Rambling

My People

rjhale · Jul 8, 2019 ·

Let’s flash back to 1996. The Olympics were in full swing. I was 2 years out of college and working for the federal government. I had only been to one “conference” and that was only a state level academy of science meeting. I found myself standing at the underused Chattanooga Airport headed to Cincinnati and then to Palm Springs to the 1996 ESRI users Conference. Coolest part was I was so inexperienced in flying when we were delayed leaving Chattanooga because Al Gore was coming to the Olympics – I had no worry. I would make my connecting flight because there was no way they would leave Cincinnati without me on board. In Cincinnati I was standing in front of the near empty gate because the plane had left. So I was then routed to Chicago. I ended up in Palm Springs at nearly midnight. No rental car because somehow that had gotten cancelled. I stumbled into my room and sat there hungry and hating life with no luggage. The Luggage eventually turned up a little worse for wear. I think it went somewhere far away and was driven in….

The next day I found myself at registration at the Conference center in Palm Springs. I registered and went for a walk. I dragged my giant bag of stuff around with me. The Palm Springs convention center was big – but not terribly large. You could draw a dot on a map on “where are you from” and surprise there was only a few TN dots there. There were special interest groups. There were developers walking around. There were users. There was Bob Hope’s house down the street. There was golf. There was a lot of wind.

Two things happened that week.

I was blown away by a conference. I think there was only 3 or 4 thousand there. Maybe less. It was a good group of people. I mean the conference was nice – but I found a lot of like minded people there making maps and worrying over data. So I talked to people. I spent a lot of time just wandering the halls taking notes. The one talk that still sticks with me 23 years later – the guy that wrote ArcPlot gave a demo of “Tricks and Tips for Arcplot” (I think). As I was the guy who was getting hit by a lot of map requests I was pretty overjoyed to know I could edit data from Arcplot (plus copy files and move things around on the network without leaving ArcPlot). I also got a chance to hassle one of the arcpress developers (look it up – I’m not explaining it). The guy (whose name I can’t remember) finished the demo and turned to the near silent crowd and went “TADAAAAAAA” and everyone clapped. I may have stood up and clapped – Printing was a big deal back then.
I was sitting in the audience when Jack (who seemed really irritated at the Conference Center) announced “We are going to San Diego next year”. I think I went back to San Diego in 98 or 99 and once more in 2002.
(Third thing) – Some guy from ESRI Pulled up at a door in a VW bus. He had a keg or three crammed in the back and it was all held in place by some Sun Sparc Servers (look it up). I helped him Unload the beer. We didn’t drop a server. Imagine that happening in San Diego…….

The move to San Diego ended up doubling the crowds. To me it was more of a pain to get a room and navigate your way downtown than it was worth. Yeah it is nice to see 10,000 other people who were doing “GIS” things – but I really don’t remember much from those years except for the times I snuck out of the conference and went to the San Diego Zoo and was probably almost eaten by a shark in La Jolla.

I’ve been watching Twitter and the ESRI UC is coming up for 2019.

I won’t be there. Which – no joke if I bought a ticket I doubt I’d be let in the front door….and that’s completely fine. That side of my career isn’t that exciting currently.

If I look back at my entire career in Geo (now at 27 years) it’s always been a never ending pile of new things coming down the pike that were earth shaking getting announced at this conference. Learn Arcview Avenue – hey now we are switching to VBA. You can compile ArcINFO with TK for a better ArcTools Experience. Lemme learn VBA and now we’re at VB. Hey we have MapObjects…no wait ArcObjects…….no wait we’ve got SDE for databases…….and look a map on the web…Hey Python I should learn that now…3D (Which I saw a demo of in 1996) is going to be revolutionary. My social media is exploding with posts and pics and that was me pre-social media on cloud 9 talking to people and learning that:

“HEY WAIT YOU MEAN YOU’VE HAD ARCMAP CRASH TOO…..IN FRANCE….OMG WE ARE SO CONNECTED”. Hah. I joke. Mostly.

Anyway – where was I going with this. I have no idea to be honest. I spent an hour looking for the pics I took in Palm Springs. I took a ton of pics with my fairly new 35 mm camera (look it up) – and they are somewhere in a box.

I did crank up ArcMap 10.2 this week to fix a problem I had that couldn’t be fixed in QGIS. No Joke. I sat there just staring at the screen. I couldn’t remember how to dump a DWG to a file based Geodatabase. Back in 2014 I spent an inordinate amount of time wishing for functionality that wasn’t in QGIS that I had in Arcmap. Friday I spent an inordinate amount of time wishing for functionality that wasn’t in ArcMap that I had in QGIS. Plus I really need to look at Pro at some point. Sigh.

If I could bounce back in time to 1996 Randy and go “Hey in 2019 you can’t remember how to work ESRI products” he would probably laugh and throw something at me. I would also yell for him to enjoy that hair while it lasted which won’t be much longer. Oh yeah – trade the truck sooner. Go ahead and buy a dumpy house in 1997 on the North End of town and don’t worry – it will be fine as you won’t leave your job for another 10+ years.

For all of you out at the ESRI UC – enjoy yourselves. It will be a massive week of demos and things happening within the ESRI Ecosystem of products. What will I do this week? Teach a QGIS Class for a group who just transitioned out of the ecosystem. As much crap as I give the ESRI people at times – I do miss it a little (a little).

Anyway – I’m gonna go watch a movie and hope 1996 Van Halen doesn’t Break up.

2018 Year in Review

rjhale · Dec 17, 2018 ·

I’m going to do this a bit different than in previous years – I would do these huge multi-posts covering all sorts of things from work to life to social media etc. As I’ve not been particularly motivated to write much over the last couple of months I’m going to boil this down into one longer post.

Social Media.

In general, this year Social Media was one giant dumpster fire. I started removing people off Twitter, Linkedin, and Facebook. I actually unfollowed probably half of my facebook crowd just because. I’m still fairly active on twitter – but the posts aren’t that serious or relate to work. I put less out there on social media – which if you follow me you’re probably going “no you’re quite active”. While yes – it’s silly stuff or music. I decided my personal life and social media need some separation. I probably tossed 300 people on twitter. Maybe 100 off Linkedin. I need to toss more. Everyday I see less need to be on Facebook except I have people from far and wide on there and enjoy the stories. The increasing security blunders and data mining though makes it harder every month to stay.

After some internal arguing over the Newsletter – I restarted it and am doing one about every 2 months. It’s tough – I may stop doing it in 2019. I really feel like it’s outlived it’s purpose for me as people are finding me through the QGIS community or the open source community. It does serve as a “I’m not dead yet” reminder to people though.

Geohipster

I didn’t get a ton of interviews done this year – but the ones I did were a blast. I think I ended up with 3 – and they were a good 3 (or 4). Howard Butler, Tina Cormier, and Maggie Cawley all made the pages. I did a quick search and pulled those out – if I missed one Sorry! I’ve got a few more lined up – and I’ll get to you just bear with me.

Life

So 3 or so years ago I figured out I was working too much. Which – as a one person shop it’s easy to do. So I started Canoeing again. Biking. This year I probably biked and hiked more than I’ve done in a long time. I need to do more of it because I like junk food. My habits are slowly changing and I’m shedding some weight.

I did get some spectacular sunsets in my canoe though

On the personal personal front – A good friend died back in 2017 and this year we made large steps into wrapping up his personal affairs. No will and no plan will cost you about a year and a half of blood, sweat, and tears for those that are left. It’s tough. Many a day I would work here and leave to go to his place and work…then leave and come back and work more on my stuff. It’s hard – I do wished he was back – but if he was I’d probably kill him.

Double Bonus this year – the jeep made it’s appearance back on the roads of Chattanooga. Too much neglect had left it in disrepair – and the cure for that is money. So tires, thermostat, hoses, 2 U joints, a top, some fuses, some paint….and it’s back and sucking gas like it’s the year 1999. I should get rid of it but it makes me happy.

and in this picture I hadn’t yet to realize a u-joint was about to break. Luckily it didn’t.

Conferences

I made way too many conferences this year: TNGIC, FOSS4GNA (in STL), 2 FOSS4G SE Meetings, and the Alabama 811 Conference. With all of those I did some sort of training on QGIS or I spoke about Open Source Software.

Slightly different view of the Arch in STL

I had the first ever flat on the way to the 811 conference which made me late rolling into Montgomery Alabama. I left with plenty of time – IF NOTHING HAPPENED – and something did. I did break a land speed record making up lost time – but I was still late. Planning is not for dullards. I have to allow myself some wiggle room where people are relying on me to be “there”. In general I don’t – and I have to break that bad habit.

Finally – WORK

Work was up. I moved two clients into a mixed environment this year of ArcGIS/QGIS/PostGIS/Fulcrum. In doing so I learned a lot. What did I ultimately learn though from these two exercises:

Both were were concerned with data and making sure that data remained accessible, usable by everyone, and was maintainable. 110% doable with all the software I’m using.

In both cases the movement from ArcGIS to QGIS/PostGIS was mostly painless. What was painful was process. Customers don’t want to change their process. You have to change the way you work. So almost every wall I hit fell back to process. That made me tired. When I point and go “You can’t do it this way anymore” I’d no more get out the door before the phone rang “Hey we tried it the old way and it doens’t work this ain’t good”. Which – as a reminder ArcMap has been out now 20 years(?) – so I understand the change isn’t easy and it’s something I’ve got to work on more and more.

I desperately need to spend more time with postgresql/postgis. One of my clients called with a problem: the database was slow. Things were not working and I spent an inordinate amount of time trouble shooting database size, table size, triggers, the VM it was running on, and anything else I could figure out. I don’t want to be a half-ass database admin – BUT – I need to be knowledgeable if something doesn’t work right. So – I’ll be a better than a half-ass database admin.

I talked to more people this year. There is a general “want” to know about Open Source Software – be it out of general “I want to know” or “I’m tired of doing what I’m doing”. I’m also forgetting ArcGIS Skills and that bugs me a bit. I haven’t cracked open ArcGISPro and really have no desire to do it. On the one hand I need to as a consultant. On the other hand I’m busy enough with plenty to learn and enjoy on this side of things.

Conclusion

Overall I felt fulfilled with work this year – and that’s a rarity. I’m not burying jars of money in the yard but things are working better, I’m busy, and I’m funding my existence. I want to do more – and in doing so I assume I’ll have to get pickier in what I pick up as far as work. No was once again my favorite word as I did turn some clients away as it was work I couldn’t do or didn’t want to do. It’s hard saying no when you’re pushing possible income away I always have to stop and weigh “Is this the right thing to do for me”. In general – I think it is if I remember to stop and ask that question. Which – A happier me is better for everyone these days.

It was a good year. That’s weird to say. I’ve had enough bad years to make any normal person insane. I always second guess myself – but this year there was less insanity and less second guessing. It’s a good thing. More work. More technical. More enjoyment.

So – for those of you who helped – thank you. If you lent an ear – thank you. If you hired me to do something – I thank you most of all. If you stopped to hassle me at a conference thanks for the conversation. I don’t do what I’m doing without a little bit of a push from all of you.

So what do I do in 2019? Fight until I can’t. There’s a ton of bad data out there that needs fixed and explored. Bills gotta get paid. I need to learn more.

10 Years What?

rjhale · Oct 30, 2018 ·

I do these small anniversary posts occasionally. I’ve been walking around for like a month with small things picking at me. This last week I lost my check card twice, my keys three times, and drove around one night for an hour not knowing where I wanted to eat. It took me until yesterday morning to go “Ohhhhhhhhh that’s why”.

So 10 years ago this week you had this grouchy (grouchier than I am now) guy working for the Federal Government – Tennessee Valley Authority to be precise. I had been there 16 years at that point. If you flashed back about 7 or 8 I had made a half-hearted attempt to leave my job and that didn’t pan out due to several factors. If you were watching me in 2006 I was getting more and more unhappy with work. As I’ve learned part of it was “just me expecting too much” and part was the job was literally going no where. I wasn’t going to be laid off like so many of my friends had been. There was no incentive for me to do anything better than I was doing. It was misery all the way around and I was taking it out on everyone. I had some hobbies outside of work but there was a general “I hate everything” that permeated my life.

I worked here – not in the 40’s. I’m not that old.

So in 2006 I started moonlighting and taking on contract work. In about a year or so I had become an ESRI business partner and Certified Trainer. All while maintaining my day job. It was a bit nerve wracking. Some people knew what I was doing and had it really become public knowledge I would have been fired on the spot. So one fateful day in 2008 I walked into my boss’s office and went “I gotta go”. Three weeks later I went. I found out some time later my job had “ended” as no one picked it up – they just contracted it out. That made me sad but it just re-enforced the notion I wasn’t doing anything worthwhile.

Flash Forward 2 years and things sorta sucked on the consulting front. This isn’t an easy gig by any stretch. Work never appeared with any normalcy. Some days no work and some days it was 18 hours with 6 hours of sleep and more work until it went away.

Working and running a booth at a conference circa 2010

Flash Forward 2 more years and I was gearing up for a swan song in the Caribbean as I had decided “I’m done”. I didn’t have a plan but I figured I’d have one when I came back. Oh how things changed in the Caribbean. I ended up dropping out of the ESRI BP program as I wasn’t a good fit. I did my last ArcGIS class late in 2013.

Two years after that……. I had grown and shrunk as a business. I gained employee and the employee left due to work being non-existent. I found myself ready to move yet again. Work was more miss than hit for over a year mostly thanks to partnerships that didn’t pan out. Having an employee isn’t easy by any stretch. So many things I did wrong during that time period – which in general seems to be how I exist in life most days. Someone made the mistake of asking me “How do you run a small business?” the other day and two days later I finished my rant.

Flash forward to now and it’s a good existence. Not Glamorous – but work is up as clients find me and I dance on the open source side of life. I accidentally looked at my books this weekend and I so far have “broken even” and it appears I’ll end the year in the black. Which is a mighty accomplishment for me. No 100k contracts or limos or clients where money isn’t an issue though – if you are one gimme a shout. I did turn into a raging capitalist with no being my favorite word of the day.

Partnerships have come and gone. I can’t count the number I’ve had…..5 or 6…maybe 8. Everyone wants to “help” and in general help is lacking in a partnership. I’ve one business partnership currently. I’m good with that amount. I’ve relegated myself to FOSS4G conferences as a creative outlet.

On the personal side of life – Oh the things I have learned and continue to learn. The Phrase “It’s not personal – it’s just business” doesn’t exist for me. It’s all personal. I did find that my body doesn’t handle stress well – water is the key. So I drink water constantly. Working from home can be murder on a diet – so I’ve learned to watch what I eat. I rediscovered a love of canoeing. I rediscovered how much I like ridding a bike again. I’m going camping before the end of the year on the coast. Don’t know where yet.

Occasionally I do think “It’s time to do something else” and maybe I will at some point. For right now the work I do is full filling so I’ll keep moving in this direction. I do wonder at time “what if I had stayed….” and I have no doubt a heart attack or stroke would have taken me out.

So yeah – 10 years. To all of you I’ve ticked off in the last 10 – I’m sorry. To all of you I’ve tried to help – I hope I did. To all of you who have been a client – thank you. To all that have helped me – the biggest thank you is reserved for you, that person there, the other person over there, and you over in the back.

Do it this way

rjhale · Jun 17, 2018 ·

The nice thing about having a “blog” besides the occasional ridicule that blogging is so 90’s…or was it 2000s….is no one in my family reads it. Heh. We are an internet phobic group with Dad possibly being the more active user besides me.

Anyway – It’s Fathers Day. I’m not a father through a twist of fate…or a twist of my winning personality. Anyway – Yesterday I finally FINALLY got my jeep back on the road. I bought it in 2000. For the last 2 or 3 years it’s not been in great shape so I’ve not went far in it. Yesterday I finished getting new tires and a new soft top and a tuneup. I’ve another small list of things to do but overall I drove it all day yesterday for no other reason than I could. About 10 years ago I put an overhead cargo rack believing that it wold be pretty awesome if I ever got to Africa in it. I could sit up there and take pics of elephants and rhinos and be safely 10 feet off the ground. What that did was prevent me from taking the soft top off….well actually it didn’t. For several years I followed the directions on how to do it. I lost the directions. Then for 7 years I didn’t. That left me needing 4 hands vs 2 yesterday. So I called Dad.

I think Dad probably thinks I’m horribly incompetent – but what I’ve found is the one thing we can both get together on is car repair. So when a good friend died and his car decided to stop working on his girlfriend off we went. Turns out it was a starter issue. 3 hours to figure out the starter had been rigged into place vs replaced properly. We replaced it properly…well he did:

When I couldn’t get the jeep top on yesterday:

If you trace back to when I was 18 it was a need – I had to get him involved in any car repair project as most of my cars early on were pretty bad. I don’t have that skill set. I sorta have it now – BUT – it’s fun to get him involved because to watch his problem solving on a bolt that won’t come loose or a “thingamajig” isn’t “clunking right”. So it’s more of a learning experience on watching him at 75 still trouble shoot a problem. It’s not horribly different than watching me work through a Geo problem.

Oh yeah – and the lawnmower died. So I got a 2011 motor on a 1973 Body:

So today if it all works we’re grilling burgers out. Knowing him I’ll show up to do it and he’ll do it to keep me away from the grill. Which will give me more time to go break something on my car to get his advice on fixing it.

12 years?

rjhale · Jun 4, 2018 ·

Some posts are way harder to write than others. That’s how I know I’m thinking too much on the subject matter. Thinking too much has given me writers block up to a degree for the last few weeks. I redid this one three times.

I started getting Linkedin Messages last week that were “Congrats on the Anniversary”. So I’ve been “working” at North River Geographic Systems for 12 years now. Technically It was late April that I finally filed all the paperwork to start a business 12 years ago. I know – what’s a month? It had been a running fantasy since 2001 and it morphed and changed as life happened. So in 2006 I pulled the trigger and in 2008/2009 I transitioned to this being a full time thing.

I was trying to think of a way to sum up the last 12 years. I was trying to think of milestones or noteworthy things that’s I’ve done. Every year about March I start thinking about where I was 12 years ago and where I am now. I was trying to think of one giant phrase to sum up owning a business in 2018.

I’m never bored.

There. Done.

I didn’t have a great plan starting out. Back in 2006 it was enough to own some ESRI Software and look for work. In the By 2012/2013 I ended up leaving the ESRI Business Partners program and started focusing on Open Source. Towards the end of those “middle years” I ended up shifting focus to just about 90% open source. As of right now I’m 100% open source, dealing with data, and have customers calling me as opposed to me having to track them down. You know what – I cranked up a copy of ArcGIS 10.6 last week at a clients office and enjoyed that (weird right).

I’m happy. Mostly. It’s taken me a long time to get to that point. Happy will cover stuff at work and stuff not at work. I’ve adopted more of a “live and let live” attitude about everything. There are things I do well. There are things I don’t do well. I hope it’s all reflected accurately on the website so people know when/why to call me (which reminds me I need to update some stuff on the website). I hope I don’t run down what makes you happy. It may not make me happy but that’s fine. Just don’t hurt anyone in the process. I’ve been pulling back more and more from social media. I don’t want to know everything about you. Just that you are happy or you need help. That’s all.

For a good long while I just sorta existed from month to month. If you’re services oriented (like I am), services can come and go at the drop of a hat. As of right now I’m busy. I’m not looking at starving next month. Hopefully it continues. There is some merit to “spatial is special” still. I know it’s fun for us to scream and go “GEO IS EASY EVERYONE IS DOING IT” but they aren’t. I started in geo accidentally 26 years ago. The software changes but the science remains the same.

Anyway – I thank you all for the good thoughts. Thank you for enjoying my lunatic ramblings up here. There are more coming as life on this end continues.

Rambling

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