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27
Aug 10

Friday is Pie Day

If you need the ultimate time wasting device for your iPhone — and if there is one thing iPhone users need, it is something on which to waste their time — I suggest Draw. Hey, it is an app that let’s you draw with your fingers. There are at least three dozen of these and they might all have the same nice Email or Twitter feature. I picked this one, though, because of that. And, also Kelly is using it.

“(A) picture is worth a thousand words, but you only get 140 characters if you type. I’m clearly coming out ahead!”

You can’t argue with logic like that. Of course, Kelly is an artist. Also, she is drawing on an iPad. I am not artistically inclined and my digital canvas is a bit smaller.

You need one other thing for this time wasting activity: someone to whom you can send your brilliant masterpieces. (It isn’t spam if they laugh out loud.) By brilliant masterpieces I mean stick figures. And by stick figures I mean drawing a poorly envisioned thing and then labeling it with an error and chicken scratch so the viewer can understand that is a car, or a dinosaur, or a comb.

For example:

sliced bread

So pick your person carefully. They need patience and laughter and they have to have the personality to download the app themselves and send you some of their own artwork.

All evening I’ve been sending pictures to Brian, And then I’ll send a picture to The Yankee. I am emailing this to her, having composed a piece of art on my phone, emailed it through my wireless network — so into the other room, through the router, down the cable line, out to the Internet Email Headquarters (conveniently located only three-quarters of a mile from my home) where it is then beamed to a cell phone tower, possibly outer space, back to another tower, and ultimately down the cable line, over the wireless network and into her phone.

She is sitting next to me on the sofa.

These are truly amazing times in which we live.

Anyway. Draw. It is wonderful. And silly, but that’s what Friday evenings are for.

Friday is also Pie Day, of course. We’re on week three of the new Pie Day experiment. We’ve tried Mike and Ed’s, which is owned by neither Mike nor Ed. They had pie, but the barbecue wasn’t of the style we prefer. We’ve tried Chuck’s, which is housed in an old and infamous Dairy Queen. They had good barbecue, but no pie.

So tonight, we visited MaMa Q’s:

Mama Q's

Someone will correct me, but I believe this is the former home of Chuck’s, or a former barbecue place of the same name. Either way, the place is nearly empty, but it had turned into a messy evening. The reviews were very promising. Today was rib day — we’ll have to set them straight on that — and you could have a Southern style dry rub or the house special, the Chamorro style.

We got one of each, just to sample them both. And both were very good. The Chamorro is probably more of an acquired taste, as it features a soy, sugar, ginger, vinegar combination of things. The dry rub isn’t the best I’ve ever had, but I’ve had the best dry rubbed ribs in the world. MaMa Q’s can can fall on the short list with no problem.

We actually met MaMa Q. Mrs. Quitugua was working the counter. Her husband, who said he was not a big fan of sweets, recommended the pie. We tried the dutch apple:

Pie

They buy their veggies fresh from the farmer’s market. So they run out of some things, but fresher is always better. And while they do not have a romantic Punt Bama Punt corner we camped out under an old Butter Bread ad, near the television. We felt good about our ribs while watching some guy pound down wings on a show called Man versus Food.

And the pie was delicious. So MaMa Q’s made the cut into the second round, I think. Meanwhile, the Pie Day adventure will continue next week.

Happy weekend!

adventures / Friday / photo / Pie Day — 2 Comments
20
Aug 10

Friday is Pie Day

Yesterday’s mystery: that’s Lhoist, a lime plant. You can see why they chose this spot.

View Larger Map

My friend Wade Kwon started a conversation on Twitter about ethics of using that particular tool to report on a suicide. This was prompted by Josh Trujillo, a Seattle reporter who found himself in just that situation this week. Trujillo, who is no cub reporter, called 911, published to Twitter about the circumstance and, as he says, began receiving plenty of questions from local residents, local media and Twitter followers about what was happening. To Trujillo, the story becomes one about the behavior of the motorists who become peripheral and direct players in the dramatic scene.

Wade asked a worthy and basic question: Should you live-tweet a possible suicide attempt? My first answer fell back to the newsroom training. We just don’t cover suicides, for obvious reasons. Trujillo finds the need for a conversation about the behavior of others in a grim situation, and that makes sense. In the news sense, Trujillo finds the need for a second deck story, but there still seems to be little utility in the actual breaking news.

