September « 2010 « Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

September, 2010

Eagle talons are stronger than a gator’s jaw

Isn’t he cute? He’ll peck your eyeballs out.

When the day was done and the weekend begun we let our feathers down. This is a screech owl. We also saw two kinds of vultures. Did you know that they are very curious about circles? It has to do with how they find food. So if you make a circle with your thumb and forefinger they will stick their head right through it looking for meat.

We met all different kinds of hawks from the Raptor Center. We renewed our friendship with the golden eagle Tiger (War Eagle VI):

We saw her last football game flight a few years back. I have great pictures of her from there.

We also saw Spirit, the bald eagle, again:

This is the Football, Fans and Feathers program, where the raptor biologists and volunteers show off their charges. They fly them from release buildings right over guests’ heads. So, yeah, I have a few nice pictures. You can see them all in the photo gallery.

At Pie Day we sat in the romantic South’s Oldest Rivalry corner at Byron’s. That’s the painting that was hanging directly over the booth. There was also the famous Dye-Bryant hunting photograph, a shot of the scoreboard from the first Iron Bowl in Auburn. These are tidy little pieces of local lore. We were eating barbecue under them all.

We retired home for pie. We picked up an Oreo ice cream pie last week for The Yankee’s birthday. She pronounced it excellent, so we’ve been nursing it until tonight.

Journalism links: Be aware of the punctuation on your resume. I’m convinced this is never perfect. Or that it changes. I blame the screech owl. The block by block summit was a great watch today. They are promising archived video soon. Do check it out if you’re interested in community journalism. And, finally, one more good argument for location-based reporting:

(B)ecause this person is announcing to the world that they’re there, that increases the likelihood that they’re willing to talk. Instead of going to a place, or cold calling, or going up to people and interrupting them or going on a fishing expedition, you can find very specific eyewitness sources.

Working reporters can make things like Four Square and Gowalla an incredibly valuable resource. I’m still not interested in using them as a personal tool.

YouTube Cover Theater returns and this week’s tribute belongs to Coldplay because … mostly because I like this one, which validates everything I need to know about the band:

I liked this one more before I realized it was Coldplay, but this young lady does a nice job here:

She has a few more covers on YouTube, and they’re all great. I am a new Orla Gartland fan.

One more:

Give people a camera and a few spare minutes and they’ll show you their art.

And, just for fun, here’s Coldplay explaining their relationship to Billie Jean and her kid:

Tomorrow: Football! See you there. (And don’t forget to check out the raptors.

Catember — Comments Off
24
Sep 10

Catember, Day 24

“There are people who reshape the world by force or argument, but the cat just lies there, dozing, and the world quietly reshapes itself to suit his comfort and convenience.” – Allen and Ivy Dodd

Glomerata — Comments Off
23
Sep 10

Glomerata covers

As longtime readers know I’ve been collecting old yearbooks from my alma mater for a while now. It started innocently enough, I found those from my grandparents’ generation and thought “It’d be neat to see how things were back then.”

And they were neat. It was a great view back in time. And then I found a yearbook from my mother’s generation.

I thought I’d scan them for you. I took the most interesting pictures from the 50s and the 70s and from my freshman book, just as a little something to do. You can see that project here.

And that’s when the problem began, really. I started going to bookstores, and then E-bay and collecting all these books. I have a large bookcase full of them. The students of (then named) Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama started the Glomerata in 1897. The one that comes out next spring will be Volume 114. I have 78 of them.

And many of them are just handsome. They went a little crazy in the 80s, of course, and adequately explored the spectrum of browns in the 70s, but there are some beautiful works. So I’m making another section that just shows the cover of the book, because that is the best way to judge things.

Three of them are up this week, with more to come each Thursday. Start here.

Alabama / photo / Samford / site / Thursday — Comments Off
23
Sep 10

Just try to relax

We have new test labs at Alabama. Today we were demonstrating how to use the equipment. Somehow, by virtue of sitting in the wrong chair I think, I became the guinea pig. One of my classmates snapped the picture as they attached my fingers and arms to sensor pads.

We have instrumentation to measure heart rate, skin conductance and other fancy things. There’s a big screen television where participants can see images and movies and commercials or whatever and the researcher can gather data on how they impact you. It is pretty cool stuff. When the labs are completed, the associate dean (seen vaguely in the background here) believes this will be a top-of-the-line research center.

And I will have graduated.

She’s wearing gloves because it “makes you look more official.”

And I used to think a clipboard and a confident wave were all you needed for credibility. Turns out it is just non-latex gloves.

Anyway, lots of studying and research today. Lots of reading. Lots of Emailing too.

I sent out scholarship letters to the last high school journalism teachers in America who had not already received them. The boss wanted saturation, so I found some 70 state and local high school press associations and then wrote to every individual teacher I know in the state. If you can carpet bomb any better your name might be Arthur Bomber Harris.

Now I’m working on another series of Emails for the next big push.

I have updated the photo gallery this evening. There are now 143 pictures online for September. And there’s still a week to go. If you’d like to look back at previous Septembers, or other months in amusing personal history, just go here.

And, in a few minutes, I’ll be along with the newest addition to the site as well. It will be simple and beautiful and I’m very excited to finally get around to it. So you simply must indulge me.

Catember — Comments Off
23
Sep 10

Catember, Day 23

“If cats could talk, they wouldn’t.” – Nan Porter