Since writing A Tale of Two Databases, I've dusted off my Excel worksheet that I use to keep tabs on blog readership. Yes, deep, deep, way deep down inside of me- somewhere- there's a tiny bit of statistician. And this statistician, who lives somewhere on the Continuum-, er, that is, the Spectrum- likes to keep track of statistics about the blog.
A bit of background is in order at this juncture. I've long been a fan of collecting facts and figures- at least since high school. The year I was a freshman in high school, a new store opened that was on my way to school. The shop was named "The Sutler's Wagon", and Jeff Urquhart (the store has long since closed) was the proprietor. It was a hobby shop. Even back then, I LOVED hobby shops.
Prior to The Sutler's wagon opening, there were three shops I frequented whenever I could get my Dad to take me to them. One was Pilot. I don't remember the whole name of the business, but Pilot was more of a hardware store with a pretty bustling O scale and S scale tinplate selection and HO scale model railroading. Pilot was actually pretty close to Jeff's shop, and was derisively referred to as "the Pirate". Stanton in Chicago was a fairly large store, stocking everything from N to G scale railroading, as well as rockets, RC, plastic models, flying balsa planes... pretty much anything one could ask for in hobbies. The last store was Hill's in Park Ridge, which seemed to have a product range similar to Stanton but smaller selection.
The Sutler's Wagon was different. No trains. A couple of rockets. Some model cars. Everything else was military. Books. Models. Boardgames. Paint. Brushes. Miniatures. Miniatures in 15mm, 25mm, 54mm, 1/35th, 1/72nd, 1/144th, 1/700th, 1/1200th and 1/2400th scale. The 15's, 25's, 1/144th, and 1/2400th were generally diecast metal; the others were generally plastic. He had rules for the games- these miniatures were not just for looking pretty- they were meant for action!
And this has what to do with anything?
I've mentioned this game before. In a very real way, Fletcher Pratt's Naval Wargame taught me long division. While playing the game is fun. I think I had almost as much fun making the ship (data) cards. In the game, each ship has a point value. The point value is based on a number of data which need to be factored into an equation. That's the easy part. From the total point value, one must then create a damage table which shows how a ship's performance is degraded as she takes damage. So, say a ship has a point value of 10,000 and a max speed of 20 knots. The ship takes 1000 points of damage. 10,000/20= 500, so for every 500 points of damage, the ship would lose 1 knot of maximum speed. It's not perfect, and is designed to work best with WWI and WWII vessels, but it does work rather well. There are other factors that can make the game quite involved, but overall it is great fun.
From this point, I started looking at music. On the same block as The Sutler's Wagon was a music store called RPM records. Along with Rolling Stone Records in Chicago, I would scour their bargain "cutout" bins. I discovered a lot of great music in these bargain bins, and by the time I got to college, I had a few hundred albums. My earliest music databases were handwritten on loose leaf paper- I counted an album as being played when I had listened to at least one side.- this worked for both LPs and cassettes. I did have some 8-tracks, but I did not track these.
Flash forward many years. On a normal day I'm on a PC or two at work, and three PCs (simultaneously) at home. In all honesty, a lot of what I do currently is online gaming, but I also write this blog, do a bit of research, maintain a few spreadsheets, and work on my database, Sometimes, I even take a bit of time off to play a game or two on Steam (user= drehenthalerhof).
Here's a lesson for all of you budding data analysts, data scientists, statisticians and anyone else who uses spreadsheets and databases: if the datum doesn't look right, don't assume it is. Check it- even if you are the one that entered it!
So there I was Saturday night, updating the Excel blog readership spreadsheet. This is not a particularly complicated spreadsheet- fifty rows and thirteen columns. As I've repeatedly mentioned, Google's free analytics aren't too deep- they're pretty much stats, and they only show the Top 10. And- because they're real time, if I miss a day or two, I can potentially miss some data. So I've had extrapolate to get a more accurate picture. At some point, though, I accidentally overwrote a formula- and my beautiful table of extrapolated data suddenly was being calculated by a constant instead of a variable! I figured out the error quickly enough, but one can't count on an easy fix every time. When I suspect a problem, or when I need to do a QC on an Excel worksheet, CTRL+~ is my goto.
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
Monday, September 29, 2014
Friday, September 26, 2014
A Tale of Two Databases
Every so often I have both the opportunity and inspiration to write. I've been quick to lament virtually all summer that I haven't had much time for anything except for work. I've also mentioned that it's not the end of the world, as I do get overtime pay these days. Still, a part of me laments the lack of balance... I had copied a number of photo folders the other night, and was quite honestly shocked to see the date stamps of my last two folders from my camera. The first was dated July 6, 2014, and the latter was dated September 22, 2014. In other words, ~2.5 months where I did next to nothing with my DSLR. I made up for it a bit this past Sunday, but photography is something I'm fairly passionate about, so I should be doing more- like getting into Lightroom and Elements, and trying to get some of my work published as photostock. In any case, I'm quietly working to get some balance back.
I hope the photos I've shared over the past few blogs were enjoyed. Tinka and Schwarz have been seen in China, Germany and the U.S. as of this writing. I think they're both on Pinterest as well. As far as I can tell, neither is impressed.
Besides the cats, I've published a few photos of the local flora. Still, this blog is about my adventures in the wonderful world of data- my data, to be precise. I've been doing a bit of work in the Media_Title table. This table currently has 950 records, and what I've been doing recently is updating the Media_listed_as column. Quite honestly, this column doesn't do much right now, and partially duplicates data on another table (but not really), as this column and the Format column from the Media table both pull data from the Format table. What I can do in the future, however, is query against the Media_Title table and find out specific information about movies- specifically, I can see all of the media which is associated with the a title, such as a movie, soundtrack, game or book. The other table, Media, lists the boring details associated with each piece of media- UPC, ISBN, publisher, format, etc.
I had a bit of a watershed moment at work last night... a pretty "watered down" watershed- if that is possible. Maybe an epiphany is a more appropriate description; perhaps in the end it was just an "A-HA" moment. Here's what happened.
Thursday nights at my office are the busiest time of the week for my fellow Nightstalkers and yours truly. I pulled into the parking lot and had to flash Meerkat's headlamps before Anna recognized me. She was all smiles and said, "You have to read your email- we have a new supervisor." We exchanged a few more words, and then she was off to her home and I was off to the double-wide in the sky (E-Man's quaint nickname our office). I climbed the nineteen stairs, swiped my badge, and I was back in action. Not surprisingly, the data for the big job was not yet in, so I grabbed another job and checked email. I found out who the new supervisor was and fired off a quick congratulatory note, and then dove into my job. As it was a variant of one I had tackled on Wednesday, it took relatively little time to complete, as I didn't need to keep on referring back to instructions. I signed off on it, and checked email again. I generally get between 50-100 or more emails per day, and I am happy to report that as of 0630, I have a Zero Inbox: absolutely NOTHING in my inbox- everything has either been relegated to folders or deleted. Nice. While I was waiting for the evening's main event to commence, I decided to open up the database. This database is very much a work in progress, and I am only in the beginning stages with three tables. At this juncture, I don't foresee too many other tables being added, primarily because the primary reason for this database is to be a quick and dirty way of getting some basic information about previous jobs related to what someone is currently working on. Last night's "A-HA" involved a simpler and more comprehensive way of finding and classifying jobs.
