What up party people?  Happy Monday and welcome to another installment of The A List.  My semi regular rants and raves about what I’m liking.

1. TSA

These people are crazy.  I’m not sure how much you have been keeping up with the new security measures that our airports have taken too, but  this is a good time to take notice.  Many have installed new body scanners with essincially produce a naked image of your body.  (awesome right)  You can “opt out” of the body scanner but you are then subjected to a pretty intense pat down.  These pat downs involve being touched in many places you don’t want to be touched.  In the past week alone we have seen a 32 year flight attended be asked to remove her prosthetic breast,  a TSA agent pop a urine bag a passenger had due to a medical condition, and confiscate a pair of nail clippers from a U.S. soldier returning home from Afghanistan. (Even though he was allowed to carry on his rifle.) That last story is so great you have to go read the whole piece.

We won’t even go into what’ happening to kids who are being asked to remove clothing and have pat downs in public.

A great place to find out more and keep up with what’s happening is a new site called flywithdignity.org They have links on how to get in touch with your Congressmen & Senators as well as where to file complaints.  There is also a plan for a National Opt-Out Day  on November 24.

I know many of you will be flying in the next few weeks so I just wanted to raise a bit of awareness as to what’s going on.  Happy flying. :)

2. Grandmother Superhero
One of my favorite brides sent this to me and I thought it was too good not to share.  Here is a teaser image.

Go to the photographer’s site to get the full scoop.

3. Sara’s thinking about marriage.
Danielle & her had this conversation 3 days ago.  I should probably start talking to her about having a First Look.

Sara: Does everybody have to get married?
Danielle: No, some people don’t.
Sara:Why did you and dad get married?
Danielle: Because I prayed that God would give me the perfect man for me.
Sara: That’s why you got married?
Danielle: Uh huh. Because we liked each other. You both have to want to get married
Sara: So who wanted to get married first?
Danielle: Daddy.
Sara: Ha. That’s funny. Usually it’s the girl who wants to get married. But daddy is a silly dad.

That’s right folks, it’s time for another installment of the A List.  Things I find cool, interesting, or random.  Here we go.

1. Rdio:  If I was granted one wish from Apple it would be for them to incorporate a subscription music service into iTunes.  I’m not sure the record labels will ever allow them to do it, but until they do Rdio is is where it’s at.  This is a website where you can listen to any song you want or download it to your phone for 10 bucks a month.  I’m sure many of you have and use Pandora, but I really love the ability to pick and choose what songs/albums I am listening to and Rdio makes this possible.  (There are also zero adds.)  They have a free trial, but I’m warning you.  You’ll be hooked.

2. Crocks: After putting them on the kids for a few years, Danielle finally talked me into trying a pair and I’m kinda hooked.  They are comfy and I don’t have to clip my toe nails as often as when I’m wearing flip flops. :)  I accidentally left the house wearing them with white socks the other day.  Holy moly I’m getting old.  Seriously.  Next thing you know I’ll show up to a wedding in them.  (They are black after all.)

3. YouTube Time Machine:  Crazy fun website where you move a dial and see clips that happened that year.  An easy way to kill 30 minutes at work.

Have fun on the interwebs kids.  I’ll be back soon.

What up blog stalkers!?!  I’ve decided to start a new little feature on my site.  It’s called The A List.  A stands for… Alex, Awesome, or Alligators.  Basically it’s anything I enjoy or want to link and share with you peeps.  Some will be personal, some will be wedding related, some will be completely off the wall and random.  It’s a collection of things I’m into or enjoying and it starts below.  Enjoy.

1. Cool Music Video by OK Go. I don’t really follow this band or anything, but I do follow their music videos.  They always make the most amazing ones.  This one blew me away. After you watch it, dig around and look for all their other one too.

2. Mila’s Daydreams: This woman is AMAZING.  Ever few days while her daughter is napping she plops stuff down on the floor and “builds” a photo around her.  I wish I had this woman’s level of creativity.  Total proof that you don’t need a fancy camera to take good photos.  All you people out there with kids.  Start snapping.

3. Sseko Designs:  My friend Lane Davis had the chance of interviewing these folks when was in Africa a few weeks back.  They are doing some amazing work and I know you ladies are always looking to buy new footwear so here is a good reason to drop some cash.  Go to their site for more info.

OK so here is the deal.  Right now I’m hovering at around 300 “Likes” on the AlexM Photography Facebook Page.  We need to get that number to 1,000.  I have a plan.  Phase 1 is get the number to 500.  Once we hit 500 then I’ll randomly give away an iPod to any one of those 500 fans.  (I’ll even let the winner pick their favorite color.)  I have something special planned for when we get to 1,00 but we’ll talk about that as we get closer to 1K.

So all you need to do is either head to the page and “Like” it, or post a little something in your status update encouraging your friends to Like it.

Example:
The best photographer ever in the whole wide world is giving away an iPod to a random person.
Like his page to be entered. http://www.facebook.com/alexmphoto

If you already Like the page you can still win so get of this boring blog of mine and jump back to the book of face.

Cheers.

By now I’m sure most/all of you have heard that Apple came out with this iPad thing.  Some people love it, others hate it.  My family falls into the category of “love it”.  Here are a few photos of the kids in action with it.

Since I got it about a month ago I have had about 6 client meetings and each of those couples has almost been more interested in it more than my photos.  I get all kinds of questions about it and basically the meetings end up with me talking about the wedding with the bride while the dude just looks at comic books on my iPad.  Hey, as long as they’re booking right? :)

The most common theme seems to be “It’s basically like a big iPhone right?”  Let me answer that question with a little story.

Imagine all you knew as a child were bath tubs.  Then one day, someone explained and told you about a “big bathtub”  it’s like 10 times the size of a bath tub.  No big deal right?  I mean, we’ve all seen bath tubs and know what they are.  The thing is, once you actually get into a swimming pool you realize this is nothing like a bath tub.

That’s exactly what owning an iPad is like.  The photos and technical specs don’t begin to do it justice. I can’t even begin to express just how much our kids love this thing.  They are constantly reading, watching movies, or playing games on this.  This will be the only computer they grow up knowing.  It’s amazing just how “strange” a keyboard and mouse seem to a 3 year old, but every kids just “gets” this device.  It took Luke, our 2 year old, about three minutes to figure out everything he needed to know about it.  This is the future of computers, education, books, movies, and wedding planning.  That’s right, I said wedding planning.  You know that ridiculous binder you have full of pages, phone numbers, lists, and photos.  They will all be on this device within the next year.  Now you are interested right?

If you are a parent of younger kids, you HAVE to really consider getting this for your family.

If you are a student, you should totally convince your parents to get you one for school.

If you are a bride, you and your fiance will fight over who gets to keep this till you get married.

If you are thinking about booking, call me up and I’ll give you a free demo at our meeting. :)