Anyway while I might dislike politics, I love MSPaint. How is this even remotely related? Well, Sarah, a friend of MikeDiDonato.com, is a campaign manager for a Mr. Joel Haugen in Oregon. Joel Haugen is running for Congress and Sarah asked me if I’d be willing to whip up a little MSPaint version of Flat Stanley in the likeness of her candidate.

Clearly I rose to the challenge. Not so much because I believe in politics but because I believe in MSPaint. So, check out Joel’s website. Over there on the left hand side bar is a little download Flat Joel link. It’ll bring you to a page where you can download my picture of Joel Haugen. Neat huh?

Here’s a preview:

MSPaint. Helping shape the United States’ Congress.

Then played forwards: Here

To most this will be merely neat, but to Mike and Jesse I think it will be awe inspiring.

Look out internet, Zeus will shake you with its Thunder.

Volume scale:
1. Loud.
2. Do not play in a confined space without ear protection. Damage to ears is possible.
3. Suggested volume for practicing in a basement with your band.
4. In an average space, this volume will drown out your bassist and rhythm guitarist
5. Clears sinuses.
6. Acceptable volume for playing in an Arena.
7. Frees slaves.
8. Cures cancer.
9. Builds dynasties.
10. Spurs Revolutions.
11. Provides evidence for the Big Bang Theory.

Zeus has only two channels. The current Mesa Dual Recs on the market have three channels, but their sound isn’t quite the same as the original two channel variety. The two channels pretty much indicate rock and more rock. Zeus contains 6L6 and KT-88 vacuum tubes. I’m going to play around with those a bit and try to find a good set of tubes to complement my playing preference. Zeus is a beautiful machine.

Whoa.

From Boingboing.

from Sander

I called DHL about 4 times to try and get information, and I would rate their customer service as 8.5 out of 10. Their automated phone answering system was a little annoying (that’s the only reason it’s not 10/10), but the actual phone people were fantastic. They invested a good amount of time researching options for me in a somewhat unusual case and gave me all the information I needed each time I called.

They guided me through an online setup and even helped me save 10% on my shipping. Props DHL. Well done.

The pig guys, so named because they took care of the pig, showed up at 6am on the day of the roast to start to prepare. There was a giant pig, baked beans like you wouldn’t believe, potato salad, corn, roasted veggies, sausage and peppers, hot wings, salad, watermelon, cake, and the list goes on.

As for the pig? well, it was a little strange to see the beast roasting on a spear of sorts. But it came out pretty good. I had no idea how fatty pork meat was.

The group was fantastic. Theresa had invited a bunch of close friends from high school, graduate school, and family. It’s really fun just to get together with a big group of fun people.

The party went well into the night, probably not closing up until around midnight.

Well done Dr. Theresa! Yay!

I now have a +1 resistance to cream requirements.

Carabiner FEA Analysis from mikedidonato on Vimeo.

We’re back! This weekend (actually most of last week really) was pretty much non-stop work. Friday saw class, Saturday saw class, and Sunday saw 11 hours of work on an engineering project. So really, not all that super.

BUT, there were moments of joy nestled in between the mayhem. First, I had dinner with Schuyler and Darcy on Saturday night. We got a little dance dance revolution and guitar hero in before I headed out overwhelmed with exhaustion. Those people are so much fun.

Saturday’s class was rather exciting as well. The class I’m taking is ‘Management Failure Analysis’ We’ve been talking about big failures and what went wrong and how to fix them. This week we had Rear Admiral Thomas Atkin come in to talk to us about Katrina. Admiral Atkin was the Chief of Staff for the federal government’s response to Katrina. His commentary was great and, whew, what a cool guy. Tall, clean cut, and dressed in his coast guard uniform he walked into the classroom with an aura of authority. He was extremely well spoken and really knew what he was talking about. He discussed federal and state law during emergencies and some of the challenges that he and the others (federal, state, and political) faced as they tried to rescue the people of New Orleans. We discussed future disasters, the role of media, the organizational structure of emergency response, and some specifics to Louisiana.

It was totally awesome.

Do any of you have something similar? Leave your stories in the comments.

I’ll share a few of our standing arguments:

• In a one-on-one fight to the death between a coworker of ours and a female cow who would win? (no tools, weapons, sticks, rocks may be used)
• What is a sport, what is a game. Is a given activity a sport or a game or a contest.
• Are fish closer to vegetables than animals? (food-wise, i.e. are the advanced enough to feel pain or is it morally equivalent to eating celery)
• The Monty Hall problem.

There are so many more, and none of them are more useful (or resolvable) than those.

So now that its been a few months I think its safe to announce that my wife and I purchased our first home! I didn’t want to jinx it the first couple of months, but things seem to be moving right along.

We bought a 2 story Dutch Colonial in the lovely town of Randolph.

Our House

Feel free to send presents and or cards.

EDIT: Wow, some fantastic advice already. Mike D readers are the best. I thought of a couple more questions:

- Does anyone keep an emergency kit in the car? Besides jumper cables, I mean. If you do, what’s in it?
- Packing extreme breakables (we’re talking champagne glasses, heirloom pieces, etc etc) - would it be wiser to take them in the car?

Greenpeace Girl: “Hey! What’s your favorite animal?” (as she blocks my path)
Me: “Pork”
GG: (looks dazed)

Update: violently.