Two databases. One post. Excellent.
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
I hope the photos I've shared over the past few blogs were enjoyed. Tinka and Schwarz have been seen in China, Germany and the U.S. as of this writing. I think they're both on Pinterest as well. As far as I can tell, neither is impressed.
Besides the cats, I've published a few photos of the local flora. Still, this blog is about my adventures in the wonderful world of data- my data, to be precise. I've been doing a bit of work in the Media_Title table. This table currently has 950 records, and what I've been doing recently is updating the Media_listed_as column. Quite honestly, this column doesn't do much right now, and partially duplicates data on another table (but not really), as this column and the Format column from the Media table both pull data from the Format table. What I can do in the future, however, is query against the Media_Title table and find out specific information about movies- specifically, I can see all of the media which is associated with the a title, such as a movie, soundtrack, game or book. The other table, Media, lists the boring details associated with each piece of media- UPC, ISBN, publisher, format, etc.
I had a bit of a watershed moment at work last night... a pretty "watered down" watershed- if that is possible. Maybe an epiphany is a more appropriate description; perhaps in the end it was just an "A-HA" moment. Here's what happened.
Thursday nights at my office are the busiest time of the week for my fellow Nightstalkers and yours truly. I pulled into the parking lot and had to flash Meerkat's headlamps before Anna recognized me. She was all smiles and said, "You have to read your email- we have a new supervisor." We exchanged a few more words, and then she was off to her home and I was off to the double-wide in the sky (E-Man's quaint nickname our office). I climbed the nineteen stairs, swiped my badge, and I was back in action. Not surprisingly, the data for the big job was not yet in, so I grabbed another job and checked email. I found out who the new supervisor was and fired off a quick congratulatory note, and then dove into my job. As it was a variant of one I had tackled on Wednesday, it took relatively little time to complete, as I didn't need to keep on referring back to instructions. I signed off on it, and checked email again. I generally get between 50-100 or more emails per day, and I am happy to report that as of 0630, I have a Zero Inbox: absolutely NOTHING in my inbox- everything has either been relegated to folders or deleted. Nice. While I was waiting for the evening's main event to commence, I decided to open up the database. This database is very much a work in progress, and I am only in the beginning stages with three tables. At this juncture, I don't foresee too many other tables being added, primarily because the primary reason for this database is to be a quick and dirty way of getting some basic information about previous jobs related to what someone is currently working on. Last night's "A-HA" involved a simpler and more comprehensive way of finding and classifying jobs.
Two databases. One post. Excellent.
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Data, data everywhere....
 |
| Queen Tinka I |
 |
| Schwarz- Alpha cat |
I took both of these shots in May, and although cats are not know for their expressive faces, their poses and places tell all.
Tinka (above) does not guard our home. She merely collects data on events in and around the home, and assesses threats to her own safety. She is I.T. cat. After the Zombie Apocalypse and the complete demise of humanity, she will more than likely become the queen of the cockroaches. Schwarz (below) will probably survive until a zombie figures out that the cat is hungry. He is Alpha cat.
So, yeah, I just wanted an excuse to post a few photos- I haven't really done this in some time, so there you go- two of our four cats. One final note about publishing in general and the Google platform in particular- getting the layout right for the photos and text was a bit of a challenge- if anyone has ever done layout for print or electronic media, you'll agree that WYSIWIG sometimes only works with text, and the rule of thumb is preview, preview, preview!
I've got some big news (relatively speaking) on the data front. Tonight was not exactly a quiet night at work, but the work I was involved with gave me some time to do a bit of research during the running of some processes. In the course of my research, I was finally able to nail a good name for not one, but two websites. Of course, as I haven't registered them just yet, I'm not at liberty to divulge their names. I plan for one to be about data, but the second one is a different sort of project, and I'm really not at liberty to discuss it yet, save for it being a pet interest of mine. More to follow if and when either of these projects ever leaves the ground.
My main reason for even thinking about a website is education. I've never been a good school (formal) learner- if that's even a term- but I do pretty well hands-on at my own pace. I'm hoping that a venture into the real estate of cyberspace will give me the impetus to do something cool and useful.
The downside of this is that I don't really have a cohesive vision for my data site. I'd like to do some cool, interactive stuff, but most likely it will be quite a niche site- I figure 10 visitors on a good day. On the other hand, the other site WILL be a niche site by design, but will probably be much more popular.
As always. I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
Monday, September 22, 2014
Goodbye Summer, 2014... the affair is officially over
As we're pretty much "officially" out of panic mode at work, I had this past Saturday off. This was really nice, as strong thunderstorms had been predicted for our area. We were thankfully spared from getting hit by the storms and had a quiet night. Sunday ended up being a "heavy" day- the humidity seemed to be off the scale, and we moped around for the better part of the day. I turned the television on around 1330, hoping to catch a part of the Chicago Bears' game. I mentioned in a previous blog that I enjoy watching the Bears. At noon on Sunday. Last week they played @1900; this week they're playing on Monday night. I work on Monday night- at this rate, I may not ever get to see a game this entire season. I could care less.
The photo above was taken with my Samsung Galaxy SIII; it shows my Nikon D3200 with dual battery grip, tripod, wired shutter release, 40mm Micro Nikkor lens and hotshoe mounted tri-axis level. It's a nice combination of equipment- I shot ~120 frames in 90 minutes. In a previous blog, I had introduced Darth Anna, Defiler of Planets. This past Friday I had brought my camera in to show her the battery grip. She seemed to be a bit puzzled about the need for two batteries, and I didn't try to explain my reasoning for the battery grip; suffice it to say that I shot for ninety minutes this afternoon without doing anything except for swapping a lens.
It turned out to be a glorious late afternoon photoshoot. There were definitely some photos that just did not happen because l had "lost the light"... that's one of those stock phrases that is SOOOOOO true; it's especially important in my subject area- railroads, where browns and reds predominate. Before this gets too boring, I want to pop in a photo that is important to me right here and right now- the very first image I captured with a DSLR (earlier this year).
No data to report, but one number: 2489. Not even a prime number... I thought it might be, but the internet said otherwise. It's the number of photo files I moved over to Adobe Lightroom. I had hoped to do a bit more than move files, but Adobe wanted updates, so I did the updates instead of real work. I have a few thousand more files on another couple of harddrives that also need to be moved over for renaming and archiving as well. One of those drives also has my music library, which is in serious need of deduping. I STILL need to replace the motherboard in Jennifer's computer. And, last but not least on my I.T. laundry list.... Mr. T. has apparently given up on his dream of building a computer with DDR4. It is his considered opinion that this new memory will not be reasonably priced in the foreseeable future. Last night, he said he had seen a 4GB stick for around 100USD; I laughed and told him that our first Windows computer had a pair of 4MB sticks that cost 78USD- and that was cheap!
In any event, Mr. T. has suggested that he can build a DDR3 PC pretty inexpensively. His plan is to wait for the Black Friday sales. In the interim, he'll be researching options... for building a dual graphics card box. I'm not seeing the "inexpensive" here.
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
Saturday, September 20, 2014
A credit card slogan that relates to traffic
Let me be the first to admit that I hate traffic. And there's no worse traffic than rush hour traffic.
