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adventures / Instagram / IU / photo / Tuesday / Twitter — Comments Off on Back to it, then
7
Mar 17

Back to it, then

We spent all day yesterday traveling. And this was one my views:

So on the one hand, it is amazing that in just 12 hours of actual travel time got us back from California, by way of Atlanta, because Delta. On the other hand, it took 12 full hours of travel to get from the hotel to the house.

And then work today! The good news is the best part of my post-race soreness was yesterday. By the end of the day today I was actually trotting downstairs. And any runner will tell you it is going downstairs that hurts. Which suggests, to me at least, that maybe I didn’t run as hard as I could have on Sunday. But who cares? Marathon, done! A few days of resting up are before me now, and then hopefully by next weekend I’ll be ready to start anew!

The other downside to traveling all day is that you eat like complete garbage. There’s just no getting around it. And while I am usually ready to eat right after a big exercise, I didn’t even have my usual appetite yesterday. But it came back today, and my choices were … less than ideal. But at least most of the snacks were healthy. And I am well and truly hydrated and aside from some achy feelings that you would expect after many consecutive hours of exercise I feel surprisingly good. Like, we should be outside running or riding right now, good.

That’s a weird feeling.

This week I am working on a big writing project in the office. But I came up for air to poke my head into one of the podcast booths:

These guys are working on a 14-channel digital Axia board than be configured for about a dozen different user preferences. It is a pretty remarkable setup. And there’s a turntable to the left of the board operator. I wonder if it has been used yet.

We did use the television studio tonight. At least one-and-a-half shows were produced in there this evening. Interesting sensation. I left town for two days and felt in the way of everything when I got back.

Anyway, this project I’m presently working on will probably eat much of the week. (Think of it this way, I’m writing, but I also talked podcasting with those three students above and then sat in on a few television projects this evening. I do enjoy the variation.) I am collaborating with a medium-sized group on a non-technical technical document. It started out at more than 45 pages. My goal is to get it below six. This has absorbed my day today and the entirety of my evening and night. And while I am occasionally a decent writer and from time-to-time an acceptable editor, I am not good enough at either to make the actual work behind them interesting. So it may be a bit slow around here for a few days.

We’ll always have pictures or some sort of other interesting thing going on here, so do stop back by throughout the week. Also, there’s of course the ever-present Twitter and the sometimes popular Instagram.

adventures / IU / photo / Thursday / video — Comments Off on Another sign of spring!
2
Mar 17

Another sign of spring!

Pretty soon I can stop counting, them, right? The signs of spring? It’ll just be spring. But, even still, even with that knowledge, you point in wonder:

And then you do the most sensible thing you can think of. You travel north:

And then west, because that’s better than going farther north in the winter. So we have arrived in California, by way of Minnesota. We flew from Minneapolis to Sacramento this evening. We passed over Reno and Carson City, I think. And we had the option of driving on into the night or staying at a hotel near the airport. We chose the latter. It was the wiser choice. We’ll go to Napa Valley tomorrow.

Tonight, a few things for you to watch, which some the IUS crews produced this week:

IU / photo / running / Twitter / Wednesday — Comments Off on And now, some notes about my day
1
Mar 17

And now, some notes about my day

A know a guy who works on reaching new audiences. Basically, he gets hired to talk to people in new ways as efficiently as possible. I asked him one time, suppose I wanted to hire you to talk to high school juniors and seniors, what would you do?

He said he wouldn’t try talking to the juniors and seniors of 2017, but he’d be thinking about the juniors and seniors of 2022 and 2023. I think about that answer when I read things like this:A new study says young Americans have a broad definition of news

Younger Americans have a broad definition of news that expands beyond the output of traditional news organizations and includes information gleaned from social media and user-generated content, according to a report out Wednesday from the Data & Society Research Institute.

[…]

“I think you have to really just listen to everything, and then pick out what you believe and what you think is really truthful,” said a 22-year-old African-American female who participated in

[…]

“If I don’t see it on social media, I’m not going to hear it,” a 17-year-old African-American said.

However, many of the participants said they were reluctant to share news and their thoughts on the news on social platforms publicly. Instead, many said that they will send links or screenshots to friends in messaging apps or other more private channels.

[…]

The study says “the most striking point of consensus across the groups was their shared lack of trust in the news media.”

“Even if it’s factual, it may be sort of tainted,” a 23-year-old Hispanic and African-American female said.

This morning I ran seven miles, my last run before the weekend. And then I went to work and it was all about work for about 10 solid hours. Here’s a show the students shot tonight. They posed for this, somehow mustering up a flair for the dramatic they otherwise surely didn’t know they had:

Also, this show launched today. I watched them tape the first episode last Friday night, and it is pretty clever stuff:

I work in a place that lets students develop and create their own shows. You have an idea you want to try? Feel like experimenting? Want to realize your dream? You show up, put some skin in the game and you’re doing that here. And it is part of my job to oversee the television station that helps you do that. I get to help students do that. We’ve launched three new shows this year, in addition to moving into a multi-million dollar studio.

Also, there is movie night, like tonight:

We make original content and we are serious about journalism.

