It is time once again for me to to do a random look at some of the statistics on the website.

First up is what are the 10 Most Popular Images in the Artistic Gallery.

This one is actually somewhat of a shocker. A picture of Brandon has went from nowhere to be the most popular picture and the long time reigning champ Outburst of the Soul has fallen all the way to a tie for 6th Place. Although admittedly, I think spammers might have something to do with the rather large shakeup in the standings.

1. Brandon Senior Picture


2. Johnathan Senior Picture


3. Battered School Bus – Hamlin, Iowa


4. Self-Portrait


5. Jen Between Sets of an UnHingd Show


6. UnHingd Publicity Still


6. Outburst of the Soul


8. 1900


8. Becca – Senior Picture


10. Abandoned Piano – McCallsburg, Iowa

There has also been quite a shakeup in the Snapshots Gallery Top Ten.

Here are the 10 Most Popular Pictures in the Snapshots Gallery:

1. Me White Trashing It


2. ISUCFVMB


3. Alexis Cheerleading


4. Shannon and I at an Inebriated Saints Show


5. Jesse and I with the World’s Largest Cheeto


6. Logan’s Tree-man


7. Jesse and I at the Surf Ball Room


8. Jesse Endorsing the Bob’s Dog


8. 2010 ISU Spring Game


10. Shannon Reading Map at Backbone


10. Jesse and I in Clinton

Finally, a look at the Top Ten People to either contribute or be written about in An Artist’s Notebook.

1. Jesse – 163 – (+20)
2. Jay – 151 – (+7)
3. Shannon – 146 – (+6)
4. Derrick – 123 – (+6)
5. Teresa – 109 – (+13)
6. Jen – 107 – (+6)
7. Willy – 101 – (+8)
8. Sara – 96 – (+8)
9. Vest – 80 – (+19)
10. Dawn – 73 – (+9)

Wondering who the biggest movers were outside of the Top Ten?

1. Dad (+19)
2. Carla (+14)
3. Jill (+10)

In case you were interested in what the standings looked like 100 posts ago:

These pictures come from the following folder: Backup/Old My Pictures/Family/2004 McHose

I think these pictures are fairly self explanatory.

Next week’s folder will be: Backup/Old My Pictures/Family/Teresa & Ernie

These pictures come from: backup/Old My Pictures/Family/2004 B&W

One of the things I take from these pictures is that I have progressed in my knowledge of lighting quite a bit.

Plus I owned a pretty terrible scanner.

Next week’s folder: backup/Old My Pictures/Family/2004-McHose

These pictures are from: backup/Old My Pictures/2005 Calendar

I’m pretty sure these are the files from the 2nd year of the calendar, although it is possible that it was the 3rd or 1st year of the calendar. My records on such things are spotty at best.

In the early days of the calendar I made “individualized” calendars, but I only made 3 calendars back then, so it was somewhat easy to do. That is why there are more than 12 images in this folder.

These pictures would have been taken in 2004.

Until “Outburst of the Soul” this was the most popular picture I ever made. To this date, I believe it is the only picture I’ve ever taken that inspired a musical composition.






This is the first digital picture I ever took.






This picture was taken in Tulum near Cozumel. It was also fairly popular in its day.


This picture was taken between Upper Cullen Lake and Middle Cullen Lake in Minnesota.


This was the 1st (kind of feels like the last) picture I had accepted to the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon. Apparently I’ve regressed as a photographer since this photo, the peak of my photography “career”.








I once had this terrible idea called the Beaver Machete Project. I’ll probably have to explain this later, but I’m going to buy myself a week or so to think of a good excuse for why I thought this was a good idea.

Next week’s look at the archives will be: backup/Old My Pictures/Animals

A cursory glance of this folder reveals very few pictures of animals.

Small bookkeeping note, with this Journal Entry, Teresa becomes the 6th Person to be featured, mentioned, or alluded to in 100 entries. I’m sure she’ll put that on her resume.

Labor Day became a federal holiday in 1894 after a number of Americans were murdered by the military during the Pullman Strike. After the massacre, President Grover Cleveland made reconciliation with unions a top political priority. Making Labor Day a national holiday was his form of reconciliation.

I celebrated Grover Cleveland’s political savvy and everything unions have done for this country and the memory of the 13 strikers murdered during the Pullman Strike by having the family over for a barbecue. Here are a few pictures:

Hope your Labor Day was as joyous as mine.

“The trouble with retirement is that you never get a day off.”
-Abe Lemons

Sunday was my Mom’s retirement party. Here are a few pictures:

There are more pictures from the party in the Mom’s Retirement Party Album in the Snapshots Gallery.

I broke Day 9 into two post because of the large amount of pictures, if you recall. You are about to see the rest of those pictures.

After all the flowers were planted, we all went our separate ways to wash up. Then the family reunited at the Stensland home to celebrate Mother’s Day a week early since Teresa was going to be in the Bluegrass State for Mother’s Day.

Here are some pictures of the celebration:

I know… I overuse this technique…

At this point, Alexis wanted to take some pictures, so I let her take some pictures.

Then Alexis gave me the camera back to take a few pictures of her hamsters.

The celebration concluded a pretty special week. I think I might be ready for vacation again though.

Today is the birthday of my nephew and the eldest son of my eldest sister.

So Happy Birthday Brandon!

For more quality images of Brandon, you can visit the Family Album in the Snapshots Gallery. Or you can click on the link below:

Brandon has his own car and a job he hates. That makes him a man now in my book.

Here is a look at the pictures that the committee had to choose from, but received no love.

“Nobody likes me, everybody hates me,

Guess I’ll go eat worms,

Long, thin, slimy ones; Short, fat, juicy ones,

Itsy, bitsy, fuzzy wuzzy worms.

Down goes the first one, down goes the second one,

Oh how they wiggle and squirm.

Up comes the first one, up comes the second one,

Oh how they wiggle and squirm.

Nobody loves me, everybody hates me,

Think I’ll go and eat worms,

Long ones, short ones, fat ones, thin ones,
See how they wriggle and squirm

I bite off the heads, and suck out the juice,
And throw the skins away,
Nobody knows how fat I grow,
On worms three times a day
Ohh… nobody loves me.”

Great song, isn’t it? I’m kind of partial to this version:

Nobody likes me, everybody hates me,
I’m goin’ down to the garden to eat worms,
Long thin slimy ones, short fat fuzzy ones,
Ooey gooey, ooey gooey worms.

Long thin slimy ones slip down easily,
Short fat fuzzy ones don’t,
Short fat fuzzy ones stick to your teeth,
And the juice goes slurpin’ down your throat

Brandon got his driver’s license this week.

I believe that when you reach a certain age, you are required by social norms to make a few certain cliche jokes when certain events occur.

One such event is when somebody gets their first driver’s license.

An aged person should give out the warning that goes something like this:

“Stay off the streets. Brandon has his driver’s license.”

Then another elder statesman ups the ante with the predictable rejoinder:

“Stay off the sidewalks, too!”

I am allergic to cliches and cheap humor, so I refrained from making any of these jokes. Besides if family history is any indicator, it is only trees that have something to worry about.