October is well on the way so I suppose it’s about time for a Halloween MSPaint event.

Last year’s event, complete with over 30 entries, was a big hit. This year I thought I’d continue along the same lines as before with a ‘make a costume for mike d’ contest.

But this time with a bit more flare.

I’ve created an MSPaint body template.

Included in this template are a series of eyes, mouths, heads, skin tones, and bodies to allow you all sorts of flexibility in making your best costume for me.

For starters, click on the thumbnail above and save the image to your computer.

Next, get this final template. This will standardize entries and help with sizing etc.

Open up two MSPaint windows and copy the body components from one MSPaint into the canvas of the final MSPaint template. Then, add some accessories and some color to make the ultimate costume!! Finally, add a title and e-mail it to me! (MikeDiDonato AT gmail D0T com)

Really, anything is allowed, but if you’re looking for a theme I’ll start you off with SuperHereos and Supervillains.

MSPaint tip:

When you’re pasting each component into the final template, make sure you have this highlighted in the toolbar:

It’ll help a lot.

Here’s a quick one that I came up with just now. Dr. Hurt. Dr. Hurt’s shield has the chemical composition of cocaine engraved into its face. He’s intense.

If you have a hard time getting the files or manipulating MSPaint send me a quick e-mail and I’ll help you any way I can.

Halloween MSPaints will appear in the ‘quickthoughts’ section for as much of October as I can provide.

(side note: if you feel restricted… feel free to make your own ‘bodies’ or features. there’s no rule saying you have to use only what’s provided)

Good luck!!

MIT.

from Shamus.

Here it is, 1:30am on Friday. And I’m not sure if I’ve ever been so happy to be awake.

I was having trouble sleeping. It was 12:30 or so and my bedroom was hot. As I tossed and turned I suddenly heard the rain. It beat down on the roof ferociously. In not so much as a moment, I was out of bed and running downstairs.

I grabbed a big bin and brought it outside to collect the liquid gold. I had my big polka dot pajama pants on and when I walked outside I was immediately drenched.

Drenched head to toe… strange… this downpour felt a lot like a shower.

I threw the bin to the ground and bounded back upstairs. I grabbed a bottle of head and shoulders, some body wash, and my bath towel. I skipped back downstairs and straight out the door. The water was cold on my skin but not unbearable; think ‘Atlantic Ocean’ in early July. I ran around to the front of the house and yanked off a downspout. I threw my head under the condensed stream, added some shampoo, and scrubbed.

I rolled up my pajama legs and then started in with the body wash. It was cold, but oh so refreshing. When I was finished I ran back around to grab the bin of water. A healthy 2 inches of water had collected. I raised the bin up over my head and poured the water over me. It was bliss.

Once clean, I stuck the bin under the drain spout to collect more water. This, in addition to the five 5 gallon jugs of water that Liz and I took from work, will provide us between 30 and 35 gallons of water entering the weekend.

Never before have I looked at Rain as such a wonderful gift.

Water won’t be fixed until Tuesday or Wednesday of next week.

uuuugh

Things at work are going surprisingly smoothly right now. I am excited about the projects that I’m working on and the general mood feels light, productive, and refreshing. I’ve had some great interactions with people both in and out of the company lately, so I’m feeling rather positive.

The D.C. trip went well. It’s a neat city… though far too… Doric? I felt refreshed by the more unique architecture of the museum of modern art.

Continuing on with the general update:

School has been decent. My MBA classes are wonderful, my convection class is tough. But more because I’ve missed two of the last three classes because of travel than anything else. Hopefully this weekend I’ll be able to catch up on that.

The House is terrible, but the repair day is getting closer every day. I hope we don’t have to enter the weekend without water.

I haven’t been to Kung Fu or gone rock climbing in over two weeks. This, I find frustrating. Hopefully both these things will change by the weekend (provided we get water first).

And… I guess that’s about it. How are you doing?

Giraffes fighting.

(video)

Tony and Paulette are getting married on Saturday, Oct 6th. Amazingly, Paulette has agreed to let Tony do some quick rock climbing in between the ceremony and reception (Paulette is awesome). Unfortunately, Paulette said she didn’t think she’d be able to do it herself because, well, it’d be hard to get a harness on while wearing a wedding dress. In fact, even the approach would be tough considering the fact that wedding dresses are phenomenally and notoriously white.

well, unbeknownst to Tony and Paulette there has been a conversation in the works regarding the difficulty of allowing Paulette to climb on her wedding day. A solution was necessary.

