a’ight. this has been eating at me for awhile so I’ve finally decided to put up a post about it.

Awhile ago my girlfriend Jill told me about the VH1’s “hottest rock bodies” episode where they revealed the 10 top hottest bodies of rock. here’s the list:

10. Kylie Minogue
9. Ashanti
8. Nick Lachey
7. Britney Spears
6. Justin Timberlake
5. Sheryl Crow
4. Usher
3. Jennifer Lopez
2. Beyonce
1. Jessica Simpson

Does anyone else notice the problem? none of these people are rock stars! they’re all lame pop/boyband/r&b stars. That’s not Rock. Rock is Aerosmith. rock is Jimmi hendrix. rock is not justin timberlake.

so, Jill, my sister Theresa, and I set out to make a list of the real 10 hottest rock bodies. I don’t quite remember all of the ones we came up with, but here are a few… in no particular order:

Gavin Rossdale (bush)
Bon Jovi
Lenny Kravitz
Gwen Stefani (no doubt)

comment with your additions to the list. let’s fix VH1’s idiocy.

co-worker: “this isn’t global warming. you know what global warming is? having two good looking women on either side of me. that’s global warming.”

So now, my rockstar sister Alicia gets to play with Elton John. Jealousy abounds.

Yesterday I partook in a relay triathalon. I competed with Tom and Mykal. Tom did the swimming, Mykal the biking, and I the running. It was a 10k, and was pretty fun. Amazingly my knee survived the race, and I was able to keep up a comfortable 9 minute pace. For the minimum training that I did, I was very pleased with these results. Our team came in 15th of the 23 teams that were competing. next year, I’m sure we’ll do even better.

three cheers for running.

I went to CVS in Stoneham this weekend and who happened to step into line behind me? none other than former figure skating olympic bronze metalist Nancy Kerrigan!

what was I purchasing?

a knee brace.

I’m wearing some comfy pants today.

aww yeah.

Last night was pretty fantastic. My friend KTCaperton happens to go to Wesleyan where she’s working towards an astronomy masters degree. Last night she gave J.Marzullo and myself a tour of the facilities there and then let us use one of the telescopes to comb the skies.

The telescope we used was a 16 inch reflector: this size telescope is officially big. It was even located in one of those telescope domes that has the rotating top and the giant window that opens to the sky. it was extremely impressive. It was computerized too, so you’d enter in what you wanted to see and it would move itself to point towards it. We were having a bit of trouble getting that feature to work, but overall it was still an excellent time.

What’s it feel like to stand inside an observatory pointing a giant piece of metal and mirrors into the sky, even though you have very little idea as to what you’re looking at?

super-awesome.

We went rock Climbing last night, and I finally completed my first 5.10.

I feel accomplished.

here’s a picture of jesse bouldering.
the person who comes up with the best caption will win 3 points.

sam had a dream last night where he met Natalie Portman.

Sam’s first words?
“Natalie, I have this friend mike d that’s a huge fan of yours. can I get a picture with you so I can send it to him?”

Thattaboy Sammy G !

I had a heated discussion with my roommate last night discussing olympic sports. She was upset by the inclusion of Beach Volleyball. We didn’t really come to a conclusion, though we had a few end thoughts.

–Firstly, when we think olympics we tend to think individual competition: track, swimming, etc… this also includes team sports where the individuals compete solo-style like gymnastics and archery.
–Secondly, we thought that the olympic gold should be the ultimate award. This would knock out any sport that has a larger secondary championship like tennis (world open) or Cycling (tour de france)
There would have to be a third rule that would knock out non-physical non-sport activities like monopoly or sword swallowing.

I do have a tremendous amount of respect for those contestants in less-than-awesome olympic sports like baseball. And obviously, the rules above could be debated endlessly.
And when it comes down to it, I’m 100% A-O-K with women’s beach volleyball.

Question for the readers:
Women’s beach volleyball: Worthy of Olympic sport? or just another attempt by men to get women to dance around in beach wear?

Alicia, my sister, performed with Bono. The following are her words describing the experience.
(more…)

Group of co-workers pile into pam’s (cube neighbor) office, looking out window.

Co-worker Guy #1: “don’t mind us, we’re just checking out Bill’s new toy. ” everyone looks outside where there’s a shiny new white mustang convertible parked next to a mini-van.
Pam: “the white car?”
Co-worker Guy #1: (sarcastically) “no. the mini-van. Wow Bill. Is that a Ford Windstar?”

mike d: was that the girl who sat on your lap when she heard your name?
shamus: no, that was fivehead.
mike d: fifehead?
shamus: Fivehead.
mike d: where’d she get that nickname?
shamus: she had a huge forehead.

I saw the lion king last night and noticed the pure unoriginality in the villain’s name (scar) with respects to the other characters (mufasa, simba).
So, I decided to do a bit of an investigation into Disney villain’s names.

