FF2

My second atlas map was based on the obesity rate in PA. I wanted to do an arc scene map with 3-D men who bloated in proportion with obesity rate in their given county, unfourtunantly there were several graphic and sizing issues that made doing this a
lmost impossible, so after wasting 8-10 hours I finally scrapped the idea.
The one thing that has pissed me off about doing these maps and the one for my advanced final is all the work put into procurring information and manipulating data, left so tired of dealing with the given project I honestly don't fell all that proud of my end maps. Looking at them I can't imagine what I would do differently but it's not like I can stand looking at them anymore anyway.
In hindsight I should have done something I had a more personal interest in or something that wasn't so dependent on gathering such a wide array of data.
Not kiss her butt anymore, but Kristi's idea is perfect. It's totally something I could see in an Atlas, it meant something to her, and yeah she had to digitize but I can't imagine it was a mind-numbing as all the data management I had to do.
If the project weren't limited to PA I might have had more ideas...but I dunno. I just wish I had it to do over again maybe I wouldn't be so burnt and bitter. Anyway here's my other map enjoy.....

Final Fantasy 1

Well if you're reading this you haven't quite on this blog project yet...good for you. As soon as this semester end I am deleting this content and starting the Blog over as something more personal...maybe. So check back and follow it could be interesting.
I'd like to share my first Atlas page here. I did this one on the weather of PA. For this and both atlas pages really, I poured a LOT (I MEAN A LOT!) research hours in looking for data, analyzing data, looking for better data. I got trapped on the AWFUL government sites that just take you in a circle and never let you actually download anything.
I finally found a program from USC called the SHELDUS program, it stands for something but I don't remember what. It had dates of weather events, county affect, number of injuries, number of deaths, and what kind of weather event is recorded. Totally awesome site if you want to do something like I did here in the future. You can pick your data and get it downloaded into an xls file. I took the xls and simply combined data for counties and copy pasted into my personal geodatabase mdb file. Bing bam boom.
Lo and behold my map.

it is, of course, very much a Justin Bradley project but I got a tickle out of reading what I had written.

I'm a rocket man.

I think this is one of the coolest clips I've ever seen.
It's a map that animates every flight path on the globe in a 24 hour period.

If I knew this in the 80's.....

I came across this Rumsey map and never knew just how close Russia was to Alaska. I knew that we were only separated by the Bering strait but I had no clue that was only like a mile.

Having grown up in the 80's and hearing about nuclear war from birth until Reagan saved us from the Red Menace in '89; I would have feared for the safety of Alaska's safety 24/7.

Tulsa is a strange place when the sun goes down.

Not sure if this is really all that map related but I thought it was kind of funny.
I was messing around on Google Earth the other day in the street viewer and noticed something I found humorous.

It's a little odd when you see someone you know having a yard sale...trapped in time forever.

I have always tried to find my car in all of the web-map photos, because I am always curious as to where I was when the pictures were taken...to this day I have not found myself. If anyone is actually reading this damn thing can you relate?

Almost....

Well this is winding down and I couldn't be happier. Just a little further to go and I can breathe again.
Anyway I wanted to share my project from advanced class on here so everyone knows what they can look forward to.

I did a bunch of research in regards to wind potential and how to optimize it in regards to small wind turbines that the average homeowner may install. I did a comparison of Dauphin and York Counties. There are more suitable sites in York Co despite having less wind potential than Dauphin. PA in general isn't very conducive to harnessing wind energy anyway but there is some applications for it.

 I did a little more of an in depth study of Dauphin Co. I took all the criteria for good wind mill sites and cross-referenced that with the individual municipalities building ordinances. I got a really good response from the municipalites with half of them actually calling me back. Most people were really helpful. I found that some townships allow and even promote wind mills but don't require any ordinances.
Show up to the classroom on Tues. the 14th And I'll go through the whole riga-ma-roo for you.
I am aware that these maps have some errors they were from an earlier draft of my maps.

Are we there yet?

I've kinda slacked on these blogs but to be honest I am simply burnt out. Finishing these last two atlas pages is going to be a struggle. I do have the data I need all squared away but the formatting and layout need to be done.
I've been doing a lot of thinking lately and I really don't feel in my heart that this is what I want to do with my life. It's so mundane and the minimal amount of creative license I can with making a map provides little solace as I could never see myself actually making maps for a living, in fact I think I would kill myself if it came down to that.

I dunno I'm in a great spot to rape pillage and plunder until I can shift gears, hell I'm only thirty and fairly confident I am far more clever than most so I think this is doable.