May 30, 2003

Two Old Guys, and Beer

Today we break in a new category, Adventures in Commuting. I'm spending 2.5-3 hours a day on a bus. I'm guessing that has to be good for a few stories.

Today, the bus pulled into the commuter parking lot near my house at 6:30 PM. As I'm walking to my car, I noticed two other cars parked perpendicular to each other, with the hoods, trunks, and all 4 doors open. It was very similar to the scene you see in suburban parking lots where the kids gather to hang out, blast their car stereos, and show off their tricked up economy cars. However, these weren't kids.

The apparent owners were well past retirement age. And the cars weren't tricked up anythings, they were a very ordinary looking Lexus sedan, and a Mazda 929. They were clean and shiny though. Definitely freshly washed, and maybe freshly waxed too. If the car stereos were on they were at low volume.

Then I noticed the bottles in their hands. Beer bottles, definitely beer bottles. There appeared to be a six pack (or the remnants thereof) in a grocery sack on the ground. These two senior citizens are just hanging out in a commuter parking lot on a Friday evening, drinking beer and showing off their ordinary cars to each other.

There is an assisted living home nearby. Maybe they escaped.

Permalink | Comments (0)

May 29, 2003

Book Review: Feeding The Green Monster

ESPN baseball columnist Rob Neyer convinced a publisher that they should give him a book advance so he could get an apartment near Fenway, attend every game at Fenway in the 2000 season, and write a book about it.

This qualifies Rob for God like status in my world.

The resulting book, although good, left me feeling a little empty. It is written diary style, but too much of it is the mundane results of the games. How Pedro pitched, how good the bullpen looked, Ramon Martinez got rocked again, etc. Mixed in were occasional stories of the people of Fenway, and Rob's misadventures procuring tickets. (If you ever have the opportunity to attend a baseball game with Rob, I suggest you volunteer to take care of the tickets.)

If I had been writing the book, I would spent my time getting to know the 100 year old ushers that populate Fenway. Half those guys probably saw Ted Williams play, and a few may even be able to remember it. I would have got to know the scalpers, the street vendors , the season ticket holders that were always there in the same seats. IMHO, that is where the real story was, and Rob missed it completely. However, it was an honest mistake on Rob's part. He is a true baseball geek, and I think the action on the field was way more interesting to him than the other stuff. He may be right, but the other stuff would have made a better book.

However, if you are a Red Sox fan, you probably should own the book. Daydreaming about what you would do with a summer to spend at Fenway is a fine way to waste away the hours.

Another thought...anybody think Ed could write one hell of a book, if given an advance and an apartment within walking distance of Fenway? How about it Ed? Care to put a book proposal together?

Permalink | Comments (0)

Reading in Motion

Apparently, reading in a moving vehicle is a skill that can be learned. All my life, I have been unable to do this. It either made me queasy, sleeply, or both. However, now that I am commuting over an hour each way via bus, I really want to be able to use that time to read, whether its work related or recreational reading.

My first week was rough. I found myself half asleep within 5 mintes of starting to read on the bus. It's no big deal in the morning, the extra hour of rest is kind of nice. However, it was a pain coming home. Not only was it wasted time, the half nap made me feel like crap for the rest of the evening.

On Friday, I closed my eyes and took a cat nap immediately. Then, I got out my book. It worked. I was able to read all the way home with no ill effects. This week I've been able to read every day without falling asleep. I think I've got it.

I've got about 8 books in my "to read" pile, but if you have suggestions feel free to leave them in the comments.

Permalink | Comments (2)

May 28, 2003

I am a major geek

The Geek Test

I scored 42% - Major Geek. There are three higher levels of geekness to achieve. I'm not sure, but I think being married may limit me severely. Major Geek may be as high as I can go.

Permalink | Comments (2)

May 25, 2003

Book Review: Darwin's Children

Darwin's Children is Greg Bear's sequel to Darwin's Radio, a book I picked up on vacation last year and skipped all food, drink and bathroom breaks until I was done with it. It was that good.

First of all, I think you must read the first book to enjoy the sequel. The story is just too connected. Children is set about 10 years after the births of the Sheva children. The American public has reacted predictably to the births of a new sub-species of human - complete fear and loathing. The politicians also react predictably - concentration camps. They call them "schools."

It is a very good book and a worthy sequel. It's lighter on the hard science and heavier on the touchy feely / interpesonal stuff than its predecessor. And I didn't stay up all night reading it, although I did finish it in under a week.

Like Radio, it is completely believable. If we did start giving birth to a new sub-species of human, I think the reaction would be vey much like how it's laid out in this book.

Permalink | Comments (0)

May 22, 2003

The O'Keefes

Yes, I watched it. It was torture. That was some of the worst acting ever to make it onto primetime TV. I predict it will run 5 weeks and then dissapear, not to be seen again until it shows up on a "Worst TV of the Decade" special on Fox in a few years.

