Me: Let’s have a snack and then we’ll go to the park and play baseball

Brody: OK

Me: What kind of snack do you want?

Brody: Beer!

One of my most vivid memories of NYC was from a trip into the city to visit the World Trade Center. I’m sure it was not long after we moved back to NY that we went to visit the city, I’m guessing ’78 or ’79 (I think I was 8 or 9 years-old at the time). I remember seeing the Statue Of Liberty from the car as we drove to the Twin Towers.

Most likely from the Brooklyn bridge as we made our way to lower Manhattan. I haven’t been to NYC since we moved out to CA in ’81, but I can still remember seeing those twin towers dominating the skyline.

We were there to go to the top of the one of the towers. Back then it was open to the public to actually go out onto the top of the towers. I can still picture the view from the top; the observation deck was sort of a small area far away from the sheer edges of the tower. But, believe me… I still felt the rush of being so high up in the sky.

The most memorable part was not being up at the top, but rather at an observation level that was on the way to the top. I think it was part of, if not an entire floor, dedicated to tourist activity. I recall stopping part-way up to get to this level and walking up near the windows.

On some windows, they had stickers on the windows that were outlines of city landmarks and other buildings… and if you lined up your sight just right, you could position the outline around the actual object in the distance. I remember my dad lifting me up to help me do it. I think it was the Chrysler build off in the distance that I was lining up.

He put me down and I was maybe a foot away from the glass. I was frozen. It seemed as if I was floating above the city. That wasn’t even the part that was most memorable. Here’s what happened next: My oldest brother pushed me from behind and my heart skipped several beats as I almost hit the window. I don’t think he let me actually hit the window, but it was close enough that I came close to soiling my underpants. Brotherly Love.

Whenever I see images of the Twin Towers, I remember that trip to the city. Seeing the Statue Of Liberty, being on the top of the Twin Towers, my dad helping me learn as he always did, and my brother scaring the living crap out of me.

Those Towers will always mean something to me. I can’t wait to go back to see the memorial.

In 1971, my mother decided it would be fun to pick up and move the whole family to Australia. In March of that year she had heard some friends talking about the Australian consulate and some sort of program to bring workers to that country. By June, we were packed and heading to the airport. I was just barely 11 months old, so I do not recall any of this.

In 1973, we befriended some neighbors of ours, the Graveson family. Parents David and Anne had 3 kids…Two girls, Anita and Karin, who were close in age to my sister Stephanie, and brother Derek; and one boy, Erik, who was very close to my age. We spent lots of time hanging out together at the beach and having lots of fun. Both dads were very fun, and made sure that all of us kids were always entertained.

In 1977, my mom woke up one day and decided that she had enough of Aussie land, and said it was time to go back to New York. We made our way back, staying with other friends in the city until we settled in Port Jefferson, on Long Island. The parents kept in touch, and in 1979, when the Gravesons were relocating to another continent, they arranged to visit us when passing through New York.

The families made sure to get some beach time together and went out to Jones Beach on Long Island. Fun times on the beach included building huge pyramid sand castles, making hats out of beach towels, and singing/dancing to a song that David made up for us; we recall it being the “umkwa ka zinga” song.

The Graveson family have always been a huge part of our childhood memories of fun and happiness. And, after their visit to Long Island, our parents kept in touch ever since then via holiday cards and occasional phone calls. Us Bernhart kids would get updates from our parents at Christmas time on what their family was up to and where they were.

This past Christmas (2009), we learned that their father, David, had passed away earlier that year, after a long battle with cancer. Obviously, this really saddened us as we recalled once again, all of the great times we had with him and our families together. A few weeks after our own father passed away from a much shorter fight with cancer this May, my mother called their mother, Anne, to give her the news… and to talk about everything. My mom told me that she had a nice long call with Anne and they talked about all of the kids and grandkids. A few days after that call, I got a friend request on Facebook from Karin. Then a day later, another request from Anita. I then found Erik through their profile pages and sent him a friend request. And lastly, I found Anne there as well. My sister also hooked up with all of them. My brother, Derek, tried but didn’t like Facebook and removed his account. Oh well, his loss… we’ll have to keep him updated separately. Perhaps I can talk him into re-joining, and get my mom on there as well (good luck to me).

