Food


I’m always on the lookout for new GeoTagged data, and it made my day I came across this database.  It contains almost all of the airports in the world, along with their positions in WGS84.

I’ve gone through their data a little bit, and it’s not 100% perfect.  There are no parameters to specify the type of airport (General Av., Heliport, Seaplane, etc) and some of the airports have ceased to exist since. (ie. Denver Stapleton Airport)

Despite its shortcomings, this is still a great chunk of geographic data.

Recently, a buddy of mine put together a map of the Major US airports on Google Maps, which can be found here.  A lot of work was put into it to only include commercial airports and to specify the larger airports.  Its main intent is to aid travelers in finding the commercial airport nearest their destination.

It has inspired me to use the data from OpenFlights to create a maps of the World’s airports.  The resulting file was over 5mb, so I decided to create a subset of United States airports. So check out the OpenFlights Airport Database – United States Airports on Google Maps.

Airport and airline databases released (via OpenFlights)

As always, there is a song attached.  The flash player was giving me trouble, so here’s the mp3 straight up.

Guster – Airport Song

Google Earth Fills Its Watery Gaps (via nytimes.com)
Google Earth, Google Ocean: mysteries of the seafloor are mapped for the first time (via guardian.co.uk)

What an Ocean Floor may look like

This is big news to all the Google Earth users out there!

Google Earth is a great tool for anyone who has any need for maps on land, and now, you can find maps of the ocean too. This is great for anyone looking at boating channels or looking to SCUBA dive somewhere. This isn’t a small undertaking either, considering roughly 2/3 of the earth is covered by ocean.

There is also some talk about incorporating global warming trends into Google Earth.  I could understand how some simulations of it could be very cool to watch.

Al Gore is going to be headlining the debut of this new software, so expect some talk about Global Warming.

And of all the songs named “Ocean”, this was the first that popped into my head.  So enjoy listening to this as you read the linked article.

Sebadoh – Ocean

In very related news, I am currently working on a program to convert ESRI shape files to GeoRSS and KML documents, which will open in Google Earth.  I already have the code working, and am working on the UI now, so if anyone out there wants to be a beta tester, please contact me.

The Scotch:
Around 6ish tonight, I decided I’d embark on my adventure to purchase Diageo products. One of my good friends, Sheila, has some sort of deal where she can get me a discount on these products for this week only.

With this in mind, I had my parents pick up a case of Guinness, I know they like the drink, and this discount thing is sweet. I decided for myself I would have to pick up some Baileys Irish Cream and Johnnie Walker Black. So far, it seems like a good choice.
scotch

Pretzels:
So I realized as I was driving down the PA turnpike that I was rather low on gas, with this, I thought about the gas stations that are on my way. My route is mostly made up of highways, and I wouldn’t have encountered a gas station until I hit Ridge Ave.

I decided to get off at the Fort Washington exit, and head toward Bethlehem Pike. I passed two Lukoil stations, but since they required left turns, I decided I’d keep heading forward. I recognized the area, as I have biked it once before. With this memory, I also remembered that there would not be any gas stations until I entered Flourtown. With my gas light already on for a while, this began to concern me, so I decided, the next gas station I see, be it on the right or the left, I will stop and get gas.

So I enter Flourtown, and see a BP on the left, but since I’m a weird person, I decide to make a right turn and take a U turn on that road. As I turned right, I realized there was a Texaco across the street from the BP, but it was too late, I had my heart set on the $2.73/gal BP. I took the U-Turn, and pondered the possibility of visiting Texaco (also $2.73/gal) instead on BP, thoughts raced through my head as to which company more closely fits my political views. Then I realized this was stupid, and no matter what the brand, the gas is probably all from the same sources. So, yeah I got gas at the BP.

