Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

memories / Monday / photo — Comments Off
09
Nov 15

Memory week photos, day one

It was fun showing off old photos last week and following them down memory lane. So let’s do that this week. As far as I can recall, I haven’t published these pictures anywhere. We’ll try to do a theme for the week. These are all about signs or words.

Here’s two now.

The first one is a sign that shows you the Homer Spit in Alaska.

The Homer Spit is a 4.5 mile long geographical landmark on the southernmost tip of the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska. You’ll find docks for hundreds of boats, camping, fishing, eagles and the longest road into ocean waters in the entire world, taking up 10–15 minutes to cover by car. In 1899 a railroad track connected the docks to the coal fields on the bay and that helped built the town. The 1964 Alaska earthquake shrank the spit and killed most of the vegetation. Today it is mostly gravel and sand and tourism fronts.

We were there with Jessica and Adam and the bald eagles. A few of the hills and the eagle that shows up in the banner here on the site are from the Homer Spit or nearby.

Have you been to one of those restaurants where people stick their money on the wall and write a clever message?

In this restaurant there was currency from all over the world. That was one of the more clever ones.

adventures / Friday / memories / photo — Comments Off
06
Nov 15

I’ve thought it over

Yesterday I asked where you’d like to be right now? My first thought was my bike. Then I wandered off into some Homer by memory and my contractually obligated Publilius Syrus reference of the month. It was a solid idea and I stand by it.

But also, I have a few other options worth of considering. And this time, no poorly remember Greek

This one’s easy. Who doesn’t love the ocean?

This one is in Oregon, in the woods on the path to the ocean. This is the place I think about when I recall, with fondness, our trip to Oregon. The whole visit was terrific, as my travels usually are, but the views were spectacular. And Oswald West State Park was one of my favorites:

Some people are beach people. Some people prefer the mountains. I like the woods. And if there are woods going to the beach … well, that’s just not something we often have in my part of the world, but that’s two pretty great environments that I’m happy to enjoy. So Oswald West is always a contender in my “Where would you rather be?” contest.

And this one, which is more representative than specific. It is a simple pasture wrapped around a quiet country road in north Alabama. Just a pretty view. I was there on one Saturday, 2006, while The Yankee was teaching a class and I was killing time enjoying a spring morning. Once you look past the ditch, everything from the fence to that big lazy foothill of the Appalachians is worth taking in and visiting often:

So, where would you like to be?

cycling / Thursday / triathlon — Comments Off
05
Nov 15

Where would you like to be right now?

All things being equal, I’d rather be doing this right about now:

Alas, my riding season is probably pretty much done. There are no more races and real life gets in the way. I’m actually struggling with how much I want to do on the bike or in the pool or running. You’re supposed to have an off season, they say. But I am not one for whom fitness is a linear thing.

Feels more Sisyphean than anything. Make a bit of progress, find a new best or improve on a new technique or hit a longer distance and then get bogged down by the other parts of life.

Except Sisyphus was doomed to his fate as a punishment. So probably most of us are using the expression wrong. On the other hand, Lucretius said the myth personified politicians who always looked for office but were also always defeated. The quest for power, he said, being an “empty thing.”

When I’m going up a hill — on my bike, not pushing boulders, which is not something I am never really tasked with doing, fortunately — I could also use some more power, my legs being empty things.

Kierkegaard and Camus and all sorts of writers and philosophers have expounded on the Sisyphus tale. But I want to know what first century B.C. writer Publilius Syrus, of Syria would have to say. You know Syrus, he’s the person credited with the old saw about a rolling stone gathering no moss.

People have apparently tried to tie the two together, but according to the text from a 1912 book I just found online, that’s just a clever reimagining. Which is an odd thing if you go back to the myth. Part of Sisyphus’ problem was that he thought he was more clever than Zeus. The story goes that the big Z, showing how clever he was, put the weeby jeeby on that stone and that’s why it kept rolling back down that hill.

So maybe you downplay the wit and whatnot around that particular deity. Gravity is tough enough all by itself. Which is pretty heavy for a Thursday, if you really think about it.

memories / photo / Samford / Wednesday — Comments Off
04
Nov 15

An impromptu reunion

I had the good fortune there to run into a former student today. She graduated maybe two years ago and works on campus now. Lovely young woman; she’s charming, bright and quick with a good joke.

She would always give me a hard time in class, too, because my shoes were always untied. I never can keep them together for very long. It doesn’t matter the length of the string or the shape, so the failing must be mine. I’ve discovered these laces you don’t have to tie for running shoes and that’s changed how many times I have to kneel on a daily basis by much more than I’d care to admit. Best thing since velcro.

Once upon a time near the end of the term she decided she was going to tie my shoe for me. Show me how it was done and all that. A friend of hers decided to tie the other one, so they had a contest and see which knot lasted the longest. I walked around for several weeks with those shoes properly tied. One of them finally let go over Christmas break in Manhattan.

My knees say those were the best weeks of my life, because, again, they were saved a great deal of bending and strain.

So anyway, I ran into her today. She’s married and life is grand. Nothing less than you would expect. It was good to see her. “Come up and visit,” I always say when I run into familiar faces.

She walks this direction, back toward her building. I walk the other direction, off to wherever I had to go next. I look down:

Instagram / photo / Samford / Tuesday — Comments Off
03
Nov 15

Walking around the big box store

I’m still playing with the Boomerang app. It seems like it would strike a cord with a very “in your face” message. There’s no real nuance to it. And if this is where we go because the six seconds of Vine is just too tedious … well marketers should just get off the ride now.

But sometimes you can make something that looks cool:

This is the Space Laser light-up blaster from Imperial Toy.

A video posted by Kenny Smith (@kennydsmith) on Nov 3, 2015 at 6:24pm PST

When in doubt, go to the toy section, I always say.

Speaking of toys …

Did we need these? Does anyone like them? More importantly, are these really for young Star Wars fans or older Star Wars fans? The merchandise rollout has been at times impressive and regrettable. But mostly impressive. And we’re still six weeks from the movie.

One more Boomerang:

Iron Man hands are pretty awesome.

A video posted by Kenny Smith (@kennydsmith) on Nov 3, 2015 at 6:31pm PST

This is all a part of my strategy, by the way. Student-journalists are working on the newspaper all night long. And we’re all going to be in the newsroom until the very wee, if not the very grand hours, of the morning. But, for a little while, I just leave them alone. They need me gone more than they need me hovering. I refuse to hover, anyway. They do too well for that. Still, a long night, and I was the only person in the toy section. That’s why I got to play with Iron Man hands.