How great is the internet in this day and age? We can all share photos and messages with each other, and keep in touch much easier than if there were no such thing as the ‘net. Erik and I have sent some messages back and forth, catching up on what our own families have been up to. We’ve discovered that we both have some very similar interests and background. It’s been so great to see that they are all doing so well. It’s also been good for some self-healing in dealing with my father’s passing… to be reminded of how much fun it was having him as our father. I look forward to keeping in touch with them.

By the way… I sing the “umkwa ka zinga” song to Brody a lot. It gets his attention and he laughs and tries to sing along. Great for when he is fighting a diaper change!

I thought I’d post this video of Brody and I from a few weeks ago. He’s really trying to say so many more words now, and doing so well at it. Here he is doing his best to say ‘pizza’. You may need to turn up your volume since he’s sort of whispering.

Here’s the scenario: I have a .BAK file of the database that was hosted on a MSSQL Server 2005 at my previous employers data-center. I need to re-create that database on a hosted MS SQL Server 2005 system at GoDaddy.com. No worries, I thought. I will just create my new database, do a manual back up of it. Then restore it and point it to my .BAK file from the previous server. That concept is old-hat to me, as I’ve done it countless times… on systems that I have complete control and access to. This time it’s on a server that I have limited access to. GoDaddy only permits SQL restores from files that were created by the host system, and stored on it’s local disk. And… I have no rights to place my .BAK file onto the host db server. So, I put on my thinking cap and thunk this one out.

Now, I must fully expose that I am not a SQL DBA in any way, shape, or form. Systems Administration is my background… I can install, configure, and maintain the heck out of a MS SQL database. But, I have extremely limited skills with SQL programming and queries. So, here’s what I came up with:

I have SQL 2005 Express running on my Vista system. Figured I could use that to my advantage here to get the data moved. I’ll break it down into pieces. I have SQL Express connected to my local instance, as well as the remote instance.

• Create a new database (in my local instance, I created a new database… we’ll call it dbFOO)
• Make a back up of dbFOO
• Do a restore of dbFOO, and change it to grab the data from the .BAK file from the old system (this is the step that I would have loved to be able to do on the remote database server)
  • Change the options so that it overwrites the existing database
• On the remote instance, create a new database named dbFOO (db names must be the same since we’re using some queries and we want to limit how much manual editing we need to do)
• On the local instance, right-click on one of the tables and choose “Script Table as… > CREATE To > Clipboard”
• On the remote instance, right-click on the database and choose “New Query”
• In the query window, paste your clipboard contents
  • since your database names are the same, this query will run without issues on the remote instance.
• Execute the query. Boom, the table is now created on the remote instance. Rinse and repeat for the rest of the local instance tables.
  • Tip: keep that query window open, and just replace the sql script with the once for the next table and execute it. A little time-saver.
• Once the tables are created, right-click on the dbFOO database on the remote instance. Choose “Tasks > Import Data”
  • WAIT! SQL Express doesn’t have DTS built in, so how am I able to do this? I once had SQL 2000 Ent. Mgr. installed and I held on to the admin tools, which included DTS. It does spit out some errors when starting up, but I just launch dtswizard.exe and I’m able to use it for my SQL 2005 Express databases.
• Choose the local instance as your source, and your remote instance as your destination. Set up dbFOO as the database, of course.
• Go through all of the wizard steps, choose the option for “copy data from one or more tables or views”.
• Check the boxes for all the tables and make any adjustments. (I had to enable identity inserts)
• Finish the wizard and blam, there is all of the data.

Are there other ways to accomplish what I needed? Maybe so. Is this the most graceful way to accomplish what I needed? Probably not. Do I care? Nope… I got what I needed done. It actually took me longer to write this post than it did to do all the steps listed above.

