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Posted on June 18, 2020February 5, 2021 by Spatial H

June 18 arrival : 2019 France Trip Memories

Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, June 18, 2019

A year ago I took the best vacation ever: to France to watch the women’s world cup soccer matches in different cities across the country, and I am reliving the trip this year by posting memories with photos every day, to document all the great experiences in a travel journal that I didn’t get together last year.

We flew direct Boston to Paris, checked into our hotel which was a little bit away from the city center and the sites. After we rejuvenated with a nap followed by an Indian meal nearby, we jumped directly onto the metropolitan subway to figure out how to make our way around on public transportation. We headed for the center even thought it was late in the day.

Right away we found ourselves at Notre Dame cathedral. It was just two months since the date the building burned. We arrived June 18, 2019; the fire happened April 15, 2019. The area around the cathedral was cordoned off for safety and construction work, including the walkway down next to the river. An abandoned ride share bike, left on the river walkway and covered in ash, can be seen in the photo below. The cathedral looked lovely regardless of its trouble.

Abandoned Bike Share in front of the recently burned Notre Dame Cathedral, June 18, 2019

The gargoyles were still impressive against the sky.

Gargoyles on the recently burned Notre Dame Cathedral, June 18, 2019

Tired from our first day of travel we wandered across the river and found the English language bookshop and cafe, Shakespeare and Co. Perfect for a caffeine pick-me-up to get ourselves back to the hotel.

Shakespeare and Co Cafe Paris — The English language bookshop and cafe, Shakespeare and Co. June 18, 2019

Tomorrow is more Paris and our first soccer game experience: Scotland v Argentina. Thanks for following along.

Click to return to the index of 2019 France Trip Memories.

2019 France Trip Memories

Posted on June 14, 2020January 24, 2021 by Spatial H

Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff

white book in white table near yellow wall

Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Read this book if you love history.
So much to think about and recognize in our own times regarding political science and culture norms and assumptions.

This book quote sums it up,

“as one of Caesar’s murderers had noted, ‘How much more attention people pay to their fears than to their memories!’ It has always been preferable to attribute a woman’s success to her beauty rather than to her brains, to reduce her to the sum of her sex life. Against a powerful enchantress there is no contest. Against a woman who ensnares a man in the coils of her serpentine intelligence – in the ropes of her pearls – there should, at least, be some kind of antidote. Cleopatra unsettles more as a sage than a seductress; it is less threatening to believe her fatally attractive than fatally intelligent.”

View all my reviews

Posted on April 15, 2020February 5, 2021 by Spatial H

Circe by Madeline Miller

Circe by Madeline Miller

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The perfect thing to read after playing through the Assassins Creed Oddysey video game with all the DLC.

I had no idea what this book was about when I picked it up, but was delighted by the whimsical subject matter.

Off to go look up all these characters and where they’ve popped up over time.
I highly recommend this for a light yet still deep read.

View all my reviews

Posted on October 24, 2019January 24, 2021 by Spatial H

Moms Brioche Cowl

My mother made the rare request from me of a hand knitted item: a cowl for her new LLBean jacket. A brioche cowl added the loft and warmth that would make the accessory super comfortable, as well as easily finding a sporty geometric pattern to match the jacket. Ever since I designed the Oceangazer Shawl pattern I’ve been in love with the brioche style of knitting for that very reason: the inherent loft and the warmth of the finished garment, with attractive lines that can really highlight different kinds of yarn.

I had just the right Green Mountain Spinnery Mountain Mohair in my stash: lilac to match the coat and slate grey to match her eyes, … with some aqua to fill out the bottom to get the length she wanted.

Here’s my mother’s photo of how it matches the coat. (!! woot !!)

Instructions for the Brioche Cowl
• CO 96 stitches in the main color, size 7 circular needle, Green Mtn Spinnery Mountain Mohair.
• In the round, work three 32 stitch versions of the Undulating Hourglass from Nancy Marchant’s Book Fresh Brioche.
• Continue with the chart at least twice through for the desired cowl length… the cowl shown is 19 inches long.
• Optionally switch to a simple brioche rib stitch if you have to add in a new color.
• Bind off loosely.

Posted on July 24, 2018August 20, 2024 by Spatial H — 19 Comments

Nerd Fun Boston

After hosting and attending 346 meetups since 2007* the time has come to step down from running Nerd Fun Boston.

