We had a lot of Halloween entries. A lot.

Here’s the wrap up: (there’s a pictoral wrap up at the end of this list)

1. The Tasty Halloween Costume.
2. This is mike d, as a pregnant schoolteacher.
3. Mike D as Elvis!
4. Mike D as Ace Ventura!
5. Mike D as Cultivation Equipment
6. Mike D going Disco Style
7. Mike D as Britney Gallivan
8. Mike D as maybe (probably) undead.
9. Mike D as a creepy angel prostitute
10. Mike D as Big Bird
11. Mike D as a member of the Kill Bill Crazy 88
12. Mike D cloaked in nearly perfected science.
13. Mike D as a convict who wishes to have his identity protected by the media.
14. Mike D as Mr. Potato Head
15. Mike D as Wingnut Weaver
16. Phantom Mike D
17. Mike D as a rockstar Drummer
18. Mike D as Kurt
19. Dragonball D
20. Mike D made entirely of eyeballs
21. Mike D as Elvis #2
22. Mighty Mike
23. Mike D as Motofone!
24. Mike D as Master Chief!
25. Mike D as Master Chef
26. Mike D. as Clean D!
27. Mildly Evil Mike D.
28. Milk D
29. Leprechaun D
30. Mic D.
31. Mike B.
32. Mike as the Invisible Man.
33. Business Partner Alien Mike D.

CLICK HERE FOR A PICTORAL REVIEW

So, now that that’s there for you. Please vote for:

1) Best costume
2) Most original
3) Scariest
4) Most Inane
*per Schenk’s request, 5) Funniest

You can not vote for your own, and you must vote for a different costume for each prize.

great job everyone! these were amazing submissions!!

I’m returning home today. Planned arrival time at Bradley is 1:40pm. Hopefully, the flight will offer me enough time to polish off the last few completely confusing problems that I must do for my dynamics class. Working and Schooling isn’t usually a tough combo. But travel has a special way of making academics annoying.

Thankfully I got some fun time on this trip. Monday night I went out to a cajun place with The Dave. We discussed 8 of Bass reunions and had general texas good times. General texas good times include: large racks of bbq ribs and discussions of places other than Texas.

I can’t wait to get home.

I also smashed my travel guitar. It was not a purposeful, nor awesomely rockful, smash.

It’s not destroyed, and probably fixable. but I’m bummed.

Some of the brightest minds in the Sci-Fi genre have crafted a number of clever 6-word stories.

Read them here.

I have made the aggressive move from wallet to money clip.

An internal battle has been raging within me for quite some time now over the functionality and the size of my wallet. For those of you who haven’t experienced the wallet, many are, by design, large. My most recent wallet was a tri-fold and even in its empty state was large enough to act as a step stool for the vertically challenged.

But a pure money clip could not do. I needed something that was small and thin that could still handle credit cards but that wasn’t going to be a huge pain when the need for cash arose.

Well, this past Friday while in Provincetown, my Father, who was aware of the clip search, pointed out a wallet store. A wallet store!* I didn’t even know these places existed.

Inside I found the perfect item. It’s a credit card holder with a clip for cash. Perfect! Check it out:

(note the happenin’ Christmas Tree in the background)

I’m very pleased with my purchase.

*it was actually more of a leather store. They also had hats.

Travel on the Sunday after Thanksgiving wasn’t as bad as I had anticipated. Traffic, both in and out of the airport, was minimal until Houston.

I just ate some Chili.

If chili were to be equated to cultural movements, tonight’s Chili would probably be Rococo. Graceful, light, and elaborate.

I’m headed to Texas this afternoon.

I have a 2:15 flight from Bradley to Cleveland and then that flight continues on to Houston.

Thankfully The Dave lives in Houston. So hopefully I’ll be meeting up with him Monday night to explore Houston to the extreme. We’re not yet sure what the plan is, but it will likely be epic.

The Dave was bassist number two in 8 of Bass. He ruled the stage with his power bass lines and sick bassical harmonies.

One of my colleagues told me about a report that said that between Thanksgiving and Christmas, New Englanders typically gain more weight than any other geographical corner of the United States because the holidays are more traditional here.

This makes some sense, especially since we have the weather that corresponds to the holidays. Brisk fall days around Thanksgiving with wildly colored trees and snow touched backyards for Christmas.

I’m interested in hearing about what Thanksgiving is like in other parts of the U.S. Is Thanksgiving as big a deal in southern Cali as it is in Boston suburbs?

comments welcome

Dear Mike D,

I hope you like Texas a lot. Because we’re going to send you on a perpetual business trip to the Lone Star State.

Yours Truly,
Work.

Mykal makes pottery. And she made me a little mug, bowl, and saucer set.

I am using my mug right now for a small cup of coffee. It makes me feel very happy to know that this mug was made especially for me.

Thanks Mykal!!

I have a mini rubix cube on my desk. And there it has sat, unsolved, for over a year.

A few weeks ago, Ed P. walked in. Ed P., it turns out, is one of those rubix cube guys who can solve a cube in 41 seconds. He saw it, picked it up, and started turning. He commented on how the small rubix is significantly more difficult than the large and that mine in particular doesn’t turn very smoothly.

Then he put it down. The white side was complete, and the top edge aligned with the centers of each side.

Today he walked back into my cube, picked up the rubix again… fiddled… and about 12 seconds later the middle row was in perfect alignment.

It was a little magical. Here is a man who knows the algorithms of a rubix cube and can solve it. It’s almost like knowing a second language except more mechanical and less useful.

Great job to all the folks who correctly identified Washington, D.C. and Stonehenge as the skyline and satellite images from last week.

So here’s this week’s challenge. It might be easy… might be tough.

Skyline!

Satellite!

Good luck!

try this.

Yesterday, Jon, Tom, & Mykal came to the House of Rock for a bakefest like none before.

We baked a lot of food including:
Peach Cobbler
White Chocolate Challah Bread Pudding
Homemade Crackers
Mocha Cake
Sugar Bread (with whole sugar cubes!)
Spinach Souffle’
Almond Macaroons
Ultimate Oatmeal Cookies

Fun was had. Check out some pictures!

Tom’s Hazelnut mocha cake was created from scratch. We had some trouble with the first batch of frosting and had to try a second time. Apparently cakes are tough to make, so kudos to Tom for his stellar efforts.

Here, Jon is stirring the batter for the oatmeal cookies. Notice the look of determination!

Here’s a sampler of some of the creations. That’s White Chocolate Challah Bread Pudding at the bottom of the picture.

And here’s a video of some marzipan that was probably sitting around too long.

I’m currently sitting in my last Organizational Behavior class and thought I’d share a unique topic that we covered not moments ago.

We were discussing the tendencies of groups to fail as the group becomes larger. One example that the professor shared was that of someone prepared to commit suicide.

Suppose for a moment that someone is on a bridge clearly preparing to jump.
If one person were to walk by, it is very likely that they will stop and talk to the person on the bridge and encourage them to step down. As a second person comes along, one of the two people will likely go to get additional help.
As the crowd grows to about 10 people, passersby start ignoring the guy on the ledge. They just walk by.
Apparently research has shown that when the group grows to between 20-25 people, the crowd starts making comments to one another until the point is reached where members of the crowd actually start encourging the suicidal person to jump.

This is alarming and disturbing, but it’s a good thing to be able to recognize.

At one point in time, three great people took pen in hand and signed some tennis balls. These tennis balls were given to a sports center and then auctioned off as prizes

Roland won them.

He has asked for the sleuthing skills of mikedidonato.com to help him identify the names of the people who signed the balls.

So go HERE, look at the three tennis signatures and do your best to find their owners. We can do this. We, here at mikedidonato.com, are unstoppable.

I had a soda last night at 8pm. And as it often does, caffeine pulled out a crossbow of eternal sleeplessness and shot me square between the eyes.

So I stayed up until 4am working on MBA junk. The good thing is that I finished all the work I have to do for those classes. The bad thing is that two and a half hours of sleep makes for a rather uncomfortable morning.

