O'DonnellWeb Monthly Archives

June 25, 2002

Fun at Wal-Mart

I hate Wal-Mart. However, the Leesburg K-Mart never has more than one cashier working, so I end up at Wal-Mart when I need the kind of crap that one buys at Wal-Mart. In the last week I've the following experiences with Wal-Mart employees:

• In line at cash register. Lady in front of me has a total of $18.31, or something like that. She hands cashier a $50. Cashier punches the $20 cash tendered button and hands lady $1.69 change. Lady points out that she gave her a $50, not a $20. Cashier pulls out paper and pencil to figure out correct change total. About 90 seconds later is is evident that cashier has no clue how to subtract 18.31 from $50. At this point I speak up and offer that she owes the customer another $30. Cashier asks me if I am sure that is correct. I tell her I am quite sure. Cashier gives customer another $30. Customer thanks me. As cashier rings up my order she comments that "I sure hope you are right, or I'll get fired." I want to comment - you should be fired, but I don't.
  
• Went into Walmart in search of a replacement net for Breck's baseball pitchback. Could not find any baseball merchandise, so I asked an employee in the sports department, and the answer was "It's out of season."
  

How the hell can baseball be out of season in June?

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The enemies of homeschooling

The Washington Times has an op-ed that discusses government's role in the homeschooling debate. They make a big error though when they label homeschooling as "just another manifestation of school choice."

The school choice advocates, generally speaking, want to use tax dollars to put their kids in private schools. Homeschoolers get no such financial benefit. In fact, we get screwed. We have to pay all the usual taxes that get funneled to the public school system, and we have to pick up 100% of the tab for all expenses related to educating our children.

I'm not bitching though, Overall, its a small price to pay given the beneifits to our kids, and the family as a whole.

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June 22, 2002

Fun with Google

Michele has a fun little brewing- Google "firstname is" (quotes required)and see what comes up. Mine were boring - not even worth typing here. However, it got me to thinking... who is the most important Chris on the Internet, according to Google anyway. So, a search on "Chris" yields that everybodies favorite Lockergnome Chris Pirillo, is the most important Chris on the Web. Taking it one step further, of the 13.8 million pages that came up for Chris, who is the most important "Chris ODonnell."

That would be me!

Pow! Blamo! Take that Boy Wonder!

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June 18, 2002

Will the madness stop?

While I sit around and worry about a dirty bomb being detonated here in DC, Israeli's are dying way too frequently at the hands of terrorists. I don't how they get through the day in Jerulselum, having to wonder if the guy next to you on the street is 5 seconds from blowing himself up. It sort of puts our problems in the US into perspective.

I think it's high time for Israel to really kick some ass on the West Bank.

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June 16, 2002

Home for sale

In the unlikely event that a potential buyer happens across this website, my house in Leesburg, VA is on the market. Act now, it won't last long at this price :)

Update: I just noticed my trees and flowers are not in the picture. Apparently MLS used the original photo they had on file from 4 years ago. Also, my lawn is much greener than this picture shows!

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June 14, 2002

Book Review: The Lost Coin by James Blaylock

I picked this up in a used bookstore over Memorial day weekend, we were waiting out some inclimate weather on a camping trip. I wasn't familar with Blaylock, something about the book just caught my attention. It may be the best $2 expenditure of my life.

This is a fantastic book. The plot, if you can call it that, is that the evil Mr. Pennyman has been busy collecting the 30 coins that were paid to Judas to betray Christ. Gaining possesion of all 30 will bring ultimate power and immortality to Pennyman. The 30th coin is owned by bumbling, clueless bording house keeper in Southern California. Pennyman becomes his tenant.

This book really isn't about plot, it's about the charactors, and the interplay between them. Although its a fantasy book, the setting is modern day CA. What ultimately "happens" isn't nearly as important as the journey to get there. This is just a fun book to read, and I'm looking forwarding to reading some of Blaylock's other work.

The Lost Coin is out of print, but Half.com has plenty available.

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June 13, 2002

I'm an Engineerist

USS Clueless describes Engineerist's as socially liberal, economically conservative, and politically libertarian.


Engineerists believe in freedom, and if we have any kind of aphorism, it's this: "Leave me alone!" The world is best served when as many people as possible make as many decisions as possible for themselves.

Yep, that sounds like me.

Corsair the Rational Pirate wants to change "Leave me alone" to "Don't Tread on Me."

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June 11, 2002

Motor City Madman

Salon has a great interview with Ted Nugent. I'm not a hunter, but after reading this interview, I've got a little better appreciation of the appeal.

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Parenting in the digital age

or...the dangers of broadband, part I.

My parents probably worrried about me taking off on my bicycle alone. In 2002, parents get to worry about our kids on the Internet alone. Neither of our kids has ever attempted to surf the web solo, until today.

This morning, Delaney headed ito the PC to play one of her educational games. When Michelle peeked in a short time later, she was on a web site reading up on lizards. Delaney said that when she got to the PC she decided she really wanted to learn more about lizards, she she clicked on that Explorer button, twice, and when it started she typed "lizards" into the box next to the Google button and clicked it.

Did I mention she is six?

