Monday « Kenny Smith | Omnes hic sumus discere.

Monday

adventures / Monday / photo / triathlon / video — Comments Off
16
Oct 17

She is an Ironman!

Saturday in Louisville. Sunday in Louisville. Today in Louisville and then back in the car. But yesterday, let me tell you about yesterday.

A person doesn’t enter into endurance racing lightly. Well, sure, we were at an Italian restaurant several years ago and decided we’d try some triathlons. But there are different lengths. And you train differently for all of them. Some of them require more time. And you don’t enter into that kind of commitment lightly.

The Yankee ran under a banner last night that she’s been working for for over six months.

Along the way, there has been a marathon and a national championship in the Olympic distance and some smaller tuneup races and hours and hours and hours and hours of training. You don’t enter into these things lightly.

These events, these long, physically and mentally grueling events are achievable, but they take a person doing the work. And then doing some more. They take time to figure out. How will your body react in the heat? How will your guy feel with this fuel or that fuel? You have to learn about what your body is really telling you, how to listen to it and when to ignore it. You put some things on hold and you hit some benchmarks that you wouldn’t have previously considered. You keep doing that until some of those achievements almost become a matter of course. And then you wind down in preparation of the big day.

And on the big day you wake up very early. You’ve lugged all of your stuff down to the starting area, you wiggle into your swimsuit and put your cap on and you wait for your part of the race to start. And when that happens, you swim. At this distance that’s a 2.4-mile swim, this time in the Ohio River. You climb out of the river and run up the ramp and get peeled out of your swimsuit. You throw on your helmet, your bike shoes and set out on a 112-mile ride. There’s wind and rain and dogs and hills and you come in off that ride, which is no small thing on a bike, and then you take off your helmet and change shoes. And then you set out for a 26.2-mile run.

And you smile a lot.

That’s The Yankee’s experience. She had a great race. I saw her all of those times and jogged alongside her for a few moments. I caught up to her again halfway through the run and gave her a great big hug and a kiss. She was in great shape, so it was just down to wait at the finish line, for her and two of her friends.

And speaking of the finish line, this is what some people did when they got there:

Even if you aren’t interested in doing these yourself, you should go and watch the finish line sometime. The energy is palpable, and incredible. And you’ll see there a lot of friends and family looking like this:

None of them entered into this lightly, but many of them felt light on their feet when they finished. It was later, and today, and for the next several days, when they’ll feel the extent of such an impressive accomplishment.

IU / Monday / photo / video — Comments Off
9
Oct 17

I worked this weekend

Some video from the events this weekend. There were several panels and mini-reunions held around the festivities and we put this one out for public viewing. I suppose you could say I produced this show:

And then we stuck one camera in the back of a big event room and shot some more of the festivities.

I even took a selfie:

So you can pretty much check all of the important things off the weekend To Do list.

cycling / food / IU / Monday / photo — Comments Off
2
Oct 17

And now some photos

We had a beautiful day on Saturday and so The Yankee and I spent the afternoon pedaling around the countryside.

Lately, I’m having to work to keep up with her. She’s fast! Still, I managed to get some nice lines in the composition, though.

We had a nice dinner that night, too:

Today, I walked off campus just in time to see the sun say goodnight:

I seldom manage to be in a place that gives a great western view this time of day, but this time of day, this time of year, gives off some nice light:

The gates were built in the 1980s. And it only took 80 years or so to get them built. Students had raised money for them at the turn of the century. But the board was going to do the same thing so the students’ money went to another project. The university put the gates on hold while nearby buildings got built. They wanted to match the plan to the aesthetic, you see. So a few generations go by, a few different plans for the gates come and go. And then in the 1960s there was a new move to build those gates. But there was also criticism; people deemed it a wasteful expenditure when the money could go to scholarships and financial aid. The gates were put on hold again. And then, in the 1980s, the man who ran financial aid for the university donated the money and had them named in honor of his parents. And now we have the Sample Gates.

Indiana / Monday / photo — Comments Off
25
Sep 17

Weekend photos passing through

Not to intrude on Catember, but this is the pup we visited with this weekend:

We were down near Louisville, where The Yankee was riding on the Ironman bike course. So we crashed with the family. And this is my step-sister’s dog.

He is a good pup.

And then on the way back to the house yesterday, we drove by ‪these corn bins in Orleans, Indiana.

It is a small township named after … the Battle of New Orleans, which had taken place just two months before this area was surveyed for a town. ‬Some 2,100 people live there, and they bill themselves as the dogwood capital of the state. John Stetson, the maker of the hats, had a house here. His wife, Elizabeth Shindler, was from Orleans and he had the place built. They call it the house that love built. And Samuel Lewis, who would go on to become important in Texas history, spent some time there as well.

Sometimes wide spots in the road are more than just wide spots.

links / Monday / television / video — Comments Off
18
Sep 17

Here are a few things for you to check out today

Is your NFL quarterback bad? You’re not alone. Here’s a sports show that the students produced late last weekend and aired yesterday:

If you’re not ready to get back to work, but would rather spend this time thinking of your entertainment diversions, perhaps you’ll enjoy this read. How AI will disrupt sports entertainment networks:

Whether you’re training to run a marathon or gearing up for a marathon of binge-watching TV, both athletes and casual sports fans can benefit from advances in sports video. Due to its widespread appeal, high demand, and abundance of related data, sports video is a prime candidate for innovation. Cognitive technology is teed up to enhance the viewer experience and maximize advertising revenue. What’s more, AI technology can disrupt the game itself. Here are the three main players in sports broadcasting that stand to gain the most from cognitive advancements in video technology …

Read that and realize, the future of spectator sports is going to offer you something different, for sure.

I love stories like that, the ones that tell us about the future. I especially like the ones that tell us about the future we’re enjoying right now. You see those a lot in medicine, of course. And we think, Wow, that’s some impressive development or maybe This is going to be so important for my neighbor who is dealing with this. We seldom ever think about the real people on the other side of the equation.

Here’s a professor who was an important part of the BRCA1 cancer testing series. She has a tale to tell. We’ll pick up The Week My Husband Left And My House Was Burgled I Secured A Grant To Begin The Project That Became BRCA1
where she is taking her mother back to the airport, near the end of what is surely the worst week ever:

When we finally arrived, my mom’s flight was about to leave in 15 minutes, Emily’s and my flight was going to leave in 45 minutes, and in front of the counter to pick up tickets was a long, long line. And, of course, we had our suitcases. My mom was carrying hers, and she was already fairly frail.

So Emily and my mother and I were standing in the line, and I said, “Mom, can you make it down to your plane on your own?” Bear in mind, there were no checkpoints in those days, but there were, of course, very long corridors.

She said, “No.”

So I said to Emily, “I’m going to need to go with Grandmom down to her plane.”

And my mother shrieked, “You can’t leave that child here alone!” (Fair enough.)

Suddenly this unmistakable voice above and behind me said, “Emily and I will be fine.”

And you’re going to need to read the whole thing and the part I’ve left you is a terrific tease.

It is a great read. You’re going to want to read it.