World Cup


25
Jun 14

Why didn’t anyone ever recognize Forrest Gump, anyway?

I ran five miles in 75 degrees with 79 percent humidity tonight. Think I just exercise for Shot Bloks, which is fuel that tastes like candy to me. But you’re not here about that. Right. Back to our regularly scheduled observations.

One of the joys of having a cat around is watching a cat sleep in the sun:

Allie

A lot of things have to happen to make that work out. Someone, years ago, had to decide to orient this neighborhood along an east-west axis. Development behind us had to thin out the western tree line to allow the sun through at that time of day. My brilliant wife had to be motivated to purchase that cat condo at some point in time. We had to put it in front of that window and I had to be sitting in an adjacent chair, which we also put in place almost four years ago, to capture the moment. To say nothing of the phone and camera and Internet technology.

All of that so I can say “One of the joys of having a cat around is watching a cat sleep in the sun,” and you know it to be one of the singular truths of pets.

Just file that away under things that the subdivision developer, Steve Jobs and Tim Berners-Lee didn’t think about when they did their heavy lifting. I bet the cat condo people knew what they were doing, though.

Turns out it was made in Tennessee. I’m not sure what bearing that has on this conversation.

Things to read … because reading always gives us answers.

Maybe Vox — which is trying to brand itself as the explainer of things, can tell us. You’ve been using paper towels wrong your whole life. Here’s how to completely dry your hands using only one.

Jeff Bezos is looking more brilliant by the moment, no?

The New York Times’ Lively Morgue featured a photo of speed boat queen Loretta Turnbull. For some reason I did a little more Googling and reading about her, and was rewarded with this quote: “The odds of a shark biting a 67-year-old are remote; I’m going in.”

Sounds like an awesome lady.

This one is worth bookmarking. Multimedia reporting with mobile devices

Normally you’d watch out for the word “complete” but this is a pretty thorough discussion on the topic. The Complete Guide to Getting Started With Podcasts

Another soccer video:

This video is titled “How video from drones can be useful during news events,” but it misses a big a point.

We, the audience, still need the context of a reporter’s collected efforts to tell us the story. Where was that subdivision damage? Was it from a storm? Why were all of those people gathered at night? What were they protesting? How many structures or lives had been lost in that fire?

It also demonstrates that not all drone videos are created equally.

Forrest Gump was released 20 years ago next month. Finally, there is an Honest Trailer about the film, and it makes a great point about the recognizability of the character:

“And Lieutenant Dan kept his word. The end.”

When I saw Apollo 13 — which was released 19 years ago next week, by the way — there was a woman behind us who was getting caught up and emotional in the drama. Her kid, her child, said “Don’t worry Mama, Forrest Gump is driving.”

The end.


24
Jun 14

The picture of the World Cup

If you’ve ever really wondered about the agony of defeat, here’s Boubacar “Copa” Barry to show you what it looks like. The guy had played a fine game, only to watch one of his defenders give away a foul in the penalty box in extra time today. And that means a penalty kick, which is decidedly to the striker’s advantage. All Barry can do is guess and hope. He guessed, but his hopes were not met. So, in the final moments of stoppage time, the Ivory Coast gave up a goal that meant Greece would advance and the guys in green would go home.

This was a great “What just happened here?” shot they got of Barry through the back of his net.

Copa

Much better than Luis Suarez’s biting of Giorgio Chiellini.

So I’ve got my SEO taken care of for today, right there. Excellent.

Today I swam 2,500 yards, which is almost a mile-and-a-half. I did it in sets of 500s, because let’s not think I’m so ambitious here. This let me set a baseline time, which is good because I have something to think about in the water now, as I narrowly chip away at that with each set.

I won’t tell you what the time is, because it is excruciatingly slow.

Let’s just say this, on the wall there are large signs for pool and NCAA records. I walked over to look at the 500-yard freestyle record. It turns out that the guy that holds the pool record in the 500 also holds the pool record in the 1,000. If he was swimming his 1,000 at his record pace, he would be finishing up about the time I was starting my last 100 yards in a 500-yard swim.

So, you, see, excruciatingly slow.

A guy jumped into the lane next to mine near the end of my swim. I didn’t speak with him, but everything about him just screamed swimmer. He was backstroking down the lane faster than I can freestyle it. And he could backstroke about three times and be at his turn. It was a beautiful thing, watching the guy swim was like watching a ballerina do her warmups. They are just easy because they’ve spent countless hours making it look effortless.

Whereas I would like to take about 15 percent off of my 500 time, putting me in line with the pool record in the 1,000.

I counted the championship banners hanging from the rafters tonight. I’ve previously counted the names of Olympians stenciled into the wall. Serious, serious athletes have been in that lane. The rest of us are just in their way.

Later in the evening my buddy, Murphy, and I ran a 5K. You never know what you’ll get when you invite someone to go for a jog. I thought about that after the fact. That guy is fit, and he played flanker in high school football. And now I’m going to run with him? We had a nice jog and a nice chat and I was able to keep up.

Take that, anonymous swimmer in the next lane.

Things to read … all headline links edition … because I’m a slow reader, too.