She really didn't do anything wrong, but Michelle explained that mommy or daddy needs to be with her when she surfs the web. Of course, that elicited the classic response, why?

Actually, I'm quite proud that my six year old daughter is interested in learning about something like lizards, and apparently has been paying close attention to us when we are on the computer, and can figure this stuff out on her own. I know plenty of adults that probably couldn't have that done that without explicit directions. And although I definately want to encourage her to explore and learn, a six year old really needs somebody hanging over her shoulder for that journey.

I'm completely opposed to the filtering programs, and they don't work anyway. I just need a technological solution to make sure she can't take off on the web without us. Maybe a way to password protect the browser executable. Anybody know of a solution?

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Everything is infectious?

In this fascinating article from The Atlantic, researcher Paul Ewald argues very convincingly that just about every disease and malady known to man, diabetes, most cancers, heart disease, etc., are actually infectious diseases, and not genetic. His central argument is that Darwin's laws of natural selection dictate that genetic disease have to become less prevalent over time, eventually approaching the 1 in 50,000 to 1 in 100,000 rate of random genetic mutations. In fact, proven genetic maladies, such as dwarfism, do appear at about that rate. The implications for healthcare are enormous.

This also has big implications for how we currently think about just about everything. Take HIV for example. You don't hear much about it anymore. Magic Johnson seems to be doing just fine. Is that due to drugs and medical breakthroughs? Paul's theory is that with the advent of safe sex in the 80's, the HIV virus could not count on being sexually transmitted at the same rate is was in the early 80's, thus it could not afford to kill its host. After all, A virus wants to survive too. So , the virus must tone itself down, out of necessity for survival. Being genetically simpler organisms, a virus can do this sort of change in a matter of years, where a mammal would need thousands of years to complete a major biological evolution like that. He has controlled experiments with cholera that seem to suport his theory.

Read the article, the implications, if he is right, are astounding.

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June 10, 2002

Smallpox in Pakistan?

I don't know how reliable "Pakistan's largest english language newspaper" is, but they are reporting that there is a smallpox outbreak in Pakistan. I haven't seen any confimation of this. I pray to God that I don't. We should seal the borders, now.

I've seen varying accounts of how long the vaccine is good for. Anywhere from 20-50 years. I'm pretty sure I received the vaccine at age 4, when the USAF moved us to Spain. Might be a good time to call Mom and check on that...


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Mozilla

I've been using Mozilla for the last few days on my laptop. (450 MHZ Sony Vaio with 192 MB RAM). It's very stable, I don't think I've had a single crash. It's seems to work well on just about every web site I've been too. I've notice some trouble with forms, especially if they are using javascript to manipulate the form somehow. But the "do not allow unrequested windows" option is awesome. It takes out 99% of pop up ads with adverse effect on windows you want.

I gave up on Opera after a week, I like it, its speedy, but it just had all kinds of problems with various sites, include several blogs with script driven comments systems.

Bottom line - Mozilla is a worthy replacement for Internet Explorer. Stick it to Gates, download Mozilla.

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June 06, 2002

Homeschooling is not an argument for school choice

Cathy Henderson has it exactly right. Homeschooling is not an argument for school choice. It's an argument for personal responsibility.

Reblogged from Homeschooling & Other Education Stuff.

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June 05, 2002

Game Review: PureSim Baseball

I stumbled into PureSim quite by accident yesterday. It's a GM type of simulation, you don't manage day by day. You start by picking a franchise, and your available resources are based on where the franchise is. Pick NY - money is no object, pick Boise ID, good luck. Then you hire a scout, a manager, go thru a 60 round draft that can be automated based on the scouts recommendations, spring training, and then into the season. You can watch the games unfold batter by batter, or you can simulates a week/month/season at a time. In betwen games you have to manage the farm system, manage your manager, make trades, watch the free agent wire, all the usual GM stuff. The point of the game is to build a winning franchise over the years, mainting a competitive team while stockpiling talent in the minors, etc. One really unique aspect is that it plays with a universe of pretend players. So, you don't know if your first round draft pick is as good as he looks on paper, he might be a total bust. And you won't know, maybe for years of game time. It's very addictive, and you can go through an entire season in just a few hours. I downloaded the game at 8 PM last night, the next thing I knew it was midnight, and my Boston franchise is in second place, although I'm a game below .500 about 1 month into the seaon.

Puresim is completly free to try(for 10 days), and it's $28 to license the game. If your a baseball junkie you want this game.

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June 03, 2002

NY altering literary texts

The great state of NY is apparently altering great works of literature, without informing the students, and without the permission of the authors. Why??? Political correctness, of course. One example - "The Old Man and The Sea" became "The Elderly Man and The Sea."

And people wonder why I homeschool....

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June 01, 2002

Saturday's Geocaches

The kids and I found two local Geocache's today.



The first one is Red Rock Wilderness Overlook
The second is K. Corder Cache

This really is a great excuse to get out in the woods. This park is less than two miles from my house, and I had never been there prior to today.

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Dehydrated Beer

A couple of Purdue students have dehydrated beer to produce a powder that can be sprinkled on popcorn, etc. Mmmmm, beer flavored popcorn. I guess it could be rehydrated like instant coffee too.

Go Boilermakers! (Re-blogged from Chris Smith)




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