Natural Gas Usage in the United States

My most recent mapping endeavor stems from my curiosity over which states consume the most natural gas. After searching for a map presenting this information to no avail, I decided that I'd put something together.

The Energy Information Administration had all of the information I needed, broken down by end use, State, Month/Year, etc. I am mainly interested in 2008 data about Residential, Commercial, and Industrial usage, so I didn't make a map for Vehicle Fuel or Electric Power usage, although that data is available as well.

I present to you my results:
Drumroll, please!

2008 Residential Natural Gas Usage
2008 Commercial Natural Gas Usage
2008 Industrial Natural Gas Usage
2008 Total Natural Gas Usage

A few notes:
After you load these files in Google Earth, you can drill down to the state polygons in the Places panel. When you double-click a polygon, it will zoom to that state and display a bubble with usage information and rank.

All natural gas quantities are measured in MMcf.

For quick/simple viewing, use the web version!

• Residential
• Commercial
• Industrial
• Total
  

Tea Time: Blueberry Lemon Black Tea

I drink way too much tea to not have a recurring category about it in this blog. I have creatively decided to name it "Tea Time".
[Why don't I get paid to blog, again??]

The tea aisle in The Weg is quite a magnificent place. They have a great selection of prepackaged and loose tea, and if you get there early enough, they even have some samples!

One day, while lost in said aisle, I came across their selection of Eastern Shore Teas. After much deliberation, I opted for black tea with blueberry and lemon. It is AMAZING. Usually blueberry teas are too blueberry-ful for me, but the lemon in here balances it out nicely.


I've tried various other Eastern Shore Teas, and they've all been good, but this one ranks among my favorite teas ever. Though sometimes hard to find, it's definitely worth the wait. And if there isn't a Wegmans near you, then maybe you should just buy it online?

US Airport Map

To say I like to travel is a pretty big understatement. I seem to spend all of my non-travel time thinking about where I'll go next. Sometimes my trips are off the beaten path or in the middle of nowhere, so it can be a challenge to figure out the nearest airports for some ticket comparison shopping. No longer! My latest creation is a map of all US airports with commercial service! I know what you're thinking, "Christine, why don't you do useful things with your time?!" I actually think a lot of people will find this useful; at least hopefully.


View Larger Map

Directions
For those not too familiar with Google Maps, I think the following is a good way of using this overlay.

• Log in to Google


• Go to the map


• Click "Save to My Maps" in the upper right corner of the Left-hand panel


• Click the checkbox next to "Airports - US"


• Search for your destination


• Zoom out to see the nearest airports

Hopefully that'll work for everyone. If you don't have a Google account... well, you should get one, because Gmail rocks.
If you have any comments, suggestions, corrections, etc, leave me a comment!
Enjoy and happy travels!

The Case of the iPod

If you've ever met me you probably know that I love my iPod. I know, I know, it's an annoying trend and there are better devices out there, whatever. I bought the iPod because it syncs easily with iTunes (I hate the Windows version, but it's better than most alternatives) and because of the storage capacity. At 160GB I can carry my entire music library with me at all times.

If you've ever met me you probably also know that, while I'm not a total disaster, I'm pretty hard on my stuff. My electronic devices get used hard, and this sometimes means accidentally dropping things like my cell phone, iPod, external hard drive, etc.

The Dilemma: iPods are kind of fragile. I have a 160GB Classic, so it's an actual hard drive, not a solid state.

The Solution: the ArmorSkin Case by Speck!


The Test: I accidentally dropped my iPod down a flight of steel stairs. While I wouldn't try this test often, my iPod still works and there's only a small scrape in the side bevel of the case's front cover. Yay!

The case is available in black or clear and is nice and grippy so your iPod doesn't slide out of your hands or pocket and onto the concrete or into a lake. :-P

Before I got this case, I kept my iPod in a sock. Not an actual "iPod sock" but a sock from my sock drawer. This is definitely a much better case!

Also, Speck has a cool logo and their slogan is punny.

Снова в СССР / Back in the USSR

Last Saturday night I decided it was time again for a trip to Tunes in Hoboken. I love Tunes because they have a pretty big selection of $1 CDs, and I think you know by now that I'm addicted to music. Anyway, after sitting in traffic forever and paying way too much money to a bunch of jerks* to park in their shady lot, we got to Tunes... about 30 minutes before it closed.

After finding a bunch of CDs I wanted I decided to look through the vinyl section, as I recently acquired a record player**. Of course I looked for some cool Beatles stuff, but then I looked under Paul McCartney. Then I saw it. The Russian album. Снова в СССР. Was this the 1994 international re-release? Nope, this was the original 1988 LP only available in Russia. The album jacket? All in Russian. SO AWESOME!



Some Background Info
In 1988 Paul McCartney released this collection of old school rock & roll covers with the intention of it only being available in the former USSR, since for so long the Beatles' music had been banned there. In 1991 it was re-released internationally because apparently everyone outside of Russia wanted to hear it too. In 1994 it was released on CD.

By the way, "Снова в СССР" translates to "Back in the USSR".
The cover art was done by Linda McCartney.
On the international re-release they spelled it wrong (СНОВА Б СССР) and used some Cyrillic letters that look like Latin letters to spell Paul's name. Evidence:

A Few Personal Notes
I loved this CD as a kid, and remember listening to it on the way to a family vacation in Ocean City, MD.

My aunt's cousin was living in Russia in the early '90s and was nice enough to bring back a copy of the original LP for my dad. I'm not sure where that copy got to, but I'm pretty psyched to have my own original copy now. And for only $8!

"Crackin' Up" was my favorite song on the album, and you should go listen to it on last.fm. :)

Footnotes
*The jerks at the parking place in Hoboken earned $0 in tip money because the one guy almost ran my friends over with my car. Way to go, winner!

**As for my record player... it doesn't work. Apparently the motor in this one is on the fritz too. Great. I'm going to go steal my dad's now. :)

Quakake!

Another installment of "What? This is really a town name?!", Pennsylvania.

To begin, I've never been to Quakake. I've driven very nearby, but never stopped. Honestly, until writing this blog I wasn't even quite sure how to pronounce it. Quay-Cake? Quake-ache? Qua-ka-kay? So many fun possibilities! I think it's really Quake-ache.

Despite me having no idea how to pronounce it until today, this word has existed much earlier than today! It appears in the names of several things in northeastern[ish] PA. What kind of things, you ask?

• A Town
• A Railroad
• A Creek
• A Lake

• Probably other things Google isn't telling me about
  

Really? Tell me more!
Ok.

Quakake, The Town
Quakake is in the northeastern part of Schuylkill County. Its status of U6 tells me that it's pretty much in the middle of nowhere. A quick look at a map proves my theory!

View Larger Map
Sure, it's 12 minutes from Hazleton, but... it's Hazleton.

A look at that map will also reveal a pretty cool looking rail system! Which brings me to...

Quakake, The Railroad
Well, it used to be the Quakake Railroad. Then they went bankrupt and became the Lehigh & Mahanoy Railroad. According to the Wikipedia article, the tracks have been abandoned for several decades, but since they're still on the maps I wonder if they're still there? Maybe I'll find out one day.

Quakake, The Creek
It's a creek, and eventually meets up with the Lehigh (from the west). Not much else to tell you here...

Quakeake, The Lake
Yeah. It's called Quakake Lake. :) It's pretty funny looking too!
It's about 20 minutes from Quakake, PA.

What does it mean?
The coolest book ever tells me the following:

A corruption of Cuwenkeek, "pine lands". Cuwen-hanna would signify, "pine stream".

So there you have it, kids - Quakake.

Kim's Kitchen

Since I like to eat and I can't seem to decide what to write about lately, I have decided to do some restaurant reviews! Fantastic, right?!

Last Thursday night I was in the area, so I figured I'd stop by:
Kim's Kitchen
5842 Main St (Rt 309)
Center Valley, PA
[map]
[One source told me this was Coopersburg, but it's really Center Valley.]

Oh, and I first heard of this restaurant via Beyond Scrapple.

I stopped in and asked what kind of Korean food she had on the menu. I was pleasantly greeted with several options and samples! My samples included:

• bean sprout soup (verdict: TASTY!)


• homemade dumplings [the sauce was great, and I normally don't even like dumplings!]


• some fresh honeydew melon and strawberries


• a cookie!

I ordered a wrap version of bulgogi (marinated beef and onions), brown rice, kimchi, and she threw in some kind of scallions. All of it was delicious! There are various non-Korean options available for the less adventurous, but I'll definitely be returning to try her other Korean dishes. She also does catering for events and such.

