Category: the lockdown diaries

Day 353 – Garden shot

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The work on the house continues with some painting, some lighting and some extra additions here and there. The pool is full, but it’s dark and wet (outside, not the pool), so I can’t do my after photo just yet.

Here’s one from yesterday then – a Citrus Swallowtail (Papilo demodocus) in the back garden:

We see a lot of these around (they’re probably the second most common butterfly locally after the Acraea horta) but they never stop moving: they’re flitty and flighty, so I’ve never managed to get a shot before. This one actually settled for a few moments, although it never stopped moving its wings (rapidly) for a single second and so I was forced to use high speed shooting in Sports Mode on the camera to get a decent image (and about 74 poor ones).

There are actually a couple of other reasonable shots, but I haven’t got as far as Lightroom yet, because the work on the house continues with some painting, some lighting and some extra additions here and there (I think I mentioned this), so those might have to wait for another day.

Day 351 – Presenting data

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OK, this was going to be a longer post and then I had a hell of a day and now I’ve given up on anything except braai’ing and beer, so it’s now going to be a shorter post.

However, my point still stands.

And the point that still stands is this:

If you have data to present, it doesn’t matter how interesting or dull they are, presenting them in an engaging manner can still capture the attention of your audience.

For example, you might have some really dull data about lots of different types of the colour grey which you need to share with your colleagues. A pantone colour table is not going to be the way to do it. No-one cares about the difference between light elephant and rainy sky. However, if you… if you… erm… actually, this is a poor example, because off the top of my head, I can’t think of an entertaining way of presenting data about several differing tones of grey.

If only there was something…

But never mind.

Here’s the data I want to share today. And what an incredble way of doing it.

Yesterday marked 10 years since the 2011 tsunami in Japan, and I was sent this – a snapshot of all the earthquakes in and around Japan in 2011. Japan is pretty seismologically active, so there’s plenty going on, but it’s still rather grey data, right? Not if you present them like this.

You’ll need your sound on and you’ll want to watch (at least) until the 11th March (about 0:45), for obvious reasons. Keep your eye on the event count in the bottom left corner.

It’s quite something, isn’t it? What a way to present fairly basic data in a form that is easy to understand at any age and with any degree of expertise. And what a way to demonstrate the sheer terrifying scale of that earthquake on 11th March 2011.

If you want to view the whole year, it’s on Youtube here.

Day 350 – Latest image

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A brighter day on this little bit of planet Earth today. Sure, we’re mopping up a bit after close on 100mm of rain yesterday, but the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and the pool guys are back. It’s looking really smart. I’m very hopeful of a finish today.

I took some time out to watch a Starlink mission launch this morning. Just for the record, I’m not saying that Starlink is a Good Thing – the pollution of our night skies is worrying to me. But equally, the principle and the technology amaze me. I can’t impress upon the kids enough the incredible privilege and opportunities that they have these days, to be able to just click a button and watch history unfolding in front of them. And I love the watch the satellites going over whenever I can: it makes something so fantastical, actually real. Yes, I completely recognise that this doesn’t tie up with the pollution worry above.

And then there’s the Perseverance mission to Mars, which is sending back some unbelievable images:

236,000,000 kilometres away. 13 minutes for the data to get back to us here on Earth. And yet it could even be the view from my bedroom window. Absolutely amazing.

Right. More jobs to do. This house isn’t going to mend itself, is it? (Ha! I wish!)

Day 349 – Rain and a new editor

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I’m trying to be positive about this house we’ve bought in this strange but beautiful little enclave of the Southern Suburbs (which really isn’t like Royston Vasey) (or at least that’s what I keep trying to convince myself).

One day, it will be a great home – and I know that it’s really early days – but the constant setbacks and extra invoices that they seem to unerringly generate, well, they’re getting me down a little.

Today was the first day of rain since we’ve moved here; the first day of real rain this year, I think (the first 69 days of this year seem to have whistled past without generating any significant meteorological memories). Its imminent arrival meant that the pool guys had to abandon their work early yesterday, and thus we’re left with a partially completed, partially filled pool at the moment. Hopefully things improve enough for them to be back tomorrow to finish the job.
That’s going to look really good.

I spent a lot of the morning finding leaking roofs and windows. Seven in total, and only two really bad ones, but that’s seven (and two) too many. Let’s be nice and not talk about the legalities of disclosure. On the positive side, I guess that this early, single cold front does give us the chance to try to attend to the issues before the proper onset of proper winter. I have a feeling that I’m going be up ladders for much of the remainder of the week. But things need to dry out before I can start chucking waterproofing chemicals around.

Lastly, away from all this house stuff, I’m finally giving WordPress’ Block Editor a go, dragging myself kicking and screaming into the 21st century. If you’re reading this and words in all order are, then it would seem that I have mastered it already. Intuitive UI FTW!