I kind of like Molybdenum.

What’s your favorite?

The House of Rock stands on a hill.

We use this to our advantage when it snows.

A Snowy Day on Vimeo

Shaun McQuaid says:

Let’s play a game. It’s called “wish corruption”. It goes something like this…

I make a wish. For example:
“I wish I had fries with my lunch.”

The next person grants the wish, but corrupts it.
“Granted, but the fries are 2 weeks old.”

I think this could easily break the highest comment count, if we do it right…

I’ll start.

I wish I had a laser beam mounted on my car.

One awesome thing about WPI is the study abroad program. The program allows you to spend 7-8 weeks doing work in a foreign country. I did my IQP (social project) in Copenhagen and my MQP (mastery project) with TimBaird in London.

Both were amazing experiences with wild weekend trips to places like Belgium and Ireland.

I wish the working world provided such opportunities. Sure, I’ve done mini 2 week trips to China and South Bend Indiana… various week long trips to England and Atlanta, and I’ve probably spent a total of two-three months in Texas… but it’d be pretty awesome to take a seven or eight week trip somewhere. Long enough to get adapted and feel comfortable. Even if I had to report to work daily, it’d be fun (provided I didn’t have to work 12 hrs a day)

The only downside would be a severe vacation from Kung Fu, Class, and Climbing.

I wonder if my company does any work in Africa.

On Saturday Night, Liz and I whipped up a Japanese chicken dish that turned out great.

It was simple enough.

2-3 chicken breasts
2 med onions
oil for stir frying
60 milliliters of water
the same of soy
a little fish oil
a little veggie bullion

The real recipe called for a few other ethnic specific ingredients, but they were not easily found at the local stop and shop.

Stir fry the chicken. Once brown, remove from the wok and throw in onions. Once softened, add the rest and let it reach a boil. Once it boils, add the chicken. Cook for 3 minutes, and serve over rice!

Easy and Fast!

Mike D’s rock climbing food ratings:
Deliciousness: 5.9
Difficulty: 5.6

This weekend was decent. Saturday and Sunday were average, but Friday was spectacular.

Tony and I hit up the climbing gym right after work. We started climbing at about 6:15 and immediately set out to climb every rope in the front room. There are 19 ropes and we weren’t going easy on ourselves either. I was doing everything I can to keep my climbs at or above 5.9 difficulty, tony was doing the same for 5.8’s.

While we completed the task, it took almost 4 hours and by 10:00pm, my forearms were so destroyed that I feared that they might never revive. I don’t think I’ve ever worked harder.

This is supported by the fact that my forearms are still useless… over 48 hours after the fact.

It was a great night of climbing.

A whole handful of people successfully identified the satellite image as Fort Bourtange in the Netherlands. I guess I forgot that people may have already found it from the copenhagen contest. No matter! Great job to those that remembered where to find it!!

Sadly no one identified the skyline. So the anonymous curious internet person will have to find another way to find the skyline. Ahh well. Sorry Internet Friend!!

This week we have two good looking images.

First, the skyline.

SKYLINE

second, the satellite.

SATELLITE

Your job is to identify either or both. Good luck!

If so, quote it in the comments.

So the code that was recently posted was indeed a simple replacement code. But the means by which I chose the simple replacement was not random. I believe Kurt was the only one to figure out the method I used to generate the code.

All I did was switch my keyboard setting to Dvorák style instead of Qwerty style. Dvorák was a dude who developed an efficient keyboard layout that positions highly used keys along the home row. People who know how to type Dvorák can type faster and more efficiently than those of us on Qwerty keyboards. My keyboard will switch between the two formats by hitting both CTRL and SHIFT at the same time. I switched into Dvorák and then typed a message as if it were a qwerty keyboard.

From Old Man Schenk.

Rock.

I have returned from Texas. Things are mild mayhem.

Last night I silk screened the first batch of the breakfast squad t-shirts. They came out pretty awesome. This morning we had our company breakfast and enjoyed every type of foodstuff you can imagine. The T-shirts were a big hit.

Now I’m just trying to get back in business with the piles of work that have collected since my departure.

How are you guys doing?

