September 30, 2002
Cool Parenting 'Zine back online
Raising Hell is back with a spiffy new look, and more yummy content.
Permalink | Comments (0)September 29, 2002
Ceiling Fans Suck
Every ceiling fan I have ever installed has been a major pain in the ass. They all have some ingenius way to secure they fan safely to the fan box in the ceiling. It never works easily. Add to it that your are usually working on a ladder and holding a large, heavy, bulky, item above your head and you have a classic recipe for complete frustration.
I had that recipie yesterday. I was putting a fan up in the master bedroom on a vaulted ceiling about 10.5 feet up. The fan bracket had this nifty plug built into it. In theory, you connect 4 wires, screw the bracket into the fan box, insert the matching plug on the fan unit, twist clockwise to lock, put the blades in , and your done.
The first problem was that the electricians that worked on my house used some funky fan box that left very little room for the wiring. It was a major challenge getting the 4 circuits with wirecaps pushed back up into the box. Then, the fan would not plug into the bracket and lock when twisted. It just didn't work. I read the instructions about 20 times, made sure I was doing everything right, but it just would not lock on. This whole time I'm up on a ladder near the ceiling, where its much warmer than at ground level. So, I'm hot, tired, and frustrated. I let out some language that would have made a drunken sailor blush.
That seemed like a good time to take a break for lunch.
After lunch, I deceided to do what I always do when I am having trouble with an assembly project. I ignored the instructions and tried to logic out the problem. It took me less than 5 minutes to realize that the plug on the fan as it came from the factory was not aligned properly. I checked the instructions and there was nothing there about messing with the fan plug. So I dissasembled the fan to realign the plug, and it went up perfectly. I felt better knowing I wasn't the dumb one - at least not in this case. The fan was functional 15 minutes later.
We still have 1 more fan to install in the family room. The ceiling there is about 16.5 feet up. I don't have a ladder that high and even if I did I don't like heights and that is way above my comfort zone. (My comfort zone is any height I can safely jump from.) So, I'll be calling an electrician for that one.
And now I've got this tune stuck in my head...
What will we do with the drunken sailor,
What will we do with the drunken sailor,
What will we do with the drunken sailor,
early in the morning...
September 27, 2002
Wildlife
While eating dinner last night, the kids got all excited when Delaney saw a couple of deer that had wandered into my neighbors yard. And my comment to Michelle was...
It sure is nice to live somewhere where "wildlife" is not a reference to the neighbors!
Permalink | Comments (1)September 26, 2002
Open Source on Windows
If you are interested in open source software but are unable or unwilling to dive into Linux, Slashdot has an interesting thread with lots of recommendations for Windows friendly open source software.
Example 1 - Celestia, the open source space simulator. This is something I will definately download when I broadband-enabled again.
Permalink | Comments (0)The Moving Day From Hell
The movers didn't finish unloading the trucks until about midnight on Tuesday. They didn't bring enough truck for the job, and the second truck they brought was half full with somebody elses stuff. We ended up strapping our bicycles to the roof of the moving company presidents sport utility to finish the job.
That said, everything did get here in good shape, and the moving crew was great. They worked hard all day. It was purely a management issue that caused the problems. I also negotiated about 25% off for all the inconvenience.
DirecTV was installed yesterday, and I signed a contract for DSL this morning. Within a couple of weeks I should have 768 down and 384 up. Yeah baby! Michelle has the kitchen pretty so we'll actually be able to cook tonight. Very slowly its starting to feel like home.
Permalink | Comments (0)September 23, 2002
Blogging may be light this week
Tomorrow is moving day (finally!) My online time will be curtailied some this week as I'll be a little busy! I've set up a temporary dial up account so we'll have access until I get the broadband options at the new house sorted out.
Permalink | Comments (1)September 20, 2002
What are they really worried about?
Daryl is blogging an update to the CA homeschool mess. Now the police are involved, claiming they need some way to distingush real homeschoolers from those just letting their kids skip school.
Why do the police, the state, the educrats, or anybody else care where or how my kids are educated? It's really none of their damn business. This country did just fine for the first 150 years of its existance without a mandatory government indoctrination policy. Somehow, we managed to get through the industrial revolution without government employees to hold our hand and make sure we were properly prepared to work a cotton gin. We'll get through the digital revolution just fine too.
The answer of course, is that its not about the kids education. It never has been. It's about control, and power, and money. When government is involved money is always a factor. Every time a charter school does well, every time a homeschooler gets admitted to Harvard or Stanford, it's one step closer to the moment the Wizard behnd the curtain is revealed to be a short bald guy. It's another step closer to the realization that the education emperor has no clothes.
That is what they are really worried about.
Permalink | Comments (3)September 18, 2002
Up in Smoke
Wondering whatever happened to all that money from the great tobacco company shakedown, err I mean the settlement? Dave Barry has the answers.
Permalink | Comments (0)September 17, 2002
Shower Shock
Just what we all need - caffeinated soap. They claim you get a 250 mg jolt from the caffeine absorbing through your skin. At $7.00 per bar, which lasts 10 showers, it seems pricy. However, that is .$.70 per "serving," far cheaper that than a double shot latte at Starbucks, and less calories too!
