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Samford

photo / Samford / swimming / Tuesday — Comments Off
17
Nov 15

What is Pac-Man’s best stroke anyway?

Not sure how, really, but today I swam 3,200 yards.

The why has become easier. I remember, a year or two ago, topping out on a little ridge on my bicycle. The view was great, just a ribbon of road and one little white house and a sea of pine trees below me. There was something happy and peaceful in that view. Riding, I realized, was one of those things that I was fortunate to be able to do because I wanted to do it. And ever since, even when I take time off the bike, I’ve thought of myself as a rider.

I don’t think of myself as a swimmer, but it is something I can do just because I want to. I’m learning to take the chances you get, even if you think your arms will fall off, to do the things that are yours.

The thing about autumn is that you can’t share it. Is it the signature season where you’re reading this? Does it last for three days, as it seems to here? Whatever you have, you just have to be in it. No photograph really captures the air and the smell and the promise and the sometimes crest-sliding feelings that come with it. But we try:

I walked under that tree on campus. And I pulled out my phone and thought, for about the 14th year in a row, that this isn’t even a snapshot of a season or a glimpse of a feeling. And I sighed at the shortcomings of cameras and smiled at the moment and pressed the button.

After my swim I saw this car while seeking out dinner:

I stood there for a while, trying to decide what kind of person the owner must be. I decided they were pretty nerdy cool. You have to have a sense of humor about you. But they also have to be OK with never clearing the board. The thing about a painted Pac-Man is that you’re never clearing the board. But if you wanted to go classic video game, it is also a bit on the nose. Donkey Kong wouldn’t have made sense. Galaga plays the wrong direction. Centipede would have looked tacky. No one remembers Qbert, probably. Frogger, now that would have been bold.

Update: Today didn’t end until tomorrow. We were still in the newsroom at 3:20 a.m. on the 19th. Never let anyone tell you journalism students don’t work hard. It takes a lot to be that dedicated. And it takes a lot out of them to get it there. They must do it for a reason.

journalism / Monday / Samford — Comments Off
16
Nov 15

I want to ‘complain’ about some of my students

While we followed the horrible news from Paris last night our news editor learned that 11 Samford people were in the City of Light. (All are safe and accounted for.)

Naturally, she went to work, writing about that story. This made me read copy on a Friday night and fire off a few salvos of emails. And then they interviewed one of those people Saturday and wrote more. So I had to read that and write another few emails, praising our staff, advising them, giving them (hopefully) helpful ideas for their coverage. And now they’ll go talk to more of them, and all of this will no doubt repeat itself. Because a news editor, an English major who wants to work in museums, cares an awful lot about doing it right.

This happened on their Friday night and over the course of their weekend. This was in addition to their regular school week and the other jobs some of them have. It happened after they were in the newsroom until 2 a.m. on Wednesday morning putting together a newspaper and then spent three hours with me, until 9 p.m. on Wednesday night, talking about that issue. And they’ll do it all again tomorrow and Wednesday.

You have to be dedicated to work with student-journalists, because they are incredibly dedicated to their jobs. They care about their community and their pursuit of good journalism. Sometimes that means they work every day. Would that more did. Student-journalists don’t often get the credit for it that their output deserves, but it is gratifying to work with students so invested in the work they are doing, beyond the normal scope and scale in which they work.

memories / photo / Samford / Wednesday — Comments Off
4
Nov 15

An impromptu reunion

I had the good fortune there to run into a former student today. She graduated maybe two years ago and works on campus now. Lovely young woman; she’s charming, bright and quick with a good joke.

She would always give me a hard time in class, too, because my shoes were always untied. I never can keep them together for very long. It doesn’t matter the length of the string or the shape, so the failing must be mine. I’ve discovered these laces you don’t have to tie for running shoes and that’s changed how many times I have to kneel on a daily basis by much more than I’d care to admit. Best thing since velcro.

Once upon a time near the end of the term she decided she was going to tie my shoe for me. Show me how it was done and all that. A friend of hers decided to tie the other one, so they had a contest and see which knot lasted the longest. I walked around for several weeks with those shoes properly tied. One of them finally let go over Christmas break in Manhattan.

