running « Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

running

First down

Started my morning with a run. I got in a nice 5K before a series of meetings — fortunately, there were no meetings about meetings. My workday also ended with meetings about social media. In between, I gave a lecture on the “changing concepts of news.” I started around the muckrackers at McClure’s and worked up to the modern moment. In 2015, remember, Back to the Future II showed us flying robot reporters working for USA Today.

We talked a bit about the Oculus Rift work. I showed them the latest androids being developed in Japan:

Think about all of the changes that have taken place in journalism and storytelling in the last 40 years, I said. Imagine what it will look like toward the end of your career, in another 40 years.

That android, that so many of them thought to be odd or creepy today, will be positively old fashioned by then.

Things to read … because reading will never go out of style.

(We hope.)

How the news upstarts covered ISIS:

The rallying cry for those bemoaning the demise of newspapers was, “Without The New York Times, who would cover Iraq?” Well, quite a few places, it turns out.

As traditional media companies have scaled back their foreign bureaus, newer news organizations like Vice and BuzzFeed have expanded their mandate to fill the void. (Not included in this review is Global Post, the online startup that James Foley worked for, since it started with the express purpose of covering foreign news.) But can a bunch of relatively small upstarts cover the world’s hot spots? ISIS, one of the year’s biggest stories, is as good a test case as any to see how five have been doing it.

Here’s more pessimism for print advertising:

For newspapers, continued print advertising declines will mean more pressure on circulation (print subscribers and paywalls) or new revenue (digital marketing services, events) to make up the difference. Most likely, they won’t, and we’ll see more cuts.

If the rate of print ad decline does slow in 2015 (from 8.9 percent down to 6.2 percent down), that would be…semi-good news, I guess, after several years of drops in the high single digits? But there’s nothing here to predict a leveling off, much less a return to growth.

The ‘guiding principles’ of Quartz redesign

The Miami Herald’s new publisher is moving the paper a bit closer towards irrelevancy

VA ‘Oscar the Grouch’ training angers vets:

The beleaguered Department of Veterans Affairs depicted dissatisfied veterans as Oscar the Grouch in a recent internal training guide, and some vets and VA staffers said Tuesday that they feel trashed.

The cranky Sesame Street character who lives in a garbage can was used in reference to veterans who will attend town-hall events Wednesday in Philadelphia.

“There is no time or place to make light of the current crisis that the VA is in,” said Joe Davis, a national spokesman for the VFW. “And especially to insult the VA’s primary customer.”

These people will apparently not get it. And its a delightful little series of events to which we can all look forward.

The first college football game of the year was tonight. This guy was the referee:

I hadn’t realized that Boyd Crowder had taken on a side job:

Justified should be back around January. But football is here now. Hooray football.

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15
Aug 14

There is Star Trek at the end of this post

We went for a run in the middle of the day, because running takes less time, and we haven’t done it in a while. Here’s the more-sunny-than-you-realize path.

I discovered today that I’m big on the mind deals — slightly different than Ray Romano’s mind bets. Today’s was fairly straight forward: if you stop running, you’re going to run another mile.

I did not have to run the fourth mile. I had a fairly decent time on the 5K. But not fast enough.

I do not know what is happening.

As I finished the run, I was looking for some shade, stepped under a promising pine tree and found this guy:

That’s the Actias luna caterpillar. You might be more familiar with the luna moth version. I didn’t see one of those, but I did watch that caterpillar climb and climb:

There’s probably a metaphor in there, or we could just be impressed by the closeup quality of my phone’s camera. Probably a metaphor in that, too.

Brian came down for a weekend visit. He and I went to Niffer’s for dinner. Turkey burgers and corn nuggets are for dinner.

Afterward we spent the evening in the pool. Colleagues and neighbors were there. It was a fine time with friends and more friends. We stayed so long the bottom of my feet are raw. And we’ll probably go back tomorrow.

Things to read … to prepare for tomorrow.

Alabama’s unemployment rate at 7 percent

The Re-Return of Chuckie Keeton

Inside the College Football Hall of Fame playground in Atlanta:

First and foremost, know this: This isn’t your father’s Hall of Fame.