IU / journalism / links / running / Tuesday — Comments Off on Watch more TV — on your computer or wherever
28
Feb 17

Watch more TV — on your computer or wherever

I’m feeling better, thanks. Most of the things I would complain about are brought on by the Sudafed. I looked up the side effects this morning and, what do you know? Present and accounted for. And, since I am breathing relatively well, and because I like sleep and a regular heart rate and all of the other things I’ve grown accustomed to over the years, I’m putting the medicine away.

I went for a run this morning. It was cold and drizzling and I was going to do a few miles, but after the first one the mist turned to sprinkles and the sprinkling came with thunder, so I went inside and got warm and ready for work.

Then tonight we had two news shows to shoot and a launch party to attend. I shot this of the news’ teaser opening:

Things to read … Sometimes, when you teach young reporters how to localize a story you can just look around the room. High school student-journalists wrote this: Detained, but not Deported: A Family’s Final Chance to Remain Undivided:

The daily calls, however, have been a strong connection between Yousef and his kids, as he tries to stay updated on their lives at home and in school. He keeps the conversation light-hearted, according to his oldest daughter Yara, a junior at Pioneer High School. “Every Friday he used to take us to the gas station after school, so last Friday he asked us ‘What do you guys want from the gas station?'”

The kids are aware that, in many ways, the cheer is a facade. “He’s mad. Every time he calls us he tries to be happy, but I know he’s mad,” Betoul said. “He has right to be. We all do.”

Despite the closeness of the family, Yousef won’t allow his kids to come and visit. “He doesn’t want us to see him like that. He wants to be strong, he wants to be the dad of the house,” Betoul said. “Seeing him like that, that’s at his weakest point.”

They did a really nice job with the story, too.

Speaking of the utes … Teenagers trust algorithms to select stories nearly twice as much as they trust human editors, research finds:

While teenagers are more trusting of traditional media – TV, radio and newspapers – than adults as they place mounting importance on facts in a ‘filter bubble’ era, adversely they trust algorithms to select stories for them more than human editors, the Edelman Trust Barometer has found.

I wonder if this will be one of those things where the first three months tells the tale. Google announces YouTube TV service that rivals cable for $35:

YouTube says that younger people (“millenials”) want to watch TV in the same place they watch all their other content, which makes sense. It wants to build an experience that “works as well on your phone as on your desktop,” as well as all your other devices.

The service also includes a feature called Cloud DVR, which allows you to save an unlimited number of shows without worrying about the storage limits of a traditional DVR. That said, you must be connected to the internet to access your recorded shows, so no watching on the subway or in the middle of nowhere.

Also, what traditional television providers do next will be interesting, too.

More here, and here.

Friday / IU / memories / photo — Comments Off on 11-hour Fridays
24
Feb 17

11-hour Fridays

Morning show this morning. Everyone arrived early. One of the students brought donuts for our engineer. He and I realized none of them knew the songs “I Can’t Drive 55” or “I Wanna Rock” or “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)”

That sorta dampened the moment, donuts or no. They produced their show, the very famous Ed, from one of the popular nearby restaurants was their guest:

He’s a New Yorker who has been here for 30 years. He’s had that restaurant for 10 years. He says he’s doing the same thing he did in college, which was acting as the party host. And, most days, if you go into his store, that’s not that far off.

After the show I retired to do more editing. I’m reducing a lengthy, but not-entirely-dense technical document to create what will essentially be a piece of brief marketing material. Today I turned 26 pages of great notes written by a colleague into about one page of language.

In junior high and high school I had the same English teacher for four of six years. Mrs. Newman was sharp and intimating to teens, but she was hard and fair. Every Friday, for all of those four years, she made us write a one-page précis, or a brief summary, of a Newsweek article of her choosing. As we progressed, the articles became more demanding, the summaries more challenging and her expectations grew as the selections became more complex. It never got easier, but we maybe got better at it. She graded those on a scale of one to nine for some reason. I don’t remember every article I read or every grade I got on them, but I do recall one where she noted I could do better. That stuck with me because it stung me. On days like today, with a lot of editing, I think those précis were as valuable as any aspect of my formal training or years of professional experience.

So I thought of Mrs. Newman today. Oh, looks like she and her husband have a beach home now. Good for her. She retired a good while back, I wonder if he’s still practicing law.

We did some practice in the studio. One of our shows had auditions for next year’s hosts. So that was the afternoon. Also the sun came out, glorious and brilliant, acting like it had forgotten what to do with us after such a long time behind the clouds. Of course the cloud cover returned. Of course it’ll be another week before the sun is seen again.

In another studio, in another building, we also launched a brand new late night show. I went over to watch it get underway:

Rob is the guy on the right. He’s actually studying standup comedy as a major. We had a nice chat about it. He’s a smart young man. Going to be a great show.

And for the year so far that makes three new shows we’ve launched. These are full time students, and all of the productions are entirely student run. We’ve assembled three new crews and put together three new shows, in addition to three pre-existing shows. Not bad for being in a new facility and the students having to deal with me and every other thing.

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