Sacred Harp Demo & Singing

A Sacred Harp demonstration and singing on January 20 conducted by Jeff Sheppard will be held at Rufus Floyd Public Library located at 3310 Alfords Bend (located directly across from Hokes Bluff City Hall) at 6:30 pm. The event is sponsored by Hokes Bluff Library Foundation. For More information, call 256-492-9846.

Hokes Bluff to dedicate municipal building to former mayor

According to a Gadsden Times article written by Katherine Poythress, the Hokes Bluff City Council will dedicate the city municipal building next weekend in honor of former Mayor W.A. Smith, whose six terms in office encompassed the 1971 construction of the building. Smith's mayoral tenure lasted from 1964 until 1988. The last two terms he served from his wheelchair after a fall that left him a paraplegic. During his tenure, Smith established the Hokes Bluff Police Department, the sewer system and garbage pick-up. He also helped improve quality of life in the city by overseeing the addition of a swimming pool, tennis courts, ball fields and a community center, a press release from the city said. A public dedication ceremony will be at 10 a.m. Aug. 29 at the municipal complex, which houses City Hall and the fire department. Masons will set the building's cornerstone, donated by the Hokes Bluff Lions Club, and a brief ceremony will follow in the council chambers.

The Map Room

The Map Room is a blog that points to maps, map collections, map-related resources, and material about maps on the web. Launched in March 2003, The Map Room is aimed at a broad audience. While cartographers and people in the geospatial industry seem to enjoy reading it, it’s meant to be accessible to anyone with nothing more than an interest in maps.

Comment on Cartography

Since I have been posting many of the sites that I have found over the years related to cartography, I have realized something. Most of the sites that are strictly cartography oriented are based in Canadan or England. So what's the deal? I know that mostly the art of true cartography is dead. I know that the general public do not care about good quality maps. Most people do not stray away from the major highways anymore. With GPS's, you don't have to even understand to read a map. All you have to do is do what the voice on the GPS tells you to do.

Online Map Catalogs in North America and Europe

Online Map Catalogs in North America and Europe is a gateway site containing links to online map catalogs in North America and Europe. Even though it hasn't been updated since 2000, the site was intended as introduction for researchers who need basic information about how to find and use online map catalogs. A version of this site appeared in the July/August 2000 issue of Mercator's World .

LOC Online Mapping Exhibition

The Library of Congress has a wonderful online exhibition named Maps In Our Lives. The exhibit shows "Washington's River Farm" though the years. It begins in 1760 with surveys of the land by George Washington and takes you through the years to a 1999 survey of a subdivision which is part of the original 1760 land.

Library of Congress

In the last post, I mentioned the Geography and Map Division of the Library of Congress. I thought it might be beneficial to mention some other useful links to Library of Congress sites. First, one should visit the main Library of Congress page. There one will discovery a vast amount of information. The LOC Geography and Map Reading Room is the site for the map reading room in Washington DC. On the site, they have a link to the previously mentioned Geography and Map Division of the Library of Congress. For general information visit the Research and Reference Services site which provides information of LOC collections and research tools.

Library of Congress Map Collection

The Geography and Map Division of the Library of Congress holds more than 4.5 million items, of which Map Collections represents only a small fraction, those that have been converted to digital form. The focus of Map Collections is Americana and Cartographic Treasures of the Library of Congress. These images were created from maps and atlases and, in general, are restricted to items that are not covered by copyright protection.
Map Collections is organized according to seven major categories. Because a map will be assigned to only one category, unless it is part of more than one core collection, searching Map Collections at this level will provide the most complete results since the indexes for all categories are searched simultaneously.

History of Cartography

Maphistory.info is a great resource for cartography from a historical standpoint. This site is a gateway to other sites where you will find old and early maps, map collection, cartographic societies, and exhibitions. The site's 100+ 'pages' offer comment and guidance, and over 5000 annotated links selected for relevance and quality.

Judge dismisses Google's Street View lawsuit

A legal claim by a Pittsburgh couple that Google's Street View feature violated their privacy has been thrown out by a federal judge.

Waldseemüller Map

Last July, I had the privilege of having the opportunity to view the Waldseemüller map on display at the Library of Congress. Waldseemüller’s map supported Vespucci’s revolutionary concept by portraying the New World as a separate continent, which until then was unknown to the Europeans. It was the first map, printed or manuscript, to depict clearly a separate Western Hemisphere, with the Pacific as a separate ocean. The map represented a huge leap forward in knowledge, recognizing the newly found American landmass and forever changing the European understanding of a world divided into only three parts—Europe, Asia, and Africa. As a cartographer, it was a honor and joy to see such a wonderful document.

