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The Army-Navy game

Attending this game was a birthday gift from my lovely bride. This video features two cheers from the cadets and the mids on the field during their march on. It also includes includes one of the finest, and sadly least utilized traditions in college sport, the singing of both alma maters.

And it was a historical day.

This was the first time the classic game had been played inside the Washington D.C. beltway. It was also only the second time that both the president and vice president attended. Navy extended their series-long win streak over Army to 10 games. The Middies chanted “Ten more years!”

Mike Lopresti, writing in USA Today’s special section on the game:

(H)ere come Army and Navy. In a restless sport of frequent doubt and tumultuous questions, they have more answers than anyone. They know what they want to do, they know why they’re there. And they know what’s ahead.

“Everybody on that field has chosen a very unique path in their young lives,” Army coach Rich Ellerson said last week at a news conference.

They will play Saturday with nothing on the line but pride and honor and a sense of achievement, and that will be quite enough. For these Cadets and Midshipmen, each and every day, that is enough.

[…]

It matters because how many other college football Saturday afternoons go untouched by money or excess or misplaced perspective?

It matters because, in an ego-driven sports world, the television screen is seldom so filled with men who understand selflessness.

Attending this game is a great experience. Go if you can.

adventures / Friday / iPhone / photo / video — Comments Off
9
Dec 11

Baltimore

We are in Baltimore. Or one of the suburbs. It is hard to keep all of this straight.

We visited the National Aquarium in the inner harbor this evening. Here’s some video I shot of some of their big attractions:

And a few pictures. Fair warning: there is a photo of a snake a little further down the page.

I sat next to the gentleman on the right on the plane ride up. He’s a graduate of the naval academy. We’ve read the same books. He told me of a time when he was stationed in Panama and reading the top secret dossiers on Manuel Noriega and Fidel Castro. It was amazing, he said, how much information that had been collected over the years.

The guy he’s talking to here, on the airport shuttle, is a graduate of West Point. He ran track at the military academy. They compared class rings and duty stations.

Frog! (Remember, there’s a snake coming up, right after this.)

This is a tree boa. They are non-venomous and can grow up to six feet in length.

Megalodon!

adventures / journalism / Samford / Tuesday / video — Comments Off
6
Dec 11

Leaving … what prints?

The Yankee came to campus today. I’d planned to give an extra credit quiz in my writing and editing class and she asked if she could do it. I’ve been telling my students how strict a teacher she was and today introduced them to Dr. Smith.

She picked out a bunch of spelling words from their list. The first three were easy, “See, I’m not so bad” and then she started giving them much more challenging words.

At the end of it all they decided they liked her quizzes more than mine.

That’s only because they know who’s grading them.

Speaking of the JMC department, check out the new promotional video:

I didn’t have anything to do with making that — the office of communication created that — so I can safely brag about it. Looks slick.

We visited Surin West for Thai tonight, which we haven’t been able to do in quite some time. It was a cold night and a big helping of chicken noodle bowl would have been wonderful, but that is only a lunch item. They will not make it in the evening for some reason. I’m guessing it has something to do with how they have to age the sprouts.

So I found a new dish: the pad woon sen. Sometimes you just have to grin, cringe and go with what the helpful waiter suggests. He did not disappoint tonight.

Tonight, the students are working on their last paper of the semester. I am grading. Always, always grading. Started this morning grading press releases. I’ll end the day grading broadcast scripts.

At least the stacks of papers are growing more manageable.

Just for fun, ABC 33/40’s Brenda Ladun, who is all kinds of awesome, struggled through this little story the other night:

Live television is tough, no buts about it.

friends / Monday / Samford / video — Comments Off
28
Nov 11

Back to it

The break is over. Reality returns. And so the emails are landing in my inbox, their replies whirring back again. I would like to find out one day how much time I spend in the various email accounts. I would like to find out and then immediately forget that piece of information.

When science gives us personal neuralizers, or flashy-thingies if you will, we’ll have really done something as a culture.

“I didn’t need to see that … ”

Flashy-thingie.

Of course we would need an idiot-proof these things for home use. One wrong move and you could zap away your entire education.

Anyway, it was a cold day, but I kept myself warm with grading.

It was also a dreary, but I brightened the day with, well, not much really. It was quite the dreary day. Nothing was fixing that. I don’t mind Mondays, but the dark by 3:45 Mondays I could do without. A big layer of dryer lint covered the sky from horizon to horizon all day long. Together the two, and a light drizzle, would have been utterly demoralizing.

So inside I stayed. Half the week’s class prep is done. There is still grading to do. It does pile up, all the things you ask students to do.

Our Friend Jim joined us for dinner, so we went out for corn nuggets at Niffer’s. He was in town to pick up a new mini-refrigerator for his new office. Or so he said. He picked one up last year, too. He says that the best place to get one is in a college town, which makes sense. But having the need for two of them, I suggested aloud, does sound a bit suspect.

You can’t make jokes about lining the inside of a refrigerator in public without people leaning in a bit harder. He defused the situation by letting it slip that he is an Alabama fan.

Ah. Well then. So long as he isn’t carrying Spike.

And everyone was relieved, returning to their meals.

Flashy-thingie.

adventures / family / photo / video / weekend — Comments Off
27
Nov 11

Catching up

Tons of pictures this week, so they are broken up into two posts. This one covering Thanksgiving and another from the Iron Bowl.

The Yankee taking a sunset picture on Dauphin Island, Ala.

The joke we’re going with is that this is the family crest:

What does Thanksgiving look like on the beach? So glad you asked:

Here’s you a bit of soothing video. Be sure to play this when you’re back in the office this week:

The kids in the family had a marshmallow fight:

No, I did not take part. I just shot video and pictures. In the family video library this is now set to the theme from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

Also, they made sand angels:

Nice view we had:

Do you ever wonder what other people’s families do together? Think they’re all getting along? Think anyone in this bunch is having their patience tested?

Many more pictures can be found in the November photo gallery.