Rowan

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8
Oct 25

An open house day

We spent much of the day on campus. It was a welcome back open house. We were all encouraged to attend, make nice, be in our offices and look refreshed and recharged. We are six weeks into the semester.

Branding issues aside, it was a big success. There was a fire alarm and firefighters and students interested in our programs and a lot of life and energy and vitality, which is what we were hoping for. And I even got some grading and other work done.

I am never going to get caught up, though. Maybe next week. Or the week after. Definitely by the week after that one. That’s what it might take. Today didn’t cause the problem, but there were about four hours that didn’t get devoted to the problem for all of the fun of seeing friends and meeting new people and so on.

The best part, perhaps, was listening to the young woman standing outside my door telling someone else she was going to finish this degree, and then get a master’s degree in that, and another master’s degree in this other, and then maybe an MBA, and then get a PhD. I applaud that enthusiasm, would that everyone had it in the classroom. But I wondered: has she discussed these ambitious plans with her parents and financial advisors? And, also, will I be working for her one day?

Somehow, when we left, it was almost dark. I mean, come on, I took this photo at 6:22 p.m.

Surfers chase an endless summer, I just want to chase long daylight hours. Hours which I can sit in my house or office and admire as the day passes me by, mostly, but still. Don’t judge me, I have fair skin and a lot of reading to do.

OK, the continuation of a light week. I also have two classes to prepare for tomorrow, and then the rest of everything else, as well. Until tomorrow, enjoy Catober!

cycling / photo / Rowan / Tuesday / video — Comments Off
7
Oct 25

I reference dramatic reality, undramatically

This is a reminder that this is a light week, because of working events. But Catober is here to amuse you. But there are about 800 words here and four photographs from yesterday’s bike ride. So, yeah, light week.

In my criticism in sport media class we examined two different kinds of stories. The students selected these. One of them was this incredible piece from CNN: ‘Harmed, outed, scrutinized’: How new sex testing rules affect athletes:

Just like Ajok and Imali, a raft of athletes will no longer be allowed to compete in the women’s category at the World Athletics Championships, which are currently taking place in Tokyo, Japan.

Track and field body WA announced earlier this year that beginning from September 1, anyone wanting to compete in the “female category” of its elite events would be required to take a “once-in-a-lifetime test” in the form of a cheek swab or blood test that will screen athletes’ genetic samples. This will determine whether they contain the SRY gene – or “a genetic surrogate for a Y chromosome” – according to the organization.

The decision comes following a World Athletics Council meeting where, along with a raft of other policy changes, the council agreed to adopt multiple recommended conditions of “eligibility in the female category,” WA confirmed in a press release.

The World Athletics Championships hosted something like 2,200 competitors from almost 200 countries and teams. Not everyone, of course, was subjected to this strict scrutiny. It’s an in-depth story that does a nice job explaining this process and some of the biological information to people who aren’t expected to be experts. I wish my lovely bride wasn’t teaching in another building at the same time as that class, because this subject has become one of her primary areas of research expertise. I am not an expert in this area, which meant I had to learn a lot the last few days. The class handled the conversation with interest and care. I was pleased to see what we got out of the story, from a critiquing point of view.

We also discussed this other story which didn’t offer us a lot. But I was able to get in several points about how all stories aren’t created in the same way, some of them aren’t going to have all of the features (or conspicuously lack them) when we’re doing a critique. I turned it into a criticism of Sports Illustrated in general. Because there’s always some context to understand, somewhere. And maybe that’s a note that will seep in over the course of the semester.

We started talking about storytelling in org comm today. Presumably I have a little expertise in this area. There were 14 or 15 slides to digest, getting into the different kinds of stories we receive from the media, our different levels of participation and sociality, fan-centered media messaging and the structures of dramatic reality storytelling. (The by-the-book version requires a story to have drama, adversity, crisis, mentors, persistence and a final reward to be a dramatic reality.)

Here’s a video I showed them that included all of those things and Da Coach O, in under four minutes.

The class will have to put some of that in to practice on Thursday, but they don’t know that yet. So don’t tell.

Here are a few shots from yesterday’s ride, which was a slow, 21-mile tour of some new roads, and some old roads. You can really see the passage of time here, which could be seasonal, or about an afternoon, depending on your meaning.

I love these yellowing cover crops.