I started the Nerd Fun Boston Meetup in 2007 because couldn’t get my “normal” friends to go to the local events that I wanted to go to, so I figured I’d collect fellow nerds from the internet to go with me. The first event that I hosted was a Michael Palin book signing, and no one showed – it was just me and my meetup sign. I went in to the venue alone and had a great time creating the lifelong memory of making Michael Palin laugh.

My second event was also a treat because people actually showed up! (See photo of boyfriend below, I met him that night. 🙂 ) The Harvard – Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics was having their monthly public observatory night, and never having been I figured I’d collect some random nerds and go check it out. If you’ve never been I highly recommend going. Their monthly public lecture and telescope evenings are consistently the most popular Nerd Fun Boston events I’ve run.

And so it began… 11 years of connecting people to educational and otherwise nerdy events around town. It’s 2018 now and I can easily say that the Nerd Fun crowd has become my community. My world expanded by making new friends, meeting their friends, and then bringing them along for more fun. We’ve all learned new things, met new people, and relaxed knowing that this crowd is completely ok with you giving a damn about 18th century history, or natural science, or the Kepler mission, or the latest medical advances, etc.

The time has come for me to pass the reins to someone new. Times have changed, but the need for people to connect in real life is now more important than ever. So I hope others will pick up where I left off and continue to connect, educate, and entertain.

I do suspect that in the future I may be up for running the occasional event as there’s always something intriguing going on in Greater Boston. But personally committing to hosting at least two events per month is finally wearing on me as I begin focusing on new things.

I’ll finish below with some ideas and tips for running this or any Meetup group. But here is the most important thing that I learned from founding and running Nerd Fun Boston: the most rewarding experiences are the things that take the most courage to do.

Be well, stay curious, and Nerd On, <3

Heather

* ~ 2.6 meetups/month !?!

Things I know from running Nerd Fun

Nerd Fun Boston has the nicest, most intelligent, most authentic people anywhere. As a group our members see the term “nerd” and ignore the associated social stigma, “meh, who cares”. Instead they’d rather connect with people who are also intrigued with the world. They all get it, our conversations are rarely small talk. The name of the group, coined by my friend, Susan, self selects really great folk. I’ve seen other people roll their eyes and back away when I tell them that this here group of people is a Meetup group called Nerd Fun. They don’t want the association, and they physically step back. Self selecting. It’s awesome really.
Protect the email list. It’s a large group, nearly 15,000 people, and everyone who knows the first thing about “promoting an online bizness” finds the largest Meetup groups to spam the organizers to get their products and services in front of many people for free. I’m not gonna lie, I enjoy saying “no” to these people. I truly think people will leave the group en masse if the email list gets spammed. Protect it, for it is sacred.
Being an organizer is the best way to meet new people. The people that take that bit of courage, step up and rally other people to attend a lecture, tour, walk, or event enjoy themselves while being themselves and always end up with a crew of new friends. I’ve seen this over and over.
Keep politics out of the group. No political events. Nope. None. It’s everywhere else, that’s not what we are here for.
Run events that you’d be going to anyways. If no one shows up you won’t be disappointed. My first event going to see Michael Palin is an example, I would have gone anyways, and had a great time regardless.
Find events everywhere. Surf the calendar pages of the local colleges that we’re lucky to have here in Boston. Check out the calendars of the local museums. The walking tours at Boston by Foot, Historic Bostons, and the National Parks are spectacular. Fred Hapgood emails a weekly list of lectures around town and has a great list of sources at his website. People that run events love having interested people in attendance, don’t be afraid to reach out and tell them you’ve got a group showing up.
The organizer has to attend. Don’t leave people high and dry. It’s a responsibility. It’s worth it. But it’s a responsibility.
People are not good at RSVPing reliably. People always have a hard time committing to attending. We had a forum post about it with a good discussion of why people RSVP yes and then don’t show up. It comes down to people “wanting to have gone” to an event but not having the will to show up. I mean, we have some shy people, I get it. Also I am aware some people may show up and then not feel strongly about connecting to say “hi” to the group. I’m convinced there’s nothing you can do about how members RSVP, so I tried not to let inconsistent attendance bother me. When in doubt, expect 12 people will attend. It’s usually 12 that attend anyways, no matter how many people say they’re going.
Meetup.com is changing. Social media has so overtaken our discourse in the past ten years that people are reacting to sites like Meetup differently. Also, since WeWork bought Meetup they have taken on the “upsell” business model. They took advertising space away unless you upgrade. They mismanaged turnover, the site is a hybrid bug-fest now. The old stuff is there, the new stuff is pinned on over it, the app tries to hang on to the pertinent info, email goes out unreliably… it goes on. In short: Meetup in 2018 is not as fun as it was in 2007. When I bring people on a walking tour and get people talking it’s still the best. But lectures and bar talks are chaos, connecting with people at such events nowadays can be difficult. I don’t know the answer here, other than wait and see how Meetup.com adapts.
Courage = Rewards. To reiterate, personally, the things that I have done that have required the most courage have turned out to be the most rewarding. Starting and running this group took a bit of gumption, I had more than a bit of doubt as to whether it was worth the trouble. Ultimately, there is no question that my life is worlds better than it would have been had I not started the group. No question.

