Capture Cincinnati

So I have a lot of friends who are great photographers and have fancy digital SLR cameras and lens (some of which cost slightly more than my car). I however have a Fujifilm Finepix J10. That's right, give it up for the point and shoot. My cameras two best features are it fits in my pocket and I wrote it off on my taxes. Anyhow, Capture Cincinnati is a book of Cincinnatis best photography. To get in the book you need votes. So, after looking through my pictures, and doing exstensive color correction in Photoshop, I entered a few. So, if you feel so inclined, vote for one or two at this link.
http://www.capturecincinnati.com/people/danthoms

If not, here are the pictures for your enjoyment.

Why the h*** did you go and do that for?

Have you ever heard or participated in a conversation that just made you say huh? Tonight I had the pleasure of hearing one of the funniest things I've heard in a long time. First a little background. For those of you who know me you know that I take my neighbors munchkins to kids church every week. Well, their oldest sister Nicole just graduated from high school so she was having a graduation party tonight. I went, it was fun. Here are the characters involved in this conversation, Nicole's Grandpa, Grandpa's Mother (Great Grandma), and Nicole's aunt. Got that, here we go.

Grandpa: I work with a guy who has a ton of tattoos. He has them up his arms, his neck, and his face has a bunch of piercings, all over.
Aunt: What about your piercing dad?
Great Grandma: Whaaaat?
Grandpa: I told you, right?
Great Grandma: No, what are you talking about?
Aunts: (laughter)
Aunt: You never told your mom about your piercing? Tell her.
Grandpa: I have my nipple pierced?
Great Grandma: What?
Aunt: Grandma, he has his nipple pierced.
Great Grandma: What? Are you kidding with me? Are you pulling a trick on me?
Aunt: No it's true, he shows it to everyone, show her?
Grandpa: No I don't want to show her. Yea it's true, I have my nipple pierced. It's right here. (pats chest)
Great Grandma: Why the h*** did you go and do something like that for? You hate pain.
Grandpa: Well she has all kinds of piercings (pointing to his daughter) so I figured, hey why not.
Great Grandma: When did you go and get that done?
Grandpa: I've had it for about 5 years I think.
Aunt: Uh oh, dad's in trouble. (lots and lots of laughter)

Happy Fathers Day

When I was at the store looking for a Fathers Day card, the lady next to me said she wanted one that said, "Thanks for nothing mother f****r." I told her she may have to make that one herself. She said it would require too much effort. She bought a different one instead.

I'm glad I have an awesome dad who continues to give me reasons to be thankful. Happy Fathers Day everyone.

I'm a Gambler?

Did you know that there are 13.2 million uninsured young adults in America? This is a crisis. The government has to do something about this. How can anyone possibly live without health insurance? Hi, my name's Dan and I don't have health insurance. The thing is, I don't want health insurance.

Let's look at this logically. Life is risk vs. benefit. Life is a gamble. Health insurance is a business, not a charitable organization there to help. When you pay your health insurance bill they are running a risk vs benefits analysis of your situation. They are betting that you will not use your insurance enough to make it unprofitable for them and you are betting that you will. The insurance company is betting that you will not get sick and you are betting that you will. The only way to win is to get sick or have an accident.

This brings us to universal health care, or forcing everyone to buy health insurance. I heard an advocate say that the only way to get insurance prices down was to force young people to carry health insurance. They stated that currently only the old and the sick are buying insurance which drives the prices up. If young, healthy people also bought it that would bring the average price down. Well no kidding. Forcing people to buy a service that they won't use will bring the average price down? That sounds logical. The only problem is your FORCING PEOPLE TO BUY SOMETHING THEY WON'T USE. Am I the only one who sees a problem with this logic?

END OF RANT

Welcome to Your Funeral

If you died today how many people would take an unpaid day from work to go to your funeral? I think about these things. If your answer is 5% of your facebook friends than perhaps your not living your life to its full potential. I like to think (rather its true or not) that they would have to rent out an auditorium to hold all of my mourners. I like to think that the city of Cincinnati's economy would suffer that day because everyone would be to busy crying. What would your eulogy sound like? Would the speaker have to fabricate positive qualities or would they have to give him a time limit because he had so many nice things to say? Did you impact anyone life this week? Is the world a better place because your here. Is the way that your living today worth celebrating tomorrow? What would your funeral look like?

Perspective

Perspective is a beautiful thing. I've been in church for 28 years so I've heard every reason why people "can't make it" to church. All so often "can't make it" translates into "don't want to make it" and to me that's sad. A week or two ago Pastor Jim found something out about a couple of the kids who attend the Vineyard Westside's kids church. He found out that they walk to church. Ok, so a lot of people walk. The thing is, these kids don't live that close to the church. It takes them an hour of walking to get there. Not only do they walk an hour, they are consistently early. They attend the early service, are early for it, and they walk an hour to get there. I think that helps to put the "I can't make it" attitude into perspective. So, "can you" make it this week?

(The kids in this story don't have to walk anymore. Pastor Jim picks them up.)

Moment by Moment

I'm the oldest of five kids. Ok, that statement isn't 100% factual. There are five of us siblings but only one is still a kid (no its not me). Only one is still a minor, its strange to think about. Some times my life feels like a bit of a blur. One of my little sisters got married last week and the other one is getting married within a month. Didn't they just graduate from high school, grade school, learn to walk? How is it that we all grew up so fast? Even though I'm aging moment by moment I never feel any older. I guess it's all of those moments. They come and go so quickly and before you know it your all grown up. I used to live in a big house full of people. But that was moments ago. Now most of them have moved out to start their own adult lives. I used to share bunk beds with some kid but now I only see him once a week at the most. There used to be a lady who made me dinner. Now I have a microwave. I still visit her though. There used to be this man who would drive me places. Now, occasionally he'll help me pick up a piece of furniture from an auction. There used to be these 3 little brats who played with barbies. No more barbies. So many moments, all them gone, all of them still waiting to happen. Life happens one moment at a time.