Well, it’s been awhile. So it’s probably time that we bring back some MSPaint action.

Your challenge is to depict the following:

WHEN RUBIX CUBES ATTACK

You are only allowed to use MSPaint (or a mac equivalent). E-mail entries to MikeDiDonato AT gmail D0T com by 6:00pm EST on Thursday June 7th 2007.

Good luck!

Whitestone is a beautiful beautiful area by Waterbury CT. It almost feels like something out of a Tolkien novel.

Amazing Whitestone Landscape.

On Saturday, Tony, Paulette, and I went climbing at Whitestone. I started with an easy 5.4 lead and then we did a little toprope action.

After the toprope, I attempted ‘Structures’.

‘Structures’ has an intimidating hand traverse about 40 feet off the ground which capitalizes on the ‘Freak Out’ factor. Once you start, you really can’t stop. If you fall, you’ll take a serious zinger and put quite a bit of stress on your gear.

The first move is a mild reach and then a high step onto a sloped surface.

Then, you reach out with and move your hands further and further along. Notice there’s no solid feet placement along that wall.

Finally, you have to swing your leg up and over a ledge, all the while, hoping that your gear is good and that your fingers have the strength to finish the task.

It was an amazing amazing climb. But, I think that I’m going to hold off on trying to lead any more 5.9’s. At least for the time being.

Poll for the weeks of August 12 - August 26, 2002

The Question:

At WPI we are being trained to be corporate whores. Pranks, practical jokes, and general mayhem are often necessary to relieve the tedium of office life… This week’s poll is looking for your best story of office hijinks.

The Response Starter:

heh. this one time at work…

THE WINNER:

Kevin: i worked for a construction crew this summer, and there was one particular laborer who was the subject of many pranks. on the first day of work he was dubbed “rupricks the monkey boy”. the foreman then proceeded to wrap the porta-let (that had been baking in the sun all day) in duct tape while rupricks was relieving himself.

HONORABLE MENTION:

Colin: heh. this one time at work… a guy died and I took the money out of his wallet before anyone realized

The Sarto: heh. this one time at work…I sat on my ass and didn’t do what was requested of me,…boy you should have seen the look on my co-workers’ faces!

AND THE REST…in no particular order:

Kate: i dunno if this counts but here’s the story. during camp we always ask the campers to complete an ice cream lab. this involves having them write directions on how to make an ice cream sundae, we the counselors then take these directions and create the sundaes. we take the directions VERY literally, usuallyone of us ends up becoming the ice cream sunday. We have one counselor who HATES to be dirty and so never helps out with this lab. During our final lab, with the help of five campers we attacked the clean counselor and started an all out ice cream sunday fight. the whipped cream was flying, the ice cream was smearing the walls, and strawberries were in everyones hair, there was yelling and screaming and laughter. needless to say i came home very yummy ;-)

Katie: heh. this one time at work… Well, you see mike d, not all people will go straight to work. Some (not me, but some) will step right out of undergrad to grad school, so here is a grad school story. That takes place in a little town called Cambridge England. Now, cambridge is not only known for its intense acedemics, but also its tourism. People flock from all over the world to view the beautiful campus and enjoy England’s spring weather (okay, so some of this story might be a lie… but hey, deal with it). With this in mind you can imagine how upset the town was when they woke up to see that one of the two spires on the main building had a hideous orange bucket up the top of it. Ah, the town was upset. They called in a scaffolding company from London to get the bucket down. Now, you have to understand. This spire was OLD and it had really delicate stone work. Plus, this took place a few years ago so the roads were bad. English roads tend to be tight and winding, so it takes some time to get scaffolding to Cambridge from London. So they take a day getting there. Then another day getting most of the scaffolding up. Meanwhile, that ugly bucket was just sitting there - being an eyesore. So finally, the town of Cambridge goes to sleep, knowing that the next day the scaffolding company would reach the top and they could get down that awful bucket. Now, you probably are thinking that you know the punch line of this story. They wake up and the bucket is gone - ha ha. But one thing that you should always learn is to expect the opposite of what the outcome is expected to be (if that is possible). So, no the bucket wasn’t gone the next morning.
It was just on the other spire.

Ben: heh. this one time at the soccomm office… which is just like work, instead of working we inflated beach balls until they were about three deep through the whole room, you couldn’t walk from one end to another… ha heh, and this other time we set up empty water cooler jugs and bowled in the hall with a real bowling ball… man

I’m feeling a little annoyed today. This past weekend was so fantastic with such a wealth of outdoors adventure, it’s making this week at work really tough. It’s extra hard because outside my window there’s a gorgeous blue sky and it’s 80 degrees with a light breeze.

