Please check out this blog.

The author explains the comic strip Marmaduke. It is hilarious.

*special thanks to timBaird for this find.

Low turnout this week. We had a simple three entries. The lack of entries, however, does not make them any less entertaining!

The contest was such: Using only MSPaint, draw a new album cover for the disc “RETURN TO COOKIE MOUNTAIN” by the band TV on the RADIO because the current album art, while ‘okay’, can’t keep up with the sweet album title.

Cookie Mountain 1: This artist used some shading and some female dominance to literally portray a return to a cookie mountain. I like the redhead and the cookie shading. Well done artist one!

Cookie Mountain 2: Artist two also used shading. This particular mountain clearly has cookie boulders. They may seem harmless and tasty from afar, but up close… deadly. I like the beams of light in this entry. Great job artist two!

Cookie Mountain 3: Artist three made the clever connection to Brokeback Mountain. I find this one hilairous. not only because its a parody, but also because it really is difficult to quit cookies. Very well done Artist three!

Thanks to the three participants! Next week’s challenge will be a bit less complicated!!

Please vote for your favorite in the comments.
Remember, artists can not vote for their own entry! Good luck!

UPDATE: we have a FOURTH contestant!

Cookie Mountain 4: Artist four also went for the literal route of ‘a mountain made of cookies’. However, if you do some research you’ll find that there are claims that the name “oreo” came from a mountain. Hydrox, on the other hand, came up with their name from combining basic elements. Hydrogen and Oxygen. This naming nomenclature failed miserably, which is why Nabisco is #1. Very clever artist number four!

Awhile ago, I posted a post about Werther’s Original Coffee Flavored Hard Candy. I had tried one, and it was delicious. Recently, I’ve received a few e-mails from people across our Nation asking where I had found these. They too had tasted the candy gold and had searched to find no additional sources of the candy.

Werther’s website? No dice! There’s no information on the Coffee flavored gem.

Stop & Shop and ShopRite trips also proved fruitless. Candy eisles everywhere were leaving me disappointed.

So I called up Storck. Storck is the parent company to Werther’s and their U.S. location is in Chicago, IL. I spoke to a woman named Debbie. our conversation went something like this:

mike d: Good morning Debbie. I have a question about the Werther’s Original Candy.
Debbie: ok, what’s your question?
mike d: I believe I tried a werther’s original that was coffee flavored–
Debbie: yes.
mike d: They exist?
Debbie: yes they do.
mike d: Where can I find them?

She then passed me on to a woman named Linda who worked at the New England distribution center. She’s going to get back to me next week with more information.

If you yourself are interested in finding the coffee flavored werther’s original candy, feel free to call up the U.S. office in Chicago. Tell them that Mike D. sent you, and that you’re looking for local distribution information for the coffee flavored werther’s original candy.

The phone number:
1 312 467-5700

My friend Eddy told me this story:

I walk into my HR department to talk to Janet. Janet is a very attractive woman. So after I stare for a few seconds I tell her about some forms I need filled out and the same thing happens every time. I say “Hi Janet, I need these forms filled out.” She immediately responds: “Oh! of course Eddy! I’ll make a note of it right here on my pad!” and she writes a note to herself on the back of her notebook which is COVERED in hundreds, if not thousands, of other little notes to herself. She writes it really small in some corner and I can’t help but think to myself “shes not going to remember to do this, she’s just patronizing me!” so I usually say “Janet, I need this by tomorrow morning. TOMORROW MORNING is the time when I need this. The time at which I need these forms is the morning of TOMORROW. In this statement I am defining ‘TOMORROW’ as the day that follows today and ‘MORNING’ as any time before 12:00 noon eastern standard time” And she says “don’t worry! I call them right now and get these forms filled out for you.”

FOUR DAYS LATER… I’ll walk into her office and she just stares at me like she doesn’t know who I am. After a few minutes have passed where she looks dazed and confused, she says “OH NO! I Forgot. I’m so sorry things have been really hectic. I’ll make sure to get those reports to you later this afternoon”
“forms.”
“I’ll make sure to get those forms to you later this afternoon.”
“Thanks Janet. I’ll have you know I was arrested this morning for not having the government permission forms filled out in time. and I’ll probably have to spend 4 years in jail.”
“I’ll make a note of that right here on my pad. don’t worry, we’ll get everything sorted out.”

Two baby mice, captured and tired, but probably not minding too much to be surrounded by bits of chocolate peanut butter cake.

Interesting fact: Mice can’t resist Chocolate peanut butter cake.

