Playing with PIL

im2_2v, a photo by galaxygoo1 on Flickr.

My experiments with Python Image Library, are starting out fairly basic, but the results are promising. Will have to post code, once I get it ready.

So far, I'm still working on how to process images into one collage image. In this piece, I wanted to create transparency around the source image, so that I could overlay them nicely.

Particle Dots

sm_dots_2_June2013, a photo by galaxygoo1 on Flickr.

Was invited to participate in a group gallery show, so I dusted off some particle code and took it out for a new spin.

Here's a preview of the results.

My grandmother

My grandmother has passed away, and I'm fairly devastated.  Being a geek I've  found some comfort in tweeting my thoughts of her as they bubbled to the top of my mental stack.

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My grandmother always had something fun for me to do, and would bring me snacks of cinnamon toast, or cucumber slices with vinegar and salt

My grandmother knew and loved me so well. She let me dump out her big jar of sewing buttons on the floor. I'd sort them all, for hours.

My grandmother would send me out to pick oranges from her garden, and then she'd squeeze the juice for us to share.

My grandmother loved Elvis Presley and his music.

My grandmother looked forward to visits from her Avon lady.

My grandmother kept a jar of Hawaiian Punch syrup in the cabinet under her stove

My grandmother never learned to drive a car.

My grandmother loved me.

My grandmother tended a beautiful garden, and when I was a child it seemed like a place of magic to me.

My grandmother made the best banana bread I've ever had.

My grandmother would serve lima beans, and I would argue that my mom didn't make me eat them. And grandma didn't loose her temper with me.

My grandmother survived the 1918 flu epidemic, while her father and siblings did not...according to family lore.

My grandmother would sit with me for hours, carefully cutting flowers, animals,and such, out of magazines and make collages with them.

My grandmother drew smiley faces in the loops of her script, when she sent me letters. I knew her writing before I could read it.

My grandmother would say she was "just resting my eyes", when she was clearly napping.

My grandmother was much more interesting than she ever let on.

My grandmother didn't approve of my geeky ways, so we didn't talk about it. She still loved me.

My grandmother seemed happiest in Hawaii, based on family pictures.

My grandmother was almost 100 years old.

My grandmother was a coal miner's daughter.

My grandmother consoled friends, whose husbands perished, when their sub was sunk during WWII. The sub her husband was just transferred from

My grandmother, in later years, would see me, say my name and smile as if a most precious gift was placed in her hands

My grandmother helped me loose followers who don't want to see my posts about my grandmother and her passing ;)

My grandmother left us today. And I'm very sad. But I have so many memories of her love and patience. She will always be with me.

My grandmother loved me, and I will feel that love the rest of my life.

My grandmother maintained a calm surface. She'd reveal occasional glimpses to what lay beneath, and I knew there was so much more.

My grandmother loved her "stories"

My grandmother knew her way around a sewing machine.

My grandmother calmly made alterations to a family wedding dress the night before the wedding. Keeping bride calm, and tailored perfectly

My grandmother had a calm authority that she rarely exerted. But when she did, we all followed thankfully.

My grandmother was stubborn, at times.

My grandmother was my grandma, and I miss her already.

My grandmother deserved more form me. But she never said so.

My grandmother lived through tougher times than I can fathom.

My grandmother would cut up fresh fruit and snack, over the kitchen sink.

My grandmother...oh I am so sad

My grandmother watched the Lawrence Welk show, regularly

My grandmother taught me so many things.

My grandmother would have been an amazing computer scientist, if she'd thought that was appropriate for a woman to do.

My grandmother had an amazing brain and creative power.

My grandmother passed her potential to me and my children. We must realize at least some of that potential.

My grandmother passed her potential to all of her descendents, my siblings and cousins and their children.

My grandmother was the most patient and tactful person I have ever met. I wish I'd inherited those characteristics more than I did.

My grandmother was a product of her times.

My grandmother left before I was ready for her to go. And I should have prepared better. She was ready.

My grandmother shied from dancing jitter bug-swing. The boys wanted to "toss you in the air, but they wouldn't catch you".

My grandmother had a wonderfully wicked sense of humor, and when I was an adult she shared a little of it with me.

My grandmother didn't approve of the internet, because a family member disappointed her with it.

My grandmother raised fuchsias in her garden. As a child, they seemed magical to me.