On a road I think I’ve been on just once or twice before, we have a discovery for the Barns By Bike catalog.

And on a nearby stretch of road, which I think was entirely new to me, another.

I found myself up a hill, over some bumps, around a bend and taking a left turn. I figured I would just ride that a certain amount and then turnaround. The easy part is getting lost. The difficult part is retracing my steps if there are too many turns. So as I pedaled along some scenic, tree covered roads dotted by a cemetery here and a neighborhood there, I was trying to play the map out in my head: I’m going, roughly, east and this should dump me out … where?

Eventually I got to a stop sign and, considering the amount of daylight I had left, and what I wanted to do with it, decided to turn around and start my hustle for home. It was delightful. Three empty roads and one of them wide open with fields on either side and the only sound was the sound of my tires on the road. I got back to a little crossroads community I know well, turned right and started racing home.

As I got close, this was one of my last views.

I made it in just before dark, and hopeful I can go out again soon. Maybe for some more old roads, maybe for some new ones.

photo / Rowan / Thursday / video — Comments Off
2
Oct 25

A specific elegance

Here’s the view from the campus office, where we live next-to-corner-office wishes and sixth floor dreams. Also, I share this office with my lovely bride, though we are seldom there at the same time. Offsetting office hours make that happen this semester.

Anyway, just look at those clouds. There’s a certain elegance in the clouds when they thin and march out like that. I wonder if that’s how earlier artists were inspired to take on the challenge of forced perspective.

The office has lights, but I do not know if they work. Plenty of natural light comes through that window, and I’ve never tried turning them on.

The office has the four travel posters that commemorate our honeymoon. And there are a few other framed things on the wall. I should add some of my own. And there’s a bookshelf, but I should add some books that are currently sitting in the basement, looking awesome. We have a rug we need to bring in.

I have also been collecting vintage local sports pennants. I’d all but completed the set when countries started shipping things to the U.S. The baseball pennant I bought two months ago from someone in Canada is somewhere stuck in that morass, so I’m getting a refund. But I need a new vintage baseball pennant, so back to E-bay, I guess. Then we can get a giant frame and hang that on an office wall.

In my mind, this will look really classy and cool.

The first problem is that there’s a lot of cool stuff I could put on a wall. The second problem is the nails. Or, more precisely, the nail holes. It feels very permanent, and I don’t mean in the photo that’s been on your grandparents’ wall your whole life sense of permanence. This is silly, there are several high quality putties and sealants and a fresh coat of paint goes a long way, but puncturing drywall is a real commitment.

This also explains all of the things not hanging on walls here at home, where I could also put up some other cool stuff.

In Criticism today we watched the new documentary on British Olympian Tom Daley.

It left something to be desired, from a critical perspective, but Daley was an executive producer, and I’m sure that figures into it. He’s going to tell his story his way — and why not? With that in mind, much of it felt a lot like a sort of oral history he was recording for his children.

It’s also an unconventional documentary in some respects. He’s watching footage of himself on a big screen, footage from throughout his life, because there have always been video cameras. And he was such an incredibly high profile athlete throughout his diving career, there were always broadcast cameras, too. Plus, I’m a big believer in the need of time and space away from the subject of a documentary. Maturing, evolving, crystallizing perspectives and all of that. This doc ends with his Paris Olympics. (And it felt rushed at the end.)

It got a mixed response from the class, now I’ve just got to get them to explain aloud why. But criticism is a learned process, and we’ve got some time yet to go this term.

In org comm my god-brother-in-law came to talk about his work. He’s a professional mountain biker, a filmmaker, a storyteller. Brice is also pretty great at all of those things. So he talked about niche storytelling. He was great at that, too. Here’s one of his films.

What was gratifying to me was to see how so many of the students were engaged in what he was saying, even though he is in a niche field, and this was not their niche. Well, most of them. One guy in the room, turns out, rides a bit, and they got nerdy with the vocabulary in a hurry, which was amusing to watch. There were suddenly industry specific terms flying all over the place and everyone else in the room came to realize they had no chance of catching up, or even catching on. It’s a niche kind of storytelling.

And look, I ride bikes. I tell stories. I do niche things. I teach this class. I was taking notes on what Brice was telling us.

I have some more things to grade, but if I did that tonight, what would I do tomorrow? Plenty of other things, of course. So I’ll just grade (tomorrow) instead.

