Today's proof that most people are bad at math

Of course, this would also bother me if it said $11.95 followed with "Less than a dollar a month."  Then, it wouldn't be a mathematical error, but an impracticality.

$11.95 / 12 is 0.99583 dollars per month, which translates to 99.58 cents a month.  If you buy this service, you're going to pay the whole year's service all at once.  However, let say they set up a monthly billing cycle and each month you had to pay them 99.58 cents.  It wouldn't matter what combination of legal coinage you could come up with to pay your bill, if you don't give them a full dollar, you'll have an unpaid balance.

Always read the label

Your Move, Dollar Tree

Brent's 2012 Self-aggrandizement Photography post

I am in my heart a number cruncher.  At the start of every new year, I like to take a look back and see where I've been, what I've done and more recently how many people have checked me or my photos out.  If nothing else, I can be very prolific.  I have 1 flickr account, a picasa account, 2 twitter accounts, 3 facebook profiles, 2 websites, 2 myspace profiles and 4 blogs.  It sounds like a lot but some of it I never touch anymore.

I am writing this for myself, mostly for posterity sake.  If you find it interesting, feel free to keep on reading.  Or, maybe you'd like to skip on down to my favorite 20 photos of 2012.  I also did this in 2011, 2010 and 2008.

In 2012, I took about 26,000 photos.  I've tried to be more precise in the past, but with MariLynn using the cameras even more these days with her pet tarantulas, it's tougher to keep track.  It's about 5000 more than last year.  I photographed 4 state Capitols and visited 4 zoos.  The two closest states to me are Alabama and Kentucky.  While I usually tend to visit KY more often, I make five separate photo excursions into Alabama this year.

Most of my publishing-worthy photos are uploaded to flickr.  I now have a total of 7,481 of which about 900 were uploaded in 2012.  These photos have been viewed collectively 2,193,401 times with about 520,000 views in 2012.

flickr has a term called interestingness where they use a secret formula to determine what my most interesting photo is.  My top photo from 2012 is of a floating Alligator at Gator Lake at St. Andrews State Park in Panama City Beach, FL.  About a couple of months after I took this photo, Gator Lake was in the news as some lowlife killed local favorite Stumpy the Alligator.  I don't know if this was Stumpy or not.



The most viewed photo of 2012? The Orange train cars at the Tennessee Central Railway Museum.  (as a side note, I uploaded about 5 photos that my mom took and one of them outranked this one.  Go figure.)



2010 was the first year of my website, SeeMidTN.com. While my hit counter only shows 1531 i could be a little disheartened, apparently a lot of people are finding content on my website via google searches and not seeing the home page. My webhost's stats show last year I had 7226 unique visitors who made 10,958 visits viewing a total of 60,563 page views with 181,525 total hits. There were visitors from many different countries, so hello to the one person in Macedonia who stopped by. My desire is for the website to grow exponentially, and the more content that gets added, the more visits I should get every year. The goal is for the ads on the site to start paying off someday as well as the increased exposure causing me to be the first person found when looking for a stock photo of a specific place. I set up a facebook account which has 33 fans and a twitter feed with 27 subscribers. These were set up as a set-it-and-forget-it tools that repost my other content, but still has room for growth.

The highlight of my website is the daily blog. After three years, the hit counter says I've had 34,411 visitors with over 20,000 of those were in 2011, so it has grown doubled in the past year. Blogger reports I had  85,917 page views in 3 years, a number which has tripled since last year.

I also have a youtube channel. Most of my good content is recordings of my dad's early music groups. All-time, I have 474,132 views with about 98,000 in 2012. The most popular video has always been "What a Friend we have in Jesus" which was recorded in a 2007 reunion concert of 70's chorale students. That video has 37,106 views all-time.

