Pearly whites and smiles

A little while ago Zoe gave me an insane quantity of beads, including lots of slightly different white/pearly ones. "Now what am I going to do with those?" I asked myself.

At Swancon Lily expressed mild dissapointment that my bracelet wasn't a big chunky necklace as she had thought from the photo. "Hmm.." I thought "That would look cool, but buying so many beads that big would cost way too much."

And then the two ideas collided, and I made this:

So huzzah for Zoe and Lily!

Also Swancon was great. Whatever everyone else says, one good thing about it being at the Emerald was affordable rooms, and having one made a real difference. I got to go to a room party, woohoo! Lily got over her dissapointment and bought the bracelet anyway making me a happy little capitalist. Also, my enrolment is now extended till October, so I've decided to slack off and spend all day on the internet. I can see myself starting work again in November maybe.

Jut kidding :) It is nice not having the April 19 deadline any more though!

FINALLY

First off: Zoe rocks! She gave me an insane amount of beads and wire and stuff. Hurrah for Zoe!

Secondly, if any of you can remember back to early december, when it was supposed to happen... we have tiles!

Hurrah for the tilers!!

Also, Cam has left Immersive and now is on holiday before starting his new job. So hurrah for that too :)

Oh! Saw "Ella Enchanted" last night, really fun silly pantomime which Miramax only managed to slightly sully with attempts to aim it at early teen girls. Cary Elwes as a neo-nazi evil uncle grand vizier with a giant talking snake. Really, what more can you ask for? Be warned, despite being pretty picky with films theres certain films I love that many other people hate, and this feels like one of them. Eg Van Hellsing, Equilibrium, Constantine...only less violence and more singing :) My main complaint is the girl from Bend it like Beckham was in it as the token foreign best friend (theres a big "multiculturalism good" moral) and had like two lines, which felt a bit wasteful. Also Minnie Driver, why do people keep casting her? Anyway..must go book shopping!

Craaazy vinca!

The vinca, or flower of death is an annual, about 30cm tall. Except for the ones in my garden, that are like a metre tall and have been here for four years:

There are two explanations: the little old lady next door is putting steroids on her roses, or the vinca is Possesed.
Now that I think about it, possesion makes sense...I mean look at the other plants, they're all either sickly looking or dead. Even the cactus has fallen over! There I was thinking all my plants died becuase I didn't water them...

On the plus side, I always have cut flowers when I want them :)

Also, I have the contact details for Jaqui, the now-ex-Subi-markets funky goth/medieval clothes lady. Not sure why she gave 'em to me, since I never spent any money there, but her clothes are quite nice and made to order, if anyones interested.

Yes, I was bored to have made this post. So bored I typed it out again when Blogger swallowed the first draft. Maybe I should clean or something...

Shiny!

Well, with the help of the good people at the lj beadwork comunity (Who put me onto the technique of free-form peyote) I made this bracelet:

If you really like it come to swancon and buy it. Or at least bid and raise the price :) I decided to put it in the art show partly to show off (duh) and partly because it didn't turn out how I wanted, but I'm sure there's someone out there who'd like it. Also if I successfully sell some art it gives me proof to show my parents that its really not that hard and they should do it. (Being much more talented than me, but lacking in self confidence)

I just had a scary experience. (Apologies, this is going to get slightly mathsy)
I have a simpler, but not faster, adaptation of the "Keller Gehrig" algorithm to find the characteristic polynomial as part of my thesis. I realised I had no section on the history/use of characteristic polynomials in my Lit review so rather than just copying from my 2nd yr linear algebra book did a google search. And found a paper saying "We have a simpler adaptation of the "Keller Gehrig" algorithm.."
...
"Guh! Crap! Pleasepleaseplease let it not be faster!" I thought. Turns out it's not. Phew! Also it's not simpler than mine (And is fairly different) and was published less than a month ago. Still, scary!