Thursday « Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

Thursday

adventures / iPhone / photo / Thursday — Comments Off
21
Jul 11

Oregon pictures, Day Two

Or, more appropriately, Washington pictures. But the trip is about Portland, which is in Oregon, so this foray into the Evergreen State. Because if you’re this close, and you’ve never been there before, you want to see Mount St. Helens.

We’re in the woods, about a quarter of a way up the road that will take us near the volcano. We walked down one path, and then another, and over a stream, and down to the end of the path and then farther still:

The trees, they are very big:

One of the trails we strolled down:

Even in Washington you can’t get away from Alabama. We saw an elk grazing through the lens, but check out the bottom right corner:

It was overcast, and chilly, because you’re gaining altitude with each curve in the road, but we’re here to see the volcano behind those clouds:

There’s Mount St. Helens, partially obscured by clouds. On a clear day you can still see steam rising from the crater:

Though I prefer the pic that’s sitting two above for sentimental reasons, this is one of the best images I got of the mountain:

You meet interesting people on the side of a mountain. Some people get out of their car, take a picture and climb back inside to go on to the next place in their day. Others stop just long enough to read the signs. And then there was this couple who took this photograph.

I like to think I’m a fairly funny guy. I like to make people laugh. And if my jokes don’t do it I can always fall back on being funny looking. But they would hardly crack a smile. We traded pictures, though, they told us about the next view point and then they got back in their car and drove away.

I took this one from the road. Only passengers get this shot:

Look. Clearly there is snow on Mount St. Helens. There’s a small glacier on Mt. Hood. But I did not expect to see on the roadside. This is July. We’re wearing sweatshirts. It is a little bit chilly. And there’s snow. This is fundamentally wrong:

Overwhelmed by mountains? Have a flower:

We’ve transitioned from the phone’s camera to the D-SLR. The Yankee on our trail:

A Yankee-less trail.

Water on blades:

Mount St. Helens, just as the clouds moved out ever-so-briefly. We were told we’re about 10 miles off the face of the mountain sitting here:

Auburn / cycling / history / links / photo / Thursday — 1 Comment
14
Jul 11

Stuck in the 1930s

Rode my bike today for the first time in eight days. Rode Wednesday of last week, overslept Thursday, broke the bike on Friday, got it back Tuesday, was rainish Wednesday and here we are.

So we set out and I pedaled on for about three miles. Hit a stop sign to wait for The Yankee — and make adjustments to my saddle — when a fine little wave of nausea rolled over me. The sun is shining, the heat is blaring and I’m hunched over like the guy who might have had the bad borscht. Oh I was fine, it was just the dizzies and the light headedness that got me. I’m blaming the eight days off.

Figuring the last thing anyone needed was an embarrassing blackout incident I called it a ride and, slowly, pedaled my way back home. So, after watched three days of wonderful Tour de France coverage, my triumphant return was just shy of nine miles. That’s just disappointing.

But I’m fine, thanks.

Spent a little bit of time tracking this guy down:

That’s Earle Smith, Alabama Polytechnic class of 1930. He’s a 2nd lieutenant in the University’s ROTC in this photograph. He was also a baseball player, the football team manager, a member of the literary society and other things during his time in school.

He’s important because The War Eagle Reader was running a feature on him. Seems that just before the war came to him in North Africa, he took a tour of the deserts of Egypt. His guide walked him up to the Sphinx and, as the story was retold goes, he paid the guide to look away and hand over a chisel. Smith (no relation) chiseled War Eagle into the old monument.

And then he got his nose bloodied by Rommel before ultimately defeating Hitler.

What happened to the army captain after his sandy vandalism is a modern mystery. The story made its way into the student paper in 1944, so one presumes he came home from the war. He’d majored in secondary education so I assume he taught for 10 years or so before the war got in his way. Maybe he came home and was able to easily get back to the business of raising his kids and wondering how his students got such wacky thoughts in their heads. He would have been teaching right up until the mid-1960s, after all.

But that’s just speculation. The Internet doesn’t know what became of the man.

I’ve been having this conversation with a guy out west about a relative he had who fought, and died, in the Pacific. Maj. Adam Hallmark is the modern military man. His fourth cousin was Dean Hallmark, who I wrote about earlier this year. Interesting little story.

