My first time participating in the Makeover Monday challenge was sweet! If there's a way to incorporate music into a viz or a blogpost, I'm likely to do it. Like Sugar, We're Going Down by Fall Out Boy. I thought this song title was appropriate because hopefully it's foreshadowing!

Now on to the viz...I like the wrapped candy shapes and used the pink which represents sweetness (to me) for this viz. I kept it super basic, but hopefully informative. The point that really jumped out at me in the data? Soft drinks comprise 27% of TODDLERS' added sugar consumption!!!! I can't imagine my kids when they were toddlers drinking soft drinks (they had enough natural energy). So here's my contribution.

Section 508 compliance is a thing. It's actually been a thing for a while.  For some reason, I became interested in learning more about how to build 508 compliant vizzes.  My plan is to develop a 508 considerations and recommendations quick reference document so to provide some guiding thoughts on what vizzers should be cognizant of and what workarounds they can do to create reports, vizzes, dashboards, or stories that all people can see.  While I have a bunch of work ahead of me, I wanted to share something I just received...Tableau's VPAT, which is their voluntary product accessibility template results. While I haven't reviewed it in depth, I wanted to share here on the blog so that others could have immediate access to it.  I'll plan to do more review, with either a post or to inform my next steps for the quick reference document.  Note: I noticed that the text was cut off in some cells. The Tableau rep indicates that this is the only version he has seen.

If you have an interest in collaborating on this or have specific questions, drop me a comment below!

Y'all. I have a confession to make. I don't feel very women's empowermenty. Last year, I organized WEViz (women's empowerment visualization event) & this year, my plate is so full, I couldn't pull it off. I'm behind on a lot of stuff. These grand plans I had are not materializing.

I mourned WEViz for a little bit. How can I make a difference if I'm not contributing or facilitating?

I recently read Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert and one of the concepts in the book is that ideas can pass on to others as well as committing to and nurturing them. And accepting/embracing that concept is like acknowledging that you did what you could while the idea was in your court. So when the idea is in someone else's court, it's their turn to commit fully to it. This concept really helped me get through the 'why can't I get my shit together and dedicate the time to get this done?' to 'yes! the message/awareness is still out there!' through others (like Data Dare) challenging folks to do women's empowerment vizzes. I want to participate and show my support and contribute to the Data Dare. But...when?

There are so many things I want to do.

If I take a look at how I spend my time, I can chunk it into major categories:

• Work (9 hours)
• Sleep (6 hours)
• Commute (3 hours)
• Getting me & kids ready for work (1.5 hours)
• Dinner/family time/baths (1.5 hours)
• Life coaching (1 hour)
• Workout (1 hour)

The weekends don't offer much relief. Workweek stuff is replaced by errands, long runs, spending time with family...especially since that time is limited during the week.

To me, it becomes a question of: am I okay with it?

With respect to WEViz, yes. Awareness is being raised by others. I'm good with that.

At the end of the day, I have to make choices. What do I prioritize? Right now, building my business and coaching my clients is a top priority. Training for my fitness competition is a top priority. Spending time with family is a top priority. Contributing to the Tableau/Dataviz community is important. Perhaps I can't do everything I want. As long as I meet a certain (unknown) threshold for dataviz, then I feel okay.

So as I reflect on this International Women's Day and my two hour commute home (which is where I wrote most of this with my car in park on New York Ave in DC), the fact that I ate dinner, kissed the kids, & went right back out to the gym, I thought of the following:

I can't do it all but as long as I'm happy overall, then it's all good.

I was super happy to see February's theme; love. I knew I wanted to do something around Valentine's Day and so I decided to track how I express love. The kids and I started Valentine's at my parents' house and due to a snowstorm, cut the trip short and returned home.

I went analog at first by tracking the expressions of love in my notebook, then transferring the to google sheets, where I connected to the data using the web data connector (seriously one of the best features IMO). I created a few different charts but I had trouble coming up with a design/theme (which is just one reason I was late getting this card out). I use Tableau just for data exploration for Data Chain work. I might fancy it up a little, but I really look at it as a means to an end. Spending time with my mini-me brought me design clarity.

One of the side benefits of being late is that I could capture the two cards in one picture (silver lining)!

So there we have it, I'm all hearts and rainbows. The hearts are shaded by the types of love. Purple is for memes, gifts, etc, while pink is for hugs, and red is for kisses. The borders around each represent the people I expressed love to. The big heart is for my family, the middle heart is for friends, and because I love social media, the small heart represents a Facebook post. One thing I learned from this month's data chain is that I need to show more friends love.

And if you're wondering, Katie chose to be the color purple on the border and loved the hearts and rainbows.

I love seeing the commentary on #TableauIsWhy. It seems like this software tool has made an indirect or direct impact on so many.

A couple of years ago, I participated in a hackathon for women's empowerment and learned about key factors in empowerment. That really stuck with me. As a result, I was inspired to host a virtual hackathon called WEViz (Women's Empowerment Viz) event last year. When I was working on WEViz , I stumbled upon a video about child marriage. And it made me sick. This gut wrenching feeling solidified this notion of being a women's empowerment advocate. I made over a HuffPo viz, but importantly, I began to pay more attention.

I became a World Help Advocate and this past February, when they wanted people to put their Love on the Map, I did just that. Learning about child marriage and other issues in Uganda from my work on WEViz, I decided I was going to sponsor a girl from Uganda. And then I found Sarah (which is also my sister's name). What I learned about Sarah's family is that it's just Sarah's mom and her siblings. Her story is one that you read about...having to fetch water or not having enough money. So I'm happy to help and hopefully make a difference.

But what does this have to do with Katie, Alex, & Darrell Green (one of the GOAT Washington and dare I say NFL players)? In a speech he gave at my work, he said something that really resonated with me.

Things are caught before they're taught.


I hope Katie and Alex are catching on to a few key concepts:

We live in a global community and we can make a difference in the world.


It's totally cool for girls to do things they are interested in...even if it's playing with data on the weekends.


Hopefully things will be different as the kids get older, but regardless, they should support each other. Alex can be an ambassador for girls in his class or Katie so that they are treated equitably.

To sum it all up, Tableau is why I learned more about women's empowerment issues and why I'm trying to do something about it.