Matt Maldre

Shota Imanga 2024 Topps Holiday card

I have a fun story about Shota Imanga, about why he's a fav in our house. I don't have it published online. I just emailed it to you. :)

Here's a sneak preview image:

Thank you! It's funny that the post about a camera that shoots photos like it’s 2003 (because my blog started in 2001). Complete coincidence. Today I was looking up how many posts I've published.

Oh, good question! I think the Village takes care of cleaning out anything invasive. About 15 years ago, the woods used to be a swamp, they did a study and installed all these pipes to help drain it out. So I think they have an investment in it.

Oh wow. Yeah, I remember those now. The buggy seems really familiar. I see they sell for $15-$20 on eBay. I might get one. Thanks for the tip!

Using a keychain camera to record the morning sun - Spudart Finally got my hands on a Kodak Charmera (nearly impossible to find). Took it to the woods this morning and shot straight into the sun. The lo-fi quality makes it feel like 2003 cameraphone nostalgia.

Last week I published my 4,000th blog post. I've been blogging all the time since 2001. In the past two years, I've gotten into a good routine of publishing every Wednesday.

Here is #4,000:
www.spudart.org/blog/kodak-c...

- Left: R:31, G:31, B:31 (31, 31, 31) #231F20 - Right: R:0, G:0, B:0 (0, 0, 0) #000000 Screenshot from Adobe Illustrator, 2025

"Midnight + Noon II" 1964 by Josef Albers from National Gallery of Art https://www.nga.gov/artworks/61567-midnight-noon-ii

This comparison screenshot of CMYK-to-RGB black and True RGB black... reminds me of Josef Albers' paintings

I call the left version "#231F20 vs #000000" Matt Maldre, 2015

Right version is "Midnight + Noon II" Josef Albers, 1964
from National Gallery of Art
www.nga.gov/artworks/615...

I often open logos from other companies, and the black is not a true black.
- Red: 31
- Green: 31
- Blue: 31

It should be:
- Red: 0
- Green: 0
- Blue: 0

You can tell the logo came from a legacy CMYK environment, and someone converted it to RGB without adjusting it to true black.

Those tiny yellow Transformers (not Bumblebee, but the other two). They look familiar, but I can't recall what they come from.

This little guy is so cool! It's like he's popping out of the jack-o-lantern saying, "TWICK OR TWEET!"

I get nervous dumping Pepsi or Coke down the drain. Doesn't that stuff melt things?

But man, seeing all those cans of Coca-Cola in the fridge is really making me crave one.

It also helped that I used the fridge on the second floor that had the cafe and no offices. Nobody used that fridge, because it wasn't on a floor with desks. Best work fridge ever. I loved going down there for a snack.

Brown lunch bag in the Chicago Tribune's refrigerator on the 2nd floor of the Prudential Plaza. The second floor had the cafe with no offices, so noboby ever used this fridge. Best work fridge ever.

When the Chicago Tribune moved to the Prudential Building, they assigned someone to COMPLETELY clean out the fridges every Friday. ANYTHING in the fridge gets tossed. If your lunch bag (with a name) was still in the fridge, it would get put onto the counter.

It helped keep the fridge tidy.

In the earlier photo, it's amazing to see the bottom row all empty. When I worked in an office, I had a theory about work fridges. No matter the size of a fridge, it will always get full to over capacity. This theory can be applied to other things in life as well.

The day that I bought IG-12, potato salad, and silver-gray yarn.

The silver-gray yarn kinda looks like IG-12.
The potato salad kinda looks like someone he pulverised.

www.flickr.com/photos/spuda...

