The Question

Kammi Says:
April 2nd, 2005 at 12:02 pm

Dear Oh World Traveler Shaun, While watching the BBC news one day last week, I caught the tail end of a story involving something called “twitchers”. Knowing that you have visited, and even resided for a time in that totally boffo country, I was wondering if you would know exactly what the heck the newscaster was refering to. Is it some new disease we must all be on our guard against? Should I begin to “twitch” do I run to the doctor a “twitch shot”. Or is this perhaps a new dance craze, a new way of walking……what? I depend on your expertise and awesome brain power to clear this up for me. My undying gratitude!

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The Question

Kurt and Glenn and Marc at work Says:
March 30th, 2005 at 2:44 pm

Why don’t fish get electrocuted when lightning strikes the water???

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The Question

Pam Says:
March 28th, 2005 at 10:13 am

At what temperature does diesel fuel burn??

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The Question

Alicia Says:
March 23rd, 2005 at 7:09 pm
Dear Shaun,

Why do Scientologists have such a problem with psychiatry? There are posters all over Central Square decrying the mental health industry in the name of L. Ron Hubbard.

sincerely, and admiringly,

Alicia

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Our garage has two bays and a dirt floor. It’s walls are mostly unfinished and there’s a truck load of old truck parts littering the floor. There’s a shop area and a concrete section of floor for car work. Really? it’s not a bad garage. With a little shag carpet and some serious funk music it’d be a stellar hang out spot. And that is why we have deemed it The Garage of Disco.

last night we cleaned The Garage of Disco. What a ridiculously mammoth task! We got quite a bit done. Mainly, piling all the trash into one particular location. Even still, we are that much closer to having a fully working garage of which we can be proud.

I really don’t have anything to write about. so instead, here’s a picture of a stegosaurus playing the piano.

These guys have the right idea.

Got me a new fan last night! It’s a classy number that sits in your window providing cool loving with two, count them, Two fans. And I can switch one to ‘in’, and the other to ‘out’ for maximum circulation. This, in combination with my other big fan, provide ample cooling for my oddly warm bedroom.

I also got new tires yesterday for the acclaim to fame. Though they sized them wrong, so I’m getting them re-done today.

And finally, Sander and I got out to fly the kite yesterday. Despite low winds, Sander had a very good run. And I had a bunch of smaller runs. It was fun. I still need more practice before the big kiteboarding lesson.

Kiteboarding update: My Kiteboarding hero, Ryan Schenk (who will from now on be referred to as: Old Man Schenk), sent me an instant message last night informing me that he had done 20 foot jumps while kiteboarding yesterday. CAPS LOCK BRAVO Old Man Schenk. CAPS LOCK BRAVO.

I am excited for the day when I too will be able to perform such impressive stunts.

Unlike the Cape, CT has had very little wind over the past few days. I’ve been talking to an instructor and we’re going to try to set a lesson up as soon as the wind picks up. There will be kiteboarding, and it will be great.

Rock climbing update: Over the last few nights of climbing I have been able to consistantly perform on 5.11a at the gym. Soon I hope to tackle a few harder 11’s on my quest to 5.12

I forgot to post a picture of me in my hot new bathing suit and hotter new t-shirt

And if you can’t read it, the t-shirt says:

“Keepin it nerd free, with my TI-83″

SAHARA

Sahara. It was one of those movies that I knew existed only because of the heavily paparazzi’d romance between its costars (in this case, Matthew McConaughey and Penelope Cruz). It did not have a very long theater run, and I almost considered not watching it on my plane ride from Reagan to Salt Lake City. However, it was free, and I figured it would help time pass. Plus, Mr. McConaughey and Ms. Cruz ain’t so bad to look at.

Note to Alicia: short theater runs generally mean that the movie sucked.
I’ve decided for this review to make a little list. Hopefully, I will save you from any movie that even remotely resembles “Sahara.”

1. Curse you, Dan Brown, and your terrible writing and bad adventure genre. You and your ridiculous “novels” have spawned American interest in tremendous wastes of time and money, such as “National Treasure” and this movie, “Sahara”, wherein MacGyver-like “normal guys” search out buried treasure and conspiracy secrets and END UP SAVING THE WORLD from bad guys, the Illuminati, and/or disease! And by god, getting the girl!
Note to America: Guys!! Dan Brown can’t write!! Try Steinbeck!!

2. Penelope Cruz, you are stunningly beautiful. In fact, I am very jealous of you, because you’re not only gorgeous, you have a cute accent, and guys go for that accent thing. And, you’re quite a good actress - in “Abre Los Ojos” you were incredible. However, does moving to Hollywood mean that you have to perform in schlock? I mean, seriously, this dialogue was pitiful. Who is your agent? My advice is: get a new one. And stop dating your co-stars. (Do you regret the Tom Cruise thing? I bet you do.)

