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iPhone

In like a lion

Things are fine here, weatherwise, but everyone else had it rough. That is one impressive map.

Samford, and a lot schools across the state, closed early. That means more time on the bike for me. I felt defeated by headwinds, probably the latent energy that couldn’t make it up into the storms. There were 10 miles out on familiar roads, one of our base routes, and then 10 brand new miles, mostly uphill. On the first half of the return, downhill through those 10 new miles, I was actually moving slower than the ride out. Headwinds are tough like that. Especially when there aren’t any tailwinds.

So I perfected the art of steering at an angle to aim through crosswinds and tried in vain, like every other cyclist, to make myself as small as possible to keep my cross section low. I hit breezes that would drop me four miles per hour instantly. And this wasn’t really even a windy day.

And since we have the informal Where Were You When You Heard Party in the U.S.A. rule around here:

Hey, it is a catchy tune and I needed something to round out the 11 hours on my iPod. Every five or six rides it rolls back around and I stop and take this picture. I have no idea why, really, but it always seems to come along at a time when I need the break.

A blooming tree nearby:

The church at today’s turnaround point:

That place will show up again on the site next week as part of the new Lee County Historic Markers section of the site.

Caught most of the baseball game — they’d moved up the first pitch to avoid the evening’s rain — Purdue and Auburn see-sawed back and forth, but the Boilermakers held on 9-8 after fighting off a late rally. Auburn stranded eight in the game, which seems a fairly low number for the team so far this year.

Hit the grocery store, bought things, boiled pasta and grilled chicken. I’d intended to make some to leave for tomorrow but, what do you know, it all looked appetizing, it all had to be eaten. Hey, I’d burned several thousand calories today. Headwinds.

iPhone / journalism / links / photo / Samford / site / things to read / Thursday — Comments Off
1
Mar 12

In like a lamb

Earlier this week campus looked like this:

Today on Talbird Circle, just off the quad, this was hanging over passing students:

I love the spring, the variable of the local weather. It looks like England one day and the Caribbean the next. We can have 40 degree swings. Pollen makes every car look like a school bus. It seems too warm for March, but then, hey, it is March. And spring is just 14 minutes away.

A couple of meetings today. Some reading and critiquing the paper. There was even a little grading. I made good time getting off campus, covering some of the distance in the lingering daylight. As I closed the garage door at home the rain came. It was a day of good timing like that. One person left as another person came along. Everyone I needed to run into I ran into while I was looking for them.

That and spring! What else does one need?

Things to read: Nine visual elements

Carnival of journalism

Stuff from elsewhere:

Branded apps have officially jumped the shark. No, they haven’t.

Ad of the day: The Guardian. Not sure if I like this foreshadowing or not.

The newsonomics of crossover:

The signs are everywhere — the signs of crossover. We’re not there yet, but publishers are starting to sense that the time when their business models become more about digital and less about print gets closer every day.

Since the web’s dawn, publishers have lived in a mainly print/somewhat digital world. We’re on the brink of a heavily digital/somewhat print world. The difference means hundreds of billions of dollars, euros, pounds, and yen to content creators and distributors. Get it right, and you win the prize: America’s Next Top (Business) Model.

This is a story from last year, but it is making its way back around today. It is a cute read. Maybe the best part is that a reporter pretended to try to interview a pigeon.

Finally: There’s a new section of the site for Thursdays:

I’m going to pedal around the county and collect pictures of all of the historic markers. That should be a few days of riding and weeks worth of pictures. There’s even an interactive map in the banner!

Auburn / baseball / Friday / iPhone / photo / Samford / video — 1 Comment
24
Feb 12

Two videos to start your weekend

I put about 39 markers on a custom map tonight. You have the name and then you must consult by LAT/LONG, postal address or by eyeballing a cross-referenced map, to place the marker. You enter the name. You get the next name, spend several moments researching the precise location — the idea being that if you went to the marker you would be at least within a pitching wedge of the actual location — and do it all over again. Do these three dozen more times. And then, somehow, ruin the entire effort. This is what I have to say to that:

Sometimes she sticks her tongue out and forgets, for a bit, to put it back in. We rush to grab a camera or a phone. She is reasonably tolerable of the camera, but you have to trick her a bit and be ready before you point.

The phone must come out of the pocket. The screen must be unlocked, the phone app accessed and that you have the flash set as the circumstance demands. If you can do all of that before the marginally inattentive cat starts noticing you, you can get two or three quick shots. If you put something in her face before you’re ready and then try to compose a masterpiece you’re going to be disappointed in your effort.

Baseball season is upon us. The hype video was found by Victoria Cumbow, with whom we have the regular Why I Love the Internet This Week joke:

And this, I love this:

S*uff Samford Students NEVER Say from Connor Wangner on Vimeo.