Sander: That lunch bag is intense.
Mike D: Isn’t it? Check it out.
Ray: Wow
Mike D: I love this lunch bag. It’s Deluth
Ray: Deluth? Next thing you know you’ll own a Dyson vacuum cleaner.
Mike D: I do own a Dyson vacuum cleaner
Ray: haha

I had to stop by Dick Blick’s Art store to pick up some materials for silk screening this past Saturday. As I walked in, I heard the sweet melodies of Journey playing over the loudspeaker. I strolled over to the silk screening section to investigate photo emulsions.

As I stood, perusing the options, a store dude, Jonathan, approached.

Jonathan: Hello!
Mike D: hi!
Jonathan: How are you doing today?
Mike D: quite well, you?
Jonathan: Well, being that Journey is playing, I’m doing awesome.
Mike D (in partial awe): YES! I… I totally agree!
Jonathan: Journey makes everything better.
Mike D: Yes! Absolutely!

so then we talk briefly about silk screening and I go about my business. I finally make my choice and move up to the counter. Jonathan and co-worker Kayleigh(sp?) are talking more about Journey.

Mike D: You know, there’s something about Journey. No one does not like Journey.
Jonathan: Agreed.
Mike D: Once I was traveling with a friend who was only partially okay with Journey, and there was a rock block on the radio. So we heard two journey songs in a row. Then, I switched stations to find yet ANOTHER rock block of journey. 4 more Journey tunes! We got 6 songs in a row!
Kayleigh: That’s awesome!
Mike D: It was great!
Kayleigh to Jonathan: there’s a karaoke bar in Prospect that has a Huge selection of songs. And they totally have Journey. We should really go.
Jonathan: Yes we should.

Jonathan then turned to me.

Jonathan: You should come too.
Mike D: I’m totally game! Yes.
Jonathan: Leave your e-mail address, I’ll send you an e-mail.

Once again, Journey has brought people together.

What an awesome band.

Coworker Bill: Hey mike d.
Mike D: Howdy.
Coworker Bill: “howdy?” you’ve been spending too much time in Texas.

I reckon he’s right.

I fly a decent amount. I mean, I’m no service engineer, but I probably take a trip through Hartford’s airport between one and two times a month. So I feel I have a decent understanding of the airport system and have got my timing down pretty well. Usually I get to the airport with enough time to enjoy a little breakfast pre boarding.

Such was not the case today.

My flight left at 6:40am it would fly through Detroit to Houston ultimately arriving in Texas at 11:45. I walked through the front gate of Bradley Airport in CT at 6:00 to see a wall of people.

“Oh no” I thought and probably said out loud.

So I booked it over to the Southwest Airlines boarding area and got in line… behind a Marching Band. There was actually a marching band in front of me. What horrible luck! Here I was stressing out as my watch approached T-30 minutes ’till departure while teenage boys loaded their percussion instruments and trombones onto the baggage scales.

At 6:23 I reached the front.

They took my bag, gave me my boarding pass, and said “Hurry.”

So I ran. And reached another wall of people at security. I snaked my way in front of a huge group of people, zipped through security and as I ran down toward my gate, my shoelaces loose and whipping around my feet, I glanced at my watch. 6:34.

I spun into the gate… to find it completely empty. The plane was there, but boarding was over.

UGH!

So I zipped over to the Southwest counter. My heart pumping furiously (there are few things I hate more than being late).

“Help! I need to get to Houston! I missed my flight!”
“what’s your name?”
“Mike DiDonato.”
“okay…” pause “Quick! Get on that plane!”

The Southwest lady pointed to a door down the hall.

I ran down the hall, reached the door, and was ushered through by another Southwest agent who was talking via Walkie-talkie to southwest lady #1.

I raced to the plane door and found a full flight. There was a lone seat available in row 6. I snagged it and sat down.

“Hi guys, sorry to take the middle seat.”
“no problem. they told us the flight was full.”
“so… where is this plane going?”
“Nashville.”

A few hours later the plane was landing. It pulled up to the gate at 8:33 local time. I booked it out of the plane, and over to another service desk.

“I need to get to Houston!!”
“name?”
“Mike DiDonato.”
pause
“Take this. Get on that plane.”

And off I went running. I walked up to the gate and got on plane number two. It was 8:36.

