August, 2017

football / IU / photo / television / Thursday — Comments Off on That thing that everybody’s working for
31
Aug 17

That thing that everybody’s working for

There’s just something about today that makes it feel like Friday. Maybe it is that there is a three-day weekend ahead. Maybe because there is football tonight. There’s just something in the air to make it feel like today is the getaway day.

Maybe it is the little informal ceremony we had today. The Media School did a very low key thank you for Ed Spray. He’s an IU alum that has just had our television control room named in his honor. The studio is named after his classmate, Ken Beckley, who became quite successful on camera. Spray became a star off screen, and in media administration – Emmys in Chicago, management in Los Angeles, co-creator of HGTV and president of the Scripps Networks. Lovely gentleman, as unassuming as could be.

That’s the dean and Spray, on the left, in the control room. We decided that while there is a strict no food or drinks policy in the room, his name is on the door, so what can we do about it if he brings in a water bottle?

And then, this evening, I turned on the big screen, which usually shows off six different channels, to just the one for the big game. Thursday night football in 25-foot by 12-foot glory:

So, yeah, it seems like the weekend is already here.

But, then, there is always tomorrow.

photo / podcast / Twitter / video / Wednesday — Comments Off on Today’s notes
30
Aug 17

Today’s notes

I don’t mean to pile on to anyone’s circumstance. If you aren’t there and you don’t know, then it is about the farthest thing from walking a mile in someone else’s shoes as possible. So I don’t want to speculate, because there was, perhaps, a legitimate concern or distraction of some sort at play here. And not knowing the story, I’d just be making one up and doing a disservice, perhaps even an injustice, to another person. I want to be mindful of that.

Besides, I’m hard pressed to imagine the sequence of events that would lead to me forgetting my belt in a public restroom:

Preying Mantis

But I hope it makes it back to its rightful owner eventually.

Last Thursday, before we produced our first live television broadcast of the school year, I gave four guys a crash course in podcast production. And then, on Friday morning I gave them a glimpse into audio editing. And now they have a show. Here is their first episode:

Not bad for a bunch of print students, I think. It’s all there, if they but seize the initiative. It is so cool when they seize the initiative.

Meanwhile, in Houston:

That is a friendly neighborhood Spiderman, indeed.

books / photo / site / Tuesday — Comments Off on What do you think he’s thinking?
29
Aug 17

What do you think he’s thinking?

Saw this guy on the way back from lunch today. It was cloudy when we set out, started raining before we got back inside and then waited it out before going back to the office. So the timing was just right and the preying mantis was probably wondering where all that water came from and why it suddenly stopped when we happened by.

Preying Mantis

And what’s the story with these creatures holding these rectangular things so close to my face? Don’t they know I could eat them?

Isn’t it interesting, that when you anthropomorphize a creature you give it some rational thought processes, create the cute barrier between them and us by a valley of not understanding some aspect of our lives like cameras, but then give them the power of understanding human constructs, like shapes?

It’s like a two block walk back to our building. I have time to think a few things through, is what I’m saying.

Hey, here’s a book, let’s look in it!

Reader's Digest

I have a stack of my grandfather’s books. Text books, technical manuals, encyclopedias and old magazines. A little at a time I am adding some of the cooler things to the site. You can see the first few things I found in this 1960 Reader’s Digest here. You can see the entire collection right here.

cycling / Monday / photo — Comments Off on And now, I will vent
28
Aug 17

And now, I will vent

I’ve had views like this …

… for about seven years now. It is a nice view. You understand the topography differently. You learn to be patient with yourself. You see the world at a different pace than you do from behind the windshield. And you see some things, too. Turkeys and deer and people doing odd things and strange sites you just might overlook when you’re moving at car speeds. Why, just last Friday three separate people — all supposedly adult human beings — walked right in front of my bike’s path over the course of a five mile stretch of my life. (I’ll bet you a dollar that happens at least once again tomorrow, because why look both ways when crossing the street. EDIT: It did.) And then Friday ended with a big truck whose driver couldn’t hardly be troubled to demonstrate an appreciation for the dynamics of a four-way stop while I was in the middle of the intersection. He got a well practiced European reaction I learned from watching pros racing.

Granted, the four-way stop thing is problematical because the local K-Mart closed last year and, consequently, no one has any idea where they are supposed to get their driver’s license anymore. Plus, people aren’t always their best driving selves anyway. And I’ll grant you what is likely just a limitation of habit and the human brain and the internal filtering system: sometimes drivers just don’t see a cyclist because that 15-pound frame with a human on it isn’t a two-ton truck, which is what they are actually looking for. On a bike, then, you accept this, and you have to always be on guard for it, and aware of a lot of other road rage, silliness and stupidity, too.

Which brings us to yesterday. I was out and about, enjoying a nice slow day on the bike because some days have to be slow days and the weather was nice and you soak those in. I’m on a road that ends in a T-intersection. I take this route every day when I’m traveling to the house from the office no matter if I’m driving or riding. You go down a little roller and then up the other side and there’s the stop sign.

Yesterday, while I was on my bike, I reach that spot with three cars in front of me. One car goes and there are two cars in front of me. The second car goes and so it is just me and a Fiat. And this guy turns on his left blinker, so I go to the right, which is the direction I’m going to turn anyway. And then this guy turns right …

Almost flattened me. And for all of that I caught up to him at a red light a block later. If you know that guy, give him the what for for me.

Friday / video — Comments Off on Excelsior!
25
Aug 17

Excelsior!

Sometimes you start a sentence and you don’t know where it is going to go. Sometimes you just leap off into the thing and you trust that the words will be there when your lips are ready to form the next set of letters. That happens to everyone, right? Can’t just be me.

Anyway, today I tried a new version of that. I just launched into a series of wholly original analogies and hoped they made sense at the end. The best one was explaining how a series of meetings — I had a note card full of people to sit and talk with today, which was delightful, really — managed to pile up. Once one goes long, that tends to impact the next one and so on.

So I said something like “You know how when the weather is bad over the airport and that can stack planes up over four states waiting to land? This New York-bound plane is waiting patiently over Ohio.”

Because my meetings kept running over, basically. But that’s OK. It’s a beautiful day, and more importantly it is Friday. Riding my bike from work into the weekend, I passed one of the local barns and thought There should be a slow motion video of this.

And now there is.

To the weekend!

← Older Entries