This tree was there before the sun.
This was posted as a joke on the internet, but it made me think of trying to have a conversation with Arthur: “Everything will be fine if we stick with the script of the conversation we’ve already had in my head.”
[daily log: walking, 2.5km;]
I found this aphorism in my book of Korean aphorisms.
굼벵이도 둥글재주는 있다
gum.beng.i.do dung.geul.jae.ju.neun iss.da
larva-EVEN rolling-talent-TOPIC have-INF
Even worms have a talent for rolling.
Which is to say… everyone can do something – even fools have some merit or ability. No one is worthless.
ㅁ The trees and denizens of all my surroundings, anthropomorphized but opaque, alive.
– a cinquain.
This tree is the tallest on lot 73.
Here it is illuminated by a rare fragment of morning sunshine. That sunshine doesn’t reach the ground, this time of year, because of the mountain’s shadow.
[daily log: walking, 1.5km;]
ㅁ The earth pulls us downward, embraces our dreaming with warm tendrils of gravity, and wins.
– a cinquain.
This tree witnessed sunlit, snow-covered mountain in the distance.
“Our Earth is degenerate in these later days; there are signs that the world is speedily coming to an end; bribery and corruption are common; children no longer obey their parents; every man wants to write a book and the end of the world is evidently approaching.” – from an Assyrian clay tablet, circa 2800 B.C.E.
[daily log: walking, 2km;]
[This is a cross-post from my other blog]
I decided to try to brush off some very rusty SQL skills and write a query against the OGF database to find out what our monthly active user counts looked like.
This data can only be compiled accurately for dates since the “migration”, which was in August, 2021. Before that changesets are not properly dated as they were all loaded at once from the old instance (Thilo’s) to the new instance (Luciano’s).
I decided to categorize unique user counts for each month by their “start year” (e.g. a user like myself would be under start year 2014). That way I could also see how old “generations” of users drop off over time.
I started with a nested SQL query, which is basically what I used to do professionally about 20 years ago, but it’s been a while since I wrote raw queries against complex data like this. It comes back fairly quickly though, and this is definitely the result of a little bit of trial and error. I’m working with two tables in the openstreetmap PostgreSQL database: users and changesets. I’m counting changesets by the month they occur and by a breakdown of users by when they started using the OGF site (with a special category for users who are “new” in the month they are active).
Here’s the query I made and ran at the PSQL prompt on the server (these data structures are all public knowledge, part of the OSM specification, so I don’t feel worried sharing it).
SELECT
t.changeset_month,
t.user_first_year,
t.new_user_flag,
COUNT(DISTINCT t.user_id) AS count_users,
COUNT(t.changeset_id) AS count_changesets
FROM (
SELECT
i.changeset_id,
i.changeset_month,
i.user_id,
LEFT(i.creation_month, 4) AS user_first_year,
CASE
WHEN i.creation_month = i.changeset_month
THEN 'new_user'
ELSE 'old_user'
END AS new_user_flag
FROM (
SELECT
to_char(changesets.closed_at, 'YYYY-MM') AS changeset_month,
changesets.user_id AS user_id,
changesets.id AS changeset_id,
to_char(users.creation_time, 'YYYY-MM') as creation_month
FROM changesets INNER JOIN users
ON users.id = changesets.user_id
WHERE changesets.closed_at >= '2021-10-01'::date
AND changesets.closed_at <= '2022-12-31'::date
) AS i
) AS t
GROUP BY
t.changeset_month,
t.user_first_year,
t.new_user_flag
ORDER BY
t.changeset_month,
t.user_first_year,
t.new_user_flag DESC;
Here’s the raw output I got.
