Mitchell Report

A personal blog for Michael Mitchell

A vibrant, colorful sci-fi landscape from the game No Man's Sky celebrating its 10th anniversary. At the top center, white text reads "NO MAN'S SKY" above a red ribbon banner with gold trim and stars that says "HAPPY 10 YEARS" in large gold letters. The scene shows a futuristic grassy plain with various alien plants and flowers in shades of yellow, orange, red, and purple. On the left and right edges, tall yellow-leaved trees frame the image. In the middle ground, a person in a red spacesuit stands on the wing of a sleek, white and orange spaceship that is grounded on the grass. Nearby, several alien deer-like creatures graze. Tall, jagged red rock formations rise on the left side, while on the right, a large blue circular structure with a diagonal bar stands against a bright blue sky with scattered clouds. A large floating blue crystal with a glowing red core hovers in the sky above the person, and a small spaceship flies nearby leaving a white trail. Multiple moons or planets are fai

Celebrating 10 years of exploration, discovery, and adventure in the vast, ever-expanding universe of No Man's Sky.

Happy Anniversary to Hello Games, No Man's Sky. It is 10 years, and hopefully another 10. A sequel would be great. Thanks, Sean Murray, for a great game that started rough but has grown into a masterpiece, and all free after initial purchase. I don't play as much as I used to. When I do jump back in, I am there just to explore. I don't really care if I never reach the center of the universe. Game companies can take lessons from you, the bad and the good. The good has outweighed all the bad.

Look at all the free DLC content over 10 years: A collage of 35 square cover images for various updates and expansions of the video game "No Man's Sky." Each cover features distinct artwork and titles, arranged in a 5 by 7 grid. The covers include:Top row: 1. "Foundation Update" with a futuristic building and a green landscape.2. "Pathfinder Update" showing futuristic vehicles on a rocky terrain.3. "Atlas Rises Update" with a spaceship and a person standing on a grassy hill under a blue sky.4. "No Man's Sky Next" featuring four characters in space suits on an alien planet with a large blue geometric shape in the sky.5. "No Man's Sky The Abyss" depicting underwater exploration with divers and aquatic creatures.6. "No Man's Sky Visions" showing two figures walking in a red, alien landscape.7. "No Man's Sky Beyond" with a close-up of a red space helmet and a small floating drone.Second row:1. "No Man's Sky Synthesis" with a spaceship flying near a red planet.2. "No Man's Sky Living Ship" showing a biomechanical spaceship w

For a more in depth review and history of this game see this post I made No Man’s Sky – Nearly 10 Years Later

#entertainment #gaming

💬 Discuss... ✉️ Email 🦣 Reply on Mastodon

Netflix Reportedly Delays The Witcher Season 5 to 2027

Read on ign.com · View original Mastodon post

I don't watch this series, though it has interested me. Still, its general theme fits what I want to talk about here.

People wonder why TV viewing and TV series are dying. Well, when you have to wait a couple of years for 8 to 10 episodes, maybe 12 if you are really lucky, that is ridiculous. From an outsider's point of view, something is clearly wrong with the TV industry.

I have said this a hundred times, and I will keep saying it: when I was growing up, TV had an actual season. You knew roughly when it would start and end, within plus or minus a week or two. There were holiday specials, and every “TV season” usually had anywhere from 18 to 30 episodes. Of course, there were exceptions, like first seasons with fewer episodes to test interest and ratings.

Now, there is no set schedule. You get 8 to 10 episodes every couple of years, and by the time a new season finally comes out, you have already lost interest. You have forgotten what happened, stopped caring, and moved on.

Then, on top of everything else, they do not even drop all the episodes at once. Come on! That is frustrating.

So I would rather wait until every episode is available, even if I have to wait a couple of years before watching something new. In the meantime, I have been watching more old TV shows. I barely get invested in new ones anymore because of these shenanigans.

#opinion #streaming #tv

💬 Discuss... ✉️ Email 🦣 Reply on Mastodon

A watercolor painting of a middle-aged man with short brown hair and glasses, wearing a blue button-up shirt, sitting at a desk with a thoughtful, content expression. In front of him is a round birthday cake decorated with blue and gold icing, topped with star-shaped candles in gold and blue. The desk also holds a blue coffee mug and some papers. Behind the man is a computer monitor displaying a landscape painting with trees and a river. The background is festive with colorful balloons in gold, purple, and blue, as well as hanging triangular pennant banners and confetti scattered around, suggesting a birthday celebration. The setting appears to be a bright, cheerful room with natural light coming through a window.

Celebrating 25 years of blogging with gratitude, reflection, and a sweet slice of success surrounded by creativity and joy.