Now, many of the stories listed in the chart below are not Disney Originals, so really, disney shouldn’t be blamed for the dumb villain names. With this in mind, we will make the official title of this chart:

THE CREATIVITY OF NAMES COMMON IN FAIRY TALES AND DISNEY ANIMATED MOVIES

stats for the geeks:
Average: 6.0
Standard Deviation: 3.1

a few curious notes:
-The Rescuers got such a low mark for Medusa because it was stolen outright from greek myth. Hercules got a high rating for Hades because it is Greek Myth, and was never stolen.
-I also find it interesting that one of the evil stepsisters was named Anastasia: a future animated Heroine.

CONCLUSION!
My current hypothesis is that animated films, being for children, want to make it so that even viewers lacking any form of intelligence will know who the villain is.

It kind of makes you wonder how intelligent the director of austin powers must have thought his audience would be… what with a villain named Dr. Evil.

For more info on Disney villains, click Here.

I went to see Lion King last night in Boston.

It was breathtaking. The costumes and methods that they used for scenes like “the stampede” and “the stars speak to simba” were really impressive.

Jill made a comment that I very much agreed with. She said that she liked how they didn’t hide the people in the animal costumes, and they didn’t hide the methods by which they animated the arms and legs of the animals. The honesty of the costumes made them so much more intriguing.

4 Stars

on a side note, lets look for a moment at the names of the characters in Lion King. There’s Simba. Nala. Mufasa. Zazu. and… Scar.

What a completely unoriginal name for our supervillain. Scar? seriously. All the others are so african. It’s like Disney got tired and decided to stop being imaginative.

Brian: (having just finished drilling) “mike will you grab this drill bit. don’t grab it by the end”
mike d: “sure” reaches out and grabs the end of the drill to find it burning hot, withdraws hands in a frenzy of pain and excessive motion
mike d: “oh. you said DON’T grab it by the end.”
Brian: “yeah. don’t do that.”

The wonder! My doctor-to-be roommate suggested that I dab a bit of toothpaste on Mount Kilamanjaro before going to bed. I, of course, did exactly what she said without considering the possibility of looking like a fool. But, sure enough! Upon waking this morning I found my blemish to be a mere shadow of its former self. Downgraded from a Mnt Kilmanajaro to a Mnt Monadnok. victory!

Who knew that pimples and plaque were in cahoots?

I used to think that the inner ear pimple was the worst, with the rim of the nostril as a Close second. but no. I have a pimple in the worst spot. It’s perfectly centered on my face, right under my lower lip.

this is the cause of incredible pain, as I often bite my lower lip when I concentrate; thus resulting in a stab of pain and the frequent violent rupturing of the pimple. So what should have been a two day blemish is now a gaping hole with blood and disgusting working on day 4. Expect regular updates.

In more uplifting news, I attempted two 5.10s last night while Climbing, and made it halfway up on each before my body failed and I collapsed off the wall. I consider this a victory.

I, michael didonato, now own a gmail account: mikedidonato@gmail.com

thanks to Jon Abad for hooking me up.
three haikus for jonabad:

Jon Abad the dude
gave some G-mail to mike d.
fellow mike’n'ike

For this selfless act
the halo gods will reward
head-shots and pow’r-ups

raise your needlers high
and warthog it back to base
’cause this flag’s for him.

happy birthday rudy.

Another typical evening.

I am back from Indiana!

and what a trip it was. I also used up a vacation day and spent a few days at cape cod. Woo! I’ll have pictures from the vermonster shortly.

Four co-workers and I sat at the bar.

Why is it that they all laughed at me when I ordered the Oreo Cookie Milk Shake?

Really, it’s unusual eating out so much. I’m not complaining, really, I’m not. I have been eating extremely well. The strange part is that I have to stray away from my usual strategy of ‘eat as much bread as you can pre-dinner and take the rest of your meal for tomorrow.’ This is because I have no where to bring the leftovers. Sure I could bring it to the hotel and save it for lunch the next day, but seriously, if we’re heading out to eat for lunch the following day why settle for leftovers? As the days pass I have been getting better at the bread avoidance. And while I try to incorporate a few veggies in with my meats, it’s quite easy to get carried away and order a steak, fries, and 4 dozen buffalo wings.

Speaking of which, we went to BW-3’s last night. It’s a wing place that’s (apparently) a bit less common on the east coast. We got wings. As usual, the spice levels leaned away from the typical: mild, medium, hot. One co-worker got “blazin” and another “spicy garlic.”

I encourage restaurant’s resistance to the standards. I think it makes life more exciting.

in any case, only a few more nights of eating prime rib before my return to Peanut butter sandwiches, with a side of rice, and Salad-in-a-bag. ::sigh::