This past week I was part of a 12 person team of @kaboom-play.bsky.social staff that worked across the state of Minnesota to identify playgrounds in need of replacement on or near tribal and indigenous lands. Saw amazing playgrounds and ones that were probably older than me.

As a former LAYC employee (which is where I met my wife!) and a @washingtonspirit.com season ticket holder, this one is special to me. But I can’t make this game! My som has his game at the exact same time. Need to figure out a workaround to get these shirts!

Presenting at the #NRPA2025 annual conference later today on our work to measure playground visitors. Going to thread our major findings here. @kaboom-play.bsky.social #data #evaluation #play

Hello #stats, #math, and #evaluation friends. Anyone have good examples of how to describe / talk about statistical significance to non-technical audiences? Presenting next week and sharing important findings, and need audience to understand statistical significance to appreciate findings.

This Pumas v Necaxa game in Liga Mx is being played in a driving rainstorm. With puddles on the field stopping the ball. Great watch as a neutral.

With the state of the pitch, and the playing out the back adventures, this Spirit - Gotham game should just go to Goalie Warz between Kingsbury and AKB.

Extremely important cookie related research here. Especially since I have already declared my love for Bergers cookies.

Me: I should grab snack before the start of this USA-Mexico game. Pickle the cat: Nope. #USMNT

We recently bought a dill plant for the garden, and before planting it noticed a large caterpillar. We kept the plant in a pot so as to not disturb our new friend, and yesterday it made a grand appearance. #butterfly #nature

Good morning #stateofthemapus ! I hope you join me at 11 am today so we can talk about playgrounds, equity, and #maps. @kaboom-play.bsky.social @osmus.bsky.social

Sharing another blog post about our work at @kaboom-play.bsky.social using mobile GPS data to estimate playground use. #evaluation #data #nonprofits #NGOs aea365.org/blog/nonprof...

Excited to share that I have a new article about @kaboom-play.bsky.social and our work using mobile GPS data to estimate playground use. It is published in the June issue of @nrpa-news.bsky.social Parks and Recreation Magazine. ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRe...

Name a comfort food that you eat today that you did NOT eat when you were younger. For whatever reason: your tastes are different now, you did not have access to it as a kid. Etc. I grew up in Texas, and moved to Maryland after grad school, so mine is Bergers Cookies.

A lot of hope was pinned on after-school programs — now they’re shutting their doors

Echo says Happy #Caturday

We know that the #evaluation and #research fields are in crisis right now. That's why we dropped the registration cost for the @easterneval.bsky.social virtual conference to $10. Come join us on May 1-2 so we can support and learn from each other. www.eers.org/conference-r...

Excited to share new @kaboom-play.bsky.social blog post highlighting my work on using mobile GPS data to estimate playground use. #evaluation #research #data #play #GIS kaboom.org/all-stories/...

Given what has happened in the #evaluation and #research professional space during the past few weeks, @easterneval.bsky.social has dropped the registration fee for our annual virtual conference to $10 for everyone this year. More information here: www.eers.org/conference-r...

Me: Dear cat Echo - look at this tribute we built for you! Echo the cat: Who let this foul abomination into my home?!?!

I wrote a short blog post about the tragedy currently unfolding in the evaluation industry. Trump is destroying vital research capacity and decades of instructional knowledge for pocket change. 1/x rooseveltinstitute.org/blog/the-irr...

Ya know who uses Medicaid? CHILDREN. 40 million kids are enrolled in Medicaid or CHIP. That’s half of the kids in this country. Children don’t contribute to the workforce or buy goods or vote… so no one cares.

Good news everybody. After nearly 15 years of dialogue, I finally convinced my mother in law that the most honorable way to eat half a bagel is on the left, and NOT the right. She had insisted on eating top half only and leaving the bottom for others.

In my latest substack post I ask the question, when under existential threat, will the nonprofit sector fight back? open.substack.com/pub/uprising...

Can they give the MVP Award to the entire Eagles defensive line?

Brandon Graham is a national treasure. “Tell them boys to get off your back!” Go birds!

Apologies to those that do not celebrate today’s holiday. But for those that do…..Go Birds.

