www.geoffmitchell.com

Every once in awhile, I imagine no greater satisfaction then taking a sledge hammer to every piece of technology in my life and smashing them into small enough pieces that I can fill my pockets with their remains, and slowly, over time, empty the dust onto the exercise grounds of Shawshank Prison, where I serve my time for having gone postal over having one too many glitches send me over the edge. Today is one of those days. I let a friend borrow a hard drive, and tonight i hooked it back up, turned it on, my iMac froze up, and now my whole computer’s dead. It won’t boot. Under any condition. For no reason. And I am so furious, as I had so many other pressing tasks already to attend to, and now i have to sit and wait for a DVD to burn so I can, instead of getting the other things done, try and get that computer back up and running.

I swear, some times i feel like any minor change, even just sneezing, could cause some ridiculous chain reaction and for no logical reason, you’re down. Well, sure, there probably is a logical reason, but the time spent trying to just recover is more than enough wasted time, let alone trying to piece together the possible root cause for some freak anomaly. Like I have time for that.

I wanna live the Office Space moment right now… the one with the copier in the vacant lot and the sledge hammers. Damn, it’d feel good to be a gansta.

Grrrrrrrrrr….

This month’s header: A photo of an abandoned British barrack on an island off the southern most tip of Asia. One taken on my Singapore trip, and an integral part of the forthcoming part three of that memorable adventure.

What do you get when you combine kids, a lazy Saturday afternoon and the arrival of a robotic vacuum? Screams, running, laughter, and a clean, clean floor. I check woot.com daily for their offerings, and I’ve often thought a Roomba robotic vacuum for the house would be a great time saver and investment, so when it popped up at a great price, and after doing some due diligence in the way of research, I ordered it. It’s only been here a day, so it’s early to be touting it’s benefits and functionality, but my initial impressions have been good ones, and if this lives up to the reviews and reputations we’ll have some daily help keeping up on the dust and crumbs that come with a home and kids. Meanwhile, the kids are thrilled when it’s in motion and have named it like a pet. A pet that cleans up after itself.

Well, I get the specifications from the customers and I take them down to the software engineers. Oh, and along with my role tied to an internal project related website, I also deal with engineering related projects and updates. For example, we’ve just released Battery Update 1.2, which I’ve been the project manager of for the life of the project. It’s an update that will be visible and installed by probably every apple customer that uses a MacBook or a MacBook Pro, and I’ve had the honor of shepherding it through the process from definition to delivery. I’ve worked with some awesome engineering, marketing, QA and support team members and I’m thrilled to be able to say it’s now available for immediate download.

I already told you. I deal with the goddamn customers so the engineers don’t have to!! I have people skills!! I am good at dealing with people!!! Can’t you understand that?!? WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!!!!!!!

Well, I get the specifications from the customers and I take them down to the software engineers. Oh, and along with my role tied to an internal project related website, I also deal with engineering related projects and updates. For example, we’ve just released Battery Update 1.2, which I’ve been the project manager of for the life of the project. It’s an update that will be visible and installed by probably every apple customer that uses a MacBook or a MacBook Pro, and I’ve had the honor of shepherding it through the process from definition to delivery. I’ve worked with some awesome engineering, marketing, QA and support team members and I’m thrilled to be able to say it’s now available for immediate download.

I already told you. I deal with the goddamn customers so the engineers don’t have to!! I have people skills!! I am good at dealing with people!!! Can’t you understand that?!? WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!!!!!!!

I, like I am sure we all do, get my fair share of emails with jokes that require scrolling down to reach the punch line, home loan solicitations, viagra ads, and images of kittens doing stupid things with stupid captions that only amuse the same demographic that kept “Full House” on the air for so many years. But every once in awhile something comes across that is actually entertaining, insightful or moving. And this week a very good friend of many years sent a “Joke” email that was not only funny, but frighteningly familiar. As I was reading it, chuckling, I started to recognize my own actions. I started to wonder how the author knew. I started to search the house for hidden cameras and microphones.