My knees say those were the best weeks of my life, because, again, they were saved a great deal of bending and strain.

So anyway, I ran into her today. She’s married and life is grand. Nothing less than you would expect. It was good to see her. “Come up and visit,” I always say when I run into familiar faces.

She walks this direction, back toward her building. I walk the other direction, off to wherever I had to go next. I look down:

Instagram / photo / Samford / Tuesday — Comments Off
3
Nov 15

Walking around the big box store

I’m still playing with the Boomerang app. It seems like it would strike a cord with a very “in your face” message. There’s no real nuance to it. And if this is where we go because the six seconds of Vine is just too tedious … well marketers should just get off the ride now.

But sometimes you can make something that looks cool:

This is the Space Laser light-up blaster from Imperial Toy.

A video posted by Kenny Smith (@kennydsmith) on Nov 3, 2015 at 6:24pm PST

When in doubt, go to the toy section, I always say.

Speaking of toys …

Did we need these? Does anyone like them? More importantly, are these really for young Star Wars fans or older Star Wars fans? The merchandise rollout has been at times impressive and regrettable. But mostly impressive. And we’re still six weeks from the movie.

One more Boomerang:

Iron Man hands are pretty awesome.

A video posted by Kenny Smith (@kennydsmith) on Nov 3, 2015 at 6:31pm PST

This is all a part of my strategy, by the way. Student-journalists are working on the newspaper all night long. And we’re all going to be in the newsroom until the very wee, if not the very grand hours, of the morning. But, for a little while, I just leave them alone. They need me gone more than they need me hovering. I refuse to hover, anyway. They do too well for that. Still, a long night, and I was the only person in the toy section. That’s why I got to play with Iron Man hands.

Friday / photo / Samford — Comments Off
30
Oct 15

Signs, but without the Ace of Bass jokes

We started the week with a sign, if I recall. Let’s end it that way, too. I had to go down to the back of the post office area where things are offloaded from trucks. It is a very utilitarian area. It works, it is efficient. I’m sure it isn’t on the campus tours. Doesn’t have to be. The folks there do good work and they do it fast and they know their business. Always very helpful.

There’s an elevator there. And above that elevator is this sign:

And that’s just good life advice.

I mentioned last week how much I enjoy reading the bulletin boards on campus. Here’s another class advertisement that was worth noticing today:

“Can cats have ethics if there is no God?”

I was not previously aware those concepts were not mutually exclusive. But, hey, maybe for cats. I’ll ask Allie sometime. She’s got some Siamese in her and is given to long pontification. But I digress.

“Join the cats of philosophy answer this head-scratching question in … ”

Last week’s class advertisement, you might recall, was for the same class. Those cats are going to cover a lot of ground between Justin Bieber and Johnny Cash and Ceiling Cat and the grammatical error.

Here’s another, from a different bulletin board not far from the first:

“So you want to be a scientist?”

Not if that’s what your lab is creating, no sir.

“Then join the biolgy department on Tuesday …”

I’m not sure where the “Biolgy Department” falls on the organizational chart. Good curriculum, though. Among the more popular classes are Catnip Cultivation 410 and Whisker Weaving 203. (That’s an elective, I’m sure.)

So use cats in your advertising, I suppose.

This is what happened when I got home today. Walk in, put my stuff down and, immediately:

I have it on good authority that she’s not interested in going anywhere. So I suppose this means I should stay here.

Here’s something else I put on the Internet today. You’ve already seen it on Instagram, if you’re following me there. Come on over and follow me.

My first Boomerang branding experiment.

A video posted by Kenny Smith (@kennydsmith) on Oct 30, 2015 at 4:32pm PDT

Here’s another Boomerang. It has even less point, which means it has practically none, really. We’re trying to figure out the utility for this app in class. Reviews are mixed.

Boomer-road.

A video posted by Kenny Smith (@kennydsmith) on Oct 30, 2015 at 7:21pm PDT