iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I am normally not a neatline/border kinda guy, but I think with this USGS topo inspired map it works. #cartography #gis #gischat

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Knoxville "Topo" Map WIP I am a big fan of mid-century USGS Topo maps. This is a 48k scale 24x36 version of Knoxville. Still have many labels to edit. One day, I will stop making multiline labels in QGIS. They are a pain to edit in Illustrator/Affinity. #gis #cartography #gischat

A portrait map of Knoxville, TN, modeled after mid-century USGS Topographic maps.

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Thanks for nothing. I think I prefer if it just crashed...

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

A few days ago, Lake Mead water levels were mentioned (I don't remember the post), which got me curious. Normally, I like to create a little map, but I didn't have time for that. So I made a quick screen record of a swipe map. July 1984 v July 2026 Seems not ideal. #gischat

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

I saw the 2017 eclipse! We had to drive a bit south, but we saw totality from a farm on a hill in Sweetwater, TN. It was nuts. Very difficult to capture it on camera.

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

1902 newspaper ads be wildin'. Are you a pale lady? That's because you are clearly diseased!! Buy and drink our alcoholic concoction!

1902 Knoxville Sentinel newspaper ad that reads:

ARE YOU PALE

Bloodless Faces in Women Denote Sickness

Vinol Makes Rosey Cheeks.

There is no surer indication of a diseased condition than a pale face.

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

I have seen this gap in census primary road layer for years. I assumed it was a state highway that ended and became a residential street or something. Nope! It's I-275 and that's I-40 to the south. Le sigh

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

It's about 4 hours of driving. I usually skip the foothills because of tourist traffic. I never got into motorcycles either. Most of the time, I was in this jalopy.

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

About halfway through, I stopped reading their positions and got most of them right. Trying to guess the "did not votes" tripped me up. Race, gender & age (mostly the first two) should get you a passing score.

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

I am rearranging my home office, a process that will probably take 10 yrs or so, and I was thinking about getting a MercatorHater poster for my freshly painted walls. I didn't find anything, so I will probably have to make it myself. But Google did send me this Medium post from @mapcenter.com.

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

I wrote about a similar thing a few months ago. My main issue was saying Lat/Lon (which correlates to Y/X) and then saying X/Y (which correlates with Lon/Lat). Inverting the pairs led to downstream confusion. I started saying: Lon-Lat-X-Y And it helped! 🥳 antonioantoine.com/2026/02/17/l...

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Damn. I don't think Paul had a good time at the 1982 World's Fair. 😂

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Happy #SummerSolstice! It is the longest day or days of the year! It is still hard to believe there are places on earth where the sun doesn't set AT LEAST a month from now. 🤯 Available as a print! antonioantoine.com/product/the-... #cartography

A map showing the duration of the summer solstice in North America.

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

To be clear, most minority or marginalized groups are overestimated. Somehow, Native Americans are 27%, Asians are 29%, Latinos 39%, Black 41%, and White 59%. That's like 200%!! I guess people really hate math. Link to the YouGov survey: yougov.com/en-us/articl...

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

A couple of months ago, I made a map of the American Black Belt. This was prompted by a YouGov survey I read in 2022, where Americans thought black people were 40% of the population! I almost fell out of my chair. Link to the map: antonioantoine.com/2026/06/16/t...

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

Going through the Knoxville Library archives, looking for photographs of a building or two, and I came across this guy. I can't get over how insane it is to fly a plane like this. No cockpit, windshield, or anything. Just flying a canoe in the air. lol

A black and white photograph of a man flying an early 19th-century prop biplane with an open cab.

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

This chart scaling is... a choice. It's like reverse mercator for every ten latitudes or something.

A 1927 historical black and white chart showing population growth for Knoxville, TN from 1820 to 1980.

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

I made a map of 1.5°C sea level rise (about 3 ft or 1 m) in coastal Louisiana for a cartography class that I have since thought might be too pessimistic. Even though the data says otherwise.

A map showing a 3-foot sea level rise in Southern Louisiana.

