Jesse had the clever idea recently of recycling his hold hard drive by taking it apart and removing the powerful magnet within to use as a key holder. Video here.

Magnets are Awesome!

When he visited a week or two ago, we realized that I could do the same thing with a busted subwoofer that I had to get rid of. We took it apart, retrieved the magnet off of the speaker, and I mounted it under the lip of my kitchen cabinets.

Check it out!

The hanging keys of Mike D.

A Subwoofer Magnet, recycled

It should be noted that most keys are non-magnetic. But keyrings are magnetic. So the next time you’re looking at throwing out a speaker or a hard drive, remember that there are sweet magnets inside!

Thanks to Jesse for the great idea.

My sister Alicia’s friends Becky and Greg are trying to win the ultimate wedding contest. Apparently Becky was just recently diagnosed with a rare cancer. If you’d like to help them towards their dream wedding, please vote for them here.

You have to register, but that only takes an extra two clicks. Thanks to all who help.

Despite feeling a bit ill, last night I ventured outdoors to try and take a few starry night photographs with my camera. It took a little fiddling, but the quality improved dramatically over the course of the evening.

Here’s my best photo of the orion nebula (around the middle star in Orion’s dagger)

Nebula!

This was taken with a 15 second exposure through my 8″ telescope. My telescope has tracking, so there isn’t any crazy star shift going on, but I think I didn’t quite have it aligned North/South so the stars fall a little bit in the image. I also had to set a timer for the camera, because just touching the camera button was enough to introduce dramatic shake into the image.

What impresses me most is the color.

Au natural

I’ve always been annoyed by deep space photography because of its false color. A scientist may decide, for example, to color a picture according to its temperature because it’s far more interesting than if you used the natural light image which, frankly, would probably be pretty boring.

Unfortunately, this had me thinking that the night sky wouldn’t be too exciting without photoshop. Thankfully, I was proven wrong. And while I hope I’ll be able to improve the focus and the shake next time around, I’m quite pleased with today’s results.

On Thursday my camera adapter arrived for my telescope. And wouldn’t you know, the next five days were cloudy. But the gloom finally parted and I quickly pulled out all the equipment for some celestial photography. This first picture shows the sun in all its glory! Actually, not quite all its glory because I can’t adjust zoom, so I couldn’t get the whole sun in a single view. Not a bad problem to have really.

The Sun! Now with Sunspot!

I did, of course, have a sun filter on my telescope. Otherwise anyone who saw this photo would immediately go blind.

Now that the sun has set, I will be returning to the great outdoors to try my hand at some planets and or stars. Stay tuned for more exciting photos!

This past weekend was less than stellar. It started off with a glorious Friday and Saturday peppered with trips to the rock climbing gym and kung fu class, and then quickly got miserable when I succumbed to an illness. I’ve had a sustained cold symptoms, general soreness, and a slight fever yesterday, but on the Mohs scale of illness I wouldn’t rate this one much worse than Fluorite.

I stayed home from work today and so far have spent all but about 4 minutes in bed. I’m definitely feeling better today than yesterday, so hopefully I’ll be back up to the usual antics come tomorrow.

I’m going to go drink some juice.

After the bouldering competition on Saturday, Sander, Viv, Darce, Shaun, and I returned to the House of Rock for some cookery under Viv’s direction. The menu included deilciously seasoned steak, mouthwatering potatoes, and kale chips.

Kale chips.

While I foolishly didn’t take any pictures, you can be certain that I will be making kale chips in the future. It was very simple: Kale, oil, salt, pepper, and an oven. They were like crunchy chips from heaven.

To counteract the health, Viv brought some of her famous dark chocolate cookies which we baked on my new cookie tray and silpat (courtesy of Tree D).

COOKIES

These cookies. These cookies are high class.

After dinner we sat around and talked for awhile and eventually moseyed upstairs to bring the epic day to a close with equally as epic rock band.

Extreme.

