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Took a field trip today

More trip planning, thing doing, list checking, check making.

As in the writing of checkmarks next to things on the list. If you’re looking for money, this is not your site. So sorry about that, too.

Received a visit from a former editor of the Crimson today. Nice to see Drew drop by, giving me grief about the state of the Auburn-Florida sporting rivalry and inspiring me about his plans. He’s a sharp guy ready to go out and conquer his corner of the world. (If you need a sports writer, this is the right blog. You should look up Drew.)

We do have the good fortune to enjoy a fine caliber of students in our program, to be sure. They keep us young.

My class today visited the Alabama Media Group, as I might have mentioned elsewhere. It was a chance to seeold friends in a new place, the first time I’ve visited with my former coworkers at al.com since they made the AMG shift last fall. This was the first time I’ve seen them anywhere besides the Martin Biscuit Building in Lakeview.

They are on the north side now, in the Birmingham News building — which is now for sale.

If you’re on the market for a lot of open floorspace in that is less than 10 years old, I know of a deal for you!

Anyway, lovely and talented folks. I always enjoy visiting them. I didn’t get to see everyone today, but I’ll be back for lunch tomorrow. Of course we heard from AMG’s director of community news, Bob Sims:

At one point a student asked him a question and Bob used, almost word-for-word, the same answer I’d offered to this class on Monday about where they should be focusing right now. I love it when a plan comes together.

Anyway the sun was coming in through that light, over the church across the street and stretching out across this open work area and the AMG folks talked about their numbers and marketing and coverage and where they are planning to go in the future. Students asked good questions. It all came off famously. I was happy to see old friends and to see them looking well.

I did get to visit with Brian and Justin — guys I’ve known for almost a decade now — and some of my newer online friends today. We sat in a corner, the three of us, for a time and we made random references to pranks we once pulled one another and talked almost exclusively about how old we are. So it begins.

Things to read: Jeremy Gray, a local crime writer whom I admire, is doing a little bit of historist work. Journalism-history, that’s not a bad way to spend a slow night on the beat. This story reaches all the way back to the 1920s, involves ax murders, assaults on immigrants and interracial couples, truth serums, three death sentences, reprieves, new trials and several enduring mysteries, all nearly vanished from the modern collective memory. The story is a great read, which defies a brief and cogent excerpt, but do give it a look. I’ll just leave you with this from The trials of ‘The Axemen of Birmingham’: Drug-induced confessions lead to winding courtroom drama:

Descendants of some victims still live in the Birmingham area and at least one, Butch Baldone, a downtown tailor for 53 years, said black people were unfairly targeted in the investigation.

Baldone’s grandparents, Charles and Mary Baldone and their daughter, Virginia, then 14, were assaulted in their 10th Avenue North shop on July 13, 1921. All three survived, but refused to identify their attackers.

While the five black people injected with scopolamine reportedly confessed to the crime, Baldone said he believes the attack and “at least 90 percent” of the others were the work of an Italian mafia that was trying to plant roots in Birmingham.

“Black people got along with Italians because they were the only ones who would give them credit. The white man didn’t want their business,” Baldone said.

[…]

“The Baldones found the people who really did it and, to put it simply, they don’t exist anymore,” Butch Baldone said. “That was the closest the mafia ever came to Birmingham.”

Just so pat and perfect.

From Reuters, “Keep your so-called workers,” U.S. boss tells France:

The CEO of a U.S. tire company has delivered a crushing summary of how some outsiders view France’s work ethic in a letter saying he would have to be stupid to take over a factory whose staff only put in three hours work a day.

Titan International’s Maurice “Morry” Taylor, who goes by “The Grizz” for his bear-like no-nonsense style, told France’s left-wing industry minister in a letter published by Paris media that he had no interest in buying a doomed plant.

“The French workforce gets paid high wages but works only three hours. They get one hour for breaks and lunch, talk for three and work for three,” Taylor wrote on February 8 in the letter in English addressed to the minister, Arnaud Montebourg.

U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S- … what’s that?

“Titan is going to buy a Chinese tire company or an Indian one, pay less than one Euro per hour wage and ship all the tires France needs,” he said. “You can keep the so-called workers.”

Oh, right, the American way.

Finally, some people in higher education have been writing about social media, lately, if you’re interested.

Tomorrow: Road trip.

photo / weekend — Comments Off
17
Feb 13

Catching up

The weekly post of pictures that holds us over until Monday.

So she went from “I don’t know if I should enter for any races” to “I’ll sign up for one event” to “I signed up for three” before finally saying “I’m doing a leg in a relay as well.” And she got two first place spots, one second place and one third.

