Matt Mack

@matthras

Hard-of-hearing + mild AuDHD mathematician, cellist, anime+manga+VTuber fan with a giant backlog of games and books to get through. Chronically online: matthras@aus.social, matthras@x.com, matthras.com

770 Siguiendo1005 Seguidores1978 Publicaciones

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Matt Mack@matthras· May 28

Apple cake was made last night! I'm thinking I want the apples to be softer when I bite into them, so I'm thinking they'll have to be cooked down somehow before adding to the cake mixture. Basically want the same bite-feel like the Maccas apple pie.

Matt Mack@matthras· May 16

If you'll excuse my nerdiness I finally got these belt buckles engraved with the aperiodic hat tile design! 😁 I had the idea and buckles for like more than a friggin' year and was really stuck on figuring out where to get the design on them and how to do it 😤

Three belt buckles, silver, bronze, and black, are all engraved with the aperiodic hat tile pattern such that the tile in the centre is fully coloured in, but the surrounding tiles are not, giving a cracked dry land look in the background.

Matt Mack@matthras· Apr 6

Haven't posted about crochet in a while. Current home project. Taking suggestions for what to transform this into.

Crochet project that looks like a cloth strip a little too thin for a scarf. The pattern is of red and white alternating zigzag patterns on both sides, done using an "interlocking" crochet style.

Matt Mack@matthras· Feb 10

Giving a talk today. Are these sufficient to be called lucky socks? Guess we'll find out! 🙃

Blue-green socks with dice on them are on display next to a pair of sports shoes, all underneath a round table with a laptop showing presentation slides.

Matt Mack@matthras· Nov 29

Pfft, just ask me to design one for you next time 😂 They seem to be a bunch of maths teaching collectives all pulled together into one.

Matt Mack@matthras· Oct 29

Sarah Pulis (director and cofounder of Intopia, that's where I remembered her from!) talks about how to think about maturity of accessibility services in how an organization and it's people address accessibility, and the different dimensions that one can measure it by. #A11yCamp2025

Matt Mack@matthras· Oct 29

One of the main issues with accessibility testing is that there are so many different technologies now, which significantly increases the number of combinations to be considered. She presents a framework and some ideas on how to deal with it, including having multiple specialists #A11yCamp2025

Picture of speaker, interpreter and slide indicating an optimisation directive to reduce testing dimensions, as there is 4096 total combinations to consider.

Matt Mack@matthras· Oct 29

Michelle McDonald starts off her talk on fast-tracking accessibility testing by referencing leadership themes from Star Trek (of which I'm not old enough to understand 😢) #A11yCamp2025

Presentation slide of a female Star Trek character holding a megaphone and shield, with text "Leadership Directive, the Captain's log of accessibility leadership: Plotting, briefing, protecting and reporting". Michelle is on the right on the podium, and an Auslan interpreter in the middle.

Matt Mack@matthras· Oct 28

Ricky Onsman mentions how in his technical writing role it's important for him to get words and terminology right to avoid misinterpretation and ambiguity, and how frustrated he gets when people use words to hurt others. (Me: Cue vigorous nodding of autistic people in the audience 😂) #A11yCamp2025

Matt Mack@matthras· Oct 28

Lovely fireside chat between Sarah Pulis and Jennison Asuncion reminiscing on various events in their accessibility journey and how COVID affected things. There was a joke about an accessible pub crawl 😆 #A11yCamp2025

Sarah and Jennison are sitting comfortably on lounge chairs under the screen showing Jennison's face. Auslan interpreter on the right.

Matt Mack@matthras· Oct 28

Welcome & Housekeeping talk! And it's so comforting to have an Auslan interpreter AND captions 😁 It's the 10th Year Anniversary of #A11yCamp; in the first they managed to get around 150 people, some of who are also here today!

Picture of stage from the audience. Giant screen on the left with captions at the top. In the middle is an Auslan interpreter, on the right is the podium with who I assume is one of the organisers.

Matt Mack@matthras· Oct 28

Brb just going to hang out here all day to wind down from anxiety #A11yCamp (But engaging with me in person and getting me to talk is also good for ignoring my anxiety!)

Selfie with only the top half of my head with my eyes looking upwards towards a screen showing directions to the Quiet/Sensory room at the Melbourne Conference & Exhibition Centre.

Matt Mack@matthras· Oct 8

Got a lovely response on Threads

A response from "linda.mciver" says "the only relevant question is: might it make your life better by signalling your disability? if the answer is yes (looks like it to me!) then get one."

I reply with "I love this perspective, thank you 🙏

For the most part I get by fine (going by past experiences) but there are definitely many small moments where it's like "Okay I just need a little more consideration when you interact with me" and I definitely don't have an issue signalling that."

She responds: "yep, I get it! We CAN get by without, so we feel like we SHOULD. But it's also worth bearing in mind that it helps the people we're interacting with, too, because the interaction goes better if we understand each other better. It helps everyone and harms no one!"

Matt Mack@matthras· Aug 30

Finally finished a shawl I'd been crocheting to use up a bunch of 8ply yarn that someone gave my mother who then gave it to me. Definitely some mistakes, but glad this one is done. One less mental burden/guilt!

Selfie of me wearing said shawl. The red bordering creates an interesting clear divide down the middle when I pull the corners together.

Picture from top of the shawl laid out on top of a grey sofa. A crochet hook laid next to the shawl indicates that the horizontal length is about 10 crochet hooks long and about 6 crochet hooks deep.

Matt Mack@matthras· Aug 21

Been pretty quiet on the crafting front mostly because I've been practising double-knitting, making all the mistakes and figuring stuff out like "If I drop a stitch, where do I stick the needle in to correct it after frogging?" rather than watching/following tutorial videos.

A pair of knitting needles with a small red and white swatch sits on top of a crocheted and stiffened red/white/black yawn bowl, containing a ball of red yarn and a ball of white yarn. Around the yawn bowl is a messy desk.

Matt Mack@matthras· Aug 8

Heh heh heh

Text on whiteboard. In blue "Solving the Painleve equations would make the pain leave, eh?" Underneath in green I asked "Does this pun work?" Someone else wrote in black underneath "It gives me more pain."

Matt Mack@matthras· Jul 7

Just made buttermilk mix marinated chicken thigh cutlets 😋 Also made up a couple of panko breadcrumbs balls to use up the breadcrumbs.

Picture of a chicken thigh breast covered in panko breadcrumbs in a container next to a stove where two other breaded cutlets are being shallow fried at varying degrees of completion.

Seven breaded chicken cutlets resting on top of a grill atop a tray. Random balls of panko breadcrumbs sit on top of various cutlets.

Matt Mack@matthras· Jun 14

I randomly decided to throw in a multi-cello arrangement of Bohemian Rhapsody into Melodyne to see how well it transcribed the notes. It's SO CLEAN compared to vocals, wtf.

A screenshot from Melodyne showing the letter names of notes on the left. Short waveforms indicating the notes played are organised cleanly in the rows corresponding to the notes that they represent, with very little wobbling/variation in pitch from the original note.

Matt Mack@matthras· Jun 11

Just ironed my first lace crochet, woo! Bit embarrassed at the unevenness, but it's to be expected with first time projects. 🥰

A lace crochet that looks like two seashells coming out from the same middle spiral.

Matt Mack@matthras· Jun 10

Shamelessly redrawing on the communal lunch whiteboard at work because someone obviously enjoys solving them 😁 Pic from the last one included.

A redrawing of the problem in the quoted post, with an added "Not to perfect scale!"

A picture of whiteboard working from the previous problem that Catriona posted, involving a partially shaded triangle.

Matt Mack@matthras· May 28

Local Discord server does a Wednesday WIPpies (work-in-progress) check-in in their "arts & crafts" channel, so y'all also get to see updates on my lace crochet.

A seashell-like lace crochet with its accompanying 1.4mm hook & 2ply Egyptian cotton yarn placed on top of a black background.

Matt Mack@matthras· May 14

Current crochet project now that the previous one is in the blocking+stiffening stage. Really enjoying it 🥰

A spool of 2 ply white linen stands next to a small web-like circle of a lace crochet project that is reminiscent of lace table cloths. A 5 cent coin is placed below the project, indicating that the current project is about three 5 cent coins long in diameter, and the corresponding hook is about six 5 cent coins in length.

Matt Mack@matthras· May 11

Current project is a yarn bowl, something to hold the yarn in while sewing/knitting, also serves as a nice container 😁

Picture of a red, white and black crochet yarn bowl on top of a messy desk. The colours are in a spiral pattern at the base, and along the sides, and the colours move between dark/light shades.

Matt Mack@matthras· May 9

Matt Mack@matthras· Apr 27

Because I keep forgetting to leave the house I occasionally get bouts of cabin fever so here's a picture of some outdoors crochet 🙃

A multi-red crochet invention sits snugly on the right with a green crochet hook poking out of it. On the left is a messy tangle of 8ply acrylic wool draping from a crocheted light blue granny bag.

Matt Mack@matthras· Apr 22

Ah yeah I forgot you were zooming it down onto something like really small. Hopefully the eyes are a bit more distinct here!

Black and white rendering of a guy in a business suit holding an axe.

Matt Mack@matthras· Apr 21

It's almost hitting midnight here so I'm off to bed. Feel free to drop any feedback/preferences and I'll come back to it tomorrow.

Matt Mack@matthras· Apr 1

"Hi I'm an ex-cellist turned mathematician now doing a PhD in mathematical biology that randomly got a complimentary ticket to this Audiology #AudA2025 conference last Friday afternoon because the CEO of the non-profit hearing center I go to happens to be a really big deal" 😳

Matt is sitting in a lecture theatre holding up his conference lanyard looking at it questioningly while he waits for the opening speech to start.

Matt Mack@matthras· Mar 26

Finally figured out who you reminded me of 😂 Eddie Marsan, who played the antagonist in Hancock

Media photo of Eddie Marsan, smiling and looking slightly above the camera. He has some beard growth compared to his other clean shaven images.

Matt Mack@matthras· Mar 25

Friend on Discord suggested shooting someone with a "hug cannon" and my brain was like "I HAVE TO DRAW THIS"