In response to this conversation I received an e-mail from my sister Alicia that contains perhaps the single most bizarre link that has ever been provided to me.

Trash the Dress.

What?!

WHOA!

the last two images are, well… a little strange, but that first one? HOLY HARDCORE.

These are some of the hottest most amazing wedding pictures I’ve ever seen.

Today I’m in D.C. I flew down last night with two others: our head of production (Jeff) and a visiting colleague from Texas named Yoni. I’ve never been to D.C. before so I was thrilled as the plane swooped in over the Lincoln memorial. What a sight! And shortly after landing (and taking a shower, which was probably preferred 10 to 1 over any amount of sightseeing (it had been four days)), we went out to grab some dinner.

Yoni has a fascinating history. He’s lived all over the place including Isreal and France. He speaks five languages and has a doctorate in metallurgy. He became a US citizen in 1989 and *loves* the United States.

It was mildly ironic then that he was the one who gave Jeff and I a tour of D.C. His knowledge of U.S. history is extremely deep. Not only was he telling us about the museums, the buildings, and the restaurants, he was supplementing the facts with stories of John Hancock’s jealousy and George Washington’s teeth. It was a huge relief to be spending some time here instead of with the tortures of broken water mains.

Speaking of water mains, the homefront remains much the same. Today I’ll find out how soon the repair guys will be able to come to fix the problem. Hopefully I’ll be able to post some D.C. pictures tomorrow.

ugh… I thought everything was under control. The water guy came by, and despite the difficulty of the job (there are all sorts of complications), he said that it could be done. I’ll get a quote in the morning and the pipe should be fixed (hopefully) by Thursday. On top of that, the neighbors allowed us to tap off of their water supply. By connecting a hose from their outside spigot to ours, we’re able to reverse plumb my house. There was a small leak in the hose connecting the houses… so I spent some money and repaired the line to ensure that no excess water would drip out.

Then Tony and Paulette, in an extremely kind gesture, came to Meriden and kidnapped me for some ice cream at the end of the day. Things were looking up.

When I got home however, I found the neighbors rather upset. They don’t feel comfortable providing water at night. Just during the day.

This is extremely tough for me because what bothers me more than any other thing is being an inconvenience to someone. When I feel like I’m being a burden it’s bad. I typically get restless and occasionally nauseous.

The neighbor’s being upset really got to me. And not being able to provide water to my roommates really gets to me. See, Brian and Liz both get up SO early in the morning that it’s basically night-time and right now it’s 11:30pm and Shaun still isn’t home from work. Without water at night… the house is essentially without water. During the normal day hours… none of us are even home.

And tomorrow, I’m scheduled to fly to Washington D.C. for work… frankly, I don’t know what to do.

I just don’t know what to do.

Sick Video of awesome skills.

Yesterday afternoon found me staring shocked at a geyser of water erupting forth in the basement. The water was exploding into the air a good three feet. My first instinct was to try and smother the flow of water with my hands, but this, obviously, didn’t do much more than completely cover me in water.

In seconds that corner of the basement was filled with water. The sump pump engaged, but it couldn’t nearly keep up. At best, it was pumping out a quarter of the amount of water coming in.

I grabbed my cell phone and quickly called the last number on my ‘recent calls’ list: a guy named Mike.

“Hello?” he answered
“Mike? This is Mike DiDonato. I’m in trouble.”

Early on Sunday I stopped by Lowes to buy a few pipe wrenches. There was a small water leak in the basement but nothing overly complicated. The only trick was that it was just barely upstream of the water meter. This was not a major concern as there’s a second valve just upstream to where the water meter is.

I cranked off that valve and the leak petered out. The only other issue was that I’d have to disconnect the water meter and water meters have small ‘no tampering’ wires. So I called the city.

This was my first interaction with Mike. Mike works for the Meriden Sewer company. I told him about needing to break the tampering line. He said that was no problem and that they’d send someone out tomorrow to replace it once the leak was fixed.

Once I had permission I went down into the basement and started taking apart the line. First, I took off the water meter. No trouble there.

Next, I took off the leaking pipe. No trouble there.

Finally, I put my pipe wrench around the last broken piece - an elbow. As I applied torque to the system the pipe UPSTREAM of the valve shuddered briefly… and then a burst of water fired out. I immediately remembered Mike’s last comment to me on the phone: “call me if you get into trouble.”

