Samford « Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

Samford

adventures / iPhone / photo / Samford / Wednesday — Comments Off
11
Apr 12

Travel day

The Yankee planted this and we’re watching it grow:

Admire that while I’m on my plane.

Later, from San Antonio: we have arrived safely and in time for the Southern States Communication Association’s annual conference. The Yankee and I hold positions in the organization. We also have four or five papers and a panel to present during the conference.

Sadly, the banana pudding I purchased from Dreamland to take to all of the old Alabama grads did not make the trip. It turns out the federal government is afraid of it.

Let me say that again: the Transportation Security Administration feels that bananas, wafers and creme are dangerous.

The problem, you see, was that it was only partially frozen. Had it been solid they would not have been scared, because the guy who was making it up as he went along said, frozen things can’t be explosives.

We’ll wait as the chemists in the crowd have a little chortle.

So the pudding didn’t make it. I apologized profusely to a few people who’d been waiting on it since I promised it last year. But next year’s conference is within driving distance. Unless the TSA is going through my car by then — and at this rate … — we’ll all be indulging next April.

Saw this sign as we walked to a Mexican restaurant for dinner:

Dinner was at Rosario’s, which is apparently considered the best Mexican in town. It was quite delicious. And within walking distance of our hotel. One of the local conference-goers took us there.

I’ve been promised some barbecue this trip. I wonder if it will be at County Line.

Hey look, here’s River Walk:

It is quiet at this time of day on a Wednesday, I’m sure it will pick up.

Tomorrow the conference begins. I’ll post pictures, and spare you all of the conference details. Unless you want to hear about the methodology on this content analysis, or that discussion on the primaries, or the response I’m giving to a handful of mass comm papers, or our Super PAC paper, which promises to be a big hit …

Yeah, pictures then.

Auburn / baseball / iPhone / photo / Samford / Tuesday — Comments Off
10
Apr 12

Thing I saw today

Driving in today, I passed the largest bathtub in the world:

It won’t fit our master bathroom, yet, but I can knock out a wall. I will also need to knock out a wall in the neighbor’s place, but I’m sure he won’t mind if I pitch him the idea just right.

The key is in the delivery.

Speaking of deliveries, I discovered tonight that my phone won’t take a picture fast enough to catch Trey Cochran-Gill’s baseball in flight:

It is in there somewhere, as Auburn pitches to Samford late in this evening’s game. If you find it, do let me know.

Auburn won 7-5, by the way.

Had a big media meeting on campus today, which will set up another big meeting in a few weeks. And now I have to pack. We’re taking a conference trip this week. I have to figure out how to get four days worth of clothes, including a suit, in a carryon.

The good news is there will be pudding for all of our Alabama expat friends. Stopped by Dreamland this evening to get just enough to make me the most popular boy at the conference.

adventures / cycling / iPhone / Monday / photo / Samford — 1 Comment
9
Apr 12

Things you can do with a Monday

Breakfast this morning at the Barbecue House, the new weekly tradition. It was quiet today. Few people, lots of tables. Sometimes you can time it like that, and you just want to linger as the place shifts from breakfast and the grilling meat smells drift in as they get ready for the lunch crowd.

Other times you can’t find a seat or walk. Barbecue House is a popular place.

Mowed the lawn for the first time this year. There was nothing remarkable about it, because there is little remarkable about the yard just now. There was a lot of winterdust kicked up, though. Thin grass, drought conditions, sandy soil and my sneezes. The lawn mower and my nasal explosions were the soundtrack of the neighborhood for a brief while.

Wrote big emails. Planned two classes.

Wrote two presentations for upcoming sessions, about 15 pages for 30 minutes or so of talking. I have one more of those to do.

Edited a paper.

Rode 50 miles.

I think I bonked. Probably when I looked down and saw that zero on the computer. And then I realized I was standing rather than pedaling. So I started riding again. My bonk said, aloud I think, “I don’t have the energy for this.” And so the last few miles were just inertia and mindless mindlessness.