My top 10 photos of 2012:

There are several reasons why I might include a photo here. Some of it has to do with it being important to me while not looking like it should be on a post like this to a casual observer, some of these are my favorite composed shots of my favorite subjects. Some of these are interesting effects while overcoming challenges to get a usable photo. Here we go:



Nashville & Eastern Railroad (NERR) Locomotive 579 "City of Cookeville"
I am increasingly a fan of trains with each passing year. On three different occasions, I had an engineer wave as I took his picture at the controls. I went to visit the Tennessee Central Railway Museum and while there I overheard "They're getting back!" While the museum offers excursion trains, this one was sent off to commemorate the grand opening of the replica depot in Monterrey, TN. I got to see them as they returned to station and pass back and forth as they switch from track to track to get all the train cars in the right spot.



Great Horned Owl
In 2012, I had a Nashville Zoo membership. I enjoy using my new camera equipment to get better shots of these animals than I ever had before. Here is one particular animal that isn't in a habitat but instead makes an appearance during the daily show. The two things I like the most: 1) the closeup detail I was able to get of its face. If I'd done a full owl body shot, we'd have seen the owl standing on the zookeepers arm, and nobody needs that. 2) My favorite zoo pictures are the ones where you can't tell it was in a zoo. There was a painted backdrop, but when properly blurred you don't realize you're not out in nature.



Toco Toucan - Nashville Zoo
While we're talking about the zoo, here's another one. This one might violate what I said about the last photo. It might not look like it's in a zoo, but it's in some kind of building - so it's not up in a tree somewhere. First of all, this is a nice colorful bird. Next, since it's at the Petting Zoo area, I had never seen it before, so it was extra special that day. In my mind, what sets it apart is the high degree of difficulty in getting this shot. Although you can't see it, there's a chicken-wire-esque fence between me and the bird. With the right equipment, you can shoot through it like it wasn't even there.



See Beautiful Rock City
This was the third time I had visited this Rock City barn in rural Giles County. I just love the countryside where it's located, nestled along the old highway and secluded from the new highway bypass that's less than a mile away. I also love the character of the barn as most of the lower pieces of wood have been replaced over the years. For me, what sets this apart the most was the shadows and the lighting on this day.



The Old Railroad Bridge View #1 Tracks to Nowhere - Florence, AL
I first learned about this bridge that crosses the Tennessee River in the fall of 2011. And then I became obsessed with it, where I tried to think of a reason to get to go visit The Shoals area of Alabama. This summer, I had my chance. While you can't see everything this bridge has to offer in one photo, there's a lot for me to like. The bridge dates back to about 1870 where it was a double decker - railroad tracks on the top level and pedestrian/auto traffic on the lower level. When a new auto bridge was built, the lower lever was left to rot. At the far end of this bridge was a swing bridge, which eventually changed to a lift bridge. When railroad traffic stopped about a century after it was built, the lift was removed, so now these are tracks to nowhere and they just stop. Around 1990, preservationists became involved and the lower deck was completely restored. The upper level had a large gate set in front of it so no stupid/daring people can advance any further. Now, there's vines growing from the gate, grass growing from the railroad timber and if you look closely there's a patch of mushrooms.



Music City Youth Orchestra #1
A good friend of mine recently got a chance to work with the Youth Orchestra and invited me to stop by and take some photos during one of their weekend retreats. I've never been one for posed portrait work, but I really like taking candid shots. Plus, these kids are really good at what they do.



The Delta Queen
Most cities usually don't get a National Historic Landmark stop by and then set up permanently. A couple of years ago, the US laws changed on what makes a ship sail-worthy. But, since this famous paddlewheel riverboat now doesn't qualify anymore, it's docked in Chattanooga and opened as a botique hotel. While I haven't spent the night here, my wife and I did eat an anniversary dinner onboard. There are two historic bridges in Chattanooga. One of them is the Pedestrian bridge in the background and the other is the one I walked along. While the Market Street Bridge isn't a pedestrian bridge, it does have sidewalks. If you've never walked across a long bridge before, it's usually windier there than on solid ground. Additionally, the day I did this, it was one of the windiest days of the year. Also, my biggest mortal fear is of drowning, but if I didn't lean my camera over the railing, I couldn't get this angle. It was the most afraid I'd ever been to take a photo, but it was worth it.



