IU / photo / Thursday / video — Comments Off on Talked with someone in Ukraine today
24
Feb 22

Talked with someone in Ukraine today

The guy in the front of the room in the picture below is one of our professors. He keeps in touch with some of his former students and one of them is a graduate school alumnus who works in Kyiv. She joined the professor’s broadcast media analysis class to talk about what she and her family have seen and heard and done in the early hours of Russia’s invasion and war with Ukraine.

She wrote an opinion piece for CNN this morning, and had this chat and we captured some video. She talked about spending a night finding all the fallout shelters and gathering things in case they needed to evacuate. She talked about hearing artillery shelling and distracting her kid with Ironman movies. She said they’ll all probably sleep in their clothes tonight, just in case they need to scramble.

Of course, cats the world over understand video chats, and hers cat tried to steal the show. She said the cat carriers are prepped, as well.

There’s just a little something there, at the end of that video, that will stick with you.

To be in a war, to know it is coming close to your home. To have the composure she had this afternoon. It’s a scary, impressive thing.

To lighten the mood, let’s take a look at some of the sports shows the IUSTV gang produced last night. Here’s the highlight show.

And here’s one of their new sports talk shows. They are discussing basketball, of course. It is Indiana, after all.

There’s another sports show, and so much other stuff, tomorrow. It, and the weekend, are only a day away.

IU / photo / television / Twitter / video / Wednesday — Comments Off on It’s a Wednesday
23
Feb 22

It’s a Wednesday

I know, I know, I haven’t shown off the kitties yet this week. Let’s fix that right away! I know! I know! Some of you come here specifically for that.

Phoebe has been enjoying some extra blanket time in the chilly weather.

But Poseidon found some sunshine and contented himself with catching some rays.

He is not happy with my work schedule. Far too much time in the office, not enough time petting him.

And Phoebe says I should stop working at home.

They might be on to something, I don’t know.

One of those not-sure-how-it-got-away-from-you days, but there it was, full and complete and long and mildly interesting. After the day of editing and emails and meetings and Zooms, it was time for a night in the studio. Tonight was a sports night.

Those two shows will be up tomorrow. I’ll share them here then, of course. But, right now, I can show you the shows the news division did last night. Here’s the regular news show. It’s a nice, short, tight newscast with tons of information, well packed and delivered.

And here’s the magazine style show.

More tomorrow. Until then, did you know that Phoebe and Poseidon have an Instagram account? Phoebe and Poe have an Instagram account. And keep up with me on Twitter, but don’t forget my Instagram. There are also some very interesting On Topic with IU podcasts for you, as well.

IU / journalism / photo / Tuesday / Twitter — Comments Off on Your personal blog experience
22
Feb 22

Your personal blog experience

One overused word is narrative. Another is polarized. Right behind those two is experience.

Ummm, no.

One of the downsides to the phone experience since we all got portable phones in the 90s has been the hang up experience. You just can’t slam the phone down. You removed the phone from your face and … pressed a button. This disappointing experience has continued into the smartphone era. Even worse, the other person doesn’t get a dial tone experience.

Similarly, I can’t have a satisfying tab-closing experience. I read that and could only role my eyes and press the X to close the screen — which I could not do fast enough.

I do not need a personalized registration experience. I need only to beat the human rush and avoid lines.

Whatever consultant told the comms and coding people to write that needs a new kind of working experience.

I saw this this morning.

Modernist avant-garde is now ubiquitous and contemporary, and today I sat in that spot just long enough to contemplate it. What do you suppose those are made of? They’re too high up in a ludicrously tall room to tell.

What do you suppose the artist’s intention was? There’s no sign I saw that offered an interpretation.

What do you think the artist was thinking about when they got this commission? When they were planning this out? When they watched hoisted to the ludicrously high ceiling?

That’s always the real question, really.

The other, I suppose, is how many people have contemplated these same questions? And other questions? And what answers did they conjure for themselves? It’s all a new thing, so probably not many, and who knows, and wouldn’t it be worrying to know the answer to that last one?

Though, some sort of interactivity would be nice. An artistic suggestion box, if you will. What did you think when you saw this installation of glass and aluminum and nylon string? You could see the artist saying “I’ll take all of this into consideration on my next project,” until they saw the replies they received.

Then they, too, will know about the comments.

Studio night, and it was a good one.

