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

September, 2010

journalism / links / Samford / Tuesday — Comments Off
14
Sep 10

John Mayer quit Twitter

That was on a quiz I gave today. Students get the occasional pop quiz on current events. I’d love to ask 10 serious news questions — and a few students, I think, would do well. My news tastes aren’t all of the news, though, so I ask a sports question and an entertainment question and so on.

And since we established that John Mayer quit we’ll just have to see if Twitter can keep moving on Bieber power.

Anyway. Met with the boss and got my class assignments for next semester.

I taught class. We discussed punctuation and edited a few sample pieces. I showed off the regrettable cover Newsweek recently published. I asked them to find the typo. They stared down every word, reassuring themselves that coddling was spelled correctly. Until, finally they found it.

Met with a student. Had a sales meeting. Turned over a big stack of phone numbers and business cards as leads. (Anyone around Lakeshore or Greensprings or Homewood looking to advertise? Never hurts to ask.)

Had a talk with the sports editor. Our paper’s style calls for student-athletes to have their position on the team, their year in school and their major. It is a challenge to get it all in, but keep the story moving. The staff is picking up the touch quickly, though.

It adds up to the better part of a day, somehow. The rest of the evening has been spent on the newspaper.

Had Milo’s for dinner. The tea was not good. This is an insignificant observation to most people who might ever stumble across this post, but those familiar with the chain are right now recoiling in horror. This is a hamburger chain that is really centered around a drink. McDonald’s doesn’t distribute their beverages in stores around the region. Milo’s does. And, tonight, at one of the restaurants, the tea was off.

Journalism links: Apparently we still need to discuss the potential non-dangerous of SEO for journalism. Having actually gone through this in the halcyon days of 2007 I’d just assumed everyone had figured this out. It is a nice piece, though, and the comments, as always, are instructive.

How are you getting your news? And how much time are you doing it? Pew knows. The graphic, and this paragraph have a big hint:

In short, instead of replacing traditional news platforms, Americans are increasingly integrating new technologies into their news consumption habits. More than a third (36%) of Americans say they got news from both digital and traditional sources yesterday, just shy of the number who relied solely on traditional sources (39%). Only 9% of Americans got news through the internet and mobile technology without also using traditional sources.

Plenty of more great details can be found in the bullets at the bottom of that page.

And now, for a random link, the $6 million man will be from SMU:

(A) $5.6-mil Neurophotonics Research Center (will) develop prosthetic limbs using fiber optics that actually feel things like pressure and temperature. Says SMU: “Lightning-fast connections between robotic limbs and the human brain may be within reach for injured soldiers and other amputees.”
[…]

(I)f all goes according to plan, SMU’s researchers will also use the DOD’s dough to fashion “brain implants for the control of tremors, neuro-modulators for chronic pain management and implants for patients with spinal cord injuries.”

Science fiction is science now.

Back in a bit with today’s black and whites.

Catember — Comments Off
14
Sep 10

Catember, Day 14

“”Cats are glorious creatures ~ who must on no accounts be underestimated … Their eyes are fathomless depths of cat-world mysteries.” – Lesley Anne Ivory

Monday — Comments Off
13
Sep 10

Go boom

I fell over sideways this morning. (I’m fine.) I was standing one moment, saw everything close in and leaned to the right for support.

And then I heard a crash, terracotta on marble. When I opened my eyes I was sitting in a heap on the bathroom floor. This incredibly detailed recreation all happened within a second or two:

Everything about the morning flashed through my mind, like a dream.

Was it a dream? Then I’m still asleep. This is an uncomfortable position in which to sleep.

I open my eyes, look around. This is the bathroom.

I blink. Open my eyes again.

Where am I?

My brain had shut down, rebooted and found the RAM and ROM lacking. It usually is.

This looks like a bathroom. Why am I in a bathroom?

Hey, she looks familiar.

The Yankee heard the crash and found her way to … wherever I was. She says I didn’t recognize her at first, but, really, I was just trying to overcome the lack of processing my brain was doing. It was like waking up with that brief uncertainty of where you are, but it was taking a lot longer than the half-second it should.

Finally I figured out I was not in a bathroom, but our bathroom. The extra one, to be exact.

The color scheme, I think, was throwing me off. Try it. The first time you wake up in the second bathroom of your house is disconcerting.

So I recognize the place. I know who my lovely bride is. We talk.

She decides I’m OK. We make a joke. “Can’t wait to tell our friends about this!”

I have two bruises forming on my left shoulder, where I apparently fell into the counter. My jaw is sore. I clipped it on the corner of the counter, too, but is OK. My other arm took a go at the counter as well.

Manual dexterity tests are fine. I can speak, smile, raise both arms. I don’t have any other symptoms, so no stroke! The Yankee is a doctor, you know. And she used to be an EMT.

Anyway, the rest of the day I’ve been laughing at myself. I’ve blacked out three times in the last 15 years. Two of them have been in a bathroom.

A bit light headed for most of the day, but that could be the school work. I’m building a lecture on punctuation.

Catember — Comments Off
13
Sep 10

Catember, Day 13

“Cats are a mysterious kind of folk. There is more passing in their minds than we are aware of.” – Sir Walter Scott

Alabama / Auburn / football / photo / Samford / weekend — Comments Off
13
Sep 10

Catching up

We have two weeks of pictures to work through here. The world simply needs to see these without further delay.

This is certainly an brightly painted building for being 170 miles or so inland. It is a bike shop. Very nice people.

This is in the comm building at the University of Alabama. Because there are comm scholars there I’m convinced that everything is a potential experiment. If there is a scrap of paper on the ground I don’t pick it up. Someone is watching. Unless they don’t want me to pick it up. So I kick it. Or stomp on it. Or pick it up and move it over six inches. Anything that might keep me from being a part of the experiment.

If you meet enough field study types you can become paranoid. It hasn’t gotten to me. Unless they want to think it has gotten to me …

Anyway. I’m waiting on the elevator and I see these two selections and think This must be another experiment.

Same brand, same filling. One is a cookie and one is a cracker. Different shapes. But 30 cents different?

(Not everything is an experiment. Though this might be one.)

Aubie is helping this cute little girl with her shoe. This is at the Florida State-Auburn soccer game. Aubie got it into the action later, as you’ll see.

The Yankee at the Auburn soccer game.

A fence. I was being artistic. You’re welcome.

Aubie takes a header.

Samford Hall on game day on the Auburn campus.

We hadn’t met this character before. I’m guessing he’s new? He says Aubie is just a mascot, and not idolatry.

Here’s the thing. It was very, very warm. But she was in the shade. Suddenly that eagle head wear doesn’t seem so silly, does it? OK, it does. But she was a very nice, enthusiastic lady. Next time I’m going to ask her how she came about this idea.

The normal membership at a Sam’s Club only gets you in after 10 a.m. Unless you have the premium membership you have to wait outside with the rest of us. It only costs you $60 more a year to avoid the masses.

I just waited the 20 extra minutes.

My view from inside the Davis Library at Samford University.

The fountain on Ben Brown Plaza at Samford University. This particular day was an organization day. All the groups set up tables to recruit curious students. This was just after they began tearing down the displays.

This joke still works. I only took the picture because I heard a girl get fooled by it.