changeset_month | user_first_year | new_user_flag | count_users | count_changesets -----------------+-----------------+---------------+-------------+------------------ 2021-10 | 2013 | old_user | 10 | 112 2021-10 | 2014 | old_user | 17 | 1098 2021-10 | 2015 | old_user | 23 | 720 2021-10 | 2016 | old_user | 24 | 448 2021-10 | 2017 | old_user | 34 | 787 2021-10 | 2018 | old_user | 45 | 1088 2021-10 | 2019 | old_user | 35 | 750 2021-10 | 2020 | old_user | 28 | 557 2021-10 | 2021 | old_user | 34 | 492 2021-10 | 2021 | new_user | 24 | 280 2021-11 | 2012 | old_user | 1 | 1 2021-11 | 2013 | old_user | 8 | 207 2021-11 | 2014 | old_user | 19 | 687 2021-11 | 2015 | old_user | 26 | 697 2021-11 | 2016 | old_user | 21 | 408 2021-11 | 2017 | old_user | 36 | 738 2021-11 | 2018 | old_user | 41 | 1271 2021-11 | 2019 | old_user | 29 | 663 2021-11 | 2020 | old_user | 26 | 749 2021-11 | 2021 | old_user | 28 | 439 2021-11 | 2021 | new_user | 23 | 498 2021-12 | 2013 | old_user | 10 | 335 2021-12 | 2014 | old_user | 17 | 773 2021-12 | 2015 | old_user | 23 | 892 2021-12 | 2016 | old_user | 25 | 657 2021-12 | 2017 | old_user | 31 | 703 2021-12 | 2018 | old_user | 43 | 1506 2021-12 | 2019 | old_user | 29 | 769 2021-12 | 2020 | old_user | 25 | 664 2021-12 | 2021 | old_user | 45 | 854 2021-12 | 2021 | new_user | 22 | 250 2022-01 | 2012 | old_user | 1 | 3 2022-01 | 2013 | old_user | 7 | 174 2022-01 | 2014 | old_user | 13 | 1023 2022-01 | 2015 | old_user | 22 | 805 2022-01 | 2016 | old_user | 23 | 568 2022-01 | 2017 | old_user | 32 | 753 2022-01 | 2018 | old_user | 39 | 1642 2022-01 | 2019 | old_user | 30 | 1062 2022-01 | 2020 | old_user | 30 | 878 2022-01 | 2021 | old_user | 42 | 703 2022-01 | 2022 | new_user | 24 | 192 2022-02 | 2013 | old_user | 10 | 397 2022-02 | 2014 | old_user | 19 | 1251 2022-02 | 2015 | old_user | 21 | 768 2022-02 | 2016 | old_user | 22 | 540 2022-02 | 2017 | old_user | 30 | 1136 2022-02 | 2018 | old_user | 41 | 1612 2022-02 | 2019 | old_user | 25 | 617 2022-02 | 2020 | old_user | 27 | 888 2022-02 | 2021 | old_user | 41 | 722 2022-02 | 2022 | old_user | 8 | 117 2022-02 | 2022 | new_user | 21 | 234 2022-03 | 2013 | old_user | 8 | 61 2022-03 | 2014 | old_user | 17 | 1384 2022-03 | 2015 | old_user | 25 | 927 2022-03 | 2016 | old_user | 22 | 705 2022-03 | 2017 | old_user | 35 | 1498 2022-03 | 2018 | old_user | 41 | 1211 2022-03 | 2019 | old_user | 33 | 861 2022-03 | 2020 | old_user | 30 | 1018 2022-03 | 2021 | old_user | 38 | 1458 2022-03 | 2022 | old_user | 13 | 491 2022-03 | 2022 | new_user | 27 | 758 2022-04 | 2013 | old_user | 7 | 186 2022-04 | 2014 | old_user | 17 | 871 2022-04 | 2015 | old_user | 24 | 500 2022-04 | 2016 | old_user | 19 | 683 2022-04 | 2017 | old_user | 30 | 1093 2022-04 | 2018 | old_user | 39 | 1291 2022-04 | 2019 | old_user | 29 | 833 2022-04 | 2020 | old_user | 28 | 673 2022-04 | 2021 | old_user | 32 | 753 2022-04 | 2022 | old_user | 25 | 900 2022-04 | 2022 | new_user | 21 | 231 2022-05 | 2012 | old_user | 1 | 1 2022-05 | 2013 | old_user | 8 | 214 2022-05 | 2014 | old_user | 22 | 1093 2022-05 | 2015 | old_user | 25 | 526 2022-05 | 2016 | old_user | 25 | 899 2022-05 | 2017 | old_user | 28 | 1100 2022-05 | 2018 | old_user | 