Wednesday

photo / Rowan / Wednesday — Comments Off on There’s always new material
18
Feb 26

There’s always new material

When I write these, I work on the photo or video, and then I type away for awhile. After I type type type, sometimes I proofread them. (I … know!) And after I do all of the typing, I punch in all the little categories and then, finally, I write something as a headline. This, I think, is why the headlines are usually bad, and sometimes nonsensical. By then, I just need to get on to whatever the next thing is.

So let me explain yesterday’s title.

Working with new material, and old snow

Thursday of last week and yesterday were the first two days that I didn’t have to design a class meeting from the ground up. Oh, there are always a few things to update or add. That’s to be expected, and I did that last Wednesday and Thursday and on Monday. But what I usually find myself doing on the days before a class is building lecture notes, reading material, creating slide decks and also grading and whatever else. And by usually, I mean always. And by always I mean every time.

I’ve been running classes here for three years. In that time, I have had 14 classes. That’s pretty standard. Of those, 10 have been new preps. That’s not standard. What it is is a lot. New preps are time intensive. Three of those are classes I’ve designed from the ground up — even more time intensive. There’s a lot of thought, efforts, wrong trails, reading, course corrections, reading other stuff and so on that go in each new unit of each new class you’re developing. It’s easier when the material is there, like in some of those instances when I’ve taken over someone else’s class. Then you sink your time into that. But its easiest when you’re teaching something you’ve already taught. Then, you know it. Last Thursday, and yesterday, were the first days in all of my time here (and I’m being kind, because I could stretch this back to classes I taught in the teens) where I wasn’t in a perpetual start over mode.

It wasn’t all brand new because while I spent two days talking about fan identity and the various theories involved in my Rituals and Traditions class, I have used those in another class, and I only needed to refresh my thoughts. And last Thursday in Criticism I showed a documentary, and we discussed it then and yesterday, and I only needed to pull out my notes to make sure that I got in the key points. And then the class discussed the regular two stories, which is new, but just requires a few readings. My online class, meanwhile, I’ve taught a few times before. All the lectures are prepared, and mostly I deliver messages, keep things moving, keep people on track and, as in every class, do the grading.

This is hardly a complaint, simply an observation. Everyone sees the same thing. Maybe one day we’ll get it resolved such that I am in my own lane, carving out my own niche, and so on. That was the original idea, which has not yet been fleshed out to a plan. Maybe, though, we’re getting closer to addressing that.

Interestingly (not really), all of my classes next fall will be classes I’ve taught before. Which will be good! I’m ready for a little mental break. Just a little one. Recharge the batteries, read different new things, dream up new ideas, all of that. Of course, one of the classes I’m teaching in the fall is the online class, with which I am well acquainted. But that class will be taught in person. So I have to figure that out. And my other two classes will be converted from meeting twice a week to once a week.

There’s always new material.

And there’s always the old snow. If this sticks around until the weekend this will have been on the ground for a month. But there’s good news. It’s finally warming up a little. And look what moved in overnight.

Fog equals moisture, and that’s one of the things we’ve been missing these last many weeks. That and reasonable temperatures. Moisture speeds up the melting. It’s the heat brought about by condensation. So all of that fog is a good thing. We are no longer in an arctic desert.

Today I shoveled the sidewalk. That was my work break. I shoveled the sidewalk because we left it alone after the last round of snow three-plus weeks ago. We stood in the driveway, cold and tired and I said “Are you expecting any deliveries?” My lovely bride said she was not. So I said hang it. No one is coming over and this doesn’t need to get done right now. I stand by the decision, but I didn’t realize it’d be 24 days until I did it. Oh, widened the driveway. We helped dig out a neighbor. And I helped another neighbor find her sidewalk again, but my own wasn’t a priority. And then, Monday, a delivery guy did show up, and he just hurled something from a great distance at the door.

Not that I blame him. Who knows how much ice and snow that guy has dealt with, and how many times he’s risked a sprained this or a twisted that in these last several weeks.

Fortunately, the ice is giving a way just a bit, and most of the sidewalk cleaned up easily.

The cats are doing great, and acting much more like themselves. I was pleased to enjoy a great purring cuddle last night. Back to normal. Back to hi-jinx. Back to happy.

