Today, I saw a girl wearing a yellow t-shirt with "RUN" in black letters. I wondered if she ever walked in her yellow and black run shirt. Or maybe she changes into a "WALK" shirt when she walks. Maybe she's running away from bees or yellow jackets. So many questions.

The person who forks over $8.12 will get the latest conceptual drawing in my Etsy shop (shipping costs included).

Around 1986, I owned this very exact same calculator watch. I thought I was the coolest 6th or 7th grader around. It's crazy to see so many of them for sale on ebay. It's almost crazier to see them selling for $18. I want one. I'll pay 6 bucks for one.

Imagine a space that's roughly 1000 square feet. (One mile is 5280 feet). Now put a major tollway on the left and a major tollway on the right and have those tollways intersect at the top. At the bottom put a major road where the speed limit is 55 mph. Next put a few houses in the middle of all that.

That very location exists. Interstate 88 is on the left with Interstate 294 on the right. Roosevelt Road (38) is at the bottom. The streets Harvard, Caldwell, Duncan and Forest make up this roughly three or four block neighborhood in what I'm guessing is part of Elmhurst, Illinois. And it certainly is one of the most unusual places to live in all of the Chicagoland area.

It could also be Hillside, Westchester, Oakbrook Terrace, or Oak Brook.

I was going through my photos in my favorite photo viewing software, Adobe Bridge, when this set of four tire photos caught my eye. I like the way they were arranged in Bridge.

"Fame craves blind opportunity"
-Erik Maldre (that's me)

If you head to chipotle.com to find out the nutritional value of their burritos, then you better bring a calculator with you. They list the nutritional value of each ingredient (which is very nice), but they don't list the total nutritional value (which isn't very nice). The good folks at Chipotle should make their nutritional chart interactive and let people check off which items they like on their burrito.

Here's my burrito:
Flour Tortilla (burrito) 290
Cilantro-Lime Rice 130
Black Beans 120
Chicken 190
Tomato Salsa 20
Cheese 100
Romaine Lettuce (salad) 10
Vinaigrette 260
total: 1120

I haven't had a Chipotle burrito in over 2 years now because I heard they have 2000 calories. I feel quite a bit better that my burrito has 1120. I'm not sure if I get the 260 calorie vinaigrette. I don't remember that being a choice. That would drop me below 1000.

Toyota's slogan, "moving forward" has problems. I understand that they're trying to say that they're a forward-thinking company that is an industry leader with its latest and greatest advancements. However, it can also be read that they are dismissive of their recent random accelerator issues in their vehicles. That's bad.

I strangely feel a very strong connection to this living room in a computer. Perhaps it dates back to my years as a tech guy. Or maybe it's my pack rat nature crying out. I do have an Apple G3 tower (circa 1999) that I absolutely refuse to toss because I want to convert it into a storage system of some kind. The hinge opening door is just too cool.

Can you believe it's been over 2 1/2 years since the last Faceoff Friday match? Today Faceoff Friday makes its triumphant return with the battle between two giant architects.

Who would win? Mies van der Rohe or Philip Johnson

Both were arguably among the most powerful men on planet Earth during their tenure. I think Mies would win. He was a lot bigger than Johnson and would crush his fragile bones to a pulp. Can anyone give a good case for Philip Johnson winning?

Past Faceoff Friday events
Merlin the Magician vs. Crossbowman Blue 7/13/07 (first Friday Faceoff)
ghost with chain vs. Tyrannosaurus Rex 7/20/07
Mohawk-wearing Native American vs. Three-headed dog 7/27/07
Optimus Prime from the 2007 Transformers movie vs. Megatron from the 1986 Transformers movie 8/3/07
pig or Patrick with a knife 8/10/07
Leonardo da Vinci vs. Albert Einstein 8/24/07
blob dude holding clock vs. blob tape dispenser dude 8/31/07
black piece vs. silver piece 9/7/07
iron vs. wheelbarrow vs. dog vs. cannon vs. car vs. top hat vs. shoe vs. battleship vs. thimble 9/14/07
football vs. baseball 9/21/07
Jokey Smurf vs. Smurfette in a car vs. Smurf with spear 9/28/07
Pencil robot vs. rocket robot 10/12/07
fighting chicken vs. man with barrel of monkeys 10/26/07
The Grinch vs. Scrooge 12/21/07

My favorite is when I gave Patrick from (Spongebob Squarepants) a knife to battle in his faceoff. Classic.
The most popular Friday Faceoff is the Monopoly Piece Faceoff with over 44,000 hits.

Yesterday's blog post mentioned how Futura is a terrible font for fantasy football magazines or any publication where there's a great deal of information to fit into a limited space.

If you're looking for an economic font that allows for maximum utility, functionality and readability, then go with a slightly condensed serif with a semi-tall x-height. Here's a list of good recommendations:
Memento
Stone Serif
Meta Serif (my favorite font for text-intensive copy)
Veritas
If you want to go experimental, Unit Slab just might work.