40 | 1097 2022-05 | 2019 | old_user | 30 | 873 2022-05 | 2020 | old_user | 30 | 673 2022-05 | 2021 | old_user | 34 | 1328 2022-05 | 2022 | old_user | 27 | 558 2022-05 | 2022 | new_user | 30 | 348 2022-06 | 2013 | old_user | 7 | 249 2022-06 | 2014 | old_user | 17 | 979 2022-06 | 2015 | old_user | 26 | 605 2022-06 | 2016 | old_user | 26 | 593 2022-06 | 2017 | old_user | 30 | 988 2022-06 | 2018 | old_user | 39 | 941 2022-06 | 2019 | old_user | 27 | 985 2022-06 | 2020 | old_user | 26 | 783 2022-06 | 2021 | old_user | 36 | 919 2022-06 | 2022 | old_user | 44 | 606 2022-06 | 2022 | new_user | 31 | 523 2022-07 | 2013 | old_user | 8 | 84 2022-07 | 2014 | old_user | 19 | 1414 2022-07 | 2015 | old_user | 25 | 630 2022-07 | 2016 | old_user | 24 | 558 2022-07 | 2017 | old_user | 29 | 1209 2022-07 | 2018 | old_user | 39 | 1199 2022-07 | 2019 | old_user | 27 | 632 2022-07 | 2020 | old_user | 29 | 796 2022-07 | 2021 | old_user | 35 | 1082 2022-07 | 2022 | old_user | 41 | 750 2022-07 | 2022 | new_user | 38 | 632 2022-08 | 2013 | old_user | 10 | 165 2022-08 | 2014 | old_user | 17 | 1236 2022-08 | 2015 | old_user | 24 | 687 2022-08 | 2016 | old_user | 25 | 636 2022-08 | 2017 | old_user | 29 | 961 2022-08 | 2018 | old_user | 41 | 1145 2022-08 | 2019 | old_user | 35 | 808 2022-08 | 2020 | old_user | 25 | 585 2022-08 | 2021 | old_user | 38 | 847 2022-08 | 2022 | old_user | 50 | 1049 2022-08 | 2022 | new_user | 40 | 589 2022-09 | 2013 | old_user | 10 | 175 2022-09 | 2014 | old_user | 19 | 1534 2022-09 | 2015 | old_user | 20 | 604 2022-09 | 2016 | old_user | 24 | 750 2022-09 | 2017 | old_user | 23 | 735 2022-09 | 2018 | old_user | 41 | 1302 2022-09 | 2019 | old_user | 28 | 841 2022-09 | 2020 | old_user | 24 | 503 2022-09 | 2021 | old_user | 30 | 609 2022-09 | 2022 | old_user | 54 | 1035 2022-09 | 2022 | new_user | 25 | 261 2022-10 | 2012 | old_user | 1 | 3 2022-10 | 2013 | old_user | 8 | 231 2022-10 | 2014 | old_user | 18 | 1112 2022-10 | 2015 | old_user | 22 | 433 2022-10 | 2016 | old_user | 25 | 789 2022-10 | 2017 | old_user | 25 | 809 2022-10 | 2018 | old_user | 39 | 1267 2022-10 | 2019 | old_user | 28 | 895 2022-10 | 2020 | old_user | 30 | 736 2022-10 | 2021 | old_user | 27 | 382 2022-10 | 2022 | old_user | 54 | 1040 2022-10 | 2022 | new_user | 17 | 173 2022-11 | 2013 | old_user | 8 | 248 2022-11 | 2014 | old_user | 16 | 1164 2022-11 | 2015 | old_user | 22 | 357 2022-11 | 2016 | old_user | 23 | 675 2022-11 | 2017 | old_user | 25 | 927 2022-11 | 2018 | old_user | 37 | 897 2022-11 | 2019 | old_user | 25 | 702 2022-11 | 2020 | old_user | 25 | 679 2022-11 | 2021 | old_user | 25 | 577 2022-11 | 2022 | old_user | 49 | 1100 2022-11 | 2022 | new_user | 31 | 1641 2022-12 | 2013 | old_user | 6 | 317 2022-12 | 2014 | old_user | 18 | 981 2022-12 | 2015 | old_user | 23 | 543 2022-12 | 2016 | old_user | 20 | 541 2022-12 | 2017 | old_user | 25 | 941 2022-12 | 2018 | old_user | 34 | 973 2022-12 | 2019 | old_user | 28 | 935 2022-12 | 2020 | old_user | 22 | 500 2022-12 | 2021 | old_user | 29 | 432 2022-12 | 2022 | old_user | 59 | 1623 2022-12 | 2022 | new_user | 25 | 317
I plugged these data into a spreadsheet, did a few changes and a pivot table. Here’s a graph of the result.
