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15
Oct 26

I had an idea

I was vaguely aware there was a conference deadline approaching. I say vaguely aware because I have presented at this conference twice now, these things have predictable calendars for everyone’s sanity and for these belated realizations.

Anyway, last night I stumbled upon a story and thought, I can find a study in that. I looked to see the conference submission deadline and found, to my delight that it was 11:59 p.m. this very evening. And, suddenly, I had a research idea and roughly 25 hours to figure out the details of it.

That’s what I did today.

I spent my office hours digging up literature that will support my new study. This was a fruitful 90 minutes. There were many extra tabs opened on my computer.

In class, we watched another episode of Black Mirror, Nosedive:

The class had a lot to say about this in the few minutes we had remaining. They decided that this might be more relevant today than when it was released in 2016. Then I told them about an example of this, and reminded them of real world implications of that. And I think we’re all going to be different users of digital media before we’re done.

For next week, they’re now reading something from Jose van Dijck on connectivity, and a new little essay from Anil Dash on the changes in language all of this connectivity is foisting upon us. We’re about two weeks from turning this class on its head in all of the best ways.

After class I drove over to another part of campus to pick up my lovely bride. She wasn’t ready yet, and so I strolled around enjoying the late afternoon’s lovely weather. I took a few photos which I’m sure I’ll share here next week. We stopped by the drug store, where we discovered all sorts of new foodstuffs, and also purchased whatever we went there to get. I wasn’t paying attention. I merely drove and made jokes about things we saw on the shelves.

Now, at home, I have been working on that conference proposal. I needed a 500 word abstract, with literature review. It takes a lot to write that little. I typed that out before dinner and finished polishing it after. The premise is there is some particular sport-themed content worth exploring in light of the particulars (which I won’t get into here, but I elaborated on elaborately in the abstract) and here’s what I’m going to do. The abstract was a perfect 500 words. Perfect in length, perhaps not in execution. It’s actually pretty good, and might have some real merit, academically speaking. Also, I used 20 citations.

This took a few hours. I had 90 minutes to spare when I was done. Time enough for another idea for the conference, but nothing came to mind.

Maybe I’ll get to submit some findings from this proposal next spring.

Since my day was spent staring at screens, let’s find something else to share here. Monday I rode my bike through a very small, three-road, two-stop-sign town. They always make excellent use of their power poles to decorate for the seasons.

Now, of course, they are being quite spooky. A Hulk mask on a pumpkin was a little off-putting, but the handprints on this shirt were even more so. I don’t know why.

You’ll have to forgive the composition of these photos. I was doing this while riding one handed at about 15 miles an hour. And I still don’t feel especially steady on my bike since my spill last week. The photos are what the photos are. And this one is cute. I guess these are all class projects. This one is from a bunch of 2nd graders. Maybe that’s why there’s a candy cane involved. Kids know more about art than I do, and who am I to question their vision?

Also, Halloween is a big, big deal on Chewbacca’s planet, Kashyyyk. They just can’t get enough of it. No one there dresses as Han Solo, though.

I wonder if the inhabitants of other planets have a need for something like our scarecrows. Do the birds of those planets raid the crops? Or their bird-equivalents? And are the scarecrows humanoid? Would a Wookie go to the trouble of stuffing some clothes with straw, and then putting on a real face? Are the crop stealing animals on Kashyyyk discerning enough to know the difference?

There are so many questions all of those movies and books and cartoons did not answer. (I assume they didn’t answer them. Don’t come at me with references to some animated series I’m never watching.) Do the droid gardeners take care of the bird-like creatures? Do they use bird sabers or bird blasters?

Come to think of it, did we even see any birds in the Star Wars universe? I suppose they’d want to keep them out of the franchise for identification purposes. Seeing a cardinal fluttering in and among the Ewoks would pulled you right out of that masterpiece, wouldn’t it? And that last movie, the real triumph of cinema, the one so great I can’t remember it’s name or be bothered to look it up. The one so dreadful I laughed in relief in the third act: this is almost over and I don’t have to do this anymore. A bluebird sitting on a tree branch would have ruined the illusion. Long ago and far away and all of that.

Clearly I needed to think up another research idea tonight.

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8
Oct 26

Sore as anticipated

I am sore. My shoulders are feeling the jolt from yesterday’s little bike accident. My neck is starting to feel it as well. Otherwise, I am just fine. I’ve been re-bandaged, and my road rash looks nice and healthy and clean. Still icky, though. I’ll be more sore tomorrow.