Surprisingly, they made the public school kids look worse then the homeschoolers.

If the homeschool crowd will just laugh it off, the show will die a quiet death in a few weeks.

Permalink | Comments (0)

May 20, 2003

Life As A Horror Movie

A 3 month old killed by ants? I really, really want to believe that this is false. Sadly, it looks to be legit.

Like I don't have enough to worry about as a parent. Deep down, I know that sometimes bad shit happens to good people, and there is nothing; nothing I can do about it. It doesn't mean I won't keep trying to protect my kids from every bad thing every known to man. though.

Mark Horne made this same point.

Permalink | Comments (0)

Ameican Idol & 24

I don't care what Simon says, Clay kicked ass tonight and Ruben was very average. That said, Rueben will win because he and Kimberly were splitting the black vote. It will naturally gravitate to Ruben. That will be the difference. Presidential politics - American Idol. Same difference?

Actually, when you consider mass, most things will tend to gravitate towards Ruben.

I called the 24 ending 5 minutes early. When I saw psycho sister (how the hell did she get out of custody anyway?) reaching for the President, I called biological warefare out loud. My wife is a witness!

UPDATE: I've been told by several people that the girl is not psycho sister. Sure looked like her though. An evil twin maybe?

Permalink | Comments (2)

May 18, 2003

Fredericksburg Luminaria

This coming Saturday (May 24th) the Fredericksburg Battlefield National Cemetary will be glowing with the gentle lights of 16,000 candles that have been placed by the graves of the veterns interned there.

Did you ever wonder who sets up 16,000 candles? Who fills up 16,000 zip lock bags with sand and places them in the white paper bags? For this particular event, that somebody is the Boy Scouts and their fathers, mostly the fathers. We did a two hour shift yesterday filling ziplock bags with sand. it stopped being fun well before the two hours were up :) The project was completed in 4 hours - so we were doing 4000 bags an hour. That seems like a lot - there were no more than 50 people working at a time. I'm feeling it in my forearms today.

Permalink | Comments (0)

May 16, 2003

Rod Beck - Man of the People

Once dominant major league closer Rod Beck is in Iowa, playing for the Cubs AAA team and hoping to get back to the majors.

Oh yeah, and he is living in a motor home behind center field, where he can found after games tipping back a few cold ones with whoever happens to drop by.

If the Red Sox wanted him back, would they let him park the RV on Landsdowne Street?

Permalink | Comments (0)

May 15, 2003

Riding a Horse = Hard Work

I took advantage of my week off and tagged along for my daughter's horse riding lesson today. I had no idea so much was involved in riding a horse. Posture, position of the feet in the stirrups, and how you hold the reins seem to matter a lot. Also, I had no idea that the rider doesn't really sit in the saddle when the horse is at a trot. The position can be described as doing squats in time with a moving animal. Not easy, and I can see why she is so exhausted after a 30 minute lesson. I could also see that she is absolutely thrilled to be there. She even fell off today (a first) and got right back up ready to go. The instructor wasn't happy with her form on the fall and made her practice a few emergency dismounts before they continued. She also spent some time at a cantor pace, which is pretty quick. Quick enough that falling would hurt a lot I think. Probably the best part of the lesson was Michelle's reaction when the one of the farm dogs came out from under a wood pile with a snake in his mouth. (It was a black racer - totally harmless). Of course, in Michelle's world, the only good snake is a dead snake.

I expect in a couple of years I'll be writing about my search for a new home, one that can accomodate a 4 legged resident of the equine variety. I don't think this is the typical little girl obsession with horses. I think it's the beginning of a life long passion that will cost me a lot of money ;)

Permalink | Comments (1)

May 14, 2003

Trading Spaces Web Style

One designer - me.
One budget - $0.00
Time allotted - 2 hours

I found some MRI brain scans I had done back in 2000 when I was cleaning the garage. Inspiration struck, and we have a redesign.

Good? Bad? Ugly?

Any and all feedback appreciated.

Permalink | Comments (6)

May 13, 2003

Kid's Meals

One thing that drives me nuts about restaurants is the tendency to way overcharge on kids meals. I have no issue with restaurants making a profit, however when doing the mental calculation on a dinner out - you tend to brush off the kids meals as inconsequential. However, twice in the last month or so we have been somewhere that was charging $4 or more for kids meals. At our favorite local pizza joint, the two kids meals actually cost more than the pizza. That's ridiculous. We'll stick to take out pizzas there in the future. The pizza is quite good, but no way am I paying $3.50 for a kid sized bowl of pasta, and over $4 for chicken nuggets and fries, plus drinks.

Permalink | Comments (0)

May 12, 2003

Naked Homeschooling

While skimming my access log I noticed somebody got here via a Google search on naked homeschooling.

