Geoffrey H Wood

We’re thinking about making the annual trek to Washington, DC next month. Our five year anniversary falls right about the same time as my wife’s first Law School spring break. Since a trip to Ireland (where we were married) isn’t in the cards this year, we might as well head to Washington (where we were engaged).

It’s about time that we get to Washington; from 2004-2008 we went at least once a year and several times twice. We love the city and have so many friends and family in the area that we always have a great time. 2009 proved to be too busy of a year (we had a baby, I finished grad school, my wife started law school, we moved 500 miles west, etc) to make the trip and March seems like a good time to rectify that for 2010.

This trip will be our first chance to introduce Graham to one of our favorite cities and it’s fitting that this will probably become a “Tour de Baby”. Our hope is to get a chance to meet Esaia in person. Esaia is the son of my cousin David and his wife Katrina, who was born a few weeks after Graham. We also hope to meet Alexander, the son of our friends Nick and Kate who greeted the world at almost exactly the same time. Finally, we hope to get the chance to see Bri and Dave as well as Bronk and Jess, two sets of our DC-area friends who are currently expecting.

Dinner with Dave & Katrina on one of our 2008 DC trips. Neither of us knew it but both Hope and Katrina were pregnant in this pic.

In addition to the baby tour, we’ll hit up another Smithsonian Museum (we pick a different one every trip) and, as always, we’ll make sure and book as much time as possible with our stalwart DC hosts and good friends Matt and Jane. Also, the three of us will get our first chance to visit my grandfather's grave at Arlington National Cemetery. I made a solo trip in December 2008 for his burial but I'm looking forward to making the visit as a family.

As previously mentioned, we're doing without satellite for a few months but I've decided that won't stop me from watching the TV. Netflix is a big part of my ability to accomplish this and today nearly-4-month-old Graham and I sat down to watch the 1983 classic technology film: WarGames.

It stars (a pre-Ferris Bueller) Matthew Broderick and (a pre-Breakfast Club) Ally Sheedy as crazy kids who utilize a PC (black screen with green text) and a landline phone handset to call other computers and accidentally stumble into NORAD's missile defense system and trigger events that all but lead to World War III with what was then the Soviet Union.

I'd remember seeing the movie in the early 1990s and thinking the technology looked antiquated then, but, as I write this on the netbook I purchased for a mere couple hundred dollars this year, it's almost comical now. Speaking of comical, at one point my wife walked in and literally though the movie was a comedy (rather than the "action adventure" and "espionage thriller" descriptors assigned to it by Netflix).

As an MBA candidate, I did appreciate the underlying theme of the movie which is really just a long form story playing out game theory. It even ends with the antagonist proving it's learned its lesson by saying "the only winning move is not to play."

Another great MBA lesson from WarGames was an entire scene in the beginning on organizational design theory as the Air Force debates whether it's better for America to allow the officers on the ground (in this movie played by a young John Spencer - known better for his role as Leo McGarry in The West Wing 16 years later) to have the last say in launching Nukes at the Ruskies or if everything should be automated from the Executive level.

As for the boy, he didn't pay much attention, concerning himself more with his exersaucer and his ability to get the toys on it into his mouth. His loss.

Update on Tuesday, October 20, 2009 at 10:45PM by Geoff Wood

I mentioned that John Spencer was one of the Air Force staffers on-the-ground that had to make the decision to turn the key and launch the nuclear weapons in the opening scene of WarGames. In a completely random coincidence, as I was writing that post I was listening to a podcast from HowStuffWorks.com that brought up WarGames and specifically that scene! However, they didn't mention John, instead they mentioned the other staffer in the scene, who apparently was a very young Michael Madsen.

Well, after installing Skype six or more months ago when I bought the new netbook with the built in webcam, I finally got around to trying it out, yesterday.

My Mom stayed with us last week to spend some quality Grammy-time with the baby and allow us a little more room to get further down the line in our quest of getting "settled" into Des Moines.

She brought her laptop and my brother installed Skype for her thinking that we could use it for Graham to video-chat with Grammy after she goes home. Mom left on Tuesday morning and made it all the way until Thursday afternoon before she called and wanted to try it.

I'm happy to say that not only was it a success, it was pretty darn easy to configure and launch. I'm not sure why I waited so long to get going with it but now that I did I'm sure we'll use it quite a bit. The only trick is to cover the keyboard with a rag or toy so that he doesn't drool on it(1)

I do feel a bit sorry for the kid, though. Since he doesn't talk yet I often imagine what he's thinking in certain situations and I'm sure at this moment he had to be wondering how exactly Grandma got inside the computer.

1. His drool and how to accommodate it is a popular topic in the Wood household these days.