Author Archive

I Got Gmail

By From http://odonnellweb.com/pelican/ • May 21st, 2004 • Category: Blog Entries.Local

Thanks to Russ at Strategize. He gave me his last invite to Gmail – so I now have one of the coveted Gmail beta accounts, and I didn’t have to buy it on Ebay!
Google will probably open up Gmail to the world on Monday, making my time as one of the cool …



Give Me Spring Break or give me death

By From http://odonnellweb.com/pelican/ • May 19th, 2004 • Category: Blog Entries.Local

(with apologies to Patrick Henry…)
Local (Spotsylvania County) parents are in an uproar over a proposal to cut back on Winter and Spring Break time. I don’t have a dog in this hunt, so I really don’t care what they do. However, several of the quotes …



Crazy From The Heat – David Lee Roth

By From http://odonnellweb.com/pelican/ • May 5th, 2004 • Category: Blog Entries.Local

This book is exactly what you would expect from DLR, a stream of consciousness trip through the history of Van Halen. It’s quite entertaining. DLR did everything right and Eddie and Alex are the cause of all the VH problems. And his career after VH has…



Don’t homeschool beer and alcohol use

By From http://odonnellweb.com/pelican/ • May 4th, 2004 • Category: Blog Entries.Local

05 May 2004
I didn’t realize that current parenting trends were teaching parents to allow their teenagers moderate alcohol consumption, in the theory that it alleviates the binge drinking problems so common among 17+ crowd.
The author actually uses the…



Sounds of Place

By From http://odonnellweb.com/pelican/ • May 2nd, 2004 • Category: Blog Entries.Local

I haven’t contributed to Ecotone in a few months. I blame this all on Fred. He hasn’t been writing Ecotones either, and the only time I ever think about it is when he posts his first.
This week’s subject is Sounds of Place. As is my habit, I write thes…



Cinderella – Heartbreak Station

By From http://odonnellweb.com/pelican/ • Apr 20th, 2004 • Category: Blog Entries.Local

I was in an 80’s mood tonight – so I somewhat randomly picked Heartbreak Station by Cinderella. I had forgotten just how good this album is. Cinderella may have followed the herd early in their career by doing the pop metal and power ballad thing, but …



In The Presence of Mine Enemies

By From http://odonnellweb.com/pelican/ • Feb 14th, 2004 • Category: Blog Entries.Local

Imagine you are a Jew, living in the heart of Nazi Germany in 2009, 70 years after the Germans won WWII, and 40 years after the Nazis eliminated 1/3 of the US population with nukes in WWIII.
This book is a little different than the typical Turtledove b…



Michael Crichton: Timeline

By From http://odonnellweb.com/pelican/ • Feb 8th, 2004 • Category: Blog Entries.Local

I’ve really become a fan of Michael Crichton books. I appreciate that he takes the time to make the science in his books credible. This time, a US corporation, using quantum mechanics, achieves time travel. It has problems, of course. The book raises t…



Benjamin Franklin: An American Life

By From http://odonnellweb.com/pelican/ • Jan 29th, 2004 • Category: Blog Entries.Local

This long, exhaustively detailed, chronological account of Franklin’s life is a wonderful read. I learned that:

He had even a greater influence on the course of this country than I realized
He was a lousy husband and father
He was a dirty old man with…



Review: The Dirt

By From http://odonnellweb.com/pelican/ • Jan 3rd, 2004 • Category: Blog Entries.Local

The Dirt, the history of Motley Crue, is being made into a movie set for release in Spring 2005. It will have to be X rated. The book certainly is.
That said, this is one hell of an entertaining read. Think about the most destructive, debaucherous beha…