I worked a full day, and just a day and that was great. I left my office at 5:16! This is the earliest I’d left in four weeks, I think. I slept about four hours last night, so, though there was day left, there was not much left in me.
But that’s OK, because the day was a success, for a Monday. Four meetings and all the To Do list items satisfactorily To Done.
So it’s an early night, and not a lot of extra stuff. But! This is a fun challenge. Do you know where you’re at? Give it a try. I’m going to answer one of these questions when I have the rare lull.
And I’m also listening to this podcast with Jon Stewart, which is interesting if you like the level of thoughtfulness of a Jon Stewart.
In other nonsense …
And we must also check in with the kitties, who are insistent that I follow The Rules and post them on the Correct Day. One of these cats is very demanding. I’ll let you decide which one.
I had a nice cuddle with Phoebe, who spent her time alternatively telling on her brother and sleeping.
Poseidon, sitting on his favorite warm spot, in total defiance of The Rules.
Phoebe knows where to go when it gets too cold.
And if Phoebe is there Poseidon wants to be under that same blanket, too. (Like that’s the only blanket.)
They can’t coexist in such a small place. We make them take turns, because we need other, better hobbies.
Friday / IU / music / video — Comments Off on Unlike last year, there is no Lion King in this performance04 Mar 22
Yep, I’m ready for this to be over, too. And, finally, here we are.
Thirty-three percent of the people came to a morning meeting I run. And then there were two morning shows to oversee in the studio. That was interrupted by a tour. Immediately after I handed off the prospective new faculty member to someone else the singing show people stepped up with the latest news.
Two of the 18 people won’t be singing. That’s just live programming. Something will happen. But it requires a few changes to the script. So I had to go through the thing I set up yesterday and remove two people, and all the references to numbers. (The seventh contest was now the sixth, and the 11 was now the ninth and so on.)
This also allowed us to change the conclusion of the show, which was good. It was going to be too complicated, and this made it simpler.
And then suddenly it was time to do the show.
The singers came from campuses across the state, at least three of them. They were all good. Some of them were really quite spectacular. Goosebumps were given twice.
I wish I had the chance to photograph the other 11, but, again, they were all quite talented and they gave the judges a lot to work with.
The best part of the show is listening to the professional artists being so kind to the younger singers. Everything was a dose of encouragement.
There were two technical issues, and the usual sort of adrenaline a live show brings while you’re trying to wrap it up. Most importantly, everyone seemed pleased.
Before we’d even struck the studio they were already asking us to do it again next year.
Second-most importantly, I left campus at 5:30 today.
After 50.5 hours, eight shows, a field shoot, a photo shoot and meetings, editing, rewriting, meetings, tour-giving, other meetings and toner-fighting, the week was mercifully done.
The week that just keeps plodding on. But I’m feeling strangely refreshed after a mere 9.5-hour Thursday. After an 11-hour Wednesday, which followed an 11-hour-plus Tuesday that was preceded by a 10-hour Monday.
Best part of the day: It turned out that a meeting I had scheduled today is actually next Thursday, giving me an important hour back.
At 12:18 the script for tomorrow’s show finally came in, and I was able to devote my last free hours between now and then to putting it in the prompter. Also, another handful of people have been added to the two-hour program.
Also today, I did a field shoot. And I had a studio shoot, which I missed, because I had a photo shoot.
I crossed 40 hours for the week at about 5 p.m. feeling a special blend of tired from the last few weeks and focus on tomorrow that kept me from thinking of taking pictures of the guys taking pictures in the photo shoot.
Anyway.
Some of the students were shooting some sort of game show today. I didn’t see it, as I said, but some ceramic prop they brought got broke. I was told it was a piggy bank shaped like a giant basketball. Everyone seemed to think this was hilarious. I assume this will make it into the show, which will make its way online in due time.
For now, here’s one of the sports shows that crew shot last night.
Tomorrow: The big show! And other things! And then a weekend!
Another 11-plus hour day in the rowboat. Still waiting on the script for that television show I am producing on Friday. Of the particulars I know there will be singing; 18 people will sing separately; most of the music is in hand; apparently the music rights aren’t a concern; and at least 21 of the people that will be on camera have no studio show experience.
We’re going to have a great time!