And, now, back to class prep.

There’s always new material.

adventures / Philadelphia / photo / video / Wednesday — Comments Off on A first, two firsts, three firsts, maybe
11
Feb 26

A first, two firsts, three firsts, maybe

This snow and ice is never going to melt. Mostly because it has nowhere to go. The conditions have not been conducive to condensation, which would hurry the process along. Instead, the air has been cold, unceasingly, and relentlessly dry. Oh, you can see some rooftops now, asphalt shingles darkened by the moisture that has sat on them for almost three weeks now, but that’s just false hope. It’s nothing but this from here on in.

Those hours of sleet we had last month seemed like a lovely thing at the time. We had all the groceries we needed, no travel planned and I’d pulled out every light source and battery we own as a therapeutic just-in-case. We never lost power. You could get out and drive again on the bigger roads on the third and fourth day — if you could get to those bigger roads.

Mostly, it’s just boring. Going outside is nice. Looking out the window and seeing grass and trees and things is nice. Instead, I just stare through curtains and blinds, thinking about the things you can’t do.

It’s never about the things I should be doing, which is weird.

Today I did class prep for tomorrow’s classes.

It occurred to me when I was wrapping that up that this was a unique day of class prep. I always spend at least the day before building or finishing and polishing the next day’s classwork. Today was the first time I have ever not had to build it all out from scratch. Ever? Ever. Two classes tomorrow, and I didn’t have to start all over to get ready. I spent my time reviewing notes from previous lectures that I am going to use tomorrow. First time ever.

The first class I taught was in … what? In 2009?

The really nice thing is that next Monday/Tuesday this will happen again. Twice in a row! But then the streak ends. Still, this is nice, and the way it should be more often. One day it will be, perhaps. We’ll see. We don’t know that, but we’ll see.

I’ve never liked “we’ll see,” but it is an inescapable sentence.

We drove over the river this evening. Parked in a parking deck. Walked a few blocks to where we were going. Shivered part of the way, because I did not carry a coat, because I didn’t realize all of that. But, hey, that’s my fault and no one else’s. Anyway, it was warm where we were going. And they had a restroom and food, and also the evening’s entertainment.

We walked into this little comedy club, which was some slightly larger room behind an empty bar. Probably the joint sat 100, 120 people. Cozy little place. Unless you were sitting right at the back of the room you probably felt like you were sitting right at the stage. It felt both dusty, but clean. And a little shopworn. Three long steps would get you across the stage and the back wall was a faded old cityscape mural.

It made me think, as comedy clubs always do, about how comedians in my hometown would brag about our venue when they played there. The Stardome was one of the best in the country, they’d say. In my very limited experience, they were right! Also, that place has a real menu. This place offered three sandwiches, three pizzas and drinks. They didn’t have a drink minimum, they had an item minimum. Extortionate so-and-sos. But I choose to think that means all of the money from tickets goes to the performers, which is a nice thought.

We saw Kristen Key this evening. She got her break from one of those comedy variety reality show things, but we discovered her on Instagram a few years ago. This was the first time she was in the same city we were in at the same time, and so of course we went. (She was also at the concert last night, and now I think she’s following us.)

Her Instagram feed is full of clips of her Q&A period, but here’s a set piece from another show, which we saw this evening.

And here’s another song.

The questions she got during this show were … not good. Someone was looking for love. Someone else’s relative is a huge fan but couldn’t make it because of a medical procedure. A third person was looking for some sort of dating advice she could share. Someone asked about her favorite song from last night’s Brandi Carlile concert. And someone asked what her favorite Winter Olympic sport is and why is not curling. She said her favorite sport was curling.

She got the standing ovation in the little club at the end, and got a little teary about it. And then she was standing out front to meet people as they left, spending several minutes with anyone that asked, which was nice. She mad a video for the person who couldn’t be there because of health reasons. We talked with her for a moment, and she, of course, told us to come back the next time she’s in town, and we will, especially since I just thought I should ask her to record an outgoing voicemail message for me.

baseball / journalism / photo / Rowan / sports / Wednesday — Comments Off on I found Bigfoot, he’s looking for money, same as everyone
4
Feb 26

I found Bigfoot, he’s looking for money, same as everyone

Below the little banner is the summary of Tuesday. Here, above it, is a brief recounting of Wednesday.

