Mitchell Report

A personal blog for Michael Mitchell

Nobody clicks your share buttons By Derek Hanson

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A watercolor-style image of a cozy workspace featuring a desktop computer and a smartphone displaying the same webpage. The webpage shows a serene landscape with a person sitting on a rock overlooking a lake surrounded by mountains under a cloudy sky. Below the image on both screens are three blocks of text in muted colors and four circular social media icons in blue, green, red, and gray. The desk holds a white keyboard, a black and gold pen, a cup of coffee on a saucer, two closed books stacked, and a spiral notebook. To the right, a potted green plant sits near a window with soft natural light filtering through. In the background, a wooden shelf with books and a hanging plant is visible. The overall color palette is soft and earthy with warm browns, greens, and blues.


I saw this blog post on bubbles.town, and the title caught my attention, so I clicked through to read it. It was also timely because just a few days earlier I had added share buttons to my own site.

I don't know if I agree with the conclusion of the post. If share buttons are done tastefully, selectively, and with privacy in mind, I think they're perfectly okay.

We're seeing a trend toward making websites personal again, a little like they were in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Social sharing buttons started becoming common as services like Twitter and Facebook (UGHHH!) grew in popularity. Email, of course, has always been around.

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Automattic confirms Mullenweg has returned as CEO after attempted ouster by board By Sarah Perez

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I have been holding off on writing about Matt Mullenweg and everything happening around WordPress because I wanted to make sure I wasn't just reacting to the latest round of drama.

I don't know Mullenweg personally, just like I don't know Elon Musk. But the more I watch his public actions and statements, the more I see a similar pattern.

That pattern is what bothers me.

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Beavers built dams that outlasted 130 engineered flood barriers, study finds

Read on thecooldown.com · View original Mastodon post

I thought this was interesting when I saw it pop up in my social media feed. In this study, beaver dams outlasted 130 engineered flood barriers. Maybe computers and human engineers should learn a thing or two from them. Nature does seem to do some things better than we do, and we can learn from it and use that knowledge to make better versions of things ourselves. After all, God did give man dominion over the animals and much of nature. Just a thought. It was an interesting read.

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Okay, let me tell you about my day.

I took today and tomorrow off because I am almost maxed out on my vacation time. That is a separate story and not really important to this one.

I went to Costco to get a new pair of glasses. Once I get them, I will finally be finished with everything related to my cataract surgery. I already have a pair of frames from Costco, so I just need new lenses.

When I got to the optical department, I had to sign in using the app. There were plenty of workers there, and it wasn't busy. But I still had to sign in on the app.

Remember the old ticket-number system? Take a number, then watch the “Now Serving” display.

Well, this is basically the electronic version of it.

I can understand something like this if you have to have an appointment or there are a lot of people waiting for service. But there were literally maybe four people there, and one of them was just looking.

Then I went to CVS. At the prescription counter, there was another electronic sign-in process just to pick up my prescription.

What's next? Do I fill it too and ring myself out?

Look, I am one of the first people to embrace technology, and I love it. But some things are simply faster and better the good old-fashioned way, especially when you are the only person standing at the prescription counter.

No wonder I prefer doing most of my shopping online and having things shipped to me. It is much simpler than navigating an app while I am already standing there talking to the person who is going to help me, just so I can tick some boxes and, presumably, provide more data.

The one positive from the experience was Melina at the Costco Optical counter. She was extremely nice and professional, probably the best person I have worked with since I started going there.

I just had to share my “getting old” moment with everyone.

#customerservice #personal #shopping

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Bloggers, can we make better titles for our posts? michaelharley.net By Michael Harley

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I came across this blog post by Michael Harley. I started following him after I came across some of his blog posts on bubbles.town (I want to call it button.town every time I type it, and I don't know why 😀).

But he does have a point, and I am guilty of making bad titles too. In fact, if it were up to me, I probably wouldn't have any titles. But I think most things in writing do deserve titles and subjects. Even emails, although I don't like filling out the subject line most of the time.

He argues:

Use descriptive titles #

Please for the love of god, give me some idea what your blog post is about. I'm interested in a wide range of topics. So even if your post is about something obscure, give me something other than Recent Thoughts... or So Far, So Good. Recent thoughts on what?! What is good so far??? Especially on Bubbles, but maybe even on other blog aggregators, the title is the main signal so pause for a beat and try to come up with a decent title for your blog post.

— By Michael Harley · Bloggers, can we make better titles for our posts? michaelharley.net

I think he's right about that. A title doesn't need to be clever or optimized for search engines. It just needs to give people some idea of what they're about to read.

But I have to disagree with his other point:

Avoid bucket posts

I think this one might be a bit unpopular but I do not like the round-up posts. You know the ones. They're titled Week Notes, Week in Review, Weekly Links and the like.

I think these kinds of updates are totally acceptable, and I learn a lot by reading them. In fact, I am long overdue for a subscription update myself.

I have also been trying to do more of his next item: writing posts in reply to other people. Especially since I am using webmentions everywhere I can and self-hosting and publishing the replies myself.

In the end, I enjoy reading Michael's posts, and he usually, like Kev Quirk, gives me ideas about how to shape my blogs and my posting, and even how to practice replying to other blog posts.

So go check out Michael Harley and bubbles.town.