RING RING

mike d: hey Schenk!
Ryan: hey mike d!
mike d: what’s going on?
Ryan: I have a question for you.
mike d: okay.
Ryan: What time do you go to the dentist?
mike d: huh?
Ryan: What time do you go to the dentist?
mike d: me personally? I dunno. Usually either first thing in the morning or later in the afternoon.
Ryan: NOPE! you go at TOOTHIRTY!

Thsi weekend marks the end of the beginning of my MBA program.

By sunset on Saturday I will be done with 1/10th of my program. The first term consisted of Organizational Behavior and Business Statistics. The next term, which starts on December 1st (one week off! yes!!) will consist of:

Accounting for Reporting and Control
Marketing and Product Management

Updated Pie Chars!

Last night, at hours far too late, I wrote up the Star Wars parallel that was requested by Shaun McQuaid. I have tried to parallel all my regular and semi-regular readers with a star wars character. Now, there aren’t quite enough female characters in the movie, so don’t be disappointed if you’re female and your parallel is either male, a monster, or a robot.

If I’ve left you out, just leave a comment and I’ll add you in.

Mike D: Luke. This is more because I feel I HAVE to be Luke what with being the main character of mikedidonato.com. I am not Luke because I want to be. Luke’s lame.
JonAbad: R2-D2 would have been a cooler character had he been Mexican. This roll is also perfect for JonAbad because Jon is always magically appearing and saving the day. JonAbad and R2-D2 also both really enjoy baking.
Kurt: Mace Windo. If Kurt were a Jedi, he’d probably have a funky purple disco lightsaber with which he would kill snakes on planes.
Ben: Uncle Owen. Yes, he was killed by the empire, but rumor has it he could hold off a whole colony of Sandpeople with one blaster
Sander: Sandperson
TimBaird: Boba Fett. I can think of few people who would be able to better take advantage of a jetpack.
Patrick: Ewok Warrior. Ewoks are masters of the wilderness. Everything about Patrick SCREAMS ewok.

Roland: Wedge Antilles. He’s always there to lend a hand, and is great in combat and with a Frisbee.
Alicia: Amidala. Alicia is super fashionable, and it’s only right that this honor go to the Queen of Fashion herself.
Theresa: Sabé. Sabé was the handmaiden of Amidala that stood in for the Queen in dangerous situations. Theresa, being dangerous, is the only one for the job. Sabé was also played by Kiera Knightly. What? who knew!
My mom: Aunt Beru. She was a caregiver and preferred a nice cup of coffee over a space battle.
ShaunMcQuaid is the Force.
Jesse: TuanTaun. Do a web image search for TuanTaun. The resemblance is uncanny
Jesse’s mom: Battle Droid. This might seem out of place, but battle droids have amazing dental hygiene.

HC Alicia: Wampa. While the image might not seem right at first, the Tauntaun’s and Wampas are made for one another
Becky: Red Leader. Simply because of her stunning red hair.
Paul: Spiderman.
Tom: Grand Moff Tarkin. In addition to being the governer of the galactic empire, Tarkin, like Tom, is extremely talented at making blue cheese salad dressings. Also, read this.
Sander: Jabba the Hutt.
Mykal: Shmi Skywalker. Mykal may not know it, but she’s the mother of the soon to be leader of the jedi doomsquad
Aaron: Han Solo. Aaron got so boned with the superpower post (glowing elbows?) that I figured he deserved something more exciting for this round. Way to go Aaron!

Shamus: Admiral Ackbar. In addition to being the finest general of the rebellion, Ackbar, like Shamus, is known for the frontside 720’s he pulls in the snowy mountains of Hoth.
RyanSchenk: Biker Scout. Schenk would make a SICK biker scout.
Ruth: Darth Maul. When Ruth is angry, the universe is very afraid.
Jocelyn: Temple Guard. Dressed in stunning red, Jocelyn is in charge of only the most important job ever: protecting all that is evil.
Adam: All that is evil. Adam is the Emperor. Adam makes a lot of sense for this roll because Palpatine was an amateur meteorologist in high school before he began his quest to become the ultimate villain of the galaxy.
Walid: Wald. No lie. There’s a character in Star Wars by the name ‘Wald’.
Liz: Jawa. Liz, not unlike a Jawa, is an expert at bartering.