See Beautiful Rock City atop Lookout Mt.
This is quite a photogenic barn. I drove well out of my way on a recent vacation to see this barn near Murphy, NC. What sets this barn apart is the alternating sections of diagonal boards. Plus the leaves are starting to turn.



The Old Store in Locust Grove, GA
Usually my pictures are more of a documentary style than artwork. However, there's something about this view that made me really want to tinker with it in post processing, which I usually don't do much of. The next thing you know, I'll be posting to instagram after it's not cool anymore.



Jellico Motel & Restaurant
I'm a big fan of mom & pop motels, and while the gigantic isn't the coolest old neon sign, it's quite vintage. I really like the way the sign is juxtaposed against the Tennessee hillside. Plus, this sky has my favorite kind of clouds.

Honorable mention

  



The last thing I'd like to mention is my favorite self-portrait of the year which is at the Old Stone Fort in Manchester.

The Seussian Wedding Ceremony

Today would be Dr. Seuss's 108th birthday. 14 years ago, I wrote this tribute to Dr. Seuss, a wedding ceremony written in his style (and you might just recognize many of his stories which inspired this.) I had an excerpted version of this posted to the blog a few years back, and it linked to a website that is now offline with the entire version, so I decided to publish the entire thing here.

The Seussian Wedding Ceremony
By Brent Moore

Today, all those in Whoville arrived on a barge
To see a pair whose hearts are two sizes too large.

The North-bound Zax and South-bound Zax met there,
So did Horton, and also the Once-ler.
And even the Grinch came with his dog, Max
With Yertle and Sam, even the Lorax.

Here comes the preacher - Gelaneluss Hyde,
Who’s known as a teacher, whose comments are snide.
He’s all decked in Zax-fur and wearing his thneed
And brought in his Snoo book to read off his creed.

Following him was the groom - what a sight!
A grin ten miles wide was on him this night.
His tux was blue and yellow and greenish.
To see his bride come was now his big wish.

First, Best Man One and then Best Man Two came.
Their jobs are simple - no need to explain.
Here comes the flower girl - and she will pass
Pink ones and red ones and then grickle-grass.

One thing’s still missing, we’re not yet complete.
In walking now she comes on her two feet.

Bride.
Cried.
Side.
Abide.

Abide by side.
Bride had Cried.
Abide by bride.
Cried by side.
Cried abide.
Abide by side.
Bride she cried.
Abide by side.

Maids with braids come.
Maids with broods come.
Maids with braids and broods and moods come.

Look, sir. Look, sir.
Mr. Hyde, sir.
Let’s do tricks with braids and broods, sir.
Let’s do tricks with maids and moods, sir.

And here’s a new trick, Mr. Hyde.
Brides with maids
And maids by side.
Brides with broods
And maids with moods.
Maids and moods
Abide by side.

Here’s an easy game to play.
Here’s an easy thing to say.

New bride.
True bride.
Who’s bride?
Lou’s Bride.

Who sides Whose bride?
Lou sides Lou’s bride.
Who cried who’s side whose new bride, sir.
You abide Lou’s side Lou’s new bride, sir.
That’s not easy, Mr. Hyde, sir.

Who brings this lady? Who gives her away?
“I,” said her father, “Will give her today!”

I have a quick message - I’ll tell it now
And then afterward, I’ll cut to the vows.
Marriage is such a great thing for you two.
Now after these questions, you say, ‘I do!’

Would you leave her for a ham?
Would you leave her on a tram?

I would not leave her for a ham.
I would not leave her on a tram.
I do not wish to run or hide.
I would not, could not leave my bride.

Would you leave her for a lime?
Would you leave her anytime?

I would not leave her for a ham.
I would not leave her on a tram.
I would not leave her for a lime.
I would not leave her anytime.
I do not wish to run or hide.
I would not, could not leave my bride.

Would you leave him for a goat?
Would you leave him on a boat?

I would not leave him for a goat.
I would not leave him on a boat.
I do not wish to flee or scram.
I would not, could not leave my man.

