collarbone

collarbone / cycling / Friday / journalism / links / Samford / things to read — Comments Off on A brief one
13
Sep 13

A brief one

Late in the day I got out for a little bike ride and found myself on a bad road. Six miles from home and everything in my shoulder locked up again. So, about that idea of a journal, one of the stimuli may be physical tension. I’d just spent a bit of time with my elbows locked, and my scapula pinched, after all.

In the last month or so I’ve just gotten mentally tired of the entire thing. I can’t explain it, but when it hurts it feels like it all hurts differently.

So I continue to do my exercises because I’m otherwise a healthy boy who should be able to overcome this.

All of this because of a big stick on a bike path. Funny, really. I’m almost never on a bike path. And I never run over sticks, nor do I ever intend to again. (This is also why I don’t ride a mountain bike.)

Things to read and listen to. This is what space sounds like, way, way out there. On the one hand Voyager has made it beyond the solar system. And this latest amazing achievement is another reminder that we have all but taken the people out of active space work. Robotics are interesting, but we should be out there taking steps to see and hear these things ourselves.

No doubt we’ll search each other when we do finally go. That’ll be all your fault. Ask this guy.

Well, fasten your flipping seatbelt because, according to a former DHS official, if you’ve been groped by TSA agents, you “can’t blame the TSA;” instead, he implied that you should blame privacy advocates.

[…]

“Unlike border officials, though, TSA ended up taking more time to inspect everyone, treating all travelers as potential terrorists, and subjecting many to whole-body imaging and enhanced pat-downs. We can’t blame TSA for this wrong turn, though. Privacy lobbies persuaded Congress that TSA couldn’t be trusted with data about the travelers it was screening. With no information about travelers, TSA had no choice but to treat them all alike, sending us down a long blind alley that has inconvenienced billions.”

What happens when the government tries to define journalists:

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., complained that the definition of a journalist was too broad. Pushing back, Feinstein said the intent was to set up a test to determine a bona fide journalist.

“I think journalism has a certain tradecraft. It’s a profession. I recognize that everyone can think they’re a journalist,” Feinstein said.

The government has no real place in saying who is a journalist.

These are people trying to define your freedoms. Think on that. Ed Morrissey, and then Matt Drudge, continue the thought:

“The entire approach is misguided. I think that journalism is an action, it’s not a status, it’s not a membership. And I think they’re treating it like a membership and they’re doing it in a way that is intended to be basically rent-seeking for the larger players in the field,” Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey told POLITICO. “It’s just a bad idea.”

[…]

“Gov’t declaring who qualifies for freedom of press in digital age is ridiculous! It belongs to anyone for any reason. No amendment necessary.”

Morrissey calls it a licensing law, which it may well be. Also, it is outrageous.

It will, as it always does, come down to control. And there’s plenty of control of journalists already.

Meanwhile, in a separate but related story:

The US FISA Court has ordered the government to declassify some aspects of its phone and internet surveillance program, the most recent of several disclosures in the past month. In the wake of leaks over the summer, the ACLU and many others have filed suit against the US government, looking for everything from more transparency to a way to take down a powerful surveillance program. The latter goal is still far from fruition, but the ACLU and Yahoo have both made progress in the former with a pair of recent court decisions.

The government would like to define and then restrict by shield law manipulation who can safely report on pressing issues of the day. What could go wrong?

Some nice news from Samford:

Samford University’s fall enrollment has reached an all-time high of 4,833 students, university officials announced today.

The total exceeds last year’s record-setting enrollment of 4,758 and marks the fifth consecutive year of record-setting enrollment for the university.

Explains the parking.

collarbone / cycling / movies / Thursday / Twitter / video — Comments Off on Navel gazing gives way to Python
12
Sep 13

Navel gazing gives way to Python

The nice people at Verge Pipe Media asked me to visit with them today to talk about storytelling and multimedia tools. I had a nice time. I hope they did.

I’d built an entire slideshow presentation, complete with silly and memorable clip art. Didn’t use it. Did talk about finding the real story in the story and the value of knowing which tool to use to tell the story. We talked about writing and, for the interns, the skill set that the job market is looking for today.

I was asked about the need for quality, which was a great topic in the slideshow that we didn’t get to. I used this example:

Those two words “so far” are an important illustration of where we are. We have gone from “Oh wow, there’s video!?” to “Of course there’s video” in just a few years.

I used my wild west metaphor. I used the industry standards example. I was able to quote author Rick Atkinson’s great analytical line about “a great sorting out.” (Only he was discussing World War II in North Africa.) That let me suggest that we are in, or are approaching, the end of the beginning. And to stand out, the quality now matters because the expectation is that it will exist. Most everything is documented in some way these days. “Good enough” is close to becoming outmoded. How we tell stories now makes all the difference.