I’ve lamented before about a fading ability to stay on track, remain focused, and just frickin’ accomplish one task. I use the metaphor of being the guy on an old Ed Sullivan show that’s doing the ‘spinning plates on sticks‘ bit.. and it’s unbearably frustrating to find myself running between five or more ’spinning plates’, trying just to keep them balanced, and having more plates stuck in front of me along the way…. I do the best I can to keep them all going, but sooner or later there’s ones that never gets started, and some that crash and shatter from my inability to keep on them all at the same time.

I have to admit that much of this is my own doing, as I’m usually prone to being easily distracted by the bright shine of some new gadget, new software, ideas for this website, setting up and managing my video library, or any other wide range of ‘optional’ choices that I make and undertake. So in reality, the person handing the plates to me is…. me. Life’s got it’s own case of plates to hand me in the realm of work, home, family, and all that goes with it. And then I’m going off and getting more out of my own inability to reign in my desire to be doing anything and everything all at once.

I remember once, at Confoti, when I was struggling to really communicate why it was taking so long to complete a specific task, taking a pad and paper and making a list of every single task that came my way that took me “off task” during a full day. The list was two pages long and had a detailed hierarchy of interruptions that each had their own subsequent distractions or sub-issues… it was “crazy making” to just read. And it read very much like the following list does.

When I read what JF sent me, I felt a sense of comfort and kinship to know that there’s others our there are struggling with the same condition. To quote Steven Wright, when referencing that jarring sensation of falling one occasionally feels as they’re going to sleep…. “… I feel that way all the time“.

Read this. Follow the sequence of events. Then please let me know that it’s not just me. :-)

Read the rest of this entry »

Echoing my friend’s actions, I too have removed “24″ from my list of favorite TV Shows. I’ve always had to take the show with a grain of salt, but it’s reached a point that the Morton Girl’s having to make deliveries by the case. It’s not only jumped the shark, it’s pole vaulted it. That being said, there’s been some weak seasons in it’s history and I’m not opposed to sticking it out to stay up to speed and giving it another chance next season. Season 1 remains a phenomenal one that everybody should check out. I’ll just reserve subjecting family and friend to a reference to the current season until/unless they somehow pull it out of the nose dive. And hey, isn’t that what Jack does?

Echoing my friend’s actions, I too have removed “24″ from my list of favorite TV Shows. I’ve always had to take the show with a grain of salt, but it’s reached a point that the Morton Girl’s having to make deliveries by the case. It’s not only jumped the shark, it’s pole vaulted it. That being said, there’s been some weak seasons in it’s history and I’m not opposed to sticking it out to stay up to speed and giving it another chance next season. Season 1 remains a phenomenal one that everybody should check out. I’ll just reserve subjecting family and friend to a reference to the current season until/unless they somehow pull it out of the nose dive. And hey, isn’t that what Jack does?

“All hell breaks loose when a woman reveals a secret to her fiancé in comedian-director Bob Goldthwait’s edgy romantic comedy. Encouraged by her mother and co-worker, Amy (Melinda Page Hamilton) tells her husband-to-be about a rather shocking past sexual encounter. But her confession threatens to destroy the relationship, and what unfolds is a story of integrity, family ties, bravery and forgiveness. Bryce Johnson and Colby French co-star.”

Geoff’s Comments: A surprisingly thoughtful movie, which is just what I’d read in reviews from it’s premiere last year under the title “Stay”. The shocking sexual encounter is portrayed in a fashion that makes it clear from the outset that it was a fluke mistake, immediately recognized, and the rest of the film centers around the ramifications of confession, judgement, acceptance and moving on. Also, it rides a wave of comedy and drama, with some very serious moments and very tender ones too, along with the funny stuff, which ultimately is less of what the story ends up being about.

[ rent Sleeping Dogs Lie via netflix.com]

“All hell breaks loose when a woman reveals a secret to her fiancé in comedian-director Bob Goldthwait’s edgy romantic comedy. Encouraged by her mother and co-worker, Amy (Melinda Page Hamilton) tells her husband-to-be about a rather shocking past sexual encounter. But her confession threatens to destroy the relationship, and what unfolds is a story of integrity, family ties, bravery and forgiveness. Bryce Johnson and Colby French co-star.”