Saw some pretty scenery, part of the national wildflower program:

Or is that the county’s “We don’t have money for a fuel budget” program? I always confuse the two:

Truly, it made for a lovely day.

cycling / iPhone / photo / Samford / Thursday — Comments Off
5
Apr 12

There are at least three ways to spell “triple”

Meetings. Meetings about copyright laws. Meetings about stories. Meetings about meetings, at least two conversations worth. And then the emails. Emails about inventory. Emails about recruiting. And then there was a meeting about email. And, finally, emails about meetings.

That kind of day.

I took the long way home.

Somewhere in the middle of nowhere, between Calera and Jemison, Ala.:

They’ve moved! But their new location has the same chicken and the same chili. And you know they are good because they’ve deliberately misspelled both words. But don’t go in the old Dari-Delite. The recipes are not there. This is in Clanton, Ala.:

This is a fairly common misspelling if you search the Googles. But you don’t expect to see it quite so … large. Shame this Prattville, Ala. shop is closed, I’d loved to have walked inside and innocently asked them if they’d noticed anything odd about the sign. Or if Mr. Tripple was in today. Even for a muffler man this has to be galling.

The nine A’s though? That’s just brilliant:

Got my bike back from the shop. It now sports two shiny new shifter covers, a new chain and a tightened cassette.

So that will take care of the safety of my hands, a needed replacement — the old chain was starting to stretch and impacting performance — and fixed an obnoxious rattle on country roads.

The lady that runs the place offered to sell me a new seat because she’d noticed my saddle was giving way. When I bought the bike, used, there was one small tear. I recently rubbed two new spots on it in a stupid decision.

She said she’d just purchased a Felt herself, maybe that’s why she asked me about mine earlier this week, and couldn’t use this saddle.

“What am I going to do with an orange seat?” she said she’d asked herself.

And then through the door walks this sap, orange Felt with a frayed seat.

Saddles are a bit personal, though. She offered it to me for $20, and I talked her into a test ride. I’ll try it this weekend and buy it or return it. I gave her my business card, saying “If you don’t hear from me … ”

Turns out her husband works at Samford too. Small world, big bicycle.

iPhone / movies / photo / Samford / video / Wednesday — Comments Off
4
Apr 12

Biscuits, rust and authors

The second-biggest problem with the camera in the iPhone is the depth of field. This looks like a lot more food than it really is.

But, then again, there’s the app that let’s you blur out everything but your focus. (And that biscuit was delicious.) There are also apps that turn your HDR photo into HDRerer, which makes rust look magestic. This is through my dirty windshield, in an oddly lit part of the day, so it doesn’t pop as it could, but:

Think that guy is a beach bum in training? His flip flops do.

To see the real work of an HDR app, consider this picture from a few years ago:

And here’s the treatment:

It really jumps, doesn’t it?

There’s no real particular point to that, other than to say that I had a biscuit for lunch. If you didn’t, you should have. And also, the amount rest of the food really wasn’t that impressive. I’m blaming the frame of the barbecue chicken. The biscuit was the best part, though.

We had a bestseller speak in our class today. Nancy Dorman-Hickson co-wrote the biography on Joanne King Herring, who is a icon of the Republican party in Texas. You might recall her from Charlie Wilson’s War, which demonstrated her role in drumming up support for the United States’ proxy role in the Russo-Afghanistan war:

She was upset, Hickson said, by how overtly sexual she was portrayed in the movie. She is a gentile, Southern lady and so on.

Hickson was great in the class where she talked about freelancing and becoming a book author. She said she got that book contract, in part, because Herring’s people Googled “Southern writer” and “Christian.” And when they did, a small magazine piece she wrote on a Lutheran church event got her foot in the door.

There was a small handful of writers they decided to try out. The prospective authors were to have a phone conversation with Herring, and from there write one of her stories, trying to capture her tone and rhythm.

Hickson says “She was to share one story. Joanne is Southern. Multiple stories ensued.”

Well, yeah. That’s as natural as biscuits.