Worked today, doing work stuff. Enjoying the beginning of summer by getting ready for the fall. I had an actual lunch! We got takeout from Chick-fil-A and ate it in a parking lot between Panera and Fresh Thyme and a funeral home. It’s a glamorous life, to be sure.
After work I got gas. Paid $3.19 a gallon, which was a dollar off the sign price, because of the Kroger fuel points plan. This loyalty program is one of the three great things about our local grocery store. And, at the beginning of the year we took advantage of what is essentially Kroger Prime. Used to be that every dollar you spent was added into a formula for a reduced price at the pump. Since you’re shopping for groceries anyway, this was an easy and obvious thing. But now your dollar amounts are worth double in the gas reduction formula. We signed up before the war in Ukraine and inflation drove up the prices, and so this has paid for itself several times over already.
After that, and I know you’re riveted, I went to the hardware store. Got some tack cloths. At the house I sanded wood until it was time for dinner. (And almost all of the sanding on this ridiculously long-stalled project is now down.) And then I ate and washed dishes and did a very small amount of house chores until it was time to write this. And here you are.
Five years ago tonight, we were with the Indigo Girls.
I think that was the seventh or ninth time I’ve seen the Indigo Girls live. I don’t go to a lot of concerts anymore — indeed, I think I’ve been to one other show, in 2019, since then, and we had two others canceled in 2020 — but Amy and Emily, I’d never turn down. They never disappoint.
OK, the sanding isn’t done. Everything is done through 400-grit. Later this week I’ll do the ends to 800-grit. Then it’ll be ready to clean and stain and install. Which is good, because there’s an ever-growing list of other things I need to make.
So, this summer work, bike and build is how I’ll get ready for the fall.
I had the opportunity to watch the School of Nursing graduation on Saturday. Their ceremonies were in our building for space reasons, and it was neat to see all of those happy, bright young people getting ready to go do some hard work.
Nursing is a calling. All of the good ones are angels, and the rest are certainly working on it.
I noticed for the first time, on the way into the building, this blooming lilac (syringa oblata).
Just in time for summer!
We went for a bike ride this weekend, and I was sucking wind hard enough on the second half that I was able to take a photo to add to the irregular Barns By Bike collection.
And I marked Mother’s Day with a nice call and these classic photographs. I think this was my first snowfall.
We might have been overdressed. If I knew the date I’d look up the weather so we can laugh at the faux fur hooded parka my mom is wearing. But, instead, I just had a nice chat with her. She’s enjoying a weekend getaway vacation, and we enjoyed a nice long chat yesterday evening.
And now it’s time for you to enjoy the weekly check-in with the cats.
Here’s Phoebe doing one of the things she does best.
That cat relaxes so hard. I’m not saying she’s lazy. She has an intensity to her naps heretofore unseen by mortal man.
Poseidon was enjoying a little time in the window this morning.
Better than licking the blinds. He loves blinds. And every day I don’t have to take some broken blinds down and waste an hour buying and installing new ones is a victory.
That’s a three-blind window, and I have replaced each of them because of that cat.
Poseidon, like a cat does, also likes to get in all the places Poseidon isn’t supposed to be. These are strictly inside cats, so the evenings when we are cooking out Poseidon wants to go outside in a most desperate way. Someone has to hold him.
Enter the cardboard boxes they enjoy.
Phoebe was all too happy to play the role of the watchful warden. She stayed on the top of the second box the whole time he was in there. For most of that time he was purring happily away, too. And we didn’t have to worry about him while grilling.
I didn’t know it any point in time over time, but I have watched four Karate Kid movies — including the unnecessary Next Karate Kid. I also watched the inappropriately named 2010 remake with Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan. (That was kung fu, if anyone is keeping track.) I had my mind blown by the 2015 explanation of how Daniel is the real bully, a violent sociopath, in the movie and, before that, the Sweep the Leg music video which is probably not canon. (The internet is a magical place where people put way too much of their free time.) I have also watched all four seasons of the Cobra Kai series. I’ve done so with two things in mind. First, that Daniel is the bully and, second that Daniel doesn’t realize his best days are behind him and Johnny thinks his best days are still ahead of him.
And now, after all of that — a runtime of 29 hours and 48 minutes, plus the four minutes it took to figure that out — finally this. The best line in the whole franchise, from Chozen Toguchi.
Yuji Okumoto has appeared in 100 projects over the years, and he also owns a restaurant in Seattle. He … is gasoline.
Graduation ceremonies are this weekend. We had one in the building today, the game design faculty do a special program for their students, and it is always one of the first ones to go off, and they do it in our building, and use the giant television to show off their hard work. It’s quite neat. Late this afternoon the Media School’s program was held in the IU Auditorium.
Tomorrow the big graduation in the football stadium. Other schools have similar multi-part ceremonies, as well. The School of Nursing will be in our building to take advantage of the extra space for their students’ proud family members. No matter their school or discipline, it is always fun to see the happy faces.
They’ve all been posing all over campus in their caps and gowns and nice suits and beautiful dresses for days. Graduation, like everything, has become a much more involved exercise over the years.
(Why the university hasn’t decided to control the flow of foot traffic around iconic and scenic photo settings for better graduation photos and a chance to maybe fund a scholarship or something out of the effort eludes me. But I’m sure they’ll get around to that one day. Everything gets more involved over time.)
And, we got a Covid booster today. CVS said “Why not?” Dude was done before he began. Best shot I’ve had in a long time — not that anyone charts these things. No emerging side effects, as yet, but I can feel the injection site. Previously, from the Pfizer shots I could feel the scratchy throat and weariness and whatever else just moving in for a day or two. No such problem with the Moderna. Conclusion: I got the placebo.