I had to buy lunch, because I forgot to thaw out bread. It worked out, I wanted fries. So I got an inferior sammich from the place that has Several Dudes Incapable Of Making A Tasty Burger, But Nevertheless Do A Nice Job On The Fries.
They need to punch that name up.
I did the thing where you order online. I also did the thing where I selected the wrong store. The guy working though was great. He made my order for me again, was not put out by the effort of it at all, and didn’t even charge me, as I’d already paid their other local restaurant. I was most appreciative of all of this, an unnecessary level of service based on my own error, and a kindness I won’t forget.
I wish their burgers tasted like something, though.
There was a Zoom chat featuring two of our professors who have reported in Ukraine over the years, and a former grad student who is there today. Those presentations were incredibly interesting. And the grad student makes the second person I’ve “met” in Ukraine in a Zoom in the last week or so.
It’s hardly a family or friend thing, but now every day you’ll wonder about them. I see footage and find myself trying to figure out if that person in the background is someone that studied here. It must be terrible for all of those people who have loved ones in a place where a war is brought upon them — whether covered so extensively as this one will be, or not.
It’s interesting, the amount of realtime coverage, pared next to an abundance of people willing to tell stories like those two people. What we will hear will framed in the same ways conflict and humanitarian issues are often framed, as a media outlet’s story, a unit in the larger story. But with the ability, so long as Ukraine keeps their ability to communicate with the outer world, to hear from the people it is impacting is different. Refugees and death and strife are abstractions in large numbers.
When we had a chat with the former IU student last week we learned about what she was doing to distract her kid. When the former student we heard from today it was very much a conversation about his work, and how that’s evolving at the moment. The two professors who once reported in Ukraine talked about the culture, and about dealing with communist minders and hope.
All of it, together, paints a slightly better picture than any of it alone. Which is as good a way as any to lean into the fog of war, to say nothing about the copious amounts of propaganda and misinformation.
But there’s another interesting avenue to consider. The abundance of real expertise on … everything.
This is a thread that will explain the implied poor Russian Army truck maintenance practices based on this photo of a Pantsir-S1 wheeled gun-missile system's right rear pair of tires below & the operational implications during the Ukrainian mud season.🧵
This guy, who was a defense contractor, has an opportunity to explain some stuff to us about mud and tires and roads and its utterly fascinating. Earlier, let’s say January, there was much discussed about the ideal time to invade Ukraine, and it came down to the seasons. It came down to mud. And now here we are.
In its finest form the Internet is a terrific place for us all to learn important or interesting things.
There were two sports shows tonight. Some of the sports guys were at the last home basketball game, and so the next line up was ready to step in and held things down admirably.
If the older guys aren’t careful the young guns will come for their jobs.
Those shows will be up tomorrow. Here are the programs the news team produced yesterday. First, the desk show. It’s short, but has some real quality, sincerity and a little gravitas to it.
Here’s the magazine show. Also, the two funny guys are back, with their funny jokes. That’s what is going on in the thumbnail.
And, after another 11-hour day, we are just 40 hours before the big program we’re producing on Friday. There’s a lot to do between now and then.
IU / photo / Tuesday — Comments Off on Happy March01 Mar 22
It was an 11-and-a-half hour day today. Started with a Zoom meeting where I was actually called upon to talk for a moment. Surprised me a bit, but, yes, I do have something pertinent and important to add to the topic.
Now let me mute myself once more, so I can go back to laying out this, answering that and so on.
In my mid-day meeting I got to tell a lot of jokes and talk philosophy. Somewhere in there the scale of the week set in. A mere mortal would at least be whelmed. I’m just checking things off lists.
I have several lists.
We ran a production test late this afternoon for the Friday show I’m producing. Most of it went off without a hitch. And the organizers of the show got me some more information I need to produce the actual program. It’ll come as dribs and drabs for the next several days, right up until showtime, I’m sure.
Friday at 2 p.m., maybe, if anyone is keeping score.
Here’s Ashton on the news desk. He’s a freshman. Super talented. I’m not jealous at all.
As usual, the shows they produced will be online tomorrow, and I’ll share them here accordingly.
After this evening’s studio time, it was back to my office to do more things for this other program. I got home just after 9:30.