I’ll be back riding Saturday, probably.

Class today was one of those ideas that came to me out of the blue and worked pretty well, only because the students were willing to play along. First, I told them about my bike accident. They’re either interested in road stories or they’re playing me to avoid our class topic. Anyway, we talked through it for a minute. Someone apologized to me like he’d down something, which was kind. Then I said, “But no one here has asked the most important question: How is your bike?”

I think it’s fine, we’ll find out this weekend.

Anyway, I had a few questions for them about the different kinds of data.

Explicit data — data you know and realize you are creating
Implicit data — data you don’t often realize you are creating
Inferred data — guesses about you made by powerful algorithmic processes
Aggregated data — “anonymized” data that are grouped together to analyze or train

They were most interested in answering which of those is most harmful to users. This great thing happened, where someone said one thing and another said another and finally a fifth person said all of them. During one of those answers I playfully stood up, buttoned my coat, and said “My work here is done,” and stepped over to the door.

I’d asked them to look at some social media platforms and then compare notes. I had asked them to think about a series of particular questions. All of this, I said, will be useful for some of our later work. This is the part that was a recent inspiration for the day. Happily, they went along with it, and gave it some careful thought, which was lovely.

Then we watched a bit of Monday night’s Daily Show episode. This group of students is very much interested in a variety of artificial intelligence implications. When we watched this the other night I asked my lvoely bride if I should show this in class. Absolutely, she said.

The interview segment was awkward, clearly uncomfortable for everyone, and also, sobering. It is certainly worth watching.

In class, we’ll watch some other things next week.

We went over the river this evening to have dinner with friends.

City Hall and the famous William Penn statue by Alexander Milne Calder. It is 37 feet tall, ways 25-plus tons, and has been up there for 132 years. One day I’ll get up close to it.

We parked and walked to the place where we were meeting everyone. Along the way we ran across this random light fixture. Given the time of day we passed by it looked better in person than in photo or video form. But someone looks great in any form …

I saw this sign. I’m going to have to share that with friends.

We went to an amazing little Italian restaurant. Met the guy who’s name is on the sign. He’s an older gentleman, soft-spoken, happy to see and greet people at every table in his cramped little space. He told us about his favorite meals on the menu. I was listening carefully because we’ll definitely be back.

The dinner party was people from our university, but some folks from other places, too. There’s a conference of some sort in town bringing everyone together. A few folks wanted to chew the fat after they chewed their food, so we found a place to place some video games and throw some darts.

I threw these, but I did not win the little tournament.

I did win some pinball, though. Pinball is an art of angles, trajectory, timing, and the unknown. You have to appreciate it at that level to be as good as me. If you appreciate it at other levels you’ll be better than me. That will not be difficult.

Dodged two deer on the way home, but we’ve made it home safe, of course. Us and our Italian leftovers. I wonder if I can talk my way into eating both of them …

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7
Oct 26

I crashed my bike again

I’m fine.

Just a perfect, beautiful, lovely, chamber of commerce day. The sort of day you want all the time. The sort of day that you know is really a marker. The sort of day that will stick around, for a while, if you’re lucky. The sort of day you know isn’t going to last.

But I got ahead of things, and so I found a way to sneak outside and enjoy it for a whole hour.

I invited my lovely bride out for a bike ride, so that I could chase her for 45 minutes and then slowly drift away from her, which has been the way it has worked this year.

After the turnaround, and before I got dropped, I managed a few photographs. We totally posed this.

And here’s me saying goodbye to her, because, for most of the rest of the way, she would be in the distance, and then gone, and I could just sit there and pedal into the wind with my thoughts and playing the rest of my week’s work out in my head. I wonder if I would go faster if I did that less. I wonder if I did that more I’d go slower, or if the work would be better. I didn’t have time to ask her, because soon after this, she was gone.

What happened next was, well, exactly what I said. The headwinds caught me, I sat up, started thinking about stuff and just casually pedaled my way home. I counted the vehicles that passed me dangerously. I’d just been thinking about how I’d gotten away from using that as a bit in class, and I should get back to that. Today, there was the commercial service van that almost hit The Yankee and gave me a little more room. Then there was the oversized black GMC pickup, which almost hit me, And then the white Chevy Silverado which almost clipped me while trying to save two seconds to immediately turn in front of me. I’m not sure why your two seconds are worth risking another person’s life, but that’s how it works.

Today, all of that happened within 36 minutes.

But the real fun was later! I completed much of the planned route, returned to the neighborhood, and then lost my back wheel. I felt it go to the right, felt me go to the left, and felt me hitting the ground. Heard myself saying “Ow! Ow!”

