All in It's My Life

5 Funny things I know now, but didn't know then...

Charlie O'Donnell
It's My Life, Random Stuff

If no one ever tells you about something, you're likely not going to find out about it until after you probably should know better.  It happens.  You'll get what I mean when you read this...   Please feel free to add your own!

  1. When I used to hear marathon times when I was younger, I'd always thing, "Wow...  4 hours.. that's way longer than I could ever run."  But, I knew that logic dictated that if you ran faster, it would take less time.  Time being the bottleneck there, I imagined that if you just ran the marathon really really fast... like as fast as you could, it would be a lot easier to finish, because it would take so much less time.  Why was everyone just jogging?  How come no one has ever tried this??
  2. One time my mom noticed my hands at dinner when I was like eight.  She said, "Wow, you have really slender fingers!  You should be a pianist!"   If you say pianist too quickly to an eight year old boy who had never heard the word, they think it has something to do with their little boy parts.   I was so embarrassed...   What could my mom be thinking of at the dinner table that slender fingers could be an advantage for?   "A what!?!"   Oh...  pi-an-ist.
  3. There are no male cows.   There are no female bulls.  I thought that cows and bulls were seperate animals until my senior year of high schoool.  Male and female cows.  Male and female bulls.  Makes perfect sense to a city kid.
  4. My first grade teacher, Sister Ann, told us that you couldn't digest gum and fingernails, so you shouldn't swallow either.  Wow... couldn't digest it at all?  Jeez.  I imagined that if you didn't know better, eventually, they'd have to surgically remove this big gum and fingernail ball from your stomach, and that the gum and fingernail ball was the most disgusting object I could ever conceive of.
  5. When I was like 10 or 11 and dating and liking girls started to become a topic of conversation, I was really confused about something.  In Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, people used to call making out "going with."   No, not like the 50's version of dating or seeing each other as in "they're going with each other"...  I mean, literally the act of making out was "going with".   A boy and a girl would take a walk around the block and we'd be all dying to know if they "went with each other."   The problem was that I didn't really know what exactly we were referring to.  I mean, I knew about a kiss and I had some loose conception of what sex was... but anything that fell anywhere in between... no clue.   Where the hell were all these people going?  Where they having sex?  The funniest thing was that, in the seventh grade, the first time I ever really went with someone (which turned out to just be some open mouth and a bit of tongue) I told my friend about it and he goes, "And you guys were naked!?"    Apparently I wasn't the only one that didn't know what the deal was either.

I'm Thankful For...

Charlie O'Donnell
It's My Life

In my family, Thanksgiving is pretty much about eating...    but we're Italian, so that's to be expected.  Still, it's nice to actually stop stuffing your face for a second and think about what you're thankful for.   Here's my list.   If you blog a list of what you're thankful for, tag it "thanksgivinglist" on del.icio.us...    I'd love to see what everyone else appreciates...  and when you write the list, don't forget to tell others to tag it as well.

  1. Most importantly, I'm thankful for my family...  My parents got through their new home purchase and renovation ok, my grandmothers are still going pretty strong at 88 (89 in February), and my brothers, who I know I need to call more often, are doing well, too.

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  2. I'm thankful for the opportunities that my job at Union Square Ventures afforded me, and the challenge that I know have at Oddcast.   It's been a really pivotal (and exciting) year for me professionally and next year looks to be even better!  *hopefully*
  3. I'm thankful for great friends--some really special people in my life.  My schedule is always crazy, but a handful of people have managed to hold on for the ride...   some are new and some are old, and some are old friends that have become new in a way... coming back from college or grad school to continue and strengthen friendships from the past...     To Brian, Adrianna, Suzie,  Allison, Deirdre, Pastore, Tommy, Alicia, Kristin... thanks for sticking around.

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  4. I'm thankful for my health...  no major softball, kayaking, dodgeball, football, biking, skiing, or driving injuries quite yet...    *knocks on wood*.
  5. I'm thankful for the Downtown Boathouse... not just the buildings or the activities, but for the community.  It's my second home five months out of the year and I've made some terriffic friends through it.  More importantly, it's given me a new appreciation for the conservation of nature in this city and a new perspective on New York.

