March 30, 2003
Yesterday & Today
Yesterday: Sunny skies and the temperature near 75. I spent the afternoon pitching batting practice to my son, playing catch, and then lounging in a rocking chair on the porch, reading while keeping track of the Red Sox - Braves game on the radio.
Today: It's snowing.
Permalink | Comments (1)March 29, 2003
I'm in the wrong line of work part II
The Detroit Tigers cut (fired) Damien Easly yesterday. He was in year 4 of a 5-year, $29 million contract. The Tigers still owe Easly $14.3 million.
That million, with an M. Baseball player and CEO are the only two jobs where you get paid extravagent amounts for failing and getting canned.
He is a medicore middle infielder. He might be the most overpaid player in baseball history.
I'd be happy being a medicore middle infielder at the major league minimum of $300,000.
Permalink | Comments (0)March 27, 2003
I'm in the wrong line of work
I had a storm / screen door installed today. The absolute hell I went through with Lowes will be discussed at a later date.
However, I was chatting with the contractor that was doing the work and I learned that last year he did $90,000 worth of business with Lowes, and this year the contract has been upped to $140,000. I did the math on what I paid for the install, assuming Lowes keeps 25% for doing the paperwork, and it worked out to $156,000 per year.
Given my piss poor experience with just about every sector of the service economy in this county, I am more and more inclined to believe that there are fortunes to be made by service workers that can simply show up on time, do what they promised, and treat customers fairly on the occasional screw up.
Permalink | Comments (2)March 26, 2003
Radio Free Fredericksburg
Be afraid, be very afraid. I am now in possession of a working FM transmitter. The set up I discussed last month is here and it works as advertised.
Now that I know I'll have the Red Sox on radio all summer...I've come up with a few other uses for a low power FM Transmitter.
- Rip CD collection onto hard drive so I can play continuous music over the radio
- Record phrase "Papa needs a new M3 convertable" and put on repeat play in Winamp.. After wife falls asleep, tune clock radio to appropriate channel and let the sleep learning begin.
- Start all Twisted Sister, all the time, radio station.
- Record and broadcast the voices in my head. Maybe somebody else can make sense of it.
- Broadcast endless loop of "I found the real killer" and wait for OJ to call.
If you want to hear what I'm doing, just tune your radio to 87.5 on the FM dial. Oh, and you'll need to be within 300 feet of my house to pick up the signal.
Permalink | Comments (1)Sweet Tea - It's The Law
Help for those of you north of the Mason-Dixon line:
1. Iced Tea is not a seasonal beverage. You don't suspend coffee sales in July, likewise there is no reason to stop serving iced tea in a restaurant in December.
2. Sugar does not dissolve in cold water. To make sweet tea, you mix the sugar in hot water, then cool it down. You do not serve unsweet tea and point the customer to the sugar bowl.
3. Don't ask if we want lemon with that. Sweet tea comes with lemon. It's no more an option than the bun is to a hamburger.
Permalink | Comments (5)Hickory Huskers Anyone?
Great article about the Butler Bulldogs, the tiny school in Indiana that beat Rick Pitino and Louisville to make it to the Sweet 16. The climatic scenes in Hoosiers were filmed in Hinkle Fieldhouse, Butler's home gym, and Milan, the real-life 1954 Indiana High School Basketball champions that served as the inspiration for the movie, won their championship at Hinkle.
BTW, I correctly selected Butler to win their first round game against Mississippi State. My bracket is still trashed though.
Permalink | Comments (0)March 25, 2003
The Real Heros
"They call baseball players heroes?" asks Garciaparra. "The heroes are all those guys in the Middle East risking their lives to insure our lifestyles, in some cases multimillion dollar lifestyle."
Indeed.
Permalink | Comments (0)March 24, 2003
Conversations with a 9 year old
Background: My son has been fascinated by war since he was 4 years old. He knows way more about the Civil War than most adults, myself included. For the last few months he has been reading up on WWII. So, I've been watching some of the news with him. I want him to understand that war is not glorious, its hell. While watching I ask him if he thinks being a soldier is a good job.
Breck: Its looks cool.
Me: Do you think so? It could be dangerous. You know, your grandfather was in the Air Force. Would you like to go to the Air Force Academy and be a pilot?
Breck: No, I'd rather be in the Army.
Me: Why the Army?
Breck: I want to be on the ground where all the action is.
I guess I can be encouraged that I've got 9 years... and he is just 9. In his fantasy world of GI Joe and green army men, the good guys always win, and they never suffer casualties.
I was supposed to go to the Air Force Academy too. What my parents didn't count on was that when I was 17 I would have long hair and a really bad attitude. In reality, I would have been borderline at best to get preliminary acceptance. Supposedly, Grandpa had the appointment in the bag for me if I got in. We'll never know...
And by the way, I'm kidding above. I would be very proud if he decided to go for any Military Academy appointment. I would prefer USAF though. They don't call it the country club of the military for nothing.
Permalink | Comments (1)March 22, 2003
Help for the San Francisco Police
When anti-American protestors are arrested in SF, they pay a fine and are immediately released and probably go right back to causing havoc.
I have an idea...
Put them on a random plane leaving San Francisco International. By the time they get back home from wherever the plane lands the demonstrations should be history. Also, if they act up on the plane they will be committing a federal felony, so that too will keep them out of way for an extended period of time. This also will create a little revenue for the airline industry. A few hundred one way tickets has to be cheaper than the costs associated with letting these idiots block intersections and shut down business in the city. The key is to put them on different planes. If you put 200 on one plane they will probably hold hands and try to block the runway wherever the plane lands. Disperse them all across the country. One minute your sitting in an intersection in SF, holding hands with some chick with hairy underarms that hasn't bathed in weeks, and the next thing you know your on a one way flight to Boise, ID. Shock and Awe!
We could also dump them on Alcatraz. Just a thought...
Also, SF residents could help out by refusing to stop for them. Just keep on driving through the blocked intersection. The only reason those idiots sit in intersections is because they think its safe. Obviously their mothers failed to teach them the dangers of playing in traffic. Run an 18 wheeler or two though the crowd and watch how quickly that tactic is abandoned forever.
Permalink | Comments (1)March 21, 2003
I'm not ignoring the war
I'm as glued to the TV and the Web as the rest of you. However, I really have nothing new to add. I did watch about 20 minutes of grainy videophone footage last night from a reporter embedded with the 7th Calvery. I'm not sure the videogame quality of some of this footage is really a healthy thing. As they say, war is hell. But your not getting that impresion from the TV coverage. I think CBS did the right thing by showing the basketball games last night. There was no breaking news, and we all needed the diversion.
Permalink | Comments (1)Dreaming of Bloggers
I swear, if any of you people start showing up in my dreams I'll shut this place down pronto.
Permalink | Comments (0)March 18, 2003
Baseball is a game of the heart
I usually vists Duane's blog for humor. But in a rare moment of seriousness, he nailed the essence of baseball.
An excert:
Loving a baseball team is like loving a woman. You would never ridicule someone's choice of bride to his face.
BTW, the baseball preview issue of Sports Illustrated for Kids is picking the Red Sox to win the East.
Permalink | Comments (0)Favicon.ico
I finally got around to creating an icon for ODonnellWeb that will show up in your address bar. I used a freeware editor designed especially for the purpose of making .ico files. I sized it at 16 x 16 pixels,and its in the same directory on my web server as index.html. I named it favicon.ico
Anybody have a clue why it's not showing up?
Permalink | Comments (2)Why I'm picking Kentucky to win it all
March 17, 2003
Charlie Daniels -vs- Hollywood
Charlie Daniels lets Sean Penn and his ilk know exactly what he thinks
I guess its a safe bet that we won't see him touring with the Dixie Chicks anytime soon.
