IU

adventures / Bloomington / IU / journalism / photo / television / video / Wednesday — Comments Off on And happy Wednesday to you, too
24
Feb 21

And happy Wednesday to you, too

The Yankee and I had a picnic in the old K-Mart parking lot. It was a drive-thru Chick-fil-A sort of experience, best part of the day with little doubt. The parking lot is next to the restaurant, which is still all drive-thru and curbside pickup and so we got our food and moved off to eat. When I’d finished my spicy chicken sandwich I looked up through the sun roof and noticed this view:

It was a mild day here, if you actually made it outside. I seldom seem able to do that. I live under fluorescent lights in a beige and dirty-cream color office with orange carpet and no windows most of the time. If I get a different view it’s under a handful of LEDs in the studio. But to get outside is nice, to get away for a few minutes is even better. And to see more fake signs of seasonal change is a delight.

As I noted yesterday on Twitter:

And the same thing applies today. So, when I was done with my work day I went up to the top of the parking deck to watch the sky whirl by. It was a pretty good choice, I think. The stratocumulus made for some dramatic views.

And why share one when you can share three? So here are two more pictures from the same parking deck.

Something to see, huh?

Here are some other things to check oiut. These are the videos from last night’s television productions.

News:

Pop culture happenings:

Oh, and I forgot the other day, there’s a morning show to check out, too.

That oughta hold you until tomorrow.

IU / photo / Tuesday — Comments Off on That’s novel; that’s normal
23
Feb 21

That’s novel; that’s normal

A night in the studio means dressing like it. Or trying, a little bit. Here’s today’s look. It’s novel.

That’s a Christmas shirt and a Santa pocket square. I think they paired nicely together. Also, this is the first time I’ve put on sports coat since November.

Haven’t worn a suit in almost a year. Feels like it, too. So that’s normal now, I guess.

Anyway, one nice thing happening is that the days are getting longer, so at the point of the evening when our crew can get in the studio there’s still a bit of light left. We have windows along one wall and they face east. It can make for some challenging shoots in the morning on some of our sets, but you also get a few minutes of that lovely golden light in the morning and evening.

Now if only there were leaves on those trees. In a couple of long months … we’ll have a great many green things out there. And then, in a shockingly few number of days, we’ll be used to them, once again.

If there’s one thing you can say about our society, we get used to the most amazing things incredibly quickly. We’re so good at it we don’t even realize we do it anymore.

Oh, that’s novel! Oh … that’s normal …

I watched students produce two new news shows tonight. It’s both normal and novel. That’s the fun part of doing the news, sometimes. There’s usually something new in there. Sure, the weather is the weather and the sports are wins and losses and you get quotes for this or that, but then you seize on an important story. They’ve got one of those tonight. Or you get a great guest. And the talk show had a TikTok star on this evening, for what that’s worth.

I wonder what that’s worth. The guy apparently has a few million followers. Apparently he does his dances in classes and that was a big part of his audience growth — which says a lot about the app and the audience. It wasn’t obvious from the interview that he’s monetized that. How novel.

All that will be online tomorrow, and you can see it here, then. Very normal.

Friday / IU / television / Twitter / video — Comments Off on Robots everywhere
19
Feb 21

Robots everywhere

Last night we saw sports shows produced, and today we can watch them online. And here they are now. This is the highlight show, all the lights that worth holding up high, and the stories to go with them.

And this is the famous talk show. They’ve got a new host this year. This is his first episode, and he’s hit the ground running.

Also last night, in another studio, one of the creative groups blocked out shots for their upcoming season. This morning there was a morning show to shoot, and so another group of people shot that. Between all of that and the Tuesday productions … it’s been a busy first week in the studio for all of them, is what I’m saying.

Our cameras are controlled from another room. We use robots to produce shows, and that’s never not neat.

Did I mention it is cold? It was seven degrees when I left the house this morning. Felt like two below. I don’t want to say I’m used to it, because I am a human being with self-awareness and a penchant for the finer things in life like, you know, desirable weather. And I can’t say I’m surprised because I am, in fact, numb to this whole thing after the last few weeks of invasive Canadian weather. But, somehow, it didn’t phase me this morning.