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  6. I'm thankful for this city...   the only place I've ever really wanted to live and ever have.  There's no place like it anywhere else, and I couldn't ask for anything more than to always be able to put a roof over my head here and to be happy with my life here.

    7. Photo 038

  7. I'm thankful for the success of nextNY....  or rather...  I'm thankful that it's success has enabled me to meet so many fantastic people that I can relate to and who have a vested interested in developing the NYC technology community.  That's really what has been the most fun for me...    the people are great.   I can't wait to see what we do next year.
  8. And lastly...  I'm thankful for this blog.  Seriously.  Blogging has led me to two jobs, a wonderful relationship, an adjunct gig, countless connections with really interesting people, on time furniture delivery and an elementary school reunion.  It's been a great sounding board for my ideas and a lightning rod for people with similar interests.  Thanks for reading... thanks for commenting, thanks for sharing on your own blogs and linking over...    Your attention is much appreciated.

My mom the avatar... plus some neat voice tools, GotVoice and WavePad

Charlie O'Donnell
It's My Life, Venture Capital & Technology

So I started using GotVoice, which checks my cellphone voicemail and sends the files to me in an MP3 files.  I love GotVoice because I really find it a pain to dial my voicemail and navigate menus to hear my voicemails.  Actually, I pretty much hate the phone in general.  Converting voicemail to MP3 can be a dangerous tool in the hands of anyone who works for a talking avatar company.  :)

Combine that with this really powerful free audio tool I just found, WavePad, and you have my mom the avatar... live on my blog.  Wavepad is like SoundRecorder on steroids.

 

Here she is.  Click the play button on the right side of the box to hear her speak.  I'm so going to get in trouble for this.  Love you mom!

 

2006 ZogSports Fall Dodgeball Champs: Dodge This!

Charlie O'Donnell
Baseball and Other Sports, It's My Life

Last night, after 2 kickball seasons, 3 other dodgeball seasons,  3 softball seasons and a football season, on my 10th try, I finally won my first ZogSports Championship!   After going 18-6 in the regular season and finishing in second place, Dodge This! edged out Chico's Bail Bonds for it's rightful place in obscure sports history.

2006 ZogSports Winter League Champions: Dodge This!

Pictured (L to R): Allison Auman, Rebecca May, Alex Lunney, Nancy Kish (seated), James Pastore, Charlie O'Donnell (me, seated), Abby King, Evan Timbie, Erick Bond, Courtney Bongiolatti.   Not pictured: Doug Miller (injured reserve)

Subway Thumbing: Such Great Heights and Old Guy Pants... and How much I weigh

Charlie O'Donnell
It's My Life, Random Stuff

I'm listening to the Pretenders on my iPod singing the theme from the Living Daylights, which is a Bond movie I'm always torn about, because it has no sex and Timothy Dalton, but it has one of the best car scenes. I could use skiis, tire spikes, and a rocket motor on my Mustang...that would counter the rear wheel drive. You know what I just realized? Old men whose pants keep creeping up their torso as they get older aren't buying longer and longer pants...they're shrinking into the same size they've always worn. They're pulling 'em up that high so their 34" lengths aren't bunching up at the bottom. It's not so much a fashion problem as it is a posture and calcium deficiency issue. The Godfather theme is now playing. There's a really tall woman standing next to me...she must be 6'3". She's the tallest person in the car except for this one up front. If you're a guy who is really tall, it's like you got to some level in a videogame that no one else can get to. This woman is like the secret bonus level that all us normal sized guys can never get to. I was 5'11" at the end of my freshman year of high school...figured I'd get at least another two inches...nada. Didn't grow an inch after that. One more would have been nice. I was also 152 pounds. I don't remember feeling like a skinny guy, but I guess I must have been. I've always weighed myself. My grandmother has a bathroom scale that I would rush to everytime I got to her house. Kids love growing. I remember distinctly weighing 77 pounds, 85 pounds, 115... Right before I got to Union Square I was 192, but that was before I started biking to work and playing in all these leagues. By the end of that summer, I was down to 176, which I didn't like. Now I'm about 185. David Byrne playing My Fair Lady now. Canal St. Everytime I pass Canal, I think of how cool the ATTAP (Riffs) offices are. I need to move back into the city...and work right next door to my apt. I stopped to look around to find some thumbing inspiration... No one looks or is doing anything interesting at the moment. Actually, it's a really unremarkable subway crowd this morning. Lots of su doku and sleeping. Just caught the cover of the News...didn't some high school kid dress as Hitler last year. Don't we go through this every year? Didn't someone get eggshell in the eye or something more newsworthy?  Either way, whether he gets punished or not, the kid is an idiot and so are his parents.  Now, when you Google his name, forever, he'll be the Hitler kid.  Have fun getting a job, loser.  Its chilly in this car...the a/c is on. I'm excited to go to the gym...really love the NYSC on 35th and Madison.