It is sometimes ironic, of course, to discuss merit when it comes to an individual tweet, but what does sharing such information add to a conversation? Unless there is: A.) A counselor B.) Help C.) Local D.) On Twitter E.) Paying attention F.) All of the above at that precise moment, what is the point? Trujillo says he called 911, which is the place that has the best chance at providing all the things the circumstance demands.

Ultimately Twitter shouldn’t be the place one turns in a potential life and death situation. Good conversation, though.

So we head out to continue our Pie Day search. We tried a place called Byron’s tonight, which was well recommended online. One of the first reviews we read was written by a guy I went to college with, in fact. It is his barbecue of choice, and we figured we’d know who to blame him if it was bad.

So we pull into the place and it is virtually empty. Not sure how to interrupt that. Byron’s is in an old Dairy Queen, and they’ve preserved the order-at-the-counter model. They asked for our name, odd considering there were three people in the joint. We fix our drinks. I ask “Where should we sit?”

The Yankee says “Let’s sit in the romantic corner. The Punt Bama Punt corner.”

That’s my girl, y’all.

Our name is called. I fetch the food, bringing back the tray with Styrofoam plates. You know, it is a rarity to find a place with good barbecue that has a sit-down-for-dinner feel. Jim ‘N’ Nicks was rare in that sense. The best barbecue always comes from little places like this. The perfect barbecue comes from a roadside stand, or a backyard operation, or a converted gas station.

Now the barbecue at Byron’s is good. The baked beans are delicious. The fried potatoes are terrific. They only had a scary looking pecan pie, though. So we decided on a two-stage version of Pie Day. We visited a bakery, which did not have pie. We cruised a few more places and finally went to Publix.

We’re thinking about going out for barbecue and then turning to homemade pies.

We hit the pool, a good bookend to the morning trip to the gym. Lightning ran us off, but the water was so nice we might have to go back tomorrow. Elsewhere, just scanned and scanned until the last scanner project of the summer was concluded. That’ll give me something else to upload this fall. Did a little online shopping and, then, this:

Text book

One of my books for this semester, picked up from the library. It’s going to be a real page turner.

adventures / Alabama / Samford / Thursday / video — Comments Off
19
Aug 10

Now that’s a day

My day started at 5 a.m. for the second time this week. When did yours start? There are people who are already awake by then. I saw them on the road, biking, or at the gym, working out. These are disturbed individuals. I’d say something about waking up that early twice this week, but all of those people did too.

Of course it hit the mid-90s today, and at the early hour it was only 77 degrees with 94 percent humidity, so they are most likely just brilliant self-preservationists.

Another sporadic new feature, Today’s Mystery:

What do they make in there?

Had a class this morning, titled Researching Media Effects. It is taught by an internationally renowned scholar who is the new dean of our graduate program. He’s bringing about swift changes, the kind of things that make you wish he’d had the job a few years back.

Over the summer they’ve been renovating all of our labs, and there is a great deal of promise for future research and hopefully a little of it will help when I get to my dissertation, which is only just around the corner. This is my last class and I’ll be start preparing for comprehensive exams soon.

Time flies when you’re insanely busy, I guess.

Anyway, the class is about researching media effects and given the professor and the reading list it is already one of the best classes of the curriculum. I’m looking forward to the class, but I’d rather still be in the summer.

Visited Samford. Had lunch. We had a church media workshop underway today and I sat in a few of those sessions. I had a meeting with the boss to receive more marching orders for the semester. Had a nice long meeting with the new editor, who is a very collected young woman. I suspect that her staff will put out some quality stories and great papers before too long.

I sold a few cardboard boxes. We bought a few extras for the move and they went unused. The people that sold them will buy them back, making me think I might be in the wrong business. Glenn Beck wants you to invest in cardboard, but there is a humble income to be found in corrugated materials.

And then I headed home. The best thing about a nice afternoon drive:

The clouds. Or the cloud. That’s actually one cloud I chased for a good long while. The road turned just before I got under the thing and the curve never bent the car back underneath. But at least I caught some meaningless video.

We headed out to an owl release this evening. Turned into the parking lot with the crowd, and asked a police officer working the parking traffic what the event was.

“Band-o-Rama.”

So we left, having dodged a musical bullet.

The owl release was just up the road, because nothing motivates previously captive birds like percussion and low brass. Only the owl release had been postponed because of bad weather. But the weather was beautiful. It took three people to explain the delay and hand out fliers to the guests. “Fledglings No More” will take place in September.

At dinner I physically hit the wall. I stood up to get my drink, blinked and felt it. The 5 a.m. part of the day had officially won.

