October « 2012 « Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

October, 2012

iPhone / journalism / photo / Samford / Thursday / video — Comments Off
11
Oct 12

I mentioned three desserts below

Happy 10/11/12 day. Do you know where you were at 7:08:09? How about 1314:15?

This is Homecoming Weekend at Samford. Because of this and the fall break landing in the same week the student-journalists at The Crimson are publishing a paper tomorrow. So they’re putting it to bed tonight.

See? Here’s proof.

So I watched them put a bit of that together. I saw the lady that works at the local deli. She hadn’t been there the last two times I’d visited.

I thought you’d moved on, I said.

“No, I’ll never get away. Unless it is to start my own place, Liz’s. We’d have banana pudding and red velvet cake. That’s what the people here always make me bring to the potlucks.”

I promised I’d show up twice a week if she did that.

Watched part of the vice-presidential debate, but on mute because, as the rest of the world just learned, Vice President Biden says a lot more with his body than his mouth.

Had a very nice talk with the editor of the paper. She is a smart, driven young woman. Quiet at first, but vividly funny. She aspires to be a photographer, and is very talented. She’s worked for me for three years now, and our department is fortunate to have her.

We have a lot of students like that. Seems like we’re always saying that of someone. “We’re fortunate to have a lady like that in the program” or “We’re going to flunk him so he has to stay another year.”

She runs the paper much like an executive, setting the course and letting the staff do their work. And they’ve come along nicely in a short time. So now I’m going to challenge them to work even harder, make something even better. They are conscientious and diligent and I believe they will soon be making something they are really proud of.

Tonight she asked me what I thought they could do. Now she has a list. And probably regrets asking that question.

But we also discuss things like coning.

People have too much pocket change, apparently.

adventures / errands / iPhone / memories / photo / Wednesday — Comments Off
10
Oct 12

Our new addition

The washing machine hit the spin cycle and made a weird, muted whirring noise. You grow accustomed to the sounds of your life and then the absence of those things, or their replacement by other noises, is startling.

Turns out the sound was one of failure. Broken, but trying, but accepting. At the end of the cycle I opened the washing machine and found the clothes clean, but still dripping. The missing sound was the one that represents the spin cycle. The new sound was one of “Meh.”

So I took the cover off the washing machine. I removed the drain valves and the motor. I found the coupler, which I replaced on this machine last year, was in working order. I also found some brown fluid under the frame.

We called appliance folks. This, they said, was a transmission issue. That’ll run you $500, parts and labor. And you need a special tool. And how old is your washer? You may as well buy a new one.

Well.

I have another washing machine. When we got married we just kept both sets of washers and dryers. So we plugged up my washer, which I bought second hand in 2000 for $1. I used it until 2010 or so and it has since sat patiently waiting. So we reinstalled it. Washed a load of clothes. There is a foot missing, so the balance is off and the spin cycle is violent. There was water, just a little, not a lot, coming from somewhere. I could not detect the where. But I also noticed that this one, too, was showing off some of the same brown transmission fluid. I’d thought connecting this one might give us a few months to save up some money, but figured we were now down to days.

The streak of broken things in this house — the air conditioning (twice), the refrigerator, the dishwasher (twice), the shower, three toilet repairs, the kitchen sink faucet, a broken and repaired washing machine and now two permanently retired — continues. It’d be funny if it wasn’t so expensive. That doesn’t include the new roof the previous owner put on as she put the house on the market (hail damage) or the many, many times Charter has been out to not fix the cable or a few smaller things. We’ve just started our third year in this house.

There are spirits, we joke. I think back on our first night in the house, standing on the top of a six-foot step ladder painting a high wall and shudder.

It is amazing we haven’t seriously hurt ourselves. Oh I grabbed a hot wire fixing the A/C. And Brian tried to help us figure out the first dishwasher problem and shocked himself. He also created a great electrical arc. We discovered, under there, a wire nut that had burned through itself. We’ve asked electricians about that, who don’t know how that could have happened.

Meanwhile, the local Sears is going out of business, so we bought a new washing machine.

It doesn’t have the center post in the drum. It doesn’t have a transmission. It is actually very quiet. It has a digital timer telling you when the load will be completed. If it breaks it displays error messages. You are supposed to be able to call the tech support, hold the phone near the sensor and they can determine the problem. Yeah, I don’t believe that either. It plays a little song when the load is finished.

Page two of the manual says “For your safety, the information in this manual must be followed to minimize the risk of fire or explosion, electric shock, or to prevent property damage, injury to persons, or death.”

It has a stainless steel drum. It runs on an inverter direct drive motor, suggesting if I can turn it inside out I can indirectly drive the space-time continuum. There is also a child lock, which I presume is not meant to keep kids inside, and also SMARTRINSE, which is designed to save water, but wasted capital letters.

And in 20 or so years we’ll have recovered the money we would spend at a laundromat.

That’s mostly what we’ve been dealing with the last few days. I was on fall break on Monday and Tuesday. I decided to take those few days off from the blog as well. These are the first two days without at least something being published since April of 2005.

I’m fine with this decision.

More tomorrow.

photo / weekend — Comments Off
7
Oct 12

Catching up

Another Sunday, another post full of extra pictures. (Because you, clearly, did not get enough yesterday. What was that, like 35 photographs? Might be a personal record for one post.) Anyway.

