October is well on the way so I suppose it’s about time for a Halloween MSPaint event.

Last year’s event, complete with over 30 entries, was a big hit. This year I thought I’d continue along the same lines as before with a ‘make a costume for mike d’ contest.

But this time with a bit more flare.

I’ve created an MSPaint body template.

Included in this template are a series of eyes, mouths, heads, skin tones, and bodies to allow you all sorts of flexibility in making your best costume for me.

For starters, click on the thumbnail above and save the image to your computer.

Next, get this final template. This will standardize entries and help with sizing etc.

Open up two MSPaint windows and copy the body components from one MSPaint into the canvas of the final MSPaint template. Then, add some accessories and some color to make the ultimate costume!! Finally, add a title and e-mail it to me! (MikeDiDonato AT gmail D0T com)

Really, anything is allowed, but if you’re looking for a theme I’ll start you off with SuperHereos and Supervillains.

MSPaint tip:

When you’re pasting each component into the final template, make sure you have this highlighted in the toolbar:

It’ll help a lot.

Here’s a quick one that I came up with just now. Dr. Hurt. Dr. Hurt’s shield has the chemical composition of cocaine engraved into its face. He’s intense.

If you have a hard time getting the files or manipulating MSPaint send me a quick e-mail and I’ll help you any way I can.

Halloween MSPaints will appear in the ‘quickthoughts’ section for as much of October as I can provide.

(side note: if you feel restricted… feel free to make your own ‘bodies’ or features. there’s no rule saying you have to use only what’s provided)

Good luck!!

MIT.

from Shamus.

Here it is, 1:30am on Friday. And I’m not sure if I’ve ever been so happy to be awake.

I was having trouble sleeping. It was 12:30 or so and my bedroom was hot. As I tossed and turned I suddenly heard the rain. It beat down on the roof ferociously. In not so much as a moment, I was out of bed and running downstairs.

I grabbed a big bin and brought it outside to collect the liquid gold. I had my big polka dot pajama pants on and when I walked outside I was immediately drenched.

Drenched head to toe… strange… this downpour felt a lot like a shower.

I threw the bin to the ground and bounded back upstairs. I grabbed a bottle of head and shoulders, some body wash, and my bath towel. I skipped back downstairs and straight out the door. The water was cold on my skin but not unbearable; think ‘Atlantic Ocean’ in early July. I ran around to the front of the house and yanked off a downspout. I threw my head under the condensed stream, added some shampoo, and scrubbed.

I rolled up my pajama legs and then started in with the body wash. It was cold, but oh so refreshing. When I was finished I ran back around to grab the bin of water. A healthy 2 inches of water had collected. I raised the bin up over my head and poured the water over me. It was bliss.

Once clean, I stuck the bin under the drain spout to collect more water. This, in addition to the five 5 gallon jugs of water that Liz and I took from work, will provide us between 30 and 35 gallons of water entering the weekend.

Never before have I looked at Rain as such a wonderful gift.

Water won’t be fixed until Tuesday or Wednesday of next week.

uuuugh

Things at work are going surprisingly smoothly right now. I am excited about the projects that I’m working on and the general mood feels light, productive, and refreshing. I’ve had some great interactions with people both in and out of the company lately, so I’m feeling rather positive.

The D.C. trip went well. It’s a neat city… though far too… Doric? I felt refreshed by the more unique architecture of the museum of modern art.

Continuing on with the general update:

School has been decent. My MBA classes are wonderful, my convection class is tough. But more because I’ve missed two of the last three classes because of travel than anything else. Hopefully this weekend I’ll be able to catch up on that.

The House is terrible, but the repair day is getting closer every day. I hope we don’t have to enter the weekend without water.

I haven’t been to Kung Fu or gone rock climbing in over two weeks. This, I find frustrating. Hopefully both these things will change by the weekend (provided we get water first).

And… I guess that’s about it. How are you doing?

Giraffes fighting.

(video)

Tony and Paulette are getting married on Saturday, Oct 6th. Amazingly, Paulette has agreed to let Tony do some quick rock climbing in between the ceremony and reception (Paulette is awesome). Unfortunately, Paulette said she didn’t think she’d be able to do it herself because, well, it’d be hard to get a harness on while wearing a wedding dress. In fact, even the approach would be tough considering the fact that wedding dresses are phenomenally and notoriously white.

well, unbeknownst to Tony and Paulette there has been a conversation in the works regarding the difficulty of allowing Paulette to climb on her wedding day. A solution was necessary.

In response to this conversation I received an e-mail from my sister Alicia that contains perhaps the single most bizarre link that has ever been provided to me.

Trash the Dress.

What?!

WHOA!

the last two images are, well… a little strange, but that first one? HOLY HARDCORE.

These are some of the hottest most amazing wedding pictures I’ve ever seen.

Today I’m in D.C. I flew down last night with two others: our head of production (Jeff) and a visiting colleague from Texas named Yoni. I’ve never been to D.C. before so I was thrilled as the plane swooped in over the Lincoln memorial. What a sight! And shortly after landing (and taking a shower, which was probably preferred 10 to 1 over any amount of sightseeing (it had been four days)), we went out to grab some dinner.

Yoni has a fascinating history. He’s lived all over the place including Isreal and France. He speaks five languages and has a doctorate in metallurgy. He became a US citizen in 1989 and *loves* the United States.

It was mildly ironic then that he was the one who gave Jeff and I a tour of D.C. His knowledge of U.S. history is extremely deep. Not only was he telling us about the museums, the buildings, and the restaurants, he was supplementing the facts with stories of John Hancock’s jealousy and George Washington’s teeth. It was a huge relief to be spending some time here instead of with the tortures of broken water mains.

Speaking of water mains, the homefront remains much the same. Today I’ll find out how soon the repair guys will be able to come to fix the problem. Hopefully I’ll be able to post some D.C. pictures tomorrow.