Scooter in the Sticks

Exploring life on a Vespa Scooter and Royal Enfield Himalayan motorcycle.

One Last Ride to Work

by 59 Comments

Vespa GTS scooter parked in parking lotConvenient Vespa Parking

Friday was my last day of great parking on the Penn State, University Park campus.  One last ride to work. Retirement would mean surrendering a sought after parking permit. Walking into the office I took one last look at the familiar morning landscape.

The weather was perfect.  And the previous day I had new shock absorbers installed, preparation for whatever new riding adventures present themselves.  After 35 thousand miles the ride was getting ragged.Continue Reading

Oddness and Other Life Experiences

by 35 Comments

glowing sunrise view of Vespa GTS scooterRiding into the Sunset or Sunrise?

Today promises to be an odd life experience.  I’ll be interviewing a person who may replace me at Penn State.  Writing questions last night I found myself wondering if we need someone like me, or someone who can address gaps, pain points and a future I don’t even know exists.

And I wonder if I’m riding into the sunset of a life or into the sunrise of a new one.  I prefer the latter.

Not scooter ride today.  The cage may be called into service at some point during the day.  But I know I’ll think of riding once or twice between now and when I fall asleep tonight.

Riding — it’s really a disease…

Little Boxes

by 8 Comments

Steve Williams, Vespa blogger

Photo by Gordon Harkins

Confined in Wide Open Spaces

Thinking about an open concept versus rooms with walls.  The common interpretation would refer to the architectural approaches to living and working spaces. Bright, open spaces with vaulted ceilings and window walls as opposed to more conservative and confined areas that may be secreted and cut off from the rest.

The same model could be applied to the mind.  And even to some degree to riding a scooter or motorcycle.

My head inside a full face helmet; a mind inside isolated from the outside world.  Life inside little boxes. Even riding in wide open spaces I remain confined in those little boxes.

Steve Williams bloggerSmall Spaces

The narrow walkway between buildings in State College, Pennsylvania feels safe in the closeness of the walls and the protection against the sky. It’s as if you’re cut off from much of the world — a decidedly non-open concept for space.

There was a time when the open concept held my imagination and fueled dreams of adventure in the wild and open spaces of the world. Over time I’ve realized I’m predisposed to a compartmentalized existence which affords opportunities for invisibility, isolation and privacy.  But more powerful is the sense of self and focus I find in the small spaces where the yawning abyss is not drawing energy and concern.  While the open concept and space is seductive, it ultimately leaves me entirely reactive — I see and respond.  It’s visceral and fires emotions.  But ultimately I retreat to a little box where I’m free to think.

When I was younger I would have thought the rooms with walls would be a prison. Could be for me they may be the doorway to freedom.

2017 Brave, Bold Blogger Challenge

This post is part of a month long writing prompt challenge conceived by Kathy at Toadmama.com.

Life Tempered by Vespa

by 21 Comments

Steve Williams portraitCan You Spell Razor?

Seems as if things have gotten to the point where I shave on the weekend.  Work, life, everything piles up to force choices.  Last night someone told me I look like Steve Jobs.  I don’t see it.

I was staring into a 16mm lens when our photographer snapped this picture.  He was reminding me how the camera works as I was recalled to action for a photo assignment.  It wasn’t on my list of things to do when I arrived in my office in the morning but sometimes you just have to go with the flow.

Vespa GTS scooter on a foggy morningQuiet Commute in the Fog

Riding to and from work provides a fantastic opportunity to quiet the mind before the day spins up.  The weather has been warm and misty this week with some lovely fog to ride through.  Just down the street from home I took a moment to take in the sunrise before continuing on to the office.

This scene would look equally nice with a motorcycle.

Senator Tim Kaine at the Berkey CreameryIce Cream at the Penn State Berkey Creamery

Senator Tim Kaine made a campaign stop at Penn State today.  After a speech to students at the Hetzel Union Building he made a quick stop at the Berkey Creamery for some ice cream.  It’s always interesting to observe how these events unfold from the staff and press corps to the work of the Secret Service. I could see a lot of agents and assume there were others that I didn’t.  Security was more intense when Senator Obama was campaigned for President.  And even stricter when I photographed President George W. Bush.  When President Clinton was here there were snipers down the hall from my office.

There’s a lot of energy in these events.  As a photographer, especially one not engaged in the business anymore on a daily basis, the crowded jostling of the press corps is a unique experience as everyone pushes for position. Behind me were a dozen or so photographers, videographers and writers.