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

Appalachian Trail Forest Map (WIP). I finally created a hillshade in Blender. S/o to @pinakographos.bsky.social for the great tutorial. It took me a few tries (over several months). I am impatient when it comes to Blender. I am changing the format to an oversized map. Wish my computer luck. 🫡

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

The map in question (wip). I wasn't planning on using a dark background, but this may have changed my mind. 🤔

A screenshot of a map showing forests along the Appalachian Trail.

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

Rhode Island Shipwrecks Map 🗺️ As someone who lives in or near the mountains, shipwrecks are like barn finds, except the barn is a dungeon, and the monsters are not too thrilled about you taking their treasure. More deets: antonioantoine.com/2026/04/19/r... #gischat #cartography

A cool map showing the locations where bad things happened in waters around Rhode Island.

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

Fixed!! Also, these Census carto boundaries are a PITA to find. I had them bookmarked but they changed the link. www.census.gov/geographies/...

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

One day, I will remember that CT changed their counties to county equivalents before nearly wrapping up a map. 😭 #gischat

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

Next Joy Plot Map is Ohio. Lots of people, very flat. #gis #gischat #cartography

A Joy Plot Map of elevation and population for Ohio. Each line shows the rising and falling value of either population or surface elevation.

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Colorado Pop x Elev Joy Plot We can see a pretty good relationship between elevation and population density in CO. Even though the Rockies and high plains cover some of the small cities and towns. I may add an offset or extra VE point for the population layer. #gis #gischat #cartography

A Joy Plot Map of elevation and population for Colorado. Each line shows the rising and falling value of either population or surface elevation.

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

Thanks, I hate it! Side note: I was born on the 10 year anniversary of the moon landing in the Rocket City. More reminders of mortality at profmusgrave.github.io/anotherday

The release of Windows 95 is now closer to the Moon landing than to today.

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Now that I have a working model in QGIS for my Joy Plot workflow, I can focus on refining the maps. I have been interested in mapping elevation and populations for a long time, but I have struggled to find a method that shows both variables evenly. Joy Plots look promising. #gischat #cartography

A map showing the population and elevations of North Carolina using the Joy Plot style.

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

I am finally wrapping up this Rhode Island Shipwreck map (at least enough to print out a draft), and I am low key digging this inset map more than the main map. 😅😂 #gis #cartography #maps

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

I was just thinking about my earlier work a couple of days ago. These are from my Associates in GIS program 2017-18. I can still see the influence from my environmental consulting days.

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

Median Generations by County (2023) Another version of my previous map. I used the #QGIS 2.5D symbology with a standard choropleth. It is a little confusing to use, but I think I get the gist of it now. The counties are extruded by population. #gischat #gis #cartography #maps

A map showing the median generation (age) by county level in the United States. Millennials are the most dominant group, followed by Gen X, Gen Z, and then Boomers.

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

This is pretty cool. I am near the middle of the Geospatial Professionals.

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 31/01/2026

I made a Median Generations map of the US for a contest, but I missed the deadline. 😅 The generations are based on the median age of census tracts in 2023. The urban areas are tract centroids, and the rural areas were dasymetrically binned to a 10km grid. #gis #cartography #gischat

A map showing the spatial distribution of median generations across the contiguous US. The four main generations are: Boomers (1946-64), Gen X (1965-80), Millennials (1981-96), and Gen Z (1997-2012).

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

This simple label took me over day to make. I am still learning expression builder in #QGIS. I needed the highest value for each feature from over one hundred attribute columns AND the name of the field name. The worst part is I don't know if I will use this info. lol

A screenshot of QGIS showing the labeling of Great Smoky Mountain National Park feature. The label shows the name of the park, the field name and value of the largest forest type.

Screenshot of QGIS showing the expression to find the highest value from a range of fields. The code reads as:

concat( "PARKNAME", '/',map_akeys(attributes())[array_find(map_avals(attributes()), array_max(array_slice(map_avals(attributes()), 10, 148)))], '/' , array_max(array_slice(map_avals(attributes()), 10, 148)))

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

A work-in-progress map of the Forests in the lower US. I haven't decided if I am going to display and label the National Parks and/or Forests yet. Things get pretty busy on the West Coast. The legend is going to be a nightmare and I am not looking forward to it. 😂 #gis #gischat #cartography #map

A map showing the forest types and elevation in the lower 48 United States. The forests are shown in various shades of green, yellow, and red.

