June 20, 2025 - Writing about GIS data sources

Today I wrote three pages of the GIS textbook briefly describing various GIS data sources (at a hierarchical level) including Government sources (comparing National and local), NGOs, For Profits, Government Adjacent (supported), International, and I also covered GRAMA requests, the need for user profiles, the hidden gem of published papers and digital supplements, as well as API possibilities. I again worked for about 3 hours (my ideal amount). So far I’ve got a 17 page book and there are still three application subsections to chapter 1 left to write. Seems like this will be a 120 page book, at least, with six chapters. Need to pick up the pace (more hours) since it took 10 days to write this much! Actually, what I need to do is start working in parallel on the academic papers as well, so I can get saturated with one type of writing and move over to another. 

The weather was HOT the last two days, but now we’ve got four days of nice and cool weather coming. Will have to put in some good biking efforts in the coming days. Today I biked 30 miles and yesterday I ran a 5k in the neighborhood with the doggos. 

Time to cook some pizza! 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Welcome to Professor Toke's Geoscience Blog

  I am a professor of Earth Science at Utah Valley University (UVU) in Orem, Utah, USA. I am starting this blog for a couple of reasons. First, I want to do better at documenting personal progress in research and learning for the benefit of myself and those interested in the types of research that I am involved with including Paleoseismology, Tectonic Geomorphology/Earthquake Geology, Remote Sensing and Geospatial Analyses of Landscapes and Cities . Second, I have been awarded a sabbatical from teaching and service for the 2025-2026 Academic Year July 1st to June 30th, so I want to keep track of my own progress frequently, creating an academic journal that I can look back on and assess how well I lived up to my sabbatical goals. Third, making this public could also be informative for others wondering what someone might do during a sabbatical year. First, I'll capture my sabbatical proposal goals : Scholarship : I aim to write/complete manuscripts for three (possibly four) earthquak...
Read more

May 31 and June 1, 2025 - New Zealand Prep Work

Over this weekend, I drafted my conference abstract, here is the title:  Examining Normalized Channel Steepness within the Basin and Range, Colorado Plateau and Transition Zone Physiographic Provinces of Utah, USA. Extending the work I've had ongoing with Parker Farnworth and Veronica Richards since their final semester at UVU. In this talk (hopefully), I'll look more closely at the geospatial relationships across Utah's geographic provinces at both range scale, catchment scale, and importantly, I will first subdivide all areas up by rock resistance/strength for more appropriate comparisons. \ I also booked two nights hotel in Auckland, a flight to Wellington with one hotel night there, my hotel in Christchurch for the week-long conference, a flight to Queenstown for exploring the Southern Alps (hope to take a biking trip and a fjord cruise), and finally a flight back to Auckland along with one night's accommodation there before flying back to the US. Should be a wonder...
Read more

June 7-10, 2025: Pride, Cycling, Printing

June 7th (Saturday) was a pretty low key work day, mostly working on things around the house and prep work for some upcoming travel. (1 hour on academic work) June 8th (Sunday) was Pride Day and we took Deb's father to the SLC Pride Parade and he and I watched the parade as she marched in it with the University of Utah's (unofficial) group. U-Pride. We also went out to Dosa at SV cafe in South Jordan, great again! In the evening we watched a bit of the Pacers v. Thunder game 2. (no academic work) June 9th (Monday) I completed a 60 mile ride on the Raleigh Tamland Gravel bike: Orem to American Fork Canyon, picked up a Parks Pass at Timp Cave, Up the Canyon to Summit Trailhead, Down to Cascade Springs, Out into Heber Valley, Along Deer Creek Trail, and Back home via Provo Canyon. It was epic, started early enough, didn't bring enough food, but hydrated fine despite finishing in 90 degree heat. 5,000 feet of climbing and 60 miles, should have done another two miles to complete...
Read more