3. Why doesn’t the funny sidekick ever get the girl? Ever since “Pretty in Pink”, when it was so obvious that Ducky should have gotten the girl, not Mr. I-Have-Money-But-No-Personality, I have been saddened by the lack of geek romance in films. I guess that’s why the 1988 TV movie “Dance ‘Til Dawn” is one of my personal favorites: the beautiful popular girl falls for the nerd after an eventful prom night. Ahhh. Teen angst and romance. I am sucked in so easily.

In any case, in Sahara, Steve Zahn plays a very funny and cute sidekick who dismantles a bomb at The Crucial Moment and lets Mr. McC save the lovely Penelope. He gets no reward, yet MM gets to frolic with PC on the shores of Monterrey. What’s up, Hollywood? Let’s give these sidekicks hot girlfriends. And no, purple multi-tentacled aliens (a la Galaxy Quest) do not count.

4. Dear movie directors of America,
If you stretch the limits of reality more than once — as in having main characters defy rebel gunfire in the middle of the Sahara Desert over and over again without any visible means of obtaining drinking water, and then having them climb onto a moving train from the backs of camels that they just learned how to ride (and by the way, that thing about the Civil War-era iron clad ship being depicted in a cave drawing was totally ludicrous) — I will lose interest in your movie and get up and go to the bathroom.
Sincerely,
Alicia

This morning has not started off superbly. After mistakenly staining my dress shirt with a spray of turkey grease and realizing all too late that my undershirt was backwards, in two seperate incidents I was greeted with the wrong name by my co-workers.

“good morning Dave… I mean mike”

and

“good morning Steve… uh… mike.”

But all is well, because this past weekend brought me to Hampton Beach in NH. Jill and I went up there for a day trip on Saturday. It was great. Jill packed the foodstuffs, of which we ate a plenty, and we enjoyed a day in the sun and water. Tragically, just before we were going to go swimming Jill’s swimsuit snapped. Her fast thinking resulted in her Not flashing the beach, and we quickly got her under a towel. I quickly switched from mild mannered mike d. to Mechanical Engineering Man and set to fixing the suit.

The mechanism was such:

I’ve drawn a faux crack at the point of failure. this would not be an easy fix.

Jill and I took inventory:

1: a book bag with some magazines
2: a cooler filled with food
3: a bottle opener keychain
4: my camera
5: towels and other beach standards
6: my bathing suit

The keychain was the obvious first solution. That metal circular clasp things on all keys might prove useful. So, I slipped that into the left side of the broken suit. Then I realized that my swim suit had a useless weird tag thing. It was plastic and looked like a saw. Here’s a picture. also in the picture is the broken clasp. jill’s pointing to the broken clasp.

after cutting of the piece of string that was being used to hold on that weird saw tag thing, I was able to tie through the metal keychain and the previous clasp. The result was a fully working swim suit with a slightly oversized tie:

Once again, Mechanical Engineering Man has come to the rescue.

This weekend Sander Jesse and I also made an 18 lb turkey with delicious gravy. So if you’re hungry, feel free to stop by the House of Rock this week. We’ll feed you.

Please note, there is also a movie review up by alicia. Enjoy!

I got the ultimate ego-boosting e-mail this morning from the current APO Fellowship Vice President (FVP). The FVP is in charge of all things fun within APO (a community service organization at WPI). I held the position for a short while and I’m excited to say that it seems the stories have been exaggerated into a mix of fact and myth. This was the letter I received:

hi Mike D!

So apparantly I took over your old position as FVP and you’ve become something like a legend. Mike D has become this mystical being who once brought fun to APO that has sorely been missing. If I hadn’t seen you in person I would picture you as a giant muscular man with purple hair and a yellow spandex super suit complete with red cape. You would have the power to make fun appear with the blink of an eye, only not like that girl from I Dream of Genie. It would be way cooler. Oh and you would have a green midget who followed you around and sang ballads of your tales. That’s how I would see it. But alas, I have heard tales of Iron Chef greatness, Inter-house pranking, and unmatchable MS paint presentations. Sadly, I am just too busy with MQP to come up with a rival to your Iron Chef and as for MS paint…. I rate as passable. But the real legend that has me writing to you is the infamous Wallyball. I have heard many a tale of this game, and noone really knows how it works anymore. It
has peaked my interest on my path of becoming a great FVP myself. If you happen to have a set of rules or instructions I would be forever greatful.

Nicole

Seriously. that’s an awesome way to start your Friday.

Alicia decided to go to a dude ranch for a week. Here are a couple photos from her journey:

I’m sure she will post more pictures when she gets the chance at her website.

Ryan Petti.

This entry has been created, and placed in the past archives of mikedidonato.com simply so that you, Ryan Petti, will have another more credible reference when you google your own name.

I salute in your general direction (North East).

The House of Rock has a Fridge. And it is a monster.

Just when there’s a lull in the conversation, or when someone makes an unfunny comment… the Fridge growls. It’s unlike any sound that you would ever expect from a refrigerator. It’s much more like the sound you would expect from a vicious beast.

The humidity is deadly this morning. This is the kind of weather that doesn’t let you breathe right. Supposedly by 3 o’clock it will feel like it’s 103 degrees outside. Thankfully, I am inside. Today’s one of those days I love coming to work.

