This evening was the annual JMC Awards Picnic. We do this inside because sometimes it rains in April. But it is a picnic! A catered by a local barbecue joint, linens on the table, animal crackers in little bowls on the linens on the table, extra pie for everyone picnic.
The faculty give out awards for outstanding student media work, top grades, the various academic and leadership organizations, announce summer fellowships and so on and on. The students give out awards to the faculty as a big joke to wrap up the night. Everyone has a lovely time.
Here’s Dr. Jones and two award-winning students now:
There always seem to be just the faintest hint of dust and allergens in that room. You watch these people grow and develop and in four sudden years they are sitting at the front tables and cleaning up on all of these awards and getting ready for The Next Step and it stirs you. There are a lot of hugs and a great deal of laughter. And the students get a bit philosophical about the whole thing too:
I am so blessed to have spent four years in the @samfordjmc dept. I can’t imagine a more encouraging community of students and professors.
Tonight, though, there was a real sadness about us, too. Around noon came the official word that a student was found dead in his room this morning. He was only a sophomore, but it is clear he’d made a huge impact on the community. We’ve been collecting these reactions all night:
To be in such a loving place is a wonderful thing. It all says so much, and so little, of our time in this place.
I’ve just this now learned an interesting thing about WordPress. When you are in the Dashboard, after you’ve clicked Posts you get that list of entries you’ve been writing about. Some people, and I’ve seen you, have many different posts in progress at one time saved as drafts. I don’t usually write drafts, unless I’m interrupted, but it happens every so often. And it happened last night when the computer popped and the screen turned gray.
Well, OK then. I stared at it for a respectful amount of time, checked the plug, the battery, did the random search on the keyboard for the Any Key and then rebooted the thing. It all came right back. Somehow rebooting the machine, restarting the browser and restoring the tabs meant that I’d created two versions of the Sunday post. I published one, didn’t realize I had the other and it stayed on as a draft.
Write me! Write me!
I didn’t notice that until just now. I have two posts titled Catching Up. Well, click, examine, verify. Problem understood. Now it is time to run the resolution protocols, initiate. So I did all that, realized the draft could be deleted …
No! No! Not me!
And clicked Trash — if ever there was a more prescient judgment of the thing you’ve been working on, there it was. When I clicked Trash that joker disappeared.
There was no “Are you sure?”
“Really sure?”
“Cause we think it’s Trash. Mullenweg says so right there. But if you want to keep this around, you might think about Cancel.”
“No?”
“OK then.”
“Last chance.”
“Seriously.”
“Can’t you hear your words dying?”
“Fine. Let it be on your head.”
“We can’t drag this out any longer. This platform powers 16 percent of the web you know.”
None of that. Just gone.
I’ve just written 300 words on the a delete function. (It took about two minutes. It will not be trashed.)
So a lovely Monday. The sun was out, just a hint of warmth in the air. We hit 76 today, which is just two degrees off the average. I believe I’ve said it three times already this year, but spring is finally here. And if we’re proven wrong again we’re all going to write Al Gore a note.
After purchasing locally grown, artisanally-made carbon offsets printed on fair trade, Brazilian rainforest hand-woven stock. When those come in, and we’re shivering in May, we’d write the former vice president and congratulate him on his success at beating back global warming. The suggestion would be that maybe he turn down the air conditioners in his mansion, close the doors and windows and let us get on with the season.
But it has been lovely today, even for Mondays, which are never really all that bad. I had a burger for lunch, because it is Monday and I do that every other one or so. I watched this clip that landed in my Twitter feed:
It truly is all of the things Ray Hudson said, and so was Hudson’s call. If you don’t know the sport I can’t explain to you how impossible it is to do what Lionel Messi just did. What Hudson suggests is that Messi is a mutant, and that might not be far from the case. He’s short, but fast. His pace over the ball belies his size. He has amazing control of everything, himself, the ball, sometimes defenders and maybe the tides. He has the benefit of playing on a terrific team with other potent weapons and in a system that benefits him perfectly. All of these things are true. It is also true that, for the last three years or so, he’s been not far from becoming the greatest player of all time. And he’s only just entering his prime.
Not nearly as good as all that, but 60 Minutes recently produced a package on him:
Anyway, yes, a beautiful Monday. Everyone is smiling on campus. What’s not to smile about? The sun, the sky, progress!
Someone asked me last week about teaching at Samford. What are the students like? I get this question from time to time. It is a good question, because I get to talk about what they are, and what they are not. I’ve had students who take spring break trips to Jamaica, but not the tourist part, the part where they go do mission work. I have students who’ll spend a summer involved in third-world countries, doing their part against this or donating to that. They are, by and large, extremely motivated, caring people.
“I’m a Homewood PD Officer. I was in the drive thru at McDonalds last night about midnight – I work night shift -to grab a quick dinner. There was a car load of Samford students in front of me. When I got to the window to pay I was informed that the students had paid for my meal. It was a small gesture but it was a bright spot in my shift. Please share this on the page – with any luck they will see it and know it was greatly appreciated.”
In class today we discussed movies and the trade publications of journalism. A student stayed late to work on her foreign language homework. Two others were designing an advertisement sample.
I saw a former student who is shooting a video package and we talked about his summer plans covering political activism in Washington D.C. He’s interning at a church right now, too. Multiple internships are important these days.
Most are drawn to hard work, which suggests they can be successful. They all seem to come from places that make them care about the things around them, which gives me great hope that they might all be content.
If, that is, I warn them about this delete function in WordPress before it is too late.
I’ve forgotten this, but we’ll make up for it now. Normally I add these links at the end of the week, just to be synergistic, but have neglected to do so the last several weeks. So here are things I’ve posted on my campus blog:
Also there are two new images on my Tumblr blog, which has once again returned to action. The first one is here, and has a long quote, which all the Tumblr kids go crazy about. The second one is a drawing involving babies and hearts. What’s not to love?
