I’ve always loved every soft and out-of-focus shot of Christmas lights. I only took one this year:
And I was struck by how the white lights danced on our hardwood floor.
May all your Christmases be bright.
Thursday
19
Dec 13
Our favorite ornaments
Just a shot a day of some of the fun and special things on our main tree. (We have three trees, so clearly this is not a comprehensive essay.)
12
Dec 13
Loan me your 3D printer
The grades are in. The grades are done. Here’s to another hope that I got them all correct. You always have a slight concern about that sort of thing. The paperwork, should you find yourself in error, would surely be immense.
Paperwork being one of those evolving terms. I’m sure the entire process is all contained on one of the three or four web-based forms we use for most everything. And, yet, there is still plenty of paperwork. Some of it changes with the seasons. It could be that someone in an office somewhere has found a more efficient use for line 42 on form R-163. It is possible there is a legal justification for such regular changes. Maybe the person In Charge of Forms is in cahoots with the Xerox toner guy.
“I need to sell 16 more units. Isn’t that form you printed 7,000 copies of last week outmoded?”
Of course forms aren’t printed like that. Almost every office in the country uses their computer and a printer as a small-scale analog of the PDQ distribution method.
Bet you never thought of your machine as Amazon, marketing 1s and 0s. I think of it as a site like Cafepress or Zazzle. You want that shirt or custom mug? Print. (Now run out and buy yourself a 3D printer and go wild.)
I thought of Cafepress because that’s where I order our ornaments from every year. We do custom pieces, photos from places we’ve been that year. This year’s shots include a scene from the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland, London and after the Iron Bowl.
We have so many of the ornaments now that the project has outgrown the tabletop tree. Next year we’ll need another option. (Can I borrow your 3D printer?)
Things to read … First, two updates from yesterday. You remember the sign language story, no doubt. Here’s the latest. The story involves angels and perhaps some psychotic delusions.
The boy in Denver that was suspended for giving his girlfriend a peck on the cheek? The “educators” couldn’t back peddle fast enough. This story does have something from the point of view of the little girl’s mother, which is probably where this should have started and stopped anyway.
Now two cute kid stories. First, go ahead and time yourself on how long you can keep the “Awww” to yourself here:
And when you read this story you’ll want to hug everyone in it:
Over Thanksgiving weekend 2012, Slade, then 6-years-old, was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Lymphoma.
Doctors knew his young body was making too many immature white blood cells and would need chemotherapy immediately.
Without a minute to waste, an ambulance transported Slade and Emily over to St. Jude where he remained for eight steady weeks.
But that is just the beginning of a wonderful story. Go ahead and read it. We’ll be here when you get back.
Branded Video Sharing Almost 50 Times Higher Than 5 Years Ago:
According to The Unruly Viral Spiral, the sharing of video ads has increased almost 50 times over the last eight years. Unruly’s latest interactive infographic visualizes the explosive growth of video sharing since 2006, charting the extent to which many advertisers are using social video to amplify their brand.
[…]
According to the data, the top three ads in 2013 have so far attracted 11.6 million shares — 47.5 times more than the top three ads managed in 2006 (244,395 shares combined).
Video, stand-out video, is where we all need to be headed. And make sure you are thinking about mobile devices when you set out on that journey.
Aren’t you glad I mentioned Videolicious yesterday?
5
Dec 13
Links, and we find a corner of the Internet that can retire
I’ve been busy with work, so there are just the regular things to read feature. It happens.
The story starts like this:
Missouri is willing to offer Boeing as much as $1.7 billion in incentives over the next two decades in an effort to land production facilities for the 777X. The proposal is the latest in a series of offers from states trying to woo the jet assembly plant and the thousands of jobs it could bring.
Huntsville is one of several locations competing to be the new home for the Boeing production facility after union members in Washington state rejected their latest contract. Other locations reported to be in the running include Missouri, South Carolina, Texas and Utah, and Washington state has maintained efforts to keep the facility there.
The headline is States offer billions to land Boeing facility; Alabama faces Dec. 10 deadline to craft its deal. At least some of the Boeing program is coming here, which is, of course, good news.
Hate this already: ‘Star Wars’ launches official Instagram account with Darth Vader selfie. Darth Vader does not take selfies. He is not a preening, angry teenager. He’s the scariest guy in a galaxy. He’s supposed to be terrifying with the simplest of gesture, intimidating with the slightest whim of his mercurial personality, not a laughable guy in a suit with a good data plan.
Also, the picture makes no sense. Fans spent a lot of time in the comments trying to figure it out.
I can’t embed this video, apparently, but it is perhaps the craziest thing you’ll see today. Nigerian man rescued from sunken boat after three days trapped at bottom of Atlantic.
Like stop motion? Here’s how you move a 400-foot vessel, on land, in tight quarters. Pretty neat stuff out of Mobile.
Still more video, you might remember the best videotaped phone call from the Georgia game two weeks ago. everyone wants to hang out with Nana and Angela now.
Here’s a nice story out of Birmingham, James O. Walker Sr. — a 1957 Auburn graduate who’s father has the pharmacy building named in his honor — gave a couple of Iron Bowl tickets to a young fan. That young man stopped by to thank him for his generosity and ABC 33/40 was there:
I don’t have the opportunity to mention the Crimson White, the student-produced newspaper at the University of Alabama, here a lot, but it is a good publication. Here are their front and back pages today. Inside was this cartoon, which will take some explaining, I’m sure … And here it is:
On Dec. 5, The Crimson White opinion page published a cartoon depicting two football players, one from the Alabama Crimson Tide and one of the Auburn Tigers. Above the depiction was type that read, “This is what happens in Obama’s America.” The cartoon was meant as satire, but unfortunately it has been perceived by many readers as having racist intentions. We sincerely regret this, and apologize to anyone who was offended by it.
The cartoon, in fact, was intended as a lighthearted look at some of the more absurd explanations given for Alabama’s collapse at the end of the Iron Bowl game against Auburn last Saturday. Many fans across the state took to social media and personal platforms to place blame for the team’s loss. To The Crimson White, and much of the student body, the blame was based on ridiculous and unfounded reasons.
They caught a lot of flack, which is unsurprising. And the reaction is probably a bit more knee jerk than necessary. Editor Mazie Bryant continues:
We are taking actions now to correct this mistake, and we are instituting a change in the way we address editorial cartoons. Cartoons, just like the rest of the content on our opinion page, is personal thought. However, cartoons have the ability to reach a wider audience by their pictorial nature, and therefore, we must be vigilant to place a more critical eye on the greater implications and perceptions a cartoon might carry. From this point on, we will be approving cartoons before they are published with a panel consisting of our editorial board. We will judge cartoons based on their power and meaning and decipher which areas need to be revised and expanded upon.
All of it has started good conversation (and probably a few overheated reactions).
It makes me think of the issue of quality. If a cartoon’s purpose isn’t readily apparent to a basic, standard audience then it has little quality of value or merit as commentary. If it fails there it doesn’t give the paper anything.
The secondary art that is to be learned, then, is learning to answer that challenge. If a newspaper cartoon illustrator has to, later, explain his or her meaning so that the audience can reach the desired conclusion and have the correct reaction the cartoon needs work before it is published. As one young reporter said to me today, “It lacks clarity where clarity is definitely needed.”
Elsewhere, The Week in Schadenfreude finds “This may be remembered as our Gettysburg.” The sports section of the Internet can retire now.