March 16, 2003
Globetrotters in the House
Two tickets to The Harlem Globtrotters: Free
Parking directly across the street from The Richmond Coliseum: $5
Dinner for two at McDonald's after the game: $7.00
A day out with my son: Priceless
Given that these were free tickets, I assumed I would be battling my fear of heights as we climbed to our seats. I didn't even bother to bring a camera. We were two rows off the floor, behind a goal. Good seats, wish I'd had a camera.
Breck was laughing so hard I was afraid he might pee his pants! (He didn't). One of the great things about The Globetrotters is that although the cast may change, the shtick says the same. The water bucket confetti gag, the magic circle, pulling kids out of the audience, the weave, all the same stunts I remember from watching them on Wide World of Sports as a kid.
Permalink | Comments (0)March 15, 2003
Fluff
It's Saturday, a good day for fluff right? How about some Marshmellow Fluff? I had no idea that the stuff actually contained no marshmellows. That fudge recipie that they print on the side of the bottle is one of mankind's greatest achievements. I know of no other use for this stuff. My brother used to eat Peanut Butter & Fluff sandwhiches when he was a kid. Just the thought of that makes me queasy.
Permalink | Comments (3)March 13, 2003
The Gallery of Regrettable Diet Food
You've seen The Gallery of Regrettable Food, right? Well, this is better. Somebody found a stack of Weight Watchers recipie cards from the 70's. I was in tears I was laughing so hard. You absolutely have to take a few minutes and go thru the entire slide show. it's that funny.
Mackerelly... must get image of Mackerelly out of my head....
Permalink | Comments (2)Live Baseball on the Web
MLB.com is going to broadcast every game live on the Web this year, for $19.95 per month. I wouldn't pay it, sitting in front of the PC to watch a game would not do it for me. However, I am watching a free preview of the service right now (Red Sox - Yankees) and I'm impressed. The video and audio quality are more than acceptable.
I will be paying the $11.95 to get the Red Sox radio feed though. The FM transmiter that will plug into my PC and broadcast the game on FM is on order. I'm greatly looking forward to relaxing under the stars on my deck, with the Red Sox on the radio (via the PC), and a cold brew in hand.
Permalink | Comments (1)Spring Break dates back to the Greeks
A Purdue Student explores the history of Spring Break and discovers it dates back to the ancient Greeks. ( I have no idea if this is true, but it sounds good)
Anybody want to share their best Spring Break stories? I went to Florida my Freshmen and Senior years - but both trips were very tame by Spring Break standards. Hell, I took my girlfriend my senior year, how much fun could I have ;) My junior year we went to DC and crashed with my parents while we explored the town, and my sophmore year I roadtripped to the University of Missouri and Missouri-Rolla.
Now that I think about it - the couple of days at Rolla can hold its own against anything that happens in Florida. The Saint Patrick's Day Celebration at The University of Missouri at Rolla was completely out of control.
Permalink | Comments (2)March 12, 2003
Elizabeth Smart Home Safe
Wow. I watched about an hour of coverage on MSNBC. Kudos to the alert citizens of Sandy, Utah who called the police. I can't even begin to imagine what her parents have been through.
One thing that I just can't come to grips with is the level of power that scumbag must have had over Elizabeth. She's 15 years old and by all accounts exceptionally bright. You would think that 9 months time would have presented a few opportunities to escape. Hell, they were walking down the street today 15 miles from her house. All she had to do was start running and screaming "I'm Elizabeth Smart." Every single citizen in the area would have immediately pounced to protect her, and probably saved us the expense of a long drawn out trial in the process.
If you have kids you really should talk to them about what to do if they are ever snatched. We've taught the kids to kick, scream ,bite, do whatever they have to to draw attention to themselves. Under no circumstances go quietly. Incidently, the same advice applies to adults in a car jack scenario. Your odds of survival dimish drastically if you are in the car. Do whatever you have to to avoid being taken with your car.
