swimming


9
Sep 14

Wherein I reference Carl Sagan

I showed off a neon sign in transition last week, without making too many philosophical references to the illuminating gases within us all that shine brightly into the evening sky. I stared at the distressed sign, full of rust and faded paint without wistfully wandering through paragraphs about age and history — OK, I talked history — and the way the elements shape the decay that shapes us.

I went back to check on the sign this evening. They’ve changed it:

JNN

We talked about generating story ideas in class yesterday, and will continue to do so tomorrow. Tonight the journalists produced their first issue of The Samford Crimson for the year.

Also, this evening, I taught myself how to do flip turns in the pool. They are bad, awkward, crooked, slow and hilariously off target. I can hit the lane line. I can push myself deep into the pool. (Good thing I was trying to figure all of this out in a deep pool.) My flip turns are also incredibly violent. I was here and then I pushed and now I’m waaaay over there, and it was fast.

It felt like this:

Watch a person who knows what they are doing and they are elegant. Watch me do a flip turn and it is like something out of the ACME catalog.

But I’m learning, and I swam 2,000 yards. I do not know what is happening.

Things to read … so you will know what is happening.

(When various of your gimmicks come together in an unplanned moment like that, it is kind of neat. And, perhaps, a signal to kill the gimmick.)

(Nahhh … )

Samford Is #3 in 2015 U.S. News Annual Rankings:

Samford University continues to be ranked 3rd in the South in the 2015 annual college rankings released Sept. 9 by U.S. News & World Report. Samford also was ranked third in last year’s U.S. News list.

Samford is the highest ranked university in Alabama in any peer group and continues a three-decade tradition of being ranked in the top tier of its peer group. Samford also recently was ranked the top university in Alabama by Forbes, Inc.

One of our students wrote this, and it is a neat read … Alabama’s first Miss America reflects on title more than 60 years later

Another lovely story … Finding a groove, giving a gift:

Darlene Werner suffered a stroke in 1994 and had not been out of the home where she lives with her husband, David, since Christmas.

Even with David’s support, she could no longer negotiate the four steps from the front porch to the patio or the three steps from the kitchen to the carport.

The couple tried, first with Darlene, 74, using a walker. For the past year, she has mostly been confined to a wheelchair. Returning some of her freedom was the goal of the eight men representing family-owned Contractors Service and Fabrication Inc., of Decatur, during United Way of Morgan County’s Day of Caring on Tuesday.

The crew, only two of whom had ever worked together on a ramp, created a way out down the house’s 29-inch high front porch with a ramp of three sections totaling 30 feet.

And this is quite interesting … 11 Bird’s-Eye Views That Show How NYC Has Grown Over 350 Years:

Exactly 350 years ago today, New York City became New York City. The city itself already existed, of course: As the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam. But on September 8th, 1664, the British gave it its permanent moniker, which makes today its name-day.

We’ve seen all manner of maps illustrating how NYC has grown over the centuries, but one of the coolest—and least appreciated—is the bird’s eye view. These are images that are, loosely speaking, maps; but thanks to a little artful perspective, they give us much more of a sense of what the city was like in each case.

Tomorrow, there will be more interesting things to be found here. Do come back, won’t you? And have a lovely time until then.


2
Sep 14

There are no free potatoes, either

Another free commercial on the basis of a photo, a story and nostalgia. I should get a free meal for this, I think.

The sign, it seems, is getting a makeover. The old neon has been stripped out. And pulling the gas-holding-gas has just shown the smear of age and wear and rain and paint. I love that sign. There’s just something about that pig face, blissfully unaware what is happening to his real life counterparts inside, grinning stupidly despite the messages often on display on the marquee just below. Hopefully they aren’t replacing the whole thing.

JNN

The Yankee and I had our first meal there — Friday was Pie Day, I said, and she said yes. I used to eat there frequently when I was still broadcasting. It wasn’t far from the station. I’ve dined there with a lot of friends. I ate there with my book tonight. I’d swam a mile and a big baked potato sounded right.