So I edited two videos, wrote this, had dinner and planned tomorrow. It’ll be another great adventure! Hope yours is even better!

adventures / links / site / video / Wednesday — Comments Off
18
Aug 10

Warming the lamp

That was the afternoon. A threat of meteorological drama which pittered and flittered into nothing. But for a while it looked as if something was about to descend from the clouds.

But that was just part of the day. There was scanning. And scanning! And also I reproduced a digital representation of some real-world items into my computer. Finally, I placed things on a glass that covers a light, pressed a button and watch the light move in a predetermined back and forth fashion.

Took The Yankee out to dinner at the local First Date Place. Haven’t been there in maybe 12 years. (I’ve had dates since then, but just not there.) Provino’s has moved since my last visit. The new place though manages to retain much of the look of the old location. The restaurant was a little cleaner and brighter than my memory — but my recollections can be dusty and dim.

It was good back then and Provino’s was good tonight, too. The garlic rolls still come out in a pool of melted garlic. The salad is cheesy and … well, it is a salad, OK? She had the chicken francese, I had something that was acceptable, but wouldn’t be my regular dish.

Before we ordered The Yankee said “Maybe it will be like Rome.” And then the waitress walks up and says “My name is Amy Leigh and — ”

Yes, exactly like Rome.

Random things: Noted the Eight Commandments of the gas pump. There were more, but they didn’t focus group well. The second one is well written. I do not follow the one about cell phones, because I am not orthodox. I had a picture re-published on The War Eagle Reader. And, tomorrow, it is back to class; so tonight it is back to ironing.

adventures / errands / hobby / memories / photo / Samford / Thursday — Comments Off
12
Aug 10

Part of a day in pictures

Pretty bird

The cardinals in our neighborhood are very shy. I’ve been patiently chasing them, and finally got a picture or two of the male. We played this circling, chase game around the trees in the backyard. After a bit I changed the rules and went under the tree. He didn’t expect that.

Pretty bird

Tried to get some work done on the car today, but the shop I visited had a slight problem with a key machine this morning. The guy said the repair man was coming at noon. I left my number and asked him to call me when the machine was fixed so that he may hoist my car onto it.

Because, if there’s one thing we’ve learned from amusement parks and forgotten to extrapolate to the rest of our lives, you’d rather not be the first person up on the freshly repaired equipment.

So I went to a giant antique store. I’m saving that story for the weekend. I walked the whole place, no phone call. After an amount of time that is surely beyond what it should take to fix one machine, the mechanics of which I know nothing about, I returned to the shop. The repair guy hadn’t yet showed up. So I called it an afternoon.

Time and temp

That was the temperature when we went out for dinner. In other news, this is August, but still. We had dinner at Cheeburger Cheeburger, which is a place that The Yankee and I have never enjoyed together. There were two in Birmingham, for a time, but we have no memory of a mutual visit. So this is a new experience. This is also new:

Cheeburger

Cheeburger has always displayed the Polaroids of the hungry people who’ve eaten their one-pound burger (I’ve never tried). Previously the pictures covered the walls like a wallpaper, which was an interesting expression of growth, much like a celluloid bacteria. Haven’t visited in a while? Oh the pictures have expanded around the corner and down the baseboard. That sort of thing.

The last time I was here they were moving up to the ceiling. The surrounded-by-people-promoting-their-new-metabolic-problem atmosphere was a terrific exhibition. You couldn’t help but staring at the faces and the little notes people left behind. I understand why they went to the stacks, for space concerns, but this new display method ruins the point. You don’t want to look through pictures in stacks like that. It would feel like too much work, or feel too intrusive. So you just see the stacks on the wall and go about your meal.

I wonder when they finally make the decision to throw away some of the old pictures. Maybe they have a little ceremony.

We drove around until we found a field on a quiet country road where we could see the night’s festivities. I always oversell the Perseids in my mind. One of the astronomers on the Samford faculty sent us a note where he mentioned that some experts were expecting up to 100 visible meteorites per hour if you got in a good spot. I’ve learned to temper my expectations — I want 100 a minute, like some sort of movie theater intro film — but still haven’t learned to forget taking pictures of the event. This is the one I got.

Perseids

The background are actually stars I shot tonight. I caught no Perseid meteorites on my camera (The Yankee got TWO!) but we saw several and had a great time, sitting in the dark and quiet and heat of the evening. My best picture of the night:

A plane

The plane! The plane!@