Green Up Day

In Vermont (where I grew up), there’s an annual tradition called “Green Up Day,” which is a day when Vermonters head out to the roadsides and pick up all the trash they can find. It started as a state event and is now run by a non-profit. Check them out and support them at greenupvermont.org.

I’d like to take this concept worldwide. To that end, I’ve just purchased greenupday.org. This is not affiliated with Green Up Vermont in any way except for the name and idea. If you have money to give, give it to them. This website will take some small effort to set up, but I’m hoping to spark some grassroots greening up.

Plan for the first Saturday in May. Use hashtag #greenupday to spread the word on social media.

More to come. Let’s get to work.

git branching development workflow in Rstudio

  1. open git terminal/cli
  2. git branch new-branch-name (make new branch)
  3. git checkout new-branch-name (switch to new branch)
  4. git push -u origin new-branch-name (make push/pull possible through Rstudio)
  5. make changes and save files
  6. add changes with Rstudio or git add
  7. commit changes with Rstudio or git commit -m “Commit message.”
  8. push changes with Rstudio  or git push origin new-branch-name

#Resist

I’ve been thinking on and off over the last few days about how to make change in the world. In America, we’re seeing one-party control of the executive and legislative branches of government, which is probably a bad thing. I’m not a fan of parties in general–too often, they seem to work in lock-step and will afford their members no deviation, even to represent their constituents.

There are many posts written on this type of thing already, and with much more understanding and history backing them up. I just feel the need to summarize some of the ideas bouncing around my head, in no particular order.

  • #Resist in the title isn’t necessarily in reference to the current administration. It’s a call to take action for your beliefs. Resist miseducation, resist fake news, resist kneejerk reactions, resist ignorance (especially your own). Be aware of why you’re taking action, and why you believe what you believe.
  • It’s not enough to choose your side and be done with it (especially if your side is a political party). People in government are built from the same stuff as the rest of us, and are subject to the same emotions. They (like everyone else) can make mistakes, be illogical, and not think in the long term. Look at their actions and respond to those, not whether there is a D or R after their names.
  • Use the tools given, but be mindful. Swing Left looks interesting, and looks like it’s a way to statistically strike at the most important voting areas of the country. It can be a tool for change, but it’s also a tool for the Democratic Party. I don’t know who runs it. Third parties likely don’t count. Republicans who are doing good work in their districts and are pretty close to Democrats don’t count.

There are more thoughts. There will hopefully be more posts if I can organize them. Thanks for reading.

Quick Rainmeter Snow Skins

I’m a minor nerd about fresh snow, so I have these Rainmeter skins running on my monitor right now (really just two versions of the same skin). I thought I had them in GitHub or GitLab, but apparently not yet. If you use them, enjoy!

Two snowfall maps in two different Rainmeter skins.

Snow.ini

;Shows the 48-hour snowfall map from Intellicast.
;To customize, go to http://www.intellicast.com/Travel/Weather/Snow/Forecast.aspx?region=brd, navigate to the right region, and get the url of the image.
;Paste that as URL, below.
;
;Help from http://rainmeter.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=20018 and http://docs.rainmeter.net/manual/getting-started/creating-skins

[Rainmeter]
Update=3600
;To make this to immediately show up, change value to 0 and refresh.

[MeasureImage]
Measure=Plugin
Plugin=WebParser
URL=http://images.intellicast.com/WxImages/48hrSnowForecast/brd.jpg
Download=1

[MeterImage]
Meter=Image
MeasureName=MeasureImage
H=375
W=500

snow_noaa.ini

;Shows the 3-day snow probability from NOAA.
;To customize, go to http://www.weather.gov/crh/outlooks?sid=fgf#.WF2NTdUrJaR
;Paste that as URL, below.
;
;Help from http://rainmeter.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=20018 and http://docs.rainmeter.net/manual/getting-started/creating-skins

[Rainmeter]
Update=3600
;To make this to immediately show up, change value to 0 and refresh.

[MeasureImage]
Measure=Plugin
Plugin=WebParser
URL=http://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/wwd/day3_psnow_gt_04.gif
Download=1

[MeterImage]
Meter=Image
MeasureName=MeasureImage
H=375
W=500