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baseball / history / photo / Thursday / video — Comments Off on Well that happened in a hurry
29
Sep 16

Well that happened in a hurry

I say this at least once a year, but maples are quitters:

And this is way too early for the first leaf to have turned and let go of the branch to find its way to the ground. I found it on the sidewalk outside of our building on campus this morning. I’m noting the date and time, should anything come of it.

Found this repop poster on the wall at lunch today. While I find it too early for the leaf turn, this is right on time.

Even if the poster is wrong — Game One was at Yankee Stadium — it is eerily right on time. Game One of the 1932 World Series was on September 28th. This happened 84 years and one day ago.

The Yankees won. Some 41,000 fans saw the Yankees take the lead with a Lou Gehrig, and then they really poured it on in the final three frames. Red Ruffing pitched a complete game, striking out 10 Cubs.

So that’s timing, for you.

On the 29th, in Game Two, the Yankees won 5-2 and Hall of Famer Lefty Gomez got the second win of the Series. That game took one hour and 46 minutes to complete, and is not the shortest on record. (That’d be an 85 minute contest in 1908.) Babe Ruth saw his last Yankee Stadium World Series game. Ruth’s supposed called shot took place in the third game, in Chicago.

Through all of this, the Cubs wouldn’t hold a lead for more than a half-inning until Game Four, but even that couldn’t stand up. They got swept. But look at the Cubbies now, right?

IU / photo / Tuesday / video — Comments Off on Now open for bizy-ness
27
Sep 16

Now open for bizy-ness

Today was the official grand opening of Franklin Hall. The president of the university spoke. Everyone wore their regalia. They conferred an honorary degree upon Fox broadcaster and IU alumnus Joe Buck. We put him on the big screen:

Buck is a funny guy, and thoughtful and was highly complimentary of the facility they’ve put together here. He should be. The place is nice. He said, and I’ll surely steal his line and quote him later, that he works in all the best studios in New York and L.A. and the broadcast setup here is as nice as any place he goes. He’s not wrong. They’ve built something really promising here. And, now, a quick glimpse of the studio that I shot today before we welcomed the open house tours:

This is Ken Beckley:

He is a journalism grad. He became a successful anchor in Indianapolis and then a business executive and now a well-regarded author. Very nice man. He and his wife, Audrey, who is also an IU grad, donated to the renovation of Franklin Hall and now the studio carries their name. This is the first time, I believe, that Mr. Beckley had seen the finished product. He was quite pleased. A friend of his asked him to go stand at the green screen. He said he never had before. But he enjoyed it. Even the old pros enjoy the novelty of the green screen.

And then, after the open house, and after I got to demonstrate the virtual reality set up in the video game lab downstairs — yes, we have all of that here, too, and it is equally incredible — we got to start doing some production training with the IUS-TV crew:

It was 6:30 on a Tuesday night and they walked in and stayed for about 90 minutes. People in student media can be some kind of devoted. That never fails to impress me.

IU / Monday / photo — Comments Off on This is hardly Thoreau, but …
26
Sep 16

This is hardly Thoreau, but …

The biggest problem about working indoors is this:

On the really, truly lovely days, you might not even know it until it is too late. You have to go outside and enjoy some of the splendid atmosphere every so often. Just do it on spec. You never know what is passing you by. Except for that email. And it’ll sit there, in your inbox, until you get back from the Sample Gates.

This is worth remembering daily.

Though, around here, the indoors aren’t too bad either.

These are the four fully robotic cameras in the gorgeous new state-of-the-art Beckley Studio we are now opening. Our students are going to produce all kinds of cool shows in there.

Here’s one of the backdrop walls:

Not bad, huh?

adventures / memories / photo / Twitter / weekend — Comments Off on We went a ways
24
Sep 16

We went a ways

A quick snapshot of some barns we passed between here and there during a morning errand.

The there being Columbus, Indiana, where we had to pick up some new sneakers. Because sometimes you do that, going over hill and dale for running shoes.

As I wrote on Twitter:

Here it was just car, car, car, at least. And this funky bridge just as you get to Columbus:

We didn’t stick around to visit the town, but right away you get the impression that there’s something neat worth seeing over there. I’ve no doubt we’ll be back. But it is a Saturday, after all …

Friday / photo — Comments Off on I did it! I fixed a thing and made it work!
23
Sep 16

I did it! I fixed a thing and made it work!

I could tell you about a class I taught yesterday, but you’re really here for the puppy pictures:

Is he driving that car? I think he’s driving that car.

Also, he dog caught me sneaking a peek at the red light:

Eyes on the road, pal!

I saw that dog while was coming home from the hardware store because today was the day I was going to finally fix our water heater issue. The problem had to do with the ignitor switch here.

One morning recently we woke up with cold water. (This being the second problem we’ve had in the otherwise in-great-shape house.) And then the water heater worked. And then it didn’t. So naturally we moved to call the home warranty people. They send out a repairman of their choice and the guy that we got was working at peak rudeness, so I invited him to never come to our house.

So I researched the problem and studied the device. Then one weekend morning I took the entire heating unit of the thing apart and cleaned it. It worked! I fixed the problem.

Only, I had not. Because through more observation and consideration I realized that the problem wasn’t the tank or the heating unit, but just the one cable right. There was a short in it. The sort of intermittent problem you only discover every fourth morning in the shower. The cable and the electrical unit that powers it are installed at knee high and the thing had taken some damage. It only worked, and started the flame that heated the water, when it was sitting just so.

I knew I didn’t need to replace the whole thing. How it worked some of the time proved the point: this was just an electrical issue. And, finally, I found the part I needed. Only the local hardware store didn’t keep it in stock. Because why would you do that at a big box hardware store?

But I found a guy who worked there that knew things about these sorts of things and I put my little reporter cap on and I asked all of the right questions. I mean all of the questions. All of the “Get away from me, you’re bothering me” questions.

And then I bought six bucks of parts, made the leap of faith, trusted what I knew of electricity and gave it a try.

And it works! So for a few bucks, and too much time pouring over diagrams and refusing inane repairman quotes, I was able to fix the problem.

A considerable improvement over our last house, which was built on a cursed burial ground when it came to home repairs. I’d search for references to them on the site, but I fear that might impact the new owners and cause them harm.

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