For whatever reason my Page Rank has fallen from a high of 7/10 to 5/10 and now down to 3/10. Google results for Bill Roehl come up with MNSpeak and then a random post from 1.5 years ago for Three Seasons Drive-in in Mahtomedi.
I have no idea why I’m being penalized like this. Lame.
I had been asked to plot some data for work on maps based on the few 9 digit zip codes we have available. It’s unfortunate that we have so few addresses with the Zip+4 entered but it made for a small subset of the whole for me to work on this project.
We have a limited budget and any way that we can cut corners money-wise is a good one. I originally believed that I would be able to utilize the Yahoo Geocoder API to get the Zip+4 latitude and longitude being that their documentation states something very much along those lines. Unfortunately, in my testing today, I found that no such data exists. While there is a difference in the coordinates returned for 55124 and 55124-6000 (for example), every set of +4 coordinates returned end up being identical. Lame.
I poked around on the web some more and ended up finding a site that would give me the data I needed. In addition, it also offered up the county that the zip code resides in which is helpful for another project that I had done for Kim. The site I used for her project recently began returning the state code instead of the county and thus rendering my scraping worthless. If I had to bet, I’d guess they were doing it to deter scrapers like myself.
Anyway, I spent about 20 minutes figuring out something that would work for what I needed and I wrote the script. I plotted out all of the Zip+4s and was pleasantly surprised to see just how much more interesting that data is over my general plotting of the larger 5 digit zips. I’m really interested in seeing what it will be like when we get all of our data over to the 9 digits. From what I understand, there are some really interesting data sets out there for market research that will tell you, with nearly 100% accuracy, exactly what your purchasing habits are like based solely on your 9 digit zip code.
We’ll see if this site bans/throttles me for scraping this data down. While I’m being quite fair and making certain I don’t hammer them, I can’t imagine they will be to fond of me nabbing this information when we actually do our data conversion :)
If you happen to know of any freely available databases with Zip+4 geocoded information, I’d appreciate an e-mail.
Tonight Kim and I went out to the AMC Theater at the Mall of America in Bloomington to see Wristcutters: A Love Story via free tickets that we received after going to see Music Within.
I want to first talk about the Mall of America for a second before I get into the movie itself. There was some sort of crazy ass commotion going on down on the first floor with KDWB making little girls scream — loudly which caused the escalators to be shut off and blocked by numerous over-zealous Mall of America security officers. This, in turn, jammed the main elevators and required us to find alternate means to arrive at the fourth floor to access the AMC Theater.
After going passed the dismal and empty “bar scene” that once thrived on the fourth floor, we passed Hooters and saw a large sign with a lazy arrow pointing the way to a hidden hallway leading to the theater. After traversing the snaking passageways, we found that we could have easily made our way to the theater if we had paid enough attention and entered from the third floor at the food court — I guess we need to go to the Mall of America more often?
We walked towards the ticket counter with our over-sized voucher in hand and were diverted to two computer terminals to watch a video clip of an upcoming movie so that I could offer my comments on it.
“Sure, a few minutes of my time? No problem!”
“Ohh, a phone number? That’s a problem.”
“No, I don’t want to give you a work number either, sorry and good luck.”
After being directed by the ticket agent inside we stopped for overpriced bottles of water and a hot dog for Kim. While Kim later suggested that this was a fantastic example of what a hot dog should be, I took a small nibble and whole-heartedly disagreed. A $4 hot dog should taste more like heaven and not like a soggy bun with a piece of processed meat in the middle. Such is life.
The man standing guard in front of the hallway leading to half of the screens at the nearly empty facility jerked his thumb over his shoulder and said, “Number 9,” and we were off. As soon as I walked inside, I noticed the absolutely fucking disgusting state that the chairs were in. Honestly, if this trip hadn’t been free, I would have marched back out to the counter, gotten my money back and left. Who the fuck do they think they are telling people to pay $9+ to see a movie in a fucking shit hole?
After sitting down, I realized that the theater configuration was not slanting enough and that the woman’s enlarged head seated directly in front of us would likely be a problem. I spent the rest of the evening shifting with her as she fucked with her two out-dated and over-sized cell phones that were almost as annoying as the fucking douchebag at the opposite end of our row who, after being told to turn it off or put it on silent, still had it ring during the middle of the movie.
So far so good, right?
The movie started and I just didn’t get it. I mean, I have seen some fucking crazy ass movies in my day, but this one was just fucking strange.
Basic premise is that people who kill themselves end up in some sort of alternate reality where it’s desolate, no one smiles, and you really have little to no purpose in life. The main character spends quite a bit of time being in love with his ex-girlfriend (who he killed himself over) who ends up killing herself. He meets up with a couple of other people and they set out looking for this ex. Once he finds her though, he realizes he has fallen in love with a hitchhiker they picked up months before. In the end, both of them end up being brought back to life and the movie ends with them smiling at each other in their hospital beds.