Cubical life can be stifling.

What’s your workplace like?

Cognitive Bias!

Guitar Cubes!

from Shaun L.

SNL skit video

This weekend was packed full of climbing.

Saturday: Whitestone Cliffs
Highlight: I led ‘Structures’ a 5.9-. Took my first lead fall, struggled through a hand traverse, but finished the route nonetheless

Sunday: Pinnacle Rock
Highlight: Led 5.8 Zambeezy. It was clean.

Monday: Main Cliff
Highlight: Led 5.7 Wishbone. Also clean, but the length of the route made it feel a bit harder than Zambeezy.

Outside of climbing, I hung out with Tony and Paulette a bit, partook in a Roast of all Roasts, cleaned, did some running and lifting with Shaun L, and took a number of naps. Naps, by the way, can not be appreciated enough.

Volume 2: The Watermelon

Enjoy!

Kung Fu Party Tricks: Volume 2 from mikedidonato on Vimeo

I’ve been having weird sleeping issues lately. Specifically, I find myself dog tired at 10 or 11, have no problem falling asleep… but then I wake up at 3 or 4am completely awake. Come the afternoon, I get extremely tired and desperately want a nap.

Strange.

I am a faithful reader of defectiveyeti.com

In a recent post, Matthew described a comic strip concept that came to him. Last night I used MSPaint to try and create the comic strip as he envisioned it.

Enjoy!

Friend: i was just on the elevator with a girl who was so hot it actually hurt to look at her. just thought you should know…1-10, she was a 14-15
Mike D: darn it!
Friend: yeah
Mike D: that sounds like a lot of hot
Friend: the funny part was there was this skeezy old man in the elevator with her carrying a huge fax machine
Mike D: oh yeah?
Friend: eventually it became clear that the hot blonde in little black dress had a homeless man carry her big fax machine for her
Mike D: Wow
Friend: and used her hotness to convince him so she kept saying “oh, its so hot outside” and fanning herself and in general being extra cute. it was odd and hilarious
Mike D: I hate women… NO! I LOVE THEM! …NO! I hate them!
Friend: lol so manipulative!

::pause::

Friend: though, she could have asked me to carry it to Detroit and I’d be walking right now

I didn’t notice until just now…

Captain Planet has a Mullet.

Poll for the week of August 4 - August 11, 2002

The Question:

We’ve all seen the Planeteers clean up pollution galore on TV, but could they have handled the 10 plagues God sent to Egypt in the Bible?

The Response Starters:

1. God would reign supreme because…
2. By their powers combined, the Planeteers could do it because…

THE WINNER:

Shamus: God would reign supreme because aside from having the omnipotent, omnipresent edge, God is always a proper noun, even in pronoun form. now that’s power.

HONORABLE MENTION:

Pat: This is the God of the Old Testament, mind you, so He would simply yet spectacularly explode the heads of each of the Planeteers individually, except for the kid who has Heart, because he’s just so freaking useless anyways it would be a waste of time.

Treesa: As for the poll, dude, I feel bad for the cows, and the 1st borns, and the 1st born cows. Cows. hm. reminds me of ice-cream. Yum.

AND THE REST…in no particular order:

Lacey: God would reign supreme because first of all you don’t mess with God… he made the man who made the planeteers.. come on now.. Plus if you know anything about them, you know when their “powers combine” there comes Captain Planet! But what exactly are their powers? Individually they are fire, water, wind… And you think God doesn’t control fire, water, wind and all that other crap? Boy is the devil gonna have fun with you in HELL.

Shaun McQuaid: God would reign supreme because in those times, the pollution wasn’t the plagues, it was the heathens! Therefore, the planeteers (in a fit of rage brought on by too much mead, perhaps) might actually join in and produce some plagues of their own, like too MUCH ozone or perhaps some sort of water-cleaner out of control that kills everything in the Nile.

Alex: God would reign supreme because (insert reason) the planeteers have someone who’s power is “Heart.” WTF use does that have!? No earthly powers could even compete with “he who shall not be named” let alone a bunch of fairies running around with rings, led by a green guy that can’t do anything when he’s around pollution. Wrong planet to be on dude!

Katie C: God would reign supreme because, well, as a PK I feel compeled to say that. Although, if you go from the religious point of view you could say that the Planeteers were created by God, and maybe God would have created the Planeteers so that some body could clear up the plagues.

