AWOL:
I only said they "might" be better in PROGMEM - I don't know what else you have in mind to do with this device.
If you were going to build some kind of message matrix with multiple devices, it might be better to save RAM for user-specified messages.However, there is nothing magical about PROGMEM, it is just another memory space on the processor, and there are lots of tutorials and threads on the topic.
we just want it to display different things.. .nothing special at this time.. i have more max7219's if ever needed.. i stocked up on those 
i mean, it's a red dot 8x8 matrix.. nothing we really can use it for or need it for.. was just something to mess and learn with..