Thursday 23 June 2011

Life is Good!


Yes, life is good right now!

The kids are all going great guns - my younger son is on a trip to London today, my daughter is getting ready for her Geography trip to Wales (yes Wales has lots of Geography!) and Number One Son is spending his spare time teaching himself various bits of computer programming!

The rabbits continue to do well (Mrs RC is watching them like a hawk, making sure nothing happens to them) - we now have tentative names:  Houdini (the one who left the nest first and also the one who finds ways out of the run...), Panda because he/she has black eyes and ears but no other face markings, Lindt because he/she has brown markings and Lindt make chocolate rabbits at Easter) and Runt because he is smaller than the rest.  Trying to think of a nicer name for Runt...

I might be getting a new guitar soon - I have checked out the local guitar shops and found one that I really like - a beautiful white one.  More on this if/when I get it!

I also  made my first map using my dissertation data!


This map uses data for 9 years comparing the number of new/expanding companies with the number of closing/contracting companies, ending just before everything went bad.  The map has 6 categories of location.

White - not a big enough population to be included.
Yellow - "Average".
Pink - well below average change - stable/stagnating.
Red - declining.
Light green - dynamic - lots of change.
Dark green - boom - lots of growth, little decline.

Please let me know if anything looks wrong to you - I might need to check my data AGAIN!  But it seems to match what I have been lead to expect.

One slight disappointment was that I did not win the £89 million on the lottery.  I won a mere £2.70 which I spent on a couple of bottles of Coke.  Ah well, it is only money!

Right!  Back to it!

9 comments:

James said...

Runt? maybe half-pint, midget, peewee, sprout, junior, shaver, short stuff or squirt?

I know in our tiny town we had 1/8th of downtown burn down in 2009, and then the only remaining bar closed a few months ago, and no new businesses started, so we would be very red? Oh wait, if we weren't white, with 1100 population.

Rock Chef said...

Jmes - Oh, I like Half-Pint! Will suggest that to the family! Sounds like your town would be going off the spectrum! Sorry your area is white - I do have the data but I have been told to focus on bigger areas. Might do a map of everything just for the fun of it though!

Reggie Hunnicutt said...

Looks like I am yellow.

I was talking to a guy Saturday night in the Atlanta airport who missed his "red eye" to Manchester. Oh he was pissed.

Rock Chef said...

wReggie - Yellow is good! Maybe that guy will give himself more time next time?

Ms. ~K said...

Very interesting map, indeed... Well Done!
I'm curious, did you include Hawaii and Alaska in your research?

Oh yes, Runt must be renamed. In the southern US, we use the term of endearment, "Sugah", for our sweet, little ones! :)
Oh My, Sugah, you certainly are pretty!

Rock Chef said...

Ms K - Yes, I do include Alaska and Hawaii - Hawaii was doing well as were those parts of Alaska that make the population threshold. Sugah - I like that too!

terri said...

When I was growing up, I had a cousin who had a succession of cats, all named Elsie. Or so I thought the name was Elsie. Apparently it was "L.C." short for Little Cat. Maybe your little one could be L.B., short for Little Bunny.

Or how about Pixie. No reason. It's just a cute name.

Your map is fascinating! It's very interesting to see what our area looks like! A lot of average there. It could be worse, I guess.

CiCi said...

This is an interesting time when the kids are into their own things and getting out and about away from parents.

Your map was lots of work, I know. What a shame there is so few dark green areas. Or even light green.

agg79 said...

Would be interesting to see the map after the current downturn in the economy. Sorry, we're in the south Texas coastal region and I never pictured us as being "average".