Permalink | Comments (0)September 16, 2002
Spitting image of Johnny Unitas?
A friends father (who I had never met before) commented this weekend that I am "the spitting image of Johnny Unitas." I confirmed that he meant a young Unitas, as being compared to to a dead Unitas would not be a compliment! We definately share a fondness for a electric razor with a #2 guard! I always think its difficult to make these judgements about myself.
What do you think?
Homeschooling grows among Black Americans
The author doesn't provide any real evidence to back her claim - but I sure hope its true. I've long believed that minority students, often trapped in the worst of the public education system, have the most to gain by opting out of the system.
Re-blogged from Why We Homeschool
Permalink | Comments (0)September 15, 2002
Kinko's would love to charge like this!
Since we are moving, we will be need to find a new peditrician for the kids. We called the doctor's office to get a copy of the kids records to bring to the new doctor, and we were informed that the charge would be $50. Fifty bucks for copies of documents that we already paid them hundreds of dollars per hour to create in the first place.
We pointed out that we should not be charged for copies of historical records that we provided them when we joined the practice. (Those records are probably 2/3 of what they have in the file.) They informed us that those records became their property when we provided them and we did indeed have to pay to get copies of stuff we already gave to them.
(I should point out that my kids are rarely sick. I'm sure their files are much thinner than the average kid of their age.)
And how did they calculate $50?
According to the admin staff at the office, its the maximum charge allowed by law. I spent 10 minutes plugging search terms into the Virginia Lesislative Information System but failed to find an applicable law. I did find soething that said they could charge .50 per page for the first 50 pages, then .25, when records are subpoenaed, but nothing relating to a $50 maximum when a patient requests copies of personal records.
So, I guess I should feel lucky that they cut me a break.
Yes, there is a cost associated with the Xerox machine, but $50? You would think they could absorb it into the overhead given that it costs me (and the insurance company) $110 for a 15 minute appoinment.
Permalink | Comments (1)September 12, 2002
ODonnellWeb available in China
The contents of my Web site are available to web surfers in China.
I guess the communist hierarchy in China does not see me as a threat.
I'm going to have to work on that ;)
Permalink | Comments (0)September 11, 2002
There is nothing funny about mimes
Except when Davezilla dates one!
I'm leaving the deep insightful 9-11 posts to others who are much better at that sort of thing. I generally deal with stress with humor, I see no reason to change that today.
Permalink | Comments (1)September 10, 2002
Filing Cabinets are Evil
I've been assigned the task of going through our filing cabinet, and a couple of dresser drawers of stuff to be filed, to clean out the junk.
It's all junk.
I've gone through the two drawers so far, and I threw out at least 90% of the stuff we were saving. Countless receipts for stuff that has been consumed and is no longer returnable, receipts from the health insurance company for every doctor bill they paid, old 401K statements for accounts that have been rolled into my IRA, old bank statements, pay statements from dot com employers that have ceased to exist, all kinds of crap that I can't find any real use for. I know my tax advisor, (if I had one) would probably tell me to save all that stuff, but what for? I can see hanging onto bank statements for a few months, I kept six months worth, and the medical receipts until we are sure that the doctor was actually paid, but am I really risking anything by throwing out medical receipts for basic checkups from 18 months ago? I don't think so.
The problem is the filing cabinet. It is just sitting there, begging us to fill it up. I don't blame it really. After all, it has a job to do too. It's job is to fill up with stuff, thus inducing me to buy it a friend. Its siren song is hard to resist. You may need that someday, just put it in here in the file labeled 1998 bank statements. The fact that the bank has been bought out and changed names twice since then doesn't seem to matter. The paper shredder has overheated and shut down both nights I've worked on this.
Having identified the source of the problem - the filing cabinet and its siren song of liability avoidance by saving everything, I have crafted a solution that will allow me to regain the lost hours of my life filing and sorting paperwork I don't really need.
The filing cabinet is not moving to Fredericksburg VA with us. Nope, its been banished from my life, along with several beat up dressers, our kitchen table,( which actually provided yeomen service as it was an assemble it yourself special from KMart that lasted 4 years), and a whole bunch of toys that the kids have outgrown.
I'm going to get one of those pressboard accordion file thingies to keep tax records, recent bank statements, etc. I'm downsizing my life from a two drawer filing cabinet to a $7.99 accordion file from Target.
And it feels damn good.
Permalink | Comments (1)September 09, 2002
A Service I would Pay For
Twice yesterday, I got stuck in traffic on I-64 between VA Beach and Richmond. I really wanted to know what was causing the backup. Construction delay? Accident that will clear quickly? Oil tanker overturned and I'm stuck for 12 hours unless I take evasive action? I had no way of knowing, and apparently no way of finding out. I did call the state DOT as I sat there, and after wading through a fairly impressive voice response system I did learn that there was no construction projects in the way.
However, if there had been some toll free number I could call, and pay about a buck for a definitive answer, I would have done it. I was sitting there with my Rand McNally open trying to decide if I should bail on the Interstate and head cross country - or wait it out. I no intel to help make the decision. As it turned out - a severe lack of exits on that section of the Interstate made the decision for me.
