Wednesday


6
Apr 22

It goes me, Robert, Dan, Festus

Back in the studio this evening, after an uneventful day in the office. We coordinated things that needed coordinating. We tested locks. I wrote emails about plans and set up Google Drive folders for those plans. I edited audio. I booked a podcast interview for next week. I spent the evening in the television studio.

We were also in the studio last night, and I can show you those programs now. Here’s the standard news show.

And there’s the pop culture and events show, as well. The theatre program here is hosting Carrie, and the actor playing the title role stopped by and sang a song. Having seen the classic movie, I was very nice to her and stood well away, just in case.

There are other shows I haven’t shared with you yet, so let’s catch up! Here’s the late night crew.

Following the video that surfaced of Sebastian’s surveillance of the NTL writers room, Sebastian and Mia are forced by IUSTV to show a scene from IUSTV’s newest spinoff show, “The Adventures of Duncle and Snephew.” Additionally, Sebastian and Mia sit down and chat with the Editor in Chief of The Crimson Post, Kyle Reynolds.

Somehow, I don’t think that tongue-in-cheek spin-off is going to make it.

A show with a lot of staying power, it’s been around five years or so now, is the morning show. Let’s check in with those guys. They interviewed two of the riders from last year’s winning Little 500 men’s team.

The show about films has a new episode, too. Behind The Curtain talks to a guy about his first production. It sounds spooky to me.

Speaking of film, fans of the format know of the legendary John Ford. Well, one of IUSTV’s newest programs interviewed Dan Ford, the filmmaker’s grandson, and author of the biography on John Ford.

Dan Ford is from a big Hollywood family. In addition to his grandfather, John, Dan’s father was Patrick Ford, a writer and producer of several westerns. Dan’s aunt was a film editor. He had a cousin who directed dozens of projects. His uncle was Ken Curtis who has 65 acting credits to his long career, most notably in hundreds of Gunsmoke episodes.

No one is ever prepared for the day when they discover they are three degrees of separation from Festus. Sometimes the amazing just happens.

This is the black sea rod or Caribbean sea whip (Plexaura homomalla). It contains an abundance of prostaglandin A, possibly as a chemical defense against hungry fish. Prostaglandin, in mammals, is a muscle relaxant. It also used to be used to induce labour, until a synthetic version was developed in the 1970s. It can also cause nausea and vomiting. The fish don’t like that part, either.

Here’s the black cap basslet (Gramma melacara). It’s a territorial fish, and that’s why you only see one in saltwater aquariums. I’m not sure what that little guy on the left is.

Look! More yellow tube sponge! There’s going to be some more Aplysina fistularis below, and I don’t even want to apologize for that, but I guess we’ll have to get into some new facts for it.

This is an anemone! Macrodactyla doreensis, I think. Don’t touch them, either.

Now back to the tube sponge. Did you know this is what SpongeBob is supposed to be? Now you know.

Look at it, sitting up there all tall and proud. Yellow tube sponges are filter feeders, taking in ocean water, and extracting plankton, bacteria, and dead organic material to consume.

And they must be hungry. Every minute this sponge can apparently pump an amount of water equal to five times its volume.

I like the little bits of reef that just pop up out of the sand.

Also, I like the sand. I’d like to just sit in that little sliver and do nothing for a few hours.

But there are currents! And I must follow my dive buddy.

Did you know I’m putting all of the little video clips on social media? They are getting rave reviews in the twos and threes! If you have some more time check them out on Twitter. You can also find them on Instagram, too.


30
Mar 22

More SCUBA photos

More than a half dozen of my students just won honors from the Indiana Association of Student Broadcasters College, and a guy that graduated in the fall just announced his first play-by-play job. Another day, more successes for talented, hard working young people.

Other students are doing other great work, too. The news show last night was fairly full, there’s no fluff in there, and it also features an important interview as well.

And on the pop culture magazine show they started talking about next month’s Little 500 races.

Tonight still more students will produce a few sports shows. They never stop around here anymore, to their great credit.

Speaking of sports … Let’s go diving again!

Look at this beautiful purple vase. Shame about that damage on the front. I hope that wasn’t from a diver.

I believe that’s a blackcap basslet (Gramma melacara) hanging out among the coral.

Look at this beautiful stack of coral and sponges. What a lovely corner of the ocean.

More miniature purple vase coral.

This is some sort of spotted boxfish, but I’m having a difficult time pinning it down.

Behold! My blurry brain coral!

And it’s time for a buddy check. She’s doing great. (She’s an excellent diver.)

Enjoy this lovely specimen of the yellow tube sponge (Aplysina fistularis).

I did not have anything to offer as a sizing reference, but this is a big vase coral.

And here I am, on my ascent from this particular dive.

Settle in, we’ve got days of photos to work through. But I promise to only show you the average to great ones.


23
Mar 22

A – ha (or eureka!)

An idea! I had one!

I spent about three hours on work stuff this afternoon in a Cleveland hotel room. It was only three hours because I created the most detailed away message ever for my work email — and still managed to do work on my days off.

My idea was this: I should do less work on my days off.

Something to address next time I take days off, whenever that is.


16
Mar 22

Wednesday dives

We got in five dives today — two this morning, two this afternoon and one night dive — equaling my personal best.

Without getting into all the details, the pressure underwater does a few things to the chemistry of the oxygen in your bloodstream. None of it is bad when monitored correctly, and it only presents a short-term cumulative effect, about 24 hours or so. There are tables and computers to monitor all of this, for safety reasons, and you spend a lot of time learning the safety measures before you get your certification. You keep this stuff in mind. Most dive days feature three or four tanks because of that accumulating bottom-time. We added the fifth dive this evening just to make up for part of what we missed. We took all of this into consideration for our dive profiles as we are experienced safety-first divers.

Here are a few of the highlights of our four day-dives.

I didn’t carry the camera on the night dive. Night dives are different experiences. You can only see what’s directly in your flashlight beam, and I didn’t want to juggle that much in the dark. But that was the best night dive I’ve ever experienced. Turtles, octopi, crabs and lobster at every turn.

Four more dives tomorrow!


9
Mar 22

Counting days

I went to a meeting at 9:30 this morning. I left work just after 8 p.m. In between I had to start writing things for next week, set up a meeting, opened a studio for another project, answered every email and probably some that weren’t sent. So a perfectly average 10-and-a-half-hour day.

Spring break next week will be fun. I am looking forward to taking a few days off, to be sure.

But we have to get through a few more days, first. And the studio wrapped up the day. It was sports, tonight.

And there was a lot of basketball. Both of IU’s teams are looking for a spot in March Madness. The women are a sure lock, as we learn from this panel talking about what’s to come.

The women are likely poised to make a deep run in the tournament. The men need to do a little work in their conference tournament to get a dance card. These next few days will be key for them. And those sports shows will be online tomorrow, or so, and I can share them with you then.

Tonight, though, you can check out the two shows the news division produced last night.

They brought in one of the nation’s foremost experts on Russia and Vladimir Putin for an in-studio interview. This is good stuff.

And the dance team is, like the rest of us, dancing toward spring break.

Two more days!