ModestGeniusXL

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!

So the plan was that I was going to surprise Mom with a visit this past weekend.  Just to be on the safe side I did alert Diah and Dad.  I had no idea that Diah would also tell her kids which would increase the probability that someone would spill the beans.  Surprisingly they didn't.  But my plan of surprise didn't work out quite the way I wanted.  I was supposed to walk in the house as Mom was on the couch so I could see the look on her face of  "Who is this walking up in my house??"

The problem was I underestimated how long it would take me to get from Ames to Bloomington.  GPS told me 5 hours 29 minutes.  It seemed accurate. Especially given the fact that there would have to be at least one stop in there for gas.  However, it didn't take into consideration that I tend to drive slightly over the speed limit from time to time.  Enough in this instance that even with stopping for gas AND a couple of restroom breaks it only took me 5 hours flat.  I pulled up as Mom and Dad were getting back from eating dinner.  Mom was still shocked, just not in the venue I was anticipating.  Whatever works though.

The last time I visited Bloomington was clear back in Thanksgiving of last year.  I quickly grew a greater appreciation for a four and a half day visit.  Maybe even took it for granted.  This time around I wasn't able to get in town until 9pm at night.  It made the next day and a half fly by too quickly.  The visit felt incredibly rushed.  I still made the most of it anyway as I kept in mind that once I move to Texas, these type of visits will be much more infrequent.

The biggest drawback of a short visit?  No time for some effective photos.  Y'all know how I like that.  I wanted to set up my mobile studio of XL-Images East and get even more updated great shots of Mom.  No time for that though.  Oh...and the small problem that the remote trigger on my lights has been acting a fool lately.  Yes, I know I need to invest in pocket wizards to solve that problem (my fellow photo nerds know what I'm talking about) but a brotha is a little strapped at the moment. 

Instead, I had to settle for this not to random shot you see here.  I intended for it to be just Mom.  But she insisted that Diah join her.  Then Jozalyn jumped in.  So it would have been a true Mother's Day photo were it not for my niece.  It's all good though because these are still three beautiful Fleming women which helped to make the photo turn out amazing.

Some of you may have not have been with this site since the beginning so you weren't privy to my theory on Mother's Day.  It's simple.  It's the same way I feel about Father's Day and even Valentine's Day.  You shouldn't need a special day to let your parent/significant other know they're special.  Although let's face it...some folks need that day to remind themselves of that.  Not me.  I'm proud every day that I have the greatest Mom in the world.

Black History Month 2012

Did you really think I was going to let this entire month go by without speaking on it?  Come on now...do you know whose blog you're reading??

Instead of going into a long dissertation about one or more subjects, I decided to do a Black History Month in pictures.  If you see me on The Book you were able to experience this on a daily basis.  I changed my profile pic once a day to coincide with my favorite person (or sometimes people) from Black History.  For the purposes of this blog, I've condensed that into a collage for all to enjoy.  Let's see how many of the 29 images you can identify...

Top Captures of 2011 : #14

Yes, I purposely positioned this photo so that it would appear in the countdown right on this special day.  It truly was no coincidence.  I originally was going to just let the photo ride by itself at this spot with no description to coincide with it.  Let the picture really speak for itself more or less.  But then something came to me that made me realize this would be the perfect opportunity to share with folks who may not be informed.

Everyone is quick to say "Merry Christmas" today and I will gladly pile on with mine.  However, you definitely won't see me incorrectly adding the "Happy Birthday Jesus" that some folks are also throwing in.  I can't remember how old I was when it first dawned on me that December 25th could not have been Jesus's birth day.  It was probably in some history class when they talked about calendars. They didn't  record months and days back then as we know it today so how do we know that He was born on 12/25/00?  Simple...we don't.  Long story short, any amateur historian knows that the date was chosen to coincide with the winter solstice.  I won't even go into the history of how it was adopted from the Romans to coincide with some of their customs.

I could go on and on about the all of the other fallacies that have cheapened Christmas like the mistletoe, wreaths, the trees and such but it would be pointless.  So maybe Jesus was actually born sometime in August or September (some even putting it at April).  He Himself didn't commemorate His own birthday and since we really don't know the actual date, why not have it be this time of year?  It gives you something to look forward to after a rough 359 days.  Besides, doing it in September would leave three lame duck months.  The bottom line is Jesus IS the reason for the season.

Now that I got all that off my chest, I might as well speak on the photo since I'm here.  I wanted to do some type of Christmas shoot that was a little bit out of the ordinary.  Sure, with all of the folks that I know that are more than willing to pose for pics I could have done something more traditional.  Maybe a family around a Christmas tree opening presents.  Or Santa with some "naughty" elves.  Everyone would have seen those coming though so I went this route instead.

