A snippet of their encore number … from waaaay in the back of the hall.
Wednesday
8
Feb 12
This is Wednesday
The Alabama Shakes made their television debut on Conan last night:
They liked them so much Conan invited them to play another tune for his website.
The way everyone talks you’re going to be hearing a great deal more from them in the future. Their first album is due out in April.
The last World War I servicemember has died:
Florence Green, a member of Britain’s Royal Air Force who was afraid of flying, died in England on Saturday, two weeks shy of her 111th birthday. She was believed to have been the war’s last living veteran — the last anywhere of the tens of millions who served.
Mrs. Green, who joined the R.A.F. as a teenager shortly before war’s end, worked in an officer’s mess on the home front. Her service was officially recognized only in 2010, after a researcher unearthed her records in Britain’s National Archives.
The story talks about how she’d go on dates with the pilots, who would offer to woo her in the sky. She was not interested. After the war she married a man with a sensible ground job. He was a railway porter.
Class today, where we learned a valuable lesson about the computer lab printer. It had been disconnected for a while. When it was plugged in three days of reading material was spat from its innards. It made for fascinating reading, I’m sure.
Some other things happened today, I’d bet. A meeting here, a joke there, a crisis averted in a third place. Run of the mill type things. It seemed a busy and full day. But a good day! Almost the best, even.
More tomorrow.
1
Feb 12
This feels like it is full of adjectives
You want to have a scintillating class? You give a very detailed view of the art of resume building. Oh the kids always love that class. I get to tell them how long I’ve been writing those things, and give tips and tricks and ideas. I tell war stories and share the advice of others. I show off great resumes and let them make fun at mine. We talk about what not to put on this important piece of paper. Oh, it is riveting.
Did that today. And if that reads sarcastic it shouldn’t, I actually enjoy the day we talk about resumes. I get to think fondly back upon all the people that have helped me write and edit them over the years. Those were big favors. I’m glad to be able to do it for others as part of a class.
Also scheduled a lot of field trips today. Scheduled some guest speakers. Signed a lot of paperwork. Met a new section editor. Wrote a lot. Read a great deal. Had too much lunch, two good class sessions and got rained on a fair amount. Or drizzled on, at least.
A cold drizzle is the worst liquid precipitation when it comes to morale. It could just rain, which is something you can be in for a moment and then laugh about. It could sprinkle, and those drops you can avoid. The heavens could open and a monsoon descend into the small pond you didn’t realize you were standing in — at least we have the good sense to stay inside when that happens. But drizzle? A drizzle you feel like you can just walk through without consequence. Then you get back inside and see the impact on your slacks and think at least I’m not wearing cashmere.
Drizzle is the fog form with a fear of commitment, the undercooked and runny part of a day’s weather. Who needs drizzle?
Links: On my journalism blog at Samford the past few days I’ve written about the end run around journalists, the history of yellow journalism, found a reminder about the importance of audio and linked to Frank LoMonte’s terrific reaction to Ward v. Polite.
At TWER Jeremy asked me to rewrite my most famous open letter on National Signing Day. I am no fan of recruitment or signing day in general, but I believe in the promise of what it should be, which is the spirit from which that letter originates. It is the easiest thing to do. I’ve written it three years in a row now and I’m not smart enough to know how to improve upon it. So I polish it and move a few things around. I try to remove unnecessary words, but this time four or five extras made their way into it. It manages to stir the alumni set, though, so that’s good. Maybe it’ll drift into the intended hands one day, too. It does good traffic, he says.
Maybe some of them have surfed back this way. Did you? Thanks for visiting!
25
Jan 12
Where I almost define systematization
“We have more audience than ever,” she said. “If the industry actually was dying, I wouldn’t have signed on for this.”
Encouraging news from Caroline Little, the president and CEO of the Newspaper Association of America Foundation in a story about the merger of the NAA and the American Press Institute. The audience has moved to different places is is just moving to different places. We have to move with them, alongside them or, when possible, before them.
The new outfit will “create a dynamic new organization focused on meeting newspapers’ crucial multimedia training and development needs,” according to the press release. The attitude behind Little’s quote is the most encouraging part.
Cycled 26 miles at 15 mph yesterday. It was inspired pedaling, really. Got aggressive through the gears, raced the computer, ignored the lack of oxygen in my lungs and pressed on.
The CatEye computer I received for Christmas has been a great present so far, giving me empirical data to consider. There is a lot of time in a ride to ponder lots of things, including the numbers that pop up on the tiny LED screen. And because of that, and a naturally competitive nature, the CatEye might have been a bad gift. There’s nothing to do but try to top those numbers, after all. So that will be tomorrow.
Today was a syllabus day. Class starts back Monday and there is plenty to design and rework, even for a class I’ve taught before. I enjoy this particular class because it brings in a lot of outside experts to interact with students. That involves some orchestration, of course, and that’s also been a big part of today and, probably, the rest of the week.
Logisitics: the art of moving puzzle pieces into any number of permutations that demonstrates “I don’t have all of the pieces.”
18
Jan 12
Just the links
Don’t spend too much time trying to understand what is going on here, just let it soak all in. The first thing you’ll want to notice is how great Kirk Sampson is in dealing with the media. Good thing, that’s his job and all. The second thing is how ESPN, CBS et al fall all over themselves to … fall all over themselves.
That link is a selection of the emails Sampson fielded from media during the 2010 Auburn national championship and manufactured Cam Newton scandal. Deadspin asked for the emails, and the forensic analysis began the moment the university complied:
ESPN’s Joe Schad and Sampson have the following exchange in which the former pronounces himself “so jacked,” pimps his own Twitter feed, and generally expresses himself in such a way that it’s difficult to tell the reporter from the flack.
[…]
Our scare-quoting TV person is back, still determined to show Cam Newton taking his “softer side” for a spin around a local elementary school. He writes: “Possible pitch to Cam: When people see ‘high-profile’ folks giving back, it might encourage them to do the same….” (And thus did the flack get flacked.)
I shared a joke with a friend of mine, a prominent journalism professor, that he was close to mistaking sports reporting for journalism. Universities — intent on controlling their message and protecting their student-athletes — need to control their message, and generally do a great job of it. It is surprising they don’t go it alone more often. Consider: they have a devoted audience, multi-million dollar TV deals and the same dissemination tools as you or I. And yet there is always ESPN, playing kingmaker and empire destroyer almost within the same series of emails.
Deadspin may have captured the moment perfectly in two sentences. “This is how sports scandals unfold now. ESPN creates and amplifies the controversy from which ESPN alone can provide the safe haven.” The local guys were far more decent about the thing.
Read that link. It will all make sense.
I’m so glad this expression has become acceptable for use in headlines. The comments, as a joy, are the state’s pride and treasure.
We often talk about juxtaposition in a news design sense. This is now the best example ever. It was discovered by Napo, former classmate of mine, who went on to be a great designer and program developer.
This is better than it sounds:
It’s quite easy, really. You don’t even need any heavy equipment. In 1988 the Ostry family in Nebraska wanted to move their barn to higher ground.
Ostry’s son Mike showed his father some calculations. He had counted the individual boards and timbers in the barn and estimated that the barn weighed approximately 16,640 pounds. He also estimated that a steel grid needed to move the barn would add another 3,150 pounds, bringing the total weight to just under 10 tons.
The next step is to gather about 350 of your best friends and invite them to come lift your barn. The video shows the result.
They should show that video at team-building conferences.
Almost two dozen years ago 344 men and women moved that barn by hand. I wonder how the building and the family are doing these days.
