Balance

noreply@blogger.com (Mapit) — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 02:01:00 +0000

I am so f***ing bored!

noreply@blogger.com (Mapit) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 12:35:00 +0000

Day after my birthday. Am now 38 years old. Was very grumpy yesterday and a little harsh on my oldest son. I'll write more about that another time.

Right now I am in my 3rd floor office and it is pouring rain outside. Thunder and lightning too. Fun. My son just went off to camp at Fernbrook Farm where they are outside all day exploring the farm, playing in the stream, hiking through the fields, caring for the farm animals and the like. All outside and it is raining cats and dogs.

Being out in the rain, in the warm summer and getting soaked should be fun. I recall as a kid having a great time getting soaked in summer showers. The realization that I could get wet and the world would not end, was exhilarating. It almost felt like I was being rebellious and disobedient to my Mom and society. "come in out of the rain", "cancelled due to rain" are messages that come up over and over in childhood. It was fun to realize that I could not only survive being soaked to the bone but it was actually fun.

noreply@blogger.com (Mapit) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 11:48:00 +0000

I just wrote the below to my sister in an email after she asked how we were doing.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
We will be away at the cabin next weekend so we can't do the 27th. Talked to Mom and we are tentatively going to her house the following weekend to celebrate her bday.

We are doing well. I returned from Costa Rica last weekend. Had a nice day in the rain forest followed by days of work. No time to explore so was glad to get home. Took 3 days off last week. G. and I took a ride on the Riverline to the Trenton Train station and back. He was very excited. R. and I went on a mid-week overnight paddling trip down the Mullica River in Wharton State forest. Lots of fun. Beautiful weather and scenery. Lots of beaver lodges and we paddled over the beaver dams as if they were 1.5 foot high waterfalls.

F. is rolling over and sitting up and verbalizing. G. is good tho having a bout of spring allergies. K is enjoying more free time that basketball has ended. R. is liking the gamecube. We put over $100 into one weekend and it has been a fixture ever since.

K. is doing well. With the warmer weather she is able to resume her early morning exercise walks and is looking forward to gardening this year. She and I managed to get 20 minutes of tennis in yesterday at the park before the kids demanded our attention.

I am looking to plan out paddling, hiking and camping trips this season. Also, trying to balance the demands of contract work with everything else.

noreply@blogger.com (Mapit) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 13:43:00 +0000

4/9/08 Written while sitting in a meeting in San Jose, Costa Rica after spending a day, hiking and soaring via aerial tram through the tropical rain forest.

The tropical rain forest is so rich (rain, sun, temperature) that much food is available for life. Finding food is not really a limiting factor as in other, harser climates. Due to this richness, many many species are trying to live in the tropical rain forest. The challenge to survival is not the limited availability of resources but rather the competition for those resources by other species. Competition is so fierce in every possible ecological niche.

noreply@blogger.com (Mapit) — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 12:42:00 +0000

Below is an email that I sent to my Mom this morning. We last saw her maybe a month ago when we went to her house for lunch. She decided to stay home for Easter and not come to our house for dinner. This email just gives her an update on goings on at our house over the past week. ---

Hi Mom,We are doing well. Daughter1 slept over her friend Stephanie's house last night. Steph was over our house the night before. Daughter1 slept at Steph's house last Friday, too. They are now best friends, I would say.

Tonight, looks like Son1 and Daughter1 are sleeping over at Lor's.

Son2 is doing well. We had a meeting with the Twp speech experts last week or so and they said that his speech is good for someone his age. In fact, his use of complete sentences is ahead of his age group. And he definitely is not shy about communicating his thoughts. We just have to keep working on his enunciation.

My trip to Costa Rica is the week of April 7th. My passport came in the mail over the weekend. At this moment, I'm not too excited about going. It feels like more of a chore than anything else. I have been invited to go to Boulder, CO the following week to meet with my employer's Chinese contingent that is touring the US. We would be speaking about their growing GIS.

We had a nice Easter with my father-in-law, step-mother-in-law, sister in law, brother in law and niece coming over. Nice sit down dinner and Son1 showed off how he can ride his Ripstick (like a skateboard) and Daughter1 showed off by shooting baskets.

Today, Son1 and wifey are heading out to spend some bonding time together. I think they are going to batting cages and then somewhere else.