Would you leave him for a dime?
Would you leave him anytime?

I would not leave him for a goat.
I would not leave him on a boat.
I would not leave him for a dime.
I would not leave him anytime.
I would not leave him for the house.
I would not, could not leave my spouse.

“Do you?” “Yes, I do!”
“And you?” “Yes, I do!”
“So now it’s official for both of you.”

Mister Hyde then spoke with one more release,
“Speak up right now or forever hold peace.”

A woman in the back stood up to say:
“I am not going to give up today!”
Then she realized how she oddly behaves
And sadly said, “There are too many Daves.”

The preacher spoke in a tone so darkly,
“Let’s get to the rings, bring out the sparkly”

One Ring
Two ring
Red ring
Blue ring.

Black ring
Blue ring
Old ring
New ring.

This one has a little star.
This one has a little carve.
Say, what a lot of rings there are.

Some make us sad.
Some make us bad.
And some make us very, very glad.

Why become sad and bad and glad?
I do not know.
Go ask your dad.

Some are great.
And some are bland.
The bland one has a yellow band.

From there to here,
From here to there,
Precious rings are everywhere.

Oh me! Oh my!
Oh me! Oh my!
What a lot of funny rings go by.

Where do diamonds come from? I can’t say.
But I bet they have come a long, long way.

Some are big.
And some are small.
Some are round.
And some are tall.

Not one of the them is like another.
Don’t ask us why.
Go ask your mother.

Say!
Look at its baguettes!
One, two, three...
How many baguettes do I see?

One, two, three, four, five, six seven,
Eight, nine, ten. It has eleven!

My diamond’s old. My band is gold.
I have jewelry I like to hold.
My ring is off. My finger’s cold.
And now my story is all told.

Who am I? My name is Bing.
On my hand I have a ring.

I have this ring
To help me sing.

When I cling to help me sing.
I wave my hand with a big swing swing.
Then I say, “I sing for string!”
And I get string right on my wing.

So...
If you sing and sing and sing,
You may swing for string
With my Bing ring wing.

From far or near,
From here or there,
Precious rings are everywhere.

Wait! There is one thing that you should not miss:
It’s time you may give your new bride a kiss.

I will say without any deception,
Let’s all go to the wedding’s reception.

Have you ever had a Grunch in your punch?
It has been there since lunch.

Have you ever seen a Yake on your cake?
How’d it survive the bake?

Ever had a Zeese on your Cheese?
I hope he doesn’t sneeze.

Ever seen a Gruit with your fruit?
It is guarding its loot.

Now, for an action that makes us all sigh,
It’s time to cast off our couple goodbye.

Today is gone. Today was fun.
Tomorrow is a honeymoon.

Now I hope this story was written well,
With full apology, mister Giesel.

Copyright 1998

Brent's 2011 Self-aggrandizement Photography post

I am in my heart a number cruncher.  At the start of every new year, I like to take a look back and see where I've been, what I've done and more recently how many people have checked me or my photos out.  If nothing else, I can be very prolific.  I have 1 flickr account, a picasa account, 2 twitter accounts, 3 facebook profiles, 2 websites, 2 myspace profiles and 4 blogs.  It sounds like a lot but some of it I never touch anymore.

I am writing this for myself, mostly for posterity sake.  If you find it interesting, feel free to keep on reading.  Or, maybe you'd like to skip on down to my favorite 20 photos of 2011.  I also did this in 2010 and 2008.

In 2011, I took about 21,800 photos.  I've tried to be more precise in the past, but with MariLynn using the cameras even more these days, it's tougher to keep track.  It's still more than in years past, but not that much more. (especially when you consider how many I wasted at the Smyrna Air show.)

Most of my publishing-worthy photos are uploaded to flickr.  I now have a total of 6,556 of which 1,103 were uploaded in 2011.  These photos have been viewed collectively 1,671,504 times with about 475,000 views in 2011.

flickr has a term called interestingness where they use a secret formula to determine what my most interesting photo is.  My top photo from 2011 is like last year an old motel neon sign.  This year, it's the old Blue Jay Motel neon sign outside of Roanoke, VA.  A couple of months later, the owners took out all the old neon tubing and gave the sign a fresh coat of paint.  Their update either cleaned up an eyesore or took away everything that made it great, depending on your perspective.