Here I am, on hour 22 of today. It was a tough work day, but turned out to be super rewarding because our team worked extremely hard and managed to get incredible success out of many tough situations. Some of these situations had me stomping through sludge in search of bolts, laying flat out wedged between huge pieces of equipment, and standing on dangerous ledges while yanking on mammoth crow bars. But it was fun overall and I’m glad that our mission is accomplished.

So what do I look like when I’m on the road?
Sometimes when I’m on the road, I get frustrated and angry. usually when this happens I scowl and try not to think about how I probably still have about 8-10 hours of work to do. I’ve recognized that this usually only happens if I get crazy hungry. So I try to snack throughout the day. Unfortunately, usually the options for snacking are limited and I end up eating crap. (check out my left hand! Hardcore Dirt!)

But usually when I’m on the road I am cheery and bright. Because there’s no better feeling then the feeling of knowing exactly what you need to do and doing everything in your power to get those things done quickly and efficiently.

This trip to Texas has been a good one. Though AMAZINGLY dirty. When you have to stand in the shower after a long day of work scrubbing your face down with a toothbrush to rid it of the grime… you know it’s been one crazy day.

Mice: 0
House of Rock: 2

I’m headed to Dallas tomorrow (monday) so I don’t quite know about how frequently I’ll be rocking the Blog.

I will be returning Thursday! Direct flight on American Airlines. Booya.

Mice: 0
House of Rock: 1

I’m headed back to Texas next week.

Interesting Texas facts:

Texas is the second largest state in America, next to Alaska
Texas is the second most populus state in America, next to California
Texas is the second best state for business*, after Virginia
Texas is the second best state for 2006 college football**
The U.S.S. Texas was the second Virginia class submarine ever built
Texas is the second largest exporter to the European Union, after California
Texas is the second largest producer of electrical components****
Texas is the second largest agricultural state of America*5*
Texas is the second largest pecan producer in America, after Georgia *6*
Texas is the second largest textbook market in the US *7*
Texas is the second most bio-diverse state of America, after California *8*
The Texas population has the second youngest mean age in the Nation, after Utah *9*
Texas is the second largest producer of Peanuts in America, after Georgia *10*
Texas is the second largest supplier of organic cotton *11*

*Forbes online magazine
** the Longhorns lost to Ohio in 2006, ABC News
** University of Texas center of european studies
**** thewhir.com
*5* Texas department of agriculture
*6* Texas A&M University Agricultural center
*7* Texas Citizens for Science
*8* Texas parks and wildlife magazine
*9* Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
*10* The Texas Innovator
*11* Eco-wise clothing

So the band TV on the RADIO just came out with an album called “RETURN TO COOKIE MOUNTAIN”

This is the album cover:

A birdsnest? LAME.

This week’s contest is for you to design a better album cover. The name is amazing… but the art is terrible.

For extra credit, include some sort of visual credit to the song title: snakes and martyrs

THE RULES:
All art must be done soley in MSPaint (or mac equivilent). All entries must be e-mailed to me by Thursday September 28th at 5:00pm EST. My e-mail addy is: MIKEDIDONATO AT GMAIL DOT COM

You can use the internet to research ideas, but please do not copy and paste from anyone elses drawings. We want the art to be mikedidonato.com originals.

Good luck team!

Ryan Schenk pointed this one out to me:

FLIPBOOK ROBOT BATTLE!

It is epic indeed.

A bunch of us played a rowdy game of 6 on 5 Ultimate Frisbee last night. All was going well until John (a.k.a. the Wrecking Ball) plowed into me halfway through. I practically went into orbit and my neck got all sorts of sprained. This morning, even after 3 pills and focused heating, I’m still feeling mighty stiff.

But it was worth it. What a game! For the whole evening there was a very light rain which really added to the mayhem. I’m going to have to start working on some good maneuvers to escape heavy defense. They had me double teamed a bit last night and it was frustrating. And really, when The Wrecking Ball wasn’t attempting to break my bones, he was doing a very good job of guarding me fiercely.

Interestingly, I’m beginning to feel far more comfortable with the forehand throw then the backhand.

On Sunday I decided to make a bunch of mini-chicken dishes that I could have during the week when I’m deeply desiring a delicious dinner/lunch, but too tired to make one.

Clockwise from the top left:

Chicken with chili flavoring
olive oil, onion, tomatos, chili sauce, salt, cumin, peprika, garlic, chili powder

Chicken with Indian flavoring
peanut oil, ginger, garlic, garam marsala, something else, tumeric

Balsamic Honey Chicken
olive oil, balsamic viniger (reduced), honey, pepper

Chinese Chicken
sesame oil, oyster sauce, worcestershire Sauce, five spice

We were out of Soy sauce, otherwise I would have used the foolproof trifecta of taste: soy, oyster, and worcestershire. Give it a shot, it’s a personal fave.