And, of course, there is always much more on Twitter as well. Tomorrow, more Tuesday than anyone knows what to do with, also the spring picnic!
photo / weekend — Comments Off on Catching up 28 Apr 13
The Sunday post of extra pictures. Look at all these neat snapshots! Marvel at the stories they tell! Forget there’s no real content here on Sundays!
Two guys coming back in from their ride yesterday. They still had a 5K to go. Check out the guy in the front. He’s already out of his shoes:
Two more racers wrapping up their ride:
Random self-portrait at the hotel elevator:
And the message on the inside of the elevator door. Why do people throw away their children?
And now a series of bicycles I found myself admiring at the race. These first three triathlon bikes were built by Felt, which is the same maker of my humble little bike:
As much as I do love love Felts, there’s just something about the Cervelo that I’m drawn to. This P2 has a nice aero setup:
Another sharp looking P2:
Clearly they are popular bikes:
This is the P2C, one of the winningest pro bikes around. This is about a 2008 model:
The current top of the line, the Cervelo P5. It wins Ironmans, the U.S. Time Trials and the Giro d’Italia. This one has electronic shifting, which is apparently the way to go:
Here’s a 2011 Kestrel Talon carbon triathlon setup.
A surprisingly sharp Trek tri bike:
Want the best in Swiss cycling? Here’s the BMC TM01. This’ll run you about $14,000:
Finally, at the massage tent they had a signing sheet. Here are the various complaints people were listing:
Time for The Yankee’s big race. Today marked her second aquabike and the first of the season. We were up before sunrise and out at the race site hours before the sun finally appeared. It was gray and cloudy and the water was cold, but she was swimming. Better her than me.
This is the starting line. All the different color swim caps mean different race groups:
This is the first guy out of the water. He was moving very fast:
Here’s The Yankee’s heat. She’s somewhere up front:
A few minutes later came out of the lake after her 600-meter swim. It was a short run up to the transition area:
She’s off on her bike for a quick 13.8 mile ride. She’d pass these other ladies right away:
Meanwhile, here is the amateur group starting their race. This group also includes the handicapped competitors. Imagine swimming around a lake hauling a floating raft and then biking and running around the town. Those guys were awesome and their teammates were all smiles:
Remember that first guy out of the water? Here he is back from the cycling leg and getting ready to run. He isn’t even in the park yet, let alone the transition area. Look at his feet:
He’s already out of his shoes. He’ll hit the transition area and then sprint off for his 5K, which he’ll finish in about 18 minutes. It is a sprint triathlon, after all. Here’s the first woman back in from her bike leg:
Not too much later The Yankee came back in after a great ride around John Tanner Park:
And all of that earned her some bling. Here’s her silver:
After the awards we packed up, hit Chick-fil-A on our way out of town and got home in time for a nap.
Her medal is hanging over the sink which means, I think, that I’m doing the dishes for the next several days.
The Yankee is racing on that tomorrow and I was doing the scouting work. The opening rollers can get you. Your eyes will deceive you. Watch out for that pothole. When you get here shift up. You’ll ride along the top of the hills, so pedal hard.
Gear up when you hit that stop sign. Crush it here. Be careful of that intersection, it feels crazy on the bicycle. Get over your gears on that roller. When you come back in toward the park sprint the last leg. I was breaking 30 through there.
Tomorrow she’ll do her second aquabike, a swim-ride race. Last year, in her first one, she took third place. And now she has another 600-meter swim and a 14-mile ride at John Tanner State Park in Carrollton, Ga. It boasts 28 acres of lakes, the largest sand beach of any Georgia state park and the nicest state park restroom I’ve ever seen. And also really, really cold water in the swimming area.
Things are still unseasonably cool, which feels great in general. But if you have to swim in it at 8 a.m. probably is a different story.
John Tanner was a local business owner who opened and ran the park from 1954 through 1971, when he sold it to the state. Actually it is now a county park. Even better. The state was going to close the park in 2012, but it went back to the locals instead.
The ride felt slow to me, I started cold, I hadn’t eaten enough and I’d gotten right out of the car and on to the bike. But my computer disagreed. It said I had a fairly nice pace for my first time on that route. Nice for me, put still slow, we agreed.
That’s OK, because pasta for dinner! We found our way to a Carrabba’s after noting the local Mellow Mushroom was closed and avoiding the many Captain D’s that seem to populate that part of the world.
They are presently offering a menu that includes seconds. They know their audience, namely, me. Only they brought out both plates at the same time, which didn’t make me look very good I’m sure. Joke’s on them. I still had bike grease and tire dust on my face, apparently.
Badges of honor, I say.
George Jones was nothing less than the greatest country music singer that ever lived.
Not much else to say after that. This week’s YouTube Cover Theater features covers of the timeless, brilliant George Jones.
Charlie W. uploaded this video from Belgium today:
Sitting on a porch with crickets buzzing in the background, playing a pretty Gibson Hummingbird and singing about drinking. That’s a George Jones tribute if ever there was one:
Jim Arkus here says he heard the news and sat down on his porch and put this cover of The Door on video:
There are a lot of Jones covers popping up today, and so their traffic is necessarily low. This one has been up for more than a year and I do not understand how it has less than 200 views.
The Opry dedicated their show tonight to Jones, who became a member in 1956:
George Jones had number one singles in four different decades. He marked 26 albums that charted in the top 10 and 72 singles reach such lofty places.
George Jones gets the final word, of course. This was a title track in 1985 and still a fan favorite a decade later, when he performed it in this 1993 concert. It reached number three on the charts as a lament and a criticism and it is even sadder today:
OK, Merle gets the last word, because it is likely the truth:
