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Covid-19 / Friday / photo — Comments Off
21
Aug 20

Free S&H

Do you know that moment when you’re on a great sale on a website? You put a few things in your cart and then you realize you’re just a few dollars shy of reaching the almost mythical free shipping threshold. You sit there for a while, wondering what sort of algorithms the company used to arrive here.

Sure, they’re not going to ship at a big loss. So that’s the first level. But, then, you have to think about the prices of things on offer. How do they set the tiers such that you’re so often thiiiis close to the free shipping? It’s a sales and marketing ploy, of course, but a brilliant one. And it’s a commonly successful one, too. You knew exactly what we’re talking about here. You’ve been there. We’ve all been there. Just the other day I was there, within three bucks.

And so what do you do?

You try to estimate the amount of shipping. Is that more than you wish to pay? Does this add some definition to the items you’re considering buying? Is the shipping a deal breaker? Or, alternatively, is there something else that you can throw in? Something small that will just nudge you into that free shipping category.

Which is funny because, of course, the three, now four things you’re buying won’t arrive at the same time. That was the case today, when part of my shipment arrived. I’d ordered a few shirts and this tie. It cost five bucks, and “earned” me the free shipping.

Joke’s on them. I need to retire a similar-looking yellow tie, anyway. And a fine, brand new piece of neckwear for just $5? A good joke, indeed.

Joke’s on me. I haven’t worn a tie since March. Who knows when we’ll do that again.

memories / photo / site / Thursday — Comments Off
20
Aug 20

Happy National Radio Day

I worked in radio, a few lifetimes ago. I have a great radio transmitter sign, it reads:

CAUTION

HIGH LEVEL

RADIO FREQUENCY AREA

NO TRESSPASSING

A station engineer gave it to me once upon a time. Too bad he didn’t need to offload a transmitter and broadcast license that day, I suppose. Anyway, sitting right under it, and looking rather out of place because of it, is my Silvertone 8090 AM radio, from 1948.

You wonder what news and entertainment the original owners enjoyed through that cabinet, and how it came to my hands.

I purchased it from a retired educator about three years ago. Restoring radios, he said, was his retirement hobby. Feeling a bit like I was on a reality show, I got him to tell me all about his process and show me his other radios. He gave me a tour of the ones he was tinkering on in his garage, and the finished radios that held pride of place in his home. I got him to drop his price a bit and we loaded it up in the car. It still powers up, and I turned it on when I got it home. I listened to part of a football game on the local AM station.

One day I’ll actually put a Bluetooth speaker in there and play big band music from within the cabinet. But I have to move all of the things in my home office four or five more times first. (Another shuffle is coming this weekend!)

The gentleman I bought it from came to campus a few weeks later and I gave him and his wife a mini-tour of The Media School. They were quite pleased by all that we are doing for students. (I believe she was an educator, too.) On their way out he said he was thinking of selling one of his really, really nice radios. One of the few sorts I’d really want. It was an early console radio with station presets. I could put my old station call letters on the buttons. How neat this would be! We’d talked about them for some time in his home, and I knew better than to ask. But on his campus visit he said he was maybe thinking about selling one, one day.

Which was the time to say, if you do, I hope you’ll consider giving me a chance to make an offer.

I keep checking my Facebook messages to see if he’s ever written me about selling it … no luck on National Radio Day.

photo / Tuesday — Comments Off
18
Aug 20

But don’t analyze the marker

Among the many systems of keeping your life organized, you have to create strata so it all makes sense. And I have many systems. Calendars chart meetings and long term reminders. Index cards chart a day full of chores and meetings. My inboxes are tasks demanded by others. Word documents create a running list of fluid, ever-changing instructions to myself, half-baked ideas and strips of things I’ve copied and pasted. Notebooks hold life’s real mysteries: things that were important in the moment and adjudged to be of lasting significance, or at least worth treating like a mysterious message when I run across it again at some future point when the past is more than foggy.