Sure enough, ODonnellWeb is #1 and #3.

Why somebody was searching that term is a question best left unanswered.

Unless I'm missing an opportunity here. If symphomy orchestras can sell pin up calendars to raise money - why not homeschoolers?

Education with (nothing but) a smile.

Heh.

Permalink | Comments (1)

New Music Reviews

I've been a bit of a slacker later when it comes to music. I haven't been buying anything. However, I did get two new CD's today; here are the short reviews based on one or two listens.

John Hiatt & the Goners- Beneath this Gruff Exterior
Yet another new album by John Hiatt. He is quite the prolific songwriter lately. More down home rock and roll blues, it's all goodness.

The New Pornographers - Electric Version

Very 80's. It has an old REM / Smithereens vibe to it. It should go without saying that that is a good thing.

Permalink | Comments (0)

May 11, 2003

Weekend Update

Friday Evening: Added to the nation's econmic woes by increasing the unemployment results by one person. I have a new gig starting the 19th - so this amounts to one week off to get some stuff done around the house. There are worse things in life.

Saturday: Road trip to the Green Valley Book Fair. The 2 hour drive took us up and over a 5000 ft mountain. The visibility near the peak was about 5 feet. Made for a fun few minutes of driving. Green Valley seemed weak compared to the last few visits. I only bought three books. The kids bought 15-20 each and Michelle found a few. Our typical take is 75-100 books. Still, it was all at 80% or more off retail, so it was a worthwhile endevour.

Sunday: Mother's Day. Cleaned the garage, dinner with the family at Logan's Roadhouse. It's a chain but it is quite good. Now the garage is ready for the installation of pegboard on one wall. That is one of my projects for this week. I also plan to rip a boatload of MP3's, and acquire a 128MB SmartMedia card for my Rio500 in preperation of my commute into DC for the new job.

Also, on Suday, we found this guy in our front flower bed. It's an Eastern Box Turtle, male. He seems harmless enough to the plants so we'll let him stay.

Permalink | Comments (0)

May 09, 2003

Beisball been berry beery good to me

Over at The Curse of The Bambino today, Ed is pontificating on why baseball is such an important part of his life. Its a really good post, comparing baseball to reading a book, but its way too deep for ODonnellWeb. We are all about shallow and trite around here.

So, as published by Bob Levy in the Washington Post, the real reason baseball is the best game.

It has the best, and most cliches.

Permalink | Comments (1)

Anti-Gun Bias in the Washington Post

Yeah, I know it's not exactly news as it happens all the time.

However, in this story about rocker Ted Nugent allegedly using a racial slur in a radio interview, right in the middle of the article, for no apparent reason as it adds nothing to the story, we find this line.


Nugent is past president of the National Rifle Association and is known for his outspokenness.

What exactly is their point? Are all gun owners racist? That seems to be the view of the Washington Post. There is no other connection to guns in the story. The radio interview did not seem to involve guns. If it did, the Post did not bring out that point at all. Hell, they didn't even bother to tell us what the alleged racial slurs are.

Was Nugent ever President of the NRA? I know he president of a national bowhunting group, but I don't remember him ever holding elective office in the NRA. Now that they've brought it up, he might be a great candidate to replace Heston.

Permalink | Comments (0)

What ever happened to Saturday Morning Cartoons?

An interesting article in Animation World magazine about the social, financial, and regulatory changes over the last 20 years that have led to the demise of Saturday morning cartoons on network TV.

I used to get up early to watch TV on Saturday mornings. The Bugs & Daffy Show, Superfriends, Jabberjaw, Tom & Jerry, etc. were staples of my Saturday morning existence. I even had a favorite Superfriend. (I was a Green Lantern guy).

The only cartoons my kids watch regularly are Pokeman and Yu-Gi-Oh, which are on from 4-5 PM weekday afternoons. And they only watch those a couple of times a week. Saturday morning is play time for them. Sitting down in front of the TV is never even considered. Somehow, I think they are missing out on something by not having that one half-day a week of TV time just for themselves, with nothing but child appropriate advertising and PSA's between cartoons. My kids only know about Schoolhouse Rock becasue we bought the CD for them.

I'm just a bill, yes, I'm only a bill, and I'm sitting here on Capital Hill....sing along, you know the words :)

Permalink | Comments (0)

May 07, 2003

Bang Your Head

Headbangers Ball is back! MTV2, 10 PM on Saturday nights.

Metallica is hosting the first show.

I never did understand why they canned the show. It was on at midnight on Saturdays, it wasn't like they had a wealth of programming to show at that time. And it was a demographic that was perfect for the time slot. It's not like we had dates or anything else to do on a Saturday night. A horror video double feature, popcorn, a lot of beer, and Headbangers Ball. That pretty much sums up many of my Saturday nights in college. Well, pre-Michelle Saturday nights anyway.