#blogging #opinion #writing

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The image features the word "Inkwell" written in elegant, black cursive script on a white background. The text is smooth and flowing, with the first letter "I" having a distinctive loop at the top. To the right of the word, replacing the dot over the final "l," is a detailed black ink pen nib illustration. The nib is angled slightly upward and to the right, showing fine lines and shading that give it a hand-drawn, sketch-like appearance. The overall style of the image is clean and artistic, combining calligraphy with a classic fountain pen element.

I found another independent blogging service in the same general vein as Micro.blog, Scribbles.page, Pika.page and Pagecord.com. It is called Inkwell.social.

Inkwell is inspired by the old LiveJournal. I never used LiveJournal myself, but I certainly heard of it. After looking around Inkwell, it feels very much in the spirit of the IndieWeb to me. It is open source, supports ActivityPub, lets you use your own domain, and gives you ways to export your writing.

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⚠️ SPOILER WARNING: FULL SPOILERS

A close-up portrait of a woman with a serious expression, looking slightly to the right. Her face is illuminated with green and yellow tones, creating a dramatic and intense mood. Overlaid on her head is a spiral staircase that narrows toward the center, where a small figure of a person stands in front of a large domed building resembling the U.S. Capitol. The spiral staircase creates a visual effect of depth and introspection, symbolizing complex thoughts or a journey inward. Below the portrait, the word "SILO" is displayed in large, bold, pale green letters. The background is a gradient of dark green shades, complementing the overall mysterious and contemplative atmosphere of the image.

In “Silo” (2023), a gripping psychological thriller, a woman unravels deep secrets within a mysterious government facility, spiraling into a maze of power and truth.

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐½ (4.5/5 stars)**

Episodes: 10 | Aired: 07-02-2026

The whole season was fantastic. I was worried about the series after Season 2. Season 2 was necessary, but it was a little slow. Again, Season 3 was fantastic.

There are full spoilers below, so if you don't want to know more, please stop reading.

You were forewarned.

I don't understand why they keep killing people who leave the Silo, unless there is a purpose we don't know about yet. That will likely be revealed later on.

I can tell Julia and Troy are related, and Troy will realize it. That will change the whole dynamic.I am glad Troy's wife, Helen, is dead, as she would not approve. Julia is always questioning, just like Helen. Troy didn't recognize his sister and I want to know where the founder has gone. Also, you would think Colin Hanks (the actor that plays the money and founder) would be the Director, not the Senator.

Anyway, it was a great season. Apple TV has a hit with this series.

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#review #streaming #tv

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A model of the USS Enterprise, an open Bible and a Star Trek-themed glass of iced tea sit on a wooden desk beside a window. A monitor displays a colorful Star Trek 60th Anniversary interface.

Celebrating 60 years of Star Trek with a nostalgic view of the USS Enterprise model, an open book, and a themed drink, blending classic sci-fi adventure with modern fandom.

Star Trek aired three years before I was born, yet it has had a significant influence on my life. The only thing more profound and more influential has been my faith and salvation in Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior.

To me, Star Trek has long served as an earthly role model. It is more than a story or a television show. It is an aspiration for how a fallen world might come together and work for the common good. The ethos of Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets represents an ideal that a world or species might pursue on its own, if there were no grand Savior.

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⚠️ SPOILER WARNING: FULL SPOILERS

A promotional image featuring two characters from the Star Wars series "The Mandalorian." In the foreground is the Mandalorian, a figure clad in shiny, reflective silver armor with a helmet covering his entire face, showing no facial features. His armor includes a shoulder plate with a distinctive emblem resembling a bird or creature. He is looking slightly to the right. On his back is Grogu, a small green alien with large ears, big black eyes, and three fingers on each hand. Grogu is wearing a brown robe with a high collar and is reaching out with his left hand. The background is a mix of red and green neon lights with blurred shapes, creating a futuristic, vibrant atmosphere. The text "THE STAR WARS MANDALORIAN AND GROGU" is prominently displayed in bold, stylized letters across the lower center of the image.

In a galaxy far, far away, The Mandalorian and Grogu embark on a thrilling new adventure filled with danger, loyalty, and the enduring bond of the Force.

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐½ (4.5/5 stars)**

Overall, I liked it a lot. I think Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau do the Star Wars Universe justice. My favorite moments were probably the little guys and Grogu. I love their good baby, bad baby thing.

I also liked seeing Sigourney Weaver in it. My only negative is that it felt a little too long. I think some things would have had more room to develop if this had been a TV series. It could have fit nicely into an eight-episode run.

Pedro Pascal, as usual, did a good job. I thought they might end it here, but the way they left it means it could go either way.

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#movies #review

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A dynamic, colorful digital illustration features a black remote control with numerous buttons, angled diagonally from the bottom left toward the top right. From the remotes top end, vibrant, tangled wires and geometric shapes in shades of purple, blue, and yellow burst outward, transforming into a large, three-dimensional golden dollar sign ($) that appears to be exploding or emerging with energy. The background is a mix of dark blues and blacks with abstract vertical bars and jagged lines in bright colors like pink, orange, and yellow, resembling financial charts or stock market graphs. The overall style is bold and graphic, with a sense of motion and energy connecting technology and financial growth.

TiVo Plans to End Free Automatic Commercial Skipping in November, Tests Paid Premium Replacement Service By Luke Bouma · via Cord Cutters News

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TiVo, there is a name I haven't heard or thought about in a while. I used to love the hardware and platform. I thought I was the coolest tech-savvy person, and that TiVo was the way to watch TV. The tech was just so cool.

At one point, I had three of them. Most were the OTA version, though I had the cable version once with a CableCARD. That was an adventure to get working.

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