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“April prepares her green traffic light and the world thinks ‘Go.'” — John Mistletoe
Busy day, so you’re only getting this photographic meditation on spring. We’ve reached that point where sticks in the trees are no longer the standard view, but where the finery decorations of nature are still a bit surprising after a few months without. You can’t beat the South in the springtime.
On the road, here’s my self-portrait. That’s an empty section of road, and I’m somewhere in the shadow.
Dissertation meeting today. Spent a few hours with my adviser, talking about my literature and what else needs to go in it. “Add this, don’t forget that, have you considered this other thing?” And then there’s the method. Always there is the method.
My adviser is very good, and very sharp. If you looked just at his vita you’d wonder how he does all of the things he does. And then when you speak with him a few times you see how. It is possible that he is thinking of two or three hefty things at one time.
So that was the morning. And then I held class in the afternoon. The students were finishing up the last of their presentations. These were their presentations on a media outlet they’ve chosen to follow and write about all semester. Their talks have been very good.
After class I had a meeting with next year’s ad manager. She’s very enthusiastic. Also I met for a few minutes with next year’s editor-in-chief. These early conversations with the new students every year are always a lot of fun. There’s always a lot of energy and ideas, and it is neat to see them grow into the jobs.
One more shot from the day’s travels:
The Yankee and our friend Melissa at last weekend’s conference.
I like lamp. From Famous Dave’s.
The candle of truth, lighting the way and solving petty disputes. Whomever can stand the heat longest wins the point.
Who’s there? Through the peephole.
Flamingos dotted the Samford campus on April Fool’s Day.
The meteorological ceiling on the drive home.
The flowering dogwood in our yard.
Plainsman Park panorama, using the free app on my iPhone. The panorama isn’t perfect, but it shows the beautiful weather we had at the baseball game this afternoon. The important part is that this was shot and stitched together on my phone. The important part was not that Auburn fell to number one Vanderbilt 6-2 and was swept in-conference on consecutive weekends for the first time since 2007. We had beautiful weather for a day at the park, though. Click to embiggen the panorama.
The newest slender section of the site is going to look that that. I’m tinkering with the design now, so I thought I’d throw the picture up here. Of course I’ll tell you all about it when the page is ready to go.
Class today, reading today. Also, the sun came out. I’d have to check the meteorological records for three or four cities, but I believe this was the first time I’d seen that big ball of fusion in more than a week.
Those were the highlights of the day.
And I also re-discovered Golden Smog:
You know your supergroup is on an extended hiatus when the record label links to the official site which has been taken over by a hedge fund:
The (economic) crisis also demonstrated flaws in large financial firms. These start with the too-big-to-fail problem. Large banks cannot be allowed to go down; knowing that, their creditors lend without monitoring their risks; as a result, their risk-taking is undisciplined. At the same time, each trading desk within a large banking supermarket has strong reason to load up on risk. If its bets come good, huge bonuses will ensue. If they go bad, the losses will be spread across the whole institution.
[…]
The question for policy-makers is what kind of financial institution will absorb risk most efficiently—and do so without a backstop from taxpayers. The answer awaits discovery in the story of A.W. Jones and his descendants. The future of finance lies in the history of hedge funds.
The page on starting a hedge fund redirects to a 404.
Whoops.
I took this picture in a parking lot the other night. The more I think of it the more troubled by the implications of the language. The video may be recorded? It may be recorded 24 hours? Which 24 hours? Are they in sequence? Are just the first 24 hours recorded? Are they pressing record at whim?
Is this a deterrent? Would the bad guys take a chance?
Turns out if you stand there in the parking lot considering this message the staff begins to eye you suspiciously.
Auburn friends will enjoy the best Twitter meme ever. Everyone else will probably find it stupid, even if they can relate to some of the experiences there. Even still, just the names and the shared parts of the culture made for some hysterical reading today.
MONTGOMERY, Alabama — Gov. Robert Bentley said today he would cut the state’s General Fund budget by 15 percent once the Legislature passes pending supplemental appropriations to several key agencies.
And Bentley said the condition of the $1.6 billion fund is so bad that he expects to have to prorate the 2012 budget that begins on Oct. 1 anywhere from 15 percent to 45 percent.
[…]
Bentley compared the state’s General Fund to a person who is addicted to OxyContin and is going through a withdrawal period.
“Some times you get DTs like an alcoholic and that’s what we’re going through in the state of Alabama now,” he said. “We going through DTs, but you know what? You’ve got a doctor in charge.”
That’s our new governor. He was a dermatologist in his previous career. These little jokes are going to get old, fast.
And on the local level, there is even more bad economic fun.
I finished Robert Remini’s The House: The History of the House of Representatives at lunch. Fine book, considering that it had to cover so much ground of what is sometimes a dry topic. Here’s the summary I put on Twitter:
The House was founded. It was good, then bad and then ominous. Then it was good again. Then there was Newt Gingrich, Clinton, 9-11. The End.
This evening I started reading Eugen Sledge’s With The Old Breed. Sledge was an Auburn man, from Mobile. He fought in two of the most brutal battles of the Pacific before he turned 21, enrolled at Auburn after the war and had a long and successful career as a professor at the University of Montevallo. The HBO miniseries, The Pacific, was based in part on his book. Just a few pages in, but it is a universally well-received book. I’ll let you know.
Best video of the day? Glad you asked.
Finally, where were you 30 years ago today? I don’t remember that as it happened, but you might. Watching the contemporary television coverage is fascinating.
