Rambling

The Year in Review – 2020 Edition

rjhale · Jan 1, 2021 ·

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

rjhale · May 26, 2020 ·

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

rjhale · Mar 11, 2020 ·

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!

The 10th Day of XYMas….QGIS

rjhale · Jan 3, 2020 ·

……….andthis was a given…….So what am i going to tell you that you don’t already know about QGIS. If you’ve even remotely been up here for any length of time you know I’m a fan and use the software for work, attempt to train people in it, and just generally enjoy it.

So here’s something a bit different: QGIS Community

Yeah – it’s not a technical post but a post about the group of people I’ve gotten the chance to talk to over the last year:

Nyall Dawson – he completely rocked the QGIS meeting we had in Chattanooga. Remotely. He stayed up from 11:00 PM to over midnight (Australian whatever time) to talk to a group of people in Chattanooga. Not paid and never blinked. He’s a major contributor/programmer in the QGIS Community. He’s awesome.
Nathan Woodrow – The first person to answer my first QGIS Question (maybe in 2012?). He randomly pops up in the morning and we chat. Why? I have no clue why anyone wants to talk to me but I appreciate the random notes, google chats, and questions. Plus he has to put up with me asking random python questions.
Saber Razmjooei – So Saber popped up one day and asked “Hey have you heard about Input?” and he patiently waited for me to get time cleared out and walked me through the software. Even did a video hangout which meant for him it was after hours. It was awesome.

Why is QGIS So much fun? It’s these people. Not necessarily ONLY these people. It’s the interaction with the community. I’ve been in GIS for way to long so you can jump up and point at your technical support and I’ll go “meh”. Show me the people using the software and other people I can talk to at this point.

The QGIS Community starts here:

…and it builds out from there. Communication happens over the email lists. I tune in there and twitter for news and noise. It’s a good group of people who are friendly and good at answering questions. Bonus you get to watch this all get made if you want. Yes – watch this all come together as debates are held, questions raised, and problems are all out in the open. It’s awesome. I have filed terrible bug reports and good bug reports and people answer them. I have complained and they’ve responded with just being super nice about my complaining.

So I’d encourage you to join the email lists, donate time and resources, and contribute to a great project. So for the 10th day of XYMas – I give you a community of people.

The Sixth Day of XYMas…….North

rjhale · Dec 24, 2019 ·

Well – so much for wrapping this up before Christmas. I’ve got one more “general” post and then some specifics on QGIS and other things. Well – maybe not. I really don’t have much of a plan except write. in fact – writing with little to no editing.

So a few years ago I had a certification and I was looking at renewing it and people were talking about a test. There was a lot of discussion. In the middle of the discussion someone said “Well what if we make it too centered on one piece of software” and then someone else was worried “what if we make it practical” and anyway someone had the bad idea to turn to me and go “Hey what do you think?”

I said “I think you should take every GIS Person out with a map and a compass and turn them loose and if they don’t show up where they need to be they fail”.

…and that didn’t happen. As geo people we’ve turned maps into this art form to convey information while others of us have turned the information into bits and bytes and don’t care what it looks like on a piece of paper. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. I wished I was better doing both. I often sit and look at maps I make and wonder “Is this is usable for Navigation”. I’ll go out on a limb and say we rarely navigate with the maps we make. To be honest – why would you. We’ve got enough information on our maps it’s hard to get lost in an urban setting. What about out in the wilderness?

Way back in 1994 I won a compass for being smart or something during my BS Degree in Geology. More than likely “something” because back in the day I was a hair covered geologist. Back then you might have to make measurements and make notes on a map and possibly have to connect Point A to Point B with a pencil. I’ve rarely used the compass for much because not much long after getting this I dove into the world of computers and lost my hair and my rigged chiseled six pack abs.

For 2020 my plan is to make a map and go out with a compass and navigate around. Worry about Magnetic declination. Measure my pace. Make notes. No mobile data collection. No Maps on the web. Maybe I’ll stick a compass on my canoe and just worry about direction. Will it make me better at my job? Maybe. Will it be nice to get back to basics with a map and navigation. Oh yeah. How many of you can read contours on a map? Worry about contours! Do you put magnetic declination on a map?

So – get outside if possible and navigate around. Make some notes. Hey – you might try to make a map from scratch. Buy a compass (no clue what kind or type). Get out.

I had to look hard for someone that wasn’t a bearded-male-end-of-the-world-prepper to describe maps and compasses. Enjoy.

Rambling

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