Hunter Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 As I've mentioned many times before, I have some severe memory loss issues. I keep forgetting how to get around my neighborhood. It's a strange thing, but I especially keep losing the big picture and get mixed up about what stores are on which streets and how the streets are in context with each other. I think it will help if I create a wall map and only include on it the things of interest to me. I keep printing out yahoo and google maps, but they are half border and so small and include mostly things that don't stand out as easily recognizable to landmarks to someone on foot (I'm in the heart of a city and the highways are so visible on the maps, but on foot, they are above me, not at eye level). I guess maybe I should draw a grid on the tiny google map and then draw free hand on a grid on a large piece of paper and just not get too bogged down in trying to be EXACT? I'd appreciate any tips from someone who has done this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 You know, I have a few books about geography and young kids, and there are several projects about creating neighborhood maps (esp in the texts from the UK called Mapstart, which I bought from Book Depository), so I've been thinking about working towards doing this with my kids. Does your map need to be absolutely exact (in terms of scale for example) for it to be useful? Could you draw street by street and then put in the useful stuff? Also, if your streets are not straight, that would be a bit harder to draw. Could you take a Google map, then put a paper over it and trace off the streets, and then fill in the key places you need to know about? Or get the google map blown up larger so it fits? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie Smith Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 :grouphug: finding out how to make the map you need. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sushi's Mom Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 Use Google Earth. You can zoom in or out and it will give you photos of the area, which include the buildings and trees. If you are needing this to get around, why not get a GPS? The TomTom GPS has a featured for walkers. You can save destinations in the favorites, and there is a separate button for home. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 Two thoughts - you could easily use Google Earth (or even just Google Maps) and print out really zoomed in maps piece by piece and put them together so you get a big map and don't have to draw freehand. Also, you could use an overlay on top of a printed map to draw over the top and color in the stuff that is important and relevant to you. We did this with the kids and it was fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2cents Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 Use Google Earth. You can zoom in or out and it will give you photos of the area' date=' which include the buildings and trees. If you are needing this to get around, why not get a GPS? The TomTom GPS has a featured for walkers. You can save destinations in the favorites, and there is a separate button for home. Good luck![/quote'] I was thinking this same thing! You can have it with you wherever you go. I love my Tom Tom! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie Smith Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 I do have a TomTom. I look forward to when it will be able to include bike trails, at that time I would be happy to mount it on the front of my bike. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted July 7, 2011 Author Share Posted July 7, 2011 Two thoughts - you could easily use Google Earth (or even just Google Maps) and print out really zoomed in maps piece by piece and put them together so you get a big map and don't have to draw freehand. Also, you could use an overlay on top of a printed map to draw over the top and color in the stuff that is important and relevant to you. We did this with the kids and it was fun. I'm going to try this, this afternoon. Thanks. So it worked to paste the google maps together? My area is absolutely not straight streets! Not even the highway mess is straight, and then the city has tried to make green paths for us to walk on, below and between the highways. And sometimes we have pedestrian bridges to walk on above the highways. I actually have a better mental map of other areas of my city than I do my neighborhood. Stripe I think you identified the main problem. It's the lack of any organized street pattern. I think I need to draw a very light grid onto the final map, in the absence of the streets being a grid, to provide some sort of structure. I think I need to color code the mini parks vs the barren street areas. You all are helping. Thanks. You know, I think the final map will be very pretty, for all the reasons that are making it so hard for me to have a mental map of the area. It's a little like Dr. Suess land here, I'm realizing. Satelite just shows unhelpful mess. It's too complicated. There are too many vital paths hidden under the trees and structures. I think I will draw the highways very pale and maybe even dotted. This must be how it would be for a mouse to look at a regular map :lol: In my geography books they sometimes talk about how much can be told about a people, by looking at THEIR maps. What do they put at the center? What do they emphasize and deemphasize? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted July 8, 2011 Author Share Posted July 8, 2011 I've been working on my map off and on all day. I've got 12 pieces taped together so far. I can't believe what a hard time I am having with this! My mental map, although very very vague is SO distorted in so many ways. I've printed it in grayscale. I'm trying to color the paths I take in yellow. I'm going to draw some colorful icons much bigger than scale and tape them on. I have a really good mental map of another part of the city that is on a grid. But this--my home base--is just a mess, even still, in my head :-0 The fog is beginning to clear just enough to give me hope that if I keep working at this, it will help, but...wow :-0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted July 9, 2011 Author Share Posted July 9, 2011 My map is getting REALLY big! It's just for as far as I walk, but that is pretty far, when it is in all 4 directions. North ... is south east of me! No wonder I was confused! This is going to help me a lot in figuring out where to walk to see the moon. My compass is cheap and doesn't really work. Now I can see which streets run in the direction my moon software says the moon is rising/setting in. Thank you all for your help. This is turning into a fascinating project to me. And neighbors who stop by are fairly interested too. Well... most of them are not too excited about learning in general, so their mild interest is quite notable :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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