I was down in Arlington, VA on Tuesday. Took the 4 am train from Trenton (had to get up at 2 am!!) to make morning meetings and then took the afternoon train back home. I got home at dinner time but was completely worn out after getting up so early. It takes about 4 1/2-5 hours for me to get to the Arlington office from home. I usually stay overnight but wanted to try a single day trip. Maybe next time I will leave NJ a little later and still try to get back home before the kids go to bed.

Son1 has been asking to go camping, so this weekend we have a great trip planned. Son1 and I (Daughter1 does not want to come) will paddle the boats down the Mullica River in the Pines. We will camp overnight Saturday and paddle Sunday until we get to the takeout point. I will be in either the green kayak or might even dust off the old canoe that has been gathering dust since we got a kayak. Son1 will paddle the new, single seat red kayak. I will be rigging up a tow rope so that I can tow him for a while when he gets tired. Vince and Harry may be coming along if their family schedule permits it.

Last Saturday, I took Son1, my niece and Son2 kayaking on nearby Black's Creek which is a small, tidal stream. Vince and Harry came along. Son1 did well paddling the red boat by himself tho his arms got tired after an hour or so. Evie did well in the bow of my boat. Son2 was great until he got tired halfway thru and just started screaming to go home. He was exhausted from a long day.

Son2 woke up yesterday morning with his eyes all puffy and swollen. He could see and is otherwise fine. The swelling is about half-way down today. Not sure what he is having a reaction to. Maybe all the milk he was drinking in the prior days or maybe something was on the carpet in the guest room where he slept that night.

Baby is doing well. She is ever growing more alert and responsive. The other day she discovered a new way to scream when she is upset that will curddle your teeth!

Wifey got a haircut Tuesday. Her hair is a little shorter and currently straight. Looks nice.

I am working towards a project goal for my contract work. Ugh. But the money is good.

xo

noreply@blogger.com (Mapit) — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 14:36:00 +0000

Working at the house yesterday and today. Windy as all heck. Yesterday, I just watched the wind pickup in intensity from a strong breeze gently moving branches around, to stronger blow forming whitecaps on the river to a howl that whirls around the house and has formed large swells moving up river. The swells only rolled on through the deep channel. The shallows were much calmer.

In spite of the howling wind, the air temperature is pretty warm. So when you walk outside, your skin is comfortable, not immediately bitten by cold. After some time, the intensity of the wind might make a person cold.

Along with warm air temps, the sky is blue and the sun shining. Yesterday, this made for a blue-green water color in the river. Occasionally, the water would turn a light tan color in some spots as the sun hit it from different angles throughout the day. This morning, the water color is a deeper blue. All of these beautiful, calming colors are immediately contrasted by the sloshing whitecaps, blowing spray and rolling swells.

Fun to watch to the river and imagine what it would like to paddle out there in such crazy conditions.

noreply@blogger.com (Mapit) — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 14:47:00 +0000

Everyone is wearing green today for St. Patrick's Day in our house or they get pinched. Wifey and 3 oldest kids stayed over at Papa's house Friday night. they were house sitting while Papa and Nanny went away for the weekend. After work on Friday, I was out on the Delaware River exploring a side channel with other Adventure Dad in the kayaks. Baby and I stayed home Friday night and she slept through entire night for 11 hours straight!! She usually wakes up a couple of times each night.

I took oldest son to ice skating lessons on Saturday. He is doing well. I took the boys to the River park across town that afternoon. Saturday night, wifey and I went out to the movies. The 3 oldest were sleeping over at Auntie's house and we hired a babysitter, Emily from next door, to watch the baby. We saw the latest Will Ferrell movie, Semi-Pro. It was a goofy comedy. We enjoyed it.

Yesterday, wifey took the kids ice skating. They all had fun. It was youngest son's first time on the ice. Baby and I were home during the afternoon, doing a little work and hanging out.

noreply@blogger.com (Mapit) — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 23:36:00 +0000

Do you use Google's Calendar? I have been using it for some time now and, like most Google products, it rocks. My wife and I have integrated calendars on which we post all the exciting events of our lives like upcoming ice skating lessons, cub scout den meetings and pediatrician appointments. My 9 year old daughter even uses it.

Anyway, I am just amazed at how well Google has integrated the services of this calendar with their other offerings (like Search, iGoogle, Desktop and Maps) and how easy it is to get to your calendar from a variety of devices and interfaces. They now let you synch with Outlook. It even has a Calendar API!!http://www.google.com/googlecalendar/new.html

They could have built the calendar with basic functionality and left it at that. The calendar is very easy to use and it would have been considered a job well done. However, they just continue to refine and improve. Wouldn't it be nice if everyone's project could be carried through to full potential like Google does..?

noreply@blogger.com (Mapit) — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 23:51:00 +0000

Stole away for a couple of hours this afternoon. Paddled the green kayak at the change of tide from Bordentown beach south on the Delaware River to the shipping terminal across from the northern edge of Newbold Island. Pretty cool. 2 monstrous cargo ships were moored there and there was room for at least 2 more. Looked to me like both ships were empty and awaiting to be loaded with scrap metal. They were large piles of rusty scrap metal next to the ships. All of this was dwarfed by the trash dump immediately behind the terminal.

The entire scene was surreal.

I have some snapshots on my phone. The water was muddy and still running high after all of the rain. The switch from low to high tides was about an hour behind schedule. I attribute it to the extra flow from the rains. The water surface was very calm and became glassy as the tide switched. I had the river to myself. The sun came out around 3 pm or so and it got pretty warm.

noreply@blogger.com (Mapit) — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 04:47:00 +0000

I used to think that the world was an exciting place. That there was a buzz going on, especially at night. If I was cool enough, or new the right people, or the right place, I might be able to be a part of that buzz. In high school, I could feel electricity crackle on Friday and Saturday nights while I sat at home and watched to TV. Or walked around in the mall w/ my two friends, all of us with the smirk of losers looking for something to do, yet having no idea how to 'find' something to do.
When I was in college, at Rutgers, I touched the buzz, for a while. Heck, for a while, I held 2 opposing cathodes as the buzz sparked through me. I went to so many parties, drank so much alcohol, did so many drugs and met so many people, that I thought I had found the buzz. I could feel it, all around me. I could feel it driving up to campus, towards the fraternity house, the pent up excitement to party down.
Also, at the same time, I began to really look to other geographic locales as the 'real' place to be. Cities with better urban design must be a better place to live. Regions with more interesting climate or ecology, surely must offer a purer form of living.

The party buzz turned out less to be the party, and more about the people. Having friends to hang with and share lives is what was exciting. Some of the teenage anxieties about the opposite sex and finding ones place in the crowd added to the tingle of the buzz. But is really about sharing one's life with others.
Finding a better locale is hollow too. It is more appropriate to find things to appreciate in the are in which one happens to live. Hopefully, good things that one can share with those friends (and family) mentioned above.

so now, here I sit and I don't feel the buzz at all. with four kids, a wife and 2 jobs, I don't have time for the buzz. Not that I am so important that my time is already taken doing important things, my time is spent working and taking care of my family. We have our fun together but for me, the fun is few and short lived.
Over the years, I have let the relationships of my friends, wither and dry up. Very little friends do I have these days. I can travel to exciting places if I want to, but they feel lonely, once I get there. I could do drugs and drink at home if I wanted to but they are hollow when doing them by yourself. Friends, family and relationships with other people is what makes the buzz. It is that simple. While it may never crackle with electricity as it did in my school years, it can still generate a low humm.

but without it, the world is just a lonely, indifferent place. Beautiful but stark, and empty.

noreply@blogger.com (Mapit) — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 16:53:00 +0000

Suburban sprawl. It has largely engulfed my home state of NJ. It continues to do as urban cores rot and rust while green lands spring forth new housing developments and shopping centers. This situation reminds me of a bacteria or mold culture growing in a pertri dish. The colony starts out as a small dot on the substrate and grows into a bigger dot. As the nutrients in the substrate are consumed, the colony spreads out in all directions, consuming new nutrients as it goes. Simultaneously, abandoning the now nutrient deficient center. This forms a a donut appearance. Holding a match under the middle of a sheet of paper produces the same effect as the fire first burns a hole in the center and then spreads outward, consuming the entire sheet.

"In Boston, for instance, the first ring, Route 128, was built 5 miles out from the city. Then a second ring, I-495, went in about 30 miles out. A third ring, a combination of I-195 and I-90, now lies approximately 45 miles from downtown. While the population of Boston's city center had declined from 800,000 to 500,000 since 1970, the population of the Boston metro area has grown by 5 times to 4 million. During this period, the amount of space these people take up has increased to 10 times the area of the original city. As this pattern repeated throughout the Northeast, the natural landscape was disappearing faster than at any time in history." -- from a well written article in ArcNews.

at least, I do not work for a private company that makes $$ off of this pattern of land squandering growth. Now, my efforts contribute to saving postage stamps of fragmented ecosystems in the face of the ever growing donut.

noreply@blogger.com (Mapit) — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 22:28:00 +0000

Gotta have the money.

Remember my recent post which rambled on about how the wealthy will survive the growing shortages of natural resources? Well, here is another indication of this occuring.

noreply@blogger.com (Mapit) — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 17:15:00 +0000

Men have become the tools of their tools.

- Henry David Thoreau

Yes, this point that we become slaves to our tools is the single most prominent lesson that I have taken from Thoreau. As an American Suburbanite, we have a house and a number of machines that are supposed to make life easier. Such as an automobile which is a necessity in our part of the world. Autos require lots of maintenance which can be expensive. I hate having to maintain a machine. An auto is something that I need so I do the care and feeding of the thing.

However, I strongly consider the amount of effort, time and expense that I will incur before buying a machine. A snow blower is a good example. We do not get much snow in this part of NJ but a snow blower is handy once or twice a year. The rest of the time it sits. As an internal combustion engine powered device, think about the cost in maintaining that engine, feeding it fossil fuel, the cost of pollution in the manufacture, delivery, operation and eventual disposal of the machine. I would rather shovel the snow the hard way twice a year than have another freaking machine to maintain. Our culture likes to have a machine or software tool to do everything. In my experience, tools are useful but only if considered in the context or amount of use of time.

Seems that allot of my neighbors, fellow suburbanites, men especially, love to tinker around maintaining their machines. Performing maintenance on lawnmowers, tools, etc seems to be an enjoyable task. I would rather be free to go exploring in my kayak, canoe, bike or on the trail. Or just sitting and enjoying the day.

Did you know that Thoreau was considered a failure when he was alive. He never married. Did not have many friends. Now he is a legend.

Which is better, to be famous after you die while living a lonely life or have a full life and been soon forgotten after you die?

noreply@blogger.com (Mapit) — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 22:00:00 +0000

Reading some of my old posts, reminded me that at one time, I used this blog simply to record the doings of my day. The days are rather un-extraordinary by any means. However, I felt, and still feel, some need to chronicle my life for posterity. So that my descendants will be able to one day read about what life was like at this time in history. The process of writing such entries is quite cathartic for me as well.

Yesterday, I drove to the office, came home a little early, arriving at 5 pm. was annoyed at wifey cuz she had been drinking, smoking and hanging out w/ her sister rather than making dinner. I never get to hang out, why should she? I know this sounds ridiculous as I write it but that is how I felt.

So as wifey started making a dinner of tacos, I rode my decrepit old mt. bike to the nearby mini=grocery store w/ my 3 yr old sun in his kid seat. we picked up some salsa for the tacos and shredded mozzarella cheese for homemade pizzas and the like later in the week. We had dinner with all of the kids, asking each person at the table to relate one thing, anything, that happened in their day. this is a little corny but the older kids, now 7 and 8, are so used to it that they volunteer to tell all about their day. My hope is that one day it will be the kind of family ritual that will yield well grounded kids. Who knows, in 15 years, the kids could be rolling their eyes with each other about their corny Dad and his stupid attempt at dinner conversation.

Then I read with the 3 yr old from our big book of Thomas the Tank Engine stories. It is a hard cover book that the older kids and I used to read from a couple of years back. It was strange to be on the floor, reading animatedly to my 3 yr old while my 7 and 8 yr olds (whom I was reading this very book to only a few years ago!) were sitting on the couch or comfy chair and reading their own books by themselves. wow.

While pondering this momentarily last night, I wondered what the 2 older kids were thinking about the situation. did they think that the 3 yr old and I were just reading some boring old "little kid" book? Or did they realize the perspective that they were once reading that book too. Or most likely, they did not ponder this situation at all but were thinking other things entirely.

I came up to the office about 7:30 when the 3 yr old went to bed. Amazingly, her did not put up a fit. I worked on TNC stuff and some freelance work until 10. Read the old book Flame in the Dark about King Alfred of England during the Viking invasions until midnight. A nice change from the Rich Dad finance books I have been reading lately.

When I came to bed after midnight, my 8 yr old daughter was asleep on our floor under a blanket. This happens sometimes so I covered her in a couple extra blankets as the windows were open with cool air flowing in.

Wifey was snoring so loudly that I went to sleep in the guest room. She has been snoring allot lately. since she wakes up with the baby twice nightly for feedings, I did not have the heart to wake her up and demand that she roll over or otherwise stop snoring. By morning, when Fred the dog woke me up at 7:30 am to be let out, our 3 yr old had assumed sleeping in my spot in my bed. Geeze.

noreply@blogger.com (Mapit) — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 20:41:00 +0000

Following on my previous post about a environmental change. It occur ed to me some years ago that as the natural environment changed from such factors as climate change and the competition for natural resources continued, quality, healthy living environments would become scarcer. Becoming scarcer as pollution increases and the human population increase. Compounded by the growth of wealthy citizens such as Americans that live highly consumptive lifestyles.

As resources in general become harder to come by, their value increases. As their value increases, the resource(s) in question become more expensive. This being our capitalistic society's way of quantifying the value of something and allowing for the trading of it.

So the people that will get the increasingly valuable natural resources will be the wealthy. This occurs already and has through out history on both National and Personal scales. Who has the really big diamonds on their ring fingers? Rich folks. Who has the rights to the oil in the oil rich Middle East and Niger River delta? Rich countries do, some through their corporations.

So as a husband and father of 4, I think long term about securing the resources for my kids to flourish and also for grand kids and the "seven generations forward" concept of the Iroquois.

Option 1:
One option is for the world to change so that we consume and manage natural resources most effectively, allowing enough resources for all in the future.

Option 2:
On a more personal level, one could amass enough wealth to be able to procure or secure the resources that one will need. these include such resources as fresh air, clean water, open space, healthy food, health care, mates and on and on. In other words, get the money, honey.

So the approach that I am now pursuing, ever so diligently, is Option 2 (just being a realist) while trying to do my small part (act locally) to contribute to the realization of Option 1.

If this approach sounds off base,consider the water that you drink. Many parts of the world do not have safe drinking water. Just ask Mexico. In the U.S. we pay taxes to local gov't to supply clean municipal water, to our taps or spend money to sink wells to local water sources. Many of us have water filters on our faucets or consume bottled water in 12 oz bottles or 5 gallon water cooler jugs. Where I live, the groundwater under my neighborhood is contaminated by a now defunct steel mill. Also the surface water of neighbor hing Crafts Creek is not suitable for drinking, contaminated by the same historical pollution and also modern, non-point source pollution of suburban America. The mighty Delaware River, which I can see from the 3rd floor window of my home office is also polluted and not suitable to swim in no less drink. What does my family do? while out municipal water supply is certified to meet U.S. Federal Drinking Water standards, we filter it or drink water from little plastic bottles, hoping that the water within is cleaner than that from the kitchen tap. Water is not that expensive yet. But when I was a kid, we would never buy water in a bottle. Ridiculous. What if on some future day, a 12 oz water bottle costs $5?

I need to remember to post about how Christianity allows for exploitation of the natural world and peoples.

noreply@blogger.com (Mapit) — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 20:31:00 +0000

"...sometimes not having a hurricane is as unusual and disruptive as having one. " From Treehugger posting.

Can we recognize?
It is clear to me that the effects of something as comprehensive are gradual and tend to sneak up on us humans. Same could be said for extinctions. These changes are slow enough, and abstract enough and sometimes distant enough that we are not aware that the change is occurring. When bump up against the last dodo bird or the shrinking level of water in a reservoir or the famine in a once lush farmland of Africa, we fail to see the forest for the trees.

Are we willing?
Also, when we see such events happening, and realize that they are happening, we are hesitant to make personal sacrifices to address the overarching issue. Rather than turning off my lawn sprinklers and not washing the car, to conserve water, we yell at the water company and local gov't officials.
This type of micro sacrifice is often only a sacrifice of luxuries or conveniences or excess money.

noreply@blogger.com (Mapit) — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 13:37:00 +0000

WeoGeo

I just heard a podcast from Directions Magazine about a new, online marketplace for geospatial data products called WeoGeo. WeoGeo allows data owners to catalog their data holdings for sale. Buyers may visit the site, find the data that they want and purchase it for download or off line delivery. this user interface for the buyer is very easy to use and slick looking. It even incorporates a KML generation preview of the dataset before you purchase so that you may view it, in context, in Google Earth.

This approach is not a new idea but it is so elegantly executed that it may just succeed. Apparently, the backend is built using Amazon's web services. Admittedly, I have not seen the publisher interface but if the buyer interface is any indication, the seller process will be straightforward.

WeoGeo takes the concept that ESRI has been pushing for years with their geography network and ArcIMS Metadata Server and makes it easy. I wonder how much commerce has actually occurred thru the Geography Network site?

noreply@blogger.com (Mapit) — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 17:14:00 +0000

NOTE: this a venting session for me. This post does not include any of the "yay, horay, i am mad but going to pretend that I am not, I am hurt by your actions but going to find a nice way to express it, feminist, no balls, wishy washy, have a great day, everything is good, look on the bright Abraham-Hicks side" bullshit. I am pissed and letting it out here, in my anonymous blog that nobody reads anyway.

Shit, just got back from a lame camping trip. The 3 kids had fun but sucked for me. The most fun that I had was the 7 minutes of stolen time on which I rode my bike back from the bathrooms and toured the campground a little.

wifey came along. She is 8 months pregnant and uncomfortable. However, her attitude killed the trip for me. I had been looking forward to this 2 night, adventure trip w/ the kids. I also was prepared to take them myself but she wanted to come along. At first, sounded great to me. wifey has always fun in camping and on my outdoors adventures. she has always been very laid back, low maintenance, willing to try adventures and fun. Not on this trip. she was very controlling of all situations. If she had simply said, 'you know what, I am pregnant and feel like chilling at the campsite, you guys go ahead", that would have been great. However, that was not the case, she demanded control by whining and cajoling. Sucked.

i lugged the kayak w/ all gear, we did not use it despite a class II rapids and a class I rapids right at our doorstep. I brought the kids bikes, daughter did not touch hers, son a little bit but we did not all ride together at all. i brought fishing poles for the 2 older kids. We did not touch them. sucked. sucked. sucked. the life is being sucked the fuck out of me this pregnancy. i think that she is unaware of what a controlling stick in the mud. you are pregnant wife, not the rest of the world. the world goes on.

also, i think she is adopting the attitude of her lazy family. the attitude of "why do something, when you can do nothing?". Never been my attitude. Never was hers either. I like to go, to explore, to wander, to check things out and maybe have some fun or gain insight along the way. At 37 w/ the kids, a 4th on the way, a mortgage, minivan and full time job, I don't get to do much of the above period. But here family just likes to sit and watch the world go by. sit on your ass with a drink and cigarette and talk, talk, yak, yak, yak about nothing. That is fucking exhausting if you ask me.

complicated the entire thing, doubling my amount of packing, unpacking, retrieving stuff to then pack. She also barely packed anything at all and then would piss me off by shining that we did not have paper plates or some little nonsense thing. She could have packed it. I got every thing else planned and executed, tho barely.

I will not be inviting her on any adventures for a long time. Even after the new baby is here and she has physically recovered. It seems that the outdoors if something that we no longer share. It is a shame. But I refuse to give up. If i have to continue to take the kids on outdoor camping, kayaking, hiking trips by myself, then so be it. I really have been taking them by myself all along any so no difference.

noreply@blogger.com (Mapit) — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 12:57:00 +0000

Below is a brief email exchange from this morning that I had with a former co-worker at my last place of employment. Provides an overview of my work situation.

Hey X,

How’s everything going? Are you settled in yet?

Thanks,
Y

Hey Y,

Getting settled. I am trying to get the GIS hosting infrastructure (ArcIMS/ArcSDE/Oracle/ArcGIS Server) at TNC's central office (Arlington, VA) in order. It has been poorly managed and grossly under used but I am finding lots of GIS people that have needs to share and publish their data. So, there is a pent up demand that I am having to contend with.Also, we are setting up SDE/Oracle geodatabases at TNC regional offices (Seattle, Boulder, Costa Rica, Minneapolis, Boston, etc) that will replicate data to the central office system. Pretty cool. Looks like I will be spending some time figuring the ins and outs of ESRI's geodatabase replication. Hopefully, I will get to travel to some of these offices but nearly all of my work can be performed remotely.

Working from home 3 days a week which is going pretty well. Am saving a lot on commuting costs and time though I have to be careful about distractions. I have a desk at the TNC office in Conshohocken, PA which is an easy commute if the traffic is not snarled on the PA Turnpike.

Baby is due at the end of Sept. My wife can't wait for delivery, she is about to pop! We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our 4th redhead.

Good luck with college this year.

Take care.

Regards,
X

noreply@blogger.com (Mapit) — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 12:12:00 +0000

Another Photosynth demo, which includes a couple of maps. If we could create super high quality map images from a traditional GIS (kinda like ESRI's map caching approach only more intense), they could then be served out to photsynth clients. Cool.

noreply@blogger.com (Mapit) — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 11:55:00 +0000

I heard an interesting factoid this morning. Certified GIS Professional, also known as GISP, earn 9% more salary than uncertified.This is especially interesting because I have never seen a job posting that requires GISP certification. It may be that people who go thru the trouble of getting certified (long application process) are simply better, more capable employees anyway. And therefore likely to be more valuable and in better paying positions.

noreply@blogger.com (Mapit) — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 13:05:00 +0000

My post on 6/14/07 makes the statement that I do not want to be a consultant. That is largely true. However, after giving it some significant thought, I have come across an important distinction.
The 2 things that really sucked about being an IT consultant is:1) Only being on projects for a small time or for a specific task. Rarely do you get to "own" the project, the client does. Clients that I have dealt with rarely wanted to do any kind of interesting work. Interesting work goes a long way.
2) Enough work is never enough. As the goal is to make $$, the faster you complete a project, the more projects that you can juggle simultaneously and the more project sales that you can close, the better. There never was a line of "enough" work or projects or sales because doing these 3 things meant more $$ for the company. The whole enterprise is driven by a subdued form of greed.
This greed started to appear very ugly in my mind over the last year or so of my consulting time. The work was boring and unmotivating on its own, most of my team members were of an efficient mechanical sort, and the harder that I worked, the more $$ that I made for my boss and the company owners. Twice a year I received a financial bonus (end of yr 3 or 4% ; half that in June). This $$ was nice but just wasn't motivating enough to slave away, high stress (I hate sales so that is always high stress for me)for the rest of the year. In fact, in my last 12 months at the company, I brought in 20% of the work and keep in mind that my title was not that of a sales person. But I brought in 20% or ~ $425,000, way more than enough to cover my costs to the company. This level of sales took a significant amount of effort from me in writing proposals, dealing with clients and kissing their asses in the hopes that they hire my services. This effort was above my nearly 100% billable time of 40 hrs per week. (I know that many many folks put in way more hours than I, but going beyond 45 or so impacts my ability to be the type of Dad for my kids that I want to be.) Yet in June 2007, bonuses were not given out as the company "was not doing that well". Than why did I bother to expend the extra effort to make all of those project sales if I don't get rewarded? This is a business and it is all about money, right? Well then, where the hell is my piece of the $425k?
So, of course, it comes down to money. how much $$ will it take for me to work those extra hours, do the sales work that I despise and bust my ass working more hours? The bonus and salary and company vehicle at my last job were not enough. Also, working for that company would have been OK if I was not aware of the alternative employment options or me. jobs in State government, other companies or even the non-profit world. Especially, in comparison that I now have nearly the same amount of compensation w/ no sales, much lower hours, lots of time off, work that I own and believe in and still have time and energy for the rest of my life each day.
So I think if I were doing some consulting for myself, the financial reward would be high enough to make it worthwhile. Since I would be directly benefit ting financially, my motivation goes way up. Even at a conservative hourly rate, with taxes taken out, I can make about 30% more per hour than working at my last corporate employer.
I am thinking of consulting in addition to my day job. Now, I can live off of my day job and any consulting $$ is purely gravy. So the pressure and stress to make the sales is much less.
Sales, then really becomes the issue. I need to get work in the first place. I am currently working my personal connections to make this happen. When I announced my job change a month or so ago, I had 3 people ask me if I would be interested in doing some outside consulting work. 1 or possibly 2 are really real opportunities. I'll have to work these and see what happens. GIS is pretty much a niche of IT and the opportunities are hard to find.

noreply@blogger.com (Mapit) — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 13:02:00 +0000

I am working from home today. It is kind of nice to get some extra sleep and then make the LONG commute up to the 3rd floor loft.

Sometimes it is hot up here even at this time of morning but today I have the windows open and a glorious little breeze is coming in. The air is fresh and not yet muggy. It will get hot after lunch up here and I'll probably have to close the windows and turn on the a/c and circulating fan.

Since I am so high up, out the windows I see right into the tree tops and they riffle in the breeze. The chirps of the birds come in too.

It is such a nice morning. I am really glad to be working from home today.

I like my job though it involves sitting in an office all day. Glimpses of the beautiful outdoors are invaluable to me.

noreply@blogger.com (Mapit) — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 23:01:00 +0000

Going through some boxes of stuff in the closet of my home office, a.k.a. the Loft, I came a cross a poem that I had written when my Aunt Ruthie died. I believe that she passed away in June 2001, possibly on the 29th. Aunt Ruthie was my Father's sister. I only saw her once every few years as a kid and even less as an adult. Yet, I remember her as having a good sense of humor, quick wit and always smoking cigarettes. In fact, the smoking killed her, maybe it was emphysema. Her daughter, Breen died either just before or just after Aunt Ruthie. while I don't know the circumstances of Breen's death it was perceived by the family as tragic. Aunt Ruthie, had been sick for some time and was possibly in her 70s.

Upon moving back to NJ in June 2000, I learned that Aunt Ruthie was sick and living alone at an apartment in Lakewood, NJ. This was not far from Beachwood and Manasquan where we were living at the time. We had made plans to visit Aunt Ruthie a couple of times but never got to it for one lame reason or another. We were wrapped up in our immediate life w/ the kids and all.

I had spoken with both in the previous year as dad had just had his stroke. Dad had been managing some money for Breen and Aunt Ruthie (Ruth Moore) when he had his stroke. As I had taken control of his accounts, I helped them pull out their money. Tragically, dad had invested their money in high tech stocks which were taking a beating at the time during the dotcom bubble burst.

Aunt Ruthie's husband, Uncle Joe, died while I was a kid but I have fond memories of him. he was always giving hugs and would talk to us kids as if he saw us every day. Uncle Joe and Aunt Ruthie were both like that. Very accepting and loving.

One simple memory is sitting on the screen porch at the back of my Dad's house when I was 13 or so. He was hosting a family party w/ my Aunts and their kids and my sisters. the party was winding down and were sitting on the porch w/ Aunt Ruthie and maybe Jody or Breen (or both) and Aunt Ruthie was cracking us up w/ her jokes.

Say hi to Uncle Joe for us.

6/29/01

The hazy heat was oppressive that day.
Thick and stagnant, the breeze barely moved the leaves,
the day that I was told you had gone away.

Why is it that the sweetest must always go first?

The sadness was heavy and impenetrable as the evening descended.

Hugs that are warm, kisses sincere.

Do you remember the jokes that made us laugh,
on the back porch so many years past?

A flicker of light caught sight of my eye.
A glow had begun to arise into the night.
A million twinkling fireflies floated up through the sky.
I couldn't help it, my smile told me that you would always be there.

noreply@blogger.com (Mapit) — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 16:57:00 +0000

6/14/07
I have learned that I am not interested in the consulting business. Having to bring in the work so that I and some of my staff can eat is not my cup of tea. At least I have proven to myself that I can do it. Besides, it has not been easy to go from OGIS, thinking about statewide coordination and gently guiding people as to how they should evolve their GIS to knocking on their doors and looking for work as a consultant is awkward at best. What a contrast! All in all, Civil has been a good learning experience on the front lines of the private sector. Sales, project budgets, proposal writing, client management, etc. This is all stuff that I've gained from the experience.