If you have other ideas or ways that this could have been done, please leave a comment. I love to document this stuff for other out there that could be in the same pickle I was, to give them some ideas or help in their situation.

I always love seeing how Lauren has changed over the years! Now we have Brody in there and we’ll have more fun changes to watch.

The ever popular compilation of all the years:

2009:

BeerPad is a nice little application for the iPhone that is designed for beer enthusiasts to keep track of their beer adventures. You can add beers that you try into the application and it keeps all sorts of information in its database for you.

Features include:

– Assign parameters to each beer from predefined lists. These include Style, Brewery, Region, and Pairings. Each of these lists are editable so that you can add items to them if they don’t exist.
– Assign a photo to the beer. Choose from the camera roll, or take a new one. I am not a fan of the iPhone camera, so I search google images to find either the label or a good pic of the beer online, then save it to my phone and use that one. I discovered that once you assign the photo in BeerPad, you can remove it from your camera roll and it stays in BeerPad.
– Assign a rating for the beer on a scale of 5 stars.
– Several other free form parameters can be assigned. i.e., color, aroma, finish, etc.

Back to my alergy to some beers… if I drink a beer that I am allergic to, my throat swells up. Now, it’s not my airway but rather my esophagus. Regardless, it’s not comfortable and quite irritating. By the way, I’m also allergic to macadamia nuts, which I discovered before the beer allergy. My tactic on new beers is to take a few sips, then wait a good 5 – 10 minutes for a reaction. If there is one, I slide the beer over to a friend to finish. If there is no reaction, score one for me because I have a new beer that I know I can drink without worry.

Here’s where BeerPad comes in to help me. For the past year+ I’ve been adding beers to BeerPad; ones that I know are OK and also an new ones that I try. I use the rating system to track the bad beers. Well, they’re not necessarily bad, just bad for me to drink. I assign a single star to the beers that give me an allergic reaction. Any other beer that goes down without a ruckus gets 2 or more stars.

When I first figured out this allergy, about 8 or so years ago, I had to rely on written notes to remember which beers I could drink. The iPhone in general has improved my quality of life by keeping me more connected. But with apps like BeerPad, it makes it all the more helpful to me. Are there smart phone apps or tools that you use in ways that were not necessarily intended but help you?

I’m not sure why, but I did not take note of the artist that day. The images of the photographs have stuck in my mind ever since. I’d always wanted to find out who the photographer was… but, never really took too much time in searching for their identity.

Fast-forward to present day: U2 has a new album out this week – No Line On The Horizon. I saw the cover art for it a few weeks ago and it was a black and white image of the ocean, with the horizon going straight through the middle of the frame. It also had an “equal” symbal overlaid on the image. I did wonder a little bit about it, but was distracted by the character overlaid on it. This morning, while searching for some music information on the webs, I saw a newer version of the album, and it did not have that overlaid “equal” character on it.

Immediately I knew it was one of those photographs that I stared at 17+ years ago. I did a quick google of “U2 cover art photographer” and did not take long to discover the artist: Hiroshi Sugimoto

And I found on his website, a page on his ‘Seascape‘ series. It shows three images, but I remember there were more than that.

Serendipity, for the win!

I went to the site and gave up my email address in order to get the coupon. They’re slick those guys at Quiznos, they make it so you can only print it once. With my golden ticket free sub coupon in hand, I went with a couple of co-workers to our local Quiznos franchise. As we got in line to order the manager passed by us, and he noticed we were all holding the coupons. He told us “sorry, I can’t accept those… I can’t afford that promotion. But, I can give you a free drink.” On our way out we noticed that he did have a sign posted on his door stating that they were not accepting any promotional coupons. We missed that on the way in.

REJECTED! We all looked at each other since we did not have a plan B for lunch. I think we all read each other’s minds though, and we all agreed on the Carl’s Jr. located right next door. I’m sure that Carl’s had a better-than-normal Wednesday of sales receipts.