I landed on my surgically repaired shoulder, which is fine. I landed on my knee, which is scratched. I landed on my elbow and forearm, which has some nice road rash. For some reason I couldn’t get up in my bike shoes, so I kicked them off, and stood up, trying not to get a leg cramp at the same time. Looked around, surprised that no one saw this. Picked up my bike, where the left handlebar had gotten wedged beneath the top tube, the front wheel cranked all the way over. I couldn’t get undo that. Also, the handlebar was pushing the rear brake line, so the whole of my bike was shut down.

So I carried it, bleeding, the short distance home. I was very close.

Put my stuff away, inspected my helmet and was pleased to see I didn’t smack the ol’ noggin. I celebrated by hammering free the headset from the top tube, checked the wheels and the brakes, and then went inside.

Cleaned my wounds, took an angry, painful, shower. We did the first aid routine. Gauze, bandages, marveled that all of the bleeding parts are right on the bending parts of my limbs. So we made use of some ACE bandages. Then, I got ready to go to class.

Our department had an open house today, so the floor was filled with students. I tried to stay out of the way, hoping no one would bump into me. Already, I’m a bit sore, and that’ll become a problem tomorrow and Friday, but also, see above.

In class, I had to apologize for sitting sideways, because we mummified my leg. Also, I had to apologize for being delayed with grading a few papers. That was supposed to get done this afternoon, but the day got away from me, as you might imagine.

This class was about fan identity. I do this whole lecture through the lens of being an Auburn man. I make fun of Georgia. I discussed social identity theory, role identity, and identity fusion theory, which is my favorite of the bunch. I show this video, as an example of a shared experience. I show them where I was in the video.

They were a bit interested in that one, because it is surreal. And it was surreal. (Also, I think, it is why I don’t like being in crowds.)

I talk about Warren St. John’s Rammer Jammer, which has some incredible anecdotes about fan sacrifice. I show them videos of the viral Roll Tide Willie guy. Some of them know of him, but one of the local stations did a nice little profile package on him, and it is entirely different.

While it is playing I’m trying to count the number of people I know who are that guy. More than one. He looks like a caricature, but he’s a real guy. And since I’ve been asking them to think of fans as a client rather than as being a fan themselves, it seems important to give the guy a little understanding.

I show a terrific NFL hype video, which won’t embed here, but does allow me to point out roughly all of the positive things we’ve been talking about.

As a test, I showed this video. It doesn’t really get laughs. I don’t know why.

After I gave them my big Go Vote speech we got out a few minutes early.

I drove home, called my mom to tell her I got her grandfather’s pocket watch working. Missed a turn and wound up way off course before I figured it out. Every nondescript field looks the same in total darkness.

Got home and learned that I’d bled through the bandage on my elbow. Bled into a white shirt. I could feel it during class. Didn’t want to make a scene. All of that blood will come out of the shirt, though. And it’s an old shirt, so that’s not a problem. But, I need to figure out how to clean the elbow of my sport coat. And now I get to figure out how sore I’ll be tomorrow, how much more sore I’ll be on Friday, and what Saturday might feel like.

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23
Sep 26

Woefully behind, branding

I have been given a memo making me aware that I am behind … the phrase the memo used was “woefully behind” in the site’s most popular weekly feature. I’m not sure which cat wrote it, I’m not even sure which one knows the word “woefully” but whoever did it, they are correct.

I am contractually obligated to share photos of them every week — until next month when they take over the site — but they haven’t been on the front page of the blog in almost three weeks. Woefully behind, indeed.

This might explain some of the early wake up calls, and the claws, that have come my way in the last few days. I’m sure they’ve just been waiting for me to figure out causation.

Maybe he’ll get it today, one cat says at 6 a.m. every day.

Well I figured it out. Let me sleep.

Phoebe is, I think, about to perform a magic trick. Keep your eye on my paw.

We got some takeout recently and that came in a bag and they don’t even care about the food, but they both enjoy the bag. We cut the handles for safety and this bag lived in the kitchen for a few days until, having taken turns, they both had their fill.

Here’s Poseidon, impatiently waiting for his turn in the paper bag. I don’t claim to be the best photographer in the world, but I think you can fairly well hear his huff and sigh in this particular still image.

