Category: A Day In The Life…

Today MikeDiDonato.com turns three years old. It’s kind of strange thinking that three years of my life (11%!!) is documented here. Thanks to everybody who has read and participated. This website has been really fun. On average, I probably spend about 30-45 minutes a day on this thing. That’s a total of something like 500-600 hours of effort over the past three years.

That’s a lot of time but there are distinct benefits to having a website. Financially, this website got me a free furnace service package, a tea steeping thing, roller derby tickets, 20 dollars off my Kitchen Aid Mixer, the opportunity to buy Jocelyn’s car, kiteboarding lessons from Schenk, and endless amounts of free advice. It costs 10 bucks a month to run… which is a lot less than some people spend on coffee.

I’ve met a whole crowd of new exciting people through the site: UK Roland, Aaron, Jes Saint, Molly, Patrick, UUIG, Zoe, and J2.
I’ve had great e-mail correspondence with some folks in India and Australia, and even received a comment from a distant relative who sent me this sweet photo of my mom when she was two.

Major page accomplishments over the last three years:
#1 on Google searches for Mike D.
We broke the 300 unique readers mark on Tuesday – yay!

Interesting page facts:
The most common way random people find this site is from image searches for “cupcake” (thank you Roland) and web searches for “spelt vs. spelled”.
Presently, I get more referrals from the CT Roller Girls than from any other single website. Second place goes to www.jonabad.com
My website is not banned in China.
Shaun McQuaid really does know everything and JonAbad really did invent the pommel horse.
There are currently 1,698 posts and 9,731 comments.
The post with the most comments is wish corruption.

If you have any favorite posts from the past, throw a link up in the comments.

Thanks everybody!
Happy Birthday MikeDiDonato.com!

Ruth: mike D, do you have a clean desk or messy desk
i guess clean
Mike D.: you guessed… poorly.
Ruth: haha! guess me!
Mike D:
You’re desk is small. It’s metal… with worn corners from frequent impacts with book carts.

there’s a pencil holder and a place for paperclips
sometimes, when it’s too warm you take your shoes off under the desk
the front is solid… so the desk keeps your secret well

there are papers strewn about, but not haphazardly.
someone placed them there with intent.
the items though, those are a bit more random
the ruler always seems to be in a different spot

there’s a small circular stain on the left from where a cup was placed
but it’s been there since you arrived and is more part of the desk than anything else
thin strips of white out splatter are on the right side
the computer monitor is not at all a flat screen
it’s that computer tan color. there’s dust on top, but you don’t notice it really.

there are three piles of books
you tried to stack them according to size.. with the largest at the bottom.
but recently you had an extra book that needed to be put down and didn’t feel like putting it in the middle
so the pile on the right looks off balance

you have a rolodex but you have no idea who all the people are inside it
there’s no desk lamp. you rely more on the overhead lights from the library
it’s quiet here….
too quiet. sometimes you tap your foot against he metal frame of the desk.
you’re doing that right now.
DONE!

how’d I do?

Ruth: it’s not very accurate, but amusing
me: ha ha ha
did I get anything right?
Ruth: I do have three stacks of books
me: YES!

Leave your name and your job title in the comments. I will make a prediction as to what your desk looks like.

Last night’s REM sleep was pure misery. I had dreams of tossing and turning and just staring at the clock. Yet I’m pretty confident that I was conked out the whole time. When the alarm clock went off I actually spoke aloud:

“you’ve got to be kidding me.”

Here “you” presumably refers to either my subconscious or my clock radio. And since clocks are pretty reliable, I blame my subconscious. Way to go Subconscious. Way to ruin 6 hours of potential bliss.

Thankfully, my mood immediately changed because Journey was playing on the radio.