There was a concern in my mind, as I contemplated every American metaphor for a road, that I might eventually come to enjoy running. I’ll never be good at it. I might one day be comfortable doing it, though. And that made me uncomfortable. I know how this works. If I come to like it, I’ll want to do more of it. More running.
I realized this about four miles into a five mile run that didn’t hurt at all. I never seemed especially out of breath. It didn’t seem strenuous.
Not sure what metaphor goes with that, though.
I also decided there’s going to be less stuff here on weekends. We’ll all try to maintain our composure, I’m sure.
Here’s a podcast I did with my old friend Chadd Scott earlier this week. He’s launching GridironNow.com tonight, a site that will cover SEC football like crazy, and he’s asked me to take part. I’m honored. So I’ll be writing occasionally and podcasting regularly, I hope. Here’s our first one, where Chadd previews the Auburn football season:
He’s pretty sold on them. I have some reservations.
If football isn’t your thing, then this podcast that I recorded today with journalist Andre Natta might be more your style. He tells us about a proposal in Denver that will help ease college debts:
Don’t play both of those at once. The awesome noise might be too much for your computer’s sound card.
I created both of the songs in the podcasts, by the way. That leaves me only 48 steps removed from being a true renaissance man.
Also, tonight, I swam 2,700 yards and then got in a nice, easy four-mile run. My last mile was in 8:05. That’s not fast, but fairly respectable for me, I suppose. But, again, I did it after my biggest swim ever and a four mile run. Plus I took 21 seconds off of my last mile yesterday, making this my favorite new game.
Most importantly, in my last few swims it feels like that’s just starting to click, finally. Finally.
Here is a podcast I recorded today with Trussville Tribune publisher Scott Buttram. He tells us about a sparsely attended secession rally in Montgomery. We wind up touching on whether things like this should be covered and the art of providing your audience with an even-handed report. It is a good conversation, check it out:
Meanwhile, I saw this video over lunch, and immediately identified with the kid:
The president of the Westhampton Beach Board of Education did not responded to ABC News’ request for comment. But in a letter sent to The Southampton Press by school board member Suzanne M. Mensch and obtained by ABC News, Mensch wrote she was “extremely disheartened by the Killoran family’s repeated public efforts to bully the Westhampton Beach School District into developing an educational program for their son” and that “Westhampton Beach has not been a party to this discussion” regarding Aiden’s placement.
I think that stands all by itself. Mean ol’ family bullies.
Meanwhile, these stories about cutting-edge technology solving archeological problems keep cropping up. If it didn’t have some extremely expensive laboratory equipment involved you’d think they were just making things up as they go. Mostly because they are. And why not? Silver scans solve mystery of Jamestown graves:
The coffins were long gone, victims of decay, but the coffin nails remained. The scientists knew of the tradition of burying important people in the chancel—and two important clues clarified the mystery further.
One was a small, sealed silver box that had been placed on top of one of the coffins, as evidenced by wood fibers preserved on the bottom of the box. The other was silver thread found in one of the graves.
But the team from the Jamestown Rediscovery archaeological project was left with a conundrum: how to use these valuable clues to reveal the identities of the people in the graves without destroying the artifacts?
Millennials at destination marketing organizations are pushing senior leadership to develop more innovative digital communications and more experiential sales efforts targeting both the leisure travel and meetings sectors.
Especially on the digital side, many of these younger professionals feel that their youth and social media expertise can be better leveraged to create more compelling social media and content marketing outreach for their organizations.
[…]
“I think it’s important for Millennials to point out to their senior leadership that the intent behind these campaigns is not just to do something fun,” says Spencer. “Of course, it was fun, but there was a strategy behind it and a lot of ROI. We wanted to get folks excited about Cleveland as a great place to visit, and we achieved that with a great outcome.”
Stack dimes.
After I’d had all the fun I could with class and podcasts and emails and reading and directing the typical traffic of a Wednesday I went for a run. I had a nice seven-mile jog, and I clocked my final mile at 8:26. That’s not fast, not even for me, but I’d like to stress, again, that it was mile seven.
The university announced record enrollment, which is now an annual announcement. There are now 5,206 students 46 states and 32 other countries. Also, the new yearbooks, documenting last year, were released on campus today. I looked through one and noted all of the people I knew and all of the now departed seniors I miss.
But there’s always new people to meet, new things to try, new toys to explore. Today we replaced our old fleet of Panasonic DVXs with a fleet of Panasonic HC-X1000 4Ks. They look sharp. And small.
Oh the fun we’re going to have with those. All of our students shoot everything in high definition and they do good work with them. And so it was exciting to see some of them come up and help unpack these today. Christmas in September! They’re looking forward to new equipment too. And why wouldn’t they be? They’ve been using the old cameras for three whole years. That deal means every student gets to work with brand new gear at least once in their time on campus.
Our students get a pretty good arrangement, as you can see.
They’re also shooting videos on their phones, of course. Here’s one our features editor has been working on.
After the unpacking party I ran back to my office to record a podcast, it should be live later this week. It is a happy, varied sort of work experience that I have on a daily basis. I like that.
I ran by these windows a few times this evening:
Today it was a 2,500 yard swim and a four-mile run. It didn’t even feel particularly hard, which is probably a sign of something unfortunate. Swim-run bricks are easy and deceptive.
Did you see the beginning of Catember? We’ll have a new photo of Allie each day throughout the month. Be sure to check in often.
The Yankee took a big swim this morning, 2.4 miles down the Chattahoochee. I’d swim that far if I had to. Escaping from the law or swimming to shore after a boating accident, but here’s the real fish:
Since she was swimming downstream I figured I would run upstream and then downstream and then back upstream to get in a nice long workout. Here are a few of the scenes:
She told me how long it would take, but then she cut 20 minutes off of her projection. Meanwhile, I was having a lousy run, so I missed her finish. Getting lightheaded midway through is no fun. I think my nutrition is off. Anyway, she finished third and got a prize:
And because she’s fierce, she ran back upstream with me. I finished with 6.5 miles, but no prize. So we had breakfast.
I had two breakfasts, in fact. Hey, I’d run a lot. That spicy pineapple marmalade was good, but the gravy biscuit at Plucked Up Chicken & Biscuits in Columbus is the best gravy biscuit I’ve ever had.
You’ll forgive me, then, if I didn’t do much with the rest of my day.
