GIS at Stanford

I noted that I quit around 830 and then watched TV.  I had been renting movies like Dr Who but I wrote that I wanted to engage mom for board games.  I went to bed at 12.  Next morning by ten I was reading about the debates for the Assembly seat.  I then prepared for an interview.  After that there was the thesis.

I set up for the interview.  The position was for a transportation planning position with technical expertise in GIS at Stanford.  I opened up Hangouts.  When he came on we talked about the Hangouts a bit and then we got the names right.  This was the first of two rounds and I was one of ten being interviewed.  He said that he had a bunch of questions that he would go through that that this would provide a guide for his evaluation.  I asked about the job and we talked about Don Shoup a bit.

The job is a data focused job and he wanted to evaluate my skills.  The first questions were about Data Management, table production and visualization.  I remember that I went over my experience with SQL here.  I started off recounting my early experiences with Cartography and ESRI’s GIS.  I then recounted my subsequent experiences with tables and Access.  I also went into how easy it is to learn the tools if you know the basic premise.  Ramses then told me a little bit about the products they use and what they will probably be using.  There was Pentaho and a few items that had an “R” plug in—Wekka and other data mining tools.

He asked about my experience with Java and Python—scripting, programming and command line.  I told him that I had experience as a student and that my practical experience extended to building one or two things on my own webpage and that some of the students in the lab were a part of that.  He then asked if I would be able to scan versions of open source products for errant links or if I had had experience with a debugger or a command line and I said that I definitely could do these things.

He then asked about modeling and I gave him some examples and then he asked specific questions and I indicated that a solution would require scripting and that there would have to be several iterations and a lot of time for both the processing and development.

He then asked about GIS and I made it clear that I was quite capable in this regard.  I gave cartographic and network analysis examples such as route optimization, scripting and online tools.

He then asked about my survey experiences.  Here I went into depth with the three examples I knew and hoped that this was enough.  I did one for my thesis, I helped with the campus alternative transportation office and then there was another one that I gave him.  I also asked him if the surveying was for CEQA and he said no.  He explained that every year they collect a representative survey from a population of 60000 campus users and that the data needs to be moved from the survey to tables and thence to analysis and that the successful candidate would be instrumental in the process.  He said that he was previously the person that did this job.

He asked me about my project management experience and I started with my dish washing job.  I then went into my English teaching and then to my experiences going into and out of Grad School.  I finished with the last two jobs.  He said that I seemed to have qualifying coordinator experience.  He said I probably get along with others.  It seemed clear that I hadn’t really had any Management experience though.  He asked me to explain to him why I should get the job and I said that this is the position that I wanted (my “dream job”) and that he had essentially gone over a long list of things that I was well qualified to do.

I then asked about the turnover and the office environment.  He seemed to think that there wasn’t a huge emphasis on punctuality and that working from home was occasionally possible.  He also said that there wasn’t a lot of turnover in the job and that a lot of people are around for years before they even consider moving on to something better.  He was taking over from his boss who was moving to the Airport.

When we wrapped things up it was a little awkward trying to cue him to end things.  In the midst of this he mentioned the cost of travel for the next round of interviews.  I had to correct his belief that I was in Long Beach still.  It may be that my being from outside the area was a plus.

Later I wrote that I was at Java Beach looking at my review.  I was trying to identify changes before working on the volume.  I had already done the roman pages.  I also read some of the Twitter.   I made two rounds of reading.  The first was a simple classification of each part of the Review.  There is the intro, the romans, asks, thesis notes and finally the Hb which I never really did anything with.  I then go into the thesis notes in more detail.

I made some keywords to address concerning the three different types of notes.  One is the CN, one is the old undone items and there are the completed notes.  I then listed out keywords from the CNs.  In Chapter 1 there are paragraph, substitution and conceptual issues.  In Chapter 2 there is spelling.  In Chapter 3 there are substitutions.  In Chapter 4 there are figure references, italics (questions), substitutions, terms (esp. library) and references.  Finally, in Chapter 5 there were substitutions, comments and terms to deal with.  Additionally, this chapter had several old items left over to deal with which may cause me to consider a rewrite.

I then started rereading the first pages.  I said that I noticed there are a lot of things in the review that I simply needed to eliminate.  I also need to recheck the submission date and the HB is crazy.

