Tuesday « Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

Tuesday

Tuesdays, we ride

OK, OK, I’ll stop writing about the eventual oncoming of spring. We’ll just assume that it is here. Until, that is, another cold snap comes through and drops snow or ice or both on us, and then we can all grimly shiver under four layers of blankets. But until then, spring:

I mark it because more trees are now in bloom than not. And also because the almost-warmth in the air has a sense of dedication and staying power to it. Or maybe that’s just wishful thinking. Who can say. What I can say is that we went for a bike ride this evening. One of the groups of the 300-strong local cycling club meets near our house for Tuesday and Thursday rides and they are a nice group of people. If the right combination of folks are there it is a challenging group. But this is early in the year and I will need a few more miles in me before I am ready to seek out something really challenging. So today we didn’t even go down the big hill — which required turning around and coming up the big hill.

It kept us fresh for a few late evening photos:

Two of the strong guys from that group were there, and we hung on to their wheels. They’d also gone down the big hill and the people behind us had, too. But I came up a little slope to get to the beginning of the group ride and knew I wasn’t trying that hill today. Sometimes you know, you know? And they say that wisdom is in listening to what you already know.

At least I said that. Perhaps others have too. Let’s see.

No, no one has ever said that. Lhamo Dondrub said something similar, and wiser: “When you talk, you are only repeating what you already know. But if you listen, you may learn something new.”

But that’s the Dalai Lama for you.

I’m never this enlightened on my bicycle. Well, almost never. Usually I’m breathing too hard. After the fact, when my legs are resting and my lungs aren’t burning, sure, I can think up all sorts of things about hills. Also, hills are always much shorter in my imagination and memory than in reality, as we’ll soon see.

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14
Mar 17

The nose doesn’t know

Wrapped up some studio work today, and spent a bit amount of time wandering around the building.

This isn’t far from my office. The door is usually closed, so that catches the eye first. And then you don’t often see arrow signs. It was worth exploring:

And then, a bit further back, another sign:

You wonder about the sign reader. If you keep putting up signs as you go farther back into the work area — and I only went this far — you wonder what you expect the reader to find.

Multiple signs? This must really merit investigation. But would the investigator not smell the smell themselves? I didn’t smell it, but then, my nose isn’t very good at this sort of thing.

Too much time near the grindstone, I’m sure.

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7
Mar 17

Back to it, then

We spent all day yesterday traveling. And this was one my views:

So on the one hand, it is amazing that in just 12 hours of actual travel time got us back from California, by way of Atlanta, because Delta. On the other hand, it took 12 full hours of travel to get from the hotel to the house.

And then work today! The good news is the best part of my post-race soreness was yesterday. By the end of the day today I was actually trotting downstairs. And any runner will tell you it is going downstairs that hurts. Which suggests, to me at least, that maybe I didn’t run as hard as I could have on Sunday. But who cares? Marathon, done! A few days of resting up are before me now, and then hopefully by next weekend I’ll be ready to start anew!

The other downside to traveling all day is that you eat like complete garbage. There’s just no getting around it. And while I am usually ready to eat right after a big exercise, I didn’t even have my usual appetite yesterday. But it came back today, and my choices were … less than ideal. But at least most of the snacks were healthy. And I am well and truly hydrated and aside from some achy feelings that you would expect after many consecutive hours of exercise I feel surprisingly good. Like, we should be outside running or riding right now, good.

That’s a weird feeling.

This week I am working on a big writing project in the office. But I came up for air to poke my head into one of the podcast booths:

These guys are working on a 14-channel digital Axia board than be configured for about a dozen different user preferences. It is a pretty remarkable setup. And there’s a turntable to the left of the board operator. I wonder if it has been used yet.

We did use the television studio tonight. At least one-and-a-half shows were produced in there this evening. Interesting sensation. I left town for two days and felt in the way of everything when I got back.

Anyway, this project I’m presently working on will probably eat much of the week. (Think of it this way, I’m writing, but I also talked podcasting with those three students above and then sat in on a few television projects this evening. I do enjoy the variation.) I am collaborating with a medium-sized group on a non-technical technical document. It started out at more than 45 pages. My goal is to get it below six. This has absorbed my day today and the entirety of my evening and night. And while I am occasionally a decent writer and from time-to-time an acceptable editor, I am not good enough at either to make the actual work behind them interesting. So it may be a bit slow around here for a few days.

We’ll always have pictures or some sort of other interesting thing going on here, so do stop back by throughout the week. Also, there’s of course the ever-present Twitter and the sometimes popular Instagram.