“What happened?” he asked
“The line upstream of the valve blew as I was trying to get the pipe off”
“How bad is it?”
“bad. I’m going to need the water to the house turned off.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”

As I waited to hear back from Mike I double checked the sump pump. It just wasn’t pumping fast enough. I started wondering what I would possibly do when the water reached the furnace and the water heater… Maybe I could go ask the neighbors for another sump pump?

From the kitchen, you could hear the water surging in the basement.

About 10 minutes passed, during which I frantically ran around lost. Not having any idea what to do. It was then that I saw a truck pull up.

Mike stepped out. He had curly hair and glasses. His jeans and shirt were worn. He looked like just the right person for this job.

“Let me see how bad it is.”

I brought him to the basement.

“let’s go see if we can turn if off. Do you know where the water turn off is?”

I had no idea. We walked to the front of the house along the edge of the street.

“have you ever seen any sort of metal water cap when mowing the lawn?”
“I have not”
“oh man. It could be anywhere. I’ll probably have to go to the town records and see if I can find the plumbing schematic for the street so we can find it.”
“ugh.”

And then, I saw it. It was the edge of a metal cap covered mostly in overgrown grass.

“Wait… Is that it?”
“You are a very lucky man.”

We took the top off and he put a long wrench into the 4 foot deep hole. He tried turning it but was unsuccessful.

“flashlight?” I offered
“yeah. we might be in more trouble. Sometimes these are so full of dirt that we have to get a pressurized water truck to come and blast the dirt out.”

I ran to get him a flashlight trying to calculate in my head how long I had before the water heater and boiler were both submerged in water. When I got back he stuck the flashlight into the hole and put the wrench in again. Mike quietly asked for divine assistance and gave it a short turn clockwise.

“You are a very lucky man today. That never works so easily.”

We walked inside the kitchen; there was no sound of water coming from the basement. Sure enough, the water had been turned off.

Mike helped me sweep most of the water into the sump pump hole. Then we took a look at the pipe.

“This is bad,” Mike said, “if the pipe is this rusted here… it’s probably at least this rusted running all the way out to the street. You’ll probably need to have the whole line replaced”
“oh no…”

Mike and I chatted a bit more about plumbing and the types of problems he encounters on his day to day job. Then I thanked him profusely for his fast action and sat down to figure out what on earth I should do now.

And that’s still kind of where I am. I spoke with my Boss and told him that I might not be into work today as I try and clean up this mess. First things first, I suppose I’ll buy some water for the house.

After that… things will presumably get a bit more complicated.

As we get ready for MikeDiDonato.com’s special Halloween MSPaint contest, check out this handy coolness chart for Halloween costumes.

The Secret History is a book that I picked up last Saturday at the Meriden Library. This was the last book in a ‘reading list’ provided to me by a librarian friend. And I’m glad that I ended with this one. To be honest, my excitement for reading waned slightly upon completing the last book: The lake of dead languages. Just enough so that I hesitated when I picked up this one… would it be any good?

I’m very glad I grabbed it. In my recent reading surge I’ve found that outside of the basic ‘good writing’/'bad writing’ separation there seem to be books with good plots, books with good characters, and books with both. The books with good characters, I think, are far better than books with good plots. Though you are free to disagree with me on that one.

‘The Secret History’ by Donna Tartt is one that, I think, has excellent characters and a pretty good plot. What makes the characters unique is that they are outcasts with deep flaws that are really tough to get your head around.

Our main character is Richard. He comes to a school and joins a group of students studying Greek: Henry, Charles, Bunny, and Camilla. The students are exceptionally bright, but fall into trouble when they find themselves in the midst of a murder.

Now, typically I think murder mysteries get a bad wrap. I think they can be seen as cheap entertainment. Despite the fact that this book deals with a murder… it’s hardly a mystery. I read it as more of a journey of a group of students and the interactions between them. The characters are just so wonderful.

I highly recommend this book. If you happen to read it, throw your thoughts in the comments.

Today went pretty well. Sadly though, not quite as well as hoped. While the new equipment we were installing worked great, a previous problem that we thought had disappeared came back with a vengeance. My co-worker Darko and I will be staying in Texas for an extra day in hopes that we’ll be able to close that problem tomorrow.

The food scenario today was ROUGH. The company we’re visiting didn’t happen to get the mill up and running until about 11:30… so we missed lunch. Uuuuugh. Hunger is a tough foe and… when it teams up with exhaustion… the combo is devastating. My eyelids edged shut again and again all the while my stomach spinning and lurching from the single twix bar that I tried to use to appease its growl.