Geoff’s Comments: A surprisingly thoughtful movie, which is just what I’d read in reviews from it’s premiere last year under the title “Stay”. The shocking sexual encounter is portrayed in a fashion that makes it clear from the outset that it was a fluke mistake, immediately recognized, and the rest of the film centers around the ramifications of confession, judgement, acceptance and moving on. Also, it rides a wave of comedy and drama, with some very serious moments and very tender ones too, along with the funny stuff, which ultimately is less of what the story ends up being about.

[ rent Sleeping Dogs Lie via netflix.com]

Many years ago, perhaps a decade, I read and was amazed by Carl Sagan’s “The Demon Haunted World”. It’s subtitle is apropos to it’s subject matter, as it really does shine a brilliant light of reason on many things relatively unreasonable in today’s day and age. Don’t let the name Sagan sway you, it’s not about billions and billions of stars and you won’t fall asleep listening to it. That’s right… listening to it. Because a simple search of it today turned up a link to the audiobook available for download. SO if this is of any interest at all please do download this and listen on your iPod, or burn to a set of CDs for the car. It’s a fascinating book and you’ll find it… well, enlightening.

One of the selling points of the home we bought was it’s location at the very end of a dead-end street. It feels safe. We also like that there’s a couple of families with kids on it as well. It feels homey. When we learned that the guy directly across the street is a 50 year old single man, it raised a bit of curiosity in my wife’s mind as to why. It’s not typical but it’s also not unusual that somebody in their 50’s might be single. Hell, had it not been for my meeting her, I might have become that man at 50 as well. But as a mother, and somebody’s who’s counseling education has exposed her to child abuse, her radar goes off at the slightest of indications and possible warning signs. And in this case it’s just been something she’d made a mental note of and shelved away without any further concern, but just an added consciousness.

Two weeks ago he put out his recycling bins, as did we. And his bin was filled with shredded paper. When they picked it up and dumped it, hundreds of pieces were tossed into the air and scattered by the winds across the street and onto the front section of the sidewalk by our house. I didn’t opt to make any efforts to pick them up as they’re all tiny cross-cut segments no bigger then my daughter’s pinky, so I’ve just figured they’d gradually disappear into the wind, rain and lawnmower.

Sunday, while a friend was visiting and helping with some sprinkler issues, my wife bent down, picked up one of the dozens of random pieces still lying about the grass, and the alert status was immediately escalated to the next level.

The tiny section of paper contained a short block of text ending in a 5 letter word, the first letters being “peni” and last being the cross cut top half of an “s“.

Now, I’m not about to jump to any rash conclusions. That’d be completely unreasonable and I despise assumptions. I believe strongly in the seldom used concept of innocent until proven guilty. For all we know, this guy’s shredded materials could be something he was discarding for a friend, it could be medical reports about erectile disfunction, it could be any number of possible things.

I did continue to examine some of the tiny clipped bits and pieces. The paper appears new and not aged, and recently printed. Based on my findings of words including “her“, “hard“, “warm“, and some cut of clips of words including “vibr” and “ock“…. well, it’s probability of being erotica is high. Fortunately, there were no references to anything like “child” or “bound” or “donkey” so I don’t believe it might have been anything extreme or cause for serious concern. And it’s not like he’s breaking any laws by having printed adult stories in him possession (although my friend joked about them being printed asking “doesn’t he have a laptop?”).

I am certain he’s aware of the fact that they spilled out when being picked up. I wonder if he has any concerns or worries about them being “discovered”. I’ve not seen him since, but then he’s not somebody we see frequently as it is. I don’t have any concerns about him being a threat to our kids in any way, and I don’t hold it against him that, for whatever purpose, he had some ‘dirty stories’ in his possesion. Big deal.

I do intend to diplomatically make him aware, though, that we did find some words on those documents that we don’t particular want our children exposed to. I want him to know we know. Not to embarrass or humiliate him, but because I want him to exercise caution and to be aware that the parents of the children across the street are serious about protecting their kids. Fortunately, they’re too young to read, but there’s other kids on the block that are older.

Sunday is ‘Earth Day’, but as something of a moderate eco-nut, isn’t every day ‘Earth Day’? Awww… now let’s all hold hands and sing in unison. But seriously, for those of you in the Bay Area there’s an easy option for any ‘eWaste’ disposal taking place tomorrow, Saturday April 21, in Cupertino. Load the car, drive up, they’ll take it out, and you’re done. In addition, there’s other events listed on Craigslist as well.

