North River Geographic Systems Inc

Geospatial Problem Solving

Rambling

All Dogs go to Heaven

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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

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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….

The Year in Review – 2020 Edition

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For my own sanity I usually do a year end Health Check on the business and see what went well and what didn’t.  This blog post has went so well I’m on the 7th re-write. The first post was exceptionally dark and put me in a funk for a week….the next six became increasingly easier to deal with by acknowledging the current situation…..and that situation is covid-19. Covid and Me. Life in general.

I decided to do this one last time – and this will be the final attempt whether it’s rambling or to the point….who knows. I did some editing because I’m me.

I feel like I’ve lost sight of what makes me tick and why I started this business. The last 6 months of 2020 was like a giant spotlight on a lot of things that were making me uneasy.

  • There’s a ton of things I enjoy doing I’ve stopped doing. There are interests I’ve stopped pursuing that bring me a lot of joy. Reading. Camping. Intellectual pursuits grow dusty. Tech for the sake of tech.
  • The business was a money making endeavor that was going to occasionally allow me to do some fun things and “help”.  It turned into a struggle this year – and 95% of that wasn’t caused by me  – but it was and continues to be tough.

If you came here for glorious tales of awesome business stuff…….stop here. If you haven’t noticed this year has been…well….A giant flaming pile. I’ve had worse years – but not where the entire Flat Earth was having them too. I’ve been lucky as I’ve not gotten sick nor had any friends pass from Covid. It did wreck business a bit. It has caused a lot of stress on my end for multiple reasons. From arguing with friends and family to watching job after job stop and go on hold. I’ve watched several on social media lose friends and family and had friends lose people they care about. That made this post a bit hard to write as the first post was filled with complaining and that didn’t feel right. Each subsequent iteration got lengthier as I tried to convince myself and you – that I had a handle on things.

I don’t. That’s fine. I’m not sure many do.

I’m still here though.

By the time summer had arrived we had been in lock down 2 months. I think. Honestly I can’t remember.  I have a general policy that if a job makes no movement in 90 days it’s dead. It’s not always the case – but in this case they ended. When you do consulting and the phone just stops ringing it’s a bit unnerving. So there wasn’t much to do but:

  • Do some Hiking
  • Do some Canoeing
  • Do some Bike riding
  • Do some Thinking

After leaving a job this summer for non-payment I had to take a step back. I usually don’t stop for non-payment. Which is stupid on my part. I try to make things work and finally I got to the point of “I can sit here getting yelled at and not getting paid or I can go for a hike and not get paid”.  At the end of the hike I sat down and made a list of things I love and hate. Things I hate and things I like and Why am I doing or not doing those things. Why am I letting this startup make me miserable. Why Why Why………

I found myself working on the weekends part time for the non-profit for which I volunteer. They run an outdoor store full of camping and hiking gear. So during the week I would scream at NRGS and covid and on the weekends I lived a life I wanted 30 years ago…back when I was more familiar with Geology and the best spots to camp in the southeast. During that time I had a lot of invites for camping, canoeing, and hiking. It was a nice change.

There were come positives this year – so all wasn’t lost:

  • Work continued on the 911 project – I added more functionality and branched into the NENA standard.
  • Renewed one contract that will help fund the 911 project
  • Conquered my fear of github
  • Docker is less mysterious as I’ve got it working with minimal screaming.
  • I fell more in love with PostGIS and did more things with it. Really if my life just boiled down to QGIS and PostGIS I’d be happy until I was dead.

There were enough loss to fill out several pages. It is frustrating when things spin out of control. Especially when you can’t do anything about it. If you were sick there was nothing I could do. In general there wasn’t much of anything you could do. Out of all of this and the sitting and the fidgeting I did find things that absolutely fascinated me. Like:

……..as well as a whole host of youtube videos and other small bit of information that made this all a little more bearable. I rebuilt an 50 year old coleman stove. I fixed several things on my jeep that were broken.  I have so curated my twitter feed that what was termed “doom scrolling” really wasn’t for me. I had all this information from blogs, github, and videos that appeared on twitter and I could watch it night and feel…well….better. Twitter is still a dumpster fire – but a fire I’ve seemed to curate into something enjoyable.

Many of you hate virtual conferences. I completely get it – BUT the things I had the chance to attend this year were awesome. From England to the US to Canada. I didn’t even have to put on pants. I did though. I know virtual conferences are different and not what you want. You want small Danishes and coffee and the chance to hassle people in person…..BUT – I would have never gotten to see different talks live (and yeah I could go rewatch but I like ‘live’).

NRGS is getting a reboot of sorts. It’s not the end. Covid has changed things. I’ve changed. We scream “Get things back to Normal” but I don’t think things will…or really they should. We say the new normal with some hope it’s not. I think in general it is – and that new normal means the way I was working won’t be sustainable anymore…or if it is – It’s still half a year from being back to normal or  maybe longer. Plus I have this great list of things I need for personal and professional peace of mind. Jeep – you’re gonna do a road trip shortly. Yosemite National Park – I’m coming for you. Probably not both at the same time. Maybe. Although………

Good People we all must change some. Here’s to a better 2021. To all of you – I thank you immensely.

 

Pesky Work Anniversary Again

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You’d think I’d remember – but I don’t. Linkedin reminded me though…..”Hey you’ve been in business X years”. Was it 12? 14? 11? I can’t remember.

I always try to write something just to remind myself of “where I am” in life. This year I find it exceptionally difficult to write anything without going back and doing a complete edit. So I decided this was the final Edit.

One February 12th I drove to Charlottesville VA for a quick speaking engagement at a conference. Went out to eat with a group. Had some excellent conversation. I finished up the talk and left the next day and headed back. Remarkable? No. What is remarkable is that may actually be the LAST IN-PERSON CONFERENCE I have this year. IN FACT – I said this weekend “Had I known I would have stayed an extra day or done something to enjoy some place greater than 5 miles from my house.

Every year I dig myself deeper into Open Source and deeper into data. I look back at me in 1992 and GIS was this fun thing to make maps with. I haven’t made a map as a final product in years but I’ve churned through a lot of data. This year things were looking up more than other years and I’ve been toying with “Maybe put someone on contract to help” which would give me more time for canoeing and what not.

Well…..Pandemic. I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t grasp the initial idea of a pandemic when it started. I’ve been through several: AIDS, Swine Flu, and watched in horror at Ebola. None of those actually hit home or caused me any personal discomfort. AIDS Should have. Swine Flu seemed to have came and went quickly. Ebola was one of those things you watched as a GIS person with some morbid fascination.

…But Covid 19.

So I watched work die. Finally 8 (are we at 10?)  weeks in things are starting to loosen up as people are calling and today I at least do an estimate.With work starting to look probably again my mental attitude has gotten better.

….but…My Stupid Home Town. YELLOW ISN’T GOOD

 

It’s a somber work anniversary. Four weeks into Quarantine I had decided “this might be it”. Eight weeks in and “What could I do if I wasn’t doing this…”. There are parts to this job I love and parts I hate – but I do love maps. I do love data. I do love the Community I’ve wedged myself into.

With that – I have no great end to this post.

Good People – Stay Safe!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Working from Home

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I told myself this year I was going to just type more and I’ve failed miserably at doing that. I’ve been caught up in projects, marketing, and life.

I work from Home. I know what you’re thinking – “How do you keep this international business running so smoothly from Home?”. It’s a struggle. Lately in the news there’s been a mass of “Don’t shake hands” or “Wash your hands” or “Avoid crowds” going around. So Check, Check, and Check.

Why do I work from Home? It’s just me at the moment. From the day I started this business I’ve had a home office. Sometimes I can close the door. Sometimes I can’t. Occasionally I’ll get fed up and have to leave and go work somewhere remotely be it a coffee shop or a friend’s office or something. Some days you have to get out. Most days I’m here with some music playing the background and working at something…be it a job….or marketing…or just writing.

Over the last 4 years  probably 90% of my work has become remotely driven. When I first started I was constantly driving to clients to do what was needed and over the last bit it’s been more and more remotely logging in and doing what I need to do. Most of my clients still house everything in house vs the cloud – BUT – the cloud is starting to slowly influence my life as clients move to remote hosting options.

It is hard though. In a past life I was married to a nurse and we dreaded August. Why August? Start of school. Kids would get sick and go to the Hospital and she would get sick and bring it to me and I’d get sick. For a month it was pretty miserable. After two months we were pretty much walking antibodies and were free from whatever was plaguing the normal world.

I get sick now like two times a year now – maybe less. Even one of my friends said the other day “You never get sick”. Well I’m hardly ever around people. The first  few years or so that was fine…well – it wasn’t fine because I was never really “getting out” except for work. The last 5 I’ve been actively getting out be it hiking or canoeing or taking small trips. Work can wait. My life and health can’t. Which if you’re ever thinking of working from home I would encourage you to monetize what you’re saving and invest in something to make you happy be it gym membership, outdoor something, or tickets to a sporting event.

Also – no kids. So if you just look at me in general I live in a bubble. A self contained germ free bubble. The last few times I’ve actively dated there were kids involved (for I have the brain of an 11 year old at times). I think the entire time that happened I stayed sick because I’m out of my bubble. “Oh My God why are you sick all the time”. I would then explain through my hacking and coughing that I live in this self contained environment. Send me to a conference for a week and by the end of it I’m starting to sniffle.

What does this all have to do with anything? Not much. How does this relate to the Covid 19 outbreak? For me not that big of a life change but for some it will be. So if you find yourself working from home:

  • Eat something good for you. Plan a meal you need to cook. If you go out to eat go somewhere you enjoy.
  • Do something – go for a walk/run/hike/bike ride/something that makes use of something other than your brain.
  • Stop when you get tired of sitting there. Do something else for a bit.
  • Set hours and stick to them.

So for all of you at home – enjoy something different. Eat your vitamins. Wash your hands. Stretch!