Another friend a few cities over (the one who sent the link) mentioned that the sign on his local Quiznos stated that they reached their “quota of free subs” and they were no longer participating.

Now, I have a few thoughts for Mr. Quiznos regarding this experience.

Dear Mr. Quiznos:

Now, you may be saying “Neil, it’s just a sandwich… chill out!”. To me, it’s them offering something for free, then tap-dancing around the offer. If it’s only at participating locations, and each of those locations have a quota of how many free subs to give out, then along side the Free Subs ticker on their site they should have a “Find a location that still has free subs available” tool.

Don’t thank me, Mr. Carl’s Jr… thank Mr. Quiznos.

Here’s another take on these shenanigans. And props to Brett for the logo idea, I saw his and was inspired.

UPDATE: After submitting a complaint on the quiznos.com web site, I received an email from a Tracey Markow, who appears to work for a marketing agency that works with Quiznos. While I appreciate that the marketing arm of Quiznos is actively reaching out after my complaint, (and I’m impressed that they took the time to follow my link and read my thoughts) I’m even more agitated by what I’ve learned about while reading the many writings about Quiznos in the past few days.

This site has a good little nugget of info. Quiznos requires its franchisees to buy their ingredients through corporate… AND, they were expecting the frachisees to foot the bill for the free subs. In essence, only Quiznos corporate stands to make any real profit from the promotion.

Here’s what Tracey wrote:

Hi Neil, I saw your post on Wednesday (on thebernharts.com) regarding the Quiznos Million Sub Giveaway. I’m working with Quiznos, and I’m sorry to hear that you had such a difficult time redeeming your coupon for a free sandwich. I’d like to share you with our response to those, like you, who had trouble using their coupons:

The response to the Quiznos Millions Subs Giveaway has been nothing short of overwhelming. That’s great, right? Right… but given that we have had over a million consumers respond in only three days, there are a handful of people who have reported some problem redeeming their free sandwich. If you’re one of them, please let us know right away by emailing millionsubs@quiznos.com. We’re working hard to address every issue very quickly.

And, if you weren’t quite fast enough the first time around, there’s still a chance to win a free-subs-for-a-year gift card through our Hometown Heroes promotion throughout the month of March. Check out www.millionsubs.com for details.

Please feel free to use the millionsubs@quiznos.com email address. I truly hope this is helpful!

Have a great weekend.

Best Regards, Tracey Markow | SEO Specialist: Link Building

I don’t think I want to contact them any further. They will more than likely send me some sort of voucher for free food at a Quiznos. And who will that hurt? The franchise owner, who will likely not get any money from corporate for that free food, and would have to use the ingreedients purchased from corporate.

It’s safe to say I’m done with Quiznos.

Here’s how it works:
Go to “Wikipedia.” Hit “random” and the first article you get is the name of your band. Then go to “Random Quotations” and the last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album. Then, go to Flickr and click on “Explore the Last Seven Days” and the third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover. If you are inclined to do so, use Photoshop or your favorite image editing software to put them all together.

It was a fun way for me to waste some time today. Here’s what mine comprised of:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constant_Craving
http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/2444.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/samzagaz/3289165478/ (cropped square)