Permalink | Comments (3)March 11, 2003
Crash Prone Thomas Frightens Kids
A British psychologist who obviously has too much time on his hands thinks that Thomas the Tank Engine is harmful to kids because its too violent. You know, all those animated trains crashing into each other is going to turn our children in violent adults hell bent on destroying their arch nemesis James, the Red Train. Or something like that.
If there are children scared of Thomas, I think the show is doing us a huge service. Any 4 year old scared by Thomas the Tank Engine probably does have some serious emotional issues. Addressing those issues now would be a good thing to do.
Or, we could just ban Thomas and hope the kids turn out alright.
I'll bet this bozo also believes that Ernie and Bert are gay.
Permalink | Comments (1)Famous James takes on MTV
Famous James, the King of 80's metal, has posted a delightful rant aimed at MTV in which he notes that you can't find music on MTV anymore, but Emeril has a live band on his Food Network show. If you grew up on MTV you'll definitely appreciate his sentiments.
Also from Famous James (he is on a roll this week)...do you buy those "Promo only" CD copies from the cutout bin, Ebay, or used record stores? Did you know that the band gets charged the full retail value of the promos? Not only is the band out whatever the record company charges for the promo, and we know it's probably way inflated, they are also out the royalty on the retail version of the CD you didn't buy.
I didn't know this, and from now on I will make an effort to not buy the promo CD's of anything I would otherwise not mind paying retail for. I might still do it if it is something marginal that I would never buy for more than a buck or two though.
Permalink | Comments (0)March 09, 2003
Michael Crichton: Prey
I went to bed at about 10 PM last night - with the intent of reading a couple of chapters of Prey to wind down. I finished the book at 1:30 AM.
It's that kind of book. Crichton wrote Jurassic Park, and the flavor of the book is similar. Man messes with evolution. Man screws up. All hell breaks loose. Instead of dinosaurs though, this time it is a mix of nanotechnology, biotechnology, and evolution. I won't give any spoilers here. The thing about Prey is that it is all too real. Advances are being made in nanotechnology, biotech is making amazing strides, and we are still evolving. The scenario he lays out in the book seems all too possible in the near future. And that is scary.
Permalink | Comments (1)March 04, 2003
The Star Trek Personality Test
It's 28 multiple choice questions.Take the test here.
My result:
Myers-Briggs would say that you are an ISTP (Introvert, Sensor, Thinker, Perceiver). In Star Trek language, you share a basic personality configuration with Odo and Wesley Crusher.People like you are generally extremely logical and pragmatic, to the point of being somewhat aloof. When you need to be, you can function in a highly objective and unemotional manner, but you also tend to be impulsive and incredibly curious about the world around you. You love to explore, to find out how things work, and you believe you have the abilities needed to deal with what you find....
That is an eerily accurate picture of me.
Permalink | Comments (2)Lileks: More Idiocy in the Public School System
Recently I predicted that our favorite newspaper columnist, James Lileks, would seriously entertain homeschooling when his daughter got to school age. He's had another sad encounter with the public school system, which only serves to bring him that much closer to the light.
This time, the "how to talk to your kids about war" stuff handed out in pre-school fails to mention the United States government at all! No mention of soldiers sacrificing and risking their lives to protect us. It's all about the UN and how they are working towards peace, and how the US has been infatuated with war for the last 70 years. It does admit that sometimes you have to defend yourself, but claims that time has not come yet. I can think of about 3000 reasons why that is so very wrong.
Permalink | Comments (0)March 03, 2003
Now the bums are spamming
I got this today
From: bryanbum@punkass.com | This is Spam | Add to Address Book
To: chrisodva@yahoo.com
Subject: this sucks, help me
Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2003 01:58:24 -0400
What's up!
