IU / photo / running / television / Thursday / video — Comments Off on Another Wednesday down
17
Nov 21

Another Wednesday down

Saw this on my morning 5K. You’ll forgive the composition and fuzzy focus, but I was running, sorta. Also, this didn’t seem the place to stop and frame a shot.

And this is the difference a month makes. On October 17th, that’s cute, neighborhood kitsch. On November 17th, the neighbors have had enough. And it could come off as creepy to the rest of us.

But, just maybe, there’s a kid that lives there that really loves Halloween. Favorite holiday of the year. Why can’t it be Halloween every Sunday? In which case, keep that ghost dancing.

That wasn’t the only spooky thing of the day. Dig that sky.

And take it back on with you. I could do without all those clouds. I will get more clouds than I want, so feel free to grab a few of these gray skies when you go.

Tonight was the last night in the studio before Thanksgiving. It was a sports night. And I can share those shows with you tomorrow and later this week. For now, two little news shows are here for your consideration. Here’s Hoosier News Source:

And once you’ve gotten all the headlines and weather you need, you can stroll on over and find out what’s up on What’s Up Weekly. (They’re taste-testing pies, just in time for Thanksgiving.)

And at least one sports show will be here tomorrow. I watched them shoot it tonight.

The daily duds. This is an alma mater tie.

And I learned you shouldn’t wear contrasting shades of orange. I had a different orange as a pocket square, saw it in the mirror and tucked it away. But I stuck with the cufflinks. They were a bit more low key.

Orange you glad I learned that lesson? You’d think I’d already know that, having attended a school that used orange in the color scheme, but somehow that never came up.

What’s going to come up tomorrow? I have to do at least two unusual things and surely there will be a new story out of at least one of those, right? Come back tomorrow. Let’s find out together!

IU / photo / podcast / television / Tuesday / video — Comments Off on Listen to this
16
Nov 21

Listen to this

If I ever actually make jigsaws, they’ll just be fields of leaves. They’ll feature the next big innovation in puzzle technology, two-sided puzzles. They’ll all be thousands of pieces. They’ll be glorious. No one will ever complete one.

But you wouldn’t mind spending part of the winter pouring over a picture like that, would you?

At least we had a nice day of it today. You could wonder how long it lasts, but I’m going a different route this year. I’m being pleasantly surprised and amazed that we’re almost to Thanksgiving and I can still see the sunshine.

Here’s a new podcast and it isn’t getting enough attention, so I’d appreciate it if you gave it a listen.

I’m talking here with Dr. Christopher Owens, who graduated from IU and is now on the faculty at Texas A&M, about some of his work studying the lives of rural HIV social workers. It’s interesting in that this research team is unpacking what’s going on for people practicing medicine and care out in rural areas, and it’s oftentimes very challenging. This is just the second podcast Owens has ever done. He did a fine job. So give it a listen.

And after this one I’ll have to try to find one or two more during the holiday season to wrap up the year. Who’s not too busy to talk for a half hour amidst the end of their semester, the holidays and trying to wrap up the year? And can you talk about something as interesting as the topics I’ve had recently? Because I’ve had some great ones, the experiences of rural HIV social workers, energy insecurity, studying suicide risk with machine learning, rural homelessness, clean energy. It’s been a productive month or so.

I was in the studio this evening. It was a news night in Studio 7. Those shows will be online tomorrow. But, today, you can watch a fun show the entertainment division shot in Studio 5 last Friday. Here ya go.

The host, Sebastian, fell into a pit. Mia is taking over. I’ve long said that semi-scripted interview and sketch comedy shows need more drama and realism. And more suspicious host disappearances.

That show started, four years or so ago, with the premise of making awkward comedy like Eric Andre. And it always amuses me to see they’re still doing it.

And if you stick with it until the end, you’ll get some tap dancing, too.

Today’s look … it was new tie Tuesday. It was also old pocket square Tuesday.

The shirt was from the Brooks. And the tie is from Mr. Banks.

It was also old cufflinks Tuesday. I really have to figure out a better way to take pictures of those things.

And, again, I’m just doing that so I can keep track of what I’ve worn so, hopefully, I won’t repeat the same look next week. Plus some people like them on Instagram.

Speaking of other places, if you have some more time to kill right now, however, there’s always more on Twitter and check me out on Instagram, too. If you need more to listen to, check out more On Topic with IU podcasts, and, oh hey, did you know Phoebe and Poseidon have an Instagram account? They do. Check them out.

Monday / photo / television / video — Comments Off on This went hours without a title, which is saying nothing
15
Nov 21

This went hours without a title, which is saying nothing

I was somewhat surprised and pleased to see the last of the day’s sun, and a fancy little glimpse about what was transpiring to the west. I stood on the top level of the parking deck on a not-too-chilly evening and watched the birds dance in the sky.

There’s a medium height campus building just to the right. A hotel-turned-sorority-house-turned office building which has been described as “a mixture of wit, whimsy, forgetfulness and hard deadlines,” and, if that miniature description is correct, regret.

The birds don’t care. The building affords them a nice big and flat roof with commanding views of the blocks around them.

And if the birds care about such things, they have a nice seat for the occasional sunsets so long as they stick around.

When was the last time you saw a giant flock of birds? Maybe it’s a migratory issue, maybe I am always just in the wrong places, but it might be predation or poison or cell towers or climate change. I remember a childhood filled with aerial armadas of birds flying overhead. Now they stand out in their very rare, and comparatively smaller appearances.

Another fortunate thing was that I got to the house in time to see the last of the burning sky.

And, of course, the cats, who are doing great. Phoebe needs cuddles.

Lots of cuddles. The joke is that I come in and she tells me she has been neglected all day and needs pets right now and, of course, that’s patently false. She gets playfully scolded for the fibs I’m applying to her pet-me-pet-me-pet-me body language.

Sometimes she curls up on me and I think about when we first got these guys. She was, for whatever reason, standoffish with me for many many weeks. I would tell her then that she was missing out on some great cuddles and she’d figure it out. And she did!

Poseidon never had that concern. He’s been needy and cuddly right from the start.

He’s quite in-your-face about it.

And as the weather gets cooler, he’s returning to form. It’s purely about body heat, I’m sure.

This is the last week of classes before Thanksgiving break. Things are speeding up, rather than slowing down. But before you go today, how about some sports talk?

Here’s The Toss Up, which is slashing their way through a great episode on the early part of the NHL season …

And this is a brand new show, the TV people and the radio people are producing a new simulcast project. We’ll have them work on the framing of the shots a bit, and maybe get a second camera in there eventually. And hopefully have them add some pep to their morning step.

That’s episode one. And another new sports talk show is being launched this week, too. That’ll make four sports talkers. Three of them brand new this semester. People do like to talk about sports.

More tomorrow, another show, a new podcast and more … but probably no sports.

errands / Friday / photo — Comments Off on Four months of winter
12
Nov 21

Four months of winter

This was the week the seasons changed. Yesterday my office neighbor noted it by how the rain fell from a different direction outside of his window. Usually, he said, he watches it go left to right. But yesterday afternoon he watched it blow right into his window.

I wouldn’t know.

I took the day off today, so I saw plenty of the wide world outdoors. When I woke up we started with a brilliant morning.

As I waited for a delivery that required a signature I caught up on a bit of television. Yellowstone is back on for it’s fourth season and I needed to finish season three. This fourth season started big. If you’re not watching, I would understand. The characters are earnest, but ridiculous, and a few of them are really chewing the scenery. I have described it as Knots Landing in a heavily armed modern American West. If I tried to sum up the character arcs, you might agree.

Or, if you prefer, here’s some dew-covered plant growth I noted earlier this morning.

The UPS man finally arrived, chipper in his opportunity to talk to someone, and with a usual patter that indicated he’d told these jokes before. My replies hinted at the idea that I am no longer accustomed to standing in a doorway, holding a cat desperate to escape to the wide world beyond, and talking to people.

When that was done I escaped to the wide world beyond. Or at least two grocery stores. At the first, I noted that more people seemed to be better-masked in the mid-day than when I go earlier or later in the day. (This county remains under an unenforced mask rule.) The second store seemed about the same as it ever does, I guess. I’m not paying close attention there. I simply hustle in and head to one of the corners for a specific item, and then back out again. In fact, today I was moving too fast for the automatic door. Almost walked right into the thing as I exited.

After that, back to the house, and to the garage, to sand things. It was bright, and then sunny, and then it rained. And then it turned cold and, eventually, I figured my fingers were too cold to check my sanding work.

And that’s how you know the weather has turned. I came in and it was 42 degrees. I’ll finish the sanding another day, he said not for the first time.

Maybe before the seasons turn again.

IU / photo / television / Thursday / video — Comments Off on Almost saw the sun set
11
Nov 21

Almost saw the sun set

I woke up on Sunday — or Monday, I forget which — thinking that I was going to take Friday off this week. It was my first thought. Not ‘Where am I?’ or ‘Wow, my arm hurts and I regret sleeping like that,’ but ‘I’m taking Friday off.’

I’ve had late nights at the office three or four nights a week for five out of the last six weeks. And that other week was truly exhausting.

So I forgot almost immediately the when of that thought of taking Friday off, but I remember it clearly, and the rightness of it. Which is to say I have a three-day weekend. Which is to say I’ve been looking forward to that all day. Which is really saying something, probably.

I took this photo for the Instagram sky study before my last little chore of the day, which took place at 5:45.

It isn’t hard, but definitely accumulative.

I stopped on the top of the parking deck to watch the birds and the sunset for a moment. And I shot this in black and white because that’s the setting I was using at the time I decided to try to catch a bird in flight.

And here’s the last of the sunlight playing on the bottom of the clouds, from the top of a parking deck in the middle of town.

Though I recorded this last week and published it on Monday and have been circulating it on social media all week, I haven’t put it here. Dr. Sanya Carley does research on energy, and she and her colleagues have a new study that shines light on the crisis of something called energy insecurity, households at risk of not being able to pay their power bills, or under the real threat of having their utilities disconnected. A lot of people, a lot of people, are in that position this year.

This will be an eye-opening conversation for most of us. And it’s a great interview, at least from the interviewee. Give it a listen. You’re going to learn a thing or two if you do. I know I did!

And you can learn the latest about IU sports right here, from one of the programs the IUSTV people produced last night. There’s even a bit on the playoff soccer game that took place today, as the men’s soccer team is vying for their fifth straight appearance in the conference finals. It was incredible, and you’ll hear all about it right here.

After I watched that I went for a little run, and then a walk, and now this, which ends the work week for me. Three-day weekend!

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