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

This is an earlier version where the gradient was applied to the whole feature layer. I liked it, but the Grand Canyon didn't look so grand.

A elevation map of Arizona using the Joy Plot style.

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

Arizona Joy Plot Map Testing out another method. Instead of applying the gradient across the entire feature layer, I applied a gradient to each individual plot line. This gives the plot lines a more 3D like effect. This is still a work in progress. #gis #qgis #cartography #maps

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 21/12/2025

Today is the Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year for most of us living between the Equator and the Arctic Circle. The duration varies by latitude. Those living in the Arctic are experiencing Polar Night, which may have begun weeks ago! Blog antonioantoine.com/2025/12/17/t...

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

I moved on Washington. I don't think we can clip off the little extensions beyond the state border and keep the background effect. I made some additional adjustments in Affinity Designer. This one looks bad in the preview, but is cleaner in the full-size version. #cartography #gis #qgis #gischat

A map of Washington state showing the surface elevation by joy line plots. The horizontal lines rise and fall based on a exaggerated vertical elevation of 10x.

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

Got my #NACIS Christmas tree ornament up! I think it is the only mappy ornament I have and I happened to win it at the 2025 conference.

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

I can extrude the joy lines to fix the streaks, but I lose the displacement effect I was going for. I am going to play around with geometry generator for a bit to see if I can figure something out.

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

I already hit a snag. TN is long and narrow, with the Mississippi River on the west and the Appalachian Mountains in the east. The underlying color ramp appears as streaks rather than positive displacement. #qgis #gischat #cartography

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

I am thinking about doing a state-level run of Joy Plot maps. I do think Virginia may have set the bar a little high. It looks like a mountain emerging from the fog. #cartography #maps #qgis #gis

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

The #30DayMapChallenge is a wrap! I made a map quilt of my favorite Rhode Island maps from the challenge. I had to resize a few of them to get them all to line up. Had I planned this in advance, I would have alternated between light and dark maps. #cartography

A map quilt showing various maps of Rhode Island.

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

I got maps to make, but the second shingles shot is kicking my ass. 🤒 Vaccines usually are pretty mild for me. I don't have Spotify, but YouTube Music is trying to embarrass me with my listening habits of 2024. I am not sure how Draggin Around was my top song. lol. Everything else makes sense.

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 29/11/2025

Day 29 - Raster Rhode Island 24K Topo Maps I have wanted to make a version of this map for some years now. TopoView was a big help in downloading the 24k topos. Clipping and stitching the 38 topos was a pita even with batch processing. I crashed QGIS a few times. lol #30DayMapChallenge

A map showing various USGS 24k Topo maps for Rhode Island.

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

Day 28 - Black The Longest Nights (2025) Polar night (+24 hr night) occurs just beyond the Arctic Circle. This is due to the Earth's gravitational pull on light. The ramp up from just beyond the Arctic Circle 67.4°N (24 hrs) to 67.5°N (11 days) is wild. #30DayMapChallenge

A map showing the longest nights in North America.

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

Day 27 - Boundaries EST States & Provinces How many states and provinces share the same time zone as Rhode Island? #30DayMapChallenge

A very tall map showing all of the countries in the Eastern Time Zone.

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

Day 26 - Transport Rhode Island Bike Lanes & Routes I am not super happy with this one (don't hate either). I think it needs to bake for a few more hours. Maybe even a total redo. However, I am running low on time and creative energy. And this isn't my normal lane, lol. #30DayMapChallenge

A map showing the bike lanes and routes across the state of Rhode Island.

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

I remember reading this a while ago, but the Google AI disagreed. The article above is over 10 years old, but the articles it sourced don't support its answer. 😐 But I digress.

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Antonio Antoine @aasmith.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

Day 25 - Hexagons Rhode Island Dating Age Population Distribution I have been thinking about making a national version of this map for some time now. The hue indicates whether a cell has more men or women (age 20-39). The hex size shows the cell pop density per 1 km (0.6 mi). #30DayMapChallenge

A map of Rhode Island showing the spatial distribution of dating age (20-39) men and women.

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