Apple is sponsoring a public eWaste recycling event on April 21 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the parking lot behind De Anza 3 (10500 De Anza Blvd Cupertino CA.). Tell all your friends and neighbors about the Saturday event so that they can take advantage of this free recycling opportunity.

All are invited to drop off and recycle their unwanted home computers, monitors, related computer peripherals, TVs, stereos and other small home electronics such as fax machines, printers, DVD players and cell phones (no home appliances please).

Note – Local, state and federal hazardous waste laws prohibit us from taking computer or TV monitors with cracked or broken screens and batteries of any type that are not integral to a computer system.

… and see if you can come up with works like these :-). Is this amazing or what? This type of creativity is right up there with my ice sculpturing. There’s lots more online, just google sand sculpture.

… and see if you can come up with works like these :-). Is this amazing or what? This type of creativity is right up there with my ice sculpturing. There’s lots more online, just google sand sculpture.

It’s not my desire or intention that this site be focused heavily on religion, and yet it’s been a recurring theme and topic of late, in my life, and as such, echoes in the content here. So bear with me, and I’ll eventually get back to movie reviews, reflective observations, humorous recollections and the occasional fart joke. For the moment, given that I’ve been doing some reading on religion and that some conversations with friends have been along the same topics, I wanted to quickly touch base on a prior post and the discussion of Atheism and Agnosticism. In a nutshell, as much as I strongly believe that the term ‘GOD’ means many very different things to many people, so do the terms Atheist and Agnostic. The ‘fine line’ between the two does not, as I believe it is incorrectly assumed, result in Atheism being the absolute denial of anything spiritual, or that death in the human sense means all aspects of consciousness or any other plane of existence does not exist. It’s simply about having either a doubt and uncertainty about, or a conscious conclusion about the invalidity of, theism… being the existence of gods and/or deities.

Therefore, I’m concluding that they’re really just about the same damned thing.

Literally. :-)

How I managed to stumble across this tidbit is way beyond me…, I was not even on some religious search, but somehow, click by click, I found my way from a reference to an iPod accessory to this little gem. In search of an iPod speaker, I somehow landed on an obscure reference to “Astronaut Jesus”.

Without getting into anything in the realm of religious discussions or debate, I just thought this was so damned funny! I won’t even try and begin to explain or even figure out the origin of this concept, I just love the visual concept of Christ in a space suit. More can be found here. I hope you’ll find this humorous in it’s own little obscure “Hello Kitty” way, regardless of your religious affiliation. Just enjoy a brief laugh.

It turns out the guy that shot up the campus in Virginia made some videos and sent them to the media. Several copies to several locations. Have you seen it? I’ve made every effort possible to avoid any and all exposure to it, and I think it’s shameful that it’s being aired at all.

Because that’s what the guy wanted.

And he’s getting it.

Regardless of whether or not it’s preceded with suited commentary and observations on his mental state, it’s wrong to give him any further attention.

Yes, we should definitely be aware of and mindful of ways in which, especially in today’s society, we might detect and help defuse a potentially volatile person or situation. And we should use such occurrence to remind and improve our awareness.

Consider this: that guy setup his computer or video recorder, consciously selected apparel, spewed his opinions, then sat down to do some post production work in order to create a final edit, and to feel good about what he was broadcasting to the world. Then he did just that; packaged it up, labeled it, and took it with him, where I’ve read that he mailed it off between killing two and then thirty more people.

Ultimately, at least as some significant level, this all took place so you’d watch his video.

And people do.

That’s what I’d call, regardless if his being dead or alive, rewarding bad behavior.

Consider this as well: If historically, videos and manifestos issues by people that go on killing sprees were never aired/released and just buried with them, do you think there’s be less motivation for the next guy to do these things? I do.

Ideally, I’d have loved to have had it turned over to the FBI, reviewed, researched, perhaps used in publishing a guide on detecting signs of stress and possible conflicts. Then burned and buried along with his body, unseen by anybody, and undocumented in any further way.