I'm an online BUM. I need food, home, and money for college. Please help me out. Donate a few bucks to my paypal account. Even a cent would be nice :-)
MorbidMaster Bryan
Poquito a poquito se llena el saquito!
The email had his paypal button embedded in it. What's worse is he'll probably turn a profit on the effort, get interviewed by ZDNET, and encouraged countless idiots to try the same thing.
Permalink | Comments (1)Madonna to write chidren's books
I have about 10 book titles for her, but none of them can be printed on a family blog. Oh well...
From the article
"She has drawn on a lifelong passion for and deep familiarity with literature and children's books.
I didn't realize porn and sadomasochism were considered literature these days. I used the words porn, sadomasochism, and Madonna in one post. This will be a good test for the content filters . If you can read this from work let me know.
Permalink | Comments (1)WWHS: Pro-Saddam Indoctrination in the classroom
If we took Al-Queda prisoners and made them listen to and learn the lyrics of pro-America songs it would be labeled as cruel and inhumane punishment, and the left would be in an uproar.
Of course, pushing pro-Saddam crap on a class of 5th graders is just another day at the office for 5th grade teacher Bob Peterson. His email address is repmilw@aol.com if you want to let him know how you feel about his using a taxpayer supported classroom to push his personal political views.
Somehow, I doubt we will hear of the ACLU getting too upset about this.
Permalink | Comments (0)March 02, 2003
Fan Mail From South America
From: "Natalia Ostropolsky"
To: chrisodva@yahoo.com
Subject: Please read it
Date: Sat, 01 Mar 2003 16:05:39 -0300
Helou, I want to know if this e-mail is from Chris O' Donell, because I
wanted to met him by this way.. I 'm a fan of you and it would be a
pleaure
if you answer me...
I will tell you about me, but if you don't want it to read it's ok...
I'm from Argentina in South America, I'm 15 years old and I fall in
love
when I saw you from the fisrt time
Well... I hope you are the one I'm looking for...
best Wishes, Natalia Ostropolskyy
p.d: Sorry if I make any mistake writing my english isn't good enouhg.
I thought about giving her a pass, after all English is not her native language. But damn it, you don't have to fluent in English to see that this web site has absolutely nothing to do with Boy Wonder. According to google, the only place the to find that email address is right here.
Permalink | Comments (1)March 01, 2003
Birthdays
Egads, my son turned 9 yesterday. Breck is 1 year away from being 10, half-way to 18, 3 maybe 4 years from really caring about girls, and probably 4 years from starting to dream about the day he gets the car keys.
Heh, I don't think he is aware of my views about 16 year olds and driving.
His birthday present was new bike, skateboard, and assorted instruments of war (of the GI Joe variety). It was very important that the bike (standard issue BMX) have a hand brake. Apparently that is the big thing these days. When I was nine hand brakes were for girls. Actually, brakes in general were pretty much frowned upon.
What was the "big" milestone age for you?. For me it was 10. I don't know if reaching double figures matters that much today, but to military brats it was huge. 10 was the age when you had to report to billeting and get your very own military ID card. Today, the libertarian in me recoils in horror at the thought of being excited about getting a government ID card. But on base, the card meant freedom. No longer was mom required to escort me to the library, or to the store. With my own ID card, I was free to roam the base at will. And roam we did. I don't care how many ID cards Breck may have, at age 9, he isn't leaving my sight on that bike.
I know we all had more freedom as kids than we will ever give our kids today. I don't know if the world really is that much more scary today than it was in the 70's, when I was exploring the world on my BMX bike. It may have been a scary place on the outside, but inside the confines of a military base surrounded by armed guards and barb wire, I never had a care in the world. I think one of the reasons I am so pro-homeschooling is that maintaining that level of control over the inputs into my kids lives allows us to keep the worries of the world at bay for just a little bit longer. He will have plenty of time to worry about world peace and the environment. At age 9, he should be worrying about mastering a BMX bike with a hand brake.
Permalink | Comments (0)