Being ceonyc...

Charlie O'Donnell
It's My Life

New Plates

I use a lot of web services, and I sign up for even more...pretty much always with the same username...ceonyc.  It's even on my car.  For anyone who doesn't know by now, "ceo" happens to be my initials and "nyc" is where I live.  It doesn't mean I want to be the head of the city.  Anyway, this usage has had the amusing, but unintended effect of plastering the web with my screename.  The only thing I don't have related to it is the actual domain, which is taken by a New York City strip club.  Funny thing is, the Google search doesn't even put them on the front page.  They might as well give me the domain, because it doesn't really seem to be working for them.  :)   

There was also one other thing I didn't use ceonyc for, and that was my AOL screename, which has been stuck on ceo21 since 1998, when I first started using AOL.  21 is my number in baseball and softball and just about anything else that needs a number.  This week, I finally took the plunge and started asking people to IM me at ceonyc.  I had the name, but I wasn't using it because it was a pain to port over, one by one.  Unfortunately, I just got new business cards, so they'll have my old screename on them until I run out.  Eventually, though, I'll be on the web, unified under one identity....


ceonyc, ceonyc, ceonyc, ceonyc, ceonyc, ceonyc, ceonyc, ceonyc, ceonyc, ceonyc, ceonyc

There are lots of other places where I use this, too, but I don't think I really use any of them regularly...

I don't know what to title this...

Charlie O'Donnell
It's My Life

An eldarly man had a heart attack on my train this morning.  They got him to a bench on the Union Sq. N/R/W platform, but he didn't look too good.

I was sitting there writing a blog post on my phone this guy's wife just stood up and started patting him down with water.  It took people a while to awaken from subway zombie mode to figure out what was happening.

I don't know if I have coherent thoughts here, so I'll just jot down some bullets.

  • Subway cars are now locked.  That's to prevent idiots from walking between cars.  It also prevented us from reaching help right away.  If you're old... try to ride in the conductor's car.
  • Someone told me to pull the emergency brake.  This is stupid.  Had I pulled that brake, that guy's dead... b/c that leaves you stuck in the tunnel, locked in a subway car with no help.  Never ever pull that brake unless you are at a station. 
  • Neither of these people spoke any English and we were lucky to find a cop that spoke Spanish.  If you have a relative or someone you know who doesn't speak any English, or travels to a country where they don't, make sure you have a card or something on you that says, in a language people around you are sure to understand, whether you have any history of medical problems, allergies, etc.  
  • I hope that when its my time, I'm with someone who cares about me... unless I die in my sleep or something.  I hate to think about how this would have turned out had his wife not been there to hold his hand and cradle him as he slumped around. 
  • Thanks to the other bald guy who held the train doors open and made sure the train didn't leave while I ran to the conductor... and to the person who helped this couple off the train to the bench.
I think I'll blog the post that I was writing later...  Doesn't feel so important now.


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