Matt Ramos Photography – Blog

Like I said in my last post, I’ve recently become fascinated with maps for some reason…. I think it all started when I got my first GPS system in my car a couple years ago that I use for weddings.

When you run a business, the more you know about website traffic to your site the better. For example, of the $10-$15,000 in advertising we spend a year, I always know which places to keep paying for, and which to dish since I track all website hits and can view things like the link the website was accessed through (or if someone just typed it in), origin, time, operating system, monitor resolution, and even IP address if I wanted to. (plus, I can usually tell when someone’s talking about me :) It sounds like a lot to look at, but I’m fascinated with not only the amount of people that visit our website on a daily basis from around the world, but how, when and where they got there!

Above you can see some of the tracking devices I use to check out stats for our website, which I think are really cool. The map above of the earth shows locations of anyone on the blog right now, as well as past visitor locations – if you click it, you can see your location and some other details of other visitors, which is really cool. I think I will be adding this to the main website as well as that pulls in double traffic as the blog :)

I llllllove gadgets and cool technology tools! I’m off to Rhode Island – catch ya later in the week!

George Westinghouse (1846-1914)I never really paid attention to history in high school, simply because I thought it was boring and I couldn’t stand trying to memorize all these meaningless dates for tests. In hindsight and as an adult, I’m suddenly fascinated by history and wish I would have paid more attention…… especially being a world traveler and having no real appreciation for what I got to see as a kid, growing up! I can tell I’m getting old since I now for some reason am obsessed with both history and maps (what a geek, right!)

We’ve remained good friends with the previous owners of our house, and while seeing a movie out this weekend, Dave (the previous owner) handed me a few copied pages from a history book he found in a public library. I was absolutely amazed to learn that the exact house we live in, was also lived in by George Westinghouse, who was one of the most famous and well known inventors and entreprenuers of the 1800′s! I was told my house was by far the oldest house on the street, but had no idea of it’s history.

I’m ashamed to not know much about Mr. Westinghouse, but I am doing a ton of research to learn as much about him as possible now. There are rumors of many inventions being done in the basement, which is absolutely insane to think about. I was amazed to not only learn this, but see an actual photo of my house taken in the 1800′s! The house is much different now as it has been modernized and built onto, however you can clearly tell that it’s the same house when looking at the photo (although tough for you to see since the images I have above are taken from oposite angles). You can click the photo to enlarge and see the similarities if you want….. and if you are really really really bored.

As freaky and cool as this is, I guess I now know who keeps turning the lights on and off, hanging picture frames upside down, and moving my bedroom furniture around while I’m asleep. Perhaps I should sell the photography business and open a Westinghouse museum! You can check out more information of who George Westinghouse was by clicking the link below (again, this is for those that are really really really really really bored :)

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blwestinghouse.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Westinghouse