swimming

friends / I do not know what is happening. / links / Monday / swimming / things to read — Comments Off on The traditional poor-quality headline above a Monday post
17
Feb 14

The traditional poor-quality headline above a Monday post

And so begins one of the longer weeks of the year. It involves travel. And when there is travel that means return travel. This will be done by car, so there’s a lot of windshield time involved. I’m exhausted already.

But, hey, life is grand. The sun is out. I got to teach today. We talked about social media and then wrote for a while. I had a catch-up session for a few students on WordPress.

I also typed and printed things. Probably emailed far too many detailed email things. You know how that goes.

Then I hit the pool. I swam 1,350 yards — that’s .77 miles — in a pool that was as warm as bathwater. It might sound great, but it felt pretty gross by the end. Despite the short distance and poor form and lack of fitness I’m going to take that one tidbit alone, the pool was too warm, as a sign that I’m becoming a swimmer.

I do not know what is happening.

We stopped swimming because we were meeting Kim and Murph for Thai for dinner. We sat in the most dimly lit restaurant in town and ate noodles and chatted almost until they ran us out. It was nice to see them outside of a football tailgating context. They’re still just some of the loveliest people you could meet.

I feel like I don’t get to eat with an entire table full of sweet people like my wife and Kim and Murphy every night. But I should. (And not just because they are foodies.)

Things to read … because we all like to read.

Heh. New York takes a Twitter beating as news of Remington’s move to Alabama emerges:

Reports Remington Outdoor Co. plans to open a new manufacturing facility in Huntsville are being greeted with cheers in Alabama. That’s not the case in New York, however.

[…]

Gov. Cuomo’s office took to social media over the weekend to refute claims New York didn’t want the Remington jobs.

That’s not stopping people from firing back at Cuomo and the state’s strict gun regulations.

This says a lot, little of it good. For First Time in History, Democrats Won’t Run Anyone for U.S. Senate in Alabama:

Alabama holds an election for U.S. Senate in 2014. Republican Senator Jeff Sessions is running for re-election. For the first time in Alabama history, the Democrats are not running anyone for U.S. Senate. Here is a list of Democrats running in the June 2014 primary for federal and state office.

There are no Democrats running for U.S. House in the 4th and 5th districts. For the 140 state legislative races, no Democrats are running in 57 races. There are no Democrats running for these additional statewide posts: Justice of the Supreme Court, Public Service Commissioner seat #1, and Public Service Commissioner seat #2.

That degree of homogeny can hardly be good in the long run.

Just about the dumbest thing you can read today. Good Samaritan Backfire: How I Ended Up in Solitary After Calling 911 for Help:

As a result of my efforts to help injured bicyclists by calling 911, I was, in short order: separated from my friend, violently tackled, arrested, taken to county jail, stripped and left in a solitary cell. I am writing this story because, if it could happen to me, it could happen to you, and I feel the need to do something to help prevent this brutality from propagating.

The charges were ultimately dropped, but everything that came before it in that tale, if accurate, is well beyond the boundary of acceptable behavior from several of the law enforcement officers involved.

North Korea is fascinating. North Korea is horrifying. North Korean prison abuse sketches – in pictures.

76ers sign Kevin Grow to 2-day deal:

Kevin Grow, a high school senior with Down syndrome who lives in the Philadelphia area, has been signed by the Philadelphia 76ers to a ceremonial two-day contract.

Grow scored 14 points including three 3-pointers and a buzzer beater over the final two games of the varsity season after Bensalem High School coaches put him, the team’s four-year manager, in the lineup.

That almost makes me want to become a basketball fan.

Almost.

(Though you have to like the Sixers now.)

Auburn / food / Friday / I do not know what is happening. / photo / swimming — Comments Off on Your typical, lovely Friday
14
Feb 14

Your typical, lovely Friday

The scene earlier this week at Cheaha, Alabama’s highest point. Today, depending on where you were, it was mild and clear or mild and overcast with the occasional shower. Cheaha, which will likely be closed for several days for cleanup, got up to 58 today and had sunny skies, with rain later.