The 'model' here is Cabo.  Her owner is a good friend of mine that graciously volunteered her services.  As you can see, Cabo herself may not have been fully on board with the same amount of gratitude.  However, she is really amazing with the plethora of tricks she can do.  Which is why she was the perfect model for a picture like this.  I don't many dogs that would sit still that long to tolerate a photo in Santa gear.  Bravo to Cabo for making this picture work.  Even if she really didn't want to...

Giving Thanks

Isn't funny how it seems like it took so long for Thanksgiving to get here then it just flies by like it only lasted a few minutes?  Or was it just me that felt that way?  I had been looking forward to the trip to Bloomington to see my family for the past month.  Then I get there and before you know it it was time to return home.  Glad I was able to get my fill while I was there.  Which is probably why it went by so quickly.

I wouldn't even know where to start with how great everything was so let me go with the most obvious:  the food.  Of course it was off tha chain.  I had to hold myself back from posting about it on Facebook.  Not because it was average, but because I was getting tired of seeing everyone else post about their own feasts.  I didn't want to contribute to the carnage.  But more than the dinner was also the great breakfasts.  I forgot how good Mom's breakfasts are.  And that was even without her epic sweet rice.  All of that capped off by some of her impeccable chocolate cake.  Which I had to share with everyone else.  One of these visits I'm going to get a cake that's all mine.

Mom wasn't alone with the bomb cooking though.  I would be remiss if I didn't mention the awesome cornbread that Teandra made from scratch (with the help of Jiffy).  Cornbread....ain't nothin' wrong with that!  She even contributed to with a breakfast of her own one of the days there.  She had my mouth all watering for the hashbrowns she was making until I saw the plethora of peppers and onion in them.  I just had to take everyone else's word that they were good.

I didn't realize it has been so long since I had been there until I saw how old Pepper (the dog) had gotten since my last visit.  That dog years aging is no joke.  It was sad to see him looking like he was on his last leg.  He's hard of hearing, can't hardly see and has arthritis so bad that it looks like it hurts for him to walk.  Despite all that, he still managed to have a pretty upbeat demeanor.  Just much more subdued and much more slower.  I couldn't help but wonder if he'll still be around by the next time I come to visit.

Don't think that I didn't hit Black Friday sales while I was there.  Okay...Black Friday sale in my case.  I wasn't trying to stand in line at 5pm to catch the midnight doorbuster sales.  Was it really worth all that to save an extra $20 - $30?  Sure, I missed out on getting G that 24" HDTV for $75 at Best Buy.  But I was able to get a 19" one just as good at WalMart for not much more.  I can't lie though...I really wished I would have gotten that Best Buy deal.  Although I'm sure if I looked hard enough I could find one just as good online for a comparable price.  And it wouldn't require having to wait 6 hours in the cold.

Easily one of my favorite parts about the trip was all of the pictures I was able to take.  I set up an impromptu mobile studio in Mom and Dad's basement and had a field day.  I could have easily sat down there and shot all day long if all the fam were up for it.  Only Josh was extemely gung ho about it.  I had to almost pry him from in front of the camera.  I'm just happy that I was able to talk Mom and Dad into some couple photos.  They ended up giving me my favorite shots of the trip. 

The prime example of the days flying by was the fact that I didn't get done some of the things I wanted to do.  One of my frat brothers had recently moved to Bloomington (well...Normal which is pretty much the same thing) and I meant to hook up with him while I was there.  Didn't happen.  Was going to try to squeeze in some random shoots of folks that I know in the Bloomington area that I'm not related to.  Didn't happen. What DID happen was I was able to get tons of photos of the family.  Enough for two photo albums.  But you'll just have to settle for one now: Thanksgiving Shooting 2011.  Stay tuned because you'll see part two coming very soon!

Random (XL-Images) Pic of the Day...The Fourth of July Edition

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

To the best Mom in the world and my two favorite grandmothers!  Yes...I know they are my only grandmothers.  There's not a day that goes by that I am not grateful that I still have all three of them in my life...

 

Happy Valentine's Day

Y'all know I don't celebrate it so you better cherish this while you can.  I just had to share my favorite shot from my Valentine's Day shoot for those of you that don't have access to The Book...

 

The Bloomington Thanksgiving

The trip to Bloomington which began with the trek there Wednesday got off to an interesting start.  I was hoping that the car would pull a Christine and heal itself so that the heat settings were working.  Afterall, it broke itself so why couldn't it go the opposite direction?  It was not meant to be though.  I was stuck driving with the heat having only two settings:  "hell" and "off".  So I spent the trip multitasking as I alternated between the two trying to maintain somewhat of a comfortable temperature.

