Monday, March 26, 2018

Music, Travel, Work and the Meaning of Life

Tejuino playing at Foster Botanical Gardens in 2009
Julie, Ken, Royce, Larry, Ron, Brian

It’s been quite a while since I posted on my map4story blog, but on my neighborhood walk this morning I decided it was time.  But not a post about maps.  A post about music, travel, work and the meaning of life.  Let me explain.

Earlier this month my wife’s good friend from high school lost her husband of more than 50 years.  Last week my wife flew to California to be with her friend and to help with the service, so it’s just been me and the dog here at home.

PHOTOS and MEMORIES

It seemed like a good time to work on a task I’ve been putting off for too long – organizing the multitudes of photos I have on various devices.  Some are from active computers (and tablets and phones), others are from old computers when I made a copy of everything onto a portable drive before getting rid of the computer.

I do love to organize and catalog things, but given the huge number of photos, it was a daunting task.  It’s a task, that for me anyway, requires blocks of uninterrupted time.  So now seemed like a good time.

On the day my wife left for California, I put on some music (Alexa, play songs by the Rolling Stones) and stayed up until 3 am working on it.  The next day I started in again spending more than 12 hours on it.  And the day after.  I reached a point where all the photos were in categories.  Now I could start comparing and getting rid of duplicates.  And I did that for the rest of that day.  And the day after.  It felt good to finally be working on this task and looking at the photos brought back lots of good memories.

MUSIC

I completed my first pass through all the photos and felt quite a sense of accomplishment.  Time for a li hing margarita and watch some YouTube music videos.  The first video it offered me was one of my favorites, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” at the 2004 Rock n Roll Hall of Fame.  Tom Petty, Prince, Steve Winwood, Jeff Lynne and others, in a tribute to George Harrison.  George Harrison’s son was also on stage playing guitar.  It’s a great recording with amazing guitar work by Prince.  If you haven’t seen it, here’s the link.

Part way through the song, I remembered that Tom Petty died last year, and Prince the year before that.  Then I thought about my wife’s friend’s husband.  And then I burst into tears, not something I usually do.  I tried to figure out why and decided I was feeling mortal myself.  Life is so short.  Make music while you can.

TRAVEL

That was last night.  I finished my drink, took the dog for a walk, and went to bed.  I woke up this morning and went out for my neighborhood walk.  I started thinking again about  life and what it might mean.  I thought about all the beautiful places I’ve visited on this earth (I’d been looking at all the photos) and thought about the places I still haven’t visited.

I thought about my grandmother, my mom’s mother, who died many years ago and who always wanted to visit Hawaii, but never did.  I wish I had done more to help her make the trip.  She would have had that memory for the rest of her life, however long that might have been.  And of course, if I had helped make her trip possible, I would have had my memories (and photos) of her once in a lifetime trip to Hawaii.  Life is so short.  Travel while you can.

WORK

I retired from full time work in 2016.  I still do some consulting work (if it’s an interesting project and if I have the skills to help) and I still teach a GIS class at the local community college.  I don’t miss driving in to the office every day, but I do I miss the opportunity I had to share my knowledge and help people find success with maps and GIS.  For my retirement, my colleagues in Redlands made a video that touched me deeply.  Yes, that’s my mom at the end of the video.  If you’d like to see the video, here’s the link.

My colleagues in Hawaii threw a wonderful retirement party for me that was lots of fun, great to see everyone, mostly for the last time.  I made a scrapbook for them (and for me) of some of my memories of working with them – the people who’ve inspired me and the projects we’ve worked on.  If you’d like to see the scrapbook, here’s the link.  Life is so short.  Choose interesting work with great people.

LIFE

Music, travel and work are meaningful things in my life.  What is meaningful in life for me may not be what is meaningful for others, but everyone does things that are meaningful for them and has memories of those things they have done.  That’s why we each do them – because those things are meaningful to us at that time and we enjoy the memories.  Think about what’s meaningful for you – and do those things.  Life is so short.  Create enjoyable memories for yourself and others.

But not all memories are enjoyable.  Things happen in life, there are troubles, there is pain, there is heartache.  Those memories are not enjoyable but are a part of everyone’s life.  Family, friends, church, clubs, even work – people we know, can help soothe the pain and can sometimes help us find a solution to the trouble.

Other things happen in life, there are triumphs, there is joy, there is love.  Those memories are also part of everyone’s life.  Family, friends, church, clubs, even work – people we know, can help celebrate the joy and can sometimes help us bring about the triumph.

Life is transitory.  Our memories are transitory, they die with us.  So why do we do these things if our memory of them is transitory?  Because that is the meaning of life, each of us doing things that are meaningful to us and enjoying our memories of them as long as we each shall live.  Life is so short.  Don’t wait, live life now.

