Tyler is trying to rent a moon suit. You can help him here if you’re interested.

Longtime reader Ben is looking for some advice from Team D. Ben asks:

How long does a laptop last? How long have you kept your laptop?

Apparently, Mr. Ben has an aging computer and he’s interested in getting a new one – but he’s having a hard time deciding if it’s the best move.

Leave your answers in the comments

In other quick news, I’ll be taking a little more time off from normal mikedidonato.com posting this week. I appreciate your patience.

In the meantime, there will be a Roller Derby recap of Saturday’s bout as well as a highly anticipated review of the KFC double down courtesy of Shaun L. Stay tuned.

My sister Alicia’s friends Becky and Greg are trying to win the ultimate wedding contest. Apparently Becky was just recently diagnosed with a rare cancer. If you’d like to help them towards their dream wedding, please vote for them here.

You have to register, but that only takes an extra two clicks. Thanks to all who help.

One last survey from Theresa! I’ll let her take over here:

Dear Mike D Readers,

First: A huge THANK YOU for those of you who have participated in our research so far. These are publishable research projects, meaning your responses are a real and important contribution to psychological science. We cannot do research without volunteers like you. Thank you.

We are still collecting data on both of the previously posted studies, including the most recent on sexual and emotional jealousy, http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/TM8YP65. Our data collection will continue for a short while longer, after which we will analyze our data and I’ll post a summary of the results. These will likely be posted in April. Should we publish our findings, I will certainly let you all know. Thank you again.

As a final study of interest (for at least the short while!), here is another opportunity to contribute to science!

ATTENTION DOG OWNERS: Are you interested in the psychology of pet ownership? This is a special invitation to those dog-owning readers of Mike D’s website. I’m supervising a student research project that investigates relationship processes and how people feel about their pet dogs. So we are inviting people like you – who have a pet dog – to take the survey. We want useful, generalizable results, so my student is trying to recruit a sample of adult people who own dogs (since this is tough with a college-aged crowd). If you have 10 minutes and feel like filling out a survey, we’d appreciate it! The survey asks questions about your beliefs about relationships in general and feelings about your pet, and all responses are confidential and anonymous. The study takes less than 10 minutes.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6CQJ3XD

Again, big thanks to those of you who are up for helping our research! Will share the results as soon as they become available.

- Theresa

All responses are anonymous and confidential. You must be at least 18 to participate. This study is a Loyola University Maryland Research Study that has been approved by Loyola’s Institutional Review Board.

My sister Theresa, Social Psychologist extraordinaire, is looking for more survey participants. She writes the following:

Hello everyone,

Here is another opportunity to contribute to psychology research. This project is a Loyola University Maryland research study being conducted by one of my students. The study explores jealousy and we need a pretty large sample size for the nature of the questions being asked, we’d appreciate your help! All responses are confidential and anonymous. I will have Mike D post the research findings when we have them – thanks very much for your help!

You can take the survey by clicking here!

Dear readers of Mike D’s website:

I am working on a research study and am looking for volunteers – at the current time, I am in particular need of male participants. This study takes 10 minutes or so and involves articulating your general impressions of different social groups.

You can access the brief online survey here

All responses are confidential and anonymous. I’m looking for your honest impressions. This study has been approved by the Loyola University Maryland Institutional Review Board. If you have any questions about the study, please email me: tedidonato@loyola.edu

Thank you!

NOTE: I am supervising a few research projects this spring (one is specifically for people who own dogs and one is about jealousy). I will extend the opportunity to participate to all you! Stay tuned! Your help is much appreciated!

-Theresa

My good friend Jedd Chlebowski is a bass player extraordinaire and he’s looking for some help from the masses. His band is in a contest as they try to get the opportunity to play the Foxwoods theme song.

This is a huge opportunity. If you’re willing to help, click here and vote for the Michael Cleary Band, for which Jedd plays bass. To vote, you’ll have to sign up… which might turn a bunch of you off. But if you’re willing… awesome. (if you do sign up, don’t bother putting in the cell phone number, it’s not necessary)

Thanks, and good luck Jedd!

UPDATE: I confused the prize of the contest, but it’s been fixed

This site has an animation dance off.

Cassidy, a friend of MikeDiDonato.com, put together his animation which is currently battling a stripping burger.

If you’re feeling kind, then within the next 8 hours or so please visit the site and vote for MAN FROM THE ROAD SIGN by team Giants.

Thanks Team D!

Thanks again to all the MikeDiDonato.com voters who voted for Sarah Ann Lewis during her quest for the free MBA. Shamus sent me a note this morning informing me that she did in fact win the prize.

Congrats to Sarah Ann Lewis!!

I’d like to think that team MikeDiDonato.com helped her secure that victory.

Rock on.

SHORT VERSION:

Go here and vote for Sarah Anne Lewis.

LONG VERSION:

Jesse sent me an urgent e-mail forward requesting help for his friend.

Chris Strobel’s girlfriend is a finalist for a chance to receive a free MBA from Southern New Hampshire University. She is a really great person, and has the right type of vision, to actually make things happen globally. She needs people to vote for her, and the deadline to vote is Wednesday. If you get a chance, visit the website below, and cast a vote for Sarah Anne Lewis. Please note…Sarah is a little behind at present. She has not had much of a chance to self promote, because she has been in Nicaragua for the past two weeks, volunteering at a Cervical Cancer Clinic for women…no kidding…this is a seriously good person, who could make great things happen with an opportunity like this. It only takes 5 seconds to vote.

http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/community/contests/enter_to_win_a_global_mba

Please feel free to pass this on to family and friends.

Jesse added:

she’s quite far behind the other two candidates… (voting is on the right side of the page). if you need justification, there are linked videos with pitches for why to vote for a candidate. just consider it.

If you’d like to learn more about Sarah you can click here for her essay and bio.

At the time of this post, she had a mere 14% compared to her opponents. Voting ends November 4th.

Lastly, if you’re willing to share this link and this story on your own blog or googlereader, it would be much appreciated.