Wednesday « Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

Wednesday

Samford / Wednesday — Comments Off
21
Sep 11

Not a lot, just enough

A day of reading, writing and grading. The writing and the grading seemed to dominate.

I also worked on a lecture for class.

There were a few meetings, conversations with colleagues, drafting a student into some social media work, critiquing the newspaper, making sure the Crimson’s site looked respectable. I like the new design, and played around in the guts of it for a while today.

The only other things that happened were a morning trip to the gym — I lifted weights, brah. There was a marginally unhealthy lunch, because I’d lifted weights. I followed that up with a working dinner that a rabbit would find delicious.

A full day in four paragraphs. That’s not disconcerting at all.

I wrote that thinking “That is disconcerting, actually.” The more I think of it, though, I’m OK with that. Paragraphs are ideas and actions. Make them worthwhile, right?

journalism / links / Samford / Wednesday — Comments Off
14
Sep 11

Still a busy week

Have you ever written one thing over and over?

Yeah. That’s where I am today.

Anyway, the second issue of this year’s paper is out. Looks pretty nice, too.

Lots of areas the hardworking student-journalists can be proud of. Lots of areas for them to improve. That’s about where you should be in the second week.

You can see all the stories online at the also newly relaunched samfordcrimson.com

And now back to the same paragraphs of the same paper. I hate when that happens.

journalism / memories / Samford / Wednesday — Comments Off
7
Sep 11

But do you remember the very best fish you ever had?

Campus is back on the grid. Things returned to normal at around 3 p.m. yesterday. In the middle of restoring power to something like 200,000 people the hardworking folks at Alabama Power determined the problem. A sprocket burned out at a sub-switching point somewhere off campus. They moved a few patch cords and the place sprang back to life.

We’ve all returned to campus. Many folks have their power back, but some have been tricked by the automated messaging system “Congratulations! You may blow dry your hair!”

The customer happily returns home to find out they’ve been duped. They still flip the switches, fully expecting the magic to happen, but nothing.

I had lunch with one of those gentlemen today. He’s very much the dapper, put-together sort. You’d never know he hasn’t had power for two days if he hadn’t said anything about it.

Lunch was at the famed Rotunda Club. (Shouldn’t we modify our understanding of fame? First page of Google returns? That surely makes you famous, right?) This is an annual lunch the university’s Office of Communication hosts for the newspaper’s editorial staff. One of the few perks they receive for the job. The company is pleasant, the food is delicious. We should meet there every week.

I was telling one of my table-mates today that the best fried chicken I’ve ever had was in that very room. It was my first time to eat at The Rotunda Club. I’d been on campus for about a week. That was four years ago. It was a feat never to be equalled.

We can all speak of memorable meals, expensive bills and tasty, sinful special plates. But a four-year-old memory of friend chicken? Those nice ladies are doing something right up there.

And then I had four meetings in a row. One of them on the newspaper, another on the Digital Video Center, another on the newspaper and so on.

I wrote emails, I composed the things to read post you see below. (I’m cross posting those on my Samford Crimson blog, if I haven’t mentioned that before.) I prepared for my class tomorrow, the workshop session I’m delivering tomorrow.

The students are working on their paper and we’ve been troubleshooting every issue under the sun. The first edition each year is always like this. It is exciting; I get to sit back and watch it grow. I have a sense of how the staff may grow around their yearlong project and that is a thrill to see happen. But this first night is always a long effort.

And there will be changes this year. We will discuss them tomorrow.

journalism / links / things to read / Wednesday — Comments Off
7
Sep 11

Things to read

I don’t try to add to what Frank LoMonte writes at SPLC, because it is great, thorough and an even handed analysis by a First Amendment expert. I do commend you his piece on the unfunny joke of the disappearing rights of student journalists. One of these cases stems from a university in Alabama:

In Case 1, graduate student Judith Heenan complained on multiple occasions about the unfairness of the grading and disciplinary systems in her nursing program. In response, she alleged, college officials retaliated by issuing her unwarranted disciplinary “strikes” and then ultimately expelling her from the school.

[…]

Judge Myron H. Thompson of the Middle District of Alabama was uninterested in letting Heenan’s case go as far as a trial, and summarily dismissed all of the student’s claims. The judge simply assumed that Heenan was lying, under oath, about her disciplinary strikes being undeserved and retaliatory.

Read the whole article.

The newest brain tickler, via ONA:

”’What Matters Now? Proposals for a New Front Page‘ is a 10-day collaborative effort not only to fill the walls with the Web sites, photos, videos, multimedia pieces, drawings and articles that our guests and visitors recommend, but also to explain why this material is important.

Ten years after the attacks of Sept. 11, we thought we would propose newer ways of knowing, relying on insider perspectives as well as the foreign eyewitnesses who make up much of the conventional press.

Follow the links. You can participate in this panel discussion, thought project from the comfort of your computer.

Tips on investigative reporting, follow the trail says Drew Sullivan:

And, finally, an easy visualization of the series of recent Texas wildfires.

Find the size, draw a radius and drop it over a Google Map. You’ll be amazed at how this changes your reader’s (and your) perspective on the story.

cycling / Samford / Wednesday — Comments Off
31
Aug 11

Nothing to report

Gym this morning, 15 miles on the bike. Made my way through some productive office work. Wrote 42 emails, 41 of which bounced back because my account was too full.

There is too much email! Because you have quite a bit, it is assumed that you have contributed to the bulk of email! Too much supply lowers the price! It is practically worth $0 right now! Clearly something must be done to boost the electronic communication economy! It has been decided that you can’t send anything! This will reduce supply, and do nothing to demand! Incidentally, you may try a smoke signal for your pressing communiques! There is always value in that medium, though it is not very green.

Remarkably this problem takes more time to resolve than you’d imagine. It involved a few computers, a second email account, trial and error and, finally, a latent server.

And then it was time to teach. I walked a class through WordPress today, they’ll be using it for a hyper local coverage project throughout the semester. In the lecture I made six jokes and got five or six laughs. They also got my flux capacitor joke. Back to the Future the millennials get. Spaceballs? Hit or miss.

Other small things happened, but they fall into the mix of a day that rushed by. Wednesdays do that.