Trump admin is going after the #nonprofit / NGO sector *hard.* Latest WH memo calls for "review" of *all* federally funded orgs and stop funding any that "that undermine the national interest." #npsky #nonprofitsky Our latest via @npquarterly.bsky.social: nonprofitquarterly.org/trump-issues...

“This sets a really dangerous precedent that any administration can come in and delete whatever they don’t like...Regardless of your politics, this should alarm you since this is taxpayer-funded data and it belongs to the public.” www.whec.com/national-wor...

The entire archive of CDC datasets can be found here. HUGE shoutout to data archivists- this work is important 👏🙌🏻 archive.org/details/2025...

I am going to need a ruling from people on this. Is this #DataViz or #DataHorror ?

You: Isaac, given the state of everything right now, how are you taking care of yourself? Me: LOTS and LOTS of buffalo wings. You: But that’s not healthy…… Me: Shhhh…buffalo wings.

I don’t really follow the NBA much, but as a casual, this is stunning. And someone please check on @joshuabhoe.bsky.social .

Data removed from the CDC website showed nearly 75% of trans youth describe their mental health as poor and that 20% are suicidal. “This kind of information about the crisis they’re experiencing is very important and should be available to the public and their parents.” From @washingtonpost.com

List of CDC information that appears to have been taken down so far: 1. CDC Atlas 2. CDC Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System 3. HRSA Target 4. Language removed for LGBT work 5. CDC Social Vulnerability Index

This is a few days late, but really excited to be part of this work with @kaboom-play.bsky.social . We are going to verify the locations and quality status of playgrounds in Native and tribal communities in Minnesota. www.startribune.com/shakopee-mde...

I feel like the last 48 hours have given us a lot of entries to play the always entertaining game of: Is this person Trump Cabinet nominee or a Lazio fan.

Guitar Center Foundation is helping musicians replace instruments that were lost in LA fires guitarcenterfoundation.org/fires/?fbcli...

Me last night: I am going to make a giant batch of queso so that I have it for the Monday snow day. Me at 3:24 today: Huh, all the queso got eaten.

There are 4 types of cats based on their reaction to traditional (corded) vacuum cleaners: 1) Practical: Loud thing is back, I am out of here. 2) Indifference: I was here first - you move. 3) Aggression: I must attack that thing! 4) Play: Yeah! Fren with long tail is back! Am I missing any?

You have one last weekend to get a submission in to present at the @easterneval.bsky.social 2025 virtual conference. Submissions are due on Tuesday, January 7. More details here: www.eers.org/call-for-pro... #evaluation #data #dataviz

You: what fun stuff did you do on the last day of 2024? Me: I read old #evaluation documents from the 70s to find some foundational thinking that led to modern logic model theory. That’s fun right?

Bold Leadership and Uncommon Decency: In Memory of Mike Bailin

Watching classic Rudolph with family. 8yo: Are the elves slaves? Me out loud: No, I am sure Santa pays them. Internal dialogue: DOES Santa pay them and is it fair pay? Are they given a false choice: do they have to work for food and housing? Have any modern philosophers resolved this?

Kensington’s Willard Elementary School is getting its first playground. It’s also getting something less whimsical: a bullet-resistant fence. Both have an unusual funding source: drug companies. www.chalkbeat.org/philadelphia...

Third and final blog post in this series focused on using nonverbal techniques to improve your presentations. All of these are over 10 years old, I will probably rewrite them and update them at some point.

Second blog post in this series focusing on nonverbal techniques to improve presentations. These are all focused on in-person presentations. I should update these at some point to provide guidance on virtual presentations.

Another old blog post about improving your presentations. This is the first of a three part series that focuses on nonverbal communication.

Putting this out in the universe: I fully expect the Miami - Syracuse football game today to end with a crazy situation that will have people talking for years. Hail Mary, blocked or returned kick, horrible officiating, or some other chaos.

Before I did #evaluation, I did high school and college #debate, and I taught presentational and professional speaking. Over the years I have done several blog posts on how evaluators can improve their presentations. I'm going to share a few old blogs here. depictdatastudio.com/the-volume-o...

Watching the #NWSL championship, and my son is INSISTING that we all wear Spirit gear to watch the game. #ThatsTheSpirit