1. My favorite color is yellow, no blue.
2. I was born in Queens, New York.
3. I do not have any wisdom teeth.
4. Before I turned 1, my parents thought moving to Australia would be fun. We lived there for 6 years, and it was fun.
5. When we moved back to the US, I was 7 did not know what ‘kickball’ was. The neighbor kids looked at me funny.
6. I don’t remember what my favorite toy was when I was a kid, 
7. My mom’s nickname for me as a child was ‘doobie’.
8. My hair started greying when I was in high school.
9. When I walk down stairs, my right ankle pops almost every time. This is from sliding into 2nd base and tearing ligaments when my foot hit the bag.
10. As a kid, I would build model cars and airplanes and then destroy them with firecrackers.
11. My armpits can get sweaty, even if I’m not doing anything.
12. I learned to type on a typewriter in 7th grade.
13. I still have the t-shirt I was wearing when my daughter was born.
14. I once pee’d my pants because I was having too much fun in the snow and waited too long to go inside to the bathroom, I was about 8, I think.
15. I cannot recite the alphabet backwards. It’s a good thing I don’t drink and drive.
16. I took French in high school. Mostly to spite my mother. (I wish I’d taken German now)
17. As a teen, I would sneak out of the house. Once, I was chased down our street by my underware clad father and evaded him by hiding in some bushes. He never knew it was me.
18. My dad loved VW Beetles. Being the youngest of 4, on family outings, I go stuck sitting in back. I mean in the waaaaay back where you put bags and stuff.
19. My shins are bald. 
20. I’m allergic to some beer, and macadamia nuts.
21. I can crack my nose.
22. I saw Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, and Return Of The Jedi when they were out in the movie theaters.
23. The first Compact Disc I purchased was The Smiths ‘The Queen Is Dead’.
24. I’ve only had 2 employers since graduating from high school.
25. In high school, I quit my job at McDonald’s when my friend came in and told me there was a killer party. I don’t remember the party.
26. (Bonus) I don’t think Angelina Jolie is attractive.

This page is the official family newsletter for 2008. Why have it on our site? Partly because we’re lazy, but mostly because we can keep it here forever. In 10 years, we’ll all be able to go back through the newsletters and see what happened during each year. Sort of like our little annual scrapbook.

First, we’ll cover all of the important events of 2008, and below all of that will be a slide show of photos taken around the holiday season.

• Of course, the highest on our list is the birth of Brody! He joined us on 6/7/08 and has been keeping us busy ever since. 
• Lauren turned 12 in April and started 7th grade in the fall. She’s doing very well in school and enjoys Drama and Science as a few of her favorite subjects. Seeming to grow taller every day, she now matches Melanie in height… and they can wear the same shoes and some jeans, too.
• Melanie turned the big three oh in May, and Neil turned 38 in July. (we’re old)
• Lauren enjoyed her final soccer season. She’s claiming to officially retire from the sport (for now). Volleyball has her interest and she hopes to persue it more next year.
• In October, Lauren got braces put on. She loves to switch the colors of the bands now and then. Currently, she is sporting seasonal green and red.
• Back in March, while very pregnant, Melanie flew with her friend Rene to Loveland, Colorado. They surprised their friend Stacy for her birthday. Stacy knew all along that Rene would be there, but was bummed that Melanie wasn’t going… until they landed and Melanie was with Rene!
• Neil’s work travels were much less than they were in 2007, with only a few trips to Portland, Seattle and New Orleans (and he met bass player Jimi Jazz of Special Sauce on his flight to New Orleans).
• Melanie and Neil enjoyed just a couple of concerts in ’08. Jack Johnson in August (Neil’s birthday gift) and G. Love & Special Sauce in February (pregnant Melanie was a trooper for that show).
• In July… Neil’s brother came down to visit in July with his wife and son Colton. Brody’s other cousin, Jake was also there. We all had fun watching the 3 boy cousins. They were all born within 7 months.
• In August, we all went to the Orange County Fair and did our annual photo booth shots. This was Brody’s first time in the booth, and it’s getting crowded. Up on the header of the site, you can see a shot from each year we’ve done it, starting in 2001 on the left.
• Neil is enjoying his side work doing photography, and hopes to have more work soon.
• Melanie and Neil started doing baby signs with Brody. Hopefully in a few months he will be able to communicate with us. (a little at least)
• Early December, Brody cut his first teeth… two on the bottom. Read all about it here.

Keep in mind that all times can be “give or take” 5-10 minutes or so. We don’t quite have it down to an exact science just yet.