The most viewed photo of 2011? This Ronald Reagan Mural in Cookeville:



Last year was the first year of my website, SeeMidTN.com. I suppose I should have run the stats to see where I was at, but I was a little disheartened as the hit counter revealed about 1 hit a day. This year was a little better going straight by the hit counter, But apparently a lot of people are finding content on my website via google searches and not seeing the home page. My webhost's stats show last year I had 4498 visitors who made 9906 visits viewing a total of 57426 pages or photos. There were visitors from 75 different countries, so hello to one person in Suriname. My desire is for the website to grow exponentially, and the more content that gets added, the more visits I should get every year. The goal is for the ads on the site to start paying off someday as well as the increased exposure causing me to be the first person found when looking for a stock photo of a specific place. I set up a facebook account which has 22 fans and a twitter feed with 11 subscribers. These were set up as a set-it-and-forget-it tools that repost my other content.

The highlight of my website is the daily blog. After two years, the hit counter says I've had 13,947 visitors. While I don't have the specific number, over 10,000 of those were in 2011, so it has grown exponentially. Blogger reports I had over 29,000 page views in 2 years.

I also have a youtube channel. Most of my good content is recordings of my dad's early music groups. All-time, I have 378,448 views with 94,927 in 2011. The most popular video has always been "What a Friend we have in Jesus" which was recorded in a 2007 reunion concert of 70's chorale students. That video had 4,772 views in 2011, or 35,591 views all-time.

My top 20 photos of 2011:

There are several reasons why I might include a photo here. Some of it has to do with it being important to me while not looking like it should be on a post like this to a casual observer, some of these are my favorite composed shots of my favorite subjects. Some of these are interesting effects while overcoming challenges to get a usable photo. Here we go:



Up until the end of 2010, I had been using point-and-shoot cameras. They may have been the best full-featured point-and-shoot cameras on the market while I was pushing them to their limit, but they were still point-and-shoots. There are some snobby photographers out there who wouldn't be caught dead with a P&S, or some try to be realists and say you just can't make money with one. While I had proven that last part to not be true, if I was going to improve myself, it wasn't going to be until I got a "real" camera, even if it was one 6 years old.

So I got one a good one. At first, it was proving to be difficult. No longer could I let the camera do all the work - I had to make decisions. Gone were some point-and-shoot conveniences. For a bit, I was starting to wonder if I had made a mistake - if I should have stayed with easy. And then I took this picture.

This might be the least interesting photo on the whole list. However, it became a turning point. I had taken a photo that wasn't possible with the P&S camera. While there is more that could go wrong when you have more to figure out on your own, when you do things right, you get a better picture. There was no looking back.



The air show came to town this year. As part of their precision routine, the Thunderbirds get so close, they look like they are touching. My brother did me a huge favor by saving me the best general admission seat in the house. He also saved three seats for guys who live for airplane photography. Those three brought maybe $20,000 worth of camera equipment, making my $240 camera body and $90 lens feel inadequate. I won't win any awards, but I still like the results.



Cheekwood trains! My mom is a huge fan of Cheekwood and gets a yearly pass and adds my name to it. Try as I might, I'm not really good with flowers, so there's not much reason to keep going back to the botanical gardens. However, this year they had this great exhibit for kids of all ages. It had model trains and it had replicas of significant Tennessee locations made out of sticks and twigs. Right up my alley.



This is the old Ashe county courthouse in Jefferson, NC. While it might not be the best view of this majestic old building, it's another where I felt my new camera opens my possibilities so much more, with the vibrant colors and the sharp detail.



In honor of memorial day, a civic organization in Murfreesboro fills a field with rows and rows of flags. This one proved to be really popular with my friends.