I have to say, too, that at some level within the media, when this arrived, there’s absolutely had to be some person or persons that felt a sense of elation of having this ‘hot item’ in their hands. This highly valued sensational piece of added drama to air at 6.30, with plenty of advanced press touting it’s airing.

To a point I’ve raised before, this video, along with many other video’s that circulated the internet and television, is the result of a society that’s allowed too many lines to be crossed for the sake of titillation. This, like video’s of the beheadings of a captive American that have also been considered ‘news worthy’, is not something that’s presented or used to help drive home the point that we’ve got some serious issues and problems to resolve. They’re sadly based on sensationalism, ratings, and water-cooler awareness. I vividly remember being the ‘odd man out’ that had not seen the Nick Berg beheading video. It’d been out for a month or two. I felt out of touch. I watched it, painfully and actually stopping and turning off the sound. Then i wanted to vomit. I felt a need to shower with brillo. I felt filthy, not only because of the gruesome subject matter but because if my own capitulation and by action, relative trivialization of a life taken so violently.

You can learn about and learn from the violent actions like these in so many productive ways. And by watching a video they made for you to watch, you give them what they want.

That’s the absolutely last thing I am willing to do.

Driving into work today, I observed, with great shock, a motorcycle exit north-bound hwy 85 and do something insanely illegal. They got in the left hand turn lane at the off ramp, which leads them back across the freeway overpass. Yet instead of waiting for the light to change and following the legal street rules, this guy turns his cycle on to the sidewalk of the overpass, going against street and pedestrian traffic, and then drives along the sidewalk across the overpass in order to get back onto the south-bound 85 onramp. Fortunately, there was a CHP officer right there at the time. Unfortunately, he was the one driving the motorcycle.

As far as I understand things, the laws of the road apply to all of us, law enforcement included. My added understanding is that they have the ability to break those laws when there’s a need to do so that involves pursuit, rescue or other aspects of their involvement in serving and protecting the public.

This guy didn’t appear to be doing anything other then taking a shortcut. One I’d be busted for, with good reason, in a second.

I could be wrong. Perhaps he saw some safety risk or accident or incident I didn’t, and he was taking these measures in order to get there as quickly as he could. That’s a possibility, yes. But based on what I observed, there was no use of sirens, no scrambled or frantic driving, no radio usage, and once he crossed the overpass, he didn’t appear to be in a hurry to get back onto the freeway.

One of my very best friends is a CHP. And even when I’ve been pulled over for one reason or another, I know, respect and appreciate that they’re there for us when we need them and they’ve, for me, been more often of help then of hindrance. So I don’t have any animosity towards the uniform or the institution. But I do have significant issue with a sense of entitlement that might accompany somebody that might feel that they can bend and break the rules that I can not simply because their role is to enforce those rules. There’s a hypocrisy in that situation. “Do what I say, not what I do“.

If I want hypocrisy I’ll look at my own parenting, thank you very much. ;-)

I thought about calling and complaining. I even visited the CHP website to see if there was a way to do so. They I remembered that, hey, there’s no way in hell any call I make is gonna go anywhere or make any difference whatsoever. I don’t have it on film, I don’t have all the details and know the conditions and reasons, and it’s not like anybody’s gonna stop what they’re doing, find that guy and say “bad, bad chippy“. It’s a futile use of my energy.

Whereas writing about it here… now that is a productive use of time. :-/

“Fans of the HBO comedy series “Da Ali G Show” will be delighted to join one of their favorite characters — the Kazakhstani reporter Borat (Sacha Baron Cohen, in a Golden Globe-winning role) — as he travels to America to report on the “greatest country in the world.” Camera in tow, the boorish journalist sets off on his cross-country road trip, but his original purpose is soon subsumed by a much greater quest — finding and marrying actress Pamela Anderson.”

Geoff’s Comments: OK, there were definitely some moments that I thought were well beyond good taste and a couple of moments that I thought were just plain cruel. That said, there were also several moments that we had to pause the movie so we could have time to stop laughing and wipe the tears from our eyes.

[ rent Borat via netflix.com]

“Fans of the HBO comedy series “Da Ali G Show” will be delighted to join one of their favorite characters — the Kazakhstani reporter Borat (Sacha Baron Cohen, in a Golden Globe-winning role) — as he travels to America to report on the “greatest country in the world.” Camera in tow, the boorish journalist sets off on his cross-country road trip, but his original purpose is soon subsumed by a much greater quest — finding and marrying actress Pamela Anderson.”