Often ignored for nearly two decades in South Bend, Ind., the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta represents today’s game and media world while respectfully giving a nod to the past. The National Football Foundation’s decision in 2009 to move the Hall of Fame into the deep South symbolizes how the sport has changed demographically and through television.

Located within a five-minute walk from the Georgia Dome and the future Atlanta Falcons stadium, the Hall of Fame craves connectivity and a personal experience above all else. There are interactive videos and games, selfies with digital face paint, countless screens, and a field for activities and events.

It sounds like a nice experience.

Now the fanfic looks better than the source material …

Interestingly, everyone you see in that prelude has played multiple characters across the sprawling Star Trek franchise, except for … Richard Hatch. This is his first time in Rodenberry’s universe. They’re making a movie out of it. They’ve received more than four times their Kickstarter goal and their making a feature film, of the independent variety. It’ll be low-budget but, if you watch the entire prelude, you can see there’s some really great quality there. And Garth of Izar.

“Donors will receive either a digital HD copy, or a DVD or Blu-ray copy, depending on their donation level. It will also be released for streaming on YouTube for all to enjoy sometime later!”

The movie is in pre-production now, according to IMDB. I find it a bit more exciting than it probably should be.

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7
Aug 14

The difference between riding and running

I always watch other people ride and think “I wish I could be on my bike right now.” I’ve never watched people run and thought “I would love a great jog right about now.”

Maybe I just don’t run enough — and I thought about a run tonight, but I was too spent from my brief little bike ride. Maybe I haven’t jogged enough in the aggregate. Either way, the run is never is good as the ride. The road looks different, moves differently and feels different in every way.

(I’d never see the curves that way on foot.)

Maybe a good run just doesn’t teach me as many things as even a mediocre ride.

I dropped three riders on my first hill of the day. So I can be capable enough in my weakest part of the ride, if I know when to do it. I’m a fairly instinctive attacker. It felt great to swing out from that little group and go over them. I have something almost approaching a decent uphill sprint. I can be strong, in short bursts, even if I haven’t been using my legs recently. And it feels good to fly up a hill, to get to the top, look back and not see anyone there.

I struggled with my pedals, again, and had to stop to straighten the cleat in my shoe, again. So that means finding a parking lot, stopping, pulling out the multitool, taking off the shoe and tightening the screws. I think I learned why I got these shoes for a song. Those three people never did catch up. I must have dropped them hard. Unless they turned. But I take the optimistic view about these things on the bike.

I rode up and down my favorite parking deck, practicing the 180-degree turns at both ends. I probably enjoy that too much, the incline isn’t too bad and there’s all that descending to do.

I passed two other cyclists, but one of them was a kid on a sidewalk. Also, I apparently now own the top spot in one of the local sprint segments. This was all supposed to be a slow and easy ride, but my fast is so slow, I’ve learned, that I can’t tell a difference.

I did not run. There was nothing to learn from it. Maybe tomorrow evening.

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24
Jul 14

Samford is shoeing an entire nation

I work with special people in an amazing place. Here is what some of them have been doing recently. Watching this was the best three minutes of my day:

That’s an amazing project, built by incredible people.

The rest of my day felt a bit bleh. My neck still hurts and I had a general odd, off feeling. In the late afternoon The Yankee, Kim and Murphy and I all went for a run. Started feeling better right away.

So I suppose my few days rest are over. Thank goodness.

Things to read … because that’s just about all I have for you today, but there are a lot of things to read.

Rabbit returned to Opelika couple after seven years:

Marilyn McCarley had planted a colorful flower bed around the rabbits shortly before Mack went missing.

“Whoever got it came in and got the rabbit. … They didn’t stomp the flowers,” she said. “…They’re cement, you know. So they’re really heavy. We never thought in a million years we would see that rabbit again.”

While Mack was missing, Clyde McCarley drove around town, checking area lawns to see if Mack had found his way there.

“I can tell you every house that has a rabbit,” he said. For years, the McCarleys decorated just one rabbit for Christmas and Easter.