"Rush hour" is a massive oxymoron, larger by magnitudes than classic oxymorons such as "jumbo shrimp", "old news" or "bitter sweet". I don't know what it's like where you are, but in my world it means "slow to a crawl" (or, in Latin [per Google translation]), "tardus autem ad repere". This, in turn, humors me, as I did a Latin to English translation just for fun: all of you Dr. Who fans out there may be disappointed/perplexed/or, in the know, that Tardis= "slow" in Latin.
The thing about rush hour traffic, though, that is particularly horrendous, is that you can actually count the grains of the sands of time sliding through the hourglass of your allotted days here on this planet, and there is nothing legal or civilized you can do to prevent them from slipping away. For example, I was in a left turn lane yesterday morning at a relatively short light trying to get from a side street on to a through street. The light turned green, and the two vehicles in front of me did not move. Finally, after what seemed like the half life of barium had elapsed, the first vehicle's brake light was extinguished. Progress!
But NO! Abandon hope... the second vehicle was also operated by a sleeper! Sheesh! Once the second vehicle started moving, I was on the throttle. The sad thing is that these folks are not only inconsiderate, they are unskilled drivers of vehicles with automatic transmissions. What is so bloody difficult about applying pressure to the accelerator (gas/petrol) pedal when the light turns green? Move your foot from the brake (the squarish one) to the gas (the tall one) for Pete's sake! In contrast, I have a manual transmission- I actually have to think when I get behind the wheel. To make a long story short, I passed #2 and then passed #1, and then suddenly #1 was behind me because I had passed him before he started tailgating a large truck (lorry).
It's times like these when I am reminded of a credit card slogan: "(credit card name), it's everywhere you want to be". I substitute "traffic" for the credit card name... "Traffic, it's everywhere you want to be".
I comfort myself slightly by recalling a term used in Formula One commentating- "lap traffic". The only difference between my situation and say, Interlagos, is that F1 drivers know how to drive; I cannot assume that anyone else I share the pavement with does.
Once again, no data (or programming) to report. The past week at work has been slightly odd; much else other than that I can't say. Before I forget, I'd like to repost the Top 5 most popular of my blogs, and my Top 5 favorites.
http://hochspeyer.blogspot.com/2013/05/why-2k.html I honestly don't have a clue why this one is so popular, but it's #1
http://hochspeyer.blogspot.com/2012/12/a-free-night.html Short and sweet- this is #2
http://hochspeyer.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-official-end-of-winter.html #3- this one was fun... what's not to like about borscht?
http://hochspeyer.blogspot.com/2014/01/resolutions-and-other-useless-things.html This one was pretty cool. #4
http://hochspeyer.blogspot.com/2013/01/who-does-that-anyway.html #5
"Rush hour" is a massive oxymoron, larger by magnitudes than classic oxymorons such as "jumbo shrimp", "old news" or "bitter sweet". I don't know what it's like where you are, but in my world it means "slow to a crawl" (or, in Latin [per Google translation]), "tardus autem ad repere". This, in turn, humors me, as I did a Latin to English translation just for fun: all of you Dr. Who fans out there may be disappointed/perplexed/or, in the know, that Tardis= "slow" in Latin.
The thing about rush hour traffic, though, that is particularly horrendous, is that you can actually count the grains of the sands of time sliding through the hourglass of your allotted days here on this planet, and there is nothing legal or civilized you can do to prevent them from slipping away. For example, I was in a left turn lane yesterday morning at a relatively short light trying to get from a side street on to a through street. The light turned green, and the two vehicles in front of me did not move. Finally, after what seemed like the half life of barium had elapsed, the first vehicle's brake light was extinguished. Progress!
But NO! Abandon hope... the second vehicle was also operated by a sleeper! Sheesh! Once the second vehicle started moving, I was on the throttle. The sad thing is that these folks are not only inconsiderate, they are unskilled drivers of vehicles with automatic transmissions. What is so bloody difficult about applying pressure to the accelerator (gas/petrol) pedal when the light turns green? Move your foot from the brake (the squarish one) to the gas (the tall one) for Pete's sake! In contrast, I have a manual transmission- I actually have to think when I get behind the wheel. To make a long story short, I passed #2 and then passed #1, and then suddenly #1 was behind me because I had passed him before he started tailgating a large truck (lorry).
It's times like these when I am reminded of a credit card slogan: "(credit card name), it's everywhere you want to be". I substitute "traffic" for the credit card name... "Traffic, it's everywhere you want to be".
I comfort myself slightly by recalling a term used in Formula One commentating- "lap traffic". The only difference between my situation and say, Interlagos, is that F1 drivers know how to drive; I cannot assume that anyone else I share the pavement with does.
Once again, no data (or programming) to report. The past week at work has been slightly odd; much else other than that I can't say. Before I forget, I'd like to repost the Top 5 most popular of my blogs, and my Top 5 favorites.
http://hochspeyer.blogspot.com/2013/05/why-2k.html I honestly don't have a clue why this one is so popular, but it's #1
http://hochspeyer.blogspot.com/2012/12/a-free-night.html Short and sweet- this is #2
http://hochspeyer.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-official-end-of-winter.html #3- this one was fun... what's not to like about borscht?
http://hochspeyer.blogspot.com/2014/01/resolutions-and-other-useless-things.html This one was pretty cool. #4
http://hochspeyer.blogspot.com/2013/01/who-does-that-anyway.html #5
The posts above are listed in order of popularity. The following are my
favorites, in no particular order.
http://hochspeyer.blogspot.com/2014/08/mind-blown.html Although I said in no particular order, this is probably my
favorite recent post.
http://hochspeyer.blogspot.com/2014/05/may-fourth.html A fun romp through summer days in Germany.
http://hochspeyer.blogspot.com/2014/04/tuddi-toots-or-night-in-life-of-wreakles.html Another fun romp through the past... well, it was fun for me, anyway!
http://hochspeyer.blogspot.com/2014/02/one-simply-does-not-raid-sul.html Last, but certainly not least, a bit of a feast (well, a light
snack, at least!) for my hardware buffs!
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
Thursday, September 18, 2014
A conundrum
I had thought of using the plural of conundrum in the title of this, the 126th edition of A homegrown DBA exploring #notsobigdata, but I ran into a small problem: it seems that there is some disagreement as to exactly what the proper plural is. Not having a foundation in any language from whence this word may or may not have originated, I will defer to the OED's verdict: conundrums. And, for those of you who never knew a world without the internet, Google did not put a red squiggly line under the OED version, so it must be correct. Now, if only the Urban Dictionary (sorry, no link; I tried to keep this safe for viewing anywhere) would second this motion....
I suppose the thing that brought all of this up was a situation that happened at work recently. A few months back, my boss asked me to confirm or deny a certain habit of a coworker. This made me somewhat uncomfortable, and my boss was quite aware of it, but it was an important matter and he needed to get an answer specifically from me, as I was the only human being who could verify the matter (it probably could have been settled through the review of certain electronic records, but for some reason that avenue was not explored). I told my boss quite honestly that I could not confirm the allegation. Recently, however, I found myself in a position to revisit the question- hence, the curiosity of the plural of conundrum. My problem was this: I was quite uncomfortable when the topic was first broached, and I answered the questions honestly, all the while giving my colleague the benefit of the doubt. Recent events, however, put me in a position to conclusively verify what my boss had suspected, and so I found myself with no choice but to reopen the matter and confirm the allegation.
To say that things like this make me uncomfortable is an understatement. I can usually "fake it 'til you make it" in most social or business settings, but when it comes to coworkers and serious stuff, I'm an invertebrate.
In other news, I'm in the final "era"of my very favorite online game, Rail Nation. I say this also with mixed feelings, as this will probably be the last round I play for some time. Rail Nation is an RTS (real-time strategy) game, and has players from all over the world. I love the game- what's not to like: it's trains. Think the original Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon- if you liked that game, chances are you'd love this one. But, as much as I love this game, I need to take a break from it, as it's a major time suck.
Continuing from my previous topic, there are two programming languages which were not on my laundry list of things to learn. I can't believe I omitted HTML5 and CSS3. I actually have a tiny bit of experience with HTML, having once had as one of my many job responsibilities the title of "website administrator" for a company that really didn't want to do business on the web. And these folks were all engineers!
No data news to report- this work situation has really unsettled me. And there's a reason for it, but I'm currently not at liberty to discuss it.
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
I suppose the thing that brought all of this up was a situation that happened at work recently. A few months back, my boss asked me to confirm or deny a certain habit of a coworker. This made me somewhat uncomfortable, and my boss was quite aware of it, but it was an important matter and he needed to get an answer specifically from me, as I was the only human being who could verify the matter (it probably could have been settled through the review of certain electronic records, but for some reason that avenue was not explored). I told my boss quite honestly that I could not confirm the allegation. Recently, however, I found myself in a position to revisit the question- hence, the curiosity of the plural of conundrum. My problem was this: I was quite uncomfortable when the topic was first broached, and I answered the questions honestly, all the while giving my colleague the benefit of the doubt. Recent events, however, put me in a position to conclusively verify what my boss had suspected, and so I found myself with no choice but to reopen the matter and confirm the allegation.
To say that things like this make me uncomfortable is an understatement. I can usually "fake it 'til you make it" in most social or business settings, but when it comes to coworkers and serious stuff, I'm an invertebrate.
In other news, I'm in the final "era"of my very favorite online game, Rail Nation. I say this also with mixed feelings, as this will probably be the last round I play for some time. Rail Nation is an RTS (real-time strategy) game, and has players from all over the world. I love the game- what's not to like: it's trains. Think the original Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon- if you liked that game, chances are you'd love this one. But, as much as I love this game, I need to take a break from it, as it's a major time suck.
Continuing from my previous topic, there are two programming languages which were not on my laundry list of things to learn. I can't believe I omitted HTML5 and CSS3. I actually have a tiny bit of experience with HTML, having once had as one of my many job responsibilities the title of "website administrator" for a company that really didn't want to do business on the web. And these folks were all engineers!
No data news to report- this work situation has really unsettled me. And there's a reason for it, but I'm currently not at liberty to discuss it.
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
R, S, T, and other programming languages not generally spoken of in polite circles
I suppose I know a thing or two about the care and feeding of a blog. After 124 posts, I know a little, anyways- this blog has been read on six continents (over 40 countries!). One of the little things I think I know is that a blog post should try to have a clever title, a "hook". The content, of course, should also be interesting, or at least relevant. I've written a few pieces which I consider absolutely golden, and then there have been a few that were just plain... meh.
Today's title, though, explodes the bounds of known civility: of the folks who visit my blog, I believe only my good e-buddy Dr. Lee Baker will have the foggiest notions of what R, S and T are about (by the way- if you DO know anything about these languages, drop a comment and I'll be happy to give you and/or your website or firm bit of free web publicity).
As for me, well... I've actually got a copy of R of one of the PCs in the Secret Underground Lair. I've done about as much with it as I have with MySQL, which is to say, not much. R is a derivative, successor, or just plain newer version of S... seriously, I'm not making this up. T, however, is the oddball in this group. As I as thinking of a topic involving programming languages, I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be an absolute hoot if there was a T programming language?" Well, be careful what you wish for- T is out there, it's pretty obscure, but it really does exist. Depending on your source, it's either an implementation of the Scheme language or Lisp.
The reason all of this is here is because I'm trying to get back into programming. I mean, part of my job title is "programmer", but what we typically do falls more into layout than anything, in most cases. And, being that the software utilized is expensive, it's out of the reach of "normal" humans, it's not just something one goes out and buys and gets good at. How expensive is it? Well, one could purchase several stand-alone copies of Adobe's CS6 for the same price as one license of what we use. So, I'm looking at a few languages that have a common characteristic, namely price. Of course, that price is FREE.
For those non-geeks out there, there is a plethora of high-quality software available- robust, well-supported and developed, and used in every sort of business, educational and scientific endeavor. R is one of these languages. I'm not sure that I'll ever use it, but it's on my radar. The language at the top of my list is Python- I hope to collaborate a bit with Mr. T in the near future on a Python project. Perl is also on my list, as well as JavaScript and Visual Basic.
And there you have it- I'm on record and on the hook now to start working on one of these languages.
On the data front, my Access form is partially rebuilt- I hope to have that up and running soon.
That's it- it's nearly 0600 local (GMT-5)
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
June 5, 2016 update: this was originally published on Sep 16, 2014, and is one of the 1st of what I hope to be an occasional series of blog updates- microblogs, I suppose.
Where am I at? Well, in case you missed it, the database had a catastrophic hardware failure, and it was not backed up. I'm still pretty much at "Hello, world" with Python 3, and although my analytical skill are vastly improved, my practical programming experience at work is only modestly improved.
On a sad note, Meerkat suffered her FOURTH flat in just over four years today. Fortunately, we carry one of those all-in-one emergency devices: air pump, jumper, lights and USB power supply. I know EXACTLY where and when it happened. There is absolutely no way I can avoid the tollway construction, and it is the cause of two of the flats.
Today's title, though, explodes the bounds of known civility: of the folks who visit my blog, I believe only my good e-buddy Dr. Lee Baker will have the foggiest notions of what R, S and T are about (by the way- if you DO know anything about these languages, drop a comment and I'll be happy to give you and/or your website or firm bit of free web publicity).
As for me, well... I've actually got a copy of R of one of the PCs in the Secret Underground Lair. I've done about as much with it as I have with MySQL, which is to say, not much. R is a derivative, successor, or just plain newer version of S... seriously, I'm not making this up. T, however, is the oddball in this group. As I as thinking of a topic involving programming languages, I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be an absolute hoot if there was a T programming language?" Well, be careful what you wish for- T is out there, it's pretty obscure, but it really does exist. Depending on your source, it's either an implementation of the Scheme language or Lisp.
The reason all of this is here is because I'm trying to get back into programming. I mean, part of my job title is "programmer", but what we typically do falls more into layout than anything, in most cases. And, being that the software utilized is expensive, it's out of the reach of "normal" humans, it's not just something one goes out and buys and gets good at. How expensive is it? Well, one could purchase several stand-alone copies of Adobe's CS6 for the same price as one license of what we use. So, I'm looking at a few languages that have a common characteristic, namely price. Of course, that price is FREE.
