Zip It!

Ever wanted to get to know your neighborhood better? I mean really really well? I did... so I typed my zip code into a form over at ZIPskinny, and got an eye full.

How does your ZIP measure up?

I [Heart] Chris Yates

I love to drive… I love maps… and I love art (maps and art are rarely mutually exclusive). So imagine my thrice-blessed eyes this morning, when I came across artist Chris Yates' version (can you find the errors?) of a subway-esque interstate map for the US?

I think I've reached Nirvana (and not the crap-band from the 80s).

And for my brothers and sisters who love Canada as much as I do, Chris also has one for you…




Hat tip: Strange Maps

Meme: Four Things

Sorry about two meme posts in a row... but a dear friend ( whose Batman Begins I'm holding for ransom ) just sent me this... so I couldn't resist:

A. Four jobs I have had in my life:

Baker's assistant
Bag-boy
Bill collector
Software interface designer

B. Four movies I would watch over and over.

Young Sherlock Holmes
Lord of the Rings Trilogy ( I II III )
A Man for All Seasons
Spirited Away

C. Four places I have lived

Spokane, WA
East LA, CA
Québec City, PQ
Provo, UT

( Check-out my "Places I've Lived" map at Platial )

D. Four TV shows I love to watch

Project Runway
Prison Break
Psych
Eureka ( I found this one on iTunes )

E. Four places I have been on vacation

Copenhagen, Denmark
Banff, Canada
Reykjavik, Iceland
San Francisco, USA

F. Four Websites I visit daily: ( I have 400 feeds in my newsreader... but you want just four... )

Metafilter
Times & Seasons
Ideas in Food
Utah Centralist

G. Four of my favorite foods:

Pho
Miso soup
Vanilla ice cream served in my famous spicy fruit reduction
Corn dogs

H. Four places I'd rather be right now:

Stockholm, Sweden
Boston, USA
Beijing, China
Isfahan, Iran

I. Four friends I think will respond:

Hehe... this is a trick question, right?

Where on Earth?!

So, it's time I come out of the closet: I'm a map geek.

It's true... I love maps: making them, collecting them, reading them, appreciating their beauty — I even use them once in a while.

That's why I recently gave-in, and created a Platial profile of my very own. Now I can tell stories in a new and wonderful way: using maps (like one showing all the towns I've lived in, or another that I'm building now that will show all the LDS Temples)... and that's also why I've started to geotag the photos in my Flickr account. I started because I came across a wonderful geotagging bookmarklet from Flickr user Aemkei that is as easy as point-and-shoot photography ( bookmarklet found via this discussion thread ).

Very fun!

Oh the Places You'll Go!

So.

I recently discovered a wonderful service (in beta) that allows me to describe my life — not in words ( per se ), or in photos, or in music — in terms of places I've been... the service is called Platial. Yes, there are a couple of other ones out there, but none of them seem as polished as Platial... so I decided to sign-up.

I've got a Platial profile, of course, which you can now find in my sidebar. My first map is "places I've lived".