That’ll all be online tomorrow, and I’ll share it here. See you then!

adventures / cycling / Monday / photo / television / video — Comments Off on The third half of winter
21
Feb 22

The third half of winter

It is about time I thought on my walk from the car to the building this morning, to see a fake signal. And as I walked by one of the little patches of soil that separates the parking lot from the sidewalk, I saw it. Right on time, just like every other year we’ve been here, trying to trick me.

Even though I misinterpret it (“Spring!”) I will not be tricked. We have more cold and some snow flurries and ice this week and who knows what else in the next … six or eight weeks.

He said with the world’s most predictable sigh.

But, hey, the days are getting longer. The coats are getting lighter. And the cold is, for now, a bit milder.

This was the sun on our walk yesterday. I was only wearing a medium-weight coat.

And here are two more pictures from that walk, because I am fascinated by the idea that so many things look better in real life than they do in photographs. For instance, this sycamore is really popping in the late-day sun. And, yet …

Same with this tree, which I think is just dead. The sun is playful, the limbs are colorful, but the photographic result leaves something to be desired.

You know what else leaves something to be desired? My ability to keep things up-to-date. This show is from Wednesday night and went online Thursday and I forgot to post it here. Shame on me.

And here’s the talk show, where they focused on baseball and softball.

Which brings us to today, and here are the shows the entertainment division released today. And it seems like the late night show was evicted after a troublesome conclusion to their last episode.

That show continues to evolve in the most fascinating ways. One day they’re going to invent their own genre, I’m pretty sure.

And here’s the morning show, a production which I missed entirely, unfortunately.

I walked in from a meeting just as the students were breaking down the studio. And I am lesser for it. Watch it now, and you will be justly enriched.

I tried a new Zwift route on Saturday. I quickly regretted it. But at least I got a nice shot of my avatar in an aerotuck.

It was one of the fictional routes, and required a lot of climbing which I am clearly not good at or prepared for. But at the end of it all there’s a map. This is always amusing to me. It’s a fictional route. This is a real island in the South Pacific.

Two islands, actually. I mentioned one of them, Teanu, which is the bulk of the route you see in the graphic above, last Monday. But that part where it dips south, is Vanikoro. Apparently about 1,300 people live there, two distinct groups, in different villages, but you can’t see much from Google Maps.

Google Reviews, though … someone wrote “There is no TV 3 stars.”

That settles it for me.

cycling / Friday / IU / photo — Comments Off on Come, let us weekend!
18
Feb 22

Come, let us weekend!

It was sunny. But it was cold. We’ll take it because it is Friday.

But only for so much longer, by which I mean about a week, a week-and-a-half.

These are the stages of winter for me: resignation, ignoring it, wearied by it, a brief sense of optimism, and then a sort of disbelieving vexation which is where I will say, more than once, “When will this end?”

The answer is About seven weeks too late.

If it seems like I’ve said this before, that’s because I have. If it seems like I’ve said it this winter, that’s because I most assuredly hav.

I did go outside for a few minutes today. I decided to walk across part of the campus to take a Covid test. This was entirely an excuse to get outside and under the sunshine for a few minutes in between hours under florescent lights. So on with the big jacket, and I walked the four-tenths of a mile from our building to a gym in the School of Public Health, where all of the spitting takes place. Swipe your ID card, answer the three questions — they used to ask about whether you’d eaten anything in the last half hour, whether you had symptoms or had been asked to quarantine, now the staffer there just points to the sign. Only then do they give you permission to move on to the next table where a modern printer with ancient software eventually spits out the little ID label. You must recite the high holy numbers, your birthday, to get the little plastic tube. Then, go around the corner, stand in this converted gym and fill the container. Saliva, not foam, if you please.

And then the walk back. See! The proof of being outdoors in the middle of the day!

I’m still negative. They do the lab work here on campus and the turnaround is usually around four hours. It’s an impressive set up, really.

This is my ride through the northern English countryside. I’m in Yorkshire. This is part of the 2019 world championship course.

An hour doing this was a great way to start the weekend. Usually when I share these silly things I’ve cropped out the graphics, but this is the normal screen view.

That’s a lot to look through, and you can’t make changes. There’s always a chat feature, and for the life of me I don’t know how people can pedal fast and type at the same time. It’s all I can do to sing along to the music.

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