Geoff’s Comments: OK, there were definitely some moments that I thought were well beyond good taste and a couple of moments that I thought were just plain cruel. That said, there were also several moments that we had to pause the movie so we could have time to stop laughing and wipe the tears from our eyes.

[ rent Borat via netflix.com]

Jeff Harrell’s posted a link to a very funny “Internal-only” Kodak video that I wanted to point you to. Although I could just point you to the YouTube page itself I’ll direct you to Jeff’s post, as it’s got some interesting observations as well, and I like promoting others work over pawning their own efforts or findings off as my own. So turn down your mini-disc player, fire up your Newtons and listen up.

Jeff Harrell’s posted a link to a very funny “Internal-only” Kodak video that I wanted to point you to. Although I could just point you to the YouTube page itself I’ll direct you to Jeff’s post, as it’s got some interesting observations as well, and I like promoting others work over pawning their own efforts or findings off as my own. So turn down your mini-disc player, fire up your Newtons and listen up.

There’s a moderately sized dining room just inside the lobby of Building 4 on the Apple Campus, which is adjacent to the Cafe. Inside it, there’s a grand piano. When I get to work and the underground parking is filled around my building, I’ll park under the Cafe in order to get coffee on my way in, taking it with me on the short walk across campus to my office. This morning, as I ascended the stairs from the parking level, I heard somebody playing the piano. Just as I badged in, they started into a beautiful and melodic version of “The Great Gig In The Sky“. I stopped in mid-step and turned back in order to just take a moment to listen and enjoy. Playing piano is one of those things I regret never learning, and this particular song is one that has always been a favorite. Add to that my underlying sense of sadness over the shootings yesterday and the general sense of melancholy, and this brief moment was somewhat apropos and calming.

Yesterday, while I paused for a few moments to post a link to startling images that I feel puts the trivial issues of daily life into an overwhelming perspective of complete insignificance, something horrible was happening on a college campus in Virginia. Only 6 months ago, almost to the day, I wrote about the impact a shooting at a children’s school in Pennsylvania had on me, and those words and thoughts bear repeating today. I went back and re-read them and they echo how I feel, just as I did only half a year ago.

Tonight, my wife and I talked briefly about the events today. Also, a post at theshapeofdays.com, a blog I read regularly, touched on the concept of blame that tends to arise.

Personally, I have to wonder if we’re all not collectively to blame for being complacent and tolerant of the decline if not the disappearance of moral boundaries in our daily lives and the media that pervades them. It’s sickening to compare what was ‘acceptable’ a mere 25 years ago and what we see, view, say and hear daily today. I strongly believe that the continue presentation of violence as entertainment, and the extremely graphic depictions that are allowed, contribute to a desensitized populace. Just as one example: it’s become so bad that we frequently rely on TiVo’s fast forward feature in order to skip past the gruesome and disturbing images used just in trailers for many of the films being made these days.

Yes, people snap. Over lovers quarrels, being slighted, feeling like outcasts, or family abuse. People snap. They have historically and will continue to do so. But for some reason, barring my own ignorance of the metrics, it seems like the frequency of people’s reactions to the pressures they’re feeling leading to pickup up a weapon and taking lives, even random lives, seems to be greatly on the rise.

My brother was living with a woman in the late 1980’s. He, she and her roommate, Glenda, worked at ESL. Both his girlfriend and Glenda were close to our family and we all spent time together having dinners, drinks and just socializing. My brother had moved out after the relationship soured, but not long before Richard Farley walked into ESL on a morning in February and went on a shooting spree, killing seven innocent people that were in the wrong place at the wrong time, one of which was Glenda. It shocked our family, the community, and the nation. It seemed unbelievable and inconceivable, as things like that just “did not happen”.

Now it’s worked it’s way up to being something we’re seeing a couple times a year.

What’s changed? Really…. what’s changed that’s somehow contributed to this being more common place? Why do schools need metal detectors? Why does the preschool my children attend need to have, for god sake, a contingency plan in place should a shooting incident arise?

WTF? And what will change the trend?