But for everyday, in-the-moment reminders, the trust sticky note can’t be beat. You can get an hour or two’s worth of tasks on one with ease. They stick to a desk or, sometimes, a wall, and when you’re doing the peel-off process gives just enough resistance to mark the achievement. (And they fold up nicely into paper footballs, but that’s a different sort of benefit.)

Devoid of context, they are simultaneously enlightening and and mystifying.

Every day, sticky note. Every day.

Monday / photo — Comments Off
17
Aug 20

That was a quick week off from blogging

Welcome back! It’s been a week away, and what a week! Let’s see what you missed … a few bike rides, a few runs, a good joke based on a 70-year-old book, and a nice mini-essay based on a 24-year-old book.

Also, I got to visit with the bunny that lives in the front yard.

So a full week, really.

And then on Friday night I had a lovely video chat with my sister. There were two videos on Saturday evening, and that’s how those have become second nature. You get invited to an anniversary party and then you just stop by with someone else to just catch up.

I feel like we should devote a room to this purpose. Comfortable chairs and good light, room for a good two-shoot. Something to consider.

Anyway, it was back to it today. Another week starts, a week before classes begin. Lots of emails and a flurry of text messages and Slack messages and if you can put a group into the loop we’re having to keep track of it messages. There are schedules to build and productions to arrange and tutorials to record and meetings to attend and scripts to write and two or three podcasts to record.

And webinars. Six hours of webinars this week. Six of 18 hours on the same platform this semester. Or maybe 27. Perhaps it is 36. The scheduling has made it difficult to determine. Suffice it to say that, at the end, I’ll be well versed on a new tool we’ll soon be using.

I did three of those hours today, and then wrote a 300 word summary for others. It turns out it isn’t that difficult to get 180 minutes of highly specific material down into a few paragraphs. You just have to let your readers infer a few dozen important things.

At any rate, the pace is picking up as we get closer to the semester, as it should. And that’s good!

But how have the cats been since we checked in with them now two weeks ago? Just dandy, thanks for asking.

Phoebe is still showing off, this time on one of her cat trees.

And Poseidon is seen here taking a nap on the stove top cover.

We made that thing out of leftover wood to keep cat paws off hot stove eyes and it’s now one of their favorite spots.

We sat on the deck one lovely evening last week, and they were most distressed.

Watching a cat meow and not being able to hear it is one of the small pleasures. You should take advantage of the small pleasures. The good thing is there are a lot of those out there.

Take a day and jot each one down as you run across it. You’ll be surprised how the list starts to stack up.

Friday / IU / photo — Comments Off
7
Aug 20

The floor needs more witticisms, really

Had the opportunity to go to campus today to do some work. We were producing some instructional videos. How to mount a camera on a tripod. How to turn it on. How to change the settings. This sort of thing. Useful stuff. And beneficial to do in a video form because it will maximize the return on time investment. Teach a basic thing to a camera, so the video it captures can be seen over and over by students as necessary, rather than continue to give boutique, small-group presentations of the same material. It’s a good approach. The circumstances of the day have made it an imperative, even if it’s something we’ve intended to do for several years.

People ate lunch in a room that will hold socially distanced students in our first classes next week. I sat in a chair where some future industry giant will sit, and watched people munch on sandwiches.

There are soap dispensers and wipes and stickers about. One suspects more signs will go into place in the next week or so.

A few places where a person sits that custom and decorum suggest will still feature human interaction now have a cling wrap structure around them. Some of that went up today. Chairs are spaced and excess furniture is stacked. We saw to that a few weeks ago.

And, in general, the mood will be:

There are a lot of plans in place — testing, prophylactic, event restrictions and limitations — hopefully it will be sufficient toward the cause of educating students and conducting research and all of the other things that take place on campus. Or, all of the things that will take place this year. Some of it will be quite limited, sadly. That’s the mood. No gathering please.

Taking next week off from writing here. No particular reason. There’s some work stuff and a break sounds good and, when I do come back, there might be an actual tidbit or two to catch up on. So, until then, be safe. Exercise grace and patience with one another, and yourself, and we’ll catch up on August 17th.