Sander: Jar Jar Binks.
Kate from Ohio: C-3PO. The O stands for Ohio.
Tyler: General Grievous. He is the only droid who could actually pull his weight in battle. Four lightsabers? Yes.
Bisol: Death Star Stormtrooper. He’s working hard for his family and this is the only job he could get given the economy these days. He’s hoping to at least be promoted to lieutenant some day. He’s tired of being last in line at the Death Star cafeteria.
Caitlin: Gold Leader was in charge of the whole Gold attack force… their drive was plagued to fail from the beginning. The empire came from behind.
JesAbad: The Torture Droid. you DO NOT want to be interrogated by Jes.
Marian: Sebulba. They say Pod Racing originated in England.

Mike G: Greedo. I can honestly see Mike G being a bounty hunter.
Pam C: The Planet Alderaan. Peaceful. Quiet. But she’ll explode if you insult her Volleyball.
Ian: Qui-gon Jinn. Ian was an indirect cause of the fall of the republic! but don’t worry Ian, the child of your student will make out with his sister… weird.
TedBreen: Yoda. Before yoda needed a cane, he could run 17 miles a day without a second thought.
JoeHavelick: Darth Tyranus. Tyranus is also known as Count Dooku. Heh heh.
Abby: Lando. No explanation needed.
James: Rancor. He may seem violent and angry on the outside, but he’s a teddie bear once you get to know him.

Annie Olives: Jango Fett and the parent of the entire clone force. Annie, like TimBaird, has a jet pack.
JesSaint: The Millenium Falcon. Jes is Fast. VERY fast.
UUIG: The people have spoken. UUIG is Leia.
Anita Clue: Darth Vader. Anita is unforgiving and able to throw small children across a room simply by waving her hand.
Sander: Chewbacca’s hairy sister
Devin: Obi Wan. He hid from the empire and became a recluse. He’s also a great rock climber
Irene: The Second Death Star. Don’t make the mistake of underestimating Irene. She’s fully operational and will ruin you.
Eric Pope: Red Six. He had a problem. He tried to hold it. Biggs told him to pull up… It was tragic.
Ed: Senator Organa has a goatee. Ed has… or at one point had… a goatee.
Ed #2: The Head of the Spare Parts devision for Death Star Inc. He was SO good at his job that the empire ordered a whole new STAR in episode VI.

Has anyone else noticed that Nancy Pelosi looks a lot like Judge Judy?

With today’s price of gold, I would need to have a net value of $1,462,90.48 to be worth my weight in gold.

that’s a lot of cash.

How much space are we talking about here? About 2.35 cubic feet of gold.

1. I took a vacation day today so that I can study for an advanced dynamics mid-term that I have tonight

2. I went climbing last night… and had the most amazing climbing night.. of ever. After warming up and stretching out, I tried the 5.12 that has been royally kicking my butt. It defeated me. Now usually after I try that climb my fingers have turned into a soft putty and are unable to lift even the lightest of objects, but yesterday… yesterday my fingers were showing unnatural resilience. So I jumped back on that thing and failed again. Even after two attempts, my fingers were stainless steel, so I tried a third time. As I reached the final move, my left hand gripping an awkward block, my right hand clenching a tight crimp, I realized… my fingers are not the least bit tired. I finished the move and rejoiced at my accomplishment.

But I wasn’t done. I felt strong.

So I jumped on another 11d/12a on a different wall that I had been unable to successfully climb. I smoked it. No problem. Then I jumped on a third 5.12 that is known for giving young children wicked nightmares of inadequacy. I reached the very last hold before falling from the wall.

Five 5.12 attempts: two first ascents, three darn close.

The night was marvelous.

My office cubical is colder then the House of Rock