My thankful lists, by category:
Biggees:
My wife
My son
My family
My friends
My church
My job
My home
My health
Tilt Shift Photography.
It's this cool technique where photographers use special lenses and angles to mess with your perspective on photos. It can make real life look like miniatures. The coolest thing is you can simulate the effect with a photo editor.
There's some great videos done by this Australian guy. Here's one.
Beached from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.
Here's a couple of photos I took while in Nashville at the Gaylord Opry Hotel. I "tilt shifted" them myself. You can see one of the original pictures here. 
My good friend Kenny Scruggs is a talker. He'll admit it. I'm not talking behind his back or anything. Any of you that know me personally know that I'm a talker, too. But I think Kenny may have a notch or two on me.
Now, our families have spent quite a bit of time together. We both like to play games of all types, so there's been many an evening where we've played this game or that.
When it would get around to Kenny's turn, he usually wasn't quite ready to go...usually because he had been talking (usually to me). Then to compound the issue, he would pick up the dice (assuming we were playing a game that used dice), start shaking them, and then proceed to finish (or start) a story. It was usually at this point, one or both of our wives (or someone else that happened to be playing) would, say, "Go Kenny!", and he would go ahead and take his turn.
So today, I give you my latest addition to English colloquialisms:
"Quit shakin' dice and go!" Of course, you could replace the word "go" with whatever you wish the person would do. Alternatively, it could be, "Come on! Quit shakin' dice!"
I suppose it is similar to "fish or cut bait". What do you think?
I think it could be used anytime, but would be most appropriate when the offending party was talking. I don't know...it may not catch on, but I'm going to try to use it a couple of times this week.
We're back in Atlanta (Marietta, really). We had a great time, but the weather was a little bit of a downer, so we thought we'd cut it a day short.
Now that I'm home, I've caught up on my online stuff, including throwing up a blog on my OTHER blog:
Silver Screen Sandwich
This blog is one for a "movie club" that I belong to. It's not really a movie club, per se. Just some friends that like movies and started talking about how it would be fun to watch a few classics together. So, you can read our thoughts/recommendations/etc. about the movies we are watching on that blog.
Today, my family and I are in Nashville. I'm here for work, but since I had a private hotel room, and the location was close enough to drive, I was basically able to bring the family for free!
Couple of things:
1) We ate dinner at the B.B. King Blues Bar/Restaurant last night, and the food and music was excellent.
2) The reason I am here is because the primary software that I work on is having their yearly convention. Now the cool thing is that the company that I work for was up for the Practice of the Year for large practices (there were also small and medium categories). We had made the finals a few weeks ago, but we didn't know until this morning that...drumroll...we won! Wahoo! It's a great honor, and we were all very excited.
3) My son has been having fun. He's a little worn out, though. A few minutes ago, he said, "Momma, I need a drink." My wife turned, grabbed his cup, turned back to him...and he was already asleep.
From here we are heading to Apple Mountain Resort!
In college I was walking to the practice field (I was in the marching band) when I walked by a new freshman girl. She was cute, so I said hello to her. She respond with a "Hi" back, but with this really cute southern twang that made "Hi" a two syllable word.
That made her even cuter.
A few days later, I twisted my ankle playing wallyball, and had to sit on the sidelines during marching band practice for a couple of weeks. She and a couple of her friends started talking with me during water breaks. One day I asked her if she was going to a recital at the music building that evening. She said that she might, and later that night she did show up and we ended up sitting next to each other.
While a group of us were talking and waiting for the recital to start, she mentioned that she was taking trigonometry. I volunteered to tutor her if she needed any help. (From purely selflless, motives, I assure you.) She looked at me very strangely. I later came to find out that she was shocked that I thought I could tutor her in a math subject. To her I just looked like a big dumb jock.
Anyway, the tutoring began, and after a few weeks, she invited me to go to the Texas State Fair with her and some friends. I agreed, but then asked if she would meet me by the lake at the Zeppa Center (our college rec building - which has now been demolished and replaced) to talk a little bit.
We did, and the conversation was a pretty long one, but basically went like this:
Me: I was in a long relationship, and I'm not really interested in dating just to date. I really plan on marrying the next person I date. If that's not where you are right now (being just 18 and all), I totally understand. But if you want, we can still go to the fair, but just go as friends.
Pause...
Her: Let's be friends.
So that's what we did.
Fast forward a bit...
November 20th will be our 15th wedding anniversary.
I'd say overall that the day by the Zeppa Center turned out to be a good day.
The following is what serves for me as a "political post".
It's late...I should be in bed...but I've been laughing to myself about this all day...
One day, when I was about 10 (I think), I woke up early in the morning. My dad left for work very early, and I could always tell that I was up too early if he was still there. That morning, I found dad and mom at the kitchen counter eating breakfast.