This would be great fun to ride, I’m sure. Europe Wants To Turn The Iron Curtain Into A Bike Path:

The Iron Curtain, once the ominous line dividing Cold War-era rivals, is being transformed into a 4,225-mile cycling trail for recreational travelers.

European Union officials interested in boosting bike tourism have set aside $2.4 million to connect and brand existing trails that extend from the Barents Sea, north of the border between Finland and Russia, to the edge of the Black Sea, at the border between Bulgaria and Turkey. Sections of trail already pass by popular historic sites like the remnants of the Berlin Wall.

Here’s a brochure on the whole thing.

Scholars hope a two-year exploration will help find the site of an epic Alabama battle:

On a muggy Memorial Day, in a remote clearing near the Alabama River, three of the state’s most eminent anthropologists and one of the state’s best-known historians huddle around a hand-drawn map they hope can take them a few steps nearer to finding one of the most significant historic sites in North America.

On Oct. 18, 1540, an armed force led by Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto clashed with Indian warriors led by the famed chieftain Tascalusa. The ferocious encounter decimated Tascalusa’s people and left the fortified Indian village in ruins. But it also proved to be a fatal blow to De Soto’s expedition. Severely weakened, De Soto led his battle-scarred troops deeper into the unmapped continent. He would not survive, and the remnants of his army were ultimately forced to find their way back to the relative safety of Mexico.

And now for a few quick links of interest:

Maxwell Air Force Base could be used to house thousands of immigrant children

Teens make up less of summer workforce than ever

Prosecutors Are Reading Emails From Inmates to Lawyers

Twitter Is Changing How the Media Covers the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Time.com’s bounce rate down 15 percentage points since adopting continuous scroll

How 4 Photo Editors Are Using Instagram

Finally, some music. This is the first track from Guster’s forthcoming album:

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19
Jul 14

Chattahoochee Challenge

This morning we took part in the Chattahoochee Challenge sprint triathlon, a comparatively easy 500-meter swim, 13-mile ride and 5K run.

The swim is in the Chattahoochee River which, today, offered us the most mild current possible. (Our last two races have been in very quiet water. May the trend continue.) Last year this race was in the middle of the wettest summer a lot of people could remember and we raced down the swim course.

Somehow my time was a few seconds slower, though my swim seemed better. Must have been that current.

The ride is through roads and bike paths and Columbus’ scenic river walk. The race and the city block off an entire lane for most of the road portion, which is very nice. It is mostly flat, which is nice. I didn’t have a flat as I did last year, which was even better. My bike time was naturally much better without the flat, but it should have been better.

The run is through the historic and flat downtown Columbus district. It was during that 5K where I wondered about the wisdom of two triathlons in a row. Last weekend’s was longer, and both demonstrated my poor conditioning. I did meet a nice 50-year-old woman who was celebrating her birthday with her second triathlon. She was having a great run just as I was coming to that conclusion. (Happy birthday, Laura!) And, somehow, my run was two minutes faster than last year, too.

It rained before the race. It stopped raining long enough to get in the water. Someone thought aloud “Wouldn’t it be neat if we had a slide start?” and no one disagreed with them.

Someone should have disagreed.

We stood in line to get in the water for about 90 minutes. The first racers had finished their races while we were standing there bored, cooling down, burning off our morning fuel and feeling feet get achy on cement.

If you have the opportunity to do a slide start to a race: don’t.

This is a good race, but if they have this feature next year I’ll skip it.

It started raining again just as I finished my bike. I caught up with The Yankee during the run. Here we are at the finish line:

And then it rained some more. Everything we took to the race is wet, which is OK, but it made us proud to have left some dry things in our hotel room, and made that shower even better.

Here’s my bike computer after the race. This is my average speed which isn’t bad considering you have to walk your bike both before and after the ride for safety purposes and I was trying to save something in my legs for the run.

I should have pedaled harder. There was nothing in my legs by the end anyway.

As I said: The art, science, skill, talent and philosophy of triathlons is balancing the training and maximizing your minimums. I have no balance and many minimums.

But we had fun. Now we’re going to have ice cream, and rest.