I was the last of the siblings to arrive home for the Holiday.  Teandra and her brood had already arrived Tuesday.  All except for her new fella whom I have yet to meet.  I'm rather looking forward to that to see if I'm wrong about my book cover judgment.  Not sure if he couldn't make it down because his P.O. wouldn't let him leave the state or what.  Not even sure if there is a P.O. involved since that is part of my book cover judgment.

Anyway, I tried to make the most of the trip since it was going to be a rather abbreviated one.  I had to get back Friday to work a First Fridays gig.  The folks weren't too crazy about that idea, but a brotha has to make some extra money to get those bills paid.  Not only that, but I almost didn't come up anyway because of how shady the vehicle's been acting.  I decided I would risk it anyway to stretch it out another trip.  2 1/2 days with the fam was certainly better than nothing. 

I'm confident now that it is just a matter of time before I will clearly be the shortest male in the family.  The sad thing about that is that I'm still taller than the average height for a man.  If I'm not mistaken, that average is right around 5'9".  However, even with me knocking on the door of 6-feet, all the "little ones" are catching me.  Elijah already passed me and now it looks like my nephews Brian and Josh aren't far behind.  My last hope is G.  I think I may be safe with him.

The most entertaining part of my time there was the trip that Dad and I took with G and his cousin Justus to get their belated birthday presents at Toys R Us.  A classic James Brown song came on the radio which prompted Dad to share with the boys that Mom was his first girlfriend.  Without even missing a beat, Justus asked "Who was your second girlfriend?"

I'm still mad at Diah for duping me.  Here I was thinking there would be some chocolate cake there.  No such thing.  There was red velvet cake instead which I'm rather still lukewarm on.  It's okay, but it's nothing compared to Mom's chocolate cake.  And if that wasn't bad enough, Diah made chit'lins.  So not only was there no Mom's chocolate cake but I had to suffer with the smell of those nasty things.  I could live to be 100-years-old and will STILL never understand how folks can eat those things.

Fortunately, the Thanksgiving dinner as a whole was so outstanding that it overwhelmed the presence of decaying pig fetuses.  They made the cornbread a little different than I ever remember it.  It had cinnamon in it to enhance what was already some incredible flavor.  I could have made a meal from just the cornbread.  I think I very well may have since I lost track of how many pieces I had.  There was still enough left over for everyone else though so don't even trip.

Of course you know this excursion meant another photo album.  You can check it out as "Bloomington Thanksgiving 2010".  I could have put little comments next to some of the photos, but not sure how many folks pay attention to those anyway.  So instead, allow me to just point out that this album includes one of my now all-time fave pics.  I FINALLY have a current picture of me and Mom.  It looks pretty amazing if I must say so myself.  Something just as good is there's also an incredible pic of me and my two sisters and THAT one is incredible too! Dang, our family can take some good pictures!

A Boys and Girls Club Thanksgiving

Last night was time for the annual Thanksgiving dinner at the Boys and Girls Club.  D first noticed it when she pointed out to me that the Kappas would be serving the dinner.   I knew right away that didn't sound right.  The "Kappas" would imply the men of Kappa Alpha Psi.  I'm pretty sure they have the same problem my frat currently does in that there are none of their undergrad brothers on the yard.  What she meant was Pi Kappa Alpha.  If I'm not mistaken, they are known as the Pikes.  The same guys that did the same thing as one of their community service projects last year.

The Boys and Girls Club itself has plenty to be thankful for.  The one here in Ames sat right in the middle of a flood zone which made it one of the casualties of the flood we had this summer.  The bowling alley next to it that had been open at least since I was in college and the floods shut it down for good.  A local bar that had been open for probably even longer located across the street suffered a similar fate.  We thought the Boys and Girls Club would surely have the same issue.  Fortunately, they were able to get it cleaned out and restored so it could finally be used again.

The food was once again just average this year.  Nothing out of the ordinary.  Just your standard turkey,  instant mashed potatoes and gravy, rolls, corn and stuffing (which I naturally wanted no part of).  And again everything was bland.  Even the pepper wasn't cutting it for seasoning.  I should have brough my own secret stash of cajun seasoning.  That's the first time I've had turkey dark meat that was dry even wth gravy.  I have no idea how they managed to accomplish that.  But hey....it was free.

So as G and I were sitting there eating, two of the Pikes asked if they could sit at our table.  I naturally obliged. I didn't want to be rude so I engaged them in a little conversation.  Asked them about their house, what they did for Homecoming activities and whatnot.  Once the eager one found out that I knew what VEISHEA was as well as where their house was, he was brilliantly able to ascertain that I attended Iowa State.  That's when the conversation got a little interesting.