The weather here is hot. Not overbearingly hot… just mid nineties. BUT! BUT! some new rules are in effect at this company… and we all have to wear long sleeves to protect ourselves from cuts and burning. This isn’t too annoying for all those dudes who brought long sleeved shirts to Texas, but I did not - mainly because it’s Texas. and I didn’t plan for cool weather. So I have to wear an overcoat.

You can probably begin to appreciate the situation: me, standing in the Texan sun, my exhausted mind desperately trying to figure out why I’m wearing an overcoat and not eating delicious BBQ.

Hopefully we’ll finish up tomorrow.

It’s like this every time I travel for work. Hands so dirty that I decimate a toothbrush in my efforts to rid my hands of the grime. Usually I remember to wash at the factory… which is far better because you can use their handy dandy soaps. This time though, I forgot.

Dirty Dirty Hands from mikedidonato on Vimeo.

We’ll continue this ritual tomorrow night.

Today is judgment day here in Texas. I’m hoping the day will go smoothly and that I’ll be able to return to the quiet life of CT in a very short time.

Texas is pretty warm, but not overwhelming. Yesterday it was in the 90’s and today is suppose to be about the same.

The food has been decent. Last night I went to a small little Cajun restaurant and I’m hoping to be able to escape the mayhem for a short time today to hit up some of the amazing BBQ that’s in town.

That’s about the extent of my personal plans for the day/week. A little BBQ and an early departure would be heaven.

Texas = this week’s location.

Slick Design!!

Last night I made some Chicken Soup with dumplings.

First of all, if you ever make chicken soup… never make it without dumplings. They are the easiest thing on earth to make.

Mom’s Dumpling Recipe:
DUMPLINGS
3 T oil
1 1/2 c. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 c. milk
Mix dry ingredients together. Add liquids, stir until blended.
Drop by spoonfuls into the simmering liquid (it says boiling). Simmer uncovered for 10 min., cover and simmer another 10. It says it makes 10 dumplings, but they would be very puny.

Now, normally I would follow my mother’s orders to a T. But, I didn’t exactly have many supplies for soup. In fact, I only had two cans of chicken broth (I didn’t make my own).

So I cooked my chicken, added heat to the broth, added some celery and carrots… waited until it boiled and then added a single batch of dumplings.

results? Amazing.

It was the exact ratio of dumplings/soup that I had dreamed of as a kid. The big pot probably had 2 inches of soup, and then 2.5 inches of dumplings on top. PERFECT.

On Sunday Sept 9th, Roller Magic hosted the CT Roller Girls in Waterbury for yet another battle of furious speed and mayhem. The Iron Angels were up against the Elm City Bone Crushers - a highly anticipated rematch. The Angels were coming in with a bitter taste in their mouths after having been defeated by the Elm City Bone Crushers at their last meeting. This was sure to be another good bout.

I arrived at about 6:15 with my friends Nicole and Shaun. They were both Roller Derby virgins. Nicole was rooting for the Iron Angels. Shaun, swayed by player ChaCha LaRue’s devilishly attractive Derby photo, was rooting for the Bone Crushers. As we anxiously awaited the start of the match, a handful of little kids danced in excitement.

Little Kids Dancing - Excited for Roller Derby! from mikedidonato on Vimeo.

The action started with the piercing riffs and fist pounding bass drum of AC/DC’s ‘Thunderstruck’. We did everything we could to hold back from chanting “THUNDER” as the Iron Angels stormed out for their introductions.

The Elm City Bone Crushers (ECBC) came out next, equipped with bats, chains, severed arms, and skulls pierced with spears. Van Halen’s ‘Hot For Teacher’ boomed from the amps. It was freakin’ Awesome.

After a demonstration explaining the rules (the Bone crushers had to put down their bats; weapons are not allowed) the Derby girls got out on the starting line. The first few jams went back and forth with each team strategically ending the jams after looping through the pack once, thus securing a quick four points.

The Iron Angels took an early lead - their pack was producing holes in the ECBC defense, and the jammers were taking full advantage!

In the fifth jam Dead End Allie took up the Angel’s Jamming position next to the ECBC’s ChaCha LaRue. The Jam started and the girls took off. Dead End Allie pulled some sweeet moves and achieved the first Grand Slam of the evening.

Grand Slam: When a Jammer successfully passes the entire opposing team and then proceeds to loop around and also pass the opposing jammer for a total of 5 points.

The Angels were taking their revenge out on the Bone Crushers and it was getting violent.

Let’s take a step back from the action and look at how all this Derby goes down.