Personal favorites of the night included B.Jovi’s Livin’ on a Prayer, The Yeah Yeah Yeah’s I’ve got a date with the Night, and Darcy and my epic rendition of American Woman with Shaun on lead guitar and Viv rockin the bass.

Great events, great food, great rock. There is no better weekend.

The Bouldering Competition video has gone through!

I must say, I did a poor job with the file management and the movie ended up losing quality through compression. I’m going to have to figure out a new system of editing and saving movies so that they retain their super-crisp feel. All that aside, here’s the winner of the 2010 men’s bouldering competition at Prime Climb.

Bouldering Competition from mikedidonato on Vimeo.

I’m having a little trouble with Vimeo this morning, so I’m not sure if the Bouldering Competition video that I hinted at yesterday will appear today (or this week for that matter).

In the meantime, here are some quick tips for those of you who utilize Google Reader. If you have a wealth of unopened content, you can use keyboard shortcuts to improve the efficiency of your reading.

These are the ones I use most

j and k – will open the previous and next item in your list
v – will open up the original document. This is great if you read something awesome on
      mikedidonato.com and want to comment
g then u – will give you a text based quick search feature if you want to jump to a specific blog

These are my back ups

o – will open and close a particular post
n – will select the next post
p – will select the previous post

For those of you who aren’t using an RSS (really simple syndication) program like Google Reader, I strongly recommend it. RSS allows for more content to be read in a shorter amount of time. And when it comes down to it, internet random fact know-how is basically more important than college educations.

To subscribe to this blog with RSS, go here.

On Saturday, Sander, Shaun, Vivienne, Darcy, and I went to Prime Climb’s bouldering competition to watch the climbers in all their glory. It was a perfect way to get pumped about rock climbing. We arrived just in time for the finals. The finals consisted of three bouldering problems which each of three competitors would attempt to vanquish.

The ladies were up first.

Karen competing in the Women's final

Each competitor was given five minutes to take on each problem. Each time you fell, it would be noted on the scorecard. Whoever gets the furthest in the climb wins, if two people reach the same point than he or she who did it with fewer falls wins.

Jackie working through problem three.

The challengers are not allowed to watch each other climb. That way they won’t learn anything important about the route before their turn.

Christine, just a few moves from the top

I recognized two of the three women competing. The same was not the case with the men climbers. While one of the men in the finals is a student at local college Wesleyan, I believe the other two are sponsored climbers from out of state.

Men's final: Problem number two.

The top men climbers were ripped to an unholy degree. Their backs were extremely defined.

Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang

I’m currently putting together a video (hopefully to be posted tomorrow) that shows the true ridiculousness of the third male climber (first place winner) cleaning the final route in the competition.

Stay tuned.

On Friday night Connecticut’s daughters of the derby revolution came together at the CT Sports Center to face up against their first international opponent: Montreal’s New Skids on the Block. Unlike their most recent bouts, which have focused on CT’s secondary team the Yankee Brutals, this match-up would require the furious skating skills of CT’s elite: The Stepford Sabotage. With their matching pink and green uniforms, the Connecticut girls presented themselves as a force to be reckoned with.

The Stepford Sabotage!

Let’s take at look at the line up for the home team

      Luciana Pulverotti 110R (Captain)
      Eleanor Bruisevelt 33 (Assitant Captain)
      Black Cherry C-4
      Chelsea Grin 777
      C. Mya Rage 86′d
      Doomcake 13
      Ether Bunny 2KO
      Girl Fawkes 5NOV
      Milla Lowlife 40oz.
      Miz ConsepJen 7
      Murphy’s OUTLAW 15
      Parker Poison 3
      Pearl Jammer GO
      Pepper Grind-Her 10
      Revengela 1-2-3-4
      Violet Riot 911

Montreal’s The New Skids on the Block, dressed in black, had driven for 8 hours for a weekend of derby. Their match with CT was the first of three, the second on Saturday against Washington DC, the last against New York’s Suburbia.

