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!