For those non-geeks out there, there is a plethora of high-quality software available- robust, well-supported and developed, and used in every sort of business, educational and scientific endeavor. R is one of these languages. I'm not sure that I'll ever use it, but it's on my radar. The language at the top of my list is Python- I hope to collaborate a bit with Mr. T in the near future on a Python project. Perl is also on my list, as well as JavaScript and Visual Basic.
And there you have it- I'm on record and on the hook now to start working on one of these languages.
On the data front, my Access form is partially rebuilt- I hope to have that up and running soon.
That's it- it's nearly 0600 local (GMT-5)
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
June 5, 2016 update: this was originally published on Sep 16, 2014, and is one of the 1st of what I hope to be an occasional series of blog updates- microblogs, I suppose.
Where am I at? Well, in case you missed it, the database had a catastrophic hardware failure, and it was not backed up. I'm still pretty much at "Hello, world" with Python 3, and although my analytical skill are vastly improved, my practical programming experience at work is only modestly improved.
On a sad note, Meerkat suffered her FOURTH flat in just over four years today. Fortunately, we carry one of those all-in-one emergency devices: air pump, jumper, lights and USB power supply. I know EXACTLY where and when it happened. There is absolutely no way I can avoid the tollway construction, and it is the cause of two of the flats.
 |
| Meerkat receiving CPR (Car Pneumatic Resupply) |
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
Sunday, September 14, 2014
Data rock
I need to remember to publish some links in my next post. To my regular readers, thank you for your patience. I had been publishing links in earlier posts, but had gotten away from that due to RL (real life). Sheesh!
So anyway, what's with today's title... pretty odd, even for me!
Well, to paraphrase "Weird" Al Yankovic, "It's All About the Data". I was looking at a spreadsheet with some of my blog data ([*sigh] yes, I keep my blog data in a spreadsheet- I suppose Google has an app or service available, but I don't need a) that much granularity and b) to pay buckazoids for that). Well, maybe when I'm bigger than J.K. Rowling, J.R.R. Tolkien and a third well-known writer, then maybe I'll pay for the analytics. Not now, John.
You were warned- this is an odd blog post- much stream-of-consciousness going on... such Doge. Every so often, I'll throw an easter egg in just for my own amusement. For those unaware, easter egg is intentionally not capitalized as it's a tech term and has no connection to any religious observances. So, here's a hint- there's a quote from a song in the preceding text. Name that tune in the comments section, and you be immortalized in a soon to be published blog! Publication of your name also gets your name featured in a label, so if you've got a website... name that tune!! :)
Back to the spreadsheet. I've mentioned that I've been really busy at work this past summer. So busy, in fact, that I had zero blog postings in June. This makes me a little sad, but then again, I've not published anything on my Wordpress account in a long time (May 31st, to be precise). I was updating my spreadsheet, and had to use some extrapolated data for four months. As I was doing this, I kept on looking at one column, and the more I looked at the column, the less sense it made to me. In fact, for this column to be accurate, it would absolutely require the sort of granularity that Google's analytics- or just plain raw data- could provide. So, I did what any data person would do in that situation: I deleted it.
Tonight promises to be a quiet night. As I write this, it's 1800 local (-5 GMT). There's a Chicago Bears football game on @1930, but chances are I won't watch it. I'm not a huge sports fan by any stretch of the definition, but I do try and catch the Bears' games. However, if they're not playing at noon, the chances of me watching the game drop drastically. Like down to nearly zero.
So, the plan is this: finish tweaking the positions on the Music_Recordings form, and get back to entering data. Of course, as the Prussian Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke once famously quipped, "No operation extends with any certainty beyond the first encounter with the main body of the enemy". Or, as more commonly misquoted, no plan of battle survives first contact with the enemy. In my case, boredom would be the enemy. "Hah"! you might say- this guy writes about the care and feeding of databases, and then says boredom might stall the project?
*Microsoft Access strikes again. My form is GONE. All I did was open the database, and my form is GONE.
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
So anyway, what's with today's title... pretty odd, even for me!
Well, to paraphrase "Weird" Al Yankovic, "It's All About the Data". I was looking at a spreadsheet with some of my blog data ([*sigh] yes, I keep my blog data in a spreadsheet- I suppose Google has an app or service available, but I don't need a) that much granularity and b) to pay buckazoids for that). Well, maybe when I'm bigger than J.K. Rowling, J.R.R. Tolkien and a third well-known writer, then maybe I'll pay for the analytics. Not now, John.
You were warned- this is an odd blog post- much stream-of-consciousness going on... such Doge. Every so often, I'll throw an easter egg in just for my own amusement. For those unaware, easter egg is intentionally not capitalized as it's a tech term and has no connection to any religious observances. So, here's a hint- there's a quote from a song in the preceding text. Name that tune in the comments section, and you be immortalized in a soon to be published blog! Publication of your name also gets your name featured in a label, so if you've got a website... name that tune!! :)
Back to the spreadsheet. I've mentioned that I've been really busy at work this past summer. So busy, in fact, that I had zero blog postings in June. This makes me a little sad, but then again, I've not published anything on my Wordpress account in a long time (May 31st, to be precise). I was updating my spreadsheet, and had to use some extrapolated data for four months. As I was doing this, I kept on looking at one column, and the more I looked at the column, the less sense it made to me. In fact, for this column to be accurate, it would absolutely require the sort of granularity that Google's analytics- or just plain raw data- could provide. So, I did what any data person would do in that situation: I deleted it.
Tonight promises to be a quiet night. As I write this, it's 1800 local (-5 GMT). There's a Chicago Bears football game on @1930, but chances are I won't watch it. I'm not a huge sports fan by any stretch of the definition, but I do try and catch the Bears' games. However, if they're not playing at noon, the chances of me watching the game drop drastically. Like down to nearly zero.
So, the plan is this: finish tweaking the positions on the Music_Recordings form, and get back to entering data. Of course, as the Prussian Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke once famously quipped, "No operation extends with any certainty beyond the first encounter with the main body of the enemy". Or, as more commonly misquoted, no plan of battle survives first contact with the enemy. In my case, boredom would be the enemy. "Hah"! you might say- this guy writes about the care and feeding of databases, and then says boredom might stall the project?
*Microsoft Access strikes again. My form is GONE. All I did was open the database, and my form is GONE.
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Installing update 1 of 160
I started writing this a few days ago- followers of this blog will probably understand the delay- but this time, it isn't me! We've had some weather come through our area that has just been plain unpleasant. First, a 12 hour power outage on my birthday, and then yesterday (Sep 10) a six hour outage.
Uncool. Very uncool. As I'm fond of saying, Commonwealth Edison- the electric company- is off of my Christmas card list! On the plus side of things, Jennifer and I have gotten quite adept at rapidly setting up- I think we had power to our sump pump in ten minutes or less. It turns out we're going to have to replace the battery and possible the charger as well for the backup pump. And this has what to do with data, you might ask?
Everything, actually. The power had gone out around noon, and everyone was ambling around the house like extras from Shaun of the Dead. At around 1400, I had a brilliant notion- my laptop was charged... I could work on my database for a bit. Buoyed by this happy thought, I slipped on my neon yellow-green Speedo foam sandals and proceeded down the stairs to the Secret Underground Lair, my way lit by a motion-sensing battery powered overhead light. As our winters can be quite cold, the way to the SUL is paved with interlocking foam exercise mats. And since this is a pathway, there is only a single row of mats until one reaches the exercise area directly outside the SUL. I discovered something was frightfully amiss when I put my first foot down and there was a lot more "give" to the mat than there should be. My second step triggered the light, and also showed little waves in the water that was on both sides of the floating mats. The sump pump battery had failed.
