New project from me: BlockMaps.
BlockMaps is a custom mapping service for visualizing what’s happening in a specific place — a neighborhood, a town, a single block. You name the place and the activity (construction, road closures, public art, business openings, civic meetings), and BlockMaps builds, hosts, and maintains the map.
The first map is live at sugarhouse.blockmaps.net, covering ongoing construction projects in the Sugar House neighborhood of Salt Lake City, where I live.
A new side project from me: Webster’s 1913.
It’s a static website serving the complete text of Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary from 1913.
James Somers wrote a popular blog post about Webster’s 1913, explaining how its definitions are more vivid and literary than what you’ll find in a modern dictionary.
There already exists another site, that I sometimes use, websters1913.com, but unfortunately it has an SSL cert issue, and is not very feature-rich.
A new side project from me: DVD Organization Simulator.
A browser-based game where you organize DVD titles alphabetically across multiple shelves. DVDs spawn on the floor periodically, and you need to place them in the correct alphabetical order before too many pile up.
This is kind of a joke, inspired by discourse on the “death” of physical media, “going digital”, and the lost thrill of organizing your physical collection… but it turns out to also be a mildly entertaining game.
#1: Wake Up Dead Man
This fall, I took a 2-week solo trip to Italy. The primary cities I visited were Rome, Florence, San Gimignano, and Siena, with brief stops to San Miniato, Volterra, and Fiumicino. This is part 2 of a series of articles recapping the trip.
Stop 1: Rome For Rome my stop in Rome, the first of the trip, I had the most planned-out. On the first two days, I had guided tours planned for the mornings.
This fall, I took a 2-week solo trip to Italy. The primary cities I visited were Rome, Florence, San Gimignano, and Siena, with brief stops to San Miniato, Volterra, and Fiumicino. This is part 1 of a series of posts recapping the trip.
Travel and Lodging Plan My flight was in and out of Rome, and I booked all of my lodging prior to the trip, so I knew where I would be each night.
Synopsis, from IMDB:
A Japanese pacifist, unable to face the dire consequences of conscientious objection, is transformed by his attempts to compromise with the demands of war-time Japan.
The most immediately striking thing to me about this (Japanese) trilogy is how bluntly it exposes the excesses and abuses of the Imperial Japanese system during WWII, so soon after the end of the war.
The structure of the trilogy reminded me of the TV show, The Wire.
TL;DR: Check it out here! TonalRecall.us.
Background With about 1.5 hours of commuting to work each day, I spend a lot of time listening to podcasts. My absolute favorite of which is FilmJunk, a movie discussion show.
They sometimes play a game called “Score Bits”, in which the 3 hosts each prepare clips of film score, which are played for the others to guess. Prior to the live 700th episode of the show, the listeners were asked to provide clips for a game of “Dialogue Bits” (same concept, with clips of movie dialogue).
I decided to overhaul my personal site, with a blog, in order to (hopefully) force myself to write about some of the various things that interest me.
Some things that I might write about are:
Software development. Side-projects that I am working on. Technologies that I am learning. Tutorials. Movie reviews. The NBA. It would be great if others find some of the content useful, but I will be satisfied if I can use the exercise to improve as a writer.
Jot.zone