• 5:00am
  • wake up
  • check work email (usually via my phone while getting ready to shower)
  • shower
  • shave
• 5:45am
  • try to wake up Melanie
  • get dressed
• 5:50am – 7:00am (the order is dictated by when Brody wakes up)
  • start putting our lunches together
  • eat english muffin with peanut butter, drink some OJ (this is done while doing the previous step)
  • check diaper bag to ensure it contains all items required
  • wake Brody up, if he’s not already squirming
  • change his diaper
  • dress him
  • bring him to Melanie once he’s dressed and ready to go
  • make us both instant coffee for the drive (Melanie takes cinnamon and brown sugar)
  • toast english muffin for Melanie (also with peanut butter)
  • load up the car: lunch bags, diaper bag, coffee mugs, any other misc bags
• 7:00am
  • put Brody into car seat
  • load Brody into car
  • drive to my work
• 8:00am
  • I get to my work
  • Melanie takes over and drives to the sitter’s place
• 8:15am
  • Melanie drops Brody off with sitter
• 8:30am
  • Melanie gets to her work
• 5:00pm
  • Melanie leaves work to pick up Brody from sitter
• 5:15pm
  • Melanie leaves sitter to pick me up from work
• 5:30pm (ish)
  • Melanie picks me up from work, I take over the wheel for the leg home
• 6:30pm (ish)
  • we arrive home
• 6:30pm – 6:45pm
  • bring Brody inside
  • unload all of the stuff from the car
• between 6:45pm and 7:30pm
  • Melanie and I eat dinner
  • feed Brody cereal or some jar food if he seems hungry
• 7:30pm – 8:00pm
  • bathtime for Brody
• 8:00pm – 9:00pm
  • Brody gets fed and falls asleep
  • this could go past 9pm if he doesn’t crash easily
• 9:00pm – 10:00pm
  • do some random chores that need to be done before the next day
  • do anything else that I’d like to spend my free time on… sometimes I can last until 10:30pm if I really want to
• 10:00pm – 10:30pm
  • go to sleep

Huh? I’m the local admin on this here system… the hell you say I don’t have permissions to access this file!

A quick search found that if you copy an executable to a remote system and try to run it via RDP, you get this message because the file is blocked by the operating system since it was copied from another computer. Apparently this is done to try and ‘protect’ the destination computer.

Here’s the quick fix for it: Right-click on the executable file. On the General tab, you will see at the bottom (under the Attributes area) a section for “Security” that has an explaination for you. It says “This file came from another computer and might be blocked to help protect this computer”. (good lookin out, windows) Just click on the “Unblock” button, then click the “OK” button and try running the .exe again.

Boom! You’re done. Now, wasn’t that simple?

Brody was born in early June of this year, 6/7/08 actually. Since then my flickr stream has been chock full of photos of Brody. He is the cutest little baby you’ve seen, so it’s tough not to keep snapping pics of him. This also keeps family and friends satisfied with new photos of him; they are all very aware of his page on our site, and are instructed regularly to go there if they want to see new photos of him. This is especially nice as we (and that really means “I”) don’t have to fiddle around every week or so with sending an email out to everyone with images attached. 

Today I quickly skimmed through my photostream and estimated that since June 10th, the day that the first photos of Brody were uploaded, he is in roughly 85% of the photos I post to flickr. Another thing I’ve noticed is that my photostream gets less views now. I suppose that this means most people see thumbnails of cute babies on flickr and don’t want to look at them. Case in point: the photo in this article I took as I was carpooling to work last week. In the 10-ish hours that it has been on flickr, it has gotten just about the same number of views as each of the last 4 photos posted before it… and those have been up for 3-4 days now.

Memories. And that’s just fine with me, the main purpose of me posting his photos is noted in the opening of this very article. Even more important, is the purpose of me taking them in the first place. I take them for me and Melanie… for Lauren, for our parents, our brothers, my sister… countless friends. But, mostly for Brody. For him to have photos to look at when he’s my age. I love to look at photos of when I was a kid. To hear my parents talk about what I (and my siblings) were like when we were Brodys age.

Priorities. Being creative has taken a back seat to what is currently more important: helping as much as I can at home with a 5-month-old, and spending time with him, with Melanie, and making sure Brody gets to spend time with the extended family. So, I have lapsed in my creativeness lately, but not totally. I still get to take lots of photos, but Brody is the center of the attention of it. One thing is for sure, we will have tons of great photos of him!

Creativity. Part of me still wants to draw those flickr viewers in to see my creative photos. The ones that don’t care to look at babys, but would rather look at a blurred car speeding along. It may sound vain, but I think it’s in the blood of any photographer to want people to “want” to view their photographs. At least for me, it’s a big part of why I photograph in the first place. I like to know that people enjoy looking at something I’ve created.

It’s been gnawing at me recently: gotta get out there an take some new photos! I pass things and can’t help but think to myself: I would shoot that, and this is how I would process it. Photography, for me, is part creativity, part meditation. It gets my brain to think differently, to break away from what could be clogging it up. It helps releive stress; a head-check if you will. I’m promising myself to slowly get some creative work done and post more of it. They will just have to be well blended among the shots of Brody and other family.

I used the Mapaset tool with a set from my flickr stream of photos I took on a work trip to Greece. I think it sweet! Flickr does not have anything like this that I know of. You can use the left/right arrows to scroll through the thumbnails in the set. Click on a thumbnail, and it shows you the location on the map above, as well as some details of the photo, and also provides a link to view the photo on flickr.

Here are some things I’ve noticed recently about how your baby changes you:

• Baby spit-up is not as gross as you think it is. (at least until they start eating solids)
• Who ever coined the term “sleeping is for when you’re dead”… did not have children. This is especially true in the first few weeks.
• You have a high tolerance for examining poop… daily.
• You wash your hands more than now than you ever had, no matter how neat you are.
• You have more patience than you ever thought you did.
• You’re amazed at how stupid you can sound when talking to your infant.
• You don’t really care about how stupid you sound when talking to your infant.
• You become amazingly agile doing everything with one hand (while the other is holding baby).
• A little smile from your baby is like a drug, and is extremely addictive.

Recently, I was solicited by someone affiliated in some way with the upcoming launch of the website MomsTeam.com. This is some sort of site targeted towards “youth sports parents”. They posted a comment on my flickr page for a photo I took of Lauren bowling. I’m quite proud of this photo, not only because of the outcome but also the element of surprise; I had not seen her fingers crossed when I was shooting the image, and I think that element makes this photo speak to the audience…. truly telling a story.

At first I was flattered, as I would expect most photogs would be. I jumped over to their site via the link they provided in their comment. I read through the description of the contest, and then wanted to do the same for their contest rules. I get to rule #9 and read this:

In the event your photograph is among the ones selected for posting on MomsTeam, it becomes the sole and exclusive property of MomsTeam.com, Inc., and as such may not be published elsewhere (including but not limited to other Internet websites and print publications) without the express written consent of MomsTeam.com, Inc.

So, to summarize for this specific contest:

• You send in a photo
• They send you some Clif Bars, but only if you’re the first 200 in that sport. (Though, rule #11 states that they can send you whatever they want)
• If they ‘select your photo’ for the website, they get all rights to reproduce it

What I see is a cheap way for them to get free image content to use on their web site. This is the deal-breaker for me. So, if I am lucky enough to have my photo selected for the web site, I can never put it on any other web site, or print publication without permission? Is this correct?

I do not understand why this rule is always in there for photo contests. And it’s not always small-time web sites that have this rule. There for a National Geographic contest that I wanted to submit an entry for, and they also had this stipulation. Any photo that I would think was worthy of submitting to a contest is one that I would never want to lose any rights to.

There has to be some reason for it. I can only assume that it is for the benefit of the contest proprietor and not for the entrants. I’m hoping that some legal guru will stumble upon this post and enlighten me on the reasoning for such rules.

Photo courtesy of Jen Langman