This is series chronicles my life at regular intervals. This Memo series is meant to be a retrospective of what I have written and experienced. In each of these posts I use my notes in conjunction with memory, mementos and souvenirs to create a snap shot of my life.

Showcase Activism Efforts

During the last week of November 2013 I had a conversation about pedestrian over-crossings (POCs) with a friend on Mission Street.  I noted that the Federal Highway 101 is the first tier of urbanization inland from the West Coast of the US and that its freeway sections often function as a barrier to mobility.  This inspired us to visit the 101 that night at the foot of Potrero Hill.  We rode our bikes to Hampshire and 18^th and took photos of the 18th Street POC.  Then a few days later I met with a few other people to draw up a research design and review maps of the area.

My notes detailed a set of potential strategies for producing content.  There are 52 weeks in a year and—at one post a week—each strategy could produce enough posts to cover the whole year.  For instance, a personal production strategy—such as this one—might simply involve the notes and emails that we compose in the course of accomplishing our lives.  Meanwhile, a bar or café strategy may involve visiting places near highway 101 to produce content.  For instance, in Humboldt County California, a small business district in Arcata sits at the foot of a POC and there are multiple places with easy access to a POC in Los Angeles.  Each of these locations can be investigated to better understand how they benefit from POCs.  I also have considered an expert strategy, where planners, geographers, photographers and/or engineers may help provide opinion pieces or consult on how to develop other strategies like competitions for college or high school students.  Finally there are myriad groupings of friends, parents and teachers which may supplement and fill out the last twenty weeks of the year.

My notes also sketched out what would be necessary to transform reportage into a website with broad appeal.  Essentially, visiting a POC, as we had in November, provides a set of steps that go into the process of data collection.  As the process is conceptualized and revisited it transforms from a short bike ride into an email/blog conversation.  Eventually, images are uploaded, ideas are proposed and posts are developed.  Diagrams and schematics may be a part of this process.  In a general way these items would be attributes in an object oriented database to which any post might link.  In this design, specific attributes would map onto a set of predetermined relationships using names, images, identifiers, keywords and posts.  This would effectively link strategies and keywords to fully identify each object.  Finally, the system may be further developed into a mobile application.

This design is really driven by the list of objects: the POCs themselves.  The blog entries would slowly be transformed into db items and while some items may currently be well documented in the db (e.g. those in SF) others would only be mooted as a potential for growth (e.g. central CA, Los Angeles or the Olympic Peninsula).  I especially like the idea that each object would effectively showcase activism efforts over public infrastructure, access and community mobility.

So about a week after sketching out these ideas I got up early one day and rode over Mt. Davidson to McLaren Park.  While I had been considering one specific crossing in Visitation Valley, I chose is Harkness Street POC instead.  This is the south most POC on Caltrans’ list of overcrossings for San Francisco.  Upon my arrival at Harkness and San Bruno I looked for and found the site.  Based upon the documentation easily available from Caltrans’ District Four website I knew before looking for this particular POC that it had been closed to public use.

I circled the crosswalks a bit and made a couple of calls to request a clean-up for the trash which had accumulated in the vicinity.  This helped me to understand who owns the lands around the location.  While San Francisco’s 311 call center was easy to contact, the call to Caltrans involved several transfers.  However, in both cases I discovered that the trash problem was a normal thing for this area.

I spent a lot of time near this overgrown and locked gate.  I found that this particular crossing was difficult to document because it is closed and covers nearly a square mile.  Moreover, the location is terribly sinister.  I went to Bayshore Boulevard’s northbound crossing to view POC from in the contexts of the on- and off-ramps in the area.  I then took looked at the Bayshore southbound underpass to follow the crossing’s eastern access.  Many of these views are also available using a street level view online.  One useful item I noticed about this experience was that there is a bee farm and a community garden that abut both sides of the freeway.

I then rode my bike to Faith Street POC.  This one is located on Bayshore Boulevard and it is giant.  After a little bit of looking on the east side of the freeway I found the entrance.  Faith Street seems to climb straight into the Freeway.  I noted a tunnel on the East side of the structure called Morris Olsen but it had been sealed.  I suppose I will never know what it was for.

