Monday « Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

Monday

Monday / World Cup — Comments Off
14
Jun 10

Cameras are better than oil on your feet

Another one from the World is Random file:

Seven months ago, Dick de Bruin, a Royal Dutch Navy sergeant stationed in the Dutch territory of Aruba, was salvaging an anchor from an American World War II ship that was to be used in a monument. De Bruin’s bright-red Nikon camera, protected in a waterproof case, floated away.

According to the Telegraph and the AP, six months later, Paul Shultz saw what he thought was a rotten tomato floating near rocks in a Key West marina. After a closer look, he realized, underneath a bunch of sea muck that had collected on the case, it was actually a digital camera. Amazingly, the case had protected it and Shultz was able to view the contents of the camera. The only problem was finding out to whom it belonged.

Shultz posted pictures on a scuba diver message board, and they were identified as being taken in Aruba. He then posted on local message boards, and one woman recognized a child in a photo, de Bruin’s son, as being a classmate of her son.

The camera was then returned to de Bruin.

Turns out the camera snagged a turtle along the way. The reptile turned on the camera and there’s video . Follow that first link and you can see what was recorded during its journey. This should be an Internet hit.

And if you go to Youtube, or any other social networking site, you’re liable to find a “Friend BP” ad, asking you to get the latest on their Gulf cleanup efforts. The beautiful thing about social media, as has been discussed here and elsewhere at great length, is the ability for one’s agency to speak directly to the public. In this instance, though, that’s going to look more like spin. I did not friend them.

If anything BP needs good press — if that’s possible for them — just to get back a shred of credibility. The company has already been painted as woefully negligent in preparation, safety and clean up. Social media isn’t going to fix this for them.

Speaking of BP, this is unfortunate. President Obama doesn’t say that in the story, but the headline assigns it to him all the same. I propose a moratorium on assigning blame. It is tiring and counter-productive. What’s more, there’s plenty of blame fir everybody.

Two World Cup games today. Worked out — broke an eight-minute mile for the first time in years and biked a while. Did a little work grading exit assessments of recent graduates, recorded three voiceover projects. Not a bad effort for a Monday.

Monday — Comments Off
7
Jun 10

Did I mention I had 798 things to read?

It took two days, fairly constant, dedicated days of reading, to chop my RSS reader down to just a few dozen items. But I also waded through all of my Email, too, so it has been a productive two days, I suppose.

We made cheeseburgers tonight. Brian came over to watch the series finale of 24 with us. He turned us onto the show at the start of the fifth season. Somehow we managed to watch all of the back episodes between DVDs and syndication since then — and now all of those Nina jokes make sense! — and have always enjoyed making fun of it with Brian. We realized this evening that we’d never had a 24 watch party with him, so this was fitting.

And the finale was good for what it was. It did the jobs it needed to. It had a few minutes to satiate the anger-management crowd, it wrapped up what turned out to be a good plot for the season and gave Jack an opportunity at redemption (even as they did the Dark Knight ending) it had a few howlers. It wasn’t excellent great, but the endings for this show have always been awkward.

I’m certain that if a movie weren’t in the works the last 30 minutes of the show would have been entirely different. Seems I’m not the only one. So now we wait for the movie.

Nothing else to wait for here. I’ll be editing honeymoon pictures starting tomorrow. I wonder how long that will take.

honeymoon / Monday — Comments Off
31
May 10

At sea

Slept in.

Ate too much.

Read. Took a nap.

The Yankee spent some time in the spa. I watched a movie. I took in part of the hot glass show. (I love watching glass blowers.)

I stopped by the library. I’d picked up Judge Buck Compton‘s autobiography early in the cruise and read it quickly. Nice book, good man, told in that traditionally paced non-professional style. It was interesting, though, to see how his telling of his story was different than what you saw of him on HBO. It is incredible to think all of this happened in one lifetime. Sen. John McCain wrote the forward. Actor Neal McDonough, who portrayed Compton, wrote the epilogue. I believe it was McDonough who observed that Compton’s life, for many, would have been the modern American dream — actor, baseball player, Rose Bowl, war hero, policeman, lawyer, judge, family man … what else could there be?

