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Thursday, November 27, 2008

Thankfully...

My thankful lists, by category:


Biggees:
My wife
My son
My family
My friends
My church
My job
My home
My health


Random:
Books
Ham
Velcro
Cell phones
Recliners
Sweet tea
Superheroes
Flip-flops
Power windows
Copy/Paste
Vacation
Google


(last, but not least)
Spiritual:
The Cross
Grace
Mercy
A God Who Loves Me

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

My World Has Shrunkened

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.



Sunday, November 23, 2008

Quit Shakin' Dice!

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.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

I've Been Set Free!


When we moved into our current residence back in April, we were sad to find out that we had too many trees for us to continue our DirecTV service. So we lost the NFL Sunday Ticket, which made my wife very sad, and we switched to cable. Charter Cable, to be exact.

Charter had been our internet provider for over a year, and I was pretty satisfied with the level of service we had received so far. However, when we tried to get a HD DVR (that's a high-definition digital video recorder, for the less tech-savvy out there) through them, it took them over a month to get it right. I won't bore you with all the details and the hassles that we went through. Suffice it to say, at the end of it, they gave us some significant discounts to make up for all the problems.

Well, the season of our discounts is over, and our Charter bill last month for cable television and internet access was...(drumroll)...$166!!! What?!?! That's crazy, you say? That's what I said. For someone making minimum wage, that's a serious chunk of change.

So, I went to Home Depot's website and found a nice little antenna and purchased it. Today, my friend Joshua came over and we installed it. So, as I am typing this, I am watching the Cowboys get beat by the Redskins in full 1080i HD on broadcast television...and it is free. That's right folks. Free.

My next project is a home-grown DVR.

I've been set free! From cable, that is. Viva la Antenna!!

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Back Home

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.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Gaylord Opryland


While in Nashville, we are staying in the Gaylord Opryland Hotel.

Here's a nice photo I took from one of the balconies of our hotel. This a view of one of the INTERIOR areas of the hotel.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Music City, USA

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!

Friday, November 7, 2008

By the Zeppa Center

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.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Uhhh...Say What?

The following is what serves for me as a "political post".


Today I was listening to Dave Ramsey.  He was taking calls from people letting them tell him who they voted for and why.  I only got to hear a few minutes, but one guy called to say he voted for Senator Obama.  

Dave asked him why.  They guy on the phone said it was because he liked Obama's stance on social and economic issues.   So Dave asked him if he was in favor of socialism.  Check out my paraphrase of the guy's response:

"I've heard that some people think that Obama leans too much towards socialism.  (Pause)  I'm not sure I know what they mean by that.  What really is socialism?"

They guy said in one breath that he liked Obama's social stance, and then in the next breath said he didn't understand it.  Wow.  I don't think he really liked Obama's social policy ideas, as much as the way Obama presented his social policy ideas.

Well, we'll find out in a little while if the caller will get to learn about socialism through life experience over the next few years...

Chicken Anyone?

It's late...I should be in bed...but I've been laughing to myself about this all day...


If you spend much time with me, you'll learn that I am allergic to chicken.  All poultry, in fact.  I always jokingly say that's why they call it fowl.  Haha.  I don't go into anaphylactic shock or anything like that, but it definitely does NOT agree with me.

That being said, of course chicken (and turkey) is so ubiquitous, I have to be careful eating out. Even soups are usually on the "no thanks" list because so many of them use chicken stock as a base.

So today, when the new management of our building had a "Get To Know Us" breakfast for all the tenants, I ran into this situation again.  They had "vegetable breakfast burritos", and just plain "breakfast burritos".  The conversation went something like this:

Me:  "Excuse me...what's in the breakfast burritos?"

Server:  "Meat, cheese...uh...um...tomatoes I think."

Me:  "I'm allergic to poultry.  Do you know what kind of meat it is?"

Server:  "Sausage."

Okay.  Ever of heard of people putting turkey in their sausage to lean it up and make it healthier?  I sure have.  Sausage is not a "meat", it is a "meat product"...sometimes it is a "meat BY-product".  You never hear a rancher say, "Yeah, I've got 50 head of cattle on the back 40 acres, and 100 head of sausage on the front 40."

Me:  "Do you know if there is any turkey or chicken in it?"

Server:  "I'm not sure..."

Lady behind me in line:  "There's probably not any turkey in it..."

Apparently she had no problem risking MY health.  I think she just wanted me to quit slowing the line down.  So I grabbed one of each and headed back to my desk.

It was ham.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

A Good 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.


I stumbled in and sat down. I'm sure I started helping myself to whatever was on the table. Mom stepped out of the room for a few minutes and then came back. She told me to put on some old clothes.

When I asked her why, she responded by saying that I wasn't going to school that day. She had just phoned my best friend's mom and gotten her okay for my mom to take both of us to the reservoir fishing for the day. I stood there with my mouth open for a few minutes, then ran to my room and got dressed.

Why did she do that? When you are ten and your mom says you can skip school and go fishing, you don't ask questions (and I still haven't), so I don't know particularly. However, even though I don't remember the details (how many fish we caught (if any), how long we were there, etc.), I remember the fact that she did this. It was awesome. She was the coolest mom in the world (and still is). That simple act of her spending the day with me definitely made me feel loved.

FYI, it was the only time I ever skipped to school to go fishing, but I'll always have that as one of my favorite memories.

It was a good day.