I rode three blocks to Peralta then and looked down on the Cesar Chavez POC.  This set of crossings is in several parts.  One set which I could see from my perch above it crosses under the Chavez and 101 interchange.  I then went over to the construction site at 54 Peralta and caught a good view of the Hampshire Street span.  Walking through the interchange was a trip since I could tell that many of the locals (possibly homeless) didn’t seem to want me there.  The westbound bridge is a curvy snaky thing that is hard to document.  Later I rode over to the 25th Street POC but found it closed.  Finally, I rode to the 22nd Street POC to observe what it seemed were people coming home from work.

I have received several photos from other people.  For instance I recently received a couple of images recently from a friend who visited Belmont San Mateo.  There are also a couple that I took in Marin on the Mill Valley-Sausalito bike and pedestrian path.  I also have a number of photo sets I received via text message for Sonoma, Mendocino and Humboldt Counties.  These include the Kenilworth crossing in southern Sonoma, the Earle Street crossing, the Oak Manor crossing and finally the 17th Street crossing in Arcata.

This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.  I started writing this on 121813.

Went to Ruby Room

I noted that I was frustrated by the WiFi as I left.  I took Irving and then Page.  I met Kathryn at Hotspot.  She was with some girls from work and Leslie said hi.  We hopped a train to San Leandro.  Kathryn said her Portland friend Peter and his Philly friend Jeff were on their way.  They work for Code for America.  Shaun said he would be late.

Four of us rode to a park on the bay in San Leandro.  Things were a little confusing at the first party stop because of the gated entrance.  Shaun showed up then.  Cops were there and followed us all the way to the edge of San Leandro.  We went to the MLK Bay Lands.  We chose to leave after the fireworks.

We took the bay trail and Shaun helped us find the way.  At Fruitvale we took 12th.  We went to Ruby Room.  Shaun went home and the rest of us rode to Lake Merritt BART.  We took Kearney.  We saw Brendan at Columbus.

I wrote that the next morning I got up at 12p.  Kathryn had gone to the vet and the supermarket.  She got a paper for me while I started making breakfast.  We tidied up and cleaned.  We walked to the Broadway tunnel through light rain.  We went to the bike shop on Polk and Kathryn got some shoes and I walked around the neighborhood.  We found these cool cards at the shop so I ran up to Lombardi and bought them.  Later we went to It’s a Grind and had coffee.  There was this guy working there who had worked at Lil’ griddle.

Kathryn and I walked over Russian Hill.  The rain had passed Kathryn went home and I bought stuff.  She made pizza.  She also fixed her bed while I helped with the food.  It was delicious.  We walked to Sweety’s and back and were in bed by 11.  That night Brendan posted something about Mill Valley to Face Book.

I got up early on Sunday.  We had a small meal and were ready to go at the Embarcadero with Peets coffee and a paper.  Shaun said he couldn’t go.  At Sausalito we rode to Mikes Bike’s and got some stuff.  Then we rode to the 101 and caught our breath.  Kathryn took a photo.  We then went to the Old Mill and had food.  We had to walk through the neighborhood to find the next route and then missed the turn.  We crossed a creek then and I took another rest to catch my breath.  The grade was really steep at this point.

I met her where the rail grade and a fire road split.  Then we climbed to the pavement at Summit road and sat on a bench and took photos.  Then I sprinted because of the pavement and we continued to the Double Bow Tie Knot.  We stopped for a while there.  Then we climbed to the ridge top and finished most of our food.  We walked our bikes down a trail and when a person warned us about citations I had to explain to Kathryn that Bikes are not allowed on the trail.

At Panoramic Highway we took Edgewood to the Pipe Line trail and emerged back on Edgewood.  We then went through the neighborhoods to get back to Miller Street eating the last of Kathryn’s pizza on the way.  We made it to Sausalito in good time and went to the fancy Barrel House.  The Boat was quick after that.  We rode to the house via Jackson and when we got there saw Charlie tidying the house.  We started watching A Fish Called Wanda.  We were in bed by 11.

On the morning I wrote this Kathryn didn’t get up till 8 so I just made coffee and sat around.  We got ready to leave and I think Kathryn forgot her lunch.  I said bye to her at Stockton and the ride was fine.  I had a utility bike pass me but I passed him back.

This is series chronicles my life at regular intervals. This Memo series is meant to be a retrospective of what I have written and experienced. In each of these posts I use my notes in conjunction with memory, mementos and souvenirs to create a snap shot of my life.