I spend a bit of time teaching best practice strategies for new technologies. And yet, on campus, the traditional techniques are sometimes the best:

As I’ve written before, we have a giant chalkboard in the Crimson’s office. Our opinion editor, Zach Brown likes to scribble on the chalkboard. He drew this figure and the text on the right. I completed the joke:

Hitting a restaurant in the middle of the afternoon allows for quiet, empty moments like these. This is at Tenda Chick on Glenn-Dean. Still the best chicken fingers in town.

Saw this outside my orthopedist’s office. I wonder when he bought that, found it funny and true and pulled off the paper backing. I wonder how often he glances at that, reflects and says, “Yeah. Perot. I should have done it twice.”

Someone is a bit more cynical, aren’t they?

Auburn / football / photo / weekend — Comments Off
6
Oct 12

Arkansas at Auburn (who is not very good)

It was a beautiful day to be outside. And a lovely afternoon to watch two struggling teams see who could struggle the least and overcome the most. It was a beautiful day to be outside.

Arkansas’ Tyler Wilson drove his team down the field on their opening drive and set up a field goal try. The Hogs missed.

Nova flew. I have a huge panaroma of it I’ll show off later this week.

Tre Mason carried the ball six times for 32 yards. This was Auburn’s second-leading rusher.

Onterio McCalebb had seven carries for just 24 yards. He remains 11th on the all time school rushing list. He’s now fifth all time in kickoff yards and sixth all time in all purpose yards. This is a rough way to experience a senior season:

Kiehl Frazier rushed five times. In the college game sack yardage is subtracted from rushing totals. He was sacked four times, so he had -25 yards rushing on the day.

Aubie throws pigs in a blanket to kids. Razorbacks, Hogs, pigs in a blanket. Get it?

Kiehl Frazier was nine of 14 for 118 yards with one interception. It was, in some respects, perhaps his most manageable performance of the season. Still not convinced Scot Loeffler, the new offensive coordinator, is setting him up to succeed. They pulled the sophomore at halftime.

Angelo Blackson is a beast, but Tyler Wilson found Dennis Johnson. The running back caught four passes for 15 yards.

Aubie just wants to bang on his drum all day.

I just like this one because it shows how close blocked kicks can be. Zach Hooker was one of three for the day.

Trey Flowers (86) of Huntsville, Ala., had a great day. He had three-and-a-half sacks totaling 39 yards. Think he was inspired to play in his home state?

And now, a series of fan shots:

That is a bedazzled phone:

Old school hat. I bet he’s a graduate of API.

We’re all sad at halftime. Auburn is not playing well.

It is almost like the offense is handcuffed. I blame the offensive coordinator.

The fans are wondering what is going on out there?

But, hey! Look who’s on the field!

Clint Mosely, much as he did last year, was called into action to start the second half of a game where the offense was underperforming. It felt that he was a bit more in command of things, where the younger Frazier still looks a bit hesitant.

And the defense has been growing up recently. Jake Holland puts pressure on the quarterback:

But Tyler Wilson kept finding open receivers. Here’s Dennis Johnson again.

Aubie got his roll on, even as it became clear that the Tigers were going to lose:

Though it was hardly all roses for Clint Moseley he went 13 of 21 with two interceptions and was sacked four times for a loss of 41(!) yards he did produce the one score of the day, play-faking and then looking to the corner of the field:

And Moseley found Emory Blake, who made the catch, turned and dived inside the pylon. That score moved Blake into a tie for fifth all-time in receiving touchdowns. He finished the day tied for 10th all-time in receiving yards.

I don’t why this guy put this on. It was 85 degrees:

Say Tigers!

Auburn lost 24-7, falling to 1-4 on the year. So we’ll fall back on the old saying “War Eagle anyway.”

Still number one in the hearts of fans, though.

friends / music / Thursday / video — Comments Off
5
Oct 12

Bet the Beatles never made Afghanis dance

Someone, a school teacher, and the newest person at the table, asked how we all knew each other. We were having dinner on the deck as the world spun by, enjoying a nice evening out on a warm autumn night. There were people around, but we were probably the loudest and definitely the funniest.

And I realized, as I looked around this table, that I was the strongest link. I’m almost never the strong link. I win the table!

Silly, I know.

There was my friend from undergrad, who was back in town for the game this weekend. She’s a missionary in England, where she’s somehow working magic with free trade coffee growers and … it was a long and complicated story. There was Brian, who’s down to cover the football game. We worked together and have been friends for years, of course.

There was The Yankee, who as usual found herself outnumbered. Everybody at the table was from Alabama or Georgia.

(I told the story again of the time last summer when a man in overalls found out she was from Connecticut and he pulled out his .45 and showed off his AR-15.)

Across from her was the Army officer. We only met last year, but he grew up in all of the same places as I did and he majored in history. We get along. With him was his date, the teacher. And she was a pistol. We think we approve, but it turns out she’s a Georgia Bulldog, so we’re on the fence.

It was a fine time with nice people. After yogurt we spent the rest of the evening watching YouTube videos on the television.

What did people do before YouTube? This is a great way to evaluate the sense of humor of people.

Here’s the Army version of Call Me Maybe:

Think the mortar crew was zeroing in? Think they had to work hard to talk the Afghanis into dancing along?