I took this picture at the end of my run yesterday. The run was remarkable in its unremarkable-ness, and in its slowness. But for this, it wouldn’t be worth talking about at all:
If you think that sky is a winter rarity rather than the miracle of normalcy, I would encourage you to find a new, and better, frame of reference.
I also forgot to share a picture of BB. So here’s the lovely and wonderful BB, who’s still getting treats from the mail lady, and chasing red dots down the hall and chewing on a sock monkey and generally a lovely time with all of it.
We had to hit the road again, and we managed to almost time dinner in Nashville, so we stopped for some barbecue. It’s the right and delicious thing to do.
And we made it back to the house. Late … but not too late. Tired … but not too tired. Cold … but not too cold it was plenty cold.
Friday / IU / video — Comments Off on We made it — last day of the term 13 Dec 19
A video our student-employees produced today, the project being the video game design student’s big contest. The student groups pitch their games to industrial professionals. Many teams enter. One will be crowned a winner … at some anticlimactic later time.
Video looks pretty good though. This is the second thing that we’ve produced, at the school-level, that has been entirely run by students. It’s something I suggested about four years ago — something that was probably already an idea — and we’ve finally realized it this fall. And while this particular pitch project is now a traditional event, this is the first time we’ve put it in the studio.
Stars aligned nicely. They did a fine job with it.
Those are the students who are working for the Media School. And now a moment about the students working for the television station.
Fall semester brag:@IUSTV produced 60+ episodes of original programming, wall-to-wall with 36-hour @IUDM, won two honors from @collegemedia.
All of which is pretty great, considering they have to put up with the likes of me. And you just know they’re happy that today is the last day of classes.
In the studio tonight, watching IUSTV make television magic:
I haven’t put any of their programming here recently, so let’s do that!
The power went out last Friday just as the morning show was about to start their show. We learned the power wasn’t coming back anytime soon (it took about 10 hours) and they found another way to produce their show, demonstrating some nice flexibility.
Want to know what’s up this week? They have a show they call What’s Up Weekly:
News, sports and weather:
Or, if you prefer, a deeper dive into campus sports:
And here’s the show from the photo above:
That’s five shows — three of which routinely are recognized nationally — in less than a week, all produced by students, all around their classes and internships and jobs and their lives. They’re an impressive bunch.
This was the other night. I stepped out to the backyard to cover the grill. We’d grilled out, because that’s a thing that was still a good idea, given the pleasantly mild evenings and the food in the kitchen. And when you can eat something from your kitchen and it is prepared in comfortable conditions, then you do so, and you spare a moment somewhere in between bites, to be grateful.
Because the moon was high in the sky, and the moon always shines bright here. You can read by it on a clear night. I’ve done it. You can stand under a full moon and see distinctive figures at a considerable difference. And even under a gauze-thin layer of clouds, you can’t help but remark how the night sky lights up. It’s something to be grateful for.
This was tonight:
Less grateful, really. But I didn’t have to be anywhere, so it was something to admire from inside, or the porch. And I could be grateful for that.
This was today:
Cold. But at least the sky was blue. You give me the option and I’ll wrap up against the cold and deal with the snow and take the blue sky, and be grateful.
Or just so long as the snow melts soon. It turned from fall to winter quickly. We’re stuck with this for a long while, though. It won’t melt soon enough. It’ll turn grey; it will stay cold.
Dipped to 19 today, with some considerable winds beside. But most of the day was indoors. (I have a rule about that, and I honor the stay-inside rule.) Even still, we’re flirting with those numbers where the chill gets inside the muscle and threatens the bones.
Even the Yankee cats don’t want anything to do with that:
Seems like a good place to nap.
adventures / Monday / photo / video — Comments Off on We eeked perhaps the last bit of autumn out of the weekend 11 Nov 19
Hey look, it’s the Circle Tower! You can see the name, right there on the side! Completed in 1930, it is today on the National Register of Historic Places as part of Indianapolis’ Monument Circle Historic District. It features what they call smooth-dressed Indiana limestone, with the defining characteristic being the stepped back top stories.
I was more interested in the sign on the side. Some kids were more interested in calling it a pyramid. It’s more of a ziggurat, actually, with those upper stories receding from the outer façades in terraces.
(While pyramids were tombs, ziggurats were temples.)
The tower is one of Indianapolis’ prime examples of Art Deco architecture, especially this metalwork.
This is the north entrance, a one-and-a-half story arch lined with foliate banding. Circle Tower, being completed just a few years after King Tutankhamen’s tomb was rediscovered. Egyptology being a big fad of the time, you got a lot of decor like this:
Sculptor Joseph Willenborg, a German immigrant, filled the bronze grille with the hieroglyphic-like images. This is one of his more memorable works. He also has a lot of work in the nearby theater, the Purdue music building, several prominent hotels and a few social clubs, but the Internet runs out of information on him pretty quickly after that.
Here’s a quick look at some of banding that weaves its way around the door:
But we’re not here, early in the morning, wearing multiple layers in a serious chill, for architecture. We’re out in the cold, after waking up hours before dawn on an off day, for this picture:
By the time the sun woke up and burned off the morning grey, it turned into a lovely morning. Here’s the scene at the finish line:
And if are ever doing something and they give you a medal, make sure you pose for pictures at the capitol.
By the afternoon, the day turned out quite nice indeed:
Sunday was a beautiful day. Perhaps the last one for a while. We, of course, celebrated it with a bike ride:
Today? The bottom is falling out of the thermometer, the latest arctic blast — or whatever we’re calling this one — showed up, along with rain, which turned to snow. I watched it blow in the air in every direction. I watched it give an optical illusion of hanging in the sky. I watched parts of things get accumulation, and others just getting wet. And I watched it start to create little piles on the wooden deck and the chairs and the shrubbery. It was a good day to stay indoors.