Taken the same day as the last one, I had to get scruntch myself on the ground to get this one to line up the way I wanted. When I got home, I loved it, the way the color pops and the detail. Again, it made me glad I go with an DSLR now. This might be my personal favorite on the year!



I was walking along the streets of Pulaski, VA when I came across the oldest church building in town. I love the blue sky, the red door and the green grass. The open gate gives the place a "come right on in" feel.



I had visited the train museum in Lynnville, TN three years earlier. One of my online photographer friends had just been here and posted a great photo. I got home and looked at my photos realizing nothing worked. (when that happens, it really sticks in my craw, constantly reminding me how I have unfinished business until I can go back.) This day was beautiful. I pulled up and a volunteer was repainting the caboose. I had as much time as I wanted to set up the shot just the way I wanted. Then, all I had to do was wait for a gust of wind to straighten out the flag in the background.



I love old coke murals painted on old buildings. This one's located right along the built-up-with-stone bank of the river.



Taken during the July 4th weekend, this location was about as far away from home as I had ever traveled on a one day trip. It's quite an obscure spot in the Big South Fork Wilderness where the railroad had built a bridge nearly 100 years ago. The tracks are long since gone, but the state has preserved the bridge and the area as a recreation spot. At the same time, it's an everything that can go wrong did type of day.

It was a hot summer day and I had the AC on full blast in my car. The road to this place is a gravel / dirt road where the tracks used to be. Even though it was only 7 miles from civilization, it felt like it took forever to get here. Have you ever been in a cool car on a muggy day for so long that when you get out of the car your eyeglasses fog up? Now imagine that happening to your favorite camera - the one with the detachable lens and all those pieces of glass on the inside. You can wipe off the one on the outside, but you can't get to the others. So I waited 30 minutes. It didn't get any better. I had my point and shoot in the car and I suppose it's sealed better since you don't take the lens off and I had to use it. But by now, the sun was in the wrong place. It's such a beautiful location. I'm thankful for black and white. (one of the dirty little secrets is you can use black and white to overcome pesky lighting situations.)

Then, I made a wrong turn and got lost on the way home.



I spent the night in Roanoke, VA earlier this year. The town's most famous landmark is the Mill Mountain Star, which is a large neon star placed on top of a small mountain overlooking the city back in the 1940s. I planned my whole day so that I would be here when the evening sky still had a tinge of blue. I later found out the star has almost always been all white, but it was changed to red, white and blue for ten years in memory of 9/11. It is again all white, and will almost always be from now on.



So I bought some underwater camera gear and went out snorkeling. Just kidding, but how often does someone take a picture of the lower life forms at the zoo?



Why, it's a bald eagle! This is one of the images I have for sale with a stock photography agency.



I like old neon! This is a huge neon clock built in 1908 and you can see what time it is across the river in downtown Louisville. I first saw this in downtown Louisville when MariLynn and I took a trip here about 10 years ago. On this day, we had a hotel room about a mile away so I could get up close.



MariLynn once said I have a trademark photo I always take - The statue in the foreground next to the impressive pinnacle or dome of the landmark in the background - arranged in such a way where they are side by side and both in focus. I strayed from my formula when I revisited Pulaski by putting Sam Davis in focus in front of the fuzzy courthouse cupola.



The memorial at the Patsy Cline crash site. Looks like this was taken during the day doesn't it? This was after sundown.



This is my favorite view of my new third favorite courthouse in Tennessee. I have been to 79 of the 95.  (The top two by the way are in Pulaski and Clarksville.)



The older I get, the more I enjoy seeing trains. I happened to be right there on foot when this Grand Trunk & Western paired with an Illinois Central crossed the street.



For those of you that went to David Lipscomb campus school, you probably saw this spot on the trip to Land Between the Lakes. The confederates placed their cannons along the bank of the Cumberland River at the end of a strait stretch. For a long while, no Union boat was able to pass through.



We finish with a Christmas Tradition, the TN State Capitol colored red for Christmas.

The last thing I'd like to mention is my favorite self-portrait, which will grace my Facebook timeline for a while: Me at the Rockabilly Highway mural in Selmer, TN.