Or I’m immune to vaccines.
But before we commit to that, let’s see what tomorrow brings.
We went for a bike ride on Saturday. Lovely day for it, but a bit of a breeze, by which I mean a headwind in every direction. Also, she’s well on her way back to being fast again, just five weeks removed from leg surgery.
Which means it’ll be difficult to keep up with her in a week or two. Which means I’ll be in trouble in a month or so.
I must go faster. Somehow.
If it isn’t a fast ride, though, I just linger off the back and turn it into a scenic spin. There’s always some way to win.
We went to the softball game on Sunday afternoon. (At least it was breezy!) It was a good one to see.
Scoreless after seven, Indiana and Illinois went to extra innings in an excellent pitchers’ duel. IU had a chance to win in the 10th, but couldn’t score on a squeeze after finally advancing their first baserunner to third.
In the top of the 11th the Illini scored on two RBI singles to right, but IU was ready for their moment. Suddenly the bases were loaded and senior Brittany Ford drove one to the warning track in center.
Indiana won 3-2 in 11, avoiding the sweep at home and improving to 26-19. IU will wrap up the regular season at Nebraska next weekend.
Let’s check on the kitties, which remains our most popular weekly feature. They’re doing great, enjoying the actual sunshine we’re experiencing now, and yet still cuddling for warmth like we’re in the depths of winter. (I was even able to wear shorts this weekend, at the beginning of May.)
Phoebe likes walls … for some reason right now.
And if a wall isn’t available, there’s always a bit of furniture she can swim up to.
Isn’t she cute?
Poseidon likes the weekends because The Yankee makes a late breakfast and that gets the oven warm and he can take naps on this stovetop cover and enjoy the radiating heat.
I changed a visual element of my website today. This is the first time it has been changed in 15 years, which is an unreasonable amount of time. It’s a front-end thing, and you’ll never notice it. No one will even be aware that this particular thing has changed. But, if you look at the top of the page, or the tab you’re reading here, you might figure it out.
Tomorrow I have to start looking at viewership data at the office, so this evening I examined some of my own YouTube metrics. There’s a wealth of information in the analytics dashboard these days. You could go blind and silly trying to put all of it into some sort of coherent explanation. None of it makes sense.
All of it makes sense. How it is reflective of user habits makes very little sense. Let us, for example, consider a few videos and a key metric, the average percent viewed. The scope covers the month of April.
(And, before we dive in, I must say: If you press play on any of these videos, watch them to the end, or you might throw off the whole analysis, or at least the space-time continuum.
This video is from 2017. It is Dunnet Head, the most northerly point of the mainland of Great Britain. (The most northern Scottish isle is still some 170 miles farther on.)
Scapa Flow – a prime naval base region for the British and the final resting place of much of Germany’s WW1 high seas fleet – is out there in the distance. Today petroleum, tourism and diving are big. Here, you are asked to imagine standing watch, like the British boys of the 1930s and 1940s did.
The people that have watched that this month have watched an average of 92.1 percent of the video.
This is a video last fall from The Yankee recovering from her first popliteal artery entrapment surgery.
It’s a seemingly rare problem, involving compression of one of the arteries in the leg because of muscle development. A week before that video she limped back into the house after the procedure at the Cleveland Clinic. Every day was a bit more walking. She started rehab on that leg a week later. (Last month she had surgery on the other leg. Today she went out for her second post-op run. We had our first bike ride last weekend.)
The people that have watched that this month have watched an average of 94.9 percent of the video.
This video is from May of 2018. I’d gone on a walk and saw these geese flying toward me from some ways off. I had just enough time to fumble for my phone.
This one has an average percentage viewed rate of 96.8.
Ahh, our old friend, the Short Film of No Consequence series makes an appearance. This is from a candy store in Savannah. I shot, and edited this, in the store, in January 2016, and I hope all of those delicious treats found happy homes.
Viewers here have watched an average of 97.5 percent of the video this month.
In the summer of 2017 we visited Scotland. Ceannabeinne Beach, in Durness, is known as the beach of the burn of bereavement and death. The story goes that an elderly women fell and drowned in the burn here and her body was later washed down to the shore. There are ruins of a small fire here, but like all of the other locals, the tenants were forced out in 1842 for sheep farming. Just off the coast there’s a small island, Eilean Hoan, or the burial island. It once was prime grazing land and home to four families, until the Clearances. Now the island is a national nature reserve.
That beautiful scenery has earned a 99.1 percent video view.
Let’s goo to another beautiful part of Scotland. These are a few extra bits from an afternoon walking around Torridon.
I can brag about this one having a 99.7 percent viewed rate this month.
(You can see why on these. All of Scotland is stunning.)
This one feels like a cheat. It’s an eight-second clip. But it got a perfect 100 percent on the ol’ view-o-meter.
We’d just returned from a red-eye flight across two-thirds of the country. And I thought that would mean a nap. For most people it would mean a nap. For me, it meant going on a really hard bike ride. It was great.
Which brings us to this video, which I shot late last summer in Alabama.
It is presently enjoying 179.1 percent, meaning people are watching it almost twice.
Which means you have to watch it almost twice, to keep the numbers consistent.
The most viewed video this month? This 2017 flooding footage.
One other analytical note which, also doesn’t matter, but my site, for reasons that escape me, this month hit 4.6 million views.
Thanks for clicking the refresh button so often, everyone!