There are about 10 girls on each Roller Derby Team. Five of whom are out on the ring at any one time. Each team has a captain and an assistant captain. Outside of the players themselves, there’s a horde of referees, officials, EMT’s, and volunteer support staff who help out with keeping statistics and running the show. There are typically a few MC’s, a DJ, and a memorabilia shop that sells all sorts of hip roller girl paraphernalia. It’s a pretty huge operation.

*picture from Ct Roller Derby site

I had a chance to talk to referee Ian Fluenza and ask a few questions. As the Roller Girls skate furiously around the ring the refs have to keep track of points, penalties, and point out the lead jammer to the eager crowd (the lead jammer is the jammer who gets through the pack first and as a result has control over the length of the jam). My obvious question was: do the refs get dizzy? Strangely enough, I guess they don’t. But Ian Fluenza did comment on how it can be tricky counting points as the Jammer’s weave in and out of the pack.

Out on the ring the 4 girls in the pack play both the roll of defense and offense. They do their best to help their team’s jammer through and keep back the opposing jammer. This match had among others: Susan Bea Anarchy, Vixen Vega, Victoria Deck’em, and Jenghis Kahn for the ECBCs and Nelly Nuckles, Niki Nitrous, and Slaughterhouse Sadie for the Iron Angels. There’s a lot of rotation of positions with Derby Girls moving in and out of the jamming position and the pack.

At the first intermission the Angels were winning by over thirty points.

Despite the slow start, Captain Damanda Beatin’ and her Bone Crushers weren’t letting up. In the midst of the second round the Bone Crushers seemed to get a sudden boost of energy. Chelsea Grin took a 12 point round followed immediately by a Grand Slam by Ether Bunny. But Iron Angels Pearl Jammer, the leagues highest scoring Derby Girl, and Tina Colada kept fighting back.

By the end of the second period the gap between the teams had widened and the angels had passed the 100 point mark.

The Action continued into the last period. Despite the score gap the Bone Crushers pushed on. When Judy Scarland grabbed lead jammer status during a jam in the third period and swung her fist in the air the cheers from the crowd were deafening. Still the Iron Angel’s were rolling with incredible momentum. Their jammers kept pulling in points.

At numerous times during the bout our mouths fell open in awe at the insane maneuvers being pulled off. Nicole turned to me in the third period, stunned, and commented:

“that jammer just grabbed the hips of her teammate to whip herself forward!”

The determination and drive of the girls was very noticeable. I can only imagine how exhausting it is to skate sprint around aggressive opponents for a 20 minute period.

As the clock ticked down those final seconds the official scoreboard settled on the final tally: 143 to 72. The Iron Angels took a victory lap around the ring to the hollering cheers of their fans.

Pam Terror celebrates the win.

Sadly, I got word from Ian Fluenza that Bone Crushers Demanda Beatin’ and Chelsea Grin both were injured in the bout. Chelsea with a nasty shoulder separation that’ll keep her off her skates for a bit. From all of us here at MikeDiDonato.com we wish you a speedy full recovery.

The next bout will be the Bone Crusher’s vs. the Widowmakers on October 14th! Check out the CT Roller Girl website for more info!!

Ryan Schenk: “best thing about having a wireless mouse:
when you need to click on something really victoriously, you can punch your fist in the air as you click”

Last night I finished ‘The Lake of Dead Languages’ by Carol Goodman. It was actually a little hard to read after the flawless glory of ‘East of Eden’ because her writing was not as perfectly smooth as Steinbeck’s. The plot was intriguing, though at times painfully obvious.

The story followed the life of a woman Jane who returned to her private high school to teach Latin. While there she re-lives the horrors of her past as girls begin to commit suicide in a lake on campus. The story line had me jittery at times and the ending was pretty high tension.

I would recommend this book for plane flights, but not for rainy days.

Guns? Bah.

from JonAbad.

New House of Rock roommate Brian has a set of kettlebells.

Kettlebells are a Russian weightlifting tool that basically look like cannonballs with handles. They exude and aura of extremeness. Brian lent me a few DVD’s that cover the basics. Provided Brian’s willing to share the bells, I’m hoping to start in on a rough routine this week. It has the potential, I think, to rock me back into a fitness drive.

In other fitness news, I had my first 2 hour kung fu class last night. It was really unique. We spent the first hour working technical drills and the second hour on sparring. I was very tired by the end.

That said, the beginning stages of a new belt level are always a blast because you get to learn new stuff. For example, last night I started learning the first moves to the chain of death.

Chain of Death.

How hardcore is that?