Monday, November 18, 2013

Maui GIS User Group Meeting - 18 Nov 2013


Today I'm presenting on the Operations Dashboard, Collector for ArcGIS and the GeoEvent Processor for Server.

Link to PDF of today's slides (2MB)

Friday, September 6, 2013

Oahu User Group Meeting


Thanks to Steve Lettau, Oahu User Group Coordinator, for arranging this meeting at Kamehameha Schools. KS was one of the early adopters of GIS in Hawaii back in the early 1990s. The user group meeting is open to the public. I checked, there still some seats available, so RSVP if you'd like to attend.

RSVP to Connie (cclinton@esri.com)

Sunday, August 4, 2013

Hawaii County GIS Resources - Address Data




I'm spending this week on Big Island working with county staff who use GIS in their work.  I've compiled some links to online resources that we'll be using during the week and since they may have broader interest, I'm sharing them here.

In a post on general resources, I provided information and links on:
  - Upcoming Events
  - ArcGIS for Desktop: Data Driven Pages
  - ArcGIS for Desktop: Editing
  - ArcGIS for Desktop: Miscellaneous
  - ArcGIS Online
  - LGIM: Local Government Information Models

In an another post I provide information and links on parcel (TMK) data.

In this post I'll cover another fundamental GIS layer in local government - the address layer.

ADDRESSES

Addresses...

http://video.esri.com/watch/1869/arcgis-for-local-government-address-maps-and-apps

http://video.esri.com/watch/2048/departmental-collaboration


Hawaii County GIS Resources - Parcel (TMK) Data




I'm spending this week on Big Island working with county staff who use GIS in their work.  I've compiled some links to online resources that we'll be using during the week and since they may have broader interest, I'm sharing them here.

In a post on general resources, I provided information and links on:
  - Upcoming Events
  - ArcGIS for Desktop: Data Driven Pages
  - ArcGIS for Desktop: Editing
  - ArcGIS for Desktop: Miscellaneous
  - ArcGIS Online
  - LGIM: Local Government Information Models

In an another post I provide information and links on address data.

In this post I'll cover one of the fundamental GIS layers in local government - the parcel layer.

COUNTY REAL PROPERTY MAPS AND INFORMATION (TMK DATA)

The County of Hawaii Real Property Tax Division maintains maps and data describing land parcels in the County. This is often called the TMK (Tax Map Key) data after the unique tax map key number assigned to every property. Each TMK has nine digits (ie: 322012004) assigned as 'dzspppnnn' where:

   d = the Division: Hawaii County is always 3
   z = the Zone: Hawaii County has nine zones (see map to the left)
   s = the Section: each zone is divided into nine sections
   ppp = the Plat: each section is divided into plats
   nnn = the Parcel number within a plat

Division, Zone, Section, Plat (three digits) and Parcel (three digits) are combined to create a unique TMK number for every parcel in the County. In my example, 322012004, the division is 3, the zone is 2, the section is 2, the plat is 12 and the parcel is 4. Note the use of leading zeros for the plat and parcel numbers.

Some parcels have taxable units within the parcel. Sometimes these are condos, sometimes agricultural lots, sometimes for other reasons. These CPR or HPR numbers, if they exist, add four more digits on to the right side of the TMK, creating a thirteen digit full TMK. There are none for the example parcel, so its full TMK is 3220120040000.

Real Property Links

Here are some useful links to find Hawaii County Real Property maps and information:

Searchable data: Ownership, sales, permit and other information can be searched for by TMK or by Address at:
http://www.hawaiipropertytax.com/Main/Home.aspx

Plat maps: Parcel maps are organized by plats, there is a separate map sheet (plat map) for every plat in the County. Each plat map sheet has been scanned and is available online. Here's the link:
http://www.hawaiicounty.gov/real-property-tmk-maps/

Subdivision maps: Plat map sheets compile information from one or more subdivision maps. The individual subdivision maps are also available online. Here's the link:
http://www.hawaiicounty.gov/subdivision-maps/

A few notes:

- The Division is the same for the entire County (3) and it is left off of the TMK in some databases, leaving an eight digit TMK. While this works within a single county, it does not work for statewide TMK databases.

- In some databases, the TMK is written with dashes and a colon to make it easier for people to read, and often the Division is dropped, so you'll see 'z-s-ppp:nnn' for the TMK.  This can wreak havoc when relating different tables by TMK, be careful!

For more examples of how TMK data can be used in GIS, you can read my Hawaii GeoTeam 2013 blog on TMK data in GIS.

LGIM FOR LAND RECORDS

There are maps and apps that work with the LGIM for Land Records.  

Hawaii County GIS Resources - General




I'm spending this week on Big Island working with county staff who use GIS in their work.  I've compiled some links to online resources that we'll be using during the week and since they may have broader interest, I'm sharing general information here.

