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memories / photo / Thursday — Comments Off
8
Sep 16

Remember this

If ever you should feel homesick, remember this: look around.

Before long, you’ll find something that is familiar and right. Take this water valve. I saw this walking back to the office from lunch today:

Albertville, the “Fire Hydrant Capital of the World” is just 100 miles northeast of where I grew up. (I remember the first time I saw that slogan on a sign outside of Albertville. Now I’m going to smile about it every time I pass by that Mueller.

Also, I mentioned I found Milo’s Tea, right? That’s brewed in the town where I lived as a kid. Same water supply.

You just have to seek it out.

IU / photo / video / Wednesday — Comments Off
7
Sep 16

On campus, in the building

And now a bit of landscaped fauna meditation to help you through Wednesday:

Here’s another picture of some of the hand-planted things:

Inside: though the control room is dark today, the engineers are down to the last bit of their build. We should be in the new studio in the next few weeks:

Very exciting indeed.

cycling / history / maps / photo / weekend — Comments Off
4
Sep 16

Where the people are moving

As ever, this barn was at or near the top of a hill on today’s bike ride. It was but a 22-mile ride, and another piece of mounting evidence, impossible to ignore, that I don’t know how to ride on hills. But a nice little piece of farmland, somewhere, I think, around a place called Unionville.

Or maybe it was around New Unionville. Hard to tell at this point. They are both unincorporated areas — One has a recycling center, the other has a post office — and appear to be perfectly lovely and sleepy places to pass through.

Wikipedia tells me that Unionville was the center of the U.S. population in 1911. According to the 2010 Census the center is in a place called Plato, Missouri. As the crow flies that’s a 337 mile shift to the southwest in a century. That’s just migratory patterns. (And air conditioning.)

Furthermore, Wikipedia tells me “The 20.7-mile shift projected for the 2010–2020 period would be the shortest centroid movement since the Great Depression intercensal period of 1930–1940.”

Historically … If you looked at the mean center in 1810, the spot was in Loudon County, Virginia, 470 miles east of here. Short of a trend, let’s split the difference. I’m guessing, if you give it another 100 years, the mean center might be somewhere near Woodward, Oklahoma, which is 400 miles from Plato. Someone print this out and keep it for your great-great-grandchildren to verify.

But, anyway, hills or no, I averaged 20 miles per hour or more over the course of four different miles today. So there’s that. A quick glance at a map of Woodward suggests it might be flat. Maybe I should ride there.

cycling / Friday / photo / Thursday — Comments Off
1
Sep 16

As seen on my bicycle

The barn on my bike ride home from the office:

This is on a bike path. The route is just under five miles, much of it on quiet neighborhood roads. Near the end I can enjoy a stretch of a seven-tenths of a mile stretch on this path with only the odd walker or occasional jogger. On one end is a round about, on another is a playground with a punchy little climb up to another playground and park and then the easy downhill home. In between is that barn, sitting there like a forgotten toy, out of place tucked into the suburban carpet.

cycling / IU / photo / Wednesday — Comments Off
31
Aug 16

Just what do you think you’re doing, Kenny?

I’ve been trying since mid-July to get this shot since I saw one like it on a cycling site.

First, the one I saw, was shot by a stationary photographer. Second, it is hard to frame this just right while pedaling myself and holding my phone. Third, The Yankee is moving really fast.

You know, every building just about has closed doors. No signage, no one going in or out, just locked door knobs. And that makes me curious. Today I saw inside one of those at the office:

It is just a small server room with some wiring and routers and whatnot. I looked inside and left quickly, before Hal 9000 could take over. That’s just not something you need mid-week. He starts running A/B testing on you and the locks and your whole weekend is “I’m afraid I can’t let you do that, Kenny.”