Rambling

Blast from the Past

Welcome to my ramblings this morning on the official blog of NRGS.

So way back when I was a geology person. I did the time. Got the paper. Never practiced the art. Instead I was lured into the sordid world of mapping. From 1989 to about 1991 I rambled through college and did nothing substantial except blow through my $400 dollars a semester (plus books – it was quite expensive at the time) and take a lot of science classes.

As I was running out of science classes I ended up in Geology. It was then I ran into this guy Duke who lured me into the department with promises of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. “Boy’s everyone is going to need geologists” and I was hooked. Camping trips that were almost a disaster. Parties. Lies upon Lies on how science was going to get us all the women and money we could ever want.

Duke Practicing for the next Highlander movie.

By 1994 we were all “out the door” as it were. As I remember Duke’s Graduation was hurried as it was rumored the library was implementing “computers” as a way to deal with their ever growing inventory and record breaking late fees. Duke (as I remember) had amassed a small fortune in late fees. If he got out by 93 he could in theory escape the computers. Escape he did. I lived a most miserable life in ’94 trudging my way through the department. I tend to burn myself out and then not take some time off to regroup. It’s really taken me to the last few years to deal with this in a somewhat healthy manner. Of course by that time I was working for the Feds as an intern and wrestling with “Do I really want to do this?”. The federal job wasn’t a healthy environment. College wasn’t the best place for me at the time. I often look back and wonder…….

I lost track of Duke. I would randomly run into people from the department occasionally.

Through a series of fortunate events I ended up in a basement last Sunday watching the Grim Reaper take another unfortunate soul.

I have a constant nagging voice in my head and it constantly goes about once a week “Is this what you want to do….maps….computers…..”. I’ve been doing this too long for the voice to still be around – BUT……

Duke’s fun thing these days is Tennessee Macabre and hosting old horror movies for fun and profit. Filmed in a basement. They do like three clips for a movie. Sometimes they do a live rendition. Excuse all the southern accents – BUT – most everything supernatural is going to have a really good southern accent: god, the devil, and your resident ghosts.

Anyway – we spent 6 hours hanging out. Being part of the “Live Studio Audience”. Watching the insanity. At first I was sitting here going “What the heck” and then you get into it. There’s a lot of characters. A lot of silly stories that pay homage to the old horror flicks. It was an absolute blast.

We ended the night at the all-you-can-eat-chinese buffet telling stories of Geology and who was where. Two of the “old timer” professors have passed on. Several more have retired. Anyway – we’ve hooked up on facebook. I spent last night watching an old horror movie working through some GIS Problems.

Check them out if that’s your thing. I look forward to having more reunions with the old geology crew. Who knows – Maybe Grim will come for me one day…or Deke….or some aliens.

Anyway – one last pic

Recap of the TNGIC Conference of 2022

Back on Feb 12th of 2020 I was sitting in Virginia at a conference going “Yeah I dunno – this whole virus thing sounds weird”. Two years later I was walking into Montgomery Bell State Park at the first in-person conference I’ve been to since Feb 12th 2020. I can be and usually am gloriously wrong. Covid was slightly more than weird. Sometime last year I declared “I think in person conferences are done”. That’s not the case either.

I could tell you a lot about the conference: Talks about geo, software, trials and tribulations of the last 2 years. I’m not. I needed a break. I checked out for most of the conference. Normally I hate going to Montgomery Bell but this time it was different. It’s 5000 acres of State Park and it’s pretty nice and quiet. So all those emails I had to rush down to my room to deal with was me sitting on the balcony not answering email. Take that College kids who wanted to know about GIS from a professional. That’s how I do it.

So what stuck out for me in this conference – the discussion of the “conference”. In general everyone was pretty happy to be in the same area and trading notes and talking (possibly trading covid – we will know shortly). There was talk of working remote which a lot of people had done for 6 months at least. Some still were remote. Some were never going back in the office.

If you divide the group into thirds here is how it felt to me:

The last two years of being remote wasn’t any fun.
The last two years of being remote was awesome.
In person is good. Remote is also good. I’m not committing to anything.

How did I conduct this scientific poll? Walking around talking to people.

I fall into the last “non-committal” group. Why? The 2021 FOSS4G meeting – the amount of knowledge coming out of that recorded for the masses was incredible. …but….it’s hard to get nuance if you’re not talking to someone face to face. So – in person is better….BUT……I attended one conference in Britain “live”….so remote……

One person had rigged up his camper trailer to allow him to travel and work. One other person I spoke with had done quite a bit of traveling while remote. One person I spoke with went home for a few months and then were back in the office because – the whole reason they were there was the job was the site and the site was the job. Remote didn’t work for them.

One email this morning announced a new discord server for a user group. Another group has slack. Another still relies on email. People as always are making the best out of what they know even if it doesn’t work for everyone. I sorta hate slack and love email. There’s a whole group younger than myself that loves Discord. Email is still the lowest common denominator for about everyone. Communication – it’s a little bit complicated.

Anyway – it’s still weird out there. I look forward to it remaining weird moving forward. Do conferences go back to “normal” – I sort of hope they don’t continue like it’s 2019. Viva Remote. Viva in person.

The Year in Review – 2021 Edition

Just to prepare for the 2021 edition I went back and re-read the 2020 edition. Yikes. So I started writing and I’ve changed this post up several times. I’ve decided much like I did last year “this is the final shot with a few edits”.

2020 was messy for everyone especially on my end of things. So in January of this year I started making some changes. It’s becoming overhaul of North River Geographic Systems, Inc and Randy, Inc. Through the last few years I have been making small changes business wise like “No I don’t want this project” and “PAY ME” but nothing like “What do I want to accomplish?”. I had found myself saying negative things about the business. I haven’t said anything really great about NRGS for a bit actually. Business can be frustrating especially for me. The bad parts were way outweighing the good parts and there are a lot of good parts that I never acknowledge.

So I started with “A Plan to get me back on my feet”. I don’t think I’ve had a coherent plan in the last few years so this was step 1. New attitude. A better direction. The “Shiny Bigger Plan” is being written now.

If I were to sum up this year it was “Challenging but Better than I Hoped”. Which is weird to say. If this hadn’t been good I think I’d most likely be doing something else at this point. Yeah – my January 2021 decision was an A. Fix This or B. Do Something Else. I was that frustrated with everything.

I ended up picking up more clients in 2021. The clients I picked up centered around two pieces of software: QGIS and PostGIS. I did have multiple calls about Geoserver WHICH is still something I’m getting better at and I still don’t feel like an expert by any stretch. The best paying jobs were PostGIS centric. The fun weird ones were all QGIS. I solidified my docker game somewhat. I started diving back into Python.

Strangest call: One day I received a call out of nowhere from someone who noticed I did QGIS support. Their job was laying irrigation pipe in farm land in Northern Ohio and they were stringing together a process to patch up some old Trimble Software that ran in a tractor/ditch digging thing. One zoom call later and I figured out something of a process with QGIS (not my greatest work by any stretch). It’s enough to get him working for the twice a year he needs data to run the tractor to do irrigation. He occasionally calls and I enjoy hearing about his work. So far I’ve seen his pics of the Ditch Digging Tractor Thing, farm as he shoved the laptop out his kitchen window, and we’ve traded jokes over the phone.

Training: Training went virtual with two classes with a third class in the works. I think 2021 was affirmation I can do virtual training. So much so I’m unconvinced I will ever train “for me” in a classroom setting again. In the next few months I’m going to have three classes: “Intro”, “Intermediate”, and “Final” (which could be advanced or something – I’m still drafting it out). When I get the third class completed I think I’m done with classes. I’ll be happy to do those three.

Life in General: Good and Challenging. I had some personal goals I didn’t meet. I had some I did. Parents got older. I got older. I didn’t get COVID. So far I’ve had no one close to me die from it. I count myself exceptionally lucky. One friend passed from a brain tumor which was a bit surreal. Get through almost 2 years of a pandemic and then die from something that had nothing to do with COVID. It was a very hard reminder that life is short.

Phillip made the next big adventure this year. F*ck Cancer.

I decided part of the way through this year to start learning about software I don’t normally touch just for kicks plus I needed the mental stimulation. I miss learning new software just for fun. So I did things randomly when time permitted- What did I do?

Mapserver – I feel like I owe it to myself to learn about a piece of software that is one of the foundations of Free and Open Source Software. I installed it. Created a mapfile. I was able to look at the data I created.
Leaflet – Believe it or not – I hate “web maps” mainly because I never have time to learn anything about them. So I sat down and made a map in leaflet. Easy? Mostly. I’ll probably make some more but nothing too fancy. There are people better at this than I ever will be. All 100% hand crafted in VIM with some “Copy and Paste” for taste.
OpenStreetMap – I know plenty about OSM but what about downloading the data and doing something like displaying it in Leaflet.
PyQGIS – I sat down and made a few small scripts to run in QGIS. Why? Because I love QGIS but the whole programming part is still a bit cloudy for me. So I started doing small things and eventually the smaller things got bigger and MAYBE I can make a plugin. Maybe.
AWS – I had a complete implosion with my first dance into Amazon Web Services. I signed up for the free tier and 1 months and $400 dollars later I was attempting to explain HOW I racked up that large of a charge to Amazon Support. Thankfully Amazon refunded my money. I cancelled my account. We all lived happily ever after.

In 2022 I’m also focusing on “personal things I want to do”. That’s going to leave less time for technical but that’s OK. I need self improvement as well as “tech skillz”.

Found a cemetery near my house that I had no clue existed!

I made several conferences as “The weird guy that talks about QGIS”. I made my second FOSS4G International Meeting. WHICH I KNOW THIS WILL BE UNPOPULAR……BUT….. : I miss in person conferences as much as anyone but the amount of knowledge getting out into the world through these virtual conferences is astounding. It’s a low bar of entry for everyone and it’s become something of great value for me. SO – for you who are planning conferences – Consider some virtual offerings even if you’re doing in person.

Anyway – that’s about it. Social Media became less a part of my existence in some ways. It became a better outlet in others. Twitter did get fine tuned to be 99% Geo. Linkedin was Linkedin. I am debating a “virtual” get-together” for this year. I’ve missed 2020 and 2021 with the local QGIS Meetups. I don’t think Covid is going any where for a while still SO – maybe we do something virtual. Don’t know. I’m still figuring that one out.

So with that – Enjoy some noise from the southern part of the United States.

All Dogs go to Heaven

Probably.

Hopefully.

I’ve not had a dog in years. It bugs me – I’ve never made the room or the time because there always is something else happening.

There was one unfinished bit from a blog 6 years ago and that story ended this week. Actually it ended on Mother’s Day of all days for things to wrap up.

There were always three things my Uncle had around him at all times: A collection of guns, a collection of motorcycles, and a dog of some sort. So when he passed away, mom ended up with all three. The only thing of any concern with her was the dog – Claudette. She was a Claude originally but apparently the original owner was confused by the bits or lack thereof that a male dog comes with….

Mom and Dad had two dogs already. They made room for the latest one. For 6 years Mom and Dad took care of the dog. Two years ago a heart condition flared up out of nowhere one night. As it turned out this dog was a lifelong sufferer of these small episodes where she would her heart would hiccup and she would have to slow down a bit. Probably when she was younger it was maybe a minute or 2. As she got older it was 5 minutes. My parents noticed when it was taking hours to recover. So heart medicine. The hours turned into half days which turned into days and last year it was declared the days would be permanent at some point as she wouldn’t snap out of it.

Then the tumors appeared. What were benign issues got harder to deal with and one got out of hand. One vet trip later and the dog had another strike against her. That strike wouldn’t re-appear until January when one small lump didn’t stop growing.

Anyway – it all wrapped up Sunday. I assume we will carry out the original orders my Uncle had given. As he was getting sicker he had declared that if not for financial reasons he would drive out in the field and end it all. Shoot the dog. Shoot Himself. And have the whole affair end with cremation. Knowing him he would have planned a giant bonfire with some elaborate contraption to make sure he and the dog both died and rolled into the fire so all we would have to do is scoop them up and send them off.

I’m guessing in the next week or two me and mom make a trip to the cemetery with a shovel and the ashes of the dog. I’m not sure how that’s going to look with me, mom, and a shovel heading into a cemetery – BUT – I’m pretty sure there will be a lot of laughing from the great beyond as we do it. We tend to have a morbid sense of humor these days and I’m guessing we will be laughing as we’re digging a small hole. Probably the cemetery would be good with it if we asked – BUT – why ask permission when you can ask forgiveness after it’s done.

Anyway – I shall feast on a McDonalds Double Cheeseburger tonight and toast the next great adventure.

Oh no he’s talking about training again

I’ve been debating shaking up the blog portion of the website for a bit. I start writing and then go “What’s the point” and I’m sitting on a half dozen technical/non-technical things I’ve been working on. So anyway – where to start for this one.

So the Virtual training seems to be working. I teach the first one his month (actually just finished), the next one in April and after that I’ll know what is working and what doesn’t. There have been a never ending stream of emails from people on ranging from “I want to take an advanced class” to “Introduction is too simple” and “what are your plans for something harder”. To which I have asked “What do you consider harder?” and the answer is always “Not Introduction”. So I got that going for me which is nice.

There is another class coming. Actually when I had made all the arrangements to teach in a classroom setting – the class had turned into a 2 day event with the possibility of a third happening. Way back when I was an ESRI instructor it seemed like Intro to Desktop was 2 or 3 days, Intermediate was 2 days, and Advanced was two days. Which I have no plans on doing for 7 or 8 days – BUT – the second class is proving problematic as I’m sitting on about 19 hours of information which is about over 2 full days and almost Five 4 hour days virtually. What to do……..

The thought is currently to call this QGIS: Tools and Processing. Which means I get to cover Processing Tools, Modeler, Editing, and Forms. The problem with that is currently that looks like 10 to 12 hours of “stuff” and I’d like to keep this at 8. Maybe I can’t. Maybe it turns into 3 days which are 4 hours long.

Which in my fever driven fantasies about training that gives me an:

Introduction covering the basics
The Intermediate part where we are building models and exposing editing tools like forms.
Advanced…………

Advanced would end up being PostGIS being brought into the mix with QGIS. So end it on an Enterprise worthy note. Your organization needs multiple editors and a data repository and the normal directory structure isn’t cutting it so you would want this class. Of course this doesn’t cover:

Reports/Atlas
Time manager
LIDAR
Stupid amounts of Symbology like the Geometry Generator.

Those 4 things don’t suck up much of my life. They are important though….so Decisions. I don’t want to turn this into a training business which is a problem I worry about. I like working with data and clients. I also don’t want a repeat of 2020 where I realize how fragile my business is against a very small germ.

Anyway – more on training later….