"Get some shoes on- there's water downstairs"
Jennifer only heard the last part as she was in another room. I grabbed the garage keys and started the generator. I plugged the supply cord in and brought the distribution box into the house. I went back outside, grabbed the 50ft (15.24M) extension cord and plugged it in to the distribution box. I turned around and... remember when I said Jennifer probably only heard the last part? There was a disembodied pair of socks and slippers in sight.
To summarize The Almost Flood of Sep 10, our basement was saved by Forty-Two, which is, as everyone knows, the Answer to Life, the Universe and Everything.
As long as I'm on the topic of data (that's allegedly the theme of this blog, right??): a revelation, education and the birth of a database. The revelation: I'm pretty sure I'd mentioned this previously: I'd experienced a problem with at least one of my tables a few months back- I was suddenly unable to enter or modify data. It got so bad that I ended up starting a discussion on LinkedIn and eventually deleting the table and starting from scratch. As I was doing some research for the new database I'm building at work, I ran across a tidbit in Matthew MacDonald's most excellent Access 2007: The Missing Manual, and apparently I had inadvertently locked the table(s) in question.
We were working on a job and had to make a few corrections to it before spooling production, and one of my coworkers mentioned that we would not be experiencing this particular issue if we had a database like he had at a former job. So I started to build a few tables and it dawned on me that a form would be needed. As I rarely use forms, I decided that now would be a good time to expand my horizons. Forms are deceptively simple to make (in some ways) in Access 2007: open a table, goto the CREATE tab, and click on Form. Its great for really simple data entry forms. I made a simple one and the only modification I made was to the size of a few fields. Next, I did the same thing for the Music_Recordings table.
The band stopped playing. The storm clouds gathered. A wizard appeared and started shouting, "Papers, please!", in Klingon. It went from fun to work in an Augenblick.
That's all dramatic license, of course. For a "hobby" database, some of the tables are fairly wide- hence, the need for forms. For example, each record in the Music_Recordings table has seventy-six data fields. When I looked at what had been created, Access had a form with two columns of thirty-eight fields each (and labels). I tried all sorts of things, but could not get the fields where I wanted them. That's when I picked up Access 2007: The Missing Manual at the library. It was there that I discovered the most unlikely solution, pretty much irrational. To move an individual field in a form in Access, one must "REMOVE" it from the grid. That sounds pretty ominous and illogical to me, but that's how it works.
My form looks nice now. Not perfect, but getting there.
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
Sunday, September 7, 2014
Dark, Ages
This is mainly data (at least, it looks that way), so if data scares you, its okay... just turn around and quietly tip-toe back out).
With all of the rules and regulations that are out there these days, I like to get the disclaimers out front and center as soon as possible.
Now that all of the faint of heart have vacated my virtual room... Welcome! to all those who have stayed. Please form an orderly line to the right and enjoy the e-refreshments, as today (Sep 5) is my birthday! As e-refreshments are notoriously calorie- and nutrient-free, please feel free to have seconds- I've got chocolate cake (with strawberries) and a cream cheese icing. Oh, yeah, don't mind the candles- they're those silly trick ones that you blow out, and then they start up again in about five seconds.
It's officially Friday in my little part of North America (which makes it my birthday), but Thursday was a quiet and enjoyable vacation day. Jennifer and I made a trip to Sam's Cub, and then settled down to watch the last of season 2 of The Bletchley Circle. We've really enjoyed this show, and are unhappy that ITV have decided to discontinue it. So, if you are in an area of the world where you might have some influence on ITV, please let them know that viewers are disappointed in ITV's decision to cancel the show.
Fast forward to Saturday. Even though its quite the norm for me to start a blog on one day, and finish it over the course of a few days, this blog is exceptional. The original title was "Easy Access? I think not". I changed it in commemoration of my birthday's power outage. Sep 5 2014- 12+ hour power outage. I could have had a nicer birthday, I suppose, like with the pizzas we had purchased for dinner and a freshly baked dessert which we had planned, but I'm chalking it up as a "win" as we had no damage to our home, no one was hurt, we lost no food, and we were able to start our emergency generator... for the first time in three years- with three year old gasoline!
When I was a youngster, birthdays were never a big deal. I'd get a cake, blow out candles while Papa and my grandparents sang "Happy Birthday", and opened up a few presents- generally socks and underwear (it was the start of the school year); there was generally a Lego set as well, so it wasn't a total wash.
Birthdays are still- for good or otherwise- "meh" days for me. Unless, of course, there is the opportunity to have a little fun or have a little adventure or some special food. The "unless" was supposed to have happened this year- my birthday is generally on or around Labor Day, and this year I was able to take the whole week off. I should have known not to get into too happy of a mood because about a month before my vacation, I was asked if I would be available to work on the 6th. Well, since I was taking the whole week off and really had no plans, I said sure, text me if you need me. Needless to say, I got the text saying we need you. So, Friday morning, Jennifer and I had been looking at some recipes for a nice baked fruit dessert. She had found a couple of nice apple dishes, and while she was off doing other things, I took a look at some recipes and found what look like a really neat blueberry cheesecake recipe; she looked at it and decided it sounded delicious, so we made a note of what we would need and headed off to the library and Shop and Save.
At the library, I picked up yet another book on Access 2007. I'm having a tooth-and-nail fight with Access, and so far Access is wining. One of the things I had hoped to accomplish this week was to create an Access form. Access and I go back a way- at least to the 2000 version and I've always been able to create rudimentary forms- with the wizards Micro$oft has these days, any fool can build a form in nothing flat- it's almost PowerPoint-like in its ease of creation. Of course, therein lies my boggle- any fool can create a form, but only a (cue the music- the frantically upbeat piano and Elton John breaking into a rousing chorus of "Dee Bee Wizard") database wizard can create a form that is functional, easy to use and aesthetically pleasing. I'm pretty good at visualizing and creating tables that are normalized out of the gate, so to speak, and I'm not bad at creating simple queries. The problem is I've never had a need to create forms.
I digress. We finished up at the library, and as we exited the building, we saw the sky to the north was quite dark; the wind had picked up and the temperature had dropped. We walked back to Meerkat, and Jennifer suggested we park in the Municipal Garage. We were within steps of the Shop and Save entrance when the rain started. By the time we were inside, the torrents had were upon the store. The rain stopped before we finished our shopping, and when we got home at around 1530, Mr. T informed us that the power had been out since 1500. The refrigerated food got put away, and we waited.
As daylight waned, I grabbed a quick nap, and then headed off to Sam's Club- mostly to give Daniel a ride home, but also to pick up a few lights and a few bags of ice. A few weeks back, we saw these rectangular, battery powered motion-sensing lights at Sam's. We picked up a few and mounted them to the rafters in and close to the Secret Underground Lair. The SUL is typically occupied at least 12 hours per day, and generally two overhead lights are burning all of the time. With these motion-sensing lights,the overhead lights are only on when they need be. However, as they are battery powered and switchable to motion-sensing or ON and they are portable, we made extensive use of them during the power outage.