Permalink | Comments (3)

May 06, 2003

Indiana Jones Coming to DVD

It's about damn time!

And just in time for my birthday :)

Permalink | Comments (1)

Farm Girl Fan Mail

Is this a fan letter or the script summary for a porno?

Date: 6 May 2003 07:17:51 +0100 From: "Tess McLeod" | This is spam | Add to Address Book To: "chrisodva" Subject: Hello

Hello my name is Tess Silverman-Mcleod... I live on a farm called Drovers Run and I am a big fan of yours,

My farm is run by women and was left to my sister Claire and I by our Father Jack McLeod when he died.

There aren't many guys around Drover's Run, well basically three around our age, and with five other women on the farm we rely on hiring farm hands from the city for our "fun" hahaha.

SO that is why I enjoy watching your movies so much. I can only hope that a farm hand that looks like you turns up some day.

The only guys that live near us are Alex and Nick Ryan and the local vet. Claire has dibbs on Alex and Nick has just broken up with his girlfriend so we are all drawing lots to see who can get Nick. JUST KIDDING.

Are you interested in farming at all?
Are you any good with a tractor.

Update: The writer is either so pathetic that she has to borrow from an Austrailian TV drama, or it's brilliant satire on the lives of people that write to celeberties. Either way, it's good content for ODonnellWeb and saves me the trouble of coming up with something on my own!

Permalink | Comments (2)

May 05, 2003

Sales Commissions: It's Not Rocket Science

Interesting article over at Inc. from a business owner who believes the standard commission compensation structure for sales people is bad. A lot of what he says makes sense. However, since most companies will continue to pay on commission, here are a few hints to make the process work better.

  • Learn how to use a spreadsheet. We want to trust our employer, really we do. Yet, somehow businesses that routinely submit thousands and thousands of pages to the SEC for some reason get really confused by a spreadsheet no more complicated than revenue (X) commission percentage = paycheck. If I feel compelled to spend excessive time tracking every penny I earn because the payroll dept can't, something is wrong.
  • If you are going to screw with the payroll system, test, test, and test some more. I've been through two "upgrades" to Oracle Financials. Both failed. One was with a small enough employer that they could export from the $1.5 million dollar Oracle system and calculate commissions in a spreadsheet, the other was a very large company that just stopped paying commission for six months until they figured it out.
  • If you can't explain the comp plan on one powerpoint slide its too complicated.
  • Sales people sell exactly what you pay them to sell. If you have 100 products and one has an exceptionally high commission structure, don't be surprised when that product's sales take off, often at the expense of other products.
  • Quotas have to match sales cycles. Monthly quotas for products with a 3-6 month sales cycle don't make sense.
  • If you want your Sales Force Automation project to succeed it had better help the sales force sell. We don't care if it makes management's job easier. True story - a former employer spent $20 million on a Siebel rollout that has less functionality than an old DOS version of Act!.
  • There is no such thing as a sales job with a base salary of $30K and expected first year earnings of $150K.
  • If I can't remember the deals I'm being paid on - you are taking too long to pay commission.
  • Lost deals are not always the sales person's fault. Sometimes the competition really is better, sometimes you get beat on price, and sometimes your product or service just sucks and no sales person is going to be able to sell it consistently.
  • A sales person that has made six figures consistently will not join your firm for a base salary of $30K. We are showing a lot of faith by betting our career and earnings on our ability to sell your products, often in the face of numerous bad management decisions that make the job excessively difficult. Return that faith by offering a base that allows our kids to eat balanced meals while we ramp up at a new job.

Generally speaking, base salary should be about 1/2 of expected earnings. nobody should be living it up on their base, we are paid to produce revenue after all. However, somebody worried about his next mortgage payment is not going to be a particularly effective employee. The fact is individual sales go bad for any number of reasons, many which are in no way connected to the effectiveness of the sales effort. The base salary should let your sales force eat in those months.

Reblogged from Iluminent

Permalink | Comments (1)

May 04, 2003

Is That Wireless Web Server in your pocket...

or are you just happy to see me?

Intel is working on a 80GB web server / hard drive that is smaller than a deck of cards that will automatically mount to any wireless enabled computer, Palm, digital camera, etc. In theory, you can carry all your data with you and utilize whatever computer or I/O device that is available without the device ever leaving your pocket.

Cool.

Permalink | Comments (0)

May 02, 2003

David Lee Roth: Defender of the 2nd Amendment

I almost feel guilty classifying this as music, after all it's DLR that we are talking about ;) However, somebody armed with a knife tried to break into his place and DLR pulled out the 'ole shotgun and held him at bay until the police arrived.

Permalink | Comments (4)

May 01, 2003

Best.Ad.Ever

If you haven't seen the new Honda Accord ad, you must go watch now. I don't think it's running in this country yet.

Permalink | Comments (0)