The owner gave me some very nice compliments.

Compliments which I clearly don’t deserve.

Physical therapy after that. The therapist got almost all of the problems out of the right shoulder, which were really about my neck. We did the suddenly familiar exercises for the left side to deal with the actual and persistent problem.

You know how the Internet has given us the movie re-cut art form? We can close the genre:

More on Twitter.

collarbone / journalism / links / Samford / Storify / Twitter / Wednesday — Comments Off on A lot about today’s news
11
Sep 13

A lot about today’s news

Not the way they’d anticipated this playing, I’d bet. On 9/11 the newspapers of the Alabama Media Group ran their cloned front pages to celebrate the 100th birthday of Paul Bryant. He died in 1983. Ignored was the 12th anniversary of the September 11th attacks. The reaction on Twitter was awkward. I’ve collected them on Storify. (Blogging continues below.)

That isn’t cherry picking. I searched Bryant’s name and the names of the papers and AMG. I didn’t add one which was linkbait. I chose not to include one which was tangential at best. I avoided anything that was purely directed at the University of Alabama. (They had their own unfortunate public response after today asking people to honor the former coach by changing their Facebook photos, but that’s not relevant here.)

Furthermore, of the 13 dailies from the state I surveyed today (via newseum.org) two localized 9/11. Two offered skybox teases to 9/11 content elsewhere in the paper. Four ran some elements of a wire story about New York’s current mayor Michael Bloomberg. There was not as much Syria on the collected front pages as you might imagine, either.

Meanwhile, talk radio host Matt Murphy had his way with the newspaper. You can hear that segment here.

As for the Crimson the paper looks impressive considering this is the new staff’s first paper. I’ve challenged them to start strong and become great quickly, and they’re answering. Here are the first two pages. They have plenty they can concentrate on, but I do believe this is the best first issue paper I’ve seen in my six years at Samford. And we’ve seen some fine starts, too.

They worked on it until almost daylight.

You can see the rest of the stories at samfordcrimson.com.

The department’s Twitter account liked it:

The day marched by quickly. Lunch at my desk. People talking about the paper. Phone calls, emails and so on.

There were meetings. Meetings where one ended so another could begin. Talking with students, an advertising meeting, the paper’s critique meeting.

Left work to go on step two of the tuxedo rental odyssey. Stopped by a place last week to try to match a rental with someone (whom I’ve yet to meet) who owns a tux with a fair description and one photograph. The guy last week said it couldn’t be done. The guy this week, in step two, told me to go back to step one.

Good thing everyone will be busy staring at the bride and not me. Maybe they won’t notice if I go with the blue ruffles.

Got home and everything seized up on me again. Went immediately to the foam roller and abandoned that for the flat floor. That helped a bit, but I ended up in such a state I didn’t know how to get up.

But, more therapy tomorrow, so there’s that.

collarbone / journalism / links / Monday / Samford / things to read — Comments Off on The day I couldn’t turn my head or move, really
9
Sep 13

The day I couldn’t turn my head or move, really

Started the new physical therapy routine on my shoulder today. Met with the nice lady who is going to make me all better. She asked what brings on the problems and I wish I knew, because I could stop doing them. And not knowing is unusual because I am typically very causal about what brings about the things that hurt.

Maybe I should start a journal.

So I have these movements and those stretches. Basically today was all about using my arm and my body against itself in ways you don’t normally use your muscle groups. Which means the entire thing is shaky and humorous. And I have homework of stretches and flexes and things.

She gave me an ice pack and sent me on my way. Twenty minutes later my shoulder spasmed hard. (Note to self: You did it, lady! You’re the cause!)

And then my other shoulder and my neck. Such that by the end of the night I could only barely move my upper body. That was a lot of fun. Still is, really.

In class we talked about Associated Press style. We discussed the front pages stories in a national newspaper, a small town community rag and a campus publication.

What makes this story important? What makes it unimportant? Should it have been placed here? There were good answers to these questions, even for the stories that, probably, weren’t really front page stories.

Less obvious were the answers to this question: Who else should have been quoted in this story?

What was fun was trying to find those newspapers. Like pay phones, newspaper boxes have disappeared. And, yes, I understand the business. What I mean is that in places where you saw boxes earlier this year, they are often gone today. The day was coming. The day has quietly come. If by day you mean a big truck with someone throwing newspaper boxes in the back.

Things to read, or items that interested me today.

There was a fireball in the sky here tonight. Twitter — watch what I do here — lit up with the news. Here is a record of some of the sightings. Four meteor cameras spotted it. Some observers noted a sonic boom, which demonstrates how long and low into the atmosphere the object survived.