I woke up, did all of the morning’s readings, did the email work. I had lunch. I had a meeting with faculty. I did more email. I wrote a message for my online class. I will send it, some 600 words of insight and updates and cheerful wisdom, tomorrow. I also finished prep for both of tomorrow’s classes. In one, we will talk about a few more typologies, I will stretch two pages of notes into 25 minutes and then we will develop questions for a survey. (I have seven of them already written down, but I’m only showing them three. Don’t tell.) In the other class we will watch a documentary. I also graded some stuff that needed grading. (Everyone did well, as expected; hopefully they’ll keep it up.)

I met with a student and solved several problems. The first problem was how to make Zoom work for both of us. The second problem was about how to do an assignment. Happy to help! The third problem: “How I am explaining something so poorly to this crop of students, when I have explained this same thing, with precisely this same language, to students in 2025 and 2024?” Parts of that problem may never be solved.

I also set up a meeting for Friday. Now I have two Friday meetings. One is at a very precise time, because faculty are keen on precision of schedules. The other is right now “friday works !” But, dear student, Friday does not work. A specific time would work. It is to be a Zoom meeting, sure, but I’ve done the sit in front of a Zoom window waiting for someone to show up all day thing a few times (ahhhh, 2020 …) and that’s too big an ask at this point. Open up your daily planner and figure out a good, specific time and we will have a grand and productive chat.

We’ll get there.

After all of this, it was time to catch up on the evening’s worth of reading.

I do a lot of reading. I think more of it is going to start coming from international media, and also books.

Do not get me started on the Washington Post, lest I bring out my press section banner and write a thousand brisk words about the obvious incompatibility between oligarchs and watchdog journalism, and the cute way little masthead slogans presage the ending of legacy media.

Instead, yesterday!

This was the view on the way to campus Tuesday. Everything looks exactly like this. This all fell from the sky Saturday night and Sunday a week ago. Monday, I helped a neighbor dig out their sidewalk, because this stuff is going nowhere. The longterm useless forecast says we might see 39 degrees Wednesday of next week. Maybe 40 on Friday!

That’d be a full three weeks under 40. That seems … excessive.

In Rituals and Traditions — Rits and Trads if you’re in a hurry — we discussed why we watch sports. I had a list of typologies to share. As we talked about the reasons why people watched sports they managed to list five of the six typologies I had listed before I put them on the screen. So now I’m a magician.

Then I broke them into their groups, because group work will be an important part of the class, and we’re heading that direction rapidly now.

In my Criticism class we talked about our first two stories of the semester. We discussed this story out of Texas.

The Liga Venezolana is a local example of how the millions of Venezeulans who have scattered across the Americas have brought with them an invigorating enthusiasm for the “American Pastime.” Leaving behind a country rife with political and economic turbulence and arriving in new landscapes where they are often scapegoated in political rhetoric, they have used the sport they know best to root themselves in a sense of home.

The league immigrants have created in Austin is far from the popularly imagined recreational softball scene of on-field beers and calm. The Liga Venezolana’s fans know how to intimidate. Its teams operate social media accounts. Many of its players, like Mao, have recorded strikeouts or stolen bases as pros on minor league teams. The league keeps stats and operates livestreams. Its intensity has made it a social focal point for the fast-growing Venezuelan immigrant community that has settled in North Austin, Pflugerville, Cedar Park and Leander in recent years. Since 2021, the league has ballooned from four to 22 teams and from about 70 to 600 players.

We also talked about this story.

Dr. Christopher Ahmad, Tommy John expert and head team physician for the New York Yankees, has performed the surgery on some of the biggest names in baseball. But he has also been privy to the other side of the story.

“The alarms are going off on how devastating this problem is to the youngest players,” he says in an interview with CNN Sports.

“When I first started doing Tommy John surgery about 25 years ago, the population who I was operating on who needed the surgery were essentially very high-level players – they were college prospects destined to be professional, or professional players.

“Now, the population who needs the surgery most are kids.”

Of the 10-15 Tommy John surgeries that he performs every week, Ahmad estimates that between eight and 10 are on high school children, with some even still in middle school.

