Mapping Games

For a while now I've been spending a lot of time on a trivia website, www.sporcle.com. Although there is a wide variety of games and questions available, I usually concentrate on the geography section. I practice naming countries of the world and memorizing where they are.

Due to the amount of games I've played I decided to create an account and keep track of my good scores. Here's a screen shot of my profile BtbaMmm.











Here you can see the format of the game. They supply you an empty map and you fill countries as you go. Each game has a time limit usually based on difficulty. I think tools like these can be fun and educational which is the perfect match for early education students. Geography is very important at an early age because the idea of place and surroundings are a recurring theme in life. Spatial awareness and knowledge are important aspects in my life and entertaining tools like these help keep my passion.

Granville Cubed

Granville, Ohio

This city is larger than its long lost brother in Massachusetts. Granville, OH is just outside of Columbus, the state capital. Although the population isn't large it is still connected throughout the region with major routes and interstates.


Another shot of the Ohio city shows the development pattern which is closest to a grid pattern with respect to the hilly landscape which holds the prestigious school; Denison University.





Granville, Massachusetts

The original Granville (and perhaps better?) this small town located in Western Massachusetts has a different development pattern of the colonial variety. Granville's center has a common green which historically served as grazing grounds for cattle. Settlement branches from the common in all directions without a set spatial design. Town is more popular towards the center yes, but reasons for dispersion and somewhat spontaneous layout could be results of time, agricultural rise and decline, industrial progression and even population growth.





Granville, Iowa

Quite flat and predictable compared to the other Granvilles. You can see perfectly sectioned areas of land that represent 1 square mile of farmland. Each piece of land has a building situated with a driveway (usually a house or a barn). Some would say this is in the middle of nowhere but I look at it as if that's the somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Small towns don't have economic advantages or competition like cities so each business in a town like this is vital to the livelihood of the citizens and the township. Local farmers rely on their town as a geographical location for business.


It's pretty interesting to analyze different towns across the United States. The developmental patterns and local networking systems in different regions vary significantly and I find it intriguing how each area functions in relation to its surrounding features.

Map as Art

I consider mapping an art. For centuries mapmaking was only utilized by artists and cartographers who had the skills to draw intrepretations of the landscape. I know one thing, if I had to freehand my maps I've made, I don't think I would qualify for the minor. I can however, apply artistic visions to my maps in the sense that what I create looks good and is understandable. I like being creative and I admit my artistic sense is limited, but I still have tendencies and organizations of my map that I can consider artisticly influenced. The colors and the layout mean a lot when designing a map and it is really important that audience and the intensity of these aspects are considered. Browsing the web I found an interesting site:
www.rare-maps.com
Here, many historic and rare maps are archived and sold for a moderate price. Though purchases are mainly for collectors, scholars can make use of the maps as we have with the Railway. The image shown is from 1772 and is very artistic and thorough.
They also have a great globe section with different designs and structures that represent a different artistic style and apply other views and ideas for portraying our concepts for this Earth. The globe shown is worth $8,000 and definitely a beautiful piece of material.

In these images you can see the path which follows a road which was probably based on the railway.

The river also shows a good detail in the map to help reference the railway. I believe it's good evidence of the railway.

I found a pretty cool site regarding history and mapping:

www.thetrustees.org; This site has plenty of historic information and maps of place in the Greater Boston area and northeast coast. Surf through the site to find locations and .pdf maps of historic locations.

It has a great database of historical information and a great locater of sites and reservations dedicated to preserving and utilizing historic culture and recognizing their important value.

Placeways is a really interesting site. I like the services they provide and feel they are a strong consulting firm for GIS and planning designs. Looking through the site I found a few components that I found useful, land use and build out are great tools for planners. I also like the 3d slide shows and images, its a new way to analyze sights and neighborhoods in an interactive new visual way.

Social Explorer

I think this site is very innovative and interesting. People who are interested in historic and social data can apply specific selections and make map without having any GIS or cartography training. I'm personally interested in census data and they provide it from 1790-2007, most of it for premium users which isn't surprising because it is also a business.

A map I did for example is a quick 'non-white' population data of the U.S. A cool map that you can do with that is do a slide show of different census' to show the increase in hispanics in the southwest

Metal Music and Geography

Metal


Defining ‘metal’ music I would say it’s a complex system of categorical types of sounds and themes. There are many genres and styles of metal, but generally a consistent heaviness is associated to the sound. By heavy, I mean low instrument tuning, yelling/growling/screaming for singing, and a faster paced overall melody, although slow extremely heavy ‘breakdowns’ are very popular as well.
Geography plays a large role in music and is very significant in some metal subcategories such as black metal, hardcore and rock & roll. Black Metal is culturally connected to geography, for the most part. Mostly popular in northern Europe, black metal bands depict themes in their music with respect to religion and myth, death, witchcraft and other dark themes. A few examples of these geographic connections are Amon Amarth, from Sweden and Dimmu Borgir from Norway. Amon Amarth represents Scandinavian tales of Vikings and ancient tales and legends. The Norwegian band who you would assume would possess these musical characteristics wears makeup and gothic clothing and are just scary.
Massachusetts has a really strong hardcore metal scene. Hardcore is genre of metal that has a thrashy, grind style sound. Boston has had a vital impact in the hardcore/metalcore music industry (metalcore is a different style hardcore, more melodic). A few notable bands include; Unearth (Lynn), The Red Chord (Revere), Bury Your Dead (Boston), Killswitch Engage (Westfield), The Acacia Strain (Chicopee), All That Remains (Springfield). Of course there are many bands from many places, but the extent that these bands have exceeded in the tough industry Massachusetts is a prominent leader of this awesome music.
Taking a step back from extreme metal bands, some rock & roll influence in the 60’s and 70’s was absolutely geographically consistent from a common area: Britain. Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, The Who, Bad Company, Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, and that is to just name a few. These bands have influenced the world of rock & roll more than I can say in this paper and it was England who produced them.
Music is a very important part of my life and I take I’m very passionate about what I listen too. Although I didn’t mention the thousands of other metal/rock bands out there, many types of music are geographically influenced. Modern day fame is best found in the most populated areas which helps influence that talent pool in specific countries and regions, the United States as an example with New York and Los Angeles compared to less modernized and successful nations.

Test

Listen to Between the Buried and Me