Have to go see it … Coca-Cola mural in Opelika could be over 100 years old

‘No-fly list’ process unconstitutional, US district judge decides

A tedious SEO headline, to be sure. I wish this story was in the American media … Also, the story buries that President Bush costs more. Taxpayers will spend $944,000 to support Bill Clinton’s lifestyle in 2014 as he claims he and Hillary are not ‘out of touch’ because they ‘talk to people in our town’

Go back to high school and blame your civics teacher. A third of Americans can’t name any First Amendment rights

Someone at Slate thought “Ya know, we have to remind people we’re Slate!” Looney Tunes Cartoons Were More Brutal Than You May Remember

I wonder how often this happens. Veteran believes he sees his image in Berman D-Day exhibit

Score one for city hall. Kansas Boy Forced to Remove Little Free Library From His Yard

For my reaction, see Boubacar Barry, above.


22
Jun 14

Portugal vs U.S.

It took a miracle pass from one of the world’s best players in the dying moments of the game for Portugal to steal a draw and avoid losing to the upstart Americans. I had video of the crowd’s deflation of that, but it just seemed cruel to show.

On the one hand, the U.S. had a win slip away from them. On the other hand, it was against the fourth best team in the world. On the dominant foot it was against a diminished Portugal. On the other foot, however, all of that happened and the U. S. played anything but their best soccer.

This team might go some place, and from the Group of Death, no less.

But the crowd reactions from around the country? They’ve been great. I just wanted to share one more.


21
Jun 14

A weekend collection of things

For our anniversary dinner we had reservations at Warehouse Bistro. This was my dinner:

WarehouseBistro

We go there maybe twice a year. I’ve noticed that the vegetable of the day is always that giant head of broccoli. Not that I’m complaining.

I mention it here because, for some reason, I always mention the food at the anniversary dinner. It is tasty.

We rode our bikes to the pool yesterday. That was six miles just to avoid parking, really. The swim was the point. I swam 1,500 yards and didn’t feel terribly bad about it.

One of our friends was working as a lifeguard and he offered a critique of my technique. He did not understand that my style is carefully designed to not use my legs, at all, in advance of the bike and run to follow.

He wasn’t the only person to offer criticism. A police officer thought enough of me to turn his loud speaker on and talk to me. Twice. He was well intentioned, but in error. Unfortunately we did not have the opportunity to discuss the state law together.

Today we did a regular route which puts in about 18 miles. It is one of my favorite rides, based on the performance. I always seem to do well on that particular set of roads. Indeed, today, on one hill I actually gained five miles per hour.

My speed and power might have continued to improve, but I ran out of ascent.

I do not know what is happening.

Soccer, which we haven’t talked about at all here yet. I listened to the Ghana game as I drove home on Monday. The Yankee, who is awesome, found an app with which to stream the game. But it was my turn to drive and so I would still a very brief glance here or there, not nearly enough to get a real sense of the game, which it sounded like Ghana gave away in more ways than one.

I got to watch a few games on the cruise and, of course, I’ve been watching this week. With Portugal tomorrow, I’m busy watching the hype videos.

This one doesn’t even show any game footage:

This one features the second goal from the Ghana game:

And here’s a slightly older one that highlights the American Outlaws, who should really be a cultural institution unto themselves:

I expect a lot more of these as the U.S. performance continues in the World Cup.

Things to read … because you can always expect more to read.

This is a great, and long read. But it is worth reading to the end this story of a new firefighter’s first blaze. Baptism by fire:

IT WAS QUICKLY DARK. Black smoke pervaded the apartment. He couldn’t see. Inside an apartment on fire, you are robbed of key senses. He had to pick his way with those gardenerlike gloves.

Noise was absent. No cries for help.

In his bunker gear, Firefighter Sullivan didn’t sense the heat.

You’ll love the ending.

Something shorter:


19
Feb 14

I swam a long way and boy are my jokes tired

Guest speaker in class today, which means I was able to sit toward the back of the class for most of the day and enjoy. She talked about resumes and that sort of thing.

Ashley

Now the students have to start crafting their own resumes. No one likes building resumes as a class assignment, I think. But we all need ’em.

Otherwise I’ve been preparing for the rest of the week, which will be hectic with travel and adventure.

I did make it to the pool this evening, where I enjoyed a much more mild temperature than on Monday. Tonight, I swam 2,000 yards, all freestyle. I do not know what is happening.

Things to read … because reading clues us all in.

This is simple. Go where your audience is. Cross post on the hotspots. What to do when your video is winning social media, but it’s a copy that’s getting the clicks?

What should a news organization do when an unauthorized copy of video they produced is going viral on YouTube?

That’s the question Dallas ABC affiliate WFAA faced when a commentary by its veteran sportscaster Dale Hansen about gay football player Michael Sam, started to spread like wildfire on social media. In case you haven’t seen it:

[…]

One problem: That wasn’t an official WFAA video that was spreading. That was someone else’s rip of WFAA’s video — specifically, someone who runs a YouTube channel named MyDailyWorldNews.

Promote the amplifiers as well as your original upload. Why would you, a well-branded television station, do anything else?

Just flat silly:

The author has been out of school since 2010. He’s also an adult, whether he realizes that is an open question.

The author here discusses the coach of the Russian hockey team, and the upcoming Brazilian World Cup team. And then … When Sports Matter Too Much:

We like to think we’re more cultured and sophisticated on American soil, a place where sporting events are kept in perspective. Of course, this isn’t always the case. Some NFL stadiums and some post-game parking lots have become violent, hazardous places.

Let’s just hope we never get to the next level, where the outcome of a game brings super—sized outrage, where the Cardinals would be deemed a civic embarrassment for not winning a Super Bowl staged in Glendale.

Pretty sure he’s never been down to Alabama to watch football fans.

Tomorrow we’re on the road.