It was just the thing after only a brunch. The editorial staff at the Crimson dined with the media relations folks late this morning. I took some leftovers to have fruit for lunch, but I’d swam a mile, you see, and I can look at a body of water and get hungry. Real and hearty food was what was required tonight, and there was no Italian to be had with friends. So I had a baked potato with a book.

Things to read … becausing reading always brings around friends. Just get comfy with something great, and someone will come along to interrupt.

Learning How to Score a Job Using Social Media, for Beginners is a free email-based class, if you’re interested.

A friend sent this. I hated telling him he’s going to have to find someone else to see it with. A 15,000ft descent, sheer drops and 300 deaths a year: Welcome to Bolivia’s Death Road, the terrifying route tourists love to cycle

Ukraine: Russian forces in major rebel cities:

A Ukrainian official said Tuesday that Russian forces have been spotted in both of the major rebel-held cities in eastern Ukraine.

The claim by Col. Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for Ukraine’s national security council, came as the country’s defense minister said Ukraine’s armed forces are expanding their strategy from just fighting separatist rebels to facing the Russian army in a war that could cost “tens of thousands” of lives.

Lost in America: Visa Program Struggles to Track Missing Foreign Students:

The Department of Homeland Security has lost track of more than 6,000 foreign nationals who entered the United States on student visas, overstayed their welcome, and essentially vanished — exploiting a security gap that was supposed to be fixed after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.

“My greatest concern is that they could be doing anything,” said Peter Edge, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official who oversees investigations into visa violators. “Some of them could be here to do us harm.”

Yet another of the core competencies that DHS was created for … and it is less than a sterling success.

3 free iOS apps for visual storytelling:

(J)ournalists do not necessarily need a big budget, banks of editing software or even a desktop computer to create appealing visual stories.

These three apps for iPhone and iPad all allow you to create beautiful visual stories on the move without any special gear.

Even better, each are easy to use – and free.

When you said free, you had my attention. Shame that meal wasn’t also free.


1
Sep 14

The last two months of exercise

More time on the bike, just the tiniest bit of running and only two trips, recently, into the pool. The There is no balance, there are only the miles behind and the miles ahead:

workouts

I never posted last month’s workouts in light of everything else that was going on. So, in the interest of being a completist, here it is. The sport tabs signify swims, which also denote the week of two triathlons in seven days. Those were good times:

flags

I feel as if I need to ride more. I feel as if I need to do everything more.


25
Aug 14

First day of class

First day of classes. Get into my office, ready to print up my syllabus and various other materials, ready to walk into class ready to wow students and start the term off right. So, naturally, I got into my office a little later than I’d wanted.

No matter. I’d left plenty of margin for error.

So, naturally, my new computer isn’t speaking with the printer. No matter, I have other computers. None of them are tied into the printer yet.

No matter. Down to the department office, where there are other computers and a bigger, better printer. It took some doing, but I found a machine that I could use. And apparently I was asking the printer to produce the most sophisticated configuration of ink and white space committed to pixels in the 21st century.

It ate into class time, not the best way to start things.

But we had class, and everyone stayed awake and we are off on a wonderful adventure of writing and editing.

Later I swam 1,750 yards. I haven’t been in the pool in ages, but it turns out that I still remember how to swim poorly.

I also saw this on the back of a local repair man’s truck:

show up

I took this to mean that he’d surveyed the competition. He’d listened to his customers. He realized that there were plenty of people out there who were having trouble getting work done at home and having even more trouble getting someone out to work on the problem. He surmised that this magnet would mean something to people: I will be there.

And he’s correct. More than a few times over the years I’ve tried to have people come out to work on this or that, but was left with disappointment. This magnet sign might earn someone a try. Now, if on the other door, there was another that said “And we bring our own tools!” Then you’d be on to something.

Things to read … because reading always puts you on to something.

UAB launches an online cure for the common doctor visit:

It uses a diagnosis and treatment software system to collect a patient’s symptoms by asking a series of questions that would in other cases be asked by a clinician in a face-to-face meeting. The patient’s responses are then reviewed by a UAB clinician who provides a diagnosis and personalized treatment plan.

“eMedicine is an urgent care service that enables patients to use their desktop or mobile devices to interact with our providers,” said Dr. Stuart Cohen, medical director of primary care in UAB’s School of Medicine. “This will add to patient convenience for those who are suffering from upper respiratory infections, flu, allergies and other things very common in an urgent-care setting. It’s really a novel way to extend the physician-patient relationship.”

College Football Hall of Fame opens in Atlanta

Report: Alabama’s economy sixth slowest in the U.S.:

Business Insider noted that the state’s wages increased by 0.78 percent from 2012 to 2013, and its unemployment increased by 0.3 percent in the last year, which was the lowest rank out of the 50 states.

Alabama’s GDP growth rate was 0.8 percent in 2013, according to U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis.

This is, I believe, one of the better pieces you’ll find at Grantland: When Narratives Collide: Michael Sam Meets Johnny Football:

In our media-saturated InfoWorld, it has become easy for us to make representational action figures out of human beings who have the misfortune of capturing our massed attention.

[…]

It’s part of the deal now, and I understand that. It’s a clause in a subparagraph in the implicit contract struck between athletes and their fans that athletic celebrity is now indistinguishable from a celebrity, full stop. The camera is always on, the microphone always hot. You will stand for something even if all you want to do is sit down and catch your breath. But if you accept all this as part of the legitimate transaction of fame and celebrity, it’s your part of the bargain to understand that it’s fundamentally dehumanizing to use real people as characters in your private passion plays.

Also, they’re just football players.


19
Jul 14

Chattahoochee Challenge

This morning we took part in the Chattahoochee Challenge sprint triathlon, a comparatively easy 500-meter swim, 13-mile ride and 5K run.

The swim is in the Chattahoochee River which, today, offered us the most mild current possible. (Our last two races have been in very quiet water. May the trend continue.) Last year this race was in the middle of the wettest summer a lot of people could remember and we raced down the swim course.

Somehow my time was a few seconds slower, though my swim seemed better. Must have been that current.

The ride is through roads and bike paths and Columbus’ scenic river walk. The race and the city block off an entire lane for most of the road portion, which is very nice. It is mostly flat, which is nice. I didn’t have a flat as I did last year, which was even better. My bike time was naturally much better without the flat, but it should have been better.

The run is through the historic and flat downtown Columbus district. It was during that 5K where I wondered about the wisdom of two triathlons in a row. Last weekend’s was longer, and both demonstrated my poor conditioning. I did meet a nice 50-year-old woman who was celebrating her birthday with her second triathlon. She was having a great run just as I was coming to that conclusion. (Happy birthday, Laura!) And, somehow, my run was two minutes faster than last year, too.

It rained before the race. It stopped raining long enough to get in the water. Someone thought aloud “Wouldn’t it be neat if we had a slide start?” and no one disagreed with them.

Someone should have disagreed.

We stood in line to get in the water for about 90 minutes. The first racers had finished their races while we were standing there bored, cooling down, burning off our morning fuel and feeling feet get achy on cement.

If you have the opportunity to do a slide start to a race: don’t.

This is a good race, but if they have this feature next year I’ll skip it.

It started raining again just as I finished my bike. I caught up with The Yankee during the run. Here we are at the finish line:

us

And then it rained some more. Everything we took to the race is wet, which is OK, but it made us proud to have left some dry things in our hotel room, and made that shower even better.

Here’s my bike computer after the race. This is my average speed which isn’t bad considering you have to walk your bike both before and after the ride for safety purposes and I was trying to save something in my legs for the run.

Cateye

I should have pedaled harder. There was nothing in my legs by the end anyway.

As I said: The art, science, skill, talent and philosophy of triathlons is balancing the training and maximizing your minimums. I have no balance and many minimums.

But we had fun. Now we’re going to have ice cream, and rest.