Worky Worky

I just downloaded 1.2 gigabytes of cartographic data that I'm using to model the Pike Creek watershed, since it's smaller than the smallest level of granularity of the USGS hydrologic survey data.

The data I'm downloading was created by flying a airplane around over most of Wisconsin. That airplane was equipped with LIDAR remote sensing hardware, which uses a laser to create a high-resolution, high accuracy elevation model that I can plug into a GIS program and do all sorts of things with.

This is the kind of data that makes a huge array of important research possible. Generating it takes very expensive equipment, great expertise, and significant time. It's not something that a typical university or even city would be able to arrange. And it's available to the public, for free, from the Wisconsin State Cartographer's office. This is the kind of thing that I'm happy to see my tax money supporting. Public access to data means public support of projects for the public good.

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I got part of my history mid-term written. I did laundry. I wrote a brief paper for my yoga and pilates class (a part of my grade now that the class is done). I made some notes about ideas for my poster for AAG (the geography conference).

My poster for AAG is going to be bigger; 48" by 42", and it's going to be seen by a bunch of geographers, including faculty from my program at Syracuse. As well as historical comparison, I want to highlight the importance of Pike Creek to the community by showing just how much of Kenosha is within its watershed. (This LIDAR data lets me determine the extent of that watershed myself; how cool is that?)

I've also been making some progress with overlaying historic Sanborn maps on current satellite imagery of Kenosha. These maps are simply a treasure (Whose availability is more tax dollars at work!), and my work with them is going to be part of both my GIS term project and my AAG poster. It's nice to kill two birds with one stone.

So things are getting done, and that's how I'm spending my exciting Thursday night.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to have dinner with Lisa​. On Saturday, I'm doing a day of thrifting in Chicago with my dad and possibly more folks. On Sunday, I'm meeting up with a few people for some draining here in Kenosha. (I hope the water is low enough for my rubber boots to be effective.) And through it all, of course, there's more schoolwork.

But that's ok. I'm feeling happily relaxed and productive right now. Things are proceeding.

Decision Made

I just sent my emails of acceptance to Syracuse, and my regrets to the two other schools where I still had open offers. New York, here I come!

restoman, looks like you and Lily will be seeing more of me in a few months! *grins*