Jimmy - by Phil Huckelberry On the air machine angle, I used to fill up my tires at a AAA location in Wheaton. They have a self-service air pump that is completely free! You could drive right up and fill up your tires at no cost. Every now and then there might be a car in front of me. However, last time I filled up my tires, the pump wasn't filling up the tire. Instead, the air was being let OUT of my tire. It was just one tire that was being weird. The other three filled up fine. Every time I tried filling up that one tire, the pressure on the reader would continue to go down. Convinced I was holding the pump in the wrong way, I thought if I just held it in a different angle, I could actually get the tire to fill up. Nope. Every time, lower numbers. Until the pressure got down to a 4. (my tires need 32). I called my brother who lives three blocks away from this AAA location to see if he could work some magic with the pump. Instead he BROUGHT his own magic. He brought his own portable air pump. Plugged it into the cigarette lighter for power. That tiny pump filled my tire up right away. Now armed with four full tires, I drove straight from that AAA pump to Home Depot, where my brother bought his portable pump. The cost of this portable pump is something like $65. But well worth it! Now I fill up my tires in the comfort of my own driveway. I love it. Pumping quarters or credit cards into an air pump is like getting punched in the face. Get your own pump and save your face, and your knuckles. Stored on: January 12, 2022 This World is but Canvas to our Imaginations (Thoreau) | Recollections 54 The Art of David Tripp Your blog post came up in a google search for: "This world is but canvas to our imaginations." I love your quote, "I think genius is one’s courage to trust his/her innate curiosity". The word genius has the Proto-Indoeuropean root *gene- (= give birth, beget). Literally, a genius is someone who generates, or ‘creates.’ Stored on: January 11, 2022 Top 21 Sports Cards and Trading Cards of 2021 Fun to see the Bernie Sanders card make the list. Stored on: January 10, 2022 I was really rooting for that one egg to win, but the others were hard to beat. [Yes, I came back to edit my comment so it would include that pun. Because you know, eggs, beat. You can beat eggs.] Stored on: January 6, 2022 Winter as a monthless Period | Killing Ernest If there is no month during January, and with the lack of light during January... does that essentially make January into one very long day? Stored on: January 5, 2022 Always be kind. People respond to kindness. – Tim Toterhi – Minus What a wonderful post! Stored on: January 4, 2022 Is there a standard ePub format for notes? - Matt Maldre Ten years later, I find myself asking the same question: Is there a standard ePub format for notes? Looks like hypothes.is might have a solution Stored on: January 3, 2022 The Hot Iron - Fifteen Years Of The Hot Iron Happy 15th blogversary! I love how on your 3rd and 5th blogversary, I left comments on that very first post! Haha. Oh, 3 and 5 years old. So young, blog, so young back then. Stored on: January 1, 2022