simonegiertz
patreon
Give A Girl Some Space
🕑 Added 2021-03-01 20:28:30 +0000 UTCCan I just start off with saying that I really miss running into you all. It’s been almost a year of wearing masks, and I can’t remember last time I got a random high five in the streets, or got to stop and chat about tools for a bit. You’re the best and I miss hanging out with you.
OK, with that out of the way: last week was an unexpected whirlwind of work and a mudslide of emotions.
If you’re on Twitter:
I’m really sorry for how much I’ve been spamming about the #Inspiration4contest.
If you’re not on Twitter:
Wow, good for you. ALSO CAN I TELL YOU ABOUT THE #INSPIRATION4CONTEST
Basically, Inspiration 4 is this big competition/fundraiser where they’re giving away three seats on a SpaceX rocket.
- One seat went to a woman who survived childhood cancer and who is going to be the youngest person ever to go to space.
- One seat will be given to a donor of St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital.
- And the last seat is decided through a contest and will be given to someone who has an inspiring entrepreneurial story and posts an entertaining, viral Twitter video about it.
Looks at contest description.
Looks at self.
Looks at contest description again.
Yells “SO YOU’RE TELLING ME THERE’S A CHANCE” at self.
So with only a week left of a month-long competition, I got to work. And this Tuesday I uploaded my entry. You can watch it here. A big part of the judging criteria is how viral your tweet goes, so I definitely had a lot of nerves as I clicked “post”.
I’m not sure what I was hoping for. But no matter what it was, my hopes quickly became irrelevant as Twitter came bulldozing through the door.
When the competition ended last night, over 53 thousand people had retweeted my entry. I need to write that again: over 53 THOUSAND PEOPLE were like “heck yes lets send that Queen of Shitty Robots Simone [unpronounceable last name] to space, she seems like a good fit.”
The amount of support my submission received honestly made me speechless. I’ve been working on the internet for the last five years, but you truly never cease to amaze me.
With that said: I’m so fucking nervous. I haven’t been able to sleep all week. Almost every night, I wake up around 3AM and spend about an hour fretting about something random. Normally, it’s some email that I need to send, or someone that I’m convinced is angry with me even though they have given no indication that they’re actually angry with me. Swap those worries out for “I MIGHT BE SITTING ON A ROCKET IN A COUPLE OF MONTHS” and you have a great recipe for staying awake forever.
Fortunately, Scraps will happily provide her services as a head weight whenever my mind is racing.
They are going to contact the winner in two days (!!!) and it’ll be announced publicly sometime mid-March. There’s a panel of judges who decide who gets the seat, so now all I can do is keeping my fingers crossed. Do you think this constitutes as cheating?
Also how do you fit 53 thousand names on a shirt? Asking for a friend.
XOXO
Simone
Comments
Kiren Ovady
I'm imagining you have this in the bag, I hope that helps this manifest your dream come true! Logistically- 53,000 twitter handles on a shirt?! Can you encrypt the data and make text art? QR Codes can hold around 7,000 characters each I think. Weaving might be more exact but it would have to be super small... Maybe 53,000 of something (maybe stars!!) printed or woven on a shirt?
KittenVonSparkleNose
Well, find a way to print things really small then you can fit all those names on a t-shirt .(also, when you do figure it out can you make a size for an 8 year old)?
MarkEt
I know if you’ve got the call you’re not allowed to tell.
Daniel Delaney
Could you do something cool with the names a-la ACII art? Like get the "brightness" of each name and make a picture or something with them?
Eric Svensson
a shirt... that is also... a book? 🤔
Workbench
Good luck! I hope you didn't need 53K + 1 because I missed the tweet!
Jake Haefner
Also applying for dearMoon? https://dearmoon.earth/
Sherry Carrero
If you need a dog sitter for Scraps, I would willingly be his servant. ❤️
CuriousMarc
Perfect fit. Retweeted!
MarkEt
Fingers crossed. I want to be a dot on that t-shirt.
Vance Foster
I can think of no one who deserves it more! As for the names, you could print a QR code onto the shirt that directs to a website where all the names are listed.
Lloyd Chung
Good luck! You totally deserve this.
Henrik Muskos
En t-shirt med en riktig superhjälte cape! Plats för så många namn! ;-)
Anderz Hellgren
It might be a one size fits all... 120cm around shoulders and about 60cm tall. (46 by 23 inches)
Sons of Lorgar
What size of tshirt?
Dan Cowger
Good luck Simone!!!
La Monte H. P. Yarroll
Have you considered microprint on anodized aluminum, mounted on a shirt?
Ray Wood
You have my vote! If I could go and take a plus one, I would take you xoxo
Matt Schwoebel
Oh! 7 year olds with impeccable handwriting, a fondness for scrabble, who are small for their age, and write in multiple colors to allow legible overlap.
Matt Schwoebel
You've already trained for space! You're the obvious choice. They may need a mechanic? Hmm, let's hope not on that part. You already have videography skills! Which may be forgotten in the pure awe of the moment. Good luck! My fingers are crossed for you. Also, I just said no to Twitter. When you win, a contest to add a 53,001 non-Tweet name on the t-shirt?
