This Website…
This is a website/blog dedicated to geospatial and photographic techniques and technology. I plan to write rants, raves, reviews, and tutorials about those 2 fields of my interest. Most of the writing will be in the form of blog posts but every now and then I’ll compile them into a page. Or I’ll write a page directed at something specific… most tutorials will be written this way. Anything else will probably be a rant—blah, blah, blah.
Me and Myself
The name is Jack. You don’t know me.
You don't know Jack, ca. 2003 (photo copyright ©2003 Darryl A. Wesloh)
Seriously, my full name is Pericles Socrates Nacionales. I have a feeling my parents where thinking of gold and grandeur when they gave me that name. All they got is a whole lot of trouble. But it’s what they gave me. And I actually like it. I mean it’s a tongue twister to those who don’t know history. To those who do know about Pericles or Socrates, it’s either a subject of curiosity or just an intimidating subject. I mean, who names their kid Pericles?! Or Socrates?! Well, Socrates may not be that scary of a name. After all the guy did commit suicide. But Pericles, he started a war. A war he couldn’t finish but one that finished him. Shit, note to self: Never start a war.
Well, Socrates is actually my mother’s maiden name. It’s custom where I come from to use your mother’s maiden name as your middle name. My mom’s name itself is pretty impressive: Sofia Paredes Socrates. Seriously, who names their daughter Sofia? C’mon! And my dad? My dad’s name is Nestor Valdellon Nacionales. Nestor?! C’mon!
So, my family is into Greek names. Not just any common greek names but “big and heavy” greek names. And we are not big and heavy people. Well, I’m neither big nor heavy. So are my siblings… uh, they’re not big but they might be heavy.
Most of my friends call me Perry or Peri. But really, you should call me Pericles. Not Perciles, or Percicles, or Perickels. Pronounce it however you want, give it whatever accent you have, just make sure it’s Pericles.
I have a BS degree in Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior. Yeah, it’s quite a mouthful but basically I have a degree in Ecology. You can extend that and say my interests lie in the biological sciences. You won’t be wrong. I’m fascinated by anything biology. I’m also fascinated with physics, chemistry (lie! not so much general chemistry but organic chemistry), and engineering. Except biological engineering. That shit scares me. We don’t know enough about biology to mess shit up. When we do biological manipulations, it usually comes back and sticks a size 7 in our poop shoot! There’s so much yet we don’t know about life on earth and the interactions of the different groups of living entities and their environment… we must be careful how we mess with those interactions. Did I mention I like Ecology?
I really enjoy field work. If it’s up to me, I’ll be outside doing fieldwork most of the time. But I also like computers and electronics. Technology, really. Right now I do more computer-related things than I do fieldwork, outdoors type things. But it’s not boring stuff. I do mapping and analyses of maps and other info. The kind of info that include location. Someday, I will try and balance my interest in doing fieldwork with my interest in computers and mapping.
I like photography… but I already said I like technology. I’m fascinated with the act of taking pictures, the image processing techniques and getting the final image. I also like baking. One of these days I will go through an experiment of using mayonnaise in a pancake batter. Think about the main ingredients of mayonnaise… it’s got eggs (egg yolks) and it’s got oil. And what does a (pan)cake batter need beside flour, buttermilk and baking soda? Eggs and oil. Enough said.
Going back to fieldwork, computers, and mapping… I like to share what I know. I like to volunteer. There was a time when I was actively involved in helping with an open source web mapping software. I’m not a programmer so my involvement was mostly in documentation and helping new users. I’m still helping although not as actively as I used to. Check out the MapServer website and you might find my name somewhere there. I’m also involved (although, again, not as active as I used to be) in the bigger open source geospatial umbrella, the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo). Locally, I’m involved in the Twin Cities MapServer Users Group (TCMUG) which is actually a local chapter of OSGeo. I also volunteer with the Minnesota GIS/LIS Consortium’s annual conference. Beyond this, I coach. I coach one of those fringe sports, the one hippies like to play—Ultimate frisbee! We call it “Ultimate” these days (frisbee is trademarked by Wham-o) and it is the ultimate team sport. The hippies probably won’t want to play Ultimate the way we play it these days.
Some say knowledge is power. And it is. But knowledge in the hands of a few is unbalanced power, the kind that corrupts. Humans can do just about anything—tackle the biggest challenges, climb the highest mountains, and all that crap—when we share what we know. No, I’m not a socialist. Nor am I a capitalist. I’m just a man who’s trying to keep his circumstances under his control. I don’t wanna be like Mr. Roboto.
Lastly, I’m a hopeless romantic and I was told I fear commitments. I also get bored quickly. I’m also a procrastinator. I’m going to finish this page later…