At around 2030, we fired up the generator. We had purchased it three years ago after another massive storm had ripped through our neighborhood. A word to the wise: if you have a piece of emergency/fail-safe equipment, take some time to practice setting it up and using it: it only took Jennifer and I ~five minutes to get it up and running, but it would have only been ~a minute if we had set the gasoline (petrol) petcock correctly. After that, the only other incident we had was when the sump pump started the first time on generator, it tripped the breaker. I switched out the power strip that might have caused the problem, and we were golden until we shut it down.
Sorry, data fans- it just didn't happen. I hope you did enjoy my rousing little tale, though. Next time I hope to have some progress notes on the resurrected Forty-Two database (Keep calm and Query on?- I hadn't parodied that yet...!)
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
***Happy birthday, Yvonne! You're 30-something!
With all of the rules and regulations that are out there these days, I like to get the disclaimers out front and center as soon as possible.
Now that all of the faint of heart have vacated my virtual room... Welcome! to all those who have stayed. Please form an orderly line to the right and enjoy the e-refreshments, as today (Sep 5) is my birthday! As e-refreshments are notoriously calorie- and nutrient-free, please feel free to have seconds- I've got chocolate cake (with strawberries) and a cream cheese icing. Oh, yeah, don't mind the candles- they're those silly trick ones that you blow out, and then they start up again in about five seconds.
It's officially Friday in my little part of North America (which makes it my birthday), but Thursday was a quiet and enjoyable vacation day. Jennifer and I made a trip to Sam's Cub, and then settled down to watch the last of season 2 of The Bletchley Circle. We've really enjoyed this show, and are unhappy that ITV have decided to discontinue it. So, if you are in an area of the world where you might have some influence on ITV, please let them know that viewers are disappointed in ITV's decision to cancel the show.
Fast forward to Saturday. Even though its quite the norm for me to start a blog on one day, and finish it over the course of a few days, this blog is exceptional. The original title was "Easy Access? I think not". I changed it in commemoration of my birthday's power outage. Sep 5 2014- 12+ hour power outage. I could have had a nicer birthday, I suppose, like with the pizzas we had purchased for dinner and a freshly baked dessert which we had planned, but I'm chalking it up as a "win" as we had no damage to our home, no one was hurt, we lost no food, and we were able to start our emergency generator... for the first time in three years- with three year old gasoline!
When I was a youngster, birthdays were never a big deal. I'd get a cake, blow out candles while Papa and my grandparents sang "Happy Birthday", and opened up a few presents- generally socks and underwear (it was the start of the school year); there was generally a Lego set as well, so it wasn't a total wash.
Birthdays are still- for good or otherwise- "meh" days for me. Unless, of course, there is the opportunity to have a little fun or have a little adventure or some special food. The "unless" was supposed to have happened this year- my birthday is generally on or around Labor Day, and this year I was able to take the whole week off. I should have known not to get into too happy of a mood because about a month before my vacation, I was asked if I would be available to work on the 6th. Well, since I was taking the whole week off and really had no plans, I said sure, text me if you need me. Needless to say, I got the text saying we need you. So, Friday morning, Jennifer and I had been looking at some recipes for a nice baked fruit dessert. She had found a couple of nice apple dishes, and while she was off doing other things, I took a look at some recipes and found what look like a really neat blueberry cheesecake recipe; she looked at it and decided it sounded delicious, so we made a note of what we would need and headed off to the library and Shop and Save.
At the library, I picked up yet another book on Access 2007. I'm having a tooth-and-nail fight with Access, and so far Access is wining. One of the things I had hoped to accomplish this week was to create an Access form. Access and I go back a way- at least to the 2000 version and I've always been able to create rudimentary forms- with the wizards Micro$oft has these days, any fool can build a form in nothing flat- it's almost PowerPoint-like in its ease of creation. Of course, therein lies my boggle- any fool can create a form, but only a (cue the music- the frantically upbeat piano and Elton John breaking into a rousing chorus of "Dee Bee Wizard") database wizard can create a form that is functional, easy to use and aesthetically pleasing. I'm pretty good at visualizing and creating tables that are normalized out of the gate, so to speak, and I'm not bad at creating simple queries. The problem is I've never had a need to create forms.
I digress. We finished up at the library, and as we exited the building, we saw the sky to the north was quite dark; the wind had picked up and the temperature had dropped. We walked back to Meerkat, and Jennifer suggested we park in the Municipal Garage. We were within steps of the Shop and Save entrance when the rain started. By the time we were inside, the torrents had were upon the store. The rain stopped before we finished our shopping, and when we got home at around 1530, Mr. T informed us that the power had been out since 1500. The refrigerated food got put away, and we waited.
As daylight waned, I grabbed a quick nap, and then headed off to Sam's Club- mostly to give Daniel a ride home, but also to pick up a few lights and a few bags of ice. A few weeks back, we saw these rectangular, battery powered motion-sensing lights at Sam's. We picked up a few and mounted them to the rafters in and close to the Secret Underground Lair. The SUL is typically occupied at least 12 hours per day, and generally two overhead lights are burning all of the time. With these motion-sensing lights,the overhead lights are only on when they need be. However, as they are battery powered and switchable to motion-sensing or ON and they are portable, we made extensive use of them during the power outage.
At around 2030, we fired up the generator. We had purchased it three years ago after another massive storm had ripped through our neighborhood. A word to the wise: if you have a piece of emergency/fail-safe equipment, take some time to practice setting it up and using it: it only took Jennifer and I ~five minutes to get it up and running, but it would have only been ~a minute if we had set the gasoline (petrol) petcock correctly. After that, the only other incident we had was when the sump pump started the first time on generator, it tripped the breaker. I switched out the power strip that might have caused the problem, and we were golden until we shut it down.
Sorry, data fans- it just didn't happen. I hope you did enjoy my rousing little tale, though. Next time I hope to have some progress notes on the resurrected Forty-Two database (Keep calm and Query on?- I hadn't parodied that yet...!)
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
***Happy birthday, Yvonne! You're 30-something!
Thursday, September 4, 2014
A new year
This is turning out to be the blog that refuses to be written. For those regular readers in my audience, you know where I'm coming from- there are just some days (weeks, months), where the well is just plain dry, and your best efforts to come up with a subject, opening line ( or even a title, for Pete's sake!) are all for naught. I started writing this particular post by erasing all of my work from two nights ago. I've gotta say, it was poignant, riveting and in the end, TMI (*too much information).
And uncharacteristically even for keyboard-challenged yours truly, I'm blundering at about the rate of three typos per line- a big number even for me.
So anyway, I'm on vacation this week. We generally don't do anything special when I have vacation- I'm hoping for a day trip or two later in the week. As I write this, it's September 1st, and as it's the first Monday of September, it's Labor day. It's evolved into the end-of-summer holiday here in the States... I think I had written a similar post earlier about Memorial Day, and how it had devolved into the beginning-of-summer holiday....
I was able to get the grass cut before it rained this morning, which amazed Jennifer. I am NOT a morning person, and doing work in the morning is even more amazing. The yard looks nice, and everyone is happy. Tomorrow- Tuesday- I'll probably take our some weeds and dead sunflowers. I was a bit disappointed with our sunflowers this year; we had purchased some seeds around the beginning of summer with the intention of planting second crop, but never planted them... work schedule, don't you know.
