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found by Sander

I like these silk screened window shades. Perhaps I should silk screen my window shades.

What should I put on mine?

Apparently, sense of direction runs in the family.

My sister T is absolutely terrible with directions. In one particular story, she went to a friend’s wedding rehearsal. After the rehearsal they were all headed over to a restaurant for dinner. She brought directions. In fact, she was the only one to bring directions. A few of her friends were looking for instructions on how to get there so Tree copied the directions and passed them out to virtually everyone.

Everyone pulled out of the parking lot and everyone arrived at the restaurant - except Theresa. She got horribly horribly lost.

well, if I didn’t already know, last night was a great indicator of my equally poor self-location skills. I went over to a classmate’s house in Avon to work on a project. We finished up around 10:45ish, and I left to head home. This is where I needed to go:

I took my turns, and got on what I thought was CT-177South. It was, instead, CT-167N.

I got lost. After 30 minutes I was able to get myself turned around and back on track. But by this time, I’d nearly run out of gas so I stopped in New Britain to fill up the tank. I had heard rumors that Darcy, Viv, and Irene were gathered at Irene’s place for a movie so I stopped by and enjoyed some nachos and banter before heading out again - at which point I promptly got lost in downtown New Britain. Driving down alleys and random one-way streets, I eventually got back to route 9. Only to find myself going the wrong direction on route 9. Thankfully I quickly fixed this error, turned around and was immediately pulled over for a headlight being out.

Ugh. what an annoying night.

I finally got to bed at 2am. This was my path:

sigh. My next big purchase was going to be a watch - it looks like it will be a GPS instead.

I’m taking a class which requires a unique presentation of class concepts. My group put together a good collection of music videos with new lyrics.

This is “heard it through the grapevine” with modified lyrics to represent the ‘gossip’ style person in the office. Enjoy!

Heard it through the grapvine - modified. from mikedidonato on Vimeo.

I’ve really been a lot more interested in Astronomy since our little trip to the Frosty Drew Observatory a few weeks ago. It’s surprisingly fun when you start hunting down excitement in the night sky.

I got my telescope in 1999. It’s an 8″ Celestron, so it’s a good sized beast. 8″ refers to the size of the mirror, and in the world of telescopes this one flirts with the edge between Amateur and Hardcore.

Since that fateful night in Rhode Island, I’ve brought my telescope outside four or five times to take a look at the night sky. It’s a relaxing way to end an evening of homework or work work.

I think I’d like to dive into it a little deeper. I’ll report back.

It’s going to get worse before it gets better.

This is especially frustrating, because at the moment it’s pretty dang tough.

Once again, work and school have me a bit strapped for time. Since I can’t devote the proper amount of effort to a good textual post, here’s some MSPaint.

As is often the case with random MSPaint pulled from my collection, I don’t remember the origin of many of these pictures. So we’ll just have to use our imagination.

Enjoy!

Of all posts to sit front and center for seven days, it had to be about flippin’ mosquitoes. I can’t take it anymore!

On Saturday night, I ran an 8k run through downtown Seattle with a few hundred thousand spectators (the annual Torchlight Parade follows immediately after). I’s great because when you’re getting really tired, everyone is cheering you on and kids want high-fives. Go go gadget adrenaline!

Running about 50 feet in front of me was a swimmer dude, wearing only a speedo and goggles. The roar from the crowd was especially loud where I was. I know it wasn’t for me, but it was motivating nonetheless. I salute you, runner #591.

“I’ve had this theory about the meaning of life. You’re ultimately trying to prove to yourself that you exist.”

Guy Wright

I’m not sure what’s going on here. But it is totally crazy intense.

Randy Pausch, the professor who gave the ‘last lecture’ discussed here has passed away.

The Avalanches - Since I left you

Found by Ben.

A simple preposition makes a world of difference.

Found by Shaun.

An intense music video featuring Natalie Portman.

note: kind of strange

Tiniest noodle bowl ever.

The humor approach.

I love bangs on women. Seriously, look at this. Amazing.

This is a totally awesome table.

Game found on Waxy.org.

Sorry for the down time readers! My internet hosting company was having some issues with the server. I called, complained, and was told it’d be back up soon. It looks like it’s back in business now, hopefully it’ll stay up and operational.

Rock on.

Do you hate the distracting ads that appear on the side of CNN.com and the like showing dancing people or suggesting that you shave the legs of the hairy lady, or slap the belly of the sumo wrestler in order to get great new rates on your mortgage?

Firefox has an awesome ad blocker which just covers those ads up. So if you’re using Firefox, you can click here. This will take you to the Ad Blocker download page and will guide you through the rest of the setup.

And no, Schenk, it doesn’t hide my ads.

This weekend the Mosquitoes hit up my elbows like they were buffet tables. Perhaps it’s because I can’t carefully monitor my elbows like I can my forearms, or perhaps it’s because I’m flawed when it comes to bug-spray application, or perhaps… perhaps my elbows are just really tasty… Whatever the reason, my elbows were annihilated this weekend. First at Astronomy night, then at Dave’s sister Amy’s birthday bbq, and finally during Sunday’s climbing.

My left elbow took nine hits. My right? eleven. And they itch like you wouldn’t believe. Sure, my ankles got one or two, and my right hand got a frustrating one right on the knuckle… but those are nothing in comparison to my elbows.

Curse you mosquitoes. Curse you.

Paul Scott has been working on this Marionette. Each line is controlled by a little servo motor which kicks depending on how you use a little side program. This particular dance sequence is to Stayin’ Alive.

Dancing Marionette from mikedidonato on Vimeo.

I may have to see if I can get Paul to record another video showing the behind the scenes work. Watching the servos and looking at the software is equally as fun.

Great job Paul! It came out awesome!

Whenever you’re in need, the internet is there for you.

Rimshot

Sad Trombone.