Frat kid: What was your major?

Me:  Journalism.  That's back when Channel 5 [central Iowa's ABC affiliate] was still in Ames.  Iowa State owned the station.  They sold it a year before I graduated so that would have been back in 1992.

Frat kid (very excitedly):  1992?!  That's when I was born!

Talk about feeling old.  Not that I really should have been surprised.  Afterall, I do have a daughter old enough to be a college freshman.  It's just that it sounds so surreal when it's coming from some strange, random kid that I don't even know.  I didn't even find it rude that he would say such a thing.  It was rather amusing to me.  Although I gathered from the look on his frat brother's face that he felt it was a little inappropriate.  It's good to know that some of these kids still respect their elders.

When they have functions like that I am reminded of what a great place the Boys and Girls Club is.  The youthful staff they have working there are some of the friendliest people you would ever want to meet.  They all interact very well with the kids and always seem to be enjoying themselves.  The kids themselves are all good-spirited and well-behaved.  Not to mention how diverse all of them are.  It's the perfect environment for G to have a well-rounded afterschool outlet.  Now that was something to be grateful for.

Thursday Throwback (Veteran's Day Edition)

Some of you may remember last year about this time when I posted a pic of myself from my BMT (Basic Military Training) days with the Air National Guard.  Just in case you don't (and/or you missed it), you can click here to see the post and corresponding picture.  I thought I'd go a step further this year by showing you some of the photos that chronicled my journey thru BMT.  You will have to forgive the photo quality though. It came from the janky "yearbook" they gave us all after we graduated from the 6 weeks of BMT.

It started with us getting our haircuts on Day One. I thought I was being slick because I had just gotten a fresh fade at Mort's the day before leaving for Basic.  I assumed that was short enough so it wouldn't have to get cut any closer.  I assumed wrong.  This wasn't "Stripes".  Everyone was going bald.  It wouldn't be a big deal now, but it was jarring for some folks back then...

 

After getting our issued gear, we had to get our immunizations.  The guys that had been there a few days before us that had already been thru the process tried to warn us that the shot was going to be a huge square needle to our scrotum.  Even at 18 I was smart enough to know that was a load of crap.  You can see in the pic how small it was.  It felt like someone poking me with a tack.  Although I still have a tiny hole in my arm at that exact same spot where I got the shot...

 

This picture is misleading.  It didn't take two people to make one of those cots we slept in.  The photo guy was just trying to get as many guys in shots as he could so he doubled up.  As a matter of fact, we all had the sleeping down to a science to where we hardly messed up the bed at all.  That way when it was time to get up, we only had to make a few minor adjustments to get the bed back to regulation.  I couldn't make a bed up like that again if you paid me...

I was dreading the day we had to run the obstacle course.  I had no reason to though.  By the time that day rolled around in our fourth week, we were all in top physical shape.  It didn't matter what the time requirement was.  Most of us could have done it in our sleep.  I was actually wanting to go thru a second time just to fall in the water on purpose to cool off...

This pic may be a little more challenging for some of you.  Can you figure out where I am in it?  I'll give you a hint:  there's only two brothas in the photo and I'm not the one closest to the camera.  This was part of the marching drills that we did on a daily basis to help us get formations down.  Our drill sergeant taught us some cool cadences just like the one you hear in the movies.  Some of them were so hilarious that we would end up laughing too hard and mess up the cadence.  Yeah...we ended up having more fun in BMT then you would have expected...

I'm surprised that they never took a full-fledged picture of our entire flight together.  That should have been a no-brainer.  I guess we should be happy with the pics we did get.  Even if they were black and white.  I would be interested to see what they're doing at Lackland AFB these days for folks that are going thru BMT.  I can't imagine they're still using dated black-and-white photos, but I wouldn't put it past them if they were.

I tried looking up some of my old comrades on The Book to see if we could reconnect.  Unfortunately, I can't remember most of their names.  The book they gave us with all of our pics only gives a first initial and last name so that didn't help.  If I was thinking ahead back then, I would have wrote down their first names in there.  Instead, I ended up writing down the nicknames I gave all of them.  Names like Hollywood, Post Right and Booger.  Yes...we really did call him that.  The hilarious story of how he got that name would take an entire post all its own.

I also wonder how many of those guys stuck with the Air Force as a full-time career.  How many of them ended up fighting in the wars/conflicts we would eventually have later?  How many of them suffered injuries as a result?  Did any of them not make it back?  I'm sure there were some of them that were more Vet-ish than me and I commend them for it.  They were all a great group of guys (for the most part) that made BMT some of the most interesting six weeks of my life.