This was an enjoyable weekend. Jill came to visit and we had quite a bit of fun. Saturday we went to a big craft show in Guilford CT. It was huge. There must have been a hundred vendors. One guy made silk ties, and I wish I had taken a picture because they were beautiful. I tried searching the internets for a good “how to” so that I might be able to give it a try, but alas, even Jeeves returned just a list of silk tie vendors. Saturday evening we went out to a nice restaurant and Saturday night, we tried to go to a movie with Sander. Unfortunately, maps.google gave me some bogus directions, and we got horribly lost. At one point, we were on Flanders st. and came to an intersection with Flanders Ave. We felt like as if we were in some strange time space continuum.

Sunday I went to the park with Sander and Jill in hopes that I could fly my new kite. Unfortunately, there was zero wind. So instead of flying the kite, we all just looked like idiots holding a kite in the air when there was obviously no breeze.

Sunday night I went over to the Baumann’s place for a high school graduation party. It was fun on a multitude of levels. First, I saw a bunch of people that I haven’t seen in a very long time. and second, Mrs. Baumann gave me tons of food to take with me. Here’s a picture.

I’d also like to point out that Shaun McQuaid has made up for his recent “I bought a house and have tons of work to do” lapse and has posted THREE, count them, THREE answers. Check out the side bar for his much appreciated words of wisdom.

The Question

Meghan McQuaid Says:

March 23rd, 2005 at 5:02 pm

Dear Shaun,

How does a zipper work?

-your sister

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The Question

mike d. Says:

March 22nd, 2005 at 2:58 pm

Dear Shaun,

Why is it that Europeans pay so much more than us Americans for gasoline? Is the high paying isolated to Europe? does Asia pay high prices too? I would think in today’s well traveled high tech world that prices would be similar across the globe.

Thanks!
mike d.

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The Question

Kurt and Glenn Say:

March 7th, 2005 at 3:12 pm

We were at lunch discussing Airplanes and flight times and such. He is flying to San diego and we thought of this. We were wondering if the Roatation of the Earth has any measurable bearing on the flight time. Along those lines Glenn, my esteemed colleague had the thought, that if you were to go straight up into the air in a helicopter and hover for several hours would you land in a different place when you came directly down, or would you travel along with the rotation of the Earth. Thanks all-knowing and ever wondrous Shaun.

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As I drove into Kansas, the first thing that greeted me was the smell of the undead flowing graciously out of the garbage truck driving in front of me.

I got to Kansas after hours and hours of flight delays. We flew over a thunderstorm which was moderately exciting, but besides that the trip was uneventful. Instead of the standard honda or toyota, my rental car was a PT Cruiser. I happen not to be a huge fan of the cruiser, but I’m never one to diss my ride.

I got to Kansas around 9:30 local time on wednesday and drove an hour to get to Atchison KS.
looks pretty flat to me… (please note the extra flatness in the PT Cruiser’s side view mirror)

This is a picture of the amelia earhart bridge. at night there are two huge bulbs that fire beacons of light into the air. Like giant lightsaber’s, these beams instill fear and awe. However, I must note that local amateur astronomers must curse the bridge for it’s excessive light pollution.

I stayed at an AMERICINN which was decent. I hit the sack as soon as I got to my room, and woke early to get to the customer site. I was in and out of the customer’s site in less than 3 hours and back on the road. This is a picture from the car as I crossed the bridge from Kansas into Missouri. Kansas is on the right.

It was a weary trip. I fear I didn’t get to eat Steak ONCE. NOT ONCE! this is mostly because every meal I ate was during layover time at the airport. That’s right, between 12:30pm on wednesday and 7:30pm on thursday, I had only three waking hours of non-travel bliss.

As for Kansas, it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. I was expecting an experience equivalent to being impaled by jagged flaming icicles. But really, it was much calmer. I will now fuel Kansas stereotypes with this picture of corn.

Work is sending me to Kansas. That’s right folks, as of this afternoon I’ll be on a plane to Atlanta, and then to Kansas city Mo, then it’s a one hour drive to my destination in Kansas. It’s just a day trip, I will be returning tomorrow afternoon. I’m going to collect some data for one of our welding applications.

I think this calls for FUN vs. FUNK!

fun: I’ve never been to kansas, nor missouri, and I have a camera to document my event
funk: Kansas is flat, and is perhaps best known for the musical Wizard of Oz, in which Kansas is a black and white land of misery in comparison to the colorful wonderful land of Oz
fun: All food and accomodations to be paid for by work
funk: 12+ hours of travel over the next 36 hours.
fun: I get to use a super expensive thermal imaging camera
funk: I have a sore throat and annoying cold and flying will be miserable

I got to work early today so that I could work more in communion with some of our English counterparts. I called them at about 6:15.

Me: Good morning Tony.
Tony (UK): Well good morning Mike. What are you doing there so early? What time is it there 6:15? Can’t you sleep? what’s wrong with you? Well done. Keep up the good work.