Then you could still use a nice, solid, football-like font for headlines and such. You can't go wrong with Trade Gothic, Helvetica, or especially Gotham. Again, avoid Futura. It has no place in a fantasy football magazine.

Go to any major book store this time of year and you'll find at least 10 fantasy football magazines. How do you pick which one to use? Well, don't go for any that uses Futura for its body copy. Futura is a demanding font. Its geometric tendencies are not intended for magazines where you're trying to cram in as much information as humanly possible.

I'll tell you why designers of fantasy football magazines use Futura. It's a gigantic family with tons of weights which theoretically allows more flexibility in different applications. Theoretically. Just look at any chart in a magazine that features Futura. They always end up using Futura Light Condensed. It looks terrible and is highly challenging to read. It's just plain stupid and offensive.

Please, designers of fantasy football magazines, do not use Futura. Please. Tomorrow's blog post will feature my font recommendations for fantasy football magazine designers.

Christies is selling an AT-AT toy that has simulated graffiti all over it. It's cool, but I have a beef with it. If an AT-AT were to be tagged, there would a ton of spray paint on the feet and less and less paint as you get higher. And there there would be one giant tag on the body because one person figured out how to climb all the way up there.

Take a gander at Las Vegas on Google Maps. I'm not talking about all the fancy casinos. Look at the communities. They're fascinating. You'll see bundles of cookie-cutter homes forming a giant mosaic that is Las Vegas.

made-up word google search: triangulatorazzle

"Your search - triangulatorazzle - did not match any documents."
-Google

Well, this segment is officially over.

made-up word google search: shoppamappa

"Your search - shoppamappa - did not match any documents."
-Google

Ok, so this new segment isn't working out so well. Well give it one more try.

I am seriously behind on my "blog post every weekday" mantra; a little over a week's worth behind. To make up for this deficit I was going to google search for completely made up words and post the results.

First made-up word google search: flafingolama

"Your search - flafingolama - did not match any documents."
-Google

Initially the word was "flafingo", but Google thought I was talking about flamingos.

Through September 7, Ebay is offering FREE Insertion Fees for up to 100 Auction-style listings. That's a very good deal.

I have expressed great disgust with ebay in the past (examples here and here and here). However, getting to post just about anything you want for free is really nice.

The graphic above came in the email I received from ebay.

Here's an interesting church design:
Kuokkala Church
Location: Jyväskyla, Finland
Architects: Lassila Hirvilammi Architects
I'm not crazy about the wall piece behind the altar though.

photograph: Jussi Tianen

I bought Star Wars the Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels/Jedi Alliance for Nintendo wii. If there's ever a video game that I'm sucker for, it's one that has open battles with lightsabers. Game on. Sign me up.

I'm not a picky gamer. Heck, I'm not really even a gamer. (Though I'll school anyone on Super Mario Bros. 2.) So "Lightsaber Duels" easily entertains me. This review is based on 22 minutes of game play, so I can't offer too much insight. I started with a quick "free play". Player options included Anakin Skywalker, Obi Wan Kenobi, and that chick with the elephant trunks growing out of her head. Obi Wan was my pick and I had to battle the bald scary evil jedi lady (couldn't select any other villian). She was no match for my aimlessly random arm motions.

I decided to take some training and things were pretty straightforward. Then I did the full-on battle and had to fight the bald chick with each of the three forementioned jedi. Then I had to fight Count Dooku and well, my arm was pretty tired by that point. Count Dooku will have to wait to fight me! (autosave lets me pick up the battle later).

It's a pretty entertaining game. Honestly most of the time I was just waving around the wii remote like a drunk gorilla stealing a wii remote from a bigger gorilla. And that tactic served me quite well.

I have three complaints about this game.
1. I suppose I have unlock something to get to use Mace Windu. Hmph.
2. It appears that Darth Maul is nowhere on this game. I suppose Maul pre-dated the Clone Wars. Details. Details.
3. No internet-play-against-other-humans function on this game. Lame. I will have to just resort to slicing up the computer or any random house guest with my drunk gorilla lightsaber tactics.

Here's another cool thing in London. The National Art Library has a temporary giant bookcase construction filling void created by the building's spiral staircase.

from the architects:

Situated by the V&A’s National Art Library, this freestanding wooden tower re-evaluates the concept of the ‘archive’. Its walls are made up of hundreds of shelves, holding thousands of second-hand books. Accessed via a spiral staircase, each floor includes a secluded reading chamber. Positioned to face inwards, the book spines form an exterior façade of monotonous white, whereas the interior view consists of a rich collage of colours and typographic textures.

Rintala Eggertsson Architects, Oslo and Bodø, Norway

For one, I didn't even know the V&A HAD an art library (The National Art Library, actually). I wrote a review of the V&A last year and the fact I didn't know about the National Art Library actually supports the main argument I made in the review.

But back to the bookcase, or "Ark" as it's called. The bones on this structure are great. You actually can walk and climb inside this thing. There's a couple reading benches. Supposedly they let three people in at a time.