Kim thought it was great but I thought it was just “blah.”
It will only be showing for a limited time at the Lagoon in Minneapolis and I certainly don’t recommend that anyone rush out and see it as it’s really not worth your time.
We have tickets to yet another freebie on November 8th but the name escapes me at this time. Hopefully that one will at least be somewhere in the middle of the last two movies we’ve seen for free, I really doubt I could hack another one like Wristcutters: A Love Story. YMMV.
This weekend I spent a lot of time reading, watching movies, and buying more books to read. As if I have nothing else to do, I decided that I should waste a good bit of time reading and watching movies instead of doing something more productive.
As you know, the other night Kim and I headed over to the Lagoon and checked out Music Within and on Friday I rented We Are Marshall and Knocked Up. On Saturday after bowling and another visit to Rudy’s Redeye Grill, I picked up Transformers. I didn’t care for Knocked Up or Transformers. Knocked Up was supposed to be “hysterical” and while it had some sophomoric humor, it wasn’t anything above what comes out of my mouth on any given day. Transformers was just a pile of raving shit that, while better than Gigli, was still worthless aside from a single fight scene near the end of the movie. We Are Marshall was surprisingly decent and I pretty much enjoyed that one although it could have used more football action.
A co-worker had told me to read Angels & Demons a couple of months ago and I had pretty much refused because The Divinci Code sucked so fucking bad and proves why American readers are so clueless when it comes to novels. This book, while far better than The Divinci Code, still wouldn’t even be in the top 100 books I have read in the last five years. *Shrug*, that’s why there are so many out there I guess.
Today, while wandering through the Mall of America while waiting for Kim’s salon appointment, I picked up The Third Reich In Power by Richard J. Evans. While I’m not normally a huge Hitler’s Germany fan or WWII fan, I am interested in the ties of the current rise in nationalism, fascism and corporatism to what occurred during Hitler’s conversion of Germany to Nazi fascism during the 1930s. So much can change in so few years under the nose of so many.
While I have no real plans to finish this lengthy piece before Christmas, depending on the quality of the read, it may be done before then. I would like to finish all of the work I have for a class I’m taking prior to the holidays, so I have a feeling that this book will take a back seat to that.
If you have any suggestions on other books I might be interested in, have at it below. I’m always looking for something a bit different to delve into — especially stuff that isn’t digested by the mainstream.
On Thursday, I headed over to Cub to get some must-have items for Friday which included multi-grain bread w/o high fructose corn syrup (who the fuck would have thought that bread would include that horrid shit?)
While roaming the store, as is required during any shopping trip, I came across something that piqued my interest… Six-packs (kill the dolphins!) of Diet Swiss Creme soda. Growing up in PA we had a swiss creme soda made by the Crystal Beverage (along with Cherokee Red, Crystal Club Cola, etc) and it was one of my favorites. I rarely got my hands on it but when I did, whew — it rocked. I actually remember loving Cherokee Red just as much but I have a feeling that with all the negative publicity that NDSU has received over their mascot, Crystal must have changed the name to something more politically correct for 2007 by now…
Anyway, the flood of memories that entered my mind as I spied these six packs were numerous. While this was diet and obviously not in the same blue can (see here for an example), it might just do. I bought a single six-pack and also nabbbed a 12 pack of Jones Diet Black Cherry and threw that into the cart as well.
I got as far as the parking lot before I had cracked open a warm Diet Swiss Creme can. Kim asked “warm?!” Well, the taste was almost nearly the same as I had remembered — even in diet. I took a quick look over the can and noticed something that had to be a mistake! A can of soda that has 0 grams of sodium! WTF? Is it really possible to have carbonated and flavored beverages without sodium? This proves it’s true!
I finished, with Kim’s small help, the sixer by 9 PM on Thursday. By 5pm on Friday, I had bought Cub out of dolphin-killing six-packs and had a stocked fridge full of these tasty drinks.
I talked to my mom on Friday and asked if she could round up any Crystal created Diet Swiss Creme for me for our trip out there this December. It’ll be a long time w/o my favorites available here in MN if I can’t get my hands on them although this particular version is produced under the authority of the Dr Pepper/Seven Up bottling group, so it might be possible for me to nab some out there as well.
Since I haven’t had a beer in just under 90 days and while Yuengling is readily available in PA I probably won’t be consuming the usual amount I normally do to make up for their stupid decision not to ship it here (are you listening you assholes?) so I have to come up with a suitable replacement :)
The next time you’re in Cub, leave that dolphin-killing sixer of Diet Swiss Creme on the shelf and I’ll be happy to swoop in and make room for it in my own fridge. Trust me, you’ll be better off with beer :)
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