My grandmother made so very much with what little she was given.

My grandmother taught me how to stop and focus.

My grandmother sparked my interest in art and in science.

My grandmother could be spontaneous and fun at any unexpected time.

My grandmother would have us stand still forever, as she focused her beloved Brownie camera. Somehow, she got great shots.

My grandmother let me play with a magnifying glass and burn holes in leaves on her back porch.

My grandmother had Master Mind, and encouraged anyone and everyone in the house to play with me over and over and over again.

My grandmother, and other family adults, introduced me to Spirograph. They seemed so excited to share it with me. I never tired of it.

My grandmother let me take apart mechanical toys, but didn't remark on when I put them back together and they still worked or were better.

My grandmother let me take things apart. I repeat. My grandmother let me take things apart.

 My grandmother was a spontaneous cartoonist.

My grandmother was the perfect grandmother for me.

My grandmother had a much harder time than she ever let on.

My grandmother was always there for me, but she was not to be disturbed during her "stories"...aka her soaps.

My grandmother was constrained by much older definitions of gender roles than I am.

Layering Algorithms

lines_orange_detail_1, a photo by galaxygoo1 on Flickr.

Been working on some variations. I've implemented a dividing-line algorithm, with hand embroidered chain stitching, over Giclee prints from my "Lines" series (inspired by Paul Klee).

Visualizaing the SF MUNI 24-Divisadero bus line - second draft

How could I resist the Urban Data Challenge?

Once I got used to the "weirdness" of R, I started having fun with it.  Getting beyond simple data sets was great, and the Urban Data Challenge gave me a lot to work with and explore. So many patterns, so little time.

Since I ride the SF MUNI 24-Divis bus line regularly, I was curious to see if the numbers in the data set reflected my experience as a passenger, especially the crowded buses.

The first image shows an overall pattern for the 24-Divis line, the ebb and flow of passenger counts on each run through a morning.

Morning passenger counts on the SF MUNI 24-Divisadero bus line, a photo by galaxygoo1 on Flickr.

Castro at Market is a major transfer stop. As a passenger,  if I've been standing up to this stop, I can sometimes get a seat during the shuffle as people exit the bus.  In this image, it's easy to see that approximately equal numbers of passengers get on and off the bus at this stop, throughout the day.

Passenger changes for Castro at Market stop: SF MUNI 24-Divis, a photo by galaxygoo1 on Flickr.

The third image highlights when the 24 line is running over capacity and are particularly crowded. See those dots above the red line? That's when we're packed in like standing sardines.

Passenger counts, as recorded at various stops and runs of the SF MUNI 24-Divis line, a photo by galaxygoo1 on Flickr.

For the fourth image, I examined another line that runs through Noe Valley. One interesting difference between the 24 and 48 bus lines easily observed in this image: the flow of passengers is different on the 48. While the 24 has a greater flow "out" in the morning and "in" in the evening, the 48 has slightly more of an even flow "in" and "out" during the peak hours.

SF MUNI passengers, onthe 24 and 48 lines, as reported Oct 2, 2012, a photo by galaxygoo1 on Flickr.

I had a lot of fun with this, and it would be great to have more time and dig even deeper into the data.

These are coded in R, and I've uploaded my source code to github.

Visualizing the 24 (SF MUNI)

Visualizing the 24 (SF MUNI), a photo by galaxygoo1 on Flickr.

Since I have to learn R, I figured I might as well try it on the data sets from the Urban Data Challenge.

In this one, I'm looking at passenger load (how many people are on the bus) at each stop, for several runs of the 24 line (SF MUNI).

At this point in the project, I'm looking for interesting patterns to spend more time on. I think I'll be spending some time with this one.

While R was driving me batty for a while, it's easy to see how useful it can be, and worth the effort to get more familiar with.

Update: a little more info on how to read the visualization
Time reads from left-right, and the y-axis has individual "trip_id" or bus trip in one direction. The light blue are outbound and dark blue are inbound, on the 24-divis line. The size of the dots represent the number of passengers on the bus at that time, per stop.

Creative Coding Nerves

nerve generation 1a_001, a photo by galaxygoo1 on Flickr.

Been playing around with generating images that look like nerve structures, to relax over the holidays. It's the kind of code I can work on while being distracted all the time...and fun.