Anyway, Adam has come across big stores of new information since we first talked and he sent me some pictures this week.

This is thought to be Auburn, possibly campus, in 1936:

Dean Hallmark would recognize just 15 buildings on campus today, not counting the president’s mansion and the chapel.

This is Glenn Avenue:

I haven’t driven the length of it yet for the express purpose of comparing it to this photograph, but I’m betting nothing in this picture remains. And it is a shame about that motorcycle.

UPDATE (Sept 13, 2011): Adam just forwarded along pictures of the ticket books athletes received to attend sporting events back in the 1930s. This is his fourth-cousin’s and, as you can see, is in excellent condition:

It was also never used:

Before magnetic strips and photo IDs they had a funny way of making sure you weren’t stealing someone else’s ticket:

General appearance? I bet you couldn’t say that today.

journalism / links / Thursday / Twitter / video — Comments Off
7
Jul 11

Here’s my hypothesis

And believe me, I have plenty of them …

But this one is basic, straightforward and a bit important: Those who can’t understand Twitter, should reconsider basic communication skills.

Consider these anecdotes, though any you may find will do:

President Obama’s social media gabfest, which swamped the Twitterverse with thousands of responses yesterday, was touted as a rare chance for any citizen to put questions to the Leader of the Free World — but turned out to be just another high-tech, tightly controlled campaign stunt, experts said yesterday.

Or:

Brand new format, same old answers. Reams of hype, most of it delivered in 140-character chunks, couldn’t make President Obama’s Twitter town hall on Wednesday as exciting as promised.

The hour-long event proved to be even less interesting than the average town hall.

Further:

Associated Press journalists have tweeted opinions about the Casey Anthony trial and the New York Senate vote on gay marriage, says Tom Kent, AP Deputy Managing Editor for Standards and Production. “These [two] posts undermine the credibility of our colleagues who have been working so hard to assure balanced and unbiased coverage of these issues,” he writes in a memo. “AP staffers should not make postings there that amount to personal opinions on contentious public issues.”

These are two varied issues, to be sure, but the hypothesis applies. Understanding Twitter includes understanding the strengths and weaknesses. A 140-character format isn’t the place for diffuse, verbose language, like a candidate desperate to hit his campaign points. One must be brief, concise. (All of the things this place isn’t, come to think of it.)

Most importantly, however, one must know that Twitter is simply a conversation.

Which brings us to that last anecdote. Niki Doyle, the social media editor at The Huntsville Times, asked what I thought about the Associated Press memo. They’re chided their employees from voice opinions in social media, saying “anyone who works for AP must be mindful that opinions they express may damage the AP’s reputation as an unbiased source of news.”

Assume, for this conversation, that you find the vast Associated Press unbiased in their coverage. Perhaps you do, perhaps you don’t. But assume.

This policy doesn’t think you can differentiate between human and AP, and not transpose an individual’s opinion to the entire organization. And the policy, while admittedly starting from a difficult spot, demonstrates they don’t yet understand social media (including Twitter). This is a conversation.

The memo demonstrates they don’t trust their people. Most importantly, it suggests they don’t trust their audience to understand the human/reporter conversation-opinion/journalism dynamic.

These two just happened to come along within a few moments of one another today. As I said, find your anecdote; consider the implications. This isn’t the largest issue the White House or the Associated Press (or any other organization) has to deal with, but it is an important one.

Linky things: Atlantis, from the pad. Robert Pearlman, who took that photo, runs collectSPACE which boasts both an unfortunate caps lock issue, but great space content. Do check him out.

Speaking of space, sometimes you see the heavens just a bit differently from somewhere on our pleasant little rock. This time lapse may do it for you. It won the STARMUS astro-photography competition.

Ocean Sky from Alex Cherney on Vimeo.

Breathtaking.

Just like tomorrow’s launch, I’m sure.

adventures / iPhone / Thursday / Twitter / video — Comments Off
30
Jun 11

We’re catsitting

Strange to see two black cats in one house. Imagine how it must be for them. Our guest resembles Allie, who lets us hoomans live with her. The new guy is still technically a kitten, but bigger than the feline that runs the joint.

From the Twitter updates:

Between his whining and our cat’s growl it sounds like we have puppies. Will provide updates.