Hamel: God would reign supreme because God did way more cool things than the planeteers could ever do….like changing women into poop, filling valleys with carcasses, flooding the earth, making the universe, the planeteers will eventually die and God will still be around….number one top dog.

While doing some research on houses in Wallingford, CT I came across this website. It’s a really fun tool that compares violent crimes, race, age, size, income, property theft, etc. etc. for towns in the United States.

For fun, let’s compare our living location’s violent crime rates!

Click on the link above and find your state on the right sidebar. Then, scroll down and find your town.
Some of the smaller towns may not have violent crime rates listed.

Meriden CT.
In 2005, per 100,000 people, there were 314* violent crimes. that’s 0.314%.

Wallingford, CT
In 2005, per 100,000 people there were 78** violent crimes. that’s 0.078%

Last night I made a bid on a house. It’s not the best house in the world, it needs a new roof and has some asbestos shingles which freak me out a bit. I think my bid may have been a bit high for what the house is worth considering it needs some repairs, but it has some financial potential if I could fix up the third floor and keep the place solid. I hope it works out.

*pi times 10^2 coincidence? or sinister mathematical criminals?
**pi/4 times 10^2… I think I’m onto something

If you’re like me, you hate hate hate it when Windows automatically restarts your computer to install updates. Especially if you usually stay on top of updates and often have about 6 projects open on your computer that are ready and waiting to be destroyed by Windows XP.

Well, fear not good friends. I have researched the solution.

Step 1: go to Start -> Run
Step 2: type gpedit.msc

This will bring you to group policy editor.

Step 3: Go to: Administrative Template/Windows Component/Windows Update

See the “No auto-restart for scheduled Automatic Updates Installations“?

Step 4: Right click on that and go to properties.

Enable, and you’re done.

Badda-Bing. Take that Windows.

Without meaning to, I believe I’ve turned this day into a day of fruit.

Today’s menu includes: grapefruit, watermelon, orange, apple, banana, and raisins.

Here’s a video of the Dave Brubeck quartet with its current members.

On Friday night Jason allowed me to snag up his extra ticket and go with him to see Dave Brubeck play in Durham.

Dave Brubeck, for those of you who don’t know, is a jazz giant. He and his quartet came up with some really fantastic music including the infamous “Take 5″ and “Blue Rondo à la Turk.”

Brubeck got his group together to play for the inauguration of Jazz’d 4 Life, an organization whose goal is to help needy children both domestically and internationally. The show was hosted by CT’s weatherman of choice, Dr. Mel, and was very well organized.

The Quartet received a standing ovation as they walked on stage. They played for about an hour and a half (not bad for an 86 year old and his clan) and it was some of the best Jazz that I’ve ever heard.* The saxophonist, Bobby Militello rocked the Alto sax like nuts! and the drummer and bassist had phenomenal solos. When Dave hit the first two chords of ‘take 5′ the crowd exploded with cheers.

It was truly an amazing evening of music. Dave Brubeck is the man.

*to be fair, I haven’t heard TONS of jazz.

We’re going to try and start a new series here at MikeDiDonato.com: Kung Fu Party Tricks.

My hope is that these videos will get more and more ridiculous as time passes. I’m hoping to have updated videos every Tuesday. My goal is a total of 10 episodes.

Enjoy our first installment below. Today’s theme is… Panther Pushups!

Kung Fu Party Tricks: Volume 1 from mikedidonato on Vimeo

Last week Ryan met internet celebrity ZeFrank.

Last weekend when I zipped out to the cape Ryan let me borrow his powerball.

The powerball is a gyroscope device that, when you spin it, really wants to move. By gripping it tightly and spinning hard, you get an incredible workout for your forearms. As Jesse, Joel, and I were trying it out, we realized that it might be a humorous thing to get on video.

Enjoy!

Powerball Escapades from mikedidonato on Vimeo

My innovation professor was commenting on the robot Asimo*.

During the discussion….

Prof: “like that movie with Will Smith?”
Student: “i robot!”
Prof: “yeah!”
Various students: “oh yeah!”

I am disappointed that the professor referred to ‘i robot’ as a Will Smith movie and not as a book by Isaac Asimov.

*the name Asimo was not made as a homage to Asimov, despite the closeness in name.

Fantastic.

Cat Bow Golf.

Post your high score in the comments.

Best score by June 15th gets a free t-shirt.

from Shaun L.