      Cheese Grater 289
      No Holds Bard 2X4
      Lyn-dah Kicks 75
      Beater Pan-Tease 1976
      Trash N’ Smash 118
      Romeo 222
      Wrath Poutine 30
      Georgia W. Tush 40
      Lady J 88
      Rae Volver 39
      Smack Daddy 3X
      Bone Machine 1111
      Izzy Skellington 182
      Jess Bandit 8
      Iron Wench 516
      Lil Mama 12
      Ewan Wotarmy 7734
      Beals on Wheels 89
      Karla Shnikov AK47
      Nameless Whorror 202

Standing Room Only

After introductions, the girls skated up to their starting positions. The first jam saw Chelsea Grin facing Iron Wench at the jammer line. The girls stood posed for speed, but at the first whistle the pace proceeded at an unusually slow clip. It appeared that Montreal was purposefully limiting the speed of the pack to give their fastest jammer the greatest opportunity to pull points.

The unexpected strategy seemed to catch the girls in green off guard. Iron Wench quickly sped through the pack getting lead jammer status and circled through the pack twice scoring nine points for her team before Chelsea could recover from an early hit by Canadian Nameless Whorror.

Eleanor Bruisevelt faced Ewan Wotarmy next and pulled in eight points for the Sabotage after Ewan found herself sent to the penalty box for cutting the track.

Eleanor is declared lead jammer

Stepford’s momentum was a bit erratic at the start. In part, their drive seemed to falter each time Iron Wench had the star on her helmet. Iron Wench followed her nine point first jam with fifteen points in her second and thirteen more in her fourth. Black Cherry and Pearl each stole lead jamming status from Iron Wench once during the first half (Pearl off a beautiful whip by Miz ConsepJen,) but Iron Wench still pulled in 49 points in the first half. Forty Nine Points!

Jammer Iron Wench dodging Pepper's powerful block

At half time the score was 78 to 40 with the New Skids on the Block in the lead. The girls from Montreal were proficiently keeping our jammers away from the lead jammer position. In the first half, the New Skids were awarded lead jamming status for 11 jams compared to just 8 for the Stepford.

The crowd had not given up on the hometown girls as they returned for the second half to fight back against the visitors. Eleanor brought some life to Connecticut after she returned from a penalty with a vengeance to outskate Ewan Wotarmy 14 to 10 in the fourth jam.

Eleanor Bruisevelt celebrates her successful jam!

Next up, Milla LowLife maintained Stepford’s momentum against Georgia W. Tush. She sprinted off the starting line holding hard along the inside of the track. Her speed let her sneak through the pack to quickly secure lead jamming status. She followed with two more laps, scoring eight unopposed points for Stepford.

The New Skids on the Block, however, were not to be outperformed. Iron Wench and Ewan Wotarmy followed with seven and six point jams respectively. The Connecticut blockers did their best to limit the damage, but the points continued to accumulate for Montreal.

The packs were playing especially hard in this bout. Collectively between the two teams, this bout saw 69 trips to the penalty box. All of the girls were taking a serious beating on the track. Their ability to keep skating hard after such jarring blows stands as testimony to their hard training.

Black Cherry on a crash course with Smack Daddy

As the final jam came to a close, the score showed the visitors ahead 151 to 93. This was a brutal bout that showcased the passion these women have for their sport.

Statistics!!

      Lead Scorers:
       The New Skids on the Block
            Iron Wench 77pts (9 leads in 13 jams)
            Ewan Wotarmy 32pts (5 leads in 7 jams)
            Georgia W. Tush 19pts (5 leads in 9 jams)

       The Stepford Sabotage
             Milla LowLife 39pts (5 leads in 9 jams)
             Eleanor Bruisevelt 34pts (2 lead in 9 jams)
             Black Cherry 13pts (3 lead in 5 jams)

      Penalty Queens:
       The New Skids on the Block
             Ewan Wotarmy: 6 Trips
       The Stepford Sabotage
             Chelsea Grin: 6 Trips

      MVPs!
            Iron Wench
            Luciana Pulverotti

Luciana and Iron Wench pose with their MVP metals

Special thanks to all those who help make these bouts a truly entertaining experience. Special kudos to the organizers, the refs, and the CT Roller Derby sponsors. If you’d like to learn more about roller derby I encourage you to visit the CTRG website located here.