Overachiever:

Cereal in the Caf at Samford. I should eat Fruit Loops every day. I don’t:

We joined some of our friends for sushi the other night. OK, I watched. On the table when we got there was this ceramic carafe:

I shot a video on my phone the other day. Maybe I’m the only iPhone user that has had this problem, but occasionally the camera settings are on still when I’m aiming for video. The result is usually some poorly composed shot. But this one, this one made it into the actual video:

Are you following AU Sunsets on Tumblr? You should be? We have some of the best sunsets in the world. For example. this one is over Hitchcock Field at Plainsman Park:

The Tiger Prowler is moving again! Oh wait. This is the Tiger Prowler II. Or is that 2.0? The original, which looked slightly more like a touring bus, was sold. So hard to keep these things straight. Also, I don’t know why they started adding a three on the roof and then quit. And while I applaud their zeal, I am certain I’ll never climb on the plywood porch, for safety reasons:

We hosted Liam and his parents for dinner tonight. What a cute kid. Great family. I held him more. When The Yankee held him he cried. I was decent enough to not point that out more than two or three times. That’s what she gets for winning all of the ribbons:

adventures / Auburn / baseball / photo / weekend — Comments Off
16
Feb 13

A sporty day

I’m standing on the parking deck, trying to simultaneously suck in the sun and hide in the stairs. That defeated the wind, but put me back in the shade. And it was cold. Windy and cold. Gloves, hat and scarf cold.

And so we sat, sniffly, watching Auburn take easy, steady control over Maine, who were the most comfortable people in the weather. The locals were coming and going, and it all had to do with the sun, which was behind a giant cloud for far too long.

A lady asked me if I had a child on either team. Her husband struck up a conversation, not realizing that when he asked me about the War Eagles thing he’d get an inning long conversation and a chamber of commerce speech. He was from California, by way of Georgia.

Turns out they were part of a family there to watch their son/nephew/cousin who was hoping to get into his first collegiate game. And then, after chatting with them for most of the game, the stadium announcer called his name.

Rock Rucker was brought in to pinch hit in the eighth inning. He fell behind 0-2 and then had the patience to wait for the pitcher to work his way into a full count and took a walk. So now his family, the folks of this first round caliber talent were very excited to see their guy standing on first base.

The next batter quickly doubled down the left field line. By the time the ball was getting out to the wall, 315 feet from the plate, Rucker was already touching second. He never slowed down and so we all celebrated his first score together:

It can be easy to lose the proper perspective of collegiate sports, I think, until you meet the players’ families. They appreciate the game at a different, better, level.

This was the first game of a doubleheader, which Auburn won 12-3. I walked two blocks away to the aquatics center where The Yankee was in the Short-Course Yards Invitational

Here she is, in the orange Auburn cap, leaving the blocks in her first race:

Mind you, she started out saying “I don’t know if I should sign up for any events.”

And I would say Go ahead, do one, have a good time, meet more people.

Then she came home one day and said “I signed up for three races.”

Today was her first race:

She had a good swim today, finishing second in the 200 freestyle.

Today she said “I might race as part of a relay, too.” So we’ll be back at the pool tomorrow afternoon.

After spending the rest of the evening at a very cold second baseball game. The sun had gone down by then, but Auburn won 4-3.

Then Chinese takeout, and resting up for tomorrow’s swim.

Auburn / baseball / photo / video — Comments Off
15
Feb 13

Pinnnnng!

Football wound down. We tolerated basketball for two weeks. Now we have the ping of ball off bat. Today was the opening day of the college baseball season.

Auburn opens their season with a four game homestand against Maine. Why Maine? Because the coach from Maine would rather be in the South in February. And he was handsomely rewarded today. Just a gorgeous evening for the game, even if we forgot the peanuts:

A good game too. There are so many new players even veteran fans were diving for rosters. Even still, there were plenty of things to remind us all of seasons past in this close game. We had random bunts. There was an error at shortstop. We had fun with the good-natured heckling of the opposing left fielder.

And there we were, in the bottom of the 9th, in a tie game. Someone started the heckling chant version of the slow clap for the freshman left fielder. (Who had put together a nice game for himself.) To lead off the inning was Auburn’s new third baseman, Damek Tomscha, a junior college transfer brought in to add some defense at the corner. He took a hanging fastball and put it somewhere the pitcher hadn’t anticipated:

Earlier another one of the new players saved a home run:

And the bullpen looked sharp, too. Baseball season is here.

Oh, look, one of those sunset photos made it on the nice new AUSunset Tumblr. Follow her.

Tomorrow: Intolerably colder, but more baseball and one other important sport.

iPhone / journalism / links / photo / things to read / Thursday — Comments Off
14
Feb 13

Happy Valentine’s Day

Happy Valentine’s Day. It was clear and cold. I spent time this evening making a birthday video and working on my computer, which refused to load iMovie for much of the night. Happily, the Internet was able to save the day after a delicious Valentine’s steak dinner. I deleted everything related to iMovie except iMovie, restarted the machine 49 times, bribed, threatened and cajoled the thing and, finally, the program loaded.

And so I was able to edit the video and send it off just in time. It was, I think, a good video.

I found a neat app that mimics a depth of field to your cameraphone photos. It is called Big Lens and is done by touch. It works pretty well. Here’s a before and after:

I overdid it a bit on the effect in this first example, which just goes to show how differently things look on a phone screen compared to a monitor. But, still, there might be something useful in the app. A phone’s camera can be very useful, but it has a few obvious shortcomings. Maybe things like this app will help. If you don’t mind editorializing.

Things to read. A recent panel asked “What role does computation have in the practice of journalism today and in the near future?” That is a fine read. My answer: More and more every day.

Time Warner looks to unload their print properties. It is all very much up in the air, but this is going to be a big story.

Need a last-minute card? Consult The Auburner for all your Valentine’s Day needs.

And, finally, I received an email intended for someone else. It was from a florist. The inscription read “I just wont you to no I love you.”

Proofread, friends.

Now I must go give my cards …