Poor dears in Texas are having trouble because they booked their wedding in the fall and the date coincides with the later booking of This Week’s Game of the Century:

“The game will probably be ending right around the time I say ‘I do,’ ” sighed the bride-to-be.

[…]

“Trying to schedule a wedding on a home-game weekend is nearly impossible,” said Susan Keough, a wedding coordinator in College Station.

[…]

The wedding of Ms. Mies and Logan Parker is set for 6 p.m. at Astin Mansion, a venue in Bryan, Texas, that employs its own chefs and florists. The unusual circumstances, Ms. Mies said, will be an unexpected test for her 100 guests: Some men will be scurrying over for the reception from the stadium, where the game has a 2:30 p.m. kickoff, while their wives come early for the ceremony.

“You find out who your friends are,” Ms. Mies said, “and who loves you the most.”

Also, your friends find out if you consider things that may be important to them, like locally important cultural events, before scheduling your big day. This news is not news in our beautiful corner of things, but surely looks very eccentric and odd to every other part of the country.

Here’s more news: Spring weddings are beautiful and summer weddings are possible, despite the heat.

I attended a wedding held during the Iron Bowl one year. The wedding was held in a private home, so they could have moved things up a few hours. But, nooooo.

I wonder why someone doesn’t get married actually at a game. With the big HD screens in stadiums these days you’d have an entertaining and unique experience. Maybe the coach comes over afterward and gives you a game ball.

And, finally, Samford moves up a step in the (sometimes dubious) U.S. News and World Report’s rankings. Number three in the South.

collarbone / photo / Twitter / video / Wednesday — Comments Off on Wanna see my bones?
4
Sep 13

Wanna see my bones?

Well, do ya?

Returned to see the new orthopedic surgeon today after our first meeting two weeks ago and the bone scan last week. The first good news remains that I did not grow wings or a third eye or gain a mutant power from the radiology. Not that I expected I would. The radiologist said that rarely happens. One assumes that we’re in the clear there, especially since it didn’t come up when the doctor today discussed the results of the scan.

So he’s looking at the collarbone area, the purpose of the scan being to rule out any bone problems. He said there are none. He probably said some other things, but I stopped listening. It is one thing to see your own bones. It is another to see your own skull.

bones

At the end of the day we can say the bone is fine. And your own skull is creepy.

Now we’ve ruled out nerves, rotator cuff and the bones. We’re down to the hardware and muscular problems. The hardware is an issue, but as I told the doctor, if your magic wand only works once I’d say let’s use it on the shoulder.

So he’s sending me to more physical therapy, a different set of therapists. The phrase I get to use now is scapular stabilization dysfunction. The doctor keeps saying that an accident such as mine involved a great deal of physical trauma.

Because, 14 months later, you want more therapy and a three-word title attached to your problem. (I don’t mean to complain, but … ) We agreed that my shoulder and its recovery have not reached their optimal condition. The good news is that, being muscular, there is improvement to be had. So we’re pleased with that.

Conveniently the new therapy center is close by the doctor’s office, so we set that up. I get to start next week.

How unusual has this summer been?

Alabama’s 2013 summer went into the books as one of the coolest summers in the 131-year record, with an average high temperature that was almost 2° cooler than seasonal norms.

How cool was it?

For the three months of “meteorological” summer no station in Alabama hit 100 degrees. If that holds up (we won’t have all of the temperature data for a few days and the folks at the Southeastern Regional Climate Center are keeping an eye out), this summer will be only the fourth time that has happened since 1883. The others were 1965, 1994 and 2001.

Three times in the last 20 years. Most unusual.

And now, all you need to know about foreign policy as it relates to Syria in four videos:

He didn’t …

Except when he did …

The guy that works for him says so …

And this, the most egregious of it all:

Someone approached our top diplomat and said “We’ll pay for it.” And he said, “OK.”

As opposed to kicking them out of the room or hanging up on them or pointing out that this would make us mercenaries.

Shameful.

Oh, and it sounds less and less like that piece of adventurism would simply be cruise missiles from the sea:

Securing Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles and the facilities that produced them would likely require the U.S. to send more than 75,000 ground troops into the Middle Eastern country, MailOnline learned Wednesday.

That estimate comes from a secret memorandum the U.S. Department of Defense prepared for President Obama in early 2012.

U.S. Central Command arrived at the figure of 75,000 ground troops as part of a written series of military options for dealing with Bashar al-Assad more than 18 months ago, long before the U.S. confirmed internally that the Syrian dictator was using the weapons against rebel factions within his borders.

Tim Siedell has the final word:

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →