20
Oct 21

Time — do not bend

Stepped outside at almost the right time this evening. This is looking west down Kirkwood, through IU’s photogenic Sample Gates. At their dedication in 1987 then-Vice President Kenneth Gros Louis said the gates an entrance to the campus, but “an entrance from the campus into the greater world, the world beyond the university, of which this institution is a part, hopefully as a major civilizing force, as the preserver and transmitter of the best that has been known and thought.”

He said, “(I)t is a coming in, never a going out – either coming into the campus, or from the campus, coming into the community. We can never leave either. We enter the community and centuries of knowledge guide us. We enter the campus and obligations, commitments, and relationships with all of society, impel us. We are always entering, always moving through these gates on a continuum.”

Isn’t that something? I think about that speech sometimes when I walk through there, entering the community and the centuries of knowledge. It’s sometimes a nice feeling, thinking of it as a continuum. And sometimes that whole manner of thinking can bring about any manner of feelings —

Hey! Check out those cool lights down Kirkwood!

Yes, they closed a few blocks of that road for pedestrians and street dining and the local merchants have liked it. Only a few parking spots were lost and it made for a generally much more relaxed attitude in a high traffic and incredibly high pedestrian area.

As the weather is turning colder, that will soon go away. Hopefully it’ll come back in … sigh … five or six months when things warm up again.

I made this gif today and I’m glad I thought to do it. I’m exceedingly proud of it. Also, Emma is great, too.

Here’s the news show they shot last night:

And this is the pop culture show, from whence I made a gif last night to put in this space. This is the show that interviewed the student government president, and you can see that here. He’s an impressive individual. And the whole show is pretty nice, too.

This is the second episode of the new show. I shared the debut here last week. This show is all freshman and sophomores. They’re finding their way and having some fun. I feel like that part shines through, too.

The daily duds: Pictures of clothes I put here to, hopefully, help avoid embarrassing scheme repeats.

New pocket square, old shirt, older tie.

But how about these mespoke cufflinks?

Nice compliment-to-contrast, if you ask me. Which you did not. But, then again, you are here and the question is implied.

I just googled that phrasing, compliment-to-contrast. Most of the uses are in a handful of different medical instances. There are two uses in an interior decorating context. The closest one to my use was in 2015, when a wedding photographer, talked about mist that creeped into a photo shoot.

So, clearly, I’ve coined a fashion term here.

That’s my style, and it is also today’s contribution to the continuum.


20
Oct 21

Catober, Day 20


19
Oct 21

New tie Tuesday!

Back in the suits this week. Just another series of things to customize some kind of way. Just imagine this in the morning.

You do the regular stuff. Shower, shave, and so on. Then you slap in some fresh collar stays into your shirt. Fortunately, I did all of the week’s ironing last night. But I still have to get a tie that works with this suit. And then a pocket square that compliments (but only just) the tie. So, anyway …

The daily duds: Pictures of clothes I put here to, hopefully, help avoid embarrassing scheme repeats.

Oh, and you have to make your pocket square behave in whichever way you want it to today. I found a great page with 52 ways to fold a pocket square. I’ve probably used two dozen, have found some to gravitate toward and will soon be making it up, I’m sure.

After that, it’s the cufflinks. And which should we bring together? The tie or the pocket square?

It’s an additional sequence of events, is all. You have to remember all the things you don’t want to forget, and allot enough time for it.

We were in the studio this evening. There was the traditional news show and the pop culture show, where the president of the student government stopped by for a quick interview. And they discussed bones and no bones days.

(You’re going to hear all about that elsewhere later this week.)

Those shows will both be online tomorrow.

Speaking of studio stuff, here’s one of the entertainment productions. It was produced last Friday. And there’s apparently ghosts.

Now, the campus is supposedly haunted. (I’ve never been on that tour. I’m always working, it seems.) But the building that particular studio is in doesn’t have any ghost stories.

Yet. Sebastian and Mia could very well be making some good tales for us these next few weeks.


19
Oct 21

Catober, Day 19


18
Oct 21

On to another week

I’ve been asked about all the sky pictures on my Instagram. I am recording the conditions, you see. There will come a day, all too soon, when everything here will be gray. So, while it lasts, I’m showing off the blue skies.

Because in a few weeks it’ll be gray, almost every day, until April.

Or, at best, it feels that way because it very nearly will be that way. And this year, we’re going to chart it.

Apropos of nothing, here’s a tiny bit of Saturday’s sunset.

And Sunday afternoon the sun came through a window and the light bounced off something just right. So now we are studying geometry in the kitchen.

Now I wonder, if I’d waited 10 minutes more, if that light would have fallen over the cat bowl. Or maybe the directions are all wrong. Or the neighbor’s house would get in the way.

You could unpack all of those possibilities for six or seven more paragraphs and, before you were halfway done with even the basics of the celestial mechanics of two unfixed points I’d be back to marveling how people figured out even the solstice and agriculture, and maybe even sun dials. I know the longest and shortest dates of the year because it’s learned. If I were farming, I’d plant crops because a calendar and directions on the seed packet told me it was time. Shadows give us an approximate time of day because the sun moves across the sky, east-to-west, just like we’ve always been taught, and just like that spot will move across the floor for a while. But, then what?

A lot of trial and error, I’d guess, hungry trial and error. It’s fascinating to think about how all of these original understandings and discoveries came to be.

You could study the movement of that spot for a few days, over and over, until you had it figured out, but there was probably something good on TV at the time. Right?

This is also from Sunday afternoon. The Yankee is out taking short walks, each day a new distance record, until physical therapy begins the week after next. She’s doing great!

And a lot of rest this weekend helped with that a great deal. Now it’s back to a busy week. A busy, busy week.

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