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Crossing the Radar Screen

5 Feb

radar-333574_960_720It’s Friday and it’s snowing here in Worcester – all of the makings of a quiet afternoon. I’ve spent the day mostly working through a book that I recently bought, Tableau Your Data! It’s a lot to take in, so I thought I’d take a break and clear out my “Weekly Blog Post Items” bookmark folder. Here are some fun and interesting finds that crossed my radar screen during the past week:

Determined to hone my data visualization chops, I’ve been on the lookout for interesting sources of data to use for practice. The U.S. Census Department’s website is a great spot, of course, but a special gem that I found hidden on it is “Stats for Stories.“ Here, you’ll find statistics related to stories that are in the news, calendar events and/or holidays, and more.  

It’s 2+ hours long so I’ve hardly sat and watched the entire thing yet, but what I’ve seen of the keynote address by Christian Chabot and Chris Stolte on the “Art of Analytics” at Tableau Conference 2014 is quite fascinating. Data visualization as an art form – it’s a topic that draws me in.

Obsessive fans (who me?) of the TV show, Law & Order, along with its many iterations will find Cecilia Esther Rabess’ latest entry in her McSweeney’s column, Mostly Uninformative Infographics, hilarious and oh, so true. … About Law & Order: Special Victim’s Unit

My wife has been co-teaching Sunday school these past few months using a curriculum called, “D’oh, God!” It’s based around episodes of The Simpsons. Naturally, when I learned about Frinkiac, the database of 3 million+ screen captures from the show, I had to pass it along. Enjoy!

The Washington Post’s story, “What Ivy League Students are Reading That You Aren’t,” along with the data source for it, the Open Syllabus Explorer database, both fascinated me this week. 

If you’re curious about the source of words and phrases in the English language, you’ll likely find Arika Okrent’s YouTube channel awesome. Okrent is a contributor to the magazine, Mental Floss. I’ve subscribed to it for years, preparing myself for that “Jeopardy!” tryout that I just know I’m going to be invited to some day.

Virginia Woolf made famous the idea of “a room of one’s own.” I’m so very fortunate to have a studio space in an old factory mill in town where I can go and be creative in any and every fashion. It’s my space. My room of my own. Bored Panda’s “100 Famous Artists and Their Studios” is a wonderful photo trip through the rooms of some incredibly talented people. I found it inspiring.

Finally, the SuperBowl is this Sunday. I’m likely in the very small minority who tunes into the game to watch the game. I turn to a different channel during the half-time show and I mute all of the commercials. I realize that folks pay a gazillion bucks for these spots, but I always mute (or fast-forward through) commercials. Bleh! That said, these two spots made for Sunday’s game but released earlier got me. Dachshunds and singing sheep. What could be better?!  

and

Happy Friday, everyone!

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And the Oscar Goes To: Best Picture

15 Jan

OscarThe Oscar nominations are out. No big surprises. When it comes to patting themselves on the back, the industry that is Hollywood is still overwhelmingly white and male. Still, it was a year for several good films and many wonderful performances and, per usual, I have a lot to catch up on before the awards are handed out next month. Cue up the movie tickets, Netflix, and popcorn.

For fun, I wondered what it would be like to name my personal Oscar nominations and winners this year. Oh, I don’t mean making picks based upon the movies of last year, but the events of my life during that time. What would be the Best Picture of my 2015? Who would be the Best Actress? Best Director? What was the Best Score, the background music of my year?

I sat down with pen and paper and started my lists. It’s more difficult that I thought and thus will take a few posts, but let’s start with what those darned Oscar celebration directors always make us wait until the end to find out – Best Picture. No need to stay up past midnight here.

The 2015 nominees for Best Picture in my year are:

ACC

It’s a long way from the Library to the 7th floor of the ACC.

The Road Less Traveled – A medical research librarian leaves the familiar confines of the library and her library kin to explore the highway of evaluation in clinical and translational  science. Along the way she meets up with intense grant writing, crazy deadlines, people who speak a different language, and much packing and unpacking of office boxes. Will it be a cliffhanger or a “happily ever after”? You decide.

*****

Little Snow

Dogs always steal the snow, er… show.