I say this as I haven’t done anything more strenuous than walk around and take pictures for the last week. I’m proud of myself though: I’ve had a few days go by where I haven’t thought of work or school or … darn, that streak is broken.

Also, I’ve eaten too much today. This, too, happens on the cruise ship. I was warned.

Roy, our waiter, is quick to bring extra food. The Yankee ordered a cheesecake dessert, for example, and I said “Two. I mean I don’t want two, I mean I’d like one also.”

Roy brought three pieces. And, since it was cheesecake it had to be eaten …

Tomorrow: Athens, Greece.

honeymoon / Monday / photo / site — Comments Off
24
May 10

Sailing away

Take a good hard look cause we're sailing on a boat.

We wake up this morning with an even greater purpose: We must make it to our cruise ship.

So we enjoy the little breakfast provided by our fabulously located and luxurious two-store hotel in Rome: hard roll, sugar dusted croissant and all the TANG you can drink, everyday.

We wrestle our luggage out of the hotel, which is so small that the two of us and our suitcases can’t stand at the desk all at once. We navigate our way into the hallway and to the elevator. The lift is so small that it can’t hold us and the luggage — and we didn’t even over-pack this time. The lift is so small, in fact, that one person, two rollers and a backpack are capacity.

So down from the fourth floor goes the lift. And then it comes back up again. And then I climb in, shutting the exterior wire door and then the inner doors and then sliding down to the ground floor. This takes a while, but it is “quaint.”

And then we walk to the Termini, the bus/train stop in the city center. I know that our big suitcases are close to 50 pounds each. Our smaller bags are, of course, less. We each have backpacks stuffed to overflowing. It is a bright, sunny, warm day. The walk isn’t long, but just long enough.

The Yankee left her special lipstick at home, but not to worry. In Termini there is a Sephora and she is able to pick up a replacement. I stand guard with our luggage, enough for an entire 17-day European adventure. Finally she emerges. “Italians.” Picking up one piece of lipstick takes a while.

So now we must find the train. Now Termini doesn’t look that big from the outside, but it meanders. And I think, at one point, I went down one flight of stairs so I could walk 25 feet to walk up another flight of stairs. I’m doing the gentlemanly thing and carrying the bigger luggage.

We finally find the right line, and then must find the proper train. This involves much more walking. I’m drenched in sweat. We see the right train and, somehow, she realized it was about to depart. So The Yankee sprints. With luggage. And she manages to jam her foot in the door as it is closing.

Two nice guys pry the door back open. She climbs in, I’ve caught up — with the heavy luggage — and I stagger on board. Our bags are too big for the overhead rack, so we just do our best to stow the stuff in adjacent seats. If there had been someone there to monitor tickets and seating I’m sure he would have demanded we purchase two more seats.

So we ride northwest for an hour or so to the town of Civitavecchia, which is how the Romans cruise. We are actually a few minutes early, so we catch a bite to eat in a cafe at the train station. A girl who was just getting off work was doing her best Frankie Valli. She was embarrassed when she noticed I was watching, but she did a good job. And since it is such a good song …

So we had a sandwich and then started the long walk to the port. We found a bus, somehow lugged our luggage on and then drove to the ship to begin the embarkation process. You must fill out paperwork that says you haven’t been sick, don’t know any pigs with the flu.

They take our picture. They take our passports. They give us a little card with a magnetic strip. They run us through metal detectors. We board the ship. They spray us down with antibacterial hand soap. They begin offering drinks within six steps of being on board. We have embarked.

We find our room, throw our backpacks inside and head to the pool. We got onboard very early, so there is time to kill. We decide to read.

This ship has a library. It spans two decks.

There is also a conference desk. Not sure what they expect people to do there.

We found the dining room tonight and I had my first dose of cruise ship food. I’m sure it will only become more ridiculous as the voyage continues.

This is my first time cruising. The Yankee is the expert. We both agree this place is huge. More on that later.

For now, there are a few pictures from today. You can see the pictures from Rome here: Day One, Day Two, Day Three. Of course, you can see years of pictures, if you were so inclined.

Tomorrow we’re at sea; we’re taking it easy.

