www.geoffmitchell.com

Once in awhile I’ll break out the laptop, get onto Google Images or Google Video and sit with the kids to look at fire engines, trains, starfish, crabs, or other things they’ve been exposed to and want to see. Tonight one of the topics was airplanes. I did a simple search to find some footage of a plane landing [something they've seen first hand] and came across this gem. They lost interest quickly but I thought it was quite funny… blogworthy funny.
Airplane landing on highway 405

My good friend Brian and I had a great lunch conversation about WordPress and Ecto. Oh, and it was inside the atrium at Apple, which is one of the many perks about working at such an awesome company. I’ve been working on WordPress for blogging, Brian’s coming on board as well, and I wanted to brainstorm about tools for easy publishing and content management.
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My good friend Brian and I had a great lunch conversation about WordPress and Ecto. Oh, and it was inside the atrium at Apple, which is one of the many perks about working at such an awesome company. I’ve been working on WordPress for blogging, Brian’s coming on board as well, and I wanted to brainstorm about tools for easy publishing and content management.
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We’ve been contacted by a study being performed on twins. Something to do with genetic vs environmental development. We’ve applied to be part of the study and we each had to go through a phone interview. They asked all kinds of questions about our own childhood and adulthood… stuff relating to A.D.D. related behavior, social skills and drug/alcohol usage, habits, addictions…

When the interviewer asked me “Have you ever had any trouble stopping drinking’, i knew exactly what they meant but could not resist the straight line and immediately replied “No, I’d usually just keep going until I’d pass out”.

I’m pretty sure they knew i was joking. We’ll see if they call back or not.

We’re really enjoying watching this season of 24. We’ve liked the show from the beginning [well, that is, after watching season one on DVD over a rainy weekend, pre-kids of course] but this season is really feeling like one of the better ones. If you’ve never seen it, rent Season 1 and watch it start to finish first. To catch up from there use the episode guide. Be forewarned though… the hard part about watching it on broadcast television is the 7 day waiting period before you see what happens next. 
episode guide | Read more from Tim Goodman in the SF Chronicle

Updated 1.24.06 to include one I’d forgotten the first time around – g

I’ve had a torch passed to myself and Brian by Jess: follow suit on his doing the same and blog your 5 weird habits. Let me preface this by saying that when I saw ‘As Good As It Gets’ and the character Nicholson played, i felt like somebody finally understood me. Mi Compadre! I don’t necessarily have to open door handles with a tissue or turn the locks the same nbr of times each day, but I am compulsive about a good many things. I’m sure, when as you read this, you’ll be thinking to yourself, ‘it’s all making sense now, Geoff. Do you also organize your batteries, you whack job?’. Hold that thought until you make it through the list.
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Updated 1.24.06 to include one I’d forgotten the first time around – g

I’ve had a torch passed to myself and Brian by Jess: follow suit on his doing the same and blog your 5 weird habits. Let me preface this by saying that when I saw ‘As Good As It Gets’ and the character Nicholson played, i felt like somebody finally understood me. Mi Compadre! I don’t necessarily have to open door handles with a tissue or turn the locks the same nbr of times each day, but I am compulsive about a good many things. I’m sure, when as you read this, you’ll be thinking to yourself, ‘it’s all making sense now, Geoff. Do you also organize your batteries, you whack job?’. Hold that thought until you make it through the list.
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Since moving into the new house, our garage has closely resembled the warehouse from the final scene of ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’, and retrieving something from one of the stacks of boxes has been as harrowing an effort as that same film’s opening sequence. So after spending the majority of Saturday making a huge effort to get much of the clutter in a more organized fashion, we opted to spend Sunday out and about with the kids.
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I’m… so… cold… the tips of my fingers are unable to steadily rest on the keys as I type this, due in part to the repetitive trembling and cold chills that run up my spine every few minutes, and in part to the damp film from my blanched fingers, coated with a sweaty glaze. Waves of nausea hit routinely, spasms ripple through my stomach, and if there were anything left to retch forward, it’d be solace to the burning harshness of repeated dry heaves. I don’t know that i’d have gone “cold turkey” like this if I’d known how excruciating this experience would be. I pray for a breakthrough. I await the day I don’t wake up with the jolting sense of falling, clammy sheets awash with perspiration, and the sensation of crawling along my legs and arms. You’d think i’d stopped shooting heroin. If only it were so easy. But it’s not, it’s far worse. For 2006, I’ve given up a 5 year daily habit that consumed my finances, threatened my family life, and more then once, risked my life by my driving under the influence. After all this time and an escalating dependancy, I’m pushing pause, silencing the noise, and unplugging. Yes, I’m officially living without an iPod. And the silence is, well, actually, it’s not so bad….
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Excellent Music. Catchy. Along the lines of ‘Coldplay’. They’ve been around since 1999 and i’ve only just started listening to their catalog. It’s great stuff.
Amazon | iTunes | www.allofmp3.com

Let us turn our thoughts today To Martin Luther King, and recognize that there are ties between us, all men and women, living on the earth. Ties of hope and love, sister and brotherhood. That we are bound together
in our desire to see the world become a place in which our children can grow free and strong. We are bound together by the task that stands before us, and the road that lies ahead. We are bound, and we are bound. – James Taylor : Shed a Little Light

On the heels of today’s visit to MacWorld, here’s a couple links to stuff I saw or learned about and consider worth sharing:

ThankyouSteve.com. I saw somebody wearing the shirt and expect it’ll be interesting to watch this site for a possible groundswell of activity.
Found in MacWorld Magazine, actually: a great iTunes stats widget
Another MacWorld Magazine find… Dashboard KickStart
Google Earth for OSX
Google Suggests (beta)
DivX 6 for Mac

Apple’s release the updated iLife Suite, iLife 06. There’s a nbr of very cool enhancements that make it worth the price. I wanted to point out the iWeb application. For my own needs, there’s a few limitations that prevent me from switching to be 100% iWeb based, but the integration it provides for easily creating and publishing photo albums and movies is beautiful. You’ll find examples via my links to my Photo Album and Family[family will require a password you'll need to get from me].

Apple’s release the updated iLife Suite, iLife 06. There’s a nbr of very cool enhancements that make it worth the price. I wanted to point out the iWeb application. For my own needs, there’s a few limitations that prevent me from switching to be 100% iWeb based, but the integration it provides for easily creating and publishing photo albums and movies is beautiful. You’ll find examples via my links to my Photo Album and Family[family will require a password you'll need to get from me].

Fabulous one level custom home in Waterford, situated on a private treed parcel. Enjoy entertaining in the spacious kitchen overlooking the family room featuring a gorgeous stone and brick fireplace with high ceilings and wood beams. Outstanding master suite w/walk-in closet, sunken tub/sep. shower.

I’ve posted links to it for a few years, and it’s time once again for the annual Harbin Ice Festival. I’f more links for this year show up i’ll post them.
This year’s festival
photos from prior years

January 5th has a special meaning to me, as it marks the birthday of one of the principal influences in my life. I was relatively oblivous to it at the time , subconsciously absorbing and integrating characteristics, while most likely swearing i’d never be like him. He was a software engineer with a strong interested in databases, a fan of science fiction, a humerous man with a penchant for use, and abuse, of puns. He was also interested in the world of music, stereo equipment, and all things related to the advancement of techo-gadgets. Sound familier? He’d be 72 today had he not passed away at the age of 54. His name was Alan Mitchell. My father.
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Set in the 1930s, Peter Jackson’s remake follows a group of adventurous explorers and filmmakers to mysterious Skull Island in search of a legendary giant gorilla known as King Kong. The team battles dinosaurs and, with the help of a beautiful woman, manages to capture the mighty ape and ship him back to New York. King Kong goes on display, but his heart is stronger than his shackles.

Geoff’s Comments: Let’s start this with a baseline understanding; It takes something really big to get me to a theater these days. First, there’s the cost, now two bits shy of a sawbuck, not to mention the equally exorbitant cost of diluted corn syrup and stale pop corn soaked in Quaker State 10/30wt. Then there’s the annoyances of dealing with crowds, noises, cell phones, sticky floors, and mandatory clothing. All in all, sitting in ragged sweats with a DVD rental, remote control and consumables within reach, what would motivate me to venture out to the local cineplex? Something big, worthy of the full blown big screen experience and sound systems of a theatre experience. Kong.
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Set in the 1930s, Peter Jackson’s remake follows a group of adventurous explorers and filmmakers to mysterious Skull Island in search of a legendary giant gorilla known as King Kong. The team battles dinosaurs and, with the help of a beautiful woman, manages to capture the mighty ape and ship him back to New York. King Kong goes on display, but his heart is stronger than his shackles.

Geoff’s Comments: Let’s start this with a baseline understanding; It takes something really big to get me to a theater these days. First, there’s the cost, now two bits shy of a sawbuck, not to mention the equally exorbitant cost of diluted corn syrup and stale pop corn soaked in Quaker State 10/30wt. Then there’s the annoyances of dealing with crowds, noises, cell phones, sticky floors, and mandatory clothing. All in all, sitting in ragged sweats with a DVD rental, remote control and consumables within reach, what would motivate me to venture out to the local cineplex? Something big, worthy of the full blown big screen experience and sound systems of a theatre experience. Kong.
Read the rest of this entry »