I sat down.

“excuse me,” I asked the woman next to me, “Where is this plane going?”
“Houston.”
“whoa! how long is the flight?”
“about an hour and forty minutes.”

And that’s how I got to Houston over an hour before my scheduled flight was expected to land. That’s right. By missing my flight, I got to my destination earlier.

It couldn’t have worked out better.

Thanks to all the participants to the recent MSPaint contest that challenged you to draw “bad things to juggle.”

The Results!

Group Favorite: God Juggles the Planets!
artist: mike d.

Funniest: Stick man juggles creatures large!
artist: Sander

Most Inane: Fran Drescher!
artist: Shaun L.

I have to give a special bonus award to my sister Tree for her entry: A brain, a slip and slide, and a warrior mental spike ball and chain weapon

Most of the time I’m pretty good about posting entries that were sent to me, but for whatever reason hers slipped through the cracks. Well done Tree! I think this would have easily stolen one of the grand prizes.

The other artists were:

Juggle 1: Shaun McQuaid

Juggle 2: Anita Clue

Juggle 5: Jes Saint

Juggle 7: Roland

Great job everybody!

Robotic Arm Amusement Ride

The House of Rock received a thorough dose of renovation this weekend. Jesse and I put in a ton of work Saturday night and purchased all sorts of goods from Home Depot to prep for Sun.

Sunday, Tony, Paulette, and Shaun L. came over and graciously offered some of their time to us. Without them, we never would have finished what we did. Thanks guys!

A few of the key accomplishments:

We now have light above the stove. For 2 years we have not had light here, and finally the electrical work was finished to get things working again. The kitchen is now extremely bright.

The game room was transformed into a dining room. We painted the walls a coral color, cleaned the carpet, and reorganized the furniture for a bit more of a mature look. We’re pleased with the result.

Other less photographic accomplishments were leaky faucet fixings, toilet replacements, trim installation, floor cleaning, and door creation. It was intense.

Now, it’s 9:20pm on Sunday and I’m toast. I’ll be heading to bed now, so that I can hit a 6:40am flight on Southwest tomorrow.

Destination: Texas.

So I got my gear. It’s not quite all of it, as the nuts and carabiners are still on the way. That said, it’s still an exciting and impressive rack. Check it out:

Along the top there are my Black Diamond Camalots.

The number four, shown above, is the largest that I purchased. You can get larger ones, and I may get one down the road, but for now this will surely do.

Just underneath those are some Metolius cams for smaller crack applications. To the left is my Petzl helmet, grigri*, and Metolius gear sling,and to the right is my Metolius nut removal tool and adjustable anchor line.

*A grigri is a belay device that won’t slip if you let go. That way my partner can feel confident that I am providing a solid belay no matter what.

Just under that we have a collection of slings, a stray camalot that should have been placed up top, and a swath of wiregates complete with force spec.

The wiregates are handy for clipping to sports routes and to the end of your slings. The gate is made out of… well… wire. So it’s lighter to carry than a typical carabiner.

Finally, beneath all that is my rope and my rope bag. Special thanks to my awesome parents for paying for these. It’s a 60 meter 9.9mm dry rope which should be A+ for lead climbing. The rope bag is a stylish red and black Black Diamond bag.

I am extremely stoked.

Classmate 1 (male): I woke up on Valentines day… my wife turned to me and said “Where’s my present.”

Classmate 2 (female): My husband didn’t get me anything for Valentines day. So I said “You didn’t get me anything!?” and he said “well you told me not to get flowers or anything for you anymore because they are too expensive.” and so I said “I didn’t MEAN it.”

Climbing gear is here. Photos will come soon.

Flute Beatboxing.

I have a final exam in accounting this evening. So if you have a spare moment between 5:30pm and 9pm EST please send me mental vibes of common accounting terms.

Things like:
“Depreciation!”
“Break even analysis!”

and

“Balance sheets!”

Thanks.

A new shirt is being made for the upcoming company breakfast.

Check it out:

If you’d like one of these bad boys, I’m willing to make extras for $8 a piece (plus shipping if I have to ship it).

Let me know if you want one (along with what size you’d want S,M,or L)!