Also, aside from the awesome homemade food, you can't beat the service: helpful and friendly!

And here is the cover of the Korean menu.

Doesn't it make you hungry?!

Yellow Submarine

I want this. It is now your civic duty to purchase it for me. :)

Twiggy Tea?

Back in May I went to Vermont to visit some friends. Kate & Chris were awesome hosts, providing an excellent weekend of fun which included a picnic on North Beach / Lake Champlain, a stop at Cabot Creamery to sample cheese, an epic drive up Burke Mountain and hiking around the peak, tasting the brews at several Vermont breweries, a few stops at yummy places to eat in Burlington, and other awesome things. One such stop was at a place called Radio Bean.

Radio Bean seemed like a great place, mostly because they had [free] live music on a Sunday night! Then we ordered beverages and things got disastrous. Chris ended up with some kind of burnt/smoked/gross coffee* and I opted to try Kukicha Twig Tea.

According to Wikipedia, Kukicha is pretty amazing. They throw around phrases like "uniquely flavorful", "mildly nutty, and slightly creamy sweet flavor", and "rich in natural tannins". I find this intriguing because the tea I had that evening tasted like tree bark. Nutty? No. Creamy and sweet? No, and no. Imagine a log that has been in a campfire for an hour or so, steep that in some mouth-meltingly-hot water for a few minutes, and VOILA! You have tea!

I understand that steeping tea for too long, or even at too high temperatures, can turn the tea bitter, but this was a bit ridiculous. Perhaps at some point in my life I'll get up the nerve to try this again... Otherwise, Radio Bean seemed like a cool place.

*According to some, this type of coffee is quite common in Vermont.

2.5 Song Commute

First off, no one commented on my last post requesting info on cool stuff to do in FL, so I'm now forced to follow through with my threat: maps. Lots of maps. They're coming. Beware.

[Drastic subject change]

I woke up this morning to a beautiful day.

View from my bedroom window.

Usually I opt for something energetic to wake me up and get me psyched, but today I opted for some relaxing music for my 10 minute commute to work with the windows down. 2.5 songs is probably a more accurate measurement than 10 minutes.

My first song of choice for my 2.5 song commute? "Some Things About Me" by Steve Poltz. Since he's awesome, you can download it here. I first heard this song at a show at the World Cafe back in March. Good times, fun show, I love this song.

My next song in my 2.5 song commute was "Impala", also by Steve Poltz. This song is pretty cool, and I particularly like the lines:

Everything today is so high tech
Why can't we just park by the lake and neck

I don't remember what the .5 song was, but who cares. I had a great commute today. :)

Miami / Fort Lauderdale

Greetings to my hundreds of readers! [I've counted each of you at least 75 times.]

In a few months I will be going on a family vacation [what, seriously?] to Fort Lauderdale, FL. Of course, Miami is a much less... old... location, so I'll be spending some time there as well.

I'm planning on doing some fun biking in parks and along waterways, potentially a day trip to the Everglades, and possibly visiting Key Biscayne because it looks pretty. Having never been to Florida, I ask:
Where is the fun stuff?
What are some must-see sights?
Which are the best restaurants for a cheapo who wants good food?

If you don't give me some good info I'll post more maps! Ha! I know, it's all part of my evil scheme.

More Local Map Excitement

I'm sure you're all thrilled that, yet again, I'll be blogging about some random maps and local stuff I find interesting. Heh. Sure. Anyway, I was going to blog about some really good tea I recently purchased, but I don't have the photo with me at the moment, so I'm going to blog about that later. Stay tuned! For now: local geographic features!

If you Google something about movie tickets and your zip code the first couple of sites listed are probably hello[yourtown].com. Judging based on the mass-produced [not to mention shady looking] URL, I've always refrained from clicking on these links. What could a site called hellobethlehem.com contain that I could possibly care about? Oddly enough, today I stumbled across some cool map mashups on that site. Who knew there would be something interesting on a site called hellobethlehem.com?! WHO KNEW?! I think this slightly interesting find is much more interesting when considering the source!

Onward.
Here are my favorite mashups they have:
Lehigh Valley Islands
Lehigh Valley Dams
Lehigh Valley Lakes
Lehigh Valley Gaps
I realize a lot of the points on these maps are outside of the Lehigh Valley, but what are you going to do? I'm a bit surprised/impressed that they show the names of some of those random islands in the Lehigh River!

In closing, hellobethlehem.com is apparently not the virus-laden website-o-death I assumed it to be. And yet I wouldn't be surprised if tomorrow the site fulfilled it's spammy destiny.

Ward Maps [Allentown and Bethlehem]

One of my job functions requires me to know which ward of a city an address falls within. After obtaining a few paper maps I decided that there might be some random other person in the universe looking for a ward map for Allentown, PA... so I mapped it all out in Google Maps! Now I can easily search for an address, load my custom map overlay, and find the ward. :) While this originated because of my job, it very quickly became more hobby-related than work-related. :-P


View Larger Map

Notice the odd shape of Ward 17! Crazy!
And I'd really like to know what is the deal with Ward 0, which is one triangular block within Ward 8. Any ideas?

Here's one I put together for Bethlehem:


View Larger Map

Yay :)

Village of Burnt Cabins

Pennsylvania is known for having some peculiar municipality names, probably the most famous of which is Intercourse, PA. But this blog isn't about Intercourse. It's about Burnt Cabins.

Yep, that's right - Burnt Cabins, PA. I've had the distinct pleasure of passing through this place several times, the most recent of which I was able to take this picture (from a vehicle moving 40MPH)!


[from my old flickr free account shhh.]

So... where exactly is this place?

It's in Fulton County, PA! More specifically (from Wikipedia), "it's an unincorporated community in Dublin Township, Fulton County, Pennsylvania, at the foot of Tuscarora Mountain. It contains U.S. Route 522 and I-76."
And since no one really cares where Fulton County is, here is a map:


[If you're reading this on Facebook: The map doesn't import correctly, so click "View Original Post" at the bottom to get to the actual blog.]

Fulton County is also the home of Licking Creek Township, which is another awesome PA place name.

So... why is it called Burnt Cabins?

Around 1750 settlers moved into the area and Native Americans were less than thrilled about it since they still owned the land. They voiced complaints to the Provincial powers-that-be, and action was taken in order to keep the peace. The settlers were labeled as trespassers, told to vacate, and their homes were then burned to the ground.

Today there isn't much in Burnt Cabins, but there is a still-functional historic grist mill, a Pennsylvania Historical Marker, and some trees.

For more information, check out these sites:

• Euro-Americans Begin To Settle In Bedford County
• Pennsylvania Land Records - A History and Guide for Research, Pg 62

Photo Recovery

Whether you've accidentally deleted files or you have a corrupt drive or memory card, most people eventually find a need for file recovery software.

At first glance you'll find TONS of shady software with iffy guarantees about what they'll actually recover (not to mention a pricetag that you'd probably rather ignore). Being a fan of open source software, the photo program I tried was PhotoRec. Here's what happened:

• Background info: I accidentally deleted about 25 photos on a 1GB SD card.
  
• PhotoRec: I installed and ran PhotoRec, which recovered all 25 photos very quickly. I quit the process after I saw it had recovered about 40 files, but it was clearly going to keep recovering old data from the card. Impressive!
• Here is one of the photos I recovered, taken by my friend Jen:

Seeing how well the recovery went on this card, I decided to put PhotoRec to the test.

• Background info: An 8GB CF card that I have has been less than reliable. About two months ago it appeared to be working fine and I took over 500 photos on it while on a trip in UT/AZ/NV... only to get home and not have my computer recognize a single file on the card. All 500+ were corrupt. FREAK OUT. At this point, I just REALLY wanted those photos, so I headed over to a local camera store and shelled out $100 for them to do a data recovery. They were able to recover all of the files from my trip, as well as a few from before my previous format. Now $100 poorer, there was much rejoicing for actually having those photos.
• Also note: After their file recovery, the store formatted the card and returned it to me.
  
• PhotoRec: I decided to get that CF card out of retirement to try PhotoRec. Although I didn't feel like waiting all 4 estimated hours for a full recovery, I ran it for about 30 minutes and was impressed with the results. It recovered photos from my trip, the ones that Dan's Camera had already recovered, but what I found more impressive was that it was able to recover TONS of photos from before that trip. The card had been formatted at least twice since those photos were taken!

PhotoRec doesn't have the most intuitive user interface, but the program works very well. The download also comes with TestDisk, which looks like it could be a useful tool as well, though I have not tried it yet.

Not only does PhotoRec work well, but their logo is cool too!

