photo « Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

photo

Instagram / photo / Samford / Tuesday — Comments Off
3
Nov 15

Walking around the big box store

I’m still playing with the Boomerang app. It seems like it would strike a cord with a very “in your face” message. There’s no real nuance to it. And if this is where we go because the six seconds of Vine is just too tedious … well marketers should just get off the ride now.

But sometimes you can make something that looks cool:

This is the Space Laser light-up blaster from Imperial Toy.

A video posted by Kenny Smith (@kennydsmith) on Nov 3, 2015 at 6:24pm PST

When in doubt, go to the toy section, I always say.

Speaking of toys …

Did we need these? Does anyone like them? More importantly, are these really for young Star Wars fans or older Star Wars fans? The merchandise rollout has been at times impressive and regrettable. But mostly impressive. And we’re still six weeks from the movie.

One more Boomerang:

Iron Man hands are pretty awesome.

A video posted by Kenny Smith (@kennydsmith) on Nov 3, 2015 at 6:31pm PST

This is all a part of my strategy, by the way. Student-journalists are working on the newspaper all night long. And we’re all going to be in the newsroom until the very wee, if not the very grand hours, of the morning. But, for a little while, I just leave them alone. They need me gone more than they need me hovering. I refuse to hover, anyway. They do too well for that. Still, a long night, and I was the only person in the toy section. That’s why I got to play with Iron Man hands.

Auburn / football / friends / Monday / photo / video / weekend — Comments Off
2
Nov 15

Some Auburn weekend notes

Back at it again, then:

Brian came down this weekend. He pronounced the scoreboard large:

That’s been the attraction this year. The football team has struggled and continues to do so. They got outpaced in the second half by Ole Miss on Saturday. Can’t move the chains, kicking a lot of field goals, struggling to stop talented teams. It doesn’t feel like 4-4, but that’s what the record says.

But that scoreboard! And the eagle flights, of course. Here’s Spirit’s flight from before the game. Note the alternating sections of orange and blue. Looked pretty good on TV, I’m sure.

I just threw that video online without slapping a URL or any other branding on it. How daring! We walked up just in time to get a good spot near her cage, obviously. And then you can see she went all over the stadium. Spirit resides at the Southeast Raptor Center. He has a beak problem that requires regular maintenance, so she’ll always live there and do cool shows and flights like this.

What is interesting to me, the second and third time I watched that video, is the camera work of the production staff. I shot that on my phone, so the lens is wide and has practically no focus. But they’re following her all over the stadium. (When I lose her, just look at the giant scoreboard.) They do a nice job of keeping her in the frame too.

Hey, this is a wild animal. She can, and has, gone all of the places except the ones you expect.

It is a cool thing to see. Scoreboard isn’t bad, either.

Friday / photo / Samford — Comments Off
30
Oct 15

Signs, but without the Ace of Bass jokes

We started the week with a sign, if I recall. Let’s end it that way, too. I had to go down to the back of the post office area where things are offloaded from trucks. It is a very utilitarian area. It works, it is efficient. I’m sure it isn’t on the campus tours. Doesn’t have to be. The folks there do good work and they do it fast and they know their business. Always very helpful.

There’s an elevator there. And above that elevator is this sign:

And that’s just good life advice.

I mentioned last week how much I enjoy reading the bulletin boards on campus. Here’s another class advertisement that was worth noticing today:

“Can cats have ethics if there is no God?”

I was not previously aware those concepts were not mutually exclusive. But, hey, maybe for cats. I’ll ask Allie sometime. She’s got some Siamese in her and is given to long pontification. But I digress.

“Join the cats of philosophy answer this head-scratching question in … ”

Last week’s class advertisement, you might recall, was for the same class. Those cats are going to cover a lot of ground between Justin Bieber and Johnny Cash and Ceiling Cat and the grammatical error.

Here’s another, from a different bulletin board not far from the first:

“So you want to be a scientist?”

Not if that’s what your lab is creating, no sir.

“Then join the biolgy department on Tuesday …”

I’m not sure where the “Biolgy Department” falls on the organizational chart. Good curriculum, though. Among the more popular classes are Catnip Cultivation 410 and Whisker Weaving 203. (That’s an elective, I’m sure.)

So use cats in your advertising, I suppose.

This is what happened when I got home today. Walk in, put my stuff down and, immediately:

I have it on good authority that she’s not interested in going anywhere. So I suppose this means I should stay here.

Here’s something else I put on the Internet today. You’ve already seen it on Instagram, if you’re following me there. Come on over and follow me.

My first Boomerang branding experiment.

A video posted by Kenny Smith (@kennydsmith) on Oct 30, 2015 at 4:32pm PDT

Here’s another Boomerang. It has even less point, which means it has practically none, really. We’re trying to figure out the utility for this app in class. Reviews are mixed.

Boomer-road.

A video posted by Kenny Smith (@kennydsmith) on Oct 30, 2015 at 7:21pm PDT

photo / swimming / Thursday — Comments Off
29
Oct 15

This post asks an implied question about pun apologies

We had some dramatic clouds today:

Do you know what makes clouds dramatic?

ACTING!*

Sorry. Sometimes a pun grabs hold of you and it just won’t let go.

Here’s a high school wall I passed the other day:

Vex is a robotics competition. Now, if you knew where I was when I saw this, you might think it odd that a so very far out of the way and small high school would be all that interested in robotics competitions. But if you knew the school, and you knew a lot about scholastic robotics, you’d know that these kids pretty much win everything. They’re an inspired group. Fun to watch.

And, because I haven’t put up a similar photo in 10 days:

I do love those road pics. This was from at the bottom of the hill in Chewacla on Saturday. Leaning over the cockpit and trying to grab a quick shot of that small road before a car got in the frame. I was going a calm and respectable 18 miles an hour or so. The pine needles were a blur, the leaves were crinkling in the tires and the breeze felt nice enough to make you want to go climb that hill again. I just might do it soon.

*Like you wanted to hear about today’s 2,200 yard swim. I don’t want to hear about it and I was the one doing the laps.

photo / Samford / Wednesday — Comments Off
28
Oct 15

These leaves are quitters

I stepped outside two times today. Once was to go from office to class and once was to go run, a brisk five mile jog that was mostly remarkable for feeling normal.

On the way back from my run, and on to an evening meeting, I got a few leaf pictures. They are giving up the fight:

By next week they’ll all be on the ground and brown, probably. That’s the way it moves here: fast.

So you seek out the maples and the dogwoods and you hope your timing is right.

Now, no photo could ever capture the feeling of autumn, particularly on a rainy day, and especially not the hasty cell phone variety of shot. But that doesn’t mean we don’t try.