Snowpocalypse 2015 – The bustling, blue collar, chip-on-its-shoulder city of Worcester, Massachusetts is pummeled with snow the likes of which it cannot remember. Almost 120 inches of snow falls, leaving the City buried in challenges, but full of heart as the citizens all get behind the race to claim the title, “Snowiest City in the US.” No spoilers here. You’ll have to check out the Golden Snow Globe to see who won.

*****

IMG_2052

Austin, Texas. The backdrop alone makes for a winning film.

SwingTime – A bunch of medical librarians land in Austin, Texas and discover that honky tonks and margaritas and Texas Swing are all right up their alley. Meeting? Was there also a meeting? Think of this one as Todd Phillips writes a movie with smart people in the cast.

*****

IMG_2282

It’s ideal, but is it a winner?

Our House in the Middle of the Street – Adopting the title of the hit song by the band, Madness, back in the 1980s, the attempt to buy a home becomes maddeningly complicated at every turn possible. A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World it was, but this picture avoids the pitfalls of  The Money Pit and becomes an instant classic. Home, Sweet Home.

*****

Four Friends

Who will fall into the drama?

The Big Thrill – Four friends gather by a lake for a weekend of reminiscing. Twenty five years may have gone by between meetings, but the reunion is filled with laughter and tears. Lawrence Kasdan’s influence knows no bounds.

***************

Wow! What a slate. There’s not a non-deserving picture in the bunch. Hand me the envelope there, judges. And the Oscar for Best Picture of 2015 goes to…

Our House in the Middle of the Street! 

This is the first Oscar win for first-time homeowners Sally and Lynn. The sentimental favorite, yes, but who can argue? We can now sit in the comfort of a warm and cozy home and watch movies forever. Definitely a “Happily Ever After” feature.

Stay tuned for more. We’ll be back after a commercial break.

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It’s Still the Giving Season

7 Jan

Yes, yes… the official holiday season is a little bit behind us now, but my ChristmasChristmas tree is still up and I celebrate as long as possible, i.e. until said tree becomes a fire hazard, so in the spirit of giving, here are a few goodies I’ve discovered over the past couple of weeks. Enjoy!

Reading Lists! Oh how I love them and this time of year is always ripe with such. The folks at TED Talks produced a nice one – 58 books recommended by TED speakers – and my favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s (Portland, OR)  offered up a selection of their favorite nonfiction books of 2015.  Here’s a list from Austin Kleon, who I mention here often – his reading list from the past year. And finally, if you missed reading along with Facebook’s chief, Mark Zuckerberg during his A Year of Books group, it’s not too late to see all of the books he read and discussed. BTW, if you’d like to run with Mark this year, you can join his new Facebook group, A Year of Running. 365 days = 365 miles. Go for it!

And while we’re on lists, I did my favorite music list in my last post, but afterward came across NPR’s poll results of their listeners favorite albums of 2015. More for your listening pleasure.

Switching gears… did you make a New Year’s Resolution to learn something new? I did. I’m taking banjo lessons. Hot dog! But I’m taking them in person because I’ve tried in vain to learn via online classes and Youtube videos. That said, there’s plenty of subjects well suited for the virtual world and the post on Medium, The 37 Best Websites to Learn Something New, will point you in the right direction.

Sadly, one thing that always gets me a little down when I think about and/or pursue learning something new is that I’m getting older. Older every day. I fear that I’ve missed out on ever becoming really good at something that I might want to do or be. I’m sure we all might feel that life crisis from time to time. In the midst of such anxiety last week, my daily email from The New Yorker arrived with a link to a great piece by Malcolm Gladwell, Why Do We Equate Genius with Precocity? I liked it a lot and found hope in the thought that maybe I’m just a late bloomer.

Just for fun – “The lyrebirds of Australia were highly mysterious and rarely seen until one fell in love with an elderly widow in 1930.” Surely you will want to listen. How could you not?

 And finally, perhaps one of the coolest things that crossed my radar this week is this wonderful collection of infographics from the folks at Wait But Why. Could you imagine looking at 90 years of living in a more creative way? Great stuff.

That’s all for this week. Here’s to a Happy, Healthy, Peaceful, and Curious Creative-filled 2016 for all!

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