Check out more really cool photos at designboom and more at archdaily.

This is one of seven pieces that were constructed as part of the "1:1 architects build small spaces exhibition" at the V&A. The show goes through August 30, 2010.

photo by pasi aalto courtesy rintala eggertsson architects

I was cruising through some of my old Flickr photos and I'm still really digging this one of the Harry Carey Wrigley Field statue holding the Eiffel Tower.

from the Flickr description:

tourists like to do that pose where they stand blocks away from a world-famous monument and squeeze it between their fingers. Here the Harry Carey statue is squeezing the Eiffel Tower.

Chicago Cubs game 09/02/2009
Cubs defeated Astros 3-0

photographed with disposable camera from Target. 400 ISO

The Chicago Cubs are in 5th place. They're 14 games below .500 (46-60). So where's the silver lining in all this? SALES! Kohl's is selling Cubs apparel for 60-80% off! Jerseys with current players names are 80% off and everything else is 60% off.

I scored an Andre Dawson t-shirt for $10 (retail $25). It's an all-blue shirt with the standard Cubs logo on the front and Dawson's name and number 8 on the back and a special Hall of Fame logo on the sleeve. I also got a Geovany Soto warm-up jersey for $13 (retail $65). See image below. Though my jersey is not a pull-over. It's a full button-down. The numbers and name are screen-printed, not sewn. The logo on the front is sewn.

I'm not the world's biggest Geovany Soto fan. But my brother Matt can attest to this; I am the world's first Soto Cubs fan. We had bleacher seats for a 2006 game towards the end of the season. Soto was just called up. I cheered and cheered and cheered for Soto while the rest of the Cubs fans sat on their hands. So getting the Soto jersey was the natural choice.

Now, go get yourself an authentic Cubs jersey for 13 bucks.

I'm glad the Cubs got rid of Ryan Theriot. I was never a fan. It was kinda cool when he first came up with Mike Fontenot and we learned that they were teammates at LSU. That was fun for, oh, about 2 days.

Sure he's a scrappy player. But that act gets old quickly when the scrappy player is leading off and can't draw any walks. Just look at Theriot's 2010 stats the day he was traded: .284 avg (ok), .320 OBP (bad-70th in NL). He had only 19 in 388 at bats this season as a Cub. 118 other players in the NL have more walks than Theriot. ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEEN. That's just for the National League. There's only 16 teams in the National League. So, on average, there are 7.375 players on each National League team with more walks than former Cubs leadoff man, Ryan Theriot. And Theriot is 11th in at bats in the NL (388), so he’s had plenty of chances to draw walks, but he simply hasn’t.

97 of his 110 hits this season are singles. He has only 10 doubles. How about that .327 slugging? That’s only 7 points higher than his on base percentage. I expect a player in Theriot’s position to at least stretch more singles in doubles. But he clearly has not.

Being tied for 13th in SB in the NL with 16 doesn’t exactly make him a big base stealing threat either.

So what exactly is Theriot’s “game”? Basically what you’re getting in Theriot is a singles-only hitter who DOESN’T walk and is above average on the bases. You don’t want him anywhere near the top of your order. He’s a 7 or 8 hitter.

And Theriot will kill you defensively. There is no zip on his throws at all. None. Zero. Zilch. Null.

Now, Theriot is a nice guy. He tries hard. But he’s simply not good enough to be an every day player. And he’s certainly not good enough to be a #1 or 2 hitter.

Maison de l’Architecture's building in Paris is inspiring me to explore some new textures in my paintings. Just look at those walls!

Anyone who has visited the Milwaukee Art Museum with a camera most certainly has take a photo like this one. Technically the space is called "The Quadracci Pavilion". It's a space-age enveloping environment that delights and inspires all its visitors. It demands to be photographed. And it sure is very photogenic. Though I've seen so many photos just like this one. It makes me want to visit the Museum just to take some minimalistic tight crop shots.

The photo shown above is by numstead on Flickr. Numstead's photo is a fine photo. The only reason I'm calling out this specific photo is that it's the #1 search result for "Milwaukee Art Museum" on Flickr and I'm too lazy to pull out the photo I took of The Quadracci Pavilion years ago. Some day I'll replace the blog post photo with the photo I took.

Architect, Marcio Kogan, sure has a lot of faith in those columns in his/her/their design for House 6.

I want to see Transformers 4 film at this house. Optimus Prime will throw a Decepticon through those columns resulting in the building falling on top of them. Then the Decepticon will rise up through the rubble and continue the battle.

Kivik Art Center, Kivik, Sweden
Architect: Petra Gipp Arkitektur AB

If you happen to be in Washington DC before September 5, 2011, then think about heading over to the National Building Museum to check out the show, "LEGO® Architecture: Towering Ambition".

And you can buy sets by the designer(s) featured at the show at the LEGO® Architecture site.

I'd include a photo of lego structures, but there's some pretty stern copyright messages on the homepage of the designer.

I already missed the exhibit at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry which ended March 2010.

Pentagons are hot in architecture right now.