We’re on a boat.

errands / memories / Monday / photo / site — Comments Off
17
May 10

Of Kens and trees

Had lunch with Ken, my former boss. I met him more than six years ago — where did all of that time go? — in an almost two-hour interview. That was the day when I began stepping away from radio and into a future that focused more online.

Ken had been the online editor of a major newspaper and was the editor-in-chief of the state’s most trafficked newsite, al.com. He’d hold that job for more than a decade. I remember we talked about the job, of course, how the site worked, what sort of web work I’d done and so on.

I remember asking about the possibilities of doing new things. And in my four-and-a-half years working for Ken the site went from merely hosting the daily news for The Birmingham News, Huntsville Times and the Press-Register to becoming a full-fledged modern site. We ran blogs. I developed a regular podcast program. I added the first news videos to the site. We covered hurricanes, lots of them, developed political ad strategies and had big plans for the future.

My time there let me read some great thinkers about the evolving possibilities for news online. Many of them help influence my thought, teaching and research today.

So it was great to have a nice long lunch with Ken to talk about his latest projects. He’s a sharp, thoughtful man who puts ideas into practice, and you learn a lot by brainstorming and daydreaming with him.

Stopped by the bank, the friendly people. Now we’re up to introducing ourselves and shaking hands when customers walk in and when they leave. The security officer is holding the door with a smile. Ultimately what I needed can be taken care of over the phone. It will most likely be an automated process. I expect the recording to be painstakingly polite.

Made a few shopping errands in the late afternoon, most notably to the local bookstore. Books-A-Million is based here in Birmingham. It is the third largest bookstore in the country. Not bad for a company that started as a corner newsstand in sleepy little Florence in 1917. I wrote a few days ago about Trowbridge’s, which started in that same city just a year later.

Where that first corner newsstand — built from discarded piano crates and catering to out-of-towners constructing Wilson Dam (which, I’ve just learned, has the highest single lift lock east of the Rocky Mountains) — resided I don’t know. The store that came from it closed a few years ago. It is now Billy Reid, an overpriced clothing store. You can buy a t-shirt that you can order for $51 dollars. That’s on sale.

The sales in the bookstore weren’t much more impressive. And, Books-A-Million, the third largest book retailer in the country, seems a bit dead on a random Monday afternoon. I found a bird watching book I want. I copied the ISBN number and found it later online for half the price.

I’m not a bird watcher, but I know people who are. They take great joy in sharing their latest finds with others. I’m also reading about Theodore Roosevelt’s birding passions and I have this notion that dedicating a little time to bird watching could be restive and relaxing.

The problem is that I know only the most basic birds. Trees, fish, most livestock, dogs, sure I can break all of those down into different species and breeds. Birds? I’m pretty clueless. This book details the ones we see in this state. It has a map for winter and summer months. It organizes the birds by their physical characteristics in a simple and clever way. It has a CD which, I assume, is a study on the bird calls.

So it looks like I could be planting bird feeders in the fall.

Grilling

We grilled steak tonight. It was a big meal for a big night. This is the next-t0-last episode, ever, of 24. It starts with the entrails of the guy Jack killed last hour. It ends with a preview of the finale where Jack promises to finish what he started. And then he smiles.

In between he kidnapped the former president. Again. He squealed quicker than a former president who’s just been trapped, shot at, gassed and choked should. From there we learned that Russian diplomats and fireplace pokers don’t mix.

I’m really wondering about that smile. I’ve been offering predictions about the outcome of the show for the last several weeks, revising the plot as the show dictates. I think he’s smiling while taking aim at the guy at Fox that canceled the show.

Did you see the new picture across the top of the blog? That’s the field behind my great-grandparents place. It sits fallow after his passing, but that’s the place where my great-grandfather tilled the land and let me “play in the dirt.”

The last photograph of my great-grandfather.

I was in college and he’d still ask me when I was going to come play in the dirt. I told stories about that field in most every speech I ever gave in high school. The picture on the front page is the oak tree in their front yard. If there are no cars rounding the curve, or coming down the hill from the opposite way, you can hear every thought you’ve ever uttered all at once.

That’s the peace of the place. No matter where you are in your day — or your year or what have you — you can always use a reminder of what soothes you. Today you can share one of mine.

If you keep reading this site this place might snooze you, too!

Have a great Tuesday!