Steve Norby
OK yes, the size of the tumor astounded. Inwardly I said Holy Shit!! Going to buy a hat now and.....I HOPE YOU GET SELECTED!!!!!!!
Charlyn G
GOODLUCK!! I also recommend going for a “shirt dress” for more room for names, but someone also mentioned putting some sort of screen on your shirt and that sounds like a great idea 😂
Keith Waggoner
I can honestly say that you deserve to have that seat! If for anything, for all the smiles that you have provided all of us! I am soo rooting for you! Go get you some space!!! 👩🏻🚀🚀🌌
Anthony Navarro
Hoping for the best and you got this!! Just make sure to also check your spam folder if they are emailing you!! I lost out on an amazing opportunity to do some product management for shitty robot royalty by not checking mine enough *doh*!
Arran Walker
Possible 53 thousand names on a t-shirt solutions: - QR Code of Tweet URL (slightly cheating) - Encode data to image: Find the int64 value of each Twitter username. Add these integers to a compressed bitmap (roaring64). This is ~1166000 bytes, ~9328000 bits. Gzip compress: 3859736 bits. Encode bits to a square image. I'm assuming the DPI for a printed t-shirt is maybe 150? It should fit. It would look like a block of white-noise. - Stitch an LCD screen to your tshirt and rotate all names at a high speed.
Paul Kinzer
I'm so excited for you! The only 'good' thing about getting through until the announcement is made is that it's actually happening really happening very quickly. Go or no-go, you'll know (and so will all of us hoping for you) in a short time. The bad thing is that that short time i going to seem like forever!
Ferdinand
Fingers crossed! Perhaps you could do a joined brainstorming session with the makers of the "The Book" Kickstarter campaign. They made the mistake to promise that the name of every pledger will be in the book. Handwritten, in the shape of an art thing. Over 21000 people have pledged... Poor calligrapher.
Alexander Teel
Oh man, I wish you had posted about this on here. I never check twitter so I had no idea this was going on and I definitely would have added another retweet to that! Well in any case, I really really am rooting for you!!!
Chris Wyma
I thought about medallions sewn on a shirt with the names of everyone etched on the metal peices by machine. The names would obviously be too small to read with the naked eye. How about a simple address to a webpage on your shirt where you can write everyone's name and add some words of thanks? That would fulfill the "intent" of your promise. Recognize their help. 😁
Chad
SHIRT IDEA: have your CNC robot hold a marker and write all 53,000 names on top of each other on a big poster board, then take a picture of the resulting mess and print it on a shirt. I'd say have the robot write directly on the shirt, but I'm guessing it would get too soaked in ink. This would be a really fun bit of software to write, so let me know if you want help! :)
Vic Habersmith
Good luck Simone!!! Hope you get a seat!!
Brian Makepeace
Re the t shirt... How many t shirts can you wear? How many names can you print on a t shirt (so they are still legible), hence how many t shirts would you have to wear on top of eachother?
Anton Steenken
Good luck, would love to hear you tell the world how it is to go to space! 🚀🚀
Dave Madison
Here's a novel idea: binary thread! Convert the names to binary, put ink dots on the thread, and then weave the thread into a shirt. Overkill? Yes. Would it probably just look like gray heather? ...also yes. (AND GOOD LUCK!)
Dean Smith
It would be the best thing ever, all the things crossed.
William Haigney
You can Only fit 53,000 names on a memory stick. Or microprinted, but that indicates technology not seen. If you get to go to space: Yay! My work here is Done!
Craig Kickel
First names only, sort unique, black ink on a black shirt. Let dissenters prove you wrong. 😎
Gabriel Ralls
Done. Let's get this girl to space!!
Guy Mason
To infinity and beyond!
Don Jones
T-shirt??? I've always thought you should be wearing a Super Simone cape! A plus: It has more room for names! Fingers, toes, and everything else crossed!
Simone Giertz
What about a dremel tool
Simone Giertz
Just running the proud parent machine on repeat.
Brian Makepeace
That competition was made for you! It's like they wanted to pick you but had to make it seem like a competition first. In any case we'll get you to space one of these days. Good luck!
Michael Lee
🤞🤞🚀 This is so exciting! I'm hoping you can go for me and all the others who dream about space but will never get the chance.
Casey Kikendall
I was thinknig it would be entertaining for the flat earthers to vote for one of their own to go up, but then I remembered how you locked yourself in the bathroom for a couple of days and think you deserve it more. As for names on the shirt, something you might be able to do is make some kind of mag-stripe paint. It wouldn't look like much, but you would have the first article of clothing I know of that is readable by a magnetic read-head and might be able to fit even more information on it. Might even be able to make thank-you cards covered in magstripes.
Jeff Thomas
Best of luck to you Simone! 🤞🤞🤞
J
Interesting. I wasn't really able to find any guidelines for what kind of DPI were achievable for on demand shirt printing... not something I would've thought about before. I'd be curious what you find out re: 53k names on a shirt XD
Tree Carcass Mangler
Hey, I see you've finally found proper sets of hands, both left and right. So while you're nervously awaiting the contest results, you could remake the Applause Machine. Just a suggestion!
Christoph Moench-Tegeder
I've got the hunch that one of the most important hurdles here is to convince SpaceX that you're not going to "modify" the spaceship. (Spaceship Pickup anyone?). Go for it, but leave the angle grinder in your shop. Send Simone to Space, but keep the tools locked up.
Rachel McCracken
Oh my goodness I hope you get to go to space!
David Mitchell
I worked out a possible method. If you sum the position of each letter of a person's name based on their place in the alphabet (so David is 4+1+22+8+4), then convert that into hexadecimal, you can use a person's first, middle, and last name to point to a color hex code. My name would be 28 4D 52, which is dark, bluish-greenish color.
Jennifer M. Giddens
I really hope figuring out how to fit the names on the shirt is a problem you end up needing to figure out!
Juli Zauber
My guts, love and nervous sleep schedule is with you. You'll be in that seat. <3 P.s. Do you remember how to get a whole book an a small sheet of paper for a school test? That's the way.
Pimellon
To be honest, I kind of hate that "going viral" is an official criterion to get a ticket to space. Internet attention is a fickle (and often stupid) thing. Guess it makes the judging easier, though. And if you do win, then I guess the internet did something smart for once :p
Anderz Hellgren
On the shirt issue, 441 rows of 120 names will give each name about 10x1.4 mm. Thats not to small right? :D
Edgar Ernst
Did you really hear about the competition that close before the end? 😳😅 Anyway, I also retweeted and I keep my fingers crossed that you will be chosen.👍🏻
Rebecca Woods
Fingers crossed for you!
Chris Birdman
Orrrrrr... Etch all the names onto a silicon wafer and wear it as lovely pendant. Take a giant microscope-photo of it and make it searchable online.
Nathan Karwic
Put each character on the back of the shirt once, call it a "build your own name" shirt
Brendan Howell
I really hope they pick you, Simone! 🚀🤞
Taylor Pridgen
QR code on the shirt that links to a webpage with everyone's names?
Bokkei
OMG! I got so excited so I retweeted it without realizing the contest is over and then I erased the tweet for some reason when I realized that(?) I'm really hoping you will win and that I get the chance to be your official space portrait artist, please send me all your selfies from space so I can paint a new portrait of you actually being in space this time <3
Stu
You've got several thousand extra fingers crossed from us patreonisers, so hopefully that helps as well!
Biddy Fisher
This contest was made for you! I have all my fingers (and toes) crossed for you!
Michael Lynch
Holding out hope for you! Suggestion for the names: super condensed into a qr code (so the names are there but not readable) and then the QR code goes a webpage with all the names (or I guess twitter handles)
Nathan Fish
What if you compressed the 53k names into a trie? That would be appropriately geeky. Not sure if even that would be compact enough, though.
Carlos Forever.Endeavour
I hadn't tweeted since 2018 but I logged on just to retweet your video
Tree Carcass Mangler
Hoping its you! Find a good sitter for Scraps!
Sons of Lorgar
Simone Giertz for 1st Fabricator General of Mars!
Joe Langley
Put the names on a webpage. Put the URL in a QR code. Put the QR code on at shirt. Or Put the names in a text file. Zip the file. Put the zipped file in a QR code. Etc.
Tree Carcass Mangler
When I first read that I thought, What?!? Then I realized you meant it in a good way.😀
Jeff
Maybe do what they are doing for the Mars rover names? https://mars.nasa.gov/participate/send-your-name/mars2020/
Brooks Moses
You could put some LEDs on the shirt and blink out the names in ASCII or something, maybe? That could be fun. :)
David Mitchell
You could convert the names into a color or something and then each name is a pixel in a big picture!
Jeff
Wish I had known, I would have gotten you more retweets! Ah well... I can't think of anyone better to go on this spaceflight! Ans you have already gotten some experience on the vomit comet plane!
John Riney
I'm thinking a small badge with an E-Ink display and a microcontroller, rapidly flipping through the names. Super low power. I could make that!
Chris Birdman
Wear a QR code on your t-shirt. Yes, we're nerdy enough to make it Show our names on the inter-noodle. PS high-five!!
Mate Navay
YES! You go to space for all of us!
Dennis Weddig
You deserve to be sent to space! Thinking of you and hoping for you!
Crafts with Ellen
Send Simone to space!! 🚀
Nicholas Waters
Instead of full names, how about first names only, then add a (number of this person who has this name) next to each? John (372) Jennifer (370) etc.
Jan Stodt
It is so awesome what they are doing for hospital. I donate every year since I know about them, even though money was very tight during the last years. It is such an amazing cause I am happy to help them.
Sons of Lorgar
How to fit 53 thousand names on a tshirt? Times New Roman 10p font, 1p row spacing and no punctuation of any sort between names. XD
Simone Giertz
same!
Noah Jay
Instead of a shirt, maybe a printed tapestry with the smallest possible font and written as a continuous string, worn as a cape?
Ginaelisa Cortez
If it helps Simone, you can shorten my name to Gee. Lol
Jan Stodt
I hope for you so so much that you are the one to go to space! I will be freaking out that you are going to space, but I would be so happy for you!
