Mary Holstege
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mathling.bsky.social
Mary Holstege
@mathling.bsky.social
190 followers 1.1K following 7 posts
Retired software engineer. Now I write programs to make art and words to make stories.

Links:
https://www.mathling.com/
https://books2read.com/ap/xqYAAW/Mary-Holstege
https://www.redbubble.com/people/holstege/shop
https://mastodon.social/@mathling
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mathling.bsky.social
Mary Holstege @mathling.bsky.social · 14d
books2read.com/u/bPAjVA

What if the map were the territory? In the Imperium, map keepers make it so, drawing the realm into shape. Follow Jali from her family inn to the Great Keep of map makers, the wild steppes, and the imperial palace.

Now available ebook/paperback (B&N).

#fantasy #writing
Cover for the novel "The Keeper of Maps" by Mary Holstege. A map showing topographic contours coloured in shades of tan, desert colours. There are various symbols and paths in maroon. The font is vaguely Arabic in style.
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Glistening rain
Glistening hexagons in pale reddish brown hues. It looks like we are looking at slightly out of focus rain drops on branches, seen through the falling rain. A bit melancholy.
February 13, 2026 at 11:05 PM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Shimmer crystals

Colouring is gradients among a random set of colours from a parent gradient.
Glowing plasma cubes shimmer in space, with some vertical streaks. Aliens. It has to be aliens.
February 13, 2026 at 11:03 PM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#generativeart interlude

Leaves

Take a *really* wild tile shape
Spatter it about in swoops over the canvas
Iterate multiple transparent layers
Add some dusty streaks

#xquery #svg #creativecoding
A smattering of white palmate leaves in sweeps and clusters over a black background with grainy streaks of white. It looks like some ancient Daguerrotype of leaves in the rain.
February 13, 2026 at 11:01 PM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#generativeart interlude

Revival and reworking of an old project: Celtic braids

#xquery #svg #creativecoding
Celtic-style braids fill a square, with a criss-cross pattern down the center and folds along the sides. The loops and knots are in deep purple with silver edges over a field of green and gold.
February 11, 2026 at 6:36 PM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#caturday #photography

An old cat, a sunbeam, and a heating vent
A rather scrawny and somewhat raggedy looking old fluffy grey cat flopped over on his side on a carpet. A sunbeam falls across his shoulders. The heat from the heating vent ruffles his fur. He may be getting a little creaky, but Dusty knows joy.
January 31, 2026 at 7:37 PM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#igetspam

It's been a while since we had a peek at the old spam bag. Lessee...

That hotel in Florida I had one conference at about twenty years ago, still emailing me every week. It's almost comforting, at this point, how much they care.

1/n
February 9, 2026 at 4:28 PM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Chapter 35 of Atraxian Blue (https://books2read.com/u/b6ElAx) is up at http://mathling.com/books/index.html

Lila Ponders
In which Lila tries to untangle what the hell is going on, and has a disquieting conversation with her ship

#scifi
#writing
#atraxianblue
Available now at your favorite digital store!
Atraxian Blue by Mary Holstege
books2read.com
February 9, 2026 at 4:44 PM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#silentsunday #photography
A pair of ibexes from the wall of Pech Merle, in reddish pigment. The horns curve back over their shaggy necks. One of the we see in its entirety, with its delicate little hooves and its tail flicked up.
February 8, 2026 at 9:12 PM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
https://books2read.com/u/bPAjVA

What if the map *were* the territory? In the Imperium, map keepers make it so, drawing the realm into shape one map at a time. Follow Jali as her destiny takes her from her family inn to the Great Keep of map makers, the wilds […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
Cover for the novel "The Keeper of Maps" by Mary Holstege. A map showing topographic contours coloured in shades of tan, desert colours. There are various symbols and paths in maroon. The font is vaguely Arabic in style.
January 31, 2026 at 7:27 PM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Chapter 34 of Atraxian Blue (https://books2read.com/u/b6ElAx) is up at http://mathling.com/books/index.html

The Time Tunnel
In which Lila finds Renny defacing her bulkheads and is not best pleased

#scifi
#writing
#atraxianblue
Available now at your favorite digital store!
Atraxian Blue by Mary Holstege
books2read.com
February 2, 2026 at 4:50 PM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#generativeart interlude

Spicy autocomplete aka colourless green ideas: an experiment in L-system poetry (editorial selection)

An elegy on LLMs in the time of fascism

#xquery #svg
A series of lines in different fonts. The text reads: Each usual empty talk tidily disbursed beneath every unsexy two-by-four. Some succeeding garrulousness greasily foundered. A grassless corrugation free-associated hence the large dribble. This jet-black monitoring program brailed through and through every superscript imperial Japanese morning glory. Some leaden acronym mutely foisted. Many a strained Young dramatically will turn one hermaphrodite. Many a pharmacological musicality psychologically moussed one counterinsurgency. Some scrumptious cough palely panicked against that counteractive alphabetic script. What emblematic symbol truculently dangled? Each titular exoneration unquestionably verified what waving? Many an abnormal target range hugger muggered long since what ditty? The longitudinal eyeball laudably plunged many a lead-coloured Brownshirt. Some searching natural language processor confessedly will duck that floppy kvetch. Each brut payback discursively will hop after what word?
February 1, 2026 at 8:48 PM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#silentsunday #photography
Looking up towards a square tower made of golden stone attached to a house of the same material. The tower has intricate crenelations. The house has rusty red shutters on the windows. In the foreground is a lichen-spattered rock. In the background is a tree and a sapphire blue sky with a few wisps of cloud. Photographer: me
February 1, 2026 at 6:28 PM
mathling.bsky.social
books2read.com/u/bPAjVA

What if the map were the territory? In the Imperium, map keepers make it so, drawing the realm into shape. Follow Jali from her family inn to the Great Keep of map makers, the wild steppes, and the imperial palace.