I don't see how a system like this could be automated - way too many disparate data sources for very short lived data. I think you would need live people very skilled a web research, with access to police scanners in every state, etc. Seems like a awful lot of overhead, which may explain why this service doesn't exist. Even in major metro areas, the news radio traffic reports every 10 minutes frequently don't hit "YOUR" traffic problem during the segment you happen to tune into.
With the continued availability of cheap gas, and our countries utter incompetence at anything resembling a mass transit strategy, this seems like a problem that will only continue to get worse. Which means that there should be a way to make money on it!
Permalink | Comments (1)September 08, 2002
What I did on my summer vacation
My summer vacation was really fun. On the way to the beach I got a phone call telling me that my house was sold. That was cool. The first day at the beach was kind of yucky. It was too cold to stay on the beach so we played putt-putt golf instead. Michelle and Delaney beat Breck and me. That has never happened before.
The rest of the week the weather was very good. We went to the beach two times just about every day. Breck and Delaney played in the water and Michelle and I read books. I finished two books and I'm 1/2 way finished with another. I went boogie boarding and hurt my back. But its all better now. I watched Purdue on TV on Saturday. God was at the game. God is a Notre Dame fan. That is the only resonable explanation for why Purdue keeps losing in South Bend. We drove home on Sunday. We stopped at our new house. Here are some pictures. We close on the house next week. So now we have to spend the next two weeks packing. I really like the Outer Banks and I hope we can go back there next year.
The end.
Permalink | Comments (3)September 06, 2002
An idea for 9/11
Don't watch. It's really that simple. We all know the media and the goverment is going to make a mockery of the day anyway, so don't watch. In fact, don't turn on the TV at all the day. If you really want to show that you've learned something from the events of 9/11, then spend the day with your family. Play Monopoly around the kitchen table, read to your kids, play baseball in the backyard, shoot some hoops, do something that involves actual conversation with your spouse and kids. And if you don't have a spouse and kids, spend some time with your parents. Call them if you don't live nearby. People, all of whom started out as part of a family, are what made this country great. Spend the day with real people, and not the pretend ones on TV.
If you really want to make 9/11 special, turn off the TV and tune into your family. I guarantee it will do you more good than the 12 hour marathon retrospective that the establishment will be giving us.
Permalink | Comments (1)September 05, 2002
Book Review: Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear
An all-nighter. One of those books that you won't want to put down. I started it a 7 PM on Wednesday, I was done at 2 PM on Thursday.
The basic question behind the book. What if human beings decided to upgrade? Homo Sapien 3.0. And it doesn't happen over 10,000 years. It happens almost overnight. Just like a Windows upgrade, it doesn't go well at first. Millions of babies are stillborn. The government thinks its a virus. A few scientists think it's evolution at work. Nature working out the kinks as it brings a major upgrade to the human species. Greg Bear goes fairly deep in evolutionary biology in the story. You'll learn something along the way too. Although the idea of humans suddenly giving birth to new humans so different as to almost be alien is a huge leap of faith, the reactions of the public and the government are exactly what I would expect should such a situation occur.
And if such a situation does occur, let us all pray the human upgrade goes more smoothly than the typical Windows upgrade :)
Buy this book. Get it from the library. Borrow it from a friend. Just read it.
Permalink | Comments (0)Book Review: The Rainy Season By James Blaylock
I've read two other Blaylock novels, The Last Coin and All The Bells on Earth. They are both epic battles of good and evil, with little doubt about who are the good guys and who are the bad. They are both fantastic books and are highly recommended. The Rainy Season is different. It is more atmospheric, fuzzy. The charactors are not black and white, everything is very grey. Quite fitting, given the title of the book. The book revolves around memories, captured and reclaimed from the past. As usual, Blaylock weaves the supernatural into and around the fabric of everyday life. The book starts a little slow as Blaylock sets up three seemingly unrelated storylines. Once they connect though, the story builds to a very satisfying ending. If you like Blaylock, you'll like this. If you have not read Blaylock yet, you might want to start with someting else, like The Last Coin.
Permalink | Comments (0)September 02, 2002
Sci-Fi for Kids
My eight year old son has read every book we have in the house, twice. He has read the Harry Potter series 3 or 4 times, The Hobbit at least that many times. I'm trying to put together a list of Sci-Fi and Fantasy appropriate for an 8 year old with very advanced reading skills for his age. I didn't get into Sci-Fi and Fantasy until high school, so its hard for me to remember what books might be a little too adult for Breck. I'm referring to content, not reading level! So far, I've come up with the following....
Selected Heinlein (Starship Troopers)
Enders Game
David Eddings, The Belgariad, The Mallorian, etc.
Selected Piers Anthony (Xanth novels, The Blue Adept)
Lord of The Rings (obviously!)
The Dragonriders of Pern series
The Danny Dunn Books (out of print, I've found a few used)
Chronicles of Narnia (he has already read all of theseO)
Any ideas would be appreciated!
Permalink | Comments (7)