It brings me such joy that Savage Chickens continues to produce funny comics. @savagechickens.bsky.social & www.savagechickens.com

1. Sure, Grogu can celebrate Easter too. Why not? 2. Do you like writing notes in book margins? 3. Lines are fun 4. Sonic blasts or dolphin conversations? 5. Public art that doubles as bicycle rack 6. The day that I bought IG-12, potato salad, and silver-gray yarn

March photos, now on my Flickr.
flickr.com/spudart

Ginkgo leaves photographed without toilet paper tube. Using high-contrast yellow filter on Kodak Charmera

Ginkgo leaves photographed WITH toilet paper tube. Using high-contrast yellow filter on Kodak Charmera

With all my ginkgo photos I keep taking, I feel like this time of year should be called "Ginkgo"

By the way, if you use the high-contrast filter on the Charmera and shoot through a toilet paper tube, it totally zonks out any detail in the photo.

Here's with toilet paper tube and without.

Ginkgo leaves as viewed through a toilet paper tube, photographed with a Kodak Charmera toy camera.

While waiting with all the parents for their kids to come out of school, I'm the dad who sits on the ground, photographing the leaves through a toilet paper tube with a tiny Kodak Charmera toy camera.

Manor Woods in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. An bright orange pumpkin contrasts brightly among the brown native plants. Only one bite in the pumpkin. The pumpkin does not have a face carved into it. Just a round pumpkin sitting in the woods. Perhaps food for the squirrels or other woodsland creatures (like raccoons, opossums, mice, foxes, chipmunks. Maybe some birds would eat the seeds like cardinals, chickadees, jays, and doves.)

Sign that says, "NO DUMPING INCLUDING YARD WASTE $500 FINE VILLAGE ORDINANCE 7-13-5" The sign appears at one of the entrances to Manor Woods in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. 7-13-5. - Litter in public places prohibited. No person shall throw or deposit litter or newspapers in any public place within the Village except in public trash receptacles and in such a manner that the litter will be prevented from being carried or deposited by the elements upon any part of any park or upon any street or other public place. Where public trash receptacles are not provided, all such litter shall be carried away from the park, street or public place by the person responsible for its presence and properly disposed of elsewhere, as provided herein.

Someone placed a pumpkin in our local woods. It seems like a nice gesture to feed the animals.

However, there is a $500 dumping fee.

Imagine if the person put a carved jack-o'-lantern in the forest. You'd be able to trace back to who illegally put the pumpkin there.

"Under My Thumb" by The Rolling Stones

That's what the owner says when he's looking for a specific record.

"I swear that album is in the bottom box, five rows back"

A supernova is the powerful explosion of a star at the end of its life cycle. This ordinary snow chunk mimics the grandeur of a dying star, scattering its frozen remnants across my pavement before fading into nothingness. Read more on my blog post: www.spudart.org/blog/supernov...

Each of these photos has a little story or observation. If you click through to Flickr, you can read the title/caption that explains more.

For instance, in the snow explosion photo. That one I talk about creating a supernova on my driveway. www.flickr.com/photos/spuda...

Getting my Flickr up-to-date. For the next nine days (or so), I'm adding highlights from each month.

Here's February. flickr.com/spudart

THEWHA... #jawdrops

"The Way of the Ninja: Secret Techniques" book by Masaaki Hatsumi (Author), Ben Jones (Translator) "The book itself is a kin do ‘secret document’ with many hidden teachings in the from of metaphors or explanations that contain obscure meanings. …This is no oversight. Hatsumi intentionally did this as a way to get the reader to ponder the techniques more deeply. Almost like a Zen koan." —Journal of Asian Martial Arts

Pressing ginkgo leaves in my book "The Way of the Ninja: Secret Techniques".

Eventually, these leaves will be part of my "365 Hues of the Ginkgo" art project. #blueskyartshow

Whoa. That's a nice photo of the Northern Lights. I'm also in Glen Ellyn, and I saw a bit of it in my backyard. I should have backed up further beyond the trees.

The ground was nice and crunchy.

Manor Woods in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. Wide iPhone panoramic of a forest preserve trail. Vertical ghost-like apparitions appear in the photo, caused by the camera lens pointing directly at the sun.

Weird vertical halos appeared when moving across the sun while capturing a panoramic with my iPhone. #photooftheday

I have a feeling that Pinterest is not interested in users actually USING their boards. Instead, Pinterest wants users to scroll through other people's pins. Constantly scrolling scrolling scrolling.