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adventures / Friday / memories / photo — Comments Off
6
Nov 15

I’ve thought it over

Yesterday I asked where you’d like to be right now? My first thought was my bike. Then I wandered off into some Homer by memory and my contractually obligated Publilius Syrus reference of the month. It was a solid idea and I stand by it.

But also, I have a few other options worth of considering. And this time, no poorly remember Greek

This one’s easy. Who doesn’t love the ocean?

This one is in Oregon, in the woods on the path to the ocean. This is the place I think about when I recall, with fondness, our trip to Oregon. The whole visit was terrific, as my travels usually are, but the views were spectacular. And Oswald West State Park was one of my favorites:

Some people are beach people. Some people prefer the mountains. I like the woods. And if there are woods going to the beach … well, that’s just not something we often have in my part of the world, but that’s two pretty great environments that I’m happy to enjoy. So Oswald West is always a contender in my “Where would you rather be?” contest.

And this one, which is more representative than specific. It is a simple pasture wrapped around a quiet country road in north Alabama. Just a pretty view. I was there on one Saturday, 2006, while The Yankee was teaching a class and I was killing time enjoying a spring morning. Once you look past the ditch, everything from the fence to that big lazy foothill of the Appalachians is worth taking in and visiting often:

So, where would you like to be?

memories / photo / Samford / Wednesday — Comments Off
4
Nov 15

An impromptu reunion

I had the good fortune there to run into a former student today. She graduated maybe two years ago and works on campus now. Lovely young woman; she’s charming, bright and quick with a good joke.

She would always give me a hard time in class, too, because my shoes were always untied. I never can keep them together for very long. It doesn’t matter the length of the string or the shape, so the failing must be mine. I’ve discovered these laces you don’t have to tie for running shoes and that’s changed how many times I have to kneel on a daily basis by much more than I’d care to admit. Best thing since velcro.

Once upon a time near the end of the term she decided she was going to tie my shoe for me. Show me how it was done and all that. A friend of hers decided to tie the other one, so they had a contest and see which knot lasted the longest. I walked around for several weeks with those shoes properly tied. One of them finally let go over Christmas break in Manhattan.

My knees say those were the best weeks of my life, because, again, they were saved a great deal of bending and strain.

So anyway, I ran into her today. She’s married and life is grand. Nothing less than you would expect. It was good to see her. “Come up and visit,” I always say when I run into familiar faces.

She walks this direction, back toward her building. I walk the other direction, off to wherever I had to go next. I look down:

Instagram / photo / Samford / Tuesday — Comments Off
3
Nov 15

Walking around the big box store

I’m still playing with the Boomerang app. It seems like it would strike a cord with a very “in your face” message. There’s no real nuance to it. And if this is where we go because the six seconds of Vine is just too tedious … well marketers should just get off the ride now.

But sometimes you can make something that looks cool:

This is the Space Laser light-up blaster from Imperial Toy.

A video posted by Kenny Smith (@kennydsmith) on Nov 3, 2015 at 6:24pm PST

When in doubt, go to the toy section, I always say.

Speaking of toys …

Did we need these? Does anyone like them? More importantly, are these really for young Star Wars fans or older Star Wars fans? The merchandise rollout has been at times impressive and regrettable. But mostly impressive. And we’re still six weeks from the movie.

One more Boomerang:

Iron Man hands are pretty awesome.

A video posted by Kenny Smith (@kennydsmith) on Nov 3, 2015 at 6:31pm PST

This is all a part of my strategy, by the way. Student-journalists are working on the newspaper all night long. And we’re all going to be in the newsroom until the very wee, if not the very grand hours, of the morning. But, for a little while, I just leave them alone. They need me gone more than they need me hovering. I refuse to hover, anyway. They do too well for that. Still, a long night, and I was the only person in the toy section. That’s why I got to play with Iron Man hands.

Auburn / football / friends / Monday / photo / video / weekend — Comments Off
2
Nov 15

Some Auburn weekend notes

Back at it again, then:

Brian came down this weekend. He pronounced the scoreboard large:

That’s been the attraction this year. The football team has struggled and continues to do so. They got outpaced in the second half by Ole Miss on Saturday. Can’t move the chains, kicking a lot of field goals, struggling to stop talented teams. It doesn’t feel like 4-4, but that’s what the record says.

But that scoreboard! And the eagle flights, of course. Here’s Spirit’s flight from before the game. Note the alternating sections of orange and blue. Looked pretty good on TV, I’m sure.

I just threw that video online without slapping a URL or any other branding on it. How daring! We walked up just in time to get a good spot near her cage, obviously. And then you can see she went all over the stadium. Spirit resides at the Southeast Raptor Center. He has a beak problem that requires regular maintenance, so she’ll always live there and do cool shows and flights like this.

What is interesting to me, the second and third time I watched that video, is the camera work of the production staff. I shot that on my phone, so the lens is wide and has practically no focus. But they’re following her all over the stadium. (When I lose her, just look at the giant scoreboard.) They do a nice job of keeping her in the frame too.

Hey, this is a wild animal. She can, and has, gone all of the places except the ones you expect.

It is a cool thing to see. Scoreboard isn’t bad, either.

Friday / photo / Samford — Comments Off
30
Oct 15

Signs, but without the Ace of Bass jokes

We started the week with a sign, if I recall. Let’s end it that way, too. I had to go down to the back of the post office area where things are offloaded from trucks. It is a very utilitarian area. It works, it is efficient. I’m sure it isn’t on the campus tours. Doesn’t have to be. The folks there do good work and they do it fast and they know their business. Always very helpful.

There’s an elevator there. And above that elevator is this sign:

And that’s just good life advice.

I mentioned last week how much I enjoy reading the bulletin boards on campus. Here’s another class advertisement that was worth noticing today:

“Can cats have ethics if there is no God?”

I was not previously aware those concepts were not mutually exclusive. But, hey, maybe for cats. I’ll ask Allie sometime. She’s got some Siamese in her and is given to long pontification. But I digress.

“Join the cats of philosophy answer this head-scratching question in … ”

Last week’s class advertisement, you might recall, was for the same class. Those cats are going to cover a lot of ground between Justin Bieber and Johnny Cash and Ceiling Cat and the grammatical error.

Here’s another, from a different bulletin board not far from the first:

“So you want to be a scientist?”

Not if that’s what your lab is creating, no sir.

“Then join the biolgy department on Tuesday …”

I’m not sure where the “Biolgy Department” falls on the organizational chart. Good curriculum, though. Among the more popular classes are Catnip Cultivation 410 and Whisker Weaving 203. (That’s an elective, I’m sure.)

So use cats in your advertising, I suppose.

This is what happened when I got home today. Walk in, put my stuff down and, immediately:

I have it on good authority that she’s not interested in going anywhere. So I suppose this means I should stay here.

Here’s something else I put on the Internet today. You’ve already seen it on Instagram, if you’re following me there. Come on over and follow me.

My first Boomerang branding experiment.

A video posted by Kenny Smith (@kennydsmith) on Oct 30, 2015 at 4:32pm PDT

Here’s another Boomerang. It has even less point, which means it has practically none, really. We’re trying to figure out the utility for this app in class. Reviews are mixed.

Boomer-road.

A video posted by Kenny Smith (@kennydsmith) on Oct 30, 2015 at 7:21pm PDT