Ring ring!

Mike D: “Hello, this is Mike D.”
Caller: “Hi, did you loose a sword?”
Mike D: “uh… geeze… Maybe? Where’d you find it?”
Caller: “I found it on Newfield St. in Middletown. It had your name and phone number on it”
Mike D: “oh no! I must have left it on my car’s roof after my martial arts class last night.”
Caller: “well, I think a car or two may have driven over it, but I have it now.”

Ugh so stupid of me! How Ninja-ly embarrassing!

Special thanks to Lenny from Middletown for finding my sword.

Nothing tastes as delicious as insomnia!

A delicious side-effect

Though honestly, last night doesn’t qualify as insomnia, just unexpected awakedness. At first, I love mornings like this one when I wake up 40 minutes early feeling fully refreshed regardless of what time my head first hit the pillow (in this instance, after midnight). While such circumstances often result in breakfasts of pancakes and bacon they are not preferred. My early morning case of alertness tends to last only a few hours, after which it quickly degrades into a wheelbarrow of hurt.

Well, not today friends. Today I will fight the languor of the afternoon. I will fight it with Kool-Aid.
40oz of delicious Tropical Punch Kool-Aid

I will prevail.

Fun fact: This is MikeDiDonato.com’s 4000th post.

During my recent visit to Tom and Mykal’s, I was reminded by Mykal’s beautiful new camera that even after months of deep consideration I still lacked a high quality digital camera. As Mykal noted in yesterday’s comments, I have finally procured said toy.

The quality of this shot suffered in part because it was taken through a complex array of mirrors.

I started the purchasing process by combing through internet forums and talking to camera enthusiasts. Once I settled into my decision, it was simply deciding to whom I should give my dollars. Originally, my plan was to purchase used from FredMiranda.com – but after days of frustrated refreshing and a seller cancellation, I abandoned the lure of tax-free shopping and visited a camera store so I could leave with something in my hands.

My final choice was a Canon Rebel T2i. The Rebel does a great job of providing photography options for typical (read: clueless) users like myself. It has both gentle idiot-proof auto settings and thorny manual modes. The T2i is noteworthy too in that it adds 1080p video to its ensemble.

As we wrestle with the uncomfortable newness of the new MikeDiDonato.com layout, take solace in the fact that the quality of my multimedia is on the rise.

Darcy’s deep within her pursuit of a medical degree, switching in and out of exhausting rotations. Yet on Saturday night she had a break in the madness so we got together to share some dinner and good times.

Darcy, having recently started receiving Cooking Light (the magazine), made an elaborate lamb sauce pasta dish with a salad side. Take a moment to appreciate the glory:

That’s ricotta cheese and mint garnish atop a heap of mouthwatering deliciousness. This hearty dinner replaced every bit of wanting hunger with satisfaction. Well done Darce!

We followed our meal with the movie Helvetica, a documentary exploring the origin and influence of the font Helvetica. This is pretty much the movie of choice for typography enthusiasts. For me, the movie very strongly presented the question: should a font act as a transparent messenger for the words it portrays, or should a font add emotion, color, and significance to the content?

Thanks to Darcy for a wonderful time.

So the previous website layout that we all know and love met its untimely doom in the midst of my wordpress updates. It’s been a few years since I changed the layout around here so I’ll be trying various layout this week and hopefully we’ll find one that can be easily navigated and feels comfortable on the eyes.

I’d love to hear your comments, so if you see a layout that you really like send me an e-mail. You’ll have to e-mail me because at least at this point… comments aren’t working.

UPDATE: Comments appear to be working.

Sigh.

We’ll get there. Thanks for your patience.

Whoa we’ve gone through a few changes here at MikeDiDonato.com. Namely, some very much needed Wordpress updates.

The good news: Great new technologies are on their way!

