First thing I had to think was what an odd combination of states, as neither one touches each other, as illustrated by the map I posted this morning of the Midwestern states. I knew that somewhere in my mind, but still I had to check and make up a map in the process so I could fully visually the relation of those states that often get blended together a bit in my mind. Illinois is south of Wisconsin, while Iowa is south of Minnesota. Not completely but in general.
The next thing I was reading was about the problematic nature of the plastic mesh bags that a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables come in, especially from a zero waste and recycling perspective. They’re plastic, they don’t break down if you landfill or litter them and don’t burn them. Honestly though, I’ve always just tossed them into a white garbage sack or in with papers, burnt them up and didn’t really even notice them as they’re such a tiny part of garbage that burns quickly, and completely and doesn’t stink when burned or take up much space.
I’m all for recycling, but this form of plastic waste is so miniscule compared to all the plastic we’re using and discarding everyday, often that is much more substantial – and noxious to burn or landfill. You know, the PVC poison plastic, the Styrofoam, the polypropylene containers and even ABS plastics. It’s oil but a trivial amount of oil compared to what we burn in our cars and trucks, or to heat, cool and electrify our houses. Especially if those fruits and vegetables are healthy for our environment, the cores and peels saved for compost. It’s not like fruit or vegetables or even paper breaks down significantly in a landfill due to the lack of oxygen.
I get it, not everybody lives out in the country in the Midwest, on a farm or rural homestead where things like that are easily burned on up in a burn barrel or bonfire. A lot of trash ends up landfills or becomes litter. But of all things to go after, this seems one of the silliest.
It’s a popular meme that Excel is not a database. And I mean, they aren’t wrong.
But spreadsheets are a good way for looking at tabular data and manipulating data when you need to quickly, manually edit many rows of data at once. I woud argue there aren’t many good web apps for manipulating a spreadsheet’s worth of data with quick filters, sorts, and searches quite as easy as your typical spreadsheet app.
Spreadsheets have their place for manipulating individual rows quickly, doing data entry and searches of smaller datasets. I often find myself using spreadsheets as a way to read and edit dumps from databases like duckdb and db2. Often I will pull data out of a database using SQL, then format it up, purty it up with some R code before sending it to a client, or looking at in Excel. While RStudio can “preview” datasets, the interface is clumsy and slow, and in most cases for all but the quickest views, its best to dump to an Excel file or at least a CSV file and opening up in a spreadsheet.
Would I store a database in Excel? Hell no, that would be slow and error prone. But I will input and output data using Excel, and send data in that format to clients, as few of them know what an Apache Parquet file is, and while most can open a CSV, nothing beats a beautifully formatted Excel file output from OpenXLSX in R.
Riding beats busing it to work and certainly beats driving to work with the cops hiding around every corner with $1,000 tickets in their back pockets ready to hand out as you swerve on the pothole filled roads says the boy with the big jacked up truck.
I’m probably going to get wet ☔ but I’ll bring fresh socks 🧦 and my office 🏢 is already warm. And probably sewage treatment plant smelling with all the rain. It’s fine, I have my candle warmer. 🕯️ Little rain never hurt nothing and I enjoy the exercise and saving at least a buck thirty on my bus fare. But mostly the mental health benefits!
Yesterday I walked laps in the Plaza and took the later local home. 🚶 It’s fine I got my steps in and did some reading 📖 on the bus ride home. The beans last night 🫘were delicious 😋 and I’m not that farty this morning but I decided to skip them for chocolate wild blueberry pancakes 🥞 homemade with oatmeal and whole wheat flour.
Weekend still is sliding downhill, ☹️ I think I’ll probably be stuck in the burbs bored out of my mind, reading 📖 and maybe riding or searching for sheds 🦌 up at the Black Creek Marsh if I ride out there on Saturday. We’ll see!
