Announcing CORE GIS

So the reason the blog posts have diminished precipitously these past few months is because Amy and I started our own company. I left CommEn Space at the end of October and CORE GIS started up on November 1st. CORE GIS is actually an acronym for Community, Regional, and Environmental Geographic Information Systems. Amy is the president and I am (technically) the managing principal, although for now Amy does not really have any involvement with the day-to-day operations. The work I'm doing is largely similar to the work I did at CommEn Space, although I'm hoping to pick up a few private sector and government contracts to help subsidize the non-profit work that forms the core (heh) of the business. Unfortunately, CommEn Space is closing it's doors at the end of the year--there's more info here.

Several of my former CommEn Space colleagues have also started their own companies, and we are working together in a loose confederation to assist with workload balancing and business development. Josh's Umbrella Consulting site is here, Jessemine's Leesaa Consulting site is here, Karsten's Terra GIS site is here, and Tim's Geocartic site will soon be available here.

So far, it's been great working from home--I have a lot more time with the boys and amazing flexibility in meeting my project commitments. There are certainly challenges as well, but so far, nothing insurmountable. More updates over the coming months.

A Truly Mighty Wind

On Thursday night we experienced the tail end of an extremely powerful low pressure system. The associated winds were incredibly strong, especially for Seattle, and there was a substantial amount of damage--big portions of the metro area are still without power. When I took Liam and our neighbor's boy Colin to preschool in the bike trailer yesterday, there were a couple of large-ish trees completely blocking the Burke-Gilman trail. At the preschool itself, half of their fence had been blown over! It's been quite an intense fall for weather.

SNOW at Snoqualmie Pass!

One of the benefits of the amazing amount of precipitation and record cold weather we experienced here in Western Washington is abundant amounts of cold, fluffy snow. Our friends and neighbors Chris, Becky, Colin and Darby invited us to join them for a day of sledding near Alpental. They are members of the Washington Alpine Club, so we had access to their lodge for getting warm and drinking hot cocoa. It was a blast! Next time, Amy and I might even try to get a few runs in on our snowboards.