Posted on January 3, 2017August 20, 2024 by Spatial H

Online Learning

Education is everything: learn, know, understand, so easy now with online learning. We live in a wonderful time where we can get classes about anything and everything online, and usually for free. Like with exercise – challenging yourself mentally keeps your brain bright and active throughout your life.

“no pain no gain”

I plan to keep a list of the online classes that I’ve taken and recommend here in this post, as well as the classes I am currently taking. The classes are at different levels, different colleges, different websites, etc.

Helpful for indy designers and crafters:

Bookkeeping for Crafters with Lauren Venell • A pragmatic guided tour through business accounting for people setting out on their own craft business for $79. There are a lot of good classes over at Creativelive.com, many of which they run for free if you catch them streaming on their “onair” page.

For Knitters:

Lace Shawl Design • This class by Miriam Felton gave me traction when it came to creating my very first design, the Hoo*Bert Shawl.

Graphic design basics:

Adobe Illustrator: Mastering the Fundamentals • There are always new techniques and tricks, this free class at udemy.com is worth the two hours of time to absorb illustrator basics.

In my queue right now:

Become a Game Developer/Designer : Complete Master Series • Getting my feet wet in game development and this one looks worth the time. This is another udemy offering, $10 at the time I signed up with a New Year’s deal good til January 10, 2017. $200 normally.

Game Theory • Free without a certificate at coursera.com, taught by professors at Stanford University and The University of British Columbia. A topic always intriguing to me, but I’ve never spent the time to wrap my head around it.

Game Design: Art and Concepts Specialization • A series of reasonably priced classes in game design at coursera.com from CalArts.

Learn drums • I know I said education is everything, I lied. Education and music is everything. Figuring this one will challenge my musical abilities in ways I hadn’t imagined.

NOTE: Coursera, Edx, and Udemy all have apps so you can keep up with your classes on the go.

Wait a minute, hold up… I almost forgot to list

PODCASTS to feed your brain.

C-SPAN History lecture videos • Learn about history so we don’t repeat it.

Livestreams

Observatory Nights at the The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) • I attend in person usually, but they have them all at Youtube. The best in astronomy information. Here is their Night Sky Report.

Let me know what you take, how you like the classes. And please help me encourage people to catch the online learning bug.

Posted on October 20, 2016July 7, 2023 by Spatial H

Concert Poster for the Season Premiere

2016-11-05 CSO Crossing the Atlantic CSO Poster

The concert poster for the season premiere of the Cambridge Symphony Orchestra visually balances the light and dark of the musical program. I used the method I worked out from the April chamber concert poster playing with illustrator’s path settings. My intent is to use this theme for all the posters this year, changing the colors and mood depending on the pieces we play for each.

Join us Saturday, November 5, 2016 at Kresge Auditorium at MIT.

Posted on October 18, 2016July 7, 2023 by Spatial H

2015 – 2016 Cambridge Symphony Orchestra Posters

In 2015, I decided to go in for purchasing Adobe Illustrator since I’d be using for both CSO posters and my knitting pattern diagrams. Like everything, it was an educational process since I’m the type to jump in and get a tool working, rather than take the time for a class.

I set up a workspace with “artboards” for the whole season. This way I can see, compare, and use elements across the group of posters and ads. And what goes on the first poster tends to set the theme for the season.

