Author Archive

1927 Was One Hell of a Year

By From https://odonnellweb.com/pelican/ • Sep 20th, 2019 • Category: Blog Entries.Local

I finished Bill Bryson’s book One Summer: America,1927 last night. It’s a highly entertaining tour of the ridiculous number of momentous events that happened over the summer of 1927.

So it is perhaps worth pausing for a moment to remember just some of the things that happened …



Fitbit Fail

By From https://odonnellweb.com/pelican/ • Sep 8th, 2019 • Category: Blog Entries.Local

I bought a Fitbit 3 weeks ago. I sent it back to them on Saturday. I wore it constantly for 2+ weeks, and I just don’t get it. The heart monitor seemed to be really accurate, but after a couple of days I lost interest in knowing what my …



Recent Books Fall 2019 Edition

By From https://odonnellweb.com/pelican/ • Sep 7th, 2019 • Category: Blog Entries.Local

I’ve been trying to read more books written by authors that aren’t white dudes. 4 out the 7 below are not written by white dudes, but one of the white dude novels features a strong female lead character, so 1/2 credit on that one?

Parable of the …



I Finally Mastered Gmail

By From https://odonnellweb.com/pelican/ • Sep 4th, 2019 • Category: Blog Entries.Local

I got my Gmail account back in 2004. I could have sold it for $100 on Ebay back then. Yet even though I was a very early adopter of Gmail, I’ve never really like it. Webmail has never really done it for me. I prefer the responsiveness of a …



No More Family Secrets

By From https://odonnellweb.com/pelican/ • Aug 26th, 2019 • Category: Blog Entries.Local

In a lot of ways, families are just a collection of stories, all believed and held true by a set of actors known as a family. They can be biologically related, but they really don’t have to be.

So what happens when the story turns out to be false …



Wellness is not rocket science

By From https://odonnellweb.com/pelican/ • Aug 25th, 2019 • Category: Blog Entries.Local

Image of old man lifting weights

Wellness is a $4 trillion dollar market. Most of that money is wasted. All of the money going to Goop is wasted. As a dude whose almost certainly over 50% done with life I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how to maximize the odds that I’ll be …



How To Do Nothing

By From https://odonnellweb.com/pelican/ • Aug 24th, 2019 • Category: Blog Entries.Local

How to Do Nothing book cover

Book Review: How to Do nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell

I get the feeling that her publisher titled the book, as “How to do nothing” is not a descriptive title. I was expecting a how-to book more along the lines of Cal Newport’s Digital Minimalism. Instead …



Keeping Score

By From https://odonnellweb.com/pelican/ • Aug 12th, 2019 • Category: Blog Entries.Local

Baseball scorecard

The last time I kept score at a baseball game was…I have no idea. I was probably less than 10 years old.

I was a Richmond Flying Squirrels game this past weekend, and it was game two of a doubleheader which is only a 7 inning game so I …



Keeping Score

By From https://odonnellweb.com/pelican/ • Aug 12th, 2019 • Category: Blog Entries.Local

Baseball scorecard

The last time I kept score at a baseball game was…I have no idea. I was probably less than 10 years old.

I was a Richmond Flying Squirrels game this past weekend, and it was game two of a doubleheader which is only a 7 inning game so I …



Amazon is tracking us offline

By From https://odonnellweb.com/pelican/ • Aug 10th, 2019 • Category: Blog Entries.Local

It’s not paranoia if they really are watching you.

Yesterday I bought this plumbing part at Lowe’s. I did not search for it online, watch a YouTube video or in any way disclose online that I had a need related to plumbing repair. It’s a $7 part and I knew …