I looked out the window and looked at the weather and said, Well, at least the sun is out. If it has to be cold it should at least be bright. That sounds like a case of Stockholm syndrome, but it is really an acknowledgement of our dimly lit circumstance. Days and weeks of overcast skies are demoralizing, but at least, in a few weeks, maybe, that’ll be behind us … until next Thanksgiving or so.

We’ll try not to fixate on that.

Colder on parts of Mars today. And the photos that are coming back to us from Perseverance are impressive.

NASA had a little feature for that rover where you could put your name on board. They were coded on a microchip or the head of a pin or just added to a database somewhere. But I took the opportunity to put my grandfather’s name on the list with thousands of others. And then I put a lot of other people’s names on it, too. When that rover landed yesterday I was thinking of my grandfather. I bet he would be amused by the progress we’ve made toward Mars in the last few years. I have a lot of his books, and there’s a lot of real science interest there. High-definition cameras on another planet, they’re the 16th cousin 45 times removed from what we use in our television studio. Only we’re cabled and they are operating via a signal broadcast 127 million miles away.

My mother, his daughter, asked me once if the moon landing is impressive to me. We’ve always been there to my way of thinking, you see, where she was one of the many millions who watched and held their breath when Neil and Buzz landed.

It is impressive, but I love that question. It’s a great feat, but there’s no mystery about whether we can pull it off — only when we’ll do it again.

But Mars, well, we have other rovers there, sure, but that’s another planet. And there’s a video camera there now. And a helicopter. And we’re just getting started. We’re making real progress on Mars. Another planet. And we might put people there in short order. On another planet.

Until then, the robots are impressing us nicely.

I wonder if they get the weekends off.

IU / television / video / Wednesday — Comments Off on First shows of the semester
17
Feb 21

First shows of the semester

I teased yesterday’s television productions. Now they’re online. The guest I showed you appeared in this show, where she talks about a new and very special project on campus:

And the first news show of the semester is here:

It’s a bit later than normal because they started the spring term with a virtual-only schedule for the first three weeks. So, now, getting shows back underway, we’re already five weeks into the term. Tempus fuggedaboutit.

Tomorrow, sports, and some other dry runs, and a Friday show and then a Monday program and on and on and … we’re suddenly up to full speed. It’s a bit like not marveling at how a train is traveling until it’s already topped out.

Anyway, light day today, a longer one tomorrow. And then the slow push to the weekend. We are promised two days above freezing for the first time in a solid two weeks.

Believe it when you can see the mercury, right?

But, first, there will be more snow to shovel tomorrow!

Bloomington / IU / photo / Tuesday — Comments Off on That second wave of snow was something else
16
Feb 21

That second wave of snow was something else

Today was a work-from-home day for our campus, so I worked from home for most of the day. We, like most of you, had weather. This is how much we received:

We have a short driveway, and it took an hour to dig it out. Biggest snow we’ve had in our time here. It’d be a great parenthetical close to winter, too, but more will be coming before we’re done. We’re never done, it seems.

Our road does not get plowed.

But a city truck came down the road, with his plow disengaged, to turn onto the walking path between houses. The road is in the county, but it seems as though the city maintains the paths, even the one behind our property, in the county. And this is how he went about getting back there.

The path, when he was done, was generally in much better shape than some of the roads. They really understand winter around here.

Except for this part of the path, where walkers can encounter a hurdle at a T-intersection. It was fun to watch people step over this on a slick ground.

The entire day was not a work-from-home experience. I went in late in the evening for a television production. The roads were, once again, a mixed bag of quality. Some were downright dry. Others looked like a sheet of tundra dotted with buildings. The sidewalks were a hilarious joke. It seemed about every other one had received some half-hearted attention. Winter, they really get it.

In the studio this evening was this young woman, who is the first editor of a new section of the campus paper.

It has been a great read this year. She, and all of her contributors have done a great job with it. And I’ll let her tell you about it when that interview goes online tomorrow.

So make sure you check back for that. And stay warm and dry until then.

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →