Maps:

Sat. Nov 17th, 2007

Friday's lab was a much needed refresher. It was frustrating downloading the parcels data (took an hour). I had my map nearly completed in class but when I got it home to was almost completely screwed up and required several frustrating hours of re-work. Things work much differently from the flash drive than than do in class. It shouldn't be the case because I was working strictly from my flashdrive in class and had all the data save there but all I got initially were red exlamation points next to my layers at first.

I was impressed by how much work was devoted to GIS day and I thought it went off very well. However, I found it discouraging as far as the prospects of employment in Asheville. From speaking with a young woman from the NCDC, I found out that most people there are hired from UNCA's Masters in Meteorology program. I'm sure there are jobs around the nation but few locally. I spoke with Jason Mann, from MapAsheville, and he said they had increased employment by 200% in the past year....they had gone from zero to two GIS employees. That was meant to be funny but I found it somewhat pitiful. He also told me that they had still not hired anyone for the job posted last summer. The pay was only $29K and yet people with PhD's had applied, and some from as far away as England. About 150 people applied.

I forgot to post my map from the week before GIS day, so I'll post that now too.

Sunday, Oct 14th Chap 10, 11 exercises

The test wasn't so bad but there were a couple that I just wasn't sure about. For example the last question: what are the two table types. Ya got me.

I mostly studied from the book so I couldn't remember what Isopleth maps are, even though I remember you mentioning that word one day.

This weeks exercises were quite interesting...clipping data, etc.

Tuesday, Oct 9th, 2007 Large vs. Small scale

Aldous Huxley said, "the mind is a reducing valve". In studying for the exam this Friday, I am struck by how maps are abstractions and reductions of reality. They are a metaphor for everything in life because everybody's experience at any moment of the day is just an abstraction of the reality. What we experience is just a tiny fraction of the complexity of all that is occurring at any moment. In map making we are forced to reduce. You could never make a map of all the detail that exists, and people don't want that. They want the complex boiled down to a subset of important features.

The confusion over 'large' scale vs. 'small' scale is understandable, but I think I have it straight in my mind now, but it still requires a conscious effort to overcome the instinctive impulse to assume that 'large scale' means a map that covers a large area (e.g. the entire U.S.) A large scale map covers a smaller area and has more detail than a small scale map. The words, large and small, refer to the ratio, or fraction. As in , 1/10th is larger than 1/1000th.

This confusion reminds me of when I worked in a payroll dept. We were paid twice a month and everyone called this the "bi-weekly" payroll. It drove me nuts because it should have been called "bi-monthly". Hard as I tried to change this usage, most people just resented me for it.

Friday, Oct 5th, 2007 -- Joining Tables

Today we pulled new data sources into our Map. This was very interesting because I can imagine that there are many times when valuable data is outside the original map document. It was also great to see how to query and restrict the data.


I want to get the Buncombe county data and do some queries, like how many parcels > 100 acres in east Asheville, where I live.... or, how many parcels are valued at greater than a million dollars, etc. Fun stuff.

As long as you have some common data element, like PID, PIN, you can tie the data together. Very cool.

A lot to study for next week's test.

Here's the map

Sept 28th, 2007

I have proven mysefl as a true GIS nerd...I was so excited to spot this WNC relief map at a garage sale on Saturday morning. You can barely see the sticker price of $5 and I talked him down to 3 bucks. I've always wanted one of these and once saw one in a hiking-map store in Black Mtn, but it was too expensive (maybe $45). Don't know where i'm going to put it but I love looking at it. It gives such a more dramatic feel to the layout of the mountains. ....well, there is a 3:1 of exaggeration of the heights.
I enjoyed today's exercise. It was great to convert the hiking trails map to an actual GIS map. I have completely reversed my objection... this this activity is unnecessary.