506,359

Grady, 11:15 a.m., via text: Yo just thought I'd let you know i just got a 506359 on tetris for the n.e.s.

Me: motherf---

Me: why were you playing this early to start with? Dang, that was my impossible dream you just shattered

Grady: I got up for work and it was cancelled. Then i just got in a groove and kept rollin. Got a tetris on level 18 to seal it

Me: Dag

—

I spent an entire summer during college trying to top 500,000. Playing every day, usually two or three games per day, I got as close as 498,000 and change. Grady is now officially the master in this family.

Good news!

My mom called tonight and said she'd just gotten the results from her final body scan after completion of her chemo treatments. Prognosis: all clear!

"Scroggins sisters, three for three," I said.

"Kickin' cancer butt!" she said.

Thanks for all your thoughts, prayers, karma, life force, cosmic energy, and all that stuff during this struggle. The support meant a lot to her.

Summertime

dad mucho happy, originally uploaded by Mr. Wright.

So this was kind of a big deal

Things have been pretty busy the last six months to say the least. So busy that I forgot to mention my mom and two of her sisters starred in a TV news story. All three of them have had and overcome a similar form of cancer, with my mom the most recent mutated-cell ass-kicker. I never mentioned it here before because Mom's a private person, but now her story's up on Houston news channel MyFoxHouston.com.

Technical note: I hope that player still works. The station didn't seem too on the ball with their equipment. For instance the "home video," as the report calls it, of my mom and her sisters was actually shot by a reporter from the station. When the footage didn't come out well -- a kind of huge white light envelopes my mom and her sisters -- the station coolly laid the blame on the cancer victims. Mom calls it their halo.

Medical note: All three sisters were nearly mis-diagnosed as cancer-free, by virtue of a variety of medical mishaps. Long story short: if something doesn't seem right when you're being screened for stuff like this, be real damn sure to speak up about it and nag until you get your questions answered. My mom and her sisters did, and they're all probably alive today because of it.

Family funtimes

levi as david caruso, originally uploaded by Mr. Wright.

From a family baby shower about a week ago. Maybe it's the red hair, maybe it's because L. looks like he's picking up a piece of evidence, but I thought of David Caruso when I was editing this shot.

Some technical notes: I shot the entire shower with my 35mm lens. No complaints. I really like its versatility. Now I just need to work on controlling depth of field better. Also a tip for you cold-blooded baby shooters out there. To make your little devil look angelic, it's a pretty simple matter of editing, using mainly the dodge tool. After you've done basic edits to the entire frame, use the dodge tool to basically remove all the shadows from the kid's face. It's best to do it slowly in several steps, switching often between dodging midtones and dodging highlights. If the features ever begin to look washed out, you can restore proper contrast by burning in the shadows.

Taken to its extremes, this method produces children who appear to radiate purity. It's popular on Flickr. Here is one good purveyor of the style.

Thanksgiving at my place