I went to a meeting at 9:30 this morning. I left work just after 8 p.m. In between I had to start writing things for next week, set up a meeting, opened a studio for another project, answered every email and probably some that weren’t sent. So a perfectly average 10-and-a-half-hour day.
Spring break next week will be fun. I am looking forward to taking a few days off, to be sure.
But we have to get through a few more days, first. And the studio wrapped up the day. It was sports, tonight.
And there was a lot of basketball. Both of IU’s teams are looking for a spot in March Madness. The women are a sure lock, as we learn from this panel talking about what’s to come.
The women are likely poised to make a deep run in the tournament. The men need to do a little work in their conference tournament to get a dance card. These next few days will be key for them. And those sports shows will be online tomorrow, or so, and I can share them with you then.
Tonight, though, you can check out the two shows the news division produced last night.
They brought in one of the nation’s foremost experts on Russia and Vladimir Putin for an in-studio interview. This is good stuff.
And the dance team is, like the rest of us, dancing toward spring break.
Two more days!
Monday / photo / video — Comments Off on Standard issue Monday 7 Mar 22
I worked a full day, and just a day and that was great. I left my office at 5:16! This is the earliest I’d left in four weeks, I think. I slept about four hours last night, so, though there was day left, there was not much left in me.
But that’s OK, because the day was a success, for a Monday. Four meetings and all the To Do list items satisfactorily To Done.
So it’s an early night, and not a lot of extra stuff. But! This is a fun challenge. Do you know where you’re at? Give it a try. I’m going to answer one of these questions when I have the rare lull.
And I’m also listening to this podcast with Jon Stewart, which is interesting if you like the level of thoughtfulness of a Jon Stewart.
In other nonsense …
And we must also check in with the kitties, who are insistent that I follow The Rules and post them on the Correct Day. One of these cats is very demanding. I’ll let you decide which one.
I had a nice cuddle with Phoebe, who spent her time alternatively telling on her brother and sleeping.
Poseidon, sitting on his favorite warm spot, in total defiance of The Rules.
Phoebe knows where to go when it gets too cold.
And if Phoebe is there Poseidon wants to be under that same blanket, too. (Like that’s the only blanket.)
They can’t coexist in such a small place. We make them take turns, because we need other, better hobbies.
Another 11-plus hour day in the rowboat. Still waiting on the script for that television show I am producing on Friday. Of the particulars I know there will be singing; 18 people will sing separately; most of the music is in hand; apparently the music rights aren’t a concern; and at least 21 of the people that will be on camera have no studio show experience.
We’re going to have a great time!
I had to buy lunch, because I forgot to thaw out bread. It worked out, I wanted fries. So I got an inferior sammich from the place that has Several Dudes Incapable Of Making A Tasty Burger, But Nevertheless Do A Nice Job On The Fries.
They need to punch that name up.
I did the thing where you order online. I also did the thing where I selected the wrong store. The guy working though was great. He made my order for me again, was not put out by the effort of it at all, and didn’t even charge me, as I’d already paid their other local restaurant. I was most appreciative of all of this, an unnecessary level of service based on my own error, and a kindness I won’t forget.
I wish their burgers tasted like something, though.
There was a Zoom chat featuring two of our professors who have reported in Ukraine over the years, and a former grad student who is there today. Those presentations were incredibly interesting. And the grad student makes the second person I’ve “met” in Ukraine in a Zoom in the last week or so.
It’s hardly a family or friend thing, but now every day you’ll wonder about them. I see footage and find myself trying to figure out if that person in the background is someone that studied here. It must be terrible for all of those people who have loved ones in a place where a war is brought upon them — whether covered so extensively as this one will be, or not.
It’s interesting, the amount of realtime coverage, pared next to an abundance of people willing to tell stories like those two people. What we will hear will framed in the same ways conflict and humanitarian issues are often framed, as a media outlet’s story, a unit in the larger story. But with the ability, so long as Ukraine keeps their ability to communicate with the outer world, to hear from the people it is impacting is different. Refugees and death and strife are abstractions in large numbers.
When we had a chat with the former IU student last week we learned about what she was doing to distract her kid. When the former student we heard from today it was very much a conversation about his work, and how that’s evolving at the moment. The two professors who once reported in Ukraine talked about the culture, and about dealing with communist minders and hope.
All of it, together, paints a slightly better picture than any of it alone. Which is as good a way as any to lean into the fog of war, to say nothing about the copious amounts of propaganda and misinformation.
But there’s another interesting avenue to consider. The abundance of real expertise on … everything.
This is a thread that will explain the implied poor Russian Army truck maintenance practices based on this photo of a Pantsir-S1 wheeled gun-missile system's right rear pair of tires below & the operational implications during the Ukrainian mud season.🧵
This guy, who was a defense contractor, has an opportunity to explain some stuff to us about mud and tires and roads and its utterly fascinating. Earlier, let’s say January, there was much discussed about the ideal time to invade Ukraine, and it came down to the seasons. It came down to mud. And now here we are.
In its finest form the Internet is a terrific place for us all to learn important or interesting things.
There were two sports shows tonight. Some of the sports guys were at the last home basketball game, and so the next line up was ready to step in and held things down admirably.
If the older guys aren’t careful the young guns will come for their jobs.
Those shows will be up tomorrow. Here are the programs the news team produced yesterday. First, the desk show. It’s short, but has some real quality, sincerity and a little gravitas to it.
Here’s the magazine show. Also, the two funny guys are back, with their funny jokes. That’s what is going on in the thumbnail.
And, after another 11-hour day, we are just 40 hours before the big program we’re producing on Friday. There’s a lot to do between now and then.
IU / photo / Tuesday — Comments Off on Happy March 1 Mar 22
It was an 11-and-a-half hour day today. Started with a Zoom meeting where I was actually called upon to talk for a moment. Surprised me a bit, but, yes, I do have something pertinent and important to add to the topic.
Now let me mute myself once more, so I can go back to laying out this, answering that and so on.
In my mid-day meeting I got to tell a lot of jokes and talk philosophy. Somewhere in there the scale of the week set in. A mere mortal would at least be whelmed. I’m just checking things off lists.
I have several lists.
We ran a production test late this afternoon for the Friday show I’m producing. Most of it went off without a hitch. And the organizers of the show got me some more information I need to produce the actual program. It’ll come as dribs and drabs for the next several days, right up until showtime, I’m sure.
Friday at 2 p.m., maybe, if anyone is keeping score.
Here’s Ashton on the news desk. He’s a freshman. Super talented. I’m not jealous at all.
As usual, the shows they produced will be online tomorrow, and I’ll share them here accordingly.
After this evening’s studio time, it was back to my office to do more things for this other program. I got home just after 9:30.
The day started bright and sunny, and the week is trending that way, according to the forecasts. I will see it in the morning, and that’ll be about all I see of it this week. There’s a lot going on, and it’ll be lighter than usual here.
So almost non-existent?
If you want to be cynical about it, dear straw man construct.
What would be the point of inventing this dialogue, otherwise?
To pad the post with paragraph breaks and an empty construct?
Who’s being cynical now? And on Monday, even.
Exactly.
It was a day full of meetings, most of them over Zoom. I don’t know if you’ve been in a meeting where the person in every Zoom window simultaneously raised their eyebrows and watched 10 pairs of eyes get wide simultaneously, but that happened in my first meeting of the day.
Someone mentioned something about a specific deadline on a particular project which pushed things up considerably. No one else was familiar with this date. I consulted two notebooks and my batch of post it notes and saw no such date. We decided maybe the speaker had misspoken. Perhaps he was thinking of another deadline for another project, and another group of people. It would be understandable, everyone has more than one project.
One of my large projects will wrap this week. I’ve been producing a singing contest show. And my last meeting of the day was with the organizers of that event. We have the names of the contestants now. Eighteen will enter, 10 will advance to the finals. Fortunately, I do not have to produce the finals. I spent three-and-a-half hours on the semifinals this thing, going over details we should have well in hand by now. But at least some of them are in, so I can finally write the show’s rundown. Another meeting on this tomorrow, and more all week. At some point all of the music will come in. And the scripts. And the entire speaker’s list. At least I have a crew for the show.
We have hit none of the deadlines I established for this project. It will still be better organized than when we did this same event last year.
Here’s a show the students posted this weekend. I like the shows like this, where the crew working on it just seem to be having a ton of fun.
They, and their fellow IUSTV crews, will produce at least six studio shows this week. It’s a delight to watch them grow.
Anyway, I left the office at 7:30 tonight and, yes, I am keeping score.
Let’s check in on the cats, as we so often do on Mondays. Phoebe found some morning sun and proves once more that it’s a pretty good life to be a cat in this house.
Poseidon would agree, except I framed this so that his sister said it. So, to be difficult, he would probably find fault with that, and try to bite her. It’s a good thing he’s occasionally charming, I tell him, he can be a trying cat.
Not that you’d ever know it from handsome looks like that.
(I have to play this cool and dish out some compliments. He’s sitting next to me as I type this.)