So now it's September, pretty much officially Autumn. The song on my mind is the Mamas and the Papas' "California Dreamin'. Not necessarily because I'm a fan of the song or the group- or even California, but because- even though the song is set in California, it reminds me of the leaves changing colors in autumn. It always has. Put this song on, and my mind is suddenly in Horicon Marsh, Wisconsin, waiting for the next big wave of birds to take off or land.
And in keeping with the theme of I've got nothing to write, two days have passed since this blog was updated. I'm listening to Chris Tomlin's Burning Lights as I write this, and finally have had some things to report that were interesting (at least to me!).
For starters, we took Meerkat in for her first scheduled service today. We made an appointment for the service with Grand Subaru, and made sure that Sandy would be in. She's a lot of fun, and knows her stuff when it comes to Subarus , which is a good thing, as she sells them for a living! So, while Meerkat was getting an oil change and general checkup, Jennifer and I test-drove a few different vehicles- a Crosstrek and an Impreza Sport, both 2014's.
The thing that really stinks about test driving cars is that car dealerships in the United States seem to congregate on highly-trafficked roads. On the plus side, you get a good feel for how your prospective vehicle will operate in the real world; on the negative side, there are few opportunities for hard accelerating, hard braking or hard cornering... and quite honestly, I'm sure dealers REALLY don't want prospective buyers putting too much punishment on their demonstrators, especially if they're a high-volume dealership without a "dedicated" group of demonstrator vehicles. After all,Subaru has a break-in period where hard breaking and certain torque thresholds are to be avoided.
Still, even within these restrictions, Jennifer and I got a good feel for both of the cars. As current Subaru owners, I think our expectations were fairly high, and both vehicles met them. Both were peppy, had crisp throttle response and were very responsive to the steering wheel. The manually-shiftable CVT is a hoot to drive, with steering wheel mounted paddle shifters- this was the first automatic transmission that I've ever driven that actually engaged me as a driver.
Straight line performance (acceleration) was satisfying- especially in light of the Crosstrek's allegedly anemic 2.0L. The Crosstrek weighs at ~300lbs (10%) less that our Outback, so in terms of HP/weight, we're actually experiencing a bit more raw power to the wheels in the Crosstrek vs the Outback- and I believe the Crosstrek is a bit better on fuel economy as well.
So, we're probably going to go with the Crosstrek. To be perfectly honest, I liked the Impreza Sport a bit better, but I have to be a realist: if three vehicles were in our future, there would be no discussion. However, with my iffy foot and knee, the higher entry height just makes more sense for us- so its the Crosstrek.The other thing that Sandy said was something like," I'm not selling you anything but the orange one" This, of course, was after which one she would have recommended- she was all Crosstrek. To which I replied, "It would be cool to have one in the Subaru Rally Blue," To which she replied, "$4K option".
Well, sorry if this ended up being a Subaru ad... not really! We're hooked up with a great dealership, a super salesperson and a just plain fun to drive vehicle. Maybe someday I can buy an old WRX for cheap and run it noncompetitively.
*Before I forget, 42 is in production again! This is exciting, and I hope to have updates soon.
That's all for now. It was a day featuring test driving, and that was fun. As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
And uncharacteristically even for keyboard-challenged yours truly, I'm blundering at about the rate of three typos per line- a big number even for me.
So anyway, I'm on vacation this week. We generally don't do anything special when I have vacation- I'm hoping for a day trip or two later in the week. As I write this, it's September 1st, and as it's the first Monday of September, it's Labor day. It's evolved into the end-of-summer holiday here in the States... I think I had written a similar post earlier about Memorial Day, and how it had devolved into the beginning-of-summer holiday....
I was able to get the grass cut before it rained this morning, which amazed Jennifer. I am NOT a morning person, and doing work in the morning is even more amazing. The yard looks nice, and everyone is happy. Tomorrow- Tuesday- I'll probably take our some weeds and dead sunflowers. I was a bit disappointed with our sunflowers this year; we had purchased some seeds around the beginning of summer with the intention of planting second crop, but never planted them... work schedule, don't you know.
So now it's September, pretty much officially Autumn. The song on my mind is the Mamas and the Papas' "California Dreamin'. Not necessarily because I'm a fan of the song or the group- or even California, but because- even though the song is set in California, it reminds me of the leaves changing colors in autumn. It always has. Put this song on, and my mind is suddenly in Horicon Marsh, Wisconsin, waiting for the next big wave of birds to take off or land.
And in keeping with the theme of I've got nothing to write, two days have passed since this blog was updated. I'm listening to Chris Tomlin's Burning Lights as I write this, and finally have had some things to report that were interesting (at least to me!).
For starters, we took Meerkat in for her first scheduled service today. We made an appointment for the service with Grand Subaru, and made sure that Sandy would be in. She's a lot of fun, and knows her stuff when it comes to Subarus , which is a good thing, as she sells them for a living! So, while Meerkat was getting an oil change and general checkup, Jennifer and I test-drove a few different vehicles- a Crosstrek and an Impreza Sport, both 2014's.
The thing that really stinks about test driving cars is that car dealerships in the United States seem to congregate on highly-trafficked roads. On the plus side, you get a good feel for how your prospective vehicle will operate in the real world; on the negative side, there are few opportunities for hard accelerating, hard braking or hard cornering... and quite honestly, I'm sure dealers REALLY don't want prospective buyers putting too much punishment on their demonstrators, especially if they're a high-volume dealership without a "dedicated" group of demonstrator vehicles. After all,Subaru has a break-in period where hard breaking and certain torque thresholds are to be avoided.
Still, even within these restrictions, Jennifer and I got a good feel for both of the cars. As current Subaru owners, I think our expectations were fairly high, and both vehicles met them. Both were peppy, had crisp throttle response and were very responsive to the steering wheel. The manually-shiftable CVT is a hoot to drive, with steering wheel mounted paddle shifters- this was the first automatic transmission that I've ever driven that actually engaged me as a driver.
Straight line performance (acceleration) was satisfying- especially in light of the Crosstrek's allegedly anemic 2.0L. The Crosstrek weighs at ~300lbs (10%) less that our Outback, so in terms of HP/weight, we're actually experiencing a bit more raw power to the wheels in the Crosstrek vs the Outback- and I believe the Crosstrek is a bit better on fuel economy as well.
So, we're probably going to go with the Crosstrek. To be perfectly honest, I liked the Impreza Sport a bit better, but I have to be a realist: if three vehicles were in our future, there would be no discussion. However, with my iffy foot and knee, the higher entry height just makes more sense for us- so its the Crosstrek.The other thing that Sandy said was something like," I'm not selling you anything but the orange one" This, of course, was after which one she would have recommended- she was all Crosstrek. To which I replied, "It would be cool to have one in the Subaru Rally Blue," To which she replied, "$4K option".
Well, sorry if this ended up being a Subaru ad... not really! We're hooked up with a great dealership, a super salesperson and a just plain fun to drive vehicle. Maybe someday I can buy an old WRX for cheap and run it noncompetitively.
*Before I forget, 42 is in production again! This is exciting, and I hope to have updates soon.
That's all for now. It was a day featuring test driving, and that was fun. As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
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