For a first week of talking about stories, the interactions were pretty good. Started strong, and faded away a bit, perhaps. But we’ll get it there.

I tried, during that class, to play some audio, but the sound was tricky. Knowing I was going to show a documentary, I stuck around to tinker with it. Eventually my lovely bride came in to look for me. Then a woman who had a later class came in to get ready. I don’t know how many degrees we all have, but it took that many degrees to solve the problem, a problem I finally figured out by … adjusting the volume.

To be fair, there are a lot of options and buttons and switches.

Opposite from the elevators in our building are TV monitors and they’re programmed with the time and weather and promoting various events and services. Pretty standard stuff, usually. Sometimes something interesting is on the screen and I can see it for 2.7 seconds, just long enough to realize it is interesting, but not long to read it all. And there are a lot of things to promote. No one, not even me, is going to stand there and wait for the interesting thing to pop back up again.

But sometimes the elevator is slow, and sometimes you can catch a good one.

That’s the total promo. No contact info, no club or school or department affiliation, no deadlines listed. But it’s intriguing enough, I guess. Unless they, whoever they are, are trying to tell people that winning a scholarship is as likely as seeing Nelly, or Bigfoot, or aliens. Clearly it raises more questions than answers. More space was needed, I guess.

Older analog styles are the way to go with sophisticated messaging that has a lot of words, or dates, or URLs. Our building doesn’t have a lot of bulletin boards, which is a bit of a shame. I love taking a few moments to read the useful things, the random things, learn about new clubs and interest groups, and enjoy the truly wacky stuff people produce for public billboards. It’s cleaner and neater, sure, but we are just a tiny bit the lesser for it.

OK, now, on Wednesday, I’ve written about Tuesday and Wednesday. You know what that means for tomorrow, then, right? Back on schedule again. You’re relieved, I can tell from here.

cycling / maps / photo / Wednesday — Comments Off on I am so far ahead I can see tomorrow
28
Jan 26

I am so far ahead I can see tomorrow

Lovely day, if you like living at a pole, and the color white, and ice everywhere. I’ve been trying to count how many times I’ve experienced a snow that persisted — this snow came down Sunday and will be with us for at least another week. It is a small number of experiences. And now there’s talk of another snow system this weekend.

I’d like to just … not. I still have shovel shoulders from Sunday and Monday.

Productive day, today. Emails were fired off with abandon. I prepared two lectures. This was made all the trickier because we did not have classes on Tuesday, and because we are right at the beginning of the term, where I am trying to set up the definitions and paradigms we’ll be using throughout the semester.

For my Criticism class, where I told them I would lecture this week and they would see why the rest of the semester is conversation-based, I’ll have 75 minutes to try to make the points that should take up about two hours worth of material. Also, I am Frankensteining two lectures to do that. Duct tape and PowerPoint presentations will see me through. What could go wrong? In my Rituals and Traditions class I will combine a brief guest appearance with some further elaboration on the slides I sent them online on Tuesday. Again, two days in one, just to set the tone for the entire class. What could go wrong?

Students in my online class received the second of three notes they’ll get from me this week. This one was a 791-word, tightly written, well-edited walkthrough of a sequence of the course that amounts to 20 percent of their grade. I put a lot of time into that letter because I know how much students are inclined to read these days. And I’ve been working on it over the course of three semesters now. (Given my process for these messages, that means it’s gone through at least nine editing passes at this point.) It is a good letter. Helpful, expressive, detailed, precisely to the point at hand. I send it to their inbox and post it on our class CMS. Now I just have to hope they’ll give it a look.

Perhaps the most productive thing I did today, though, was lay out the rest of my week. The least productive thing I’ll do the rest of the week is ignore most of that plan.

The best thing I’ll do is highlight the kitties, because they’re famous and popular, just ask them. So let’s do that.

If you like belly rubs, raise your paw.

Phoebe really likes belly rubs. She held her paw up for a good long while … just so long as the belly rubs continued.

The birds are feasting at the feeder, because, I think, several of their food sources are under a lot of snow and ice.
And so BirbTV has been a big hit around here. So much so that Poseidon doesn’t even care what he’s standing on, so long as he gets a closer look.

The cats are doing just fine. Though they would also like it to be just a bit warmer.