Poe is also fascinated by the ice dispenser. He sometimes will chase a cube for a while, though the big thrill these days is watching me toss one into the sink. He’ll follow my hand, the underhand flick, the cube arcing through the air, the clang-a-lang-crash of ice meeting steel, and then he’ll leap onto the counter and stare down into the sink. I’m not sure what about that is satisfying, but it’s a better deal than leaving one on the floor, forgetting about it, and then walking into a small puddle later.

Anyway, here he is checking one out up close.

So, as you can see, the kittehs are doing fine, even if they are a bit miffed at my uploading negligence.

Tonight, I grew immediately wearing of thinking that I have a night class. This should be a later afternoon, early evening class, but the shortening days, the soon-to-change-clocks … this is a night class. I’m not sure if anyone really feels up for that just now, but we work where we are asked.

So my organizational communication in sport class today endured my discussing this evening about branding. We talked about some core concepts and watched videos.

It’s just a bunch of this.

Though no one reacted to that spot at all. People always have some sort of reaction to that piece. I will wonder about this for weeks.

So I knew I was in trouble when I got to the cutesy stuff.

There’s a nice little assignment tied to this lecture, which everyone approached with gusto. Since they’re all broken into groups and running fantasy football teams, we’re doing a lot of assignments through that context. Tonight they had to break down all of the starters on their teams using the various criteria we discussed in class. I was pleased to see they were interested in that.

This class has more exercises like that, but I think I need to dream up a few more, too. Can I come up with something for roughly every other week? Do you have ideas you can share?

I’d ask the cats, but I’m afraid about the memo I’d receive in reply.

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16
Sep 26

We got the shirts

Spent the day working on today’s class, and tomorrow’s class, and also beginning to grade things that were turned in at midnight, Tuesday. And also all of the things that come with the job that are sorta related to the job. The biggest part of it is logging in to some system, service or platform over and over and over. The rest of it moves pretty quickly, happily enough, and I can get back to class things. This, I thought to myself today, is where I wrestle this week into control. And also tomorrow. Possibly Friday.

If I don’t have it by then, well, it’s the weekend and that’ll be great.

It’ll be Friday before we know it.

Before I knew it, today, it was time to head to campus for Org Comm.

The door knob fell off the door. I broke a pen. These two things happened within about four minutes of one another. (At least the elevator, electricity, and plumbing worked!) I kept everyone a safe distance from me after that, just in case I was developing super strength or telekinesis. I did not develop super strength or telekinesis. Well, I don’t know that I didn’t. I might have a superpower now, and just haven’t realized it yet. Super power origin stories are all just a tiny bit different, aren’t they? I do know I’m not invisible, but I don’t know if I can fly. Hang on, let me just open this window …

We talked about what makes sports organizations unique. We talked about the politics involved with sports. We talked about whether this competition or that competition is a sport. That one is silly, but students are always invested in this debate. Now I just have to keep that up. Next week we start talking about branding.

After class we hopped in the car and drove across town, well a few towns I guess.

We went to a public garden which, until this experience I am embarrassed to say I didn’t even know existed. They have more than 1,100 acres of gardens, woodlands, and meadows and over the years have created one of the premier horticultural display gardens in the country. It was dusk when we arrived, and we were there for a little concert, which happens there a lot. They also have seasonal attractions, educational lectures, courses, and workshops, and it is too bad, really, that it is an hour from our house.

The show was outdoors. A little square of land had been cut out of the trees. A path ran through it. The crew had hauled out several hundred old bamboo-style bar chairs. There was a stage that looked like it emerged straight from the trees. Behind it, we learned, was a fountain, which was synched up to a few songs. And soon after we arrived Guster came on stage.

This was their first show back after a six-week break. And everything about the place created a very chill environment for a band that normally sees a little more hype and energy from the crowd. Try as they might, only this one section worked themselves up. Of course they were right in front of us.

I think this is the song where The Yankee, way back when, really figured out she liked the band. Also, I’ve created a monster. This is only the second time we’ve seen them this year, she’s keeping count and saying we must step up our game.

Anyway, we got the shirts. I think they wound up giving them away.

We were on row E. My lovely bride and I met her god-sisters (just go with it) at the concert. We all had a nice time. Much rock was had, also some roll.

I was trying to count … I’ve seen Guster maybe 12 or 14 times over the years now, also in six states, but never in the same venue twice.

It was a nice set, with 23 or 24 songs. It was quite chill, I think that unnerved the band a bit. But we had fun, and I guess everyone else was thinking about tomorrow. I hope tomorrow is like today.

Nah nah nah. Nah nah nah nah. Like today.

I try to put one more song up, maybe next week, and then figure out when we can see them live again.