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28
Feb 17

Watch more TV — on your computer or wherever

I’m feeling better, thanks. Most of the things I would complain about are brought on by the Sudafed. I looked up the side effects this morning and, what do you know? Present and accounted for. And, since I am breathing relatively well, and because I like sleep and a regular heart rate and all of the other things I’ve grown accustomed to over the years, I’m putting the medicine away.

I went for a run this morning. It was cold and drizzling and I was going to do a few miles, but after the first one the mist turned to sprinkles and the sprinkling came with thunder, so I went inside and got warm and ready for work.

Then tonight we had two news shows to shoot and a launch party to attend. I shot this of the news’ teaser opening:

Things to read … Sometimes, when you teach young reporters how to localize a story you can just look around the room. High school student-journalists wrote this: Detained, but not Deported: A Family’s Final Chance to Remain Undivided:

The daily calls, however, have been a strong connection between Yousef and his kids, as he tries to stay updated on their lives at home and in school. He keeps the conversation light-hearted, according to his oldest daughter Yara, a junior at Pioneer High School. “Every Friday he used to take us to the gas station after school, so last Friday he asked us ‘What do you guys want from the gas station?'”

The kids are aware that, in many ways, the cheer is a facade. “He’s mad. Every time he calls us he tries to be happy, but I know he’s mad,” Betoul said. “He has right to be. We all do.”

Despite the closeness of the family, Yousef won’t allow his kids to come and visit. “He doesn’t want us to see him like that. He wants to be strong, he wants to be the dad of the house,” Betoul said. “Seeing him like that, that’s at his weakest point.”

They did a really nice job with the story, too.

Speaking of the utes … Teenagers trust algorithms to select stories nearly twice as much as they trust human editors, research finds:

While teenagers are more trusting of traditional media – TV, radio and newspapers – than adults as they place mounting importance on facts in a ‘filter bubble’ era, adversely they trust algorithms to select stories for them more than human editors, the Edelman Trust Barometer has found.

I wonder if this will be one of those things where the first three months tells the tale. Google announces YouTube TV service that rivals cable for $35:

YouTube says that younger people (“millenials”) want to watch TV in the same place they watch all their other content, which makes sense. It wants to build an experience that “works as well on your phone as on your desktop,” as well as all your other devices.

The service also includes a feature called Cloud DVR, which allows you to save an unlimited number of shows without worrying about the storage limits of a traditional DVR. That said, you must be connected to the internet to access your recorded shows, so no watching on the subway or in the middle of nowhere.

Also, what traditional television providers do next will be interesting, too.

More here, and here.

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21
Feb 17

Live! From earlier tonight … and also this morning …

I ran five miles this morning before work. I’m not a morning runner. Wait. Let me start over.

I jogged five miles this morning before work. I’m not a morning jogger. I’m barely a jogger, but it certainly isn’t the thing I wake up and think “Oh, boy! Let’s get out there and pound some pavement!”

I’m much more of a pound the snooze button sort. I mean, sure, I can stretch, get in five miles and walk a cool down back home in an hour, or I could sleep for another hour in nine-minute increments. That’s what I am, a morning snoozer.

Nevertheless, I jogged.

There is a walking path out back of our house, and if you do the full length and go up and down the access paths to the road in front of the house you can almost get in a full mile in just over one complete trip. So I did that twice and then jogged out of the neighborhood and up the hill to the big intersection and then back down hill for a mile and a third. Then I turned and jogged back uphill to finish my course, five miles, just entering the neighborhood. It was damp and chilly and foggy and I had a full sweat. Some people were walking dogs and I found a few more signs of spring:

Of course the temperatures will fall through the floor by the weekend again, and you can’t see any sky for the clouds therein just now, but we’re in the 60s. We’ll hit the 70s on Thursday, for a day. And spring:

Anyway, in the studio tonight, I thought I’d take a picture to show you what the on-camera folks see. This is the corner where our interview area is. We have four red chairs for a more casual sit-down segment or, as seen here, the prep for one of entertainment shows.

What is weird, to me, is that I should show up in the monitors attached to the cameras. I’m standing right behind both of the hosts. And yet, you can’t really see me. I zoomed in to the original, just to be sure.

Funny, I don’t feel any different.

After What’s Up Weekly they taped their news show. I stood in between the cameras and did a brief video of my own, because I suddenly remembered I could do that.

Status: getting ready for another installment of Hoosier News Source on @iustv.

A post shared by Kenny Smith (@kennydsmith) on Feb 21, 2017 at 4:27pm PST

I should plan those things better.