Maps & Bikes

I like maps and bike rides, so why not combine the two? This is the beginning of a probably too detailed project! :)

Check out my map below, featuring bike/walking trails in the Lehigh Valley! You can click on any trail and it'll show you my comments and maybe some links. I'm also including lots of landmarks and other such notes, which will display some photos I've taken along the trail when you click the icon.

There are only a few trails right now, but that will change. Once I have this a bit more detailed and polished it will go into the forthcoming maps section of my website... but for now... it's blog time!


View Larger Map

I might expand this to include trails in Jacobsburg Park and Lake Nockamixon if I'm feeling ambitious! ...but we'll see about that later.

//EDIT//
08/26/09 - Updated to include Jacobsburg, Nockamixon, and Lock Ridge Park!

Giant Robots Taking Over Bethlehem?

Only kinda...

A scene for Transformers 2 is being filmed in/around the blast furnaces of the former Bethlehem Steel! Of course, that means it's photo time for me. Sadly, most of the robotic awesomeness is CG and thus not present... However, the lighting crew did an excellent job and the blast furnaces look awesome!



As far as I know, they're filming 4p - 7a, Mon-Thurs this coming week. And if you're Asian, they're looking for extras! If you're just walking/driving around observing or taking photos... watch out for the security guards. They like to hassle you even if you're on public property.

EDIT:
The Morning Call has two articles, and some blog has photos (scroll down to see the set).

Nearly Forgotten: Calypso Island

I was looking at Google Earth today and noticed something labeled Calypso Island in the Fountain Hill-ish area (zip code 18015). I found this interesting because Calypso Island was removed a long time ago. Anyway, the label is on Brighton St, the particular location for Pennsylvania Lines LLC, according to public records. This is the company that owns the railroad lines through there.

So, a little bit about the mostly forgotten Calypso Island! I found this on a few older maps, as well as in a book or two. LV History sums things up pretty well:

• Calypso Island was a beautiful resort located on an island in the Lehigh River near Fountain Hill. The island was named for the beautiful sea nymph in Greek Mythology by State Representative George Henry Goundie during a Fourth of July celebration in 1869. Pleasure-seekers enjoyed the thirteen acres of natural grounds and the pleasure boats of every variety which surrounded it. Illuminated water carnivals took place on summer evenings. Transportation to the island was provided by the Calypso Transportation Line. The Lehigh Valley Railroad purchased the island in 1902 and removed most of the island to use as filler for construction of its rail line.

Here is a photo of a painting from 1832, and another from 1850. These photos represent the island before the so-called 'resort' was put there.

According to the following map* from 1855, the island was referred to as Upper Island.

To aid railroad construction, the company 'removed' this island just to fill in the area between the island and its main land, thus making a more direct path for the railroad tracks. This can be seen on the following maps:

1892 Map*:

2008 2019 Map:

The island was just West of the tip of Sand Island, and is likely the reason Brighton St is so curved. In comparing the historic maps and the current map you'll also notice that almost all of the street names have been changed considerably. But the railroad track junction and Hill to Hill Bridge are the same! It is also interesting to note that the smaller islands to the East noted on the historic maps are still visible in satellite images, though apparently not notable enough to make it to most maps.

I'm sure that wasn't nearly as fun for you to read as it was for me to write. Oh well!

*These maps were found at the Bethlehem Area Public Library.

Virii!!

Coolest 'computer virus' I've seen in a while:


First off, you have to agree that it's a fun idea! They're marketing it as computer virus art. But what makes a virus a virus? The replication? The infection or malicious intent/outcome? The fact that the receiver doesn't really want it and receives it unexpectedly? I tend to think of this more as a cool application than as a virus. Thoughts?

Also, I know that "virii" isn't really officially accepted as the plural of virus, but I like it more than "viruses" because it's more fun. Wikipedia has this to say:

• The form virii would not have been a correct plural, since the ending -ii only occurs in the plural of masculine and feminine words ending in -ius. For instance, take radius, plural radii: the root is radi-, with the singular ending -us and the plural -i. Thus the plural virii is that of the nonexistent word virius. The form viri would also be incorrect in Latin. The ending -i is normally used for masculine or feminine nouns, not neuter ones such as virus; moreover, viri (albeit with a short i in the first syllable) is the plural of vir, and means "men."

Words are fun. :)

Happy Easter!

My usual photography + photoshop holiday card:



:)