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IU / journalism / photo / Thursday / Twitter — Comments Off on Talking about the cyber
23
Feb 17

Talking about the cyber

Among the other parts of my day, editing a big document, watching students produce a sports show, handling the various comings and goings of emailing and scheduling and so on, I had the opportunity to hang out at an important panel this evening. And I took notes.

Also, even if you aren’t interested in cybersecurity as a journalist or in your own professional role, this slideshow that gets mentioned people is accessible and worth your while. Check that out. Anyway, on to the tweets …

IU / photo / running / Tuesday / video — Comments Off on Live! From earlier tonight … and also this morning …
21
Feb 17

Live! From earlier tonight … and also this morning …

I ran five miles this morning before work. I’m not a morning runner. Wait. Let me start over.

I jogged five miles this morning before work. I’m not a morning jogger. I’m barely a jogger, but it certainly isn’t the thing I wake up and think “Oh, boy! Let’s get out there and pound some pavement!”

I’m much more of a pound the snooze button sort. I mean, sure, I can stretch, get in five miles and walk a cool down back home in an hour, or I could sleep for another hour in nine-minute increments. That’s what I am, a morning snoozer.

Nevertheless, I jogged.

There is a walking path out back of our house, and if you do the full length and go up and down the access paths to the road in front of the house you can almost get in a full mile in just over one complete trip. So I did that twice and then jogged out of the neighborhood and up the hill to the big intersection and then back down hill for a mile and a third. Then I turned and jogged back uphill to finish my course, five miles, just entering the neighborhood. It was damp and chilly and foggy and I had a full sweat. Some people were walking dogs and I found a few more signs of spring:

Of course the temperatures will fall through the floor by the weekend again, and you can’t see any sky for the clouds therein just now, but we’re in the 60s. We’ll hit the 70s on Thursday, for a day. And spring:

Anyway, in the studio tonight, I thought I’d take a picture to show you what the on-camera folks see. This is the corner where our interview area is. We have four red chairs for a more casual sit-down segment or, as seen here, the prep for one of entertainment shows.

What is weird, to me, is that I should show up in the monitors attached to the cameras. I’m standing right behind both of the hosts. And yet, you can’t really see me. I zoomed in to the original, just to be sure.

Funny, I don’t feel any different.

After What’s Up Weekly they taped their news show. I stood in between the cameras and did a brief video of my own, because I suddenly remembered I could do that.

Status: getting ready for another installment of Hoosier News Source on @iustv.

A post shared by Kenny Smith (@kennydsmith) on

I should plan those things better.

cycling / Monday / photo / running — Comments Off on Signs of spring
20
Feb 17

Signs of spring

We had a beautiful weekend here, how about you? When the clouds finally moved out on Saturday it got up into the 60s. And it stayed sunny on Sunday, too. Early spring? I’ll take it.

I had a nice medium-sized run. It should have been longer, but that’s the way of it sometimes. I did seven miles and then got hungry. I guess I needed more than a bowl of cereal. So I went inside and had a sandwich and went back out. By then, though, I’d cooled off, so I only did three more miles.

So this means I ran 10 miles and that was disappointed.

I do not know what is happening.

But! I saw the first new green stuff of the year:

Just behind that, was this:

Now, you can walk or run parallel to that fence and it just … ends. There’s no corner, no gate, no extra posts where the wire should be. It just stops. So I’m not sure how this is supposed to keep anyone in or out.

Down the other way, about a half mile, was this handsome old American sycamore:

In a few more weeks, maybe, the trees will be in bloom. Won’t that be a sight?

On Sunday I rode my bike to campus. I’d forgotten to bring something home on Friday and I needed it and it was such a beautiful day and so I slow-pedaled for about an hour and that was delightful. Just a beautiful day. I shot some video on my bike ride that is now on the front page of the site. I like that path, and I like the scenery, but I was trying to be sure I didn’t hit a few walkers while I was shooting that. I’ll have to go back and try again when there’s something on the trees.

adventures / Friday / history / Indiana / IU / photo — Comments Off on You can decide which parenthetical note is best
17
Feb 17

You can decide which parenthetical note is best

Yesterday I wrote, for too long, about a blue jean jacket. (“Rosebud … “) I also learned that they were back in style. As if they should have ever left …

I looked for a picture of me in the jacket, but I don’t have one. I’m sure they exist though. And then, this morning, we saw definitive proof that they were back. This is a morning show our students shoot:

On the left is one host. On the far right is another. Obstructed from this angle is a fashion columnist from the campus paper. And she is talking about the outfit being worn by the young woman on the middle right. Denim on denim.