Now available ebook/paperback (B&N).

#fantasy #writing
Cover for the novel "The Keeper of Maps" by Mary Holstege. A map showing topographic contours coloured in shades of tan, desert colours. There are various symbols and paths in maroon. The font is vaguely Arabic in style.
January 31, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
It's interesting: the bees often hit a plateau in their evolution (their "genes" create correlations that constrain matters) that the star can evolve to remedy for a better fit.

I also tried interleaved evolution, which often ran off into really terrible combinations that killed everyone. I […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
January 29, 2026 at 5:31 PM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#generativeart interlude

#genuary29 Evolution

Co-evolution: the shape of the bee evolves to fit the star, the shape of the star evolves to fit the bee

#xquery #svg #genuary2026 #GENUARY
A series of multi-pointed stars with a little cartoon bee shoving its pointing proboscis into it. The unevolved pair at the top don't fit well at all. The bee in the middle pair has evolved a better fit, which becomes even better in the final pair, where the "flower" evolves from a nine-pointed star into a six-pointed one.
January 29, 2026 at 5:28 PM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#generativeart interlude

#genuary26 Recursive grids

Follow the loops

#xquery #svg #genuary2026 #GENUARY
Triangles within triangles within triangles. The triangles are mostly shades of red, but following some looping shape they shift to blue as well. There is more subdivision in the area of the loops.
January 27, 2026 at 12:03 AM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#silentsunday #photography #mosstodon
An eroded dry stone wall with moss and other little plants growing from the gaps. Photographer: me
January 25, 2026 at 9:35 PM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#generativeart interlude

#genuary25 Organic geometry

Unpleasantly moist circles, from the underside of that old log

#xquery #svg #genuary2026 #GENUARY
A glistening fungal mass expands across the whole of a blood-red canvas. It looks nasty, I tell ya. But also cool.
January 25, 2026 at 9:40 PM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Chapter 33 of Atraxian Blue (https://books2read.com/u/b6ElAx) is up at http://mathling.com/books/index.html

Belle Epoch: Florence

In which Tass enjoys painting in the Italian sunshine, until he doesn't

#scifi
#writing
#atraxianblue
Available now at your favorite digital store!
Atraxian Blue by Mary Holstege
books2read.com
January 25, 2026 at 9:46 PM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#generativeart interlude

#genuary24: Perfectionist's nightmare

You think it's all fine, and then you spot the first error, and then the next, and before you know it you start seeing errors where there aren't any.

If I told you there were 20 intentional […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
A 16 by 16 grid of 9-pointed stars (mostly) all the same shape (mostly) and size (mostly) and orientation (mostly) with the colours following an orderly (mostly) gradation of greens over a white and grey ordely (mostly) checkerboard pattern where the stars are (mostly) centered in the boxes. You start to doubt your own eyes, I tell you, yes you do.
January 24, 2026 at 7:57 PM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#generativeart interlude

#genuary23: transparency

Emerging from the fog and spume

#xquery #svg #GENUARY #genuary23
A cartoon octopus waves his tentacles at as and looks at us with large luminous eyes, partially seen through semi-transparent curls of deep red and purple. Mysterious. Spooky. (If he weren't so darned cute.)
January 24, 2026 at 12:19 AM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Colophon:

Take a smooth meander:
θ(s) = Σ[i=1:N](A[i] sin( (2π/λ[i])s)
θ = tangential angle, s=arc length
(x,y) = (∫[0:s] cos(θ(s)), ∫[0:s] sin(θ(s))

Extend the curve: by : y=sin(pθ) * (ω + Σ(ry[i] * cos(qy[i]θ))) to make the right hand side of the ribbon

Draw lines matching left edge to […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
January 20, 2026 at 10:07 PM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Using Hobby splines, for that extra swoop factor
A swooping swirling curve loops back and forth in elegant pastels over a deep purple background to form a curling knot. Mostly the loops back and forth are tight, but in places they really arc outwards.
January 20, 2026 at 9:57 PM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#generativeart interlude

#genuary20: one line

Falling loops

#xquery #svg #genuary2026 #GENUARY
A thing green line winds back and forth in tight curves, mapping out a ribbon that loops gently back and form down the page.
January 20, 2026 at 6:51 PM
Reposted by Mary Holstege
mathling.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#generativeart interlude

#genuary19: 16x16 and also #genuary16 order and disorder

The descent into madness

Number 5, number 5, number 5, ....

#xquery #svg #genuary2026 #GENUARY
A 16x16 array of glyphs of the numeral 5. As we descend down the grid, the outlines become more ragged and the orderly progression of colours (tans to greens) falls apart. A metaphor for our age.
January 19, 2026 at 8:18 PM