In other posts I provide specific information and links on:
  - Parcel (TMK) Data
  - Address Data

UPCOMING EVENTS

First, a few upcoming events including a couple of online classes:

Aug 20-22, 2013   Online Class: ArcGIS for Server: Site Configuration and Administration (10.1)
Aug 27-29, 2013   Online Class: Configuring and Managing the Multiuser Geodatabase (10.1)
Sep 18-20, 2013   Conference: HCPO Hawaii Congress of Planning Officials (Kailua-Kona, Hawaii)


ARCGIS FOR DESKTOP: DATA DRIVEN PAGES (MAP BOOKS)

There used to be an extension in ArcGIS for Desktop called "DS Mapbook". It was a great little extension that provided tools to help you create a map book. At ArcGIS 10.0 (and 10.1 and 10.2) similar tools are part of the core product on the Data Driven Pages toolbar.

I posted on the Hawaii GeoTeam 2013 blog about election data including an introduction to Data Driven Pages.  Here's the link:
http://geoteam2013.blogspot.com/2013/06/show-tell-for-module-8-election-data.html

There's a 70 minute video from Esri UC 2013 demonstrating how to use Data Driven Pages and how to customize map books using Python scripts.  Here's the link:
http://video.esri.com/watch/2598/building-map-books-in-arcgis


ARCGIS FOR DESKTOP: EDITING

There are a couple of really good videos from Esri UC 2012 that cover editing.  Each lasts more than an hour and shows lots of useful examples.
ArcGIS for Desktop Editing (An Introduction)   (Technical Workshop Video)
ArcGIS for Desktop Editing (Tips and Tricks)   (Technical Workshop Video)


ARCGIS FOR DESKTOP: MISCELLANEOUS

You can purchase a Home Use license of ArcGIS for Desktop that you can use for non-commercial, personal purposes. You can find the details here:



EXAMPLES OF EMBEDDED WEB MAPS

South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks
Kansas City Public Works
Southern California Silver Fire

Hawaii County Beach Parks - embedded web map

Click on a park for more information on that park.

Use the Hawaii County Beach Park Finder App to search for beach parks by activity or facilities available.

LGIM: LOCAL GOVERNMENT INFORMATION MODELS


LGIM - Local Government Information Model Maps and Apps 
LGIM Maps and Apps for Land Records 
LGIM Maps and Apps for Water Utilities 
LGIM Maps and Apps for Public Safety 


Tuesday, June 25, 2013

ArcGIS Skills for Hawaii

Do you want to learn ArcGIS for Desktop GIS Software?


I teach a night class for the PCATT program at Honolulu Community College that introduces students to ArcGIS for Desktop using Esri's Virtual Campus supplemented with additional Hawaii-specific "Show & Tell" information and "Challenges".

This summer (2013) I'm working on a GIS project with several students from Maui and the Big Island - Hawaii GeoTeam 2013 - and they needed to learn ArcGIS for Desktop. Since we're working remotely, I've moved a lot of my "Show & Tell" and "Challenge" content to a GeoTeam 2013 blog.

Special thanks to Alex, Jeremie, Josiah and Lotus for working on this project and helping me test the online content, and to Bill and Ria for giving me the idea to make the materials available to others.

You're welcome to use these materials to support your own self-study. You'll need to purchase the online class "Learning ArcGIS Desktop (for ArcGIS 10)". If you don't have the ArcGIS for Desktop software, you can request a copy after you register.

The online class was prepared with Desktop version 10.0 but works just fine with version 10.1. I've posted some notes where there are differences.

There are three types of blog entries: notes, show & tell and challenges.

   - Notes are used to show where version 10.0 and 10.1 are different

   - Show & Tells are used to give materials that supplement what you've learned in the online class modules.

   - Challenges are used for you to practice what you have learned using Hawaii examples.

Here are the blog entries, in order, to go with the eight modules in the online class. Modules 1 thru 4 are treated as a unit.

Modules 1 - 4 (Introduction to GIS, Features and Attributes)

   Notes on differences between 10.0 and 10.1

   Quiz

   Answers to Quiz

   Show & Tell for Modules

   Challenge for Modules

Module 5 (Editing)

   Notes on differences between 10.0 and 10.1

   Show & Tell

   Challenge

Module 6 (Tables, Analysis)

   Show & Tell on Safe Relationships

   Show & Tell on Census Data

   Challenge

Module 7 (ModelBuilder, Analysis)

   Show & Tell on Parcel Data

   Challenge

Module 8 (Layouts, Maps and Reports)

   Show & Tell on Election Data

   Challenge

Extra Credit (ArcGIS Online) - Free online tutorial, instructions in Show & Tell

   Show & Tell