About
The Site
Welcome to Oddball Update, the INTARWEB home of my disjointed ramblings since August, 2003. It’s my personal blog, by any other name — a place where I write about anything that strikes the mood, is important in my life at the moment, or might be of interest to my friends, family or any other poor random souls who comprise my readership. Half the time the stuff I post here won’t mean beans to you, but I hope you’ll at least be amused by my cacophonic tirades against bad drivers, whiny old fogeys and other grist of life’s mill. I also talk about popular media, PC and console games, cars and the automotive industry, and maybe even politics and headlines from time to time.
I usually leave each of my posts open to user comments; however, you must be a registered user to add your feedback. This keeps me from having to deal with the problem of comment spam, or worse, the unsolicited morons with nothing meaningful to contribute except the typical troll flamebait.
There is actually a much richer history behind Oddball Update than this simple colophon conveys. Originally started in early 1994 as a series of Word documents, this makeshift journal was named after the myriad of oddball stuff I would write in it. Assuming I would be catalogued as insane should anyone find my writings, I could scarcely predict that in just ten short years, we’d all be spewing equally absurd garbage all over the Internet and thinking nothing of it. In other words, just how “odd” my ramblings remain is open for debate, but the nostalgia of the name alone warrants its continuation to this day.
The Tagline
Write the sequel first. What does it mean? When I was a kid, I had a number of distinct series (with their own characters and settings) for which I liked to draw my own comic books. One of them was about a paramilitary group whose function was not quite defined (hey, I was six). I had a whole series of comic books about these guys — 13 or 14 in all — but when I drew the first one, I called it the second book. There were other occasions in my early years, too, where I “wrote the sequel first,” so to speak — in stories, drawings, and all manner of media. I liked sequels. Now it seems odd to me, but hey — this is Oddball, so the two made a perfect marriage. A tagline it is.
Me
Who am I? Why, you can call me Chief Oddball — and that better be good enough. Born in metro Detroit just as 1980 was getting underway, I now live in Florida with my wife Apple, where I work as a software/web designer, marketing d00d, fly-by-night programming geek, and all-around computer tinkerer. Having recently rediscovered freedom in the form of a work-from-home job with a small, close-knit group of awesome software developers, I find my creative muse reaching heights it has not known since the 1990s. In 2005 I also founded a small web design firm with two of my good friends from high school, Pooch and Reaper. My previous job? Well, let’s just say I worked for Initech.
Being a Detroit area native, cars are a special part of my life. I am particularly in love with the American muscle car, with its focus on torque and free-breathing, high-displacement engines. Pontiac remains my favorite automaker, with the Firebird/Trans Am ranking as my all-time favorite model. That nameplate was retired in 2002, but the Pontiac excitement lives on. Here’s a brief history of my life as a licensed driver:
- 1993 Grand Prix SE B4U (first car)
- 1998 Trans Am WS6 (daily driver from 1998-2005)
- 1979 Trans Am Special Edition (Dad’s classic car)
- 1989 Firebird Formula 350 (KITT replica project — sold)
- 2006 GTO w/Sport Appearance Package (current daily driver)
Every car I have ever owned is black. I suspect I will never truly be able to resist the beauty of a freshly washed black car, reflecting the orange and pink hues of the setting sun.