It’s that time of year again, my second annual list of random things I’m thankful for. Here, in no particular order and by no means an exhaustive list, are some of the things I am thankful for this year:
If you’re not following the Pictory showcases, you’re missing out. Laura Brunow Miner has done a fantastic job (now 20 times over) of taking a theme and curating user-submitted photos around it. Each one is top notch.
A few months ago as I was browsing the site, I noticed that she was taking submissions for an upcoming showcase called, Everything’s Bigger in Texas. While I wouldn’t consider myself a photographer, I’ve taken a few shots here and there of the state that I reside in.
One that’s always stuck out in my mind came from a night of goofing off in South Padre a few years back when I was really just playing around with my camera. I was down there doing some work but sadly the family couldn’t make it for the trip. Instead of just sitting in my room watching TV, I grabbed my camera and just drove around town at dusk seeing what I could come up with. I ended up with several that I liked but none really more than the following:
It was a nice surprise to get an email today from Laura saying that my shot had been picked for the showcase. As I was able to dive in and see the rest of the images included, I can readily admit there are some great shots and great photographers – kudos to all who participated, I have much to learn of your shutter-related techniques! Also props to Mr. Tim Van Damme for his nice work on the editorial design.
Proud to have been a part of the team that spent the last three months putting this coat drive together. In only our third year of doing so, we collected over 1400 coats from the community and distributed almost 1300 of them in a two hour span this past Sunday. The coat count doesn’t even include the kids clothing, blankets, hats and gloves that we also provided to try and help keep those in need warm this year.
A big thank you to everyone who participated in this work, especially to those who gave. Plenty of amazing stories to tell. Stories of parents who needed coats for their children but chose to bring their old ones to donate that were too small for their kids. Stories of people who traveled from cities all around to participate after seeing it on our website or remembering from years past. Stories of adults who used to attend our church when they were children and now realize that maybe they should be providing that opportunity for their kids as well.
Lives were touched and hopefully seeds were planted.
Although it took a lot of hard work and time spent, I’d bet that almost any group of people can put something like this together in their own neighborhood. A little sweat equity can keep the overhead low and you just never know how many people can be affected.
Swiss graphic design firm Pixelfarm produced these fun little illustrations that should please most fans of The Office. Now if they could help get the writing on the show back up to season 3 levels I’d be really happy. Click through to their website to see the entire cast.
This has been all over the Twitters today but just finally got a chance to view it. Fantastic. @blankenship says it best, “it’s like a chronological retelling of my childhood.”
If you weren’t before, you should now be convinced that Fallon/Timberlake might be the best comedy duo of this decade. See: SNL – The Barry Gibb Talk Show
Also, sorry for the commercial but NBC has to make money I suppose.