The top band, in light blue, is the “new users” band – these are users each month who are active in their first month of joining OGF. The lower bands represent each year back to OGF’s founding, in 2012 (there were only 2 users in the first year, Thilo and Joschi).
Based on that graph, I would say really OGF is quite stable. We acquire a certain number of new users each month, we lose about an equal proportion of old users, but some subset of long-term users stick around.
ㅁ Coffee getting cooler so I can take a sip. The sky outside completely dark, predawn.
– a cinquain.
This tree (slightly blurry foreground) is going to be gravely disappointed when winter comes back, which it will.
Art tried to take a walk and fell down on his face. Not really a cognitive failure this time, as far as I can tell – more likely just stumbled on a rock – bad luck (Friday the 13th, as Jan pointed out).
This was just on the road (Port Saint Nicholas Road AKA The Expressway), only steps from our house. I had been out on my own walk, with the dog, so I found him lying in the middle of the road when I got back to our house. At first I thought it was a log that had fallen out of someone’s pickup truck, because of his brown coat. Then I realized, and in the moment I found him, he was unresponsive. He did finally respond. It took about 10 minutes to get him to stand up – he’s too heavy for me to simply lift (and he resists my effort to try to lift him because he claims it hurts his shoulders, which is no doubt true, but having him cuss at me while I’m trying to help because it hurts isn’t helpful).
Finally I got him to the car. I got my wallet and such and we drove to town. We got him to the clinic (the sorta kinda “emergency room” on the island) after a 30 minute drive. He was still bleeding.
They cleaned the wounds (sorta), did some xrays, checked vitals. He’d broken his nose and there was gravel embedded in a deep gash between his eyes, and a large patch of missing skin on his forehead. After two hours (I suppose it’s just a matter of being “under observation” but of course he complained repeatedly at how long it was taking), they gave us some prescriptions and gauze and antibiotic ointment and sent us on our way. They want us to keep the wounds as uncovered as possible but keep them moist with the antibiotic. For the broken nose, they gave him an anti-inflammatory.
I knew he wasn’t feeling too terrible since he decided to spend the drive home criticizing my driving.
When we got home, I walked up to the spot where he’d fallen down 5 hours earlier. There had been so much blood. The drizzle had washed some of it away, but some blood was definitely still visible in the mud of the road.
Some days are harder than others.
[daily log: walking, 5km; dogwalking, 3km]
[This is a cross-post from my other blog]
I felt that my faux-midwestern state, Makaska, would need a “Springfield” – doesn’t every real US state have a “Springfield”?
For this week’s low-effort brag-post of my mapping on OpenGeofiction, I’ll post this view of Springfield. Unlike most other parts of Makaska where I’ve mapped, this is not being done chronologically. It’s meant to represent the modern state of the map. I don’t feel it’s complete, but a lot is done – at least 65% done I’d say.
Here is a link to the map: https://opengeofiction.net/#map=14/-41.5031/148.4594&layers=B
ㅁ The dog had strong desires. Guided by her impulse, and the smells of each roadside spot, she pulled.
– a cinquain.
This tree is a guest tree from my past. I took this picture looking down from my apartment window in February, 2013, in the Juyeop neighborhood of Ilsan, South korea.
It was a dumpy apartment, but I liked that it was very close to work and the subway. It’s where I was living when I was diagnosed with cancer later that year.
Today I spent part of the morning fixing the septic tank aerator pump. Well… not fixing, exactly – more like replacing. The old one seems to have died, so I put in a new one, that I ordered on Amazon. The new one is installed, below – the old one is already removed.