Vespa GTS in an autumn sunriseLive Free or Die

New Hampshire’s state motto seems an appropriate life strategy when things get particularly chaotic.  Riding the scooter can shine a light on what’s important and what’s not.  I still marvel and how easy it is to break life down into the simplest of components.  Live free or die makes total sense.

The warm weather is departing as autumn advances toward winter.  It’s all happening too fast.

Making a Life vs. Making a Living

by 8 Comments

Vespa GTS 250 scooter in a field under a blue sky with cloudsMaking a Life

I need to be reminded sometimes that work, my professional life, is not the same thing as my LIFE.  Learning to differentiate making a life vs. making a living is a lesson that, for me, came late.  While I’ve always considered myself fortunate that I’ve always loved the work I do and the challenges it presented.  Riding the Vespa added a point of view from which I could see the difference between the energy invested in making a living and what I did making a life.

Family and friends — they’re components of a life that are like treasure.

blogger's view across a computer screenLife Within Reach

Just a few feet away my wife writes a text message to her sister about our dog Lily becoming a woman — her first heat.  Life is always spinning and calling, sometimes at a distance and others right in front of me.  When work is added to the mix it can grow more complicated.

outdoor photo shootOnce a Photographer, Always a Photographer

When asked what I do for a living I almost automatically think first — photographer.  That answer is fueled by a desire for something easy to understand and long years of use.  But the reality is I’m not a professional photographer anymore.  Just an enthusiastic amateur.

This picture was made a couple years ago on assignment — an environmental portrait of three students who were building a portable food production system out of old truck bodies. I can always gauge whether a photo shoot was successful if I can get the art director to buy in enough to hold a reflector.

magazine spreads on an office wallMagazine editor

Until the end of December I was also the editor of Penn State Ag Science magazine — a twice a year publication of the College of Agricultural Sciences at Penn State.  It was one of the more enjoyable aspects of my professional life affording me exceptional access to a wide range of people and projects and creating what I would offer regard as being a professional tourist.

I pasted the spreads of the first issue I edited on the wall of my office at the insistence of the art director.  As each new spread arrived from design I stuck it on the wall.  As he suggested, I was able to recognize a rhythm from page to page (or lack of one) and begin to see how content work together across the entire issue.  I’m fortunate to have always been able to work with people who knew more than I do.  Makes learning fast and fun.

Not long after becoming editor I was also made Associate Director for Public Relations and Marketing.  A position I held until the end of December 2015.

Steve Williams portraitEnter ATLAS

This morning a colleague made this picture for me.  There are large posters in our conference room of some of the products produced for the college — magazines, advertisements, posters — things that reflect the public relations and marketing activities of our unit.  Products I had the good luck to be part of.  Looking at the magazine cover I recall two goals I set for myself — be a representative for our readers, not the college.  And always surprise people with the depth and breadth of agricultural sciences.  It’s not always what you think it is.

For the past couple years I’ve been doing two jobs.  The PR and marketing tasks, and overseeing development of a new, non-credit online course development team for Penn State Extension.  And that bit of business grew from an idea of a colleague that has become what we call the ATLAS Project.  At the end of December I shed the role of editor, photographer, and leader of the PR and Marketing team to become the Assistant Director for Digital Education.

Expanding Access and Reach to Information

ATLAS is a complex project conceptually and technically.  The video helps explain the scope.

ATLAS reaches across a wide range of people and processes to do one basic thing — expand the access and reach of the educational resources and opportunities of Penn State Extension.  Traditionally, extension engaged people in face-to-face interactions — in workshops, during farm and home visits, and a range of other personal connections with customers. But as expectations grew by the legislature and others that model wouldn’t be enough.  The online experience had to be added to the mix.

Think of ATLAS as an umbrella under which lives CRM (a massive new database for customer relationship management), digital strategy (a customer focused web experience including marketing automation and e-commerce), and product strategy (the educational product line by which we’ll connect with customers — face-to-face or online).  That’s where I come in.

My new position, aside from a role in the overall development of ATLAS, is focused on online course production.  My team consists of twelve people working hard to transition educational opportunities that exist as face-to-face courses and workshops to an online experience.  There are 26 courses in active production, about as many on deck, and almost 130 total identified for production.  Later this summer when ATLAS is scheduled to launch our goal is to have 50 or 60 courses complete and in our edX learning management platform.

Makes my head itch thinking about the work left to be done.  Like a ride on the Vespa in winter weather, it’s an exciting challenge.  I’m lucky to have the opportunity to participate in something like this and be able to say, “That’s my job”.

And that’s the challenge to — balancing making a life vs. making a living.

It’s a full time job…