NOTE: It is only upon review that I realized that my “feature” picture looks WICKED nasty. I assure you the actual chicken dishes taste much better.

Burned Coffee is not delicious.

ARR, it’s Talk like a Pirate day!

to think I almost missed it.

My dad has a lot of good stories. Here’s one of them:

In 1966 I was in my high school band. We used to have marching rehearsal on Saturday mornings and halfway through my friends and I would take our break and go out to lunch. This particular Saturday we went to a sub-shop.

As a 16 year old, my pallet was not yet mature. So I went in an ordered an Italian Sub. Now, keep in mind, my mother wasn’t Italian. So at home we never really had Italian food.

mike d: What did Grandma typically make for dinner?

well, a typical meal was meat, potatos, and green beans. She had a great recipe for scalloped potatos. Never Italian food though. In fact, ironically, I don’t think I really got a taste of Garlic until I married your polish mother.

Anyway, the guy behind the counter asks me what I’d like and I ordered my Italian Sub.
He asked me “You want peppers?”
“Sure!” I said.
“Are you sure you like peppers?”
“Sure, load ‘em on.”
“You want a lot of peppers?”
“Load it up.”

So he packed that sub so it was bursting with peppers. Bursting with peppers. But these weren’t normal peppers, these were HOT peppers. After I ate that thing my stomach and digestive track were SMOKIN’! I spent the rest of the day marching around the field with my insides burning up.

Once you climb a few rocks, you look at everything as a potential climb.

Call me sacreligious, but occasionally when I’m in church I can’t help but imagine climbing the ornate walls. I see the designs and try to mentally figure out the best way to navigate the moves

Lean back off the arch, heel hook the leafy orb… right hand to the trim, pull up, shift weight and mantle off the top of the column…

The feasibility of the climb would depend a lot on the air flow within the church and whether or not a coating of dust covered the higher hand holds. But really, I don’t think it’d be too bad. My church here in Meriden probably has a few solid 5.9’s and one or two 5.11’s (lots of slopers.)

First off, congrats to Becky and Patrick for successfully identifying last week’s skyline as Brussels, Belgium and the satellite image as Anchoridge Alaska.

Here’s this week’s puzzle!

SKYLINE! (I think this might be one of the first night skylines we’ve used here on mikedidonato.com)

SATELLITE!

your task:

a) identify the skyline
b) is the location of the skyline the same as the location of the satellite
c) if not, identify the satellite location

Good luck!

WARNING: The answer may be in the comments below!

I went to see Tony Jaa’s new martial arts movie THE PROTECTOR on Saturday night. The movie was decent… but it was the crowd that made it great. I went with a handfull of folks from my kung fu academy. Part of the joy was to hear them quietly talk about specific moves that were being performed on the screen and mock the inconsistencies and less than obvious shortfalls.

And you know how after you see kung fu movies you talk about the moves in the film and when talking about it, use your body to try and give the specifics as to what happened? well, after this movie the people of my academy were able to repeat the actual moves. So even just TALKING about the movie was more entertaining.

Also interesting: when we left the theater, the group momentarily split into two groups. I was walking with three women (black and advanced brown belts) and one 10 year old (brown belt). I realized that while sterotypes would place me as the most dangerous and able to defend myself within this group… in actually, I was the weak untrained one. it was a humbling moment.

Be careful today, I had a dream last night that someone fell down a flight of stairs. They were badly broken.

Of course, I also had a dream that I was a robot being hunted by someone with a laser cannon.

bill: that’s a big connector.
Sander: I know.
bill: we could check stock 2
Sander: already checked it. couldn’t find it.
bill: did you check with Barbara?
mike d: The problem is she doesn’t remember the part number either.
random passerby: … are there any donuts left?

Sander stops everything and pauses

Sander: … donuts?

5 minutes later

Sander: I think I just gained 7 pounds.

we pass a sign on the highway that says “gaylord rehab center”

mike d: Would you rather be a gay lord, or a straight peon.
Jesse: By gay lord do you mean homosexual lord? or lord of homosexuals.
mike d: we’ll say both.
Jesse: hmm.

::pause::

Jesse: I think I’d prefer to be the Gay Lord, because then I could make Man dates.

mike d: those are fantastic pants
fantastic pants girl: thanks!
mike d: they look extremely comfortable
fantastic pants girl: they are!