[daily log: walking, 5km; dogwalking, 4km]
ㅁ December was cold, but lately the weather changed - it could be springtime.
– a pseudo-haiku.
This tree was in the company of plastic pink flamingo.
[daily log: walking, 4km; retailing, 7.5hr]
ㅁ I dreamed that I had insomnia. In the dream world, I lay awake. This was a difficult dream, as it made me feel tired; so that when I woke, it was as if I hadn't even slept.
– a nonnet.
This tree had a deer skeleton lying nearby.
I really feel it’s quite discourteous of people to leave animal carcasses lying by the roads. It shows a lack of respect for neighbors and community.
[daily log: walking, 4.5km; retailing, 7.5hr]
ㅁ The dog sniffed along and found a deer's skeleton down by the river
– a pseudo-haiku.
This tree is along the river just off the side of the bridge at 8-mile.
[daily log: walking, 3km; dogwalking, 4km]
I found this aphorism in my book of Korean aphorisms.
활을 당겨 콧물을 씻는다
hwal.eul dang.gyeo kos.mul.eul ssis.neun.da
bow-OBJ pull snot-OBJ wipe-PRES
[Someone] draws the bow [and] wipes [their] snot.
Imagine your nose is running – maybe it’s cold outside. You’re an archer. You draw your bow, and in that moment, you wipe your nose with your sleeve. I think that this refers to availing oneself of any opportunity, regardless of appearances. Or… you do what must be done in the moment.
ㅁ The end is nigh and people fear we've messed it up - oh no! But maybe we could notice that the past was that same show.
– a quatrain in ballad meter.
This tree survived through the morning.
The moon is setting over Sunnahae Mountain just after 8 this morning.
[daily log: walking, 3km; dogwalking, 3km]
ㅁ A kind of stasis takes a hold of me sometimes... at which point I sit.
– a pseudo-haiku.
This tree knew it was winter.
[daily log: walking, 3km; dogwalking, 3km]
ㅁ Kiamon went out and into the wood hoping the time off would do her some good; but she discovered the ghosts living there, calling her name and distorting the air.
– a quatrain in dactylic tetrameter.
This tree was malingering along the road under heavy cloud-cover.
[daily log: walking, 4km; dogwalking, 3km]
[This is a cross-post from my other blog.]
This is my low-effort map-brag of the week. This is quite recent work – mostly done in the last year or so. It’s in the central-south of my imaginary faux-US-midwestern state of Makaska. Like most of Makaska, this region is being drawn “historically” – which is to say, I’m trying to add features and such in a rough chronological order. As such, this still incomplete mapping is stuck somewhere in the very early 1900’s right now, and still needs quite a bit of work before I’d even feel comfortable to advance the calendar.
Here is a link to the location on the map: https://opengeofiction.net/#map=12/-43.0508/145.6341&layers=B
ㅁ Rain challenged the trees, in alliance with the wind. The trees stood their ground.
– a pseudo-haiku.
This tree is a guest from my past. It’s alongside some metro rail tracks between downtown Seoul and Ilsan, where I used to live. I took this picture in January, 2009.
The mountain in the background is the prominent Bukhansan. The large, highly-visible sign on the roof says “Dream Tree Daycare”.
[daily log: walking, 5km; dogwalking, 3.5km]
ㅁ After many nights of heavy clouds, the moon appeared last night, glowing, out east over the river, above the chill mountains, illuminating tangled branches of old trees: winter's rest.
– a nonnet.
This tree is a bit blurry, but it is hosting a well-fed eagle.
[daily log: walking, 4km; retailing, 7hr]
ㅁ The eagle watched me, wary but also half-bored, expecting I'd pass.
– a pseudo-haiku.
This tree was near the bridge at 7-mile. There is still ice on the road there, despite 3 weeks of almost continuous rain and above freezing temperatures. Clearly there was a lot of ice, and clearly rain at 36 degrees isn’t enough to melt ice properly.
[daily log: walking, 4km; retailing, 7hr]
ㅁ a winter's coffee is just like summer's coffee but drunk while it's dark
– a pseudo-haiku.