See how I do that? There’s a certain elegance to it.

adventures / family / photo / Rowan / Tuesday — Comments Off
30
Sep 25

2ENI6S

We went to see a big field hockey game tonight. It was senior night for my god-niece-in-law (just go with it.) My in-laws came down to see their god-granddaughter. (I guess that’s how it works? The field hockey player is the daughter of their goddaughter. This would get confusing pretty quickly after that.) So we all went to her high school together. Her sister is on the junior varsity team, and they played first. The younger Jaguars won their game, and fans trickled in all night. By the time they dragged out the balloon arch for the senior night festivities both sets of her grandparents, her god-grandparents, her god-aunt-and-uncle and a bunch of her friends were there. They made signs and posters and had big Fathead-style faces. It was all quite cute.

She was, I think, the third athlete through the balloon arch. The guy on the PA introduces her and her parents and her little sister. He read off her career highlights, which at this point is something like 10-plus years of field hockey. He had a little sentence or two from the player thanking her family, and a note about what’s next, where she’s going to school, what she’s planning to study.

The sun was going down about that time.

And then, when all the seniors were introduced they went out there and played a game against the Lions. And the seniors went out in style, winning 5-0.

The cool thing was, after dinner, she said she got a piece of the ball on the last goal, though it was credited to one of her teammates. But she was glad for that. The other player hadn’t yet scored this year.

She’s always been a thoughtful girl; she’s going to be a pretty spectacular woman.

Though I guess we’ll do this again during softball season. How many senior nights do you need?

All of them, if you’re the senior.

I mentioned this the last time we went to see her play, but they host their home games on the high school’s football field, which is actually a multipurpose field. They also play their soccer there, and some of their track and field events are held there, too. If you’re sitting on the home side you see the high school in the background. And off to your left is a little building that is probably a field house. The side that faces the parking lot is painted red, and right in the center is the word:

2ENI6S

The graduating class all signed their names in a bit a of condoned graffiti. Though I wonder how the teachers feel about that treatment of the word. And how the class of 2027 will mangle it.

I visited the concession stand tonight and bought a handful of things for various members of our section of fans, a sandwich, three drinks, two pretzels. The students staffing the concession stand could not calculate the price. (It was $16 I told them.)

All of this gives me a great deal of material. So I pointed at this new construction in the western corner of the sports field.

“I hope it is a learning center!”

It is, of course, a new field house. Athletics first, and at all cost. Even at a good school — and their school scores in the top four percent of the state. But still, 2ENI6S, simple math.

We all went to the star players’ for dinner and family revelry. It was a wonderful evening.

In class today we discussed The Concussion Files:

The Post reviewed more than 15,000 pages of documents relating to efforts by more than 100 former players to qualify for settlement benefits, including thousands of pages of confidential medical and legal records. The Post also interviewed more than 100 people involved with the settlement — including players, widows, lawyers and doctors — as well as 10 board-certified neurologists and neuropsychologists for their expertise on how dementia is typically diagnosed.

Among The Post’s findings:

The settlement’s definition for dementia requires more impairment than the standard definition used in the United States. Several doctors who have evaluated players told The Post that if they used the settlement’s definition in regular care, they would routinely fail to diagnose dementia in ailing patients. “I assumed this was written this way, on purpose, just to save the NFL money,” said Carmela Tartaglia, an associate professor of neurology at the University of Toronto.

At least 14 players have, like Cross, failed to qualify for settlement money or medical care and then died, only to have CTE confirmed via autopsy. Eight of these players were diagnosed in life with dementia or a related memory disorder but still failed to qualify for settlement benefits.

In more than 70 cases reviewed by The Post, players were diagnosed with dementia by board-certified doctors, only to see their claims denied by the administrative law firm that oversees the settlement. While the NFL has often blamed denied claims on fraud, none of the denials reviewed by The Post contained allegations of fraud. Instead, records show, settlement review doctors simply overruled physicians who actually evaluated players, often blaming dementia symptoms on other health problems also linked to concussions, including depression and sleep apnea.

The NFL’s network of settlement doctors has been beset by systemic administrative breakdowns since its inception. Former players suffering from dementia wait, on average, more than 15 months just to see doctors and get the records they need to file a claim. Maynard was one of two players The Post found who waited more than two years to get paperwork and died before they could get paid.