Allie, our cat, is occupying the high ground.

If cats had a vocabulary, the word our cat and the visitor learned this afternoon would have been “pensive.”

There was a harsh staredown between the cats. No accident that the toy dynamite stick was between them …

Honest: They stared. Played The Good, The Bad and the Ugly theme. Our cat won!

There was just a yelp like a high-pitched air drill. Cat territory is thus sharply defined.

Allie is eating the visiting cat’s food, which is kitten junk food. Also she constantly knows the intruder’s whereabouts.

More on this tense situation as the story develops …

It is fine, for the most part. Our visitor is inquisitive, but congenial. Jumps on everything. Allie wants nothing to do with him, though. And for the most part he’s willing to stare at her, be startled and then go run and hide. Still a kitten. They’ll work it out, though. He’ll look back upon those few days he spent that one summer with that older cat.

She’ll hate us for days.

Auburn / cycling / errands / football / journalism / links / memories / Thursday / video — Comments Off
23
Jun 11

“You gettin’ wet, ain’t ya?”

“Watch out for storms,” she said.

This is good advice. Useless, but good.

I’m on my bike, about 14 miles into the ride when the sprinkling started. Oh, I’d watched out for the storms, but this did me no good. My certainty of the existence of rain did not dissuade it from falling upon me. My awareness of the clouds to my left did not preclude precipitation.

There was a gas station, though, where I managed to take refuge when the wet stuff really started falling. We need the rain so bad I would have stayed under there for a long time, but I was back on the road again in half an hour.

In that time I had two great conversations, each centering around my predicament. One guy asked how far I had to go. When I told him he just laughed. Another man asked if I was getting wet.

No sir, that’s why I’m standing under the awning.

It reminded me of the time in 1994 — during the LSU vs Auburn game*, in fact — that I had a flat tire. My jack slipped and I had to try to pick up the corner of my old Buick by my shoulder. This guy walked by and asked “Have a flat?”

No, I just rotate my tires every 50,000 miles no matter where I am.

You know, it might have been the same guy.

So the rain stopped, my ride continued. And then the rain returned for about 45 seconds. I pedaled on. Stopped at my pre-arranged place to pick up a snack and some replacement beverages. And off I went for the second half of my ride. This is an area I’ve only ridden twice before, so I’m only starting to get comfortable in the hills. I struggle my way through until it is time for a snack … and realize I can’t open the packaging from the bike. So I stop. Still can’t open it. Poke it with a stick, no luck. Find a sharp rock, and suddenly I’m a prehistoric man in sweaty raglan.

Eat my nuts and honey snack, get back on my bike and realize one of my water bottles is missing. Well.

So I backtrack. I go all the way down one road with no luck. Down a huge hill and another road with no sight of the gray and yellow bottle. And then down a third stretch of asphalt.

Where I find it sitting next to a bridge. I had squarely hit the rim-wrecking pothole on the bridge and the bottle fell out of the cage. Probably I was grunting too hard to hear it land.

Now which way? I didn’t want to go up that huge hill again, and it felt as if I hadn’t reached the mid-point so I called an audible and worked my way back home. When I got in and looked at the altered route I found it was a 41 mile day.

Didn’t feel nearly as miserable as I did from our 41 mile trek last weekend. That’s improvement.

And I was only heckled twice, so clearly I’m doing something right.

Farmer’s market this afternoon, where we bought cantaloupe, watermelon, corn (from a different grower), peaches, squash and tomatoes.

I sound so healthy, don’t I? (We had cookies for dessert tonight.)

Random things: Reporters arrested for … reporting. That’s going to court with a great hue and cry.

Publishers to universities: We aren’t the bad guys. Another tough spot for everyone that devolves to control, and impressive markups.

What’s eating college radio? Bottom line issues, apparently, though we’ve been discussing it and the prevailing opinion among WEGL-alumni is that all the good ones graduated. (And I did, too.)

Dumb commercial of the night:

* This is what I missed while struggling with my car. I remember it because the seven turnovers to win was quite ridiculous. My senior year in high school, Auburn was as out of that game as you could be when I blew my tire. By the time I got back to the radio the game was over and they’d done the improbable, and thank you Curley Hallman.

Is it football season yet?