Rungiraffe Has Moved!

For my next step in attempting to master (or at least navigate) the digital world, I am now hosting my own domain name as part of my work for Clio II, the next in the line of classes I am taking for my MA degree. Though the site itself is still under construction, I have already moved my blog. You can now read my musings here.

My technical skills being raw as they are, there are some features of the old blog that I was unable to transfer. The major hole in the new blog is my inability to create a “subscribe by e-mail” function. The “widget” that I used on wordpress.com just isn’t available on the new site and my experimentation with various plugins did not seem to yield any easily viable options. But, I am still on the hunt and if any WordPress aficionados out there want to chime in, I am open for suggestions. For now, those who subscribed by e-mail may want to receive posts in an RSS Reader, such as Google Reader.

As my technical skills increase, you will hopefully be able to enjoy more features as well as a much more aesthetically pleasing blog in the future!

Presentation Visuals

After a LOT of hassle with Excel and Geocoders, here they are:

KEY:
Green = Black Republicans
Red = Republicans
Blue = Democrats
Purple = Other

The historic map (1861) is definitely dated, especially for the 1890s. Hence my earlier request for rubber sheeting techniques.

“Rubber Sheeting” Question

Anyone out there know an easy way (read: method I could do with my minimal to zero programming skills) to “rubber sheet” an image of a historic map to Google Earth? Or am I just dreaming?

Home Is Where the Laws Are Made

Since I last posted about my second project, I have re-thought my scope a bit. I realized that the antebellum Congresses highlighted by Allan G. Bogue and Paul Marlaire in their reassessment of the strength of the “Boardinghouse Caucus,” would be difficult to map because the Congressional Directories often do not print actual addresses for the boardinghouses. If I am lucky, I get a street corner. If I am not, they print “Mrs. Smith’s” and I am left with zilch. Though Washington was a rather small city (really, a town) in the 1820s and 1840s and with a good historic atlas, I could probably tease out the locations, it would take an enormous amount of time and effort. That is, time and effort I would rather spend analyzing rather than collecting my data.

I am a Conspirator in a “Form of State Propaganda”

Reading John Willinsky’s The Access Principle, I couldn’t help but feel like he was trying to get me to scoop up my pitchfork and rally for the cause: Open access for all! It’s a human right! It seemed so Utopian; too good to be true. I’ll admit relief when I encountered his chapter on Economics, I was a little relieved. He seemed to take a pragmatic approach to the costs of publishing and he may be on to something with his Open Journal System (OJS), grant funded software that allows small journals to publish online, for free. Over all, I agree with his point that the academic publishing system—perhaps much like the systems in place for determining tenure—are a bit archaic. Changing these systems, however, may require the movement of mountains.