In total, court records show, the settlement has approved about 900 dementia claims since it opened in 2017. It has denied nearly 1,100, including almost 300 involving players who were diagnosed by the settlement’s own doctors.

It’s an aggravating story, and it should annoy readers. And some of my students were aggravated by what they read — which leaves some questions about a few other students.

We also talked about this story.

On the face of it, playing chess and competing in the NBA couldn’t be further apart.

One requires monk-like levels of silent concentration – particularly in classical chess – while the other demands physical dominance, peak athleticism and the ability to stay composed in a frenzied atmosphere.

But it seems there is more that links the two sports than initially meets the eye – just ask NBA legend Derrick Rose.

The 2011 NBA MVP has been leading a new and unlikely collaboration between the worlds of chess and professional basketball.

That story didn’t seem to connect, but for different reasons.

Those were in my criticism class, of course. In org comm class we wrapped up the unit on branding. The students broke up into their fantasy football franchise groups and had to do an assignment which asked them to assess the sort of star power that each of their players possess. Then they had to pick three players from their team which would be the most likely pitchmen, and then assign them products or brands they would advertise for. It went well, and it all just goes on the now large stack of things I need to grade.

And that starts tomorrow. I am able to devote an entire day to pecking away at the computer and I am weirdly looking forward to it.

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29
Sep 25

A college, launched; a meeting, met

No one ever thinks of the turning of the fields during the autumnal season, but I’d just like to point out that, if you’ve got the right things in the ground, it can be lovely, for a time. And this is that time.

A lot of the farmland around us just now is thusly decorated.

We went over the river to a watch party event yesterday evening. Last day of regular season baseball and another afternoon of football.

I think my best time was playing cornhole with my god-niece-in-law (just go with it). She’s four, going on perpetually adorable, and she loves throwing those beanbags. Also, she has a four-year-old’s hand-eye coordination, so there is a lot of sidearm slinging, a lot of underthrows and several that go randomly off to one side or another. But then she drops some right in the hole and you begin to wonder: is there such a thing as a lawn game prodigy?

This morning I cut up a limb. We lost yet another one in a windstorm and it was sitting in a precarious way. I’ve been waiting to see if time would make it move, and make my job easier, but it did not, and it was not. So, yesterday, I made some cuts with one of those pole pruners, because the large branch had fallen into the fork of another tree and never snapped completely. All of this was delightfully overhead, and so the cutting away was a big weekend exercise. But turning it all into firewood was a Monday morning job. And that was a job. I broke out the chainsaw and the wheelbarrow and I am I spent.

This is not hyperbole. If there was another chunk of wood I had to deal with it was going to wait until next weekend. But I got it all in, and will feel it tomorrow. I know this because I feel it today.

Nearby, though, was this daring September dandelion, still vibrant and proud. One of those times when I needed to take a break, I pretended to study this guy.

But not too much, because by then I was feeling it and close examinations would have just required more effort.

The good news, though, is that I got it all done before we headed to campus, and the chore is behind me. Today, we had our new college launch. Last spring the old dean retired, the university took the opportunity to split our college into two chunks, with one side joining another existing college, and ours being merged into another. There’s probably more of a story there, but you don’t care. All of the alignments seem to make sense. Our new college is a monstrous thing. We’ll be the largest on campus before long. The new dean and the programs they have in place in this new college seem to be well received.

Hopefully everyone will have a good time. And we all did today at the new college launch. It was a big outdoor party. I saw the mascot. He took a selfie with my phone.

Low key owl, at least at events like that. They do a pretty nice job with the character on social media.

I went before the university SGA this evening. I serve on a committee that listens to, and talks with, the SGA. And so there I was, doing that tonight. There were four scheduled presenters. First was a woman who came to tell them of a new cybersecurity training module that is being rolled out to students. And when students do this training they’ll be eligible to win an iPad. The second presenter was the athletic director, who also brought along the football coach. They were flinging shirts around the large ballroom and hoping to get out the word that there’s going to be a big student party before this weekend’s football game. And there’s a chance for students to win $20,000. (Throw a Nerf football through a car’s sunroof from 40 yards …) The third person came up to talk about the new restaurants and food options on the rapidly growing campus.

To sum up, we’ve had a free iPad, a chance to win 20,000 bucks and food. Now here I come, to talk about … policy and process.

It was worth laughing at.

Maybe I should have asked the mascot if he could come along to that meeting.