Mary Holstege
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mathling.bsky.social
Mary Holstege
@mathling.bsky.social
180 followers 1.1K following 6 posts
Retired software engineer. Now I write programs to make art.

Merch: https://www.redbubble.com/people/holstege/shop

Follow bridge account @mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
or see https://mastodon.social/@mathling

Web site: https://www.mathling.com/
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mathling.bsky.social
Mary Holstege @mathling.bsky.social · Nov 18
Bridge from mastodon.social/@mathling is bsky.app/profile/math...
Mary Holstege (@mathling@mastodon.social)
2.03K Posts, 640 Following, 461 Followers · Retired software engineer. Now I write programs to make art. Will natter on about tech in general with forays into linguistics, football, cooking, politics...
mastodon.social
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#ArtAdventCalendar

Sombrero nebula

Hand-drawn, digital

#space
A nebula, rather reminiscent of the Sombrero nebula, slants across a starry black sky. In the foreground, a comet? icy asteroid chunk? slightly glowing. There is a bright light just at the top of it, like a cosmic lighthouse, perhaps.
December 17, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#ArtAdventCalendar

Voronoi division of an R in Kings Regular, with shrinking copies of each region
It is a capital R with strong serifs, but rendered as a series of orange, red, or yellow regions, making for a scaly appearance. Each region has a series of slightly smaller copies in slightly different shades. There is something dragonesque about it all.
December 16, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#ArtAdventCalendar

A weaving driven off a pair of integer sequences from OEIS
A grid of squares in various shades: blues, tans, whites. There are lines of the same colour, creating an impression of larger squares within the pattern, except the lines are taken up in a different colour part way across, which creates the illusion that the whole thing is a little cockeyed and askew.
December 15, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Chapter 24 of Atraxian Blue (https://books2read.com/u/b6ElAx) is up at http://mathling.com/books/index.html

My finger! -- In which Renny can't quite believe that has happened to him, and then has a difficult conversation with the ship

#scifi #writing #atraxianblue
Available now at your favorite digital store!
Atraxian Blue by Mary Holstege
books2read.com
December 15, 2025 at 4:40 PM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#ArtAdventCalendar

My take on 'bent' (@ippsketch). Based on tilings with non-straight edges and not just 4-sided tiles. This one is based on triangular tiling.

#xquery #svg
It looks like an isometric projection of some wobbly construction of packed towers. Their sides are a deep rusty brown with a yellow stripe in the middle, their tops are tan with a red stripe in the middle. The edges jink a little bit, lending a somewhat hand-drawn look to things. Black background.
December 14, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#ArtAdventCalendar

SPAAAACE

#xquery #svg
A swirly blue planet lit by the light of a friendly yellow sun. Glowing stars in the background. Colophon: the planet has a circular gradient base, with the focus angled towards the sun; the patterning is using a marbling SVG filter. From 2022. Zipf distribution for the star sizes.
December 13, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#silentsunday #photography #lawcode
Blocks of limestone with Greek letters carved on it in the boustrophedon style (alternating from left to right, right to left). It is the ancient Greek law code, carved into blocks for all to see at the Gortyna odeon. Photographer: me
December 14, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#caturday #photography

Relaxation
Black cat with a few white patches on her belly lies flaked out on a white fluffy robe. Her feet are out to the sides, her front claws currently extended. She's kneeding as she dozes. She is snoring. Cat: Nyx Cat substrate and photographer: me
December 13, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Shower day 5: we seem to have turned the corner from destruction to construction
The shower, where once there was a ragged hole through the the outside and an absolute mess on the floor, there is now an actual wall and an actual shower pan ready to be installed. There is hope.
December 12, 2025 at 10:41 PM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#ArtAdventCalendar

It is the dark of the year, when chthonic beasts stir
Noodly appendages reach towards us in a dense and writhing mass of horror. They look worm-like, perhaps. You don't want to get near them. The background is glowing purple and blue fading into darkness.
December 12, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#ArtAdventCalendar