August 6, 2001, 25 years ago. I started blogging. I had a website made by Microsoft FrontPage and hosted on GTE (now Verizon) in the homepages they offered back in those days for residential customers. In fact, your ISP provided everything for you. You had so much website space and an ISP-provided email, which you lost if you changed providers. That's foreign today.

But I started on Blogger before it was owned by Google on this date in 2001. Hard to believe it's been 25 years since I started blogging. Here is my first post ever. It's even harder to imagine I've been doing this for that long. I think blogging helps me get stuff off my chest, though very, very few people read it. I like to vent, review, or just get my thoughts down about different subjects. I like to think not only have my website and my blogging improved, but my knowledge has improved. Here's to 70 more years of blogging. I hope to be blogging and to have a website of some kind, no matter how they may change in the future. So Happy Blogiversary to me.



Related posts: 20 years

Links may be shortened via mtribe.link for cleaner formatting. All links redirect to their original destinations.

#blogging #personal

💬 Discuss... ✉️ Email 🦣 Reply on Mastodon

I saw the title of Antonio’s post the other day on bubbles.town, “I Couldn’t Live Without My Glasses”, and it intrigued me.

The first thing I do when I wake up isn’t checking my phone or making coffee. It’s putting on my glasses.

This was never me. I was the opposite. I could see my phone and other things up close, such as the alarm clock. Putting on my glasses was usually the second or third thing I did because I needed them to see at a distance.

Before cataract surgery, I was nearsighted and also had astigmatism. I could see things up close without glasses, but I needed my glasses to see clearly at a distance and for almost everything else. What Antonio wrote still struck a chord with me because I could relate to nearly every word in his post.

Read more...

Do you ever have a bunch of blog post ideas bouncing around in your head but no idea where to start, what would actually be interesting, or how to flesh them out? That's been me lately.

My vision is improving, but my eyes aren't fully healed. My right eye, the first to be operated on, just hit the one-month mark. The left is about two weeks behind. I have one more doctor visit to get a prescription for reading glasses and maybe fine-tune my distance vision. Distance seems okay, but reading and intermediate vision are tricky. The intermediate could use some fine tuning, and my short-distance vision is definitely worse and needs more correction. With this better vision, I'm trying to blog more, get more done, and make progress before the next hurdle.

Catching up feels overwhelming. I keep trying to do five things at once, so I need to slow down and focus. On top of everything else, I have a backlog of podcasts to listen to or watch and a pile of unread items in my RSS reader. I'm slowly whittling the list down.

I'm trying a new program called Wispr Flow to compose this post and see how it works. I've always wondered if composing this way, using my voice, would be easier than typing and then refining. I'll give it a shot for a little while and see if it helps me focus. If it goes well, I might use it more for quick drafts.

#blogging #personal

💬 Discuss... ✉️ Email 🦣 Reply on Mastodon

I just wanted to say I saw the news of John C. Dvorak passing yesterday. I hadn't heard much from him in years and often assumed he had retired. I was first introduced to him by watching Leo LaPorte and TechTV back in the day.

I remember being introduced to Google Voice when Mr. Dvorak and Leo talked about it on a show. I can't recall the exact show or episode, but Mr. Dvorak talked about how he and his son used it to save on phone costs. If I remember correctly, it helped with long-distance charges, though I'm not certain. I also remember reading the articles he wrote for PC Magazine.

What I didn't know until he passed was that he came from a semi-famous family, the inventor of the Dvorak Keyboard (never used one).

It's getting to the point where some of the pioneers from the internet era are starting to pass, and that's a sad reality. I knew of John C. Dvorak more than Om Malik, even though Mr. Malik and I were closer in age. These losses feel like the end of a chapter.

Praying for his family to have strength and resolve.

#personal #technology

💬 Discuss... ✉️ Email 🦣 Reply on Mastodon

A black and white illustration depicts a man and a woman standing on either side of a round table with a large brain sculpture on it. The brain is split into two halves: the left half is composed of intricate circuits, wires, and electronic components, symbolizing logic and technology; the right half is made up of pixelated squares and contains various paintbrushes and an artist's palette, representing creativity and art. The woman on the left wears a fitted black dress, pearl necklace, and high heels, with her hand thoughtfully touching her chin. The man on the right is dressed in a suit and tie, also with a hand on his chin, appearing contemplative. A black cat sits near the man's feet. The setting is a mid-century modern room with a minimalist chair, a mobile hanging from the ceiling, a sideboard with a decorative sculpture, and a single overhead light illuminating the brain sculpture.

A thoughtful couple contemplates the evolving intersection of creativity and technology, symbolized by a brain merging artistic tools with digital circuitry under a spotlight.