A former student produced that video. They all did a great job. I watched it twice.

iPhone / journalism / links / photo / things to read / Wednesday — Comments Off
22
Feb 12

Don’t forget your hat

It isn’t that there’s a statue in the back of the truck — it must be contemporary, you can’t imagine any classic piece from the Vatican’s collection would be carried around in the back of a Nissan.

It can’t be that the rope is looped around the neck, though at first blush that does make you stop and wonder about the driver’s mood when they put it there.

it is the way she just stares through you.

I have a rope around my neck. I’m in a … Nissan.

Check out the latest on The Samford Crimson. It is a nicely colorful front page this week, post-Step Sing.

The copy is pretty good, except for the typos that slipped through the cracks at 2:30 this morning. The editorial staff is always chagrined when I point them out at 10 a.m.

Things to read: This is severe weather awareness week in Alabama. Were you aware the person in charge of maintaining the tornado sirens has been placed on leave? (Public service note: Do not rely on outdoor sirens. Watch the weather. Buy a weather radio or download the weather apps.)

Alabama’s exports? So glad you asked. Just happened to stumble across a story about that today, hence this entire paragraph, and the subsequent BBJ blockquote:

Alabama exports rose to a record high in 2011, according to a press release from Gov. Robert Bentley’s office.

Exports from the state increased 15.4 percent in 2011 to $17.9 billion, which was up from $15.5 billion last year.

Two prominent non-profit news outlets are shutting down. Alan Mutter has a terrific analysis:

Evidently beguiled by seeing their stories in the pages of the New York Times, two high-profile journalism start-ups failed at building sufficient audience for their own brands.

[…]

Yet, each of them seems to have stumbled in a different way.

The Chicago Cooperative concentrated all but one of its hires on journalists, including several prominent and well-compensated individuals who devoted most of their efforts to putting the best possible work into the NYT. While readers may have appreciated the articles in the newspaper, scant attention appears to have been paid to converting them into individual or corporate supporters of the venture itself.

The Bay Citizen, on the other hand, invested heavily on development …

He goes on to run through the numbers, and his commenters comment on the quality and the competition. The earlier portion of his analysis is cutting, but he has sources who suggest that both Cooperative and the Citizen were working in a bad model.

The only thing worse than a bad model is bad model security. What happens if that rope slips? Where does that garden decoration go from there? Gnomes are so much cheaper. And only slightly more creepy. The Travelocity gnome has helped a lot in that respect.

iPhone / journalism / links / photo / things to read / Tuesday — Comments Off
21
Feb 12

A random assortment of small things

The BIC, Gillette, Shick razor marketing war reaches its logical conclusion:

This, the restaurant manager, pictured here, tells me, is not an escalation in the face trimming arms race. It is instead a sign for the ski slopes. You need to know the condition of the terrain you’re about to fall down, he said. You need to know where this a good route or a bumpy one. He had to explain this to me because he’s hanging Colorado skiing paraphernalia in a barbecue house in central Alabama.

But it makes sense. The Zamboni of the skiing world, as I called it, except it is in no way like a Zamboni. But otherwise, exactly like one.

This is at Moe’s, in Lakeview, where I met Brian for lunch today. It is a central location between our offices the barbecue is pretty good. It is a Colorado-based riff on Alabama and Memphis style meat.

The manager says he’s still trying to find the ideal place to hang this inside.

They don’t understand seven-blade razor jokes there, but that’s OK, because I had no idea about this impressive piece of machinery either. The chicken was delicious. They’ve made a mockery out of black eyed peas. All things in life are a tradeoff.

Things to read: Why organizing beats is just as important as large investigations, ” good reporting happens more regularly and more quickly when information is organized from the start and a beat is built around a clear organizing principle.”

The value of Quora, I think, is jumping in toward the end of a good conversation. There is a great curation of links on this page.

Up in the air! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a zipline!

What is believed to be the nation’s first universal-access zip line and canopy tour is scheduled to open in April at Red Mountain Park in Birmingham.

Consisting of 10 platforms and seven zip runs ranging from 100 to nearly 350 feet long, the course will allow visitors to fly between elevated platforms built in the trees while descending a portion of the slope, tacking back and forth over a draw in the mountain.

At points in the course, a rider will be 50 feet off the ground and moving 25 to 30 mph.

The first comment, before things turned to that delightful level of vitriol and anonymous recrimination that makes most general comment streams, was wonderful: “I have a 17 year old in a wheel chair, I love that he will be able to do this!”

Maybe I’ll get to see him out there. Yes, I’ll be in the ziplines.