Another oldie, an experiment with GANs

Hand-drawn digital image of a moon rising through haze, run through CLIP with some style transfer instructions. WikiArt database.
A cloudy sky over snow-covered mountains. At the base of the mountains, flames, and some kind of round pale ball. The brushwork is Van Gogh like. Hand drawn digital of a textured moon rise, passed through 30 iterations of CLIP using the WikiArt database with the style transfer instruction of "Fire and ice with wolves Van Gogh style"
December 11, 2025 at 6:17 PM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Chapters 23 of Atraxian Blue (https://books2read.com/u/b6ElAx) is up at http://mathling.com/books/index.html

Running for the gate: In which Lila has to blast her way free

#scifi
#writing
#atraxianblue
Available now at your favorite digital store!
Atraxian Blue by Mary Holstege
books2read.com
December 10, 2025 at 9:35 PM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Shower day 3: It gets better

By which, of course, I mean it gets worse

Kids, did you know that shower pans have an expected lifespan of only 15 years? Learn from my ignorance.
Destruction to the outside of the house, removing siding damaged by the leaky shower.
December 10, 2025 at 8:15 PM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#ArtAdventCalendar

Moon rise
A swirly orange planet dominates the canvas. It is eclipsed by some kind of space station. Our viewpoint is on a dark and rugged surface, watching an icy moon rise. The sky had a purple tinge. We can see a distant sun, some stars, and a nebula. Hand-drawn digital.
December 10, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Shower redo Day 2: well, that ain't good
Shower demolition close up. Rotten subflooring, rotten siding. A mess.
December 10, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#ArtAdventCalendar

Curls
Gradient coloured curls (sea green to pale yellow) twist this way and that across the center of a black canvas. There is something of a Chinese dragon about the overall form, perhaps, rearing up and looking to the left. Code-generated art 2020, XQuery + SVG
December 9, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Day one shower destruction

After all the huge bags of smashed up tiles they removed, it is hard to believe they still have more to hack out, but the top remains untouched
Interior of shower, showing piles of smashed up tiles, a crowbar, and rather ratty insulation.
December 8, 2025 at 10:36 PM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
My ebooks are available as part of the Smashwords 2025 End of Year Sale, all month.

Official sale link: https://www.smashwords.com/sale (search Holstege)
Great for last-minute gifting: https://www.smashwords.com/about/gifts

#ebook #sale #Books2Read #indiebooks #eoysale25
Smashwords – Sitewide Sale
www.smashwords.com
December 8, 2025 at 5:54 PM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Well, after three postponements, today is final the day when they come to smash up my ugly old leaking shower and replace it, one hopes, with something water tight and beautiful.

Fingers crossed.

The cats are SO not going to like this.
December 8, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#ArtAdventCalendar

Earthrise
The heavily cratered surface of the moon, with just the tiniest sliver our beautiful blue planet peeking over the edge. A scattering of stars. Hand drawn, digital.
December 8, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Chapters 21 and 22 of Atraxian Blue (https://books2read.com/u/b6ElAx) is up at http://mathling.com/books/index.html

Belle Epoch: Another funeral: in which there is another funeral
Back in medbay: in which Renny is dismayed to learn what has happened to hit

#scifi #writing #atraxianblue
Available now at your favorite digital store!
Atraxian Blue by Mary Holstege
books2read.com
December 7, 2025 at 5:10 PM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#silentsunday #photography

Turkeys escape Thanksgiving
A gang of turkeys strutting about on the neighbour's roof. Friends, let me tell you that in the pre-dawn dark, the sound of a turkey on your roof is absolutely terrifying. You wonder, just for a moment, whether you haven't landed into a Jurassic Park timeline, where the raptors are looking for a door knob. Photographer: me Location: Cupertino
December 7, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#ArtAdventCalendar

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow
A plethora of pale blue snowflakes over a black background. Some of them are quite intricate. They come in a variety of sizes.
December 7, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#caturday

Cats are dignified and graceful creatures
Black cat with a little white collar and a streak of white on her belly forms a lumpy triangle, with one hind foot sticking out towards us. She had green eyes and looks directly at us: "What you looking at?" She sits on a rumpled throw blanket on a love seat in front of a bookcase. Cat: Nyx Photographer: The Cat Whisperer
December 6, 2025 at 5:58 PM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#ArtAdventCalendar

Masks
Abstract in black and red over white background. A loose assemblage of curves chopping into each other. Hand drawn, digital.
December 6, 2025 at 6:01 PM