Maps are stored in Yahoo, too

Because I seemed to have some problems with my H drive -- a few things disappeared for a while -- I've also stored everything in this Yahoo! Briefcase file.

Exercise 8 Final Map

Here is my latest final version of my page of four New Jersey maps. Everything is becoming more uniform and looking more as I want it. If time allows, I still want to work on my patches, maybe even some of my category numbers! This version slightly differs from what I am turning in, because of the difference in patches, classes, etc.

Exercise 8

This is my first draft of the New Jersey maps for Exercise 8. I probably will tinker with some of the legends and color bands, and I want to make them more uniform. It cannot be identical, because there are different numbers of classes, but the type and patch sizes can be more uniform.
Many thanks to Dr. Hasse for clearing up the legend "chatter" problem!

What is a data-delivery editor?

Here is a link to a new kind of online GIS specialist.....The data-delivery editor:

Class notebook missing

There is nothing life-altering or earth-shattering in it (nothing I cannot recreate), but my class notebook has gone missing. I was in two places on Monday, Robinson 306 and the Geography Dept. conference room. If it shows up, I'd appreciate being told. Just leave a comment here, and I will let you know how to get it back to me.

Shocking but true

Hard to believe in this day and age that we still have to keep track of things like this! Scroll down to the interactive map and see for yourself.

My updated maps

I still want to tinker with the legends, but here are the updated Gloucester County maps, as of Monday, 10/22:

Gloucester Country transport

Gloucester County physical features

Gloucester County flood-prone areas

Things I need to add to my maps

I realized this weekend that an outsider looking at these maps would have no idea what they are, so I must add to my maps:
Titles
Legends
My name
I intend to get to that on Monday, before class.

Exercise6

Here are the three maps created for this exercise:
Transport of Gloucester County
Physical Features of Gloucester County
Flood-prone areas of Gloucester County
I finally worked out the bugs. I originally was bleeped off at myself for not remembering to change the color of the roads until after I was done on Wednesday. I thought that if that's the worst thing I've done, then I'm fine.
Then, I came in Thursday and tried an experiment. Working without a net (no instructions), I loaded up an empty map and ArcCatalog, connected to the GC folder, switched the new, empty map to Layout Mode, added the Transport layer, clicked on the Roads Properties, and changed the color to something I thought would work better in contrast with the railroads, then saved the new version and exported the new version as a .jpg. I also did something similar with my Flood-prone map, when I realized two of the categories looked too similar. Doing this, I kept the original data the way it was, back in the GC folder. (Then, of course, on my way to work two hours later, it dawned on me that these latest versions of Transport and Flood-prone don't have my name on them -- I need to create a checklist for myself!)
Interesting process overall. When I was at the lab on Wednesday, I thought I had done OK by creating all of the layers by right-clicking each time, and I even got the maps to show up on my screen. Then, I closed out and opened back up, only to find those dreaded red exclamation points! I deleted all the layers and began again, using the drop-down File menu, etc., and making sure I stored the relative paths.
Here is an early version of the map with all of the layers, presumably in some kind of order (from the ground up), from before I changed the Transport and FloodProne maps.
I'd like to do more of this work, so that I can get things down cold. Any places where I can do that?

Berlin-Clementon Nike base site

Check out my Yahoo Briefcase folder here to see 5 images of the same abandoned Nike missile site. Notice the varying land uses, including the 1930s aerial shot of the farmland.

Yale library tutorial

Here is another link for me to use

Hello, old friends

Met up with a few old friends in class today -- Prime Meridian, the Cartesian coordinate system (with tag-along pals Sine and Cosine), and the Pythagorean theorem. Silly me, I once thought getting into journalism would keep me away from math; ha! and now the same is true for geography! Here we go.

Exercise04

Here is my latest version of Exercise 4, a map marking elevation and population density in Washington Township, Gloucester County, NJ. As you can see, I'm still trying to figure out how to get rid of the chatter amid the legends. We'll try to get that fixed.
As for my critique of the cartographic design: As I expressed at the bottom of my map, the color scheme for the Elevation portion is not your typical color scheme and, in fact, makes it difficult to comprehend. Additionally, in looking at these two parts, side by side, it's not easy to recognize that they are both representations of the same place. The Elevation section actually looks larger than the Population Density section (and, if I may say so, looks a bit like a human heart). I also don't like the size and location of the Elevation legend; first, it cuts into a portion of the map with the shaded box around it, plus it leaves a lot of dead air underneath a good bit of that map. I think the overall appearance of the Population Density segments is better. It's easy to tell that the higher densities are represented by the darker colors (brown & gold = Rowan?); I am a fan of this kind of color range, because it shows the relationships among sections. I chose the pink-to-red scale for mine, because I think it shows the same thing. Somewhere in my text, as well, I read that we older folks like a map like this -- as opposed to one with many different colors -- because they are easier on the eyes.