Category: Features

Awesome Contest!

mike d. 5 Comments Features, Geekdom, silkscreen, The Page

I mentioned last week that I wanted to try and find a way to promote MikeDiDonato.com. So I’m doing what I know how to do best: MSPaint and T-shirts.

I have designed a sweet t-shirt. Check it out:

sweetzildj.PNG

It’s the perfect combo of Geekery and Rockery! All the while mocking corporate sponsership! I am going to be giving two of these t-shirts away. This is how it works.

There are three ways to get yourself entered in the drawing.

1. If you e-mail someone you know and tell them about my website (you must include a link to the website) and CC me in on the e-mail, then I will enter you into a drawing for a t-shirt. The person who sent the winning e-mail will receive a free t-shirt, and so too will the person who had the e-mail sent to them. For each person you send an e-mail to, you get one entry. One e-mail, one entry. If you send one e-mail to 8 people, you’ll only get one entry. If you send personalized e-mails to 8 people, then you’ll get 8 entries. E-mailing people who already openly read the blog doesn’t get you entries. Nor does e-mailing the same person multiple times. Please be respectful to the people you e-mail.

2. If you add a blog post about my website on your website and include a link to my website, you get two entries. Please e-mail me a link to your blog. Limit one blog post per person. If you are selected the winner via this method, you will receive two t-shirts in the mail.

3. If you share my blog via Google Reader you will get one entry – please make sure I’m following you first by sending me an e-mail. Limit one shared post per person. If you are selected the winner via this method, you will receive two t-shirts in the mail.

DEADLINE: The deadline is the end of Labor Day weekend (September 7th, 11:59pm EST). On September 8th, I’ll take those entries that I have received and randomly pick one lucky winner. I will mail out the winning t-shirts after I get the winners’ size and color requests.

Limit 15 entries per person.

I reserve all rights to deny entries to anyone I think might be spamming or stretching the rules in a way that’s sneaky or underhanded.

My e-mail address is: MikeDiDonato AT gmail D0T com

The t-shirt design above might change slightly between now and September 8th, but if it does it will only get more awesome. If the winner would prefer a Breakfast Squad t-shirt, then that’s cool too.

Good luck!!

MSPaint goes Existential

mike d. 0 Comment Features, Geekdom

A brief history of the smallest known objects:

A long time ago – Chinese philosophers suggest five basic elements: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water

Early 1800’s John Dalton comes up with his Atomic Theory. He suggests that all matter is made of indestructible, indivisible Atoms.

1897 – J.J. Thompson finds evidence of a smaller particle, the electron – develops the plum pudding model of an Atom

1919 – Ernest Rutherford does his alpha particle/gold foil experiment, finds evidence of a nucleus. Discovers the proton.

1932 – James Chadwick uncovers the neutron

1936 – The Muon (think heavier electron) is discovered by Carl Anderson

1960’s – Murray Gell-Mann and George Zweig begin work into the classification of the quark. Quarks are what make up protons and neutrons. There are six known quarkes named: Up, Down, Top, Bottom, Charm, and Strange.*

Late 1960’s early 1970’s – Scientists begin to suspect that quarks, and leptons (electron family) are made of single dimensional strings

1975 – The Tauon (think very heavy electron) is discovered by Martin Perl

1990 – String theory adapted to include the potential for multi-dimensions by Polchinski

1995 – Edward Witten develops the M-theory which suggests 11 dimensions for strings

quarksetc.PNG

A few weeks ago I was talking to Sander about a computer game (gimme friction). “I love this game because it appears to be perfectly analog, but really it’s limited by the number of pixels within the screen. That means that there are not an infinite number of games, it’s actually closer to finite than one originally observes.” Sander replied: “But aren’t most games defined by their resolution?” And he’s right.

As the simplest example, there’s tic tac toe – a game with only 9 binary pixels. Connect four has 42 binary pixels. Even more complicated games like risk have a set number of countries, a set number of pieces, a set number of cards, and a set number of dice potentials.

When I think about our quest for the smallest building block, I think we’re really looking for the pixel of the universe. I think we’re trying to define a resolution for our world. After which, things might suddenly become a lot less infinite.

*fun fact: according to wikipedia the top and bottom quark used to be referred to as the truth and beauty quark. Neat!

Pimp my Pantry.

mike d. 21 Comments Features, Food

Last night after a forearm splitting night of rock climbing, I sat at my dining room table and stared down at my lukewarm meal. There, in a misshapen tupperware, sat a half cup of re-fried beans topped with an unseasoned microwaved egg. This halfhearted pile of dinner was a result of two things:

– my complete lack of motivation
– my paltry excuse for a pantry

Actually, I think my pantry is pretty awesome. But my eldest sister who tried to motivate me on the phone insisted that I was clearly missing some key ingredients. For example, simply adding salsa would have changed this meal from a catfood stand-in to a delightfully fresh !Huevos Rancheros!

Alicia then sent me her suggestions for a dozen essentials for the ultimate pimped pantry. Let’s see how the Pantry of Rock performs.

The List:

1. coconut milk
2. salsa
3. frozen spinach
4. canned beets
5. quick indian and thai curry sauces
6. Annie’s macaroni and cheese
7. brown, red, and green lentils
8. lots of canned, diced tomatoes (no salt added)
9. canned beans – don’t forget about canned chickpeas!
10. canned fruits (Lite in water) – pears, peaches, pineapple, etc.
11. I am assuming you have lots of pasta on hand!!! Especially great is vacuum packed gnocchi.
12. And spices: chili powder, curry powder, etc etc.

The Pantry of Rock spot check performance:

1. coconut milk – Yay. though it’s old. we’re talking 2003 old.
2. salsa – Nay. For shame Mike D.
3. frozen spinach – Nay. Though I do have canned spinach, a fact to which my sister audibly vomited
4. canned beets – Yay. I have canned beets aplenty.
5. quick sauces – Nay. I have most of the ingredients needed to make a curry, but no quick sauces for those nights without motivation
6. annie’s – Nay. For shame Mike D.
7. colored lentils – Kinda. I have a wealth of green lentils, but no other colors
8. canned tomatoes – Yay. Diced, Crushed, Whole, Paste, the House of Rock lacks no tomato
9. canned beans – Yay. Me? not have beans ready for consumption? Impossible.
10. canned fruits – Yay. Especially Pineapple. I freakin’ love pineapple.
11. pasta – Yay. though probably not a sufficient supply
12. spices – Yay. including saffron! (thanks viv!)

End total 7.5/12 that would be a D. Actually, a D-
And if you didn’t count the old coconut milk then I would fail outright. I’m still quite proud of my kitchen’s stockedness but perhaps it does need a bit of a boost.

Do any of you have recommendations for the ultimate pimped pantry?