Drafting Tools Site

AbstractorsTools.com is a nice site for drafting scales and mapping paper. The mapping paper is handy for abstractors working in the field.

Pronto Land Measure

For manual drafting, I like using a protractor called the Pronto Land Measure Compass. It's a really nice protractor. What I like most about it is the arm that allows you to line up your construction lines. I got mine from the person who had my job before me. I though they were out of business until someone found their website. I need to order a few more to put back for safe keeping.

2008 Hokes Bluff Christmas Parade

I posted video highlights of the 2008 Hokes Bluff Christmas Parade on YouTube.

Photography

I posted some of my past photography.

click here for photography

Buttercup Comes Home

So we finally got to bring Buttercup home. Our family is happy to get the honor to adopt her. Also, please note, my 2 year old daughter took this photo of Buttercup. She's a natural at photography. I hope one day she gets a job with National Geographic.

Buttercup

My wife and I are adopting a Bassethound puppy. Our daughter can't wait. Her name is Buttercup and will be ready for adoption in a few weeks.

old photos

I started scanning in old photos of my family in the February 2008. It has been a long slow process but i have scanned over 350 photos so far. This is only a small percentage of what I have to scan. I assume I have at least a few thousand photos. The photos are not mine though. They are on loan from the family. So I am learning the best way to archive the photos as I go. My scanner is not what I need but it will have to do. It is time consuming but will be rewarding in the end.

left turn at albuquerque (part 2)

so i changed my major to geographic techniques. I was totally clueless when i took my first gis class. i thought it was totally stupid. i couldn't understand why someone would get paid to do this. it took a long time to really gasp the idea of gis. a geographic information system (gis) is a collection of computer, software, and geographic data for capturing, managing, analyzing, and displaying all forms of geographically referenced information. that made little sense to me until i saw gis in use to solve a problem. so i actually started enjoying my classes. i eventually took classes in mapping and cartography. so during my last semester in college, my friend ask me to do him a favor. he wanted a job working in the tax office for the county. he could only work have a week because of school and he wanted me to work the rest of the week. i didn't really want to but i did need some experience. as soon as he found out that we were just clerks, he quit. but i stayed on working. i used ESRI arcview a little but not at all as an analytical tool. i just searched for owners names and that was about it. working there, i also got better at reading maps. i learned about section township and ranges. i also learned to read a legal description of a deed. i know that sounds easy but reading a deed was really difficult at first.

left turn at albuquerque (part 1)

i think i should have taken a left at albuquerque..... i never had any intention in becoming a cartographer. i also wanted to be a school teacher. when i first applied for the school of education at jsu, i was told that i had to declare two major to teach. for instance, like science and math. well i loved history and i wanted to teach nothing but history. i didn't want to get stuck teaching anything else so i didn't know what to do. my advisor told me that i could declare social sciences and that would count as two majors. i was a bit reluctant but i didn't know what else to do. i remember my first geography class and was totally confused. i met alot of people in class that were straight geography majors. i asked them what they were going to do after college. i asked if they were going to be high school teachers. they all laughed. i asked them what else could you do with a geography degree. a few said that they were going to work with oil companies and a few said they were going to do gis. that was the first time that i ever heard the word gis. the next semester in a geography class, dr k was telling the class of all the jobs in the gis field. so after class, i went up and asked him more about gis. he told me briefly what a geographic information system was. he told me to go talk to the geography department head for more info. so i went to dr johnson the next day. dr johnson was very optimistic about the field of gis. i was hooked. i changed my major that day to geographic techniques.

my first post

i know that no one is reading but this is my first post. i had a blog a few years ago (6 years that is) but i never had anything to say. well i now have something to write about. first i want to promote my hometown. i grew up in the wonderful town of hokes bluff alabama. i moved to gadsden when i was 12 years old. but i have recently moved back and i love this place so much. it's the perfect place for my family and i. also, i want to discuss what i do for a living. i am a cartographer. if you don't know what that is, look it up on wikipedia or just google it. so please forgive my misspelling because i rarely use spellcheck. and also, please forgive my rambling because i tend to ramble a bit.

casey