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Friday / photo / Samford — Comments Off
1
May 15

Commercials and fried chicken

Grading, grading and classes. I graded at lunch today, reading over commercials that I’d had students write. Students really seem to dive into the idea of writing commercials. You see some incredible inventiveness and imagination leap off the page. As soon as they figure out how to channel that into non-fiction writing they’ll be on their way. And that’s why I like offering a commercial assignment.

I give them a 30-second spot to fill. You can have an unlimited budget to make your spot happen. The catches are that you have to advertise an existing product and the people that appear in your commercial have to be alive — no Moses or Marilyn Monroe, and they can’t work for the competition.

And in classes today we started the slog toward finals.

I saw this this afternoon.

It was pointing to a tree in the quad, upon which a great deal of random art had been displayed. I had to go to the building in the background to handle a small accounting matter. I met a lady there who summed up two of my Samford themes. Seems she’s counting the days until her second child’s graduation and wedding. She did not look like a woman old enough to be marrying off a second kid, let alone by the grandmother of three. And, yet, there she was. Being around college students keeps you young.

The other thing was the great happiness the lady possessed. I’m sure it was really about the fine weather or that her daughter will soon be married — outdoors, with kilts! — and that the bride and groom will be moving into the same neighborhood.

“I’m getting my baby back,” she said.

It probably had to do with some of those things. Or that it was almost quitting time on Friday. But here was an account who sits in a cube and crunches numbers and had a smile that would have pointed its own way to that tree in the quad.

Samford is pretty special that way. In all of my years here I’ve never met anyone who wasn’t pleased about the opportunity to be a part of it. How many of the jobs you’ve had in your career can offer you that as a perk?

And, now, meatballs and the rest of the NFL Draft.

Have a great weekend. Just remember, the next time you see a commercial, it started because a former student was inspired somewhere along the way. And if they turn Marilyn Monroe into a hologram for the spot, don’t tell my students.

photo / Samford / Thursday — Comments Off
30
Apr 15

They keep us young

They keep us young.

Last night the incoming editor-in-chief of The Samford Crimson poked her head into my office. I was just about ready to call it a night, but students will make you stick around.

Emily is this year’s news editor and she is, as they almost always are at the paper, one squared away individual. She asked me a question about this and we talked about that and then the next thing you know we’d spent an hour discussing journalism and what our newsroom can be. She left at 8 p.m.

Someone asked me a few years ago why it is I want to do this kind of work. And there’s the answer: It is important to the community, but even more so to the students I get to work with. When you have passionate college students doing work they care about, you’re surrounded by a special treat, indeed. Those people deserve as much passion as energy as you can give back. It only makes them better.

And to have the opportunity to work with enthusiastic young men and women so dedicated to learning their craft is simply invigorating.

They asked me that when I interviewed for the job here, too. I went through the importance part and the passion part and the influence my media adviser had when I was in school and then I said “Plus, maybe they’ll keep me young!”

The guy that asked me that just retired last year. He’d watched his second grandchild go through college. Now he goes out and runs four or five miles every day. He agreed with my answer during the interview, I remember it clearly. He knew about students keeping the rest of us young.

The shortest answer, as this year winds down, is that it is a treat, and worth it, and hardly seems like working. And weaved among all of that is a great value.

There’s only one more week with this year’s talented crew. Four of the nucleus I work with are graduating. I’ll break them all down next week after our last, and surely poignant meetings. But first there’s another paper to get through and the departmental picnic and then lost last gatherings.

They keep us young.

I have a small and growing mound of papers to grade. We can blame the silver hair on that.

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26
Apr 15

Catching up

The most simple post in the book, the one that puts extra photos here and calls it content. If this is somehow the first time you’ve seen this one, this is a perfect example of placeholder nonsense.

One of the better truck paint jobs, for my dime. Pig bursting through the back, a call to action. You’d be hard pressed to top that.

This was just before sunset last night at the ballpark.

I know this is just a feature of this species of tree, but at first glance you see this and you think “Not yet, leaf. This is only April.”

This one isn’t too bad for a cell phone shot from the hip and cropped within an inch of its life:

There’s this field I know that is delightfully un-mowed and if you catch it just right, you can get dramatic scenery on the earth and in the sky:

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24
Apr 15

A tiger of a start to the weekend

The life of a costume character is pretty weird, if you think about it.

The life of a costume character is pretty good, if you think about it.

That all started because she pointed out that Aubie seemed to have some lipstick on his fur. He had something pink staining the mouth area. There was also something with a light peach shade. Who knows where it all comes from, girls, kids, cotton candy, a comic bit he did, the random impulsive smooches that a costume character steals.

Two classes today on broadcast scripts. That meant two more class preps and will somehow double the stack of papers I need to grade.

Ran late getting off of campus, but that just let me run into Katie, an old Crimson editor I worked with a few years ago. She has a photography business now. She was one of those you never worried about too much, good things were always in her reach.

We went to a cookout after the game and shot the breeze with a half dozen friends. Had a great time of it, too. Probably because of the food, which was pretty incredible. No one thought to bring any bowls or spoons for the beans, so they stayed on the grill, but the chicken and the deer were terrific. The company was great, too. I bet the beans would have been delicious.

Aubie didn’t show up at the cookout, but he could have and he would have been well fed.