The bad news: GAH! the website is a disaster! comments don’t work, categories are temperamental, and database errors are aplenty.

Hang tight! we’ll get this baby running smoothly soon enough. Also, this website theme with the dark colors and odd contrast is temporary until I can get things running smoothly again.

Is anyone reading this in Hartford, CT right now?

Please e-mail me promptly if you’re willing to help me out!

mikedidonato AT gmail D0T com

Problem resolved! Thanks to those who offered their help.

Last night I made a most epic Broccoli dish. The recipe was taken from the highly revered everyday food magazine. I can’t speak highly enough about the quality of the recipes within this publication. For those of you who appreciate foodstuffs, I recommend giving Everyday Food a try.

So! Let’s talk broccoli.

When I make broccoli it usually comes out pretty blah. I usually make it for its healthy qualities and it’s certainly never the highlight of the meal. Last night’s broccoli, however, put all other broccoli to shame. Here’s what I did:

Preheat oven to 450

Two med heads of broccoli
Two Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
5 garlic cloves, left whole and uncrushed
Coarse salt and pepper

Toss it all together onto a rimmed baking tray, bake for 20 minutes tossing once in the meantime

Results: Garlic Spicy Roasted Broccoli.

Try it and let me know if you agree!

Beautiful sculptures made from junk.

Pete Wilk had a really great comment about the rock-less nature of the solo that I posted yesterday.

“Sounds cool and mellow to me, but WHERE’S THE ROCK!”

It’s true. That solo was decidedly not rock.

Why focus on jazz? The plan here is for me to develop a mastery of the finer nuances of music theory and then crank the distortion and melt the faces of the world population.

At a recent Jazz show my roommate Kevin said it best regarding percussion styles, though the same holds true for guitar (paraphrased):

“I think the differences between rock and jazz drumming are similar to the differences between algebra and calculus.”

Once I get my jazz integral on, you can bet your natural exponent that I will determinant the crap out of your rocktangular matrix.

Patrick here. You may remember back in 2008, I counted medals a bit differently. (initial post, final tally). We’re about 75% of the way through Vancouver, so let’s see where we stand with the population and GDP metrics.

Medals per Population
1) Norway (1 per 286K)
2) Austria (1 per 837K)
3) Switzerland (1 per 972K)
–
11) Canada (1 per 3.1M)
21) USA (1 per 11.8M)

Medals per GDP
1) Latvia (1 per $12.1B)
2) Estonia (1 per $18.1B)
3) Norway (1 per $21.7B)
–
16) Canada (1 per $120B)
23) USA (1 per $549B)

Naps, wherever possible, whenever possible.

I’ve uploaded my latest recording of a solo that I wrote over the standard Rhythm Changes chord progression. While it may not sound like much to non-guitarists, there are a couple really cool things going on in this solo that I’m quite proud of. Most specifically, there are a handful of spots in the solo where I play over altered dominant chords (sharping or flatting the 5th or 9th of a chord).

The complexity of these altered dominant chords carries over into the soloing, providing much more opportunity for freedom and depth. I’m still working on which notes are considered acceptable and which unacceptable, so it’s even more of a challenge to have it all come together into something graceful.

Feel free to listen and let me know what you think.

rhythm-changes.mp3

Oh Sunday, I decided to spend some time in the kitchen. I recently received the latest edition of my Everyday Foods subscription and inside it had a recipe for a very hearty looking Beef Bourguignon. After my black belt pre-test on Saturday, I thought I might need some extra protein, so this seemed like an appropriate choice.

This recipe called for a dutch oven (or cocotte), so I went ahead and picked one up at Target. Mine is a 6 QT Lodge cast iron enamel coated beauty.

I love red.

The dish itself was heavy. It had mushrooms, carrots, 3 lbs beef, bacon, garlic, onions, tomato paste, flour, wine, and chicken broth. It cooked for nearly 3 hours and came out epic. (Similar recipe here)

Served with a side of mashed potatoes, it was the perfect meal for a Sunday feast.

I strongly recommend the recipe, the magazine, and the pot.