Lucky for me, the BP was in the Acme shopping center. I decided to stop in, and purchase a card for my soon to be former boss. His wife just gave birth to a baby boy! So I feel that I would like to congratulate him, and a card is more formal than the standard email. I picked a card, and was on my way. The one issue here is my love for food, I felt compelled to walk around and look for a snack that I’ve never had, that would open my taste buds, while being absolutely delicious. I saw “Utz Toasted Sesame Pretzels” and instantly fell in love!
pretzels

Femmes:
Back in June of 2006, I was hanging out with some of my best friends from Drexel University, Ken and Kelly, and we stopped by the now defunct Tower Records on Broad Street. For some reason or another, they had the Violent Femmesself-titled album on sale, and I decided that I required it to be in my collection. I also picked up the Devo Album “Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!” on this trip. I have already owned the Violent Femmes compilation “Add It Up (1981-1993)” for many years, and I have loved it. I realize that there is something much more coherent with the album that just a compilation of excellent songs. I got into the self-titled Femmes album over the summer, and have been revisiting it every once in a while. It was well worth the investment.

One quite memorable trivial piece of information about this album involves one of my favorites TV shows, “How I Met Your Mother”. If you’re a devout fan, such as I am; you would know that Marshall and Lily’s song is “Good Feeling” by The Violent Femmes. I must say, of the not-so-popular tracks, my favorite song is currently “Please Do Not Go”.

Another thing about this album that angers me, is the usage of the song “Blister In The Sun” being currently used in a Wendy’s commercial. (More Discussed Here) I think the only commercial I’ve seen with worse song placement was the car commercial using Smash Mouth’s “Walking On The Sun” as its background music. They carefully edited out the second line of the chorus to completely change the meaning of the song.

From:

So don’t delay, act now, supplies are running out
Allow, if you’re still alive, six to eight years to arrive

To:

So don’t delay, act now, supplies are running out

Smash Mouth had quickly sold out, and now their follow up album was not nearly as good (in my opinion) as “Fush Yu Mang”, and with the combination of this commercial and their music in Shrek, I knew it was time to give up listening to Smash Mouth. I still love to play “Padrino” on my guitar, and will have fond memories of attempts of covering some of their songs with various people.

The Culmination:
After a delicious dinner of spaghetti and meatballs with sausage, I decided to retreat to my room. I checked email, and some other things, and talked to my good friend Ken on the phone for a little while. I decided to open up my newly acquired scotch and pretzels. I decided the Violent Femmes CD would put me in the proper mood to relax, and reflex upon my day. It has put me in a great mood, and makes me excited that I only have 6 more working days before I head to Argentina! I also suggest to anyone to try to have a night of good music, good drinks, and a good snack… It will make you feel better.
me

Tonight’s weather was simply amazing: 75 degrees, no rain, no wind, on March 14th! It also happened to be a Wednesday night, my traditional night to spend time with one of my awesome college friends Elli, so it was another lovely night in the city.

Samson Sushi Delight

First we stopped off to get some sushi at Samson Sushi Delight. Which may just be my new favorite sushi place in center city. They offer brown rice, good portions, and extremely fresh vegetables. The staff is very nice, and knows their competition well, and has excellent prices, especially considering the relatively generous portions they serve. I had the Avocado Roll, and the Vegetable Roll (which is not on the menu, but came highly suggested from Elli).

For more information: http://www.sansomsushidelight.com/

We then took a stroll around town, through Rittenhouse Square, and Fitler Square, eventually ending up at Markward Playground. This is where I first witness the sport of Cycle Polo. I must be really out of touch with the times, to have never even known such a sport existed, but it really was quite interesting to watch.

Elli in Markward Playground

We spent the rest of the night swinging on the swings, and deciding to play for this summer. It is unofficial, but it seems that this upcoming summer of 2007 will be “The Summer of Fitness” including a lot of biking, hiking, and other outdoorsy sports. This will probably be in stark contract with last summer’s “Summer of Milkshakes”, and I suppose that is a good thing.

There will be a lot of changes this summer, and probably a lot more commuting. But this summer is coming soon, so I will need to start making my goals soon. If anyone in the NJ/PA/NY area is looking to help me and take part in my summer of fitness, please get back to me.

Let’s just hope the weather stays this nice!