There are always head-shots of the musical guests, along with a lot of text and sponsor logos. I like to pick a color scheme for the text to draw attention to the soloist. In the case of the Mahler poster above Indra Thomas’s beautiful photo has a lovely green-grey backdrop that I wanted to work with. And as a new Illustrator user, playing with text appearance was the most fun, so I decided I had my theme for the season. All the posters would have roughly the same layout with the “Cambridge Symphony Orchestra” text working with the soloist head-shots.

Here for “Holiday Pops” I chose Adobe’s subtle sparkle effect for the CSO text along with an already festive head-shot of Jennifer Sgroe and a happy photo of Cynthia Woods.

The Family Concert in January always features are remarkably talented young musician, this year was no exception. Visually, I loved that Yoo Jin Ahn’s cute head-shot has a white background. The CSO text illustrator fun for this concert was the bright pastel colors from the Illustrator “graphic styles” library.

Doing this for a couple of years now, I have to say the March concert always throws me for a loop for the color scheme. If I use springtime green it makes people think of St Patrick’s Day which is almost never the concert theme, and especially since the program for this concert is “The Russian Masters” I had to work with something else. I went with a color theme in the red and blue spectrum since using the grey in the soloists head-shot would make the poster too dreary, giving the CSO text a circular blue gradient glow.

The Chamber players need a poster from time to time, and I could go off the season’s theme trying something new. I played with Illustrator paths to create a fun swirly violin, and I loved this effect so much it is going to be the theme of the 2016-2017 posters.

This Firebird show with the accompanying ballet ended the classical season with a bang. The concert was a labor of love for many, with the dancers and musicians using their creativity to bring this event to the next level. I contributed with the painting “The Prince and the Firebird” that I was able to work into this poster format. Having too much fun with color and design I created this surface design line at Spoonflower.

And finally, for the end of the season I had some more Illustrator fun, creating warped text for the title. The CSO logo is still recognizable with the SYMPHONY portion shown in bold. The entire image has an under layer of crumpled paper to portray a summer-of-love type vibe to it. I used color picker to pull the color from the sponsorship logo to use for the background and lettering.

Often the tools used and project restrictions dictate what the posters will look like. The limits, I find, help the creative process, if only to keep projects from being over-designed.

The one most important thing that I have learned in this post-tech artistic life: designing is decision making.

Posted on February 19, 2016July 7, 2023 by Spatial H

“Hello Spoonflower World”

“Hello World” is a short hand term for projects techies create while working on a new platform. My new platform? Spoonflower.

The “Hello World” idea is similar to the Minimum Viable Product, “MVP“, for people that know something about marketing, where the learning process involved in getting the first item/program/project/design out into the world takes most of the work. Theory being that once you get this first one done, the rest will follow much easier. I mean, think of all the learning involved with any new thing you’ve tried to do. Procrastination can get the best of you, but giving yourself the one goal to push toward, the “Hello World”, the first product, the first class, etc, you have something achievable and worthwhile.

I started by drawing up a design in Adobe Illustrator.

Getting the repeat right is the crux of the design process. A lot of good information is available on surface design repeats on YouTube.

Once I had my MVP design ready to go I uploaded it, ordered my proof, and waited by my mailbox.

When it arrived I opened up the package and inspected my new fabric, and oh no, a subtle problem: there was a light “aliased” outline on the right and bottom edges of the repeat. It may have been mistaken for wayward white thread if I had left it as it was, but it would bother me not to fix it.

Newbie Fabric Designer Woes, 1 pixel of non color on the right and bottom edges of my design sHoWs :-/ #spoonflower #process #fabricdesign

A photo posted by spatialh (@spatialh) on Feb 18, 2016 at 6:46pm PST

Spoonflower support was very helpful, told me I could edit my file to remove the white outline, re-upload, and release it for publication.

A little Pixelmator, and boom, done.

"Plum Regal" Preview — “Plum Regal” Preview, available at Spoonflower

So now I’m literally in business.

Fixed and uploaded, my first #spoonflower design "plum regal" 🙂

A photo posted by spatialh (@spatialh) on Feb 19, 2016 at 12:55pm PST

“Plum Regal” Spoonflower Giftwrap Preview. Their automated illustrations are wonderful.

Please leave a comment if you have any experience with Spoonflower, either sewing or designing with it. And please watch this space for more upcoming designs.

Nerd On,

Heather