Different colors, she intoned seriously, so that each stands out from the other.

We had a name for that once upon a time, and, as I recall, it was a look to be avoided. But everything changes.

We were setting up cameras before that. This has a name, but I forget what it is. So let’s just call it cool:

I did some of the other things that make up a normal day at the office. I helped some folks practice weather presentations on the green screen. I had lunch. At 2:30 I finally got caught up on the day’s email. I talked to students. I also gave a tour of the building today. And after work we went over to Nashville, the little artists’ colony about 20 miles away, for dinner.

We had a date! The Yankee found Hobnob Corner, which has been around since just after the Civil War as a dry goods store and then a restaurant. It felt like a cracker barrel. The people were friendly. The decor was rustic. The walls were covered with photos of the history of the little town. (White settlers came in after an 1809 treaty. Farming and forestry ran the isolated area. By the time the 20th century rolled around deforestation ruined the agriculture because of poor practices leading to wide scale erosion. Roads, the Depression and the CCC, then the artists showed up. The town has three traffic lights, which is all of the lights in the county. They enjoy tourism as a big part of their economy.) My favorite photo was of a parade from 1900. I thought it might have been a prohibition parade, or a women’s suffrage march. But I just found a site with a similar photo that might be of the same parade, and it is labeled there as Decoration Day.

But they have some pretty nice dining there. Try the Duck Breast with Orange Maple Glaze with butternut squash risotto and sauteed kale. (This is the only acceptable way to eat kale.)

We’ve been over to Nashville once before, in the daylight, in the summer time, when things were open. I’m sure we’ll go back. There are always new shops to see and 24 restaurants to try and dates to be had.

Indiana / memories / photo / Thursday / Twitter / video — Comments Off on The cuffs were stained, and it got stinky
16
Feb 17

The cuffs were stained, and it got stinky

From time to time a student asks to interview me about something or other as part of a class project. I try to be a difficult interview, thinking maybe the word will get out and people will stop asking.

I don’t actually act like a bad interview subject. I try to be helpful while they’re learning their craft, but the thought always occurs to me: I could derail this. I could send this off in an entirely different direction. But they’re going to get that experience soon enough.

Today I got interviewed as part of a magazine writing exercise about the importance of clothes. It seemed an unusual topic, what clothes are important to you. So I thought, for whatever reason, about outerwear. This jacket, that coat and so on. I guess because it has been cold, I was thinking of the things that help keep you warm. Somewhere in there I mentioned this old denim jacket I had as a kid. Denim, which has made a comeback once more, was a big status symbol back then. And of course the interviewer seized on this as her topic.

I didn’t have a denim jacket for the longest time, because they were expensive and we didn’t have that kind of money. But finally, for Christmas one year, I got one. It was, I told my interviewer, an off-brand and it was probably about 15 minutes after denim was the thing, but I loved it. Loved it. I wore that jacket constantly. Day, night, overnight. And I suppose I just eventually physically outgrew it. But I remember the joy of the gift and the smell of the jacket. And it wasn’t a good smell, because I wore it constantly and I was a little boy. My mom had to wait until I went to sleep and then took the jacket off of me to wash the thing.

The interviewer asked good questions, as I imagined she would. Made me really think of my answers. It became an almost psychological exercise.

Afterward, I sent my mom a text, telling her about this interview. I figured she’d have a funny anecdote for me that I could pass along to my interviewer and we’d all have a good laugh. She didn’t remember the jacket.

In her defense, it was a few decades ago.

Also, when I was little, The Count always scared me. (I was a sensitive child.) But Brielle doesn’t have this problem. Plus, she’s adorable, and knows her stuff:

In the studio this evening, the sports show took over. David and Griffin are going places:

We’ll get to say we knew them back when. They do such great work. But you could say that about a lot of people around here.

And this:

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