All of this is how you know that spring is about to make her entrance. When nothing makes sense it all clicks into comprehension, meteorologically speaking.

This morning I had a BLT for breakfast. Later I swam 2,850 yards — and some of it wasn’t bad. And I did some other things, too.

We went to the gym meet this evening:

gymnastics

Auburn hosted fifth-ranked Alabama, a team whom they’ve never beaten in the history of gymnastics. But they’re getting really, really close. By the time the number 12 Tigers were on the beam they were only a few hundredths of a point behind with the floor still to go. It was apparent that it would come down to either a Bama stumble on the beam or the last routine on the floor for Auburn.

gymnastics

The fourth rotation came along. Bama held a slim, but sure lead. Auburn was still in striking distance. We were still in an anything-could-happen atmosphere.

gymnastics

And hope springs eternal, for the numbers are good and Auburn’s tiny powerhouse Bri Guy is up to anchor the floor routine and close the meet. And on her first tumbling pass Guy stumbled out of her leap and then fell harsh and hard to the ground. There were a scary few moments:

gymnastics

They put her in an air cast, sat her on a gurney and wheeled her out of the Arena. The crowd chanted “We love Bri! We love Bri!” and she flashed that adorable, big smile she has and waved to everyone as Alabama’s gymnasts and Auburn’s looked on. Later they would pray together, stunned by the scary moment that could have been any of them.

(Update: She reportedly tore both of her Achilles’. One apparently on the way up and perhaps the other on the way down. Despite all of that she narrowly avoided landing on her neck and head. Sadly, her junior season is done.)

Auburn lost, but posted their second highest score in the history of the program. They’re getting closer all the time.

And then, later tonight we laughed with a friend at the local barbecue joint. We made a new friend there, too. And then they kicked us out because they all wanted to go home.

It was a fine day.

cycling / I do not know what is happening. / journalism / links / photo / running / swimming / things to read / Tuesday — Comments Off on I’d really rather not talk about the weather
11
Feb 14

I’d really rather not talk about the weather

Another day closer to the weather and we’re coming to the realization that it’ll hit us but good.

There are some things we have to keep in mind about winter in the South. First, it is hard to forecast. This is a dynamic region and the one-two punch we’re getting this week has major elements coming from the west, down from the north and up from the Gulf of Mexico. The forecast models change almost by the hour.

Meteorologists are more than happy to share those long-range models and, I’m half-convinced, they just confuse people who really shouldn’t be confused about winter weather.

Also, it isn’t the snow that’s the problem. Except when it is. Our snow is usually wet. And what often happens is the snow melts, the temperature drops and then we have great sheets of ice over everything. You drive on that.

You drive on that, because I’m staying inside.

And all of that may happen again this week. Most of the worst of it, right now, seems to be aiming for Georgia and the Carolinas. But we’ll have plenty, thanks.

Already the weather has canceled the student newspaper this week. It is due out tomorrow, but the printer is to our north, and they are expecting to get walloped. So on and on the fun goes.

To take our minds off that fun, here’s a shot of Allie, The Black Cat, sunbathing on Sunday:

Allie

That afternoon we decided, hey, it is a beautiful day, let’s run a sprint triathlon.

So we went to the pool. I had my new goggles and we swam our 650 yards. I started out too fast, which was a paradoxical decision as I am slow in the pool. And so I suffered with that for a while. I figured I would redeem myself on the bicycle, where I thought I would be able to hammer it a bit. So down the big hill and up the smaller, other side. Around part of the bypass, up another hill through campus. I got stopped at a red light, turned around and there was The Yankee. I was sure she would be nowhere to be found, but she was having a great ride.

Up through an old neighborhood, hang a left and then a right. I took a road I don’t think I’ve ever pedaled on before, but a road where we once looked at two houses. I finished the 14-mile route just a minute or two before she did, but she also caught a light I did not.

So I guess I’ll have to win in the run. We ran the first half of our 5K together, because it wasn’t a race. It was a beautiful, glorious, day for an hour and change outside, in shorts and t-shirts, in the sunshine.

We ran a sprint triathlon on a whim, making us those people. Last summer I did three of them, suffering and struggling and dreading them and only enjoying them after they were over — enjoying the knowledge that I’d completed them. (For this I get to thank Bud Frankenthaler, who two years ago I watched finishing a triathlon at the age of 79. If he could do it, the rest of us don’t have a lot of excuses, right? Thanks Mr. Frankenthaler. He will probably outpace me somewhere this year, too.) Today there were no bib numbers, no massage table, no timing chips. We did it for fun. Had a great time, too. I want to do it again. Let’s go next weekend.

I do not know what is happening.

Tomorrow we’ll have snow.

Things to read … because links will keep us all warm.

These are just the links, enjoy clicking through the ones that interest you.

Writing headlines that get clicks

IndyStar staffers read your mean comments

Drone use highlights questions for journalists

First Listen: St. Paul And The Broken Bones, ‘Half The City’ — This is a good band, a local group, that’s about to make it big. Some of the musicians are from Samford, too.

And now I’m going to go buy things on the Internet. Who delivers milk and bread?

links / photo / swimming / things to read / weekend — Comments Off on Just a day of Olympics
8
Feb 14

Just a day of Olympics

This won’t take long. We sat on the sofa and watched television all day. The Yankee loves the Olympics, she does a lot of her research on the topic. And it was nice to just sit down for a while.

Here are a few things to read, though, on your lovely Saturday. Deadspin has a bit on NBC’s selective gatekeeping:

Russia’s anti-gay laws have been a major focus in the lead-up to the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, and during his address at today’s opening ceremony IOC president Thomas Bach made a strong statement against “any form of discrimination” and in favor of tolerance. Viewers worldwide heard the statement; NBC viewers in the U.S. did not, because the network edited it out.

[…]

This is the second time in two years that NBC has made at least one ill-advised edit from its tape-delayed Olympic opening ceremony broadcast.

They’ve got both versions of the speech, if you are so inclined. NBC, since you want to be well-advised before jumping to your conclusion, says the edits are about programming run time.

Why every child should learn to code:

Anyone can learn to code. In a few hours you can pick up the basic skills and in a few weeks you will be able to build useful applications and websites.

In the last few years, the UK has finally woken up to the importance of coding. Organisations like Young Rewired State, Code Club and Code Academy have led the way, helping young people learn these key skills.

Why is it so vital that we teach our children to code? We are already living in a world dominated by software. Your telephone calls go over software-controlled networks; your television is delivered over the internet; people don’t buy maps anymore, they use the web; we all shop online. The next generation’s world will be even more online and digital. Soon, your house will be controlled with software, some of your medical care will be delivered over the web and your car may even drive itself.

Software is becoming a critical layer of all our lives. It is the language of our world. In the future, not knowing the language of computers will be as challenging as being illiterate or innumerate are today.

I bought new goggles tonight. We have one of those giant sporting goods stores about three miles from home and they stay open late. They had exactly one end cap, hidden at the back of the store, with swimming gear.

I picked up these:

goggles

They are comfortable. They feel like a mask, more than goggles, which will always be a win to me. Tomorrow I’ll give them a try. I’m sure none of the Olympic swimmers and national champions and All Americans we see from time to time would be caught wearing these. And I might get laughed at because these probably aren’t terribly hydrodynamic, but that’s the least of my worries in the water.

And, finally:

adventures / Friday / friends / photo / swimming / Twitter — Comments Off on Check your egg rolls for bugs and the store owner for guns
7
Feb 14

Check your egg rolls for bugs and the store owner for guns

We’re at Walmart. There are two checkout lines open. And each line has about 20 people in it. One of the two lines is for the Express lane, which is more a state of mind than an indicator of progress or even a goal to which anyone abscribed. Such is your lot in life at Walmart. I’d say late at night, but increasingly, this seems to be the case no matter the time of day you’re there.

So The Yankee goes to the other line, figuring one of us will have to move eventually, because Disney World doesn’t stay stagnant forever, and the winner can call the other person halfway across the store to the other line. By now I’ve made friends with the young couple in front of us. The Yankee’s line starts to move. She waves me over. Our new buddies come to. The girl says to the boy, “They have to be first … ” and he says of course.

About this time two other families slink into that line. And my new friend says “Actually, we’ll be behind them.”

And his date, a charming young woman, says “No we won’t, we’re going in right after him.”

To which I said, “Yep.” So I fell in line behind my wife. This couple fell in line behind me and four people with tons of stuff had to wait because, By Walton, we’d all been there for an interminable amount of time.

Maybe the place was in shock about the massacre in the Valentine’s Day part of the store:

animals

I broke my swimming goggles today. I’m always struggling with them in one way another, fighting the creeping water or exasperated at the slowly accumulating fog. Even if I wanted to swim non-stop I’d be stopped just so I can see. I’m forever closing one eye or both and just guessing. So, somewhere in a bad swim today, I pulled up and pulled on the straps, and broke them.

The nicest thing about the googles was that there was plenty of strap, because this is the kind that allows for a strip of the rubber to go around the bottom and the top of the back of your head. I spent a long time trying to reconfigure them today, finally got it to work, and found that it was no better.

Oh well. It was a lousy swim anyway, even by my poor standards.

This afternoon I had a nice meeting with industrial designer Chris Arnold. We are trying to tease out a few interesting things to explore in the journalism world. This conversation goes on and on, which means there is a need to refine some ideas. But Chris is a long-time Twitter friend, and it is always nice to get to spend more than few moments in passing with thoughtful people.

We watched the live-on-tape Opening Ceremonies with friends at a party. Some people dressed up as their favored nations. I think we all told each other we were Canadians. One woman wore a ushanka, with the standard Soviet pin, and she did so without irony. There were artists there, so they were thrilled with the constructivism, which was neat to see. One of the art historians there was a woman at the party from Belarus, and she got to hear her national anthem and gave us some context for some things.

I promised myself I’d limit the number of things I said about the Opening Ceremonies, so I’ve limited it to the above and just a few tweets:

The two overly annoying phrases that NBC developed for their embarrassing coverage: “This is highly idealized” and “pivotal experiment.” I’m not sure whether they were talking about the Soviet era or themselves.

Things to read … because this part of the daily post is always pivotal, even when it is quick.

You can admit it, you can’t wait until these become ubiquitous: Cruise Ship’s 80-Inch ‘Virtual Balconies’ Livestream the High Seas

The kindness of strangers always awes us: Snow can’t stop the Southeast’s largest kidney transplant chain at UAB

This is a regrettable portmanteau, but a fine read: Rise of the Platishers

A record month here, the coldest in a generation: The Alabama Climate Report

The Snowden era of journalism:

Snowden has prompted a free-for-all among journalists itching to tell America’s surveillance secrets, an important generational shift as the nation faces years of growing debate about privacy in an increasingly wired world. The litany of stories come not just from the handful of reporters with access to the former NSA contractor’s treasure-trove of documents but also from competitors eagerly searching for scoops to move the dial on what has become one of the biggest stories of the decade.

“For years … it was like the number of articles to come out on NSA you could count on the fingers on one hand,” said James Bamford, who has written four books on government surveillance. “Now it’s almost impossible to keep up.”

“What we’ve seen with the Snowden revelations is the impact that putting documents out there really has,” added Siobhan Gorman, a national security reporter for The Wall Street Journal, during a recent panel discussion hosted by Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and the Reporter’s Committee for Freedom of the Press.

I’ve been thinking about this for a while. For example: You can have a robot vacuuming your floor, not unlike the Jetsons. That’s existed for some time now. But no one really wanted a Roomba until you saw it as DJ Roomba on Parks and Recreation. Anyway: Technology? We haven’t seen anything yet.

Headline of the day: Birmingham restaurant owner accused of shooting at customer who complained of bug in egg roll.

Let’s not eat there.

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