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IU / Monday / photo — Comments Off
22
Aug 16

Pictures from the last few days

We got a new chair over the weekend. Got it just for the cat, apparently:

She won’t get up so that anyone else can try it.

Hanging out with Ernie Pyle:

This was dinner last night. We are so healthy around here:

Today I’m hanging out in the new control room. So many lights and buttons and switches. You can fly to Mars on this console:

That’s a state-of-the-art Grass Valley switcher. This studio is full of high-end equipment. Full of it. And from the new to the old. In storage I found a 1970s video projector:

I wonder when that was used last.

Friday / Instagram / photo / video — Comments Off
19
Aug 16

I’m told this needed to be in black and white

There comes a moment when everyone thinks they can be an artist …

Helium gives up. Found this floating around on random currents, a floor away from where it was supposed to be. #FranklinHall #IndianaUniversity #Bloomington

A post shared by Kenny Smith (@kennydsmith) on Aug 19, 2016 at 9:19am PDT

Outside:

Inside:

At a reception in the Franklin Hall Commons:

I got this book through an interlibrary loan from the University of North Carolina:

It is a book of oral histories from northwest Alabama, covering the Civil War era, which was a hard time for the people in the area. Most of the folks there didn’t want to be involved, they saw it as a rich person’s war. But when the Confederates came through they would press men into service. And when the Union came through they would press men into service. And then there were the Booger men, guerillas, bushwhackers, thieves and murderers, led by “Mountain Tom” Clark. In 1872 Clark confessed to 19 murders and was lynched. One member of the mob remembered Clark say “No man will ever run over Tom Clark!” So his body is now buried under Tennessee Street and is supposedly still there today, where he’s run over by everybody. At least that’s the folklore. Interesting read.

We grew up hearing sanitized versions of stories like this.

The book has that Due Date card inside, of course. The last time it was stamped was 1995.

I should have made a video about that.

cycling / photo / Thursday — Comments Off
18
Aug 16

Snap! Ting, ting tong, ting

On today’s ride I broke a spoke. It wasn’t a big deal, everything worked out after I wrestled it away from the rest of the machinery. Here it is at home, after I eased my way home:

Mass and wear are the most likely culprits. My mass wore it out. So I’ll get that fixed tomorrow. Before all of that, according to my app, I hit 45.6 miles per hour. I assure you that was going downhill, so score one more for mass.

IU / photo / Wednesday — Comments Off
17
Aug 16

Come dine with me

In the control room of the television station, where today I learned how to use the new Telemetrics system. This one station controls four robotic cameras — tilt, shift, pan, focus, set shots and variations. If you’ve ever used a joystick I can teach you a bit more than the basics in a hour or so:

I had lunch at Dat’s, which is an almost-Cajun joint. The food’s fine, but we’re a little too far away for it to be authentic, according to my own arbitrary rules. But, hey, I had lunch with Frank Sinatra:

And tonight I’m hanging out with Allie:

cycling / photo / Tuesday — Comments Off
16
Aug 16

Pedal harder

We had a 26-mile ride today. I forgot to take pictures:

So that’s the front fork of the bike in the house. Anyway, four categorized climbs, and I descended at 41.9 miles per hour.

I forgot to take pictures because I snuck off the front of the group in the first neighborhood. There are two stop signs through there and I figured someone would come catch me at the second one, at least, given that it has a weird little climb involved. But when I got there, I was still alone, and then I caught a break with oncoming traffic at the next two intersections.

By then I was off the front and apparently out of sight. I figured on some of those climbs someone would catch up, but it turns out most of them had forgotten about me. I rode the entire ride out front and by myself and made it back to the starting point all alone. I’m seldom ever strong enough for a good breakaway, but I guess the timing was right and the makeup of the group was all wrong to catch me. It was a great feeling. I’ll coast on that feeling for a good while, I’m sure.