Samford


3
Dec 15

Remember, you have to remind yourself

Just wrapped the last Crimson critique of the term. For me, it was a 10-hour day after wrapping up last night at 2:30 this morning. For some of the students, it was even longer. Think of that.

I’m never sure how the students stay energetic, but I’m glad they do.

Tomorrow I start the process of nominating them them a few awards. They deserve the recognition if, for no other reason, than how they prove that journalism never sleeps.

Anyway, look! The sun is setting on the campus!

Always a pretty nice sight. You have to remind yourself to go look at such things. You have to remind yourself.


2
Dec 15

Late nights, long follow-up days

There may be others, I don’t know. I can’t, however, think of any other group that would still be working on their extracurricular projects until 2:30 in the morning. That’s motivation and passion — and clattering keys and tired eyes.

Student media is cool.

And since they were there until 2:30 a.m. I was with them until 2:30 a.m., too. Someone should recognize them. Unfortunately, I am not as cool as they are.

So my cousin and his friend went home on Sunday, and later that night we noticed that he left his work boots at our place. I’ll see him again at Christmas, but I figured I would send him pictures of all of the places his shoes have been since he lost them. Last night they went shopping.

If I’d thought to stop by a shoe store I could have said they were looking for a sole mate. But there was the newsroom to get back to …

Anyway, I thought it would be something I could torture him about. I think I’m mostly amusing myself, however.


1
Dec 15

“You ever fought a dinosaur, kid?”

So we’re back at it again. Another late, late night in the newsroom. This was the view when it was still daylight outside. I did make it outside at some point. Some days it is difficult to know for sure, but here is documented evidence:

Sometime I think I should walk around to trees and just start yelling “Quitter!” at them. That wouldn’t be strange. Would that’d be strange? That’d be strange. Right?

A few more photos from the weekend. We ride bikes through here. It looks different at dusk and at different speeds. And it is dark enough and we’re fast enough here and I was maybe just hasty enough that it makes everything look soft and blurry and distant. But look at those colors:

We went to the movies this weekend. We saw Creed, which was emotionally impactful in ways that I wasn’t expecting. And no one saw that happen, either, since The Yankee didn’t glance over at entirely the wrong time or anything. It had nothing to do with an aging Rocky or mortality, but probably had something to do with thinking of Mickey Goldmill. (Did you know there’s a story about Mickey being written? You want this one to make it.)

Walking out of the theater this little girl saw this poster and walked up to it.

“What’s this movie about, Mommy?”

Mom walks over, reaches down for her hand and says “You wouldn’t like it.”

Don’t worry, kid, no one is going to like this one.

This weekend we also learned that Allie likes cupcakes, or at least the paper.


19
Nov 15

And this is how you become a multimedia mini-mogul

In this time of ours, we can of course pass along any moment to anyone living in the same technological way. The seasons aren’t truly passable, fully sharable. Yet. People are working to change that. But they’re going to have to get the crunch of leaves and the smell of the air and that crispness in the ether. Maybe it is as much of an ideal as a season.

Anyway, go outside and see some autumn, if you have any left wherever you lovely people are.

leaves

I got a green screen. I’ve been making tutorials for the department and I wanted to step up the production values by about a half step. I’m doing this as a solo project, which means I get to be inventive and show initiative and create new skills for myself. I’ll show them all off someday, I’m sure. Anyway, it looks like this:

greenscreen

And I’m shooting it all on my iPad. I have an app that both records, runs a script prompter, throws graphics and projects images onto a the screen behind me. It was free and you can do a great deal as an awkward one-man band. Isn’t technology grand?

It is stacked on top of my old tripod:

tripod

I bought that in 1999. American Pie was a hit. Tonic was in heavy rotation. It cost $19.99 at Walmart. It was cheap even then, but I figured I could get a fair amount of use out of it. I lost one of the feet early on, I think at the beach, but the whole thing still works just fine. I have probably 45 tripods at my disposal, but sometimes you just have to chose the classics.


18
Nov 15

A meaningful header would make you see past maple leaves

It is a shareable age, but you just can’t express autumn in any of the formats yet available to us. But if yours hasn’t passed yet, go outside and enjoy it some. May the weather be great and the leaves be bright, wherever you are just now.

Because you know what they say about winter.

So, anyway, even if you can’t really share the sense of the season in one photograph, I’m going to try. Here’s a basic under tree, looking up and through shot from campus today:

fall

(And if that seems like a weird idea, I’m going to blame the Canadian singer-songwriter that’s playing as I type this.)

We were in the newsroom until 8 p.m. They gathered there less than 17 hours after leaving the place this morning. Student leaders, eyeing their upcoming Thanksgiving break, are wrapping up their plans for an issue the week after.

You have to really want it to work in student media, as they do. They know there will never be enough of them, or enough accolades or recognition for them. But I know those putting their hearts into it have learned the value of the work they do. The only lament is that not enough people appreciate their efforts and, sometimes, their sacrifices.

Elsewhere, here is a conversation I had with my friend and colleague Chadd Scott. He’s always worth a listen. This is no exception as today he’s breaking down what this underwhelming football season means for Auburn’s football coach. (The short answer, he suggests, is a great deal in the medium-term.)

Chadd was my first radio mentor and it is, to me, a neat thing to still get to work with him on projects. Check out Gridiron Now. It’s a great project.

Tomorrow I’m going to make a video. The best days are the multimedia days.