I was browsing topics and titles on bubbles.town when I came across a post by Panagiotis Vryonis, AI-generated blog post images are not cool any more. It reminded me of another post I read a few months ago, On AI Images and Feature Images in General by Kev Quirk. I have been meaning to respond to his piece.

Last year, I wrote a post about using featured images called To Feature Image or Not. That post surprised me by getting a couple of responses. I usually get almost no feedback, so the email replies were unexpected.

The readers who responded basically said the same thing: It is your blog. You can use featured images if you want.

Read more...

A vintage wooden radio sits centered on a wooden surface, glowing warmly from its illuminated tuning dial and buttons. Behind the radio, two spiral-bound calendars are pinned to the wall, each adorned with black-and-white and sepia-toned photographs. The left calendar features images of an early biplane, a silhouette of a man in a hat, and several rocket launches. The right calendar displays photos of an astronaut in a spacesuit, a rocket launch, the moon, an old television set, a vintage car, and a person working on a vehicle. Above the radio, concentric curved lines radiate upward, resembling radio waves or sound waves emanating from the device. The overall color palette is warm with sepia tones, giving the scene a nostalgic, retro atmosphere. The setting evokes themes of exploration, technology, and history.

Celebrating 100 years of Moody Radio, connecting generations through timeless broadcasts and iconic moments captured in history.

This is a year of anniversaries. Moody Bible Institute turns 140 and Moody Radio turns 100. I listen to Moody Radio almost daily. I think Moody Church and Moody Bible Institute are the premier Evangelical Christian sword in today's world. You can find a great timeline with historical pictures here. Happy 140 years, Moody Bible Institute, keep turning out those Christian men and women. Happy 100 years to Moody Radio. Here's to another 100 years, unless the Lord tarries.

Links may be shortened via mtribe.link for cleaner formatting. All links redirect to their original destinations.

#Christianity #history #inspiration

💬 Discuss... ✉️ Email 🦣 Reply on Mastodon

Close-up selfie of a middle-aged man with short gray hair and light skin, wearing rectangular black-framed glasses. The photo is taken from a low angle, capturing the lower half of his face prominently, including his nose, mouth, and chin, with a neutral expression. He is wearing a dark blue shirt. The background shows an indoor setting with a ceiling featuring beige panels and long, bright fluorescent lights arranged in parallel lines. Additional ceiling elements include white square tiles and air vents. The lighting is bright and evenly distributed.

Me with my glasses for the last time full time pre-surgery.

I just shared good news about my heart journey, and now I can finally share another medical milestone for 2026: my cataract surgeries are done and my vision is back.

For the last couple of years, my sight kept slipping, no matter how many times I got new prescriptions from the ophthalmologist or optometrist. A new prescription might clear things up for a few months, then the blurriness would come back. I found myself contorting my face and doing all kinds of facial tricks just to see. It was soul-sapping. Anyone who knows me knows I don't get depressed easily. At 57, I've had low moments before, but nothing like this. The vision loss pushed me into a prolonged low spell. I stopped wanting to read and lost enthusiasm for work, except as a way to pay bills. Even blogging suffered. After my most prolific year in 2025, I barely posted because I literally couldn't see well enough.

Read more...

A middle-aged man with dark hair and glasses sits at a wooden desk in a warmly lit room, looking thoughtfully at a paper he holds with both hands. The paper features a red heart with a white heartbeat line and a green upward trending graph. He wears a blue button-up shirt. On the desk in front of him is an open notebook with handwritten notes and a black pen resting on it. To his right is a tall glass of iced tea with a lime wedge on the rim. To his left, a small potted plant and a framed sign read "Grateful Stronger Moving Forward" with a small red heart at the bottom. Behind him on the wall is a framed picture of a red heart with a heartbeat line and the words "Progress Patience Purpose." A laptop on a side table displays a similar graph. Books titled "The Healing Heart" and "A Path to Wellness" are stacked near the window, through which sunlight filters, casting a warm glow. The overall atmosphere is calm and reflective.

A man reflects with quiet satisfaction as he reviews positive echo results, surrounded by reminders of gratitude, strength, and progress in a warm, sunlit room.

I wanted to share a long-overdue health update about what has happened this year and why I can finally talk about it. I recently had my second Camzyos cardiology echo and doctor’s visit of the year. I normally go every six months, and this visit gave me my best numbers yet.

On Camzyos, my obstruction is much better controlled. My echo looked fantastic, so I included a table below comparing my results before and after starting Camzyos.

When I first started Camzyos, I was not getting my refills consistently because of REMS requirements and the timing of my echoes and doctor’s visits. This created gaps in treatment. Once my refills became consistent and those delays stopped, the treatment began working much better.

Read more...

Enter your email to subscribe to updates.