01
Sep 17
Sep 17
Operation Splinter, part three
I did not give you the update on Wednesday, but there was work done on the current super secret project. For more on how little of this I’ve told you about it, you can find part one here and see part two here.
Anyway, on Wednesday I spent about three hours working on my cereal smuggling submersible project. As I mentioned previously, I am on step two of the build. This second step has three phases. Last week I progressed through the first two of those three phases. Wednesday, I made it into the beginning of the third phase of the second step of the project.
(Everybody got that?)
And so it was that I found myself under a threatening rain cloud on a Friday afternoon, driving way out into the countryside to pick up a few tools from a co-worker who was kind enough to loan me some speciality items. You can’t just build a cereal smuggling submersible project like this with a hammer and nails alone, no sir. This third phase will involve, as I said last week, two precise series of calibrations. I’ll lay all of that out tomorrow and complete step two over the course of the weekend.
The good news is that laying the keel the third phase of step two of my cereal smuggling submersible project will go quickly, and I may also get to the beginning of the third step this weekend, too.
And if I make it through the third step with my sanity intact or without breaking too many things then the end will be in sight. Step four has two parts and the fifth and final step is really just a question of putting the cereal smuggling sub in the water installation.
So if you come by this weekend, you’re in for a treat.
Also, you’re in for another sort of treat. Today is the first day of Catember. Use that link, or just visit every day, for the last on The Black Cat’s adventures.
31
Aug 17
Aug 17
That thing that everybody’s working for
There’s just something about today that makes it feel like Friday. Maybe it is that there is a three-day weekend ahead. Maybe because there is football tonight. There’s just something in the air to make it feel like today is the getaway day.
Maybe it is the little informal ceremony we had today. The Media School did a very low key thank you for Ed Spray. He’s an IU alum that has just had our television control room named in his honor. The studio is named after his classmate, Ken Beckley, who became quite successful on camera. Spray became a star off screen, and in media administration – Emmys in Chicago, management in Los Angeles, co-creator of HGTV and president of the Scripps Networks. Lovely gentleman, as unassuming as could be.
That’s the dean and Spray, on the left, in the control room. We decided that while there is a strict no food or drinks policy in the room, his name is on the door, so what can we do about it if he brings in a water bottle?
And then, this evening, I turned on the big screen, which usually shows off six different channels, to just the one for the big game. Thursday night football in 25-foot by 12-foot glory:
So, yeah, it seems like the weekend is already here.
But, then, there is always tomorrow.
30
Aug 17
Aug 17
Today’s notes
I don’t mean to pile on to anyone’s circumstance. If you aren’t there and you don’t know, then it is about the farthest thing from walking a mile in someone else’s shoes as possible. So I don’t want to speculate, because there was, perhaps, a legitimate concern or distraction of some sort at play here. And not knowing the story, I’d just be making one up and doing a disservice, perhaps even an injustice, to another person. I want to be mindful of that.
Besides, I’m hard pressed to imagine the sequence of events that would lead to me forgetting my belt in a public restroom:
But I hope it makes it back to its rightful owner eventually.
Last Thursday, before we produced our first live television broadcast of the school year, I gave four guys a crash course in podcast production. And then, on Friday morning I gave them a glimpse into audio editing. And now they have a show. Here is their first episode:
PODCAST: @ChronicHoosier & @ByTeddyBailey join the #iufb crew for Part One of the two-part Ohio State MegaPodcast.https://t.co/1IEyeBMeuo
— IDS Sports (@ids_sports) August 31, 2017
Not bad for a bunch of print students, I think. It’s all there, if they but seize the initiative. It is so cool when they seize the initiative.
Meanwhile, in Houston:
God bless whoever was in this Spider-Man suit making the kids smile at the convention center pic.twitter.com/urVxrUrcfc
— EL FOOSAY (@SheHatesJacoby) August 30, 2017
That is a friendly neighborhood Spiderman, indeed.
29
Aug 17
Aug 17
What do you think he’s thinking?
Saw this guy on the way back from lunch today. It was cloudy when we set out, started raining before we got back inside and then waited it out before going back to the office. So the timing was just right and the preying mantis was probably wondering where all that water came from and why it suddenly stopped when we happened by.
And what’s the story with these creatures holding these rectangular things so close to my face? Don’t they know I could eat them?
Isn’t it interesting, that when you anthropomorphize a creature you give it some rational thought processes, create the cute barrier between them and us by a valley of not understanding some aspect of our lives like cameras, but then give them the power of understanding human constructs, like shapes?
It’s like a two block walk back to our building. I have time to think a few things through, is what I’m saying.
Hey, here’s a book, let’s look in it!
I have a stack of my grandfather’s books. Text books, technical manuals, encyclopedias and old magazines. A little at a time I am adding some of the cooler things to the site. You can see the first few things I found in this 1960 Reader’s Digest here. You can see the entire collection right here.