I wonder how it registers when they look out of the windows and see how different things are with so much white stuff on the ground. Lately, though, I’ve noticed they’re not as keen on trying to get outside as normal. It feels like four below out as I write this.

This evening I got away from the cold and went to Torano, Italy, where it is somehow 30 degrees warmer than here. I’m not saying we’re packing up and moving, but this was a delightful little valley ride. You can see it here.

Rouvy puts you in a video that someone recorded, and layers your avatar over the footage. As you can see from this screengrab, I was riding in the Italian summer.

And look at that mountain up ahead, there’s still snow up there. Here’s a few of that same feature, a few miles farther along in my ride.

Those cyclists are not a part of my ride. They are real people that were captured on the video. If I rode this route again, I suspect I’d seem them at pretty much the same spot, no matter how slow or fast I’d gone. (I averaged about 24 miles per hour on this ride (it had some nice downhills), which is the best ride I’ve had in a while. I churned out almost 600 watts for a bit, and regretted it the rest of the way.) Same for the other two people I caught up to, who I caught at a left-hand turn. They put out their hands to signal the turn and it looked like they were waving at me as I went by. I’ll see them in that valley again, should I visit. Or so I suppose. And my avatar would catch the same red light in Grosotto, or Lovero, whichever little village I was breezing through. My avatar just disappeared for a moment, while the video (and the car or whatever was shooting the footage) worked through the stop. A blip that felt like a Twilight Zone moment, which would be fun, if everyday didn’t already have a hefty dose of them.

Tomorrow, we’ll go to campus. I wonder what the roads will be like.

adventures / cycling / errands / photo / Rowan / Wednesday — Comments Off on From my well to Norway
21
Jan 26

From my well to Norway

Got around to calling the well guy today. Your well is due an inspection every two years, turns out. I’m only a few weeks behind. We had them out to do the inspect in 2023, and not a minute too soon. The old one was about to rust out and explode. What had started as a well inspection appointment grew a bit alarming for me in the days running up to the actual visit. When the crew got here the guy said I could replace the tank now, or wait until it exploded, which would, he said, be soon.

Thanks for the options, pal.

The guy had a new one right there on the truck. These, he assured me, are much better. Fiberglass never rusts. Well sign me up, and keep the water off my floor. And you might think this sounds like a very sophisticated confidence game from the well guy, but the rust that was everywhere looked plenty authentic.

Anyway, time marches on. The well provides water. Many showers were enjoyed, dishes washed, water bowls filled, etc. Everything behaves more or less as it should. We are pleased with this sequence of events. We made the right choice in replacing it that November day.

But now I have to call to set up that inspection. Because they don’t have a service calling to remind people, which seems like an opportunity lost, if you ask me. Also, the water running through our house is making an odd noise just now, which seems like the beginning of a problem, if you ask me. Also, as I noticed this morning when I went down to the well to verify I had the right phone number, I noticed that there was suddenly an error code on the water softener device. Error 102, which I’ve since looked up, could mean any number of things.

So I called the guy.

And he’s a genial fellow. He is also slammed because of the snowpacolypse rolling in this weekend, and can we schedule something next week?

Sure, I say, but first you have to convince me that these problems I’m telling you about aren’t going to do me in between now and then. He assures me with the practiced, steady tone of a man who’s been dealing with all of this for too long.

And what he’s dealing with here is that fiberglass tank. He said he bought a bunch of those. All but two of them went back to the manufacturer, because they’re krep. Guess who has one of the two. The guy said he’s taken it in the teeth on these things, and he’s going to again. This is under warranty.

He tells me we can live our lives for a few more days and nothing we’ll go wrong and I guess we’ll see. He’s getting another phone call as soon as the roads clear.

I had a checkup at the dermatologist late this morning. Good thing I took all of my skin with me. This was a simple follow-up after they carved a little piece of my back off last fall. I think it took longer for me to take off and put on clothes again than the whole of the appointment.

I got the once over, under a flashlight. He froze one little mark off my shin. It’s nothing, probably stays a nothing, but just in case. Would that all of life’s problems could be dispatched so quickly. But if you can avoid getting that frozen spray in life, do that. That stayed with me for most of the afternoon.

Turns out they left a sliver’s worth of stitching in the skin on my shoulder The assistant tweezed that out before I even realized she was back there.

I set up another appointment for the summer. Because of the spot they took off last fall they want me back every six months to study my alabaster skin. The doctor would not commit to how long we’ll be running at this pace. You’d get the sense from talking with them that being dismissive of it all is SOP.

Guess what conversation we’ll be having with them at my July appointment.

My lovely bride and I then had a nice lunch date. We enjoyed a few minutes of not doing other things at Chick-fil-A. It seems a good prescriptive. I’m glad I thought of it.

Since we were there, we stopped at Lowe’s. I picked up some 4SL 5W-30 oil for the snow blower. “Everyone’s getting ready,” said the woman who was working in the outdoors section.

I thought she could put that perfunctory cheer away, put a little panic in her voice, and help goose this week’s sales figures.

We cruised the light fixture aisle, because that’s what one does when one goes to a place with many fixtures and bulbs, but one also did not think to bring the TWO different specialty bulbs (for comparison) that need replacing. Then we went to the tool section. Brad nails, if you please. And hey, since I’m here, a few new fine-toothed jig saw blades.

One impulse purchase isn’t terribly impulsive, particularly if it A.) won’t spoil and B.) you have an eventual need for it’s use. (Just as soon as the weather turns.)

Then we headed to campus for a late afternoon faculty meeting. While working in the office, I received this email.

I wondered How far from the base of the building can I fling my computer? A good way, I’d imagine. My office is on the 6th floor.

Look, it’s one thing for young people and/or whining adults to mangle the language, turning an adjective into a present participle, but I am going to demand a little more from the marketing whizzes hired by the health system.

And don’t think I won’t bring that up to them, the next time I go to see my doctor and run into the direct mail tech team.

At our faculty meeting, well, faculty met. Things were discussed. Successes celebrated, grievances distributed. New policies were announced.

Then at home, in the driveway, I just missed the sunset, and the Canada geese.

Oh, they honk and they honk, they can’t help themselves. But while you can discern the direction, at that time of night you can’t get everything to work just right, camera-wise. I have a cool blurry one though, if anyone is interested.

I decided to take an FTP test. Your classic functional threshold power test, a ramp test, is a way to gauge your current level of fitness. I don’t really need to take this because my current level is: unfit. On a ramp test, and this is oh-so-interesting, you add power every minute and keep riding until you can’t. I sat up a bit early, I could have done more, maybe a little bit more, but I wanted to also cover some casual miles. Besides, this test showed an increase of 15 percent in my recent FTP.

I was riding somewhere in Norway.

Not very well, mind you, because, again, see above, unfit. But a January baseline is established. And now I can ride and see if it will improve.

And then I did the 10 miles or so around Plum Island, Massachusetts. Wikipedia:

The island is named for the wild beach plum shrubs that grow on its dunes, but is also famous for the purple sands at high tide, which derive their color from tiny crystals of pink pyrope garnet.

And it all sounds lovely. Looks it, too!

A bit farther down the Wikipedia page, there’s a list of beach and dune pests. And while, just a moment ago I wanted to go to northeaster Massachusetts and see this barrier island, I have now realized that things are so bad that each of these have subheadings on Wikipedia: Greenhead flies, ticks, mosquitoes, poison ivy.

That same place on the island, on Google Maps.

Want to see where I was on the FTP test? Somewhere just outside of Hjelle.

My avatar is riding in the Strynefjellet Mountains:

Here you will find a true wilderness, inhabited only by birds and animals adapted to an arctic climate, perhaps a predator in search of prey, a wild reindeer, a golden eagle, or sheep in summer pastures. Here there is plenty of space – and plenty of time. Change down to a lower gear and head into the mountains.

You think, “Norway in January, brr and no thank you.” Their weekend forecast and mine is about the same temperature. We’re expecting all of that snow — or maybe some of it, truly, no one knows, because who needs robust weather forecasting capabilities in the 21st century? — but in the Strynefjellet Mountains, they are under a Yellow Warning for Avalanches. I clicked that, and I